Tyranny of Steel
chapter-120

With Innsbruck fully under Berengar's control and the walls intact, the young Viscount rapidly mounted his cannons on the best positions of the city walls. Unlike the walls of Kufstein, which were expertly designed to prevent any blind spots, the medieval walls of Innsbruck did not allow for proper coverage, especially with as few as 15 field guns, considering he left three of his cannons behind in Schwaz, he was limited in his use of artillery, but that did not matter, the hundreds of rifled muskets among his troops, could make up for the lack of defensive artillery. As for the remaining smoothbore muskets, they could be placed through the machicolations and effectively counter enemy troops who got too close to the walls.

Berengar currently stood atop the walls of the city of Innsbruck gazing off into the distance with his spyglass, it had been over a week since he had seized Innsbruck, and finally, an army could be seen in the distance. The sabotage and assassinations which targetted the enemy Lords of Tyrol and their domains had been ongoing since the beginning of his campaign. As such, they had caused quite a degree of damage throughout the hostile regions of Tyrol, infuriating the noblemen and regents who ruled over the regions in place of their Barons and Viscounts who were off engaging in the ongoing siege of Vienna.

Due to the outrage in which these Regents suffered, they had dispatched whatever armed forces they could muster to attack Innsbruck; after all, they did not believe Berengar's army would be well equipped to withstand a siege after the losses they must have suffered during two sieges and an ambush. They were completely unaware that Berengar had taken Innsbruck without much of a fight, and thus his casualties were quite low. Just as Berengar had planned, his enemies would descend upon Innsbruck with their remaining fighting forces, allowing him to take care of them in a single sweep. As for what happened after this battle, Berengar intended to threaten the defiant realms into submission and march upon their weakened garrisons if needed.

Eckhard approached Berengar and noticed he was gazing into the distance with a spyglass; the old veteran figured the enemy was on the horizon and thus asked about the important details.

"How many are there?"

Berengar smirked malevolently at the approaching armies before handing the spyglass to Eckhard.

"See for yourself."

Eckhard took a look into the spyglass and frowned. What he saw was over ten thousand peasant levies, supported by a thousand or so men at arms who most likely acted as the key components of the garrisons in which protected the cities and towns of their enemies' realms.

After putting down the spyglass and handing it back to Berengar, Eckhard voiced his opinions.

"It appears they have drafted cannon fodder from the common people to rush at our defenses. This will be a bloodbath that will surely affect the productivity of Tyrol for years to come."

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Berengar sighed and nodded at Eckhard's claims, it would undoubtedly be a one-sided massacre that would greatly affect Tyrol's future, yet to Berengar, it was a price that needed to be paid. Berengar, however, corrected Eckhard as he lectured him about the necessity of the battle.

"Decades... However, it is a sacrifice that must be made; without demonstrating our overwhelming power here to the Lords of Tyrol, we would be forced to lay siege to every city, the casualties would be disastrous not only to our own forces but the local populations."

As such, Berengar lifted a nearby red flag and waved it in the air; this acted as a signal to the artillery crews to wave their own red flags. Within a matter of seconds, every artillery crew was notified of the need to load their weapons and began to act accordingly. When the soldiers sitting on the ramparts saw the red flags waving in the air, they immediately became alert, recognizing that the enemy army was approaching, and began to load their muskets.

The defending army waited for a little over an hour before the enemy was within firing range of the artillery pieces. However, the artillery still did not fire; with explosive shells, the 1417 12 lb Cannon could fire at an effective range of 1680 yards with 5 degrees of elevation. However, they had no plans to engage the targets at such a distance. Otherwise, the enemy would surely flee back to their homes long before the defenders had inflicted mass casualties on them.

Berengar himself had loaded a rifled musket and was standing on the ramparts waiting for the arrival of the enemy. After some time, the enemy army stopped within firing range, in Berengar's hands, and that of many of his soldiers could reach well over 500 yards with their 1417/18 Rifled Muskets. The reason for this was due to the effectiveness of the mine balls projectile and the long barrel length, which was 6 inches longer than the barrel used by the 1861 Springfield Rifled-Musket, which was utilized by Union forces during the American Civil War from Berengar's previous life.

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Unaware of the enemy's effective range, the enemy began setting up their siege camp within range of their rifled muskets and cannons; it was only after they had dropped their defenses and became busy with the hard labor of setting up camp did Berengar signal for the attack to begin.

"Fire!"

With those words, over half a dozen cannons and hundreds of rifled muskets went off in unison, unleashing a disastrous wave of explosive shells and lead balls penetrating deep into the heart of the enemy forces. When the enemy commanders gazed upon the thunder of the guns and the carnage that was rained down upon them, they were completely shocked. Though they had heard Berengar's army was equipped mostly with hand cannons, they figured the effective firing range was a few yards at best; never in their wildest dreams did they envision such overwhelming destruction wrought upon them as they were building their camp.

The commanders were quick to act and immediately ordered their men to rush towards the wall with ladders in hand; they did not even have the time to build any siege weapons; as such, they could only hope to get over the wall with the use of ladders. Though the intensive fear was in the eyes of the peasant levies who felt as if the hand of God was crushing them beneath his grasp, they mustered the courage and attempted to get close to the wall.

What resulted next would be a battle that filled the enemy with utter despair, for only death and destruction awaited them now that the battle had begun.