Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 223: An Epochal Gap
The time came to November 25, 1613.
At this time in Western Europe, the temperature has reached around zero degrees, and the air is extremely cold and humid.
Outside the city of Liege, the capital of Liege Province in the southern Netherlands, around seven in the morning, the sun was about to rise. A group of early-rising sparrows were looking for food in the sparse trees outside the city in the dim light of the morning sun.
Suddenly, a sparrow stopped eating, raised its neck alertly, and after slightly noticing the shaking of the ground, it let out a frightened cry, then quickly flapped its wings and flew away.
With one bird taking the lead, a group of birds followed suit and made similar movements. The previously quiet lawn and sparse woods suddenly became noisy.
"Keng~Keng~Keng~" The shaking of the ground became more and more intense. It was seven-thirty in the morning. The thick fog in the early winter morning gradually dissipated. The residents of Liege Citadel climbed up to look into the distance and finally confirmed the cause of the ground shaking.
To the north of the fortress, there was an army of about 20,000 people, most of whom wore half-body plate armor and metal helmets. About half of the soldiers held spears, while the other half held muskets. Among the forest of spears that covered the mountains and plains, there were occasional cavalrymen who were galloping across the mountains, issuing various orders to maintain the army's formation.
The residents on the southern wall of the fortress saw a different scene: this was an army of about 30,000 people, and most of them, from officers to soldiers, did not wear metal armor. They wore blood-red cloth uniforms, double-breasted, without folded collars. On the contrary, on their shoulders, there seemed to be epaulettes of the same specifications, but with different contents.
Compared to the forest of spearmen in the north, this army had too few spearmen. They were the only troops in the army wearing half-body plate armor, and their number was as small as the layer of butter on bread... And unlike the army in the north, this army actually had a long line of artillery at the end, plus cavalry protecting it. It looked particularly bloated.
"Hou Op~!"
"Stop~!"
Aside from the anxious local residents in the Liege Fortress in the distance, the Dutch and Danish coalition forces led by Maurice and the Spanish new army led by Rudolf, when the two sides were still three kilometers away, simultaneously issued orders to stop advancing and then deploy their troops.
"Coutinho, does our intelligence confirm that the enemy only has about 20,000 men?"
"Yes, Your Highness. Judging from the enemy's lineup, the entire army should be here."
"It's always better to be careful. This Maurice is not that simple. Pass the order and have all the troops of the Ninth Division, except the cavalry battalion, move forward to fight the enemy. One of the three infantry regiments of the Tenth Division will move to the vicinity of Liege Fortress to deploy defense, and the other will deploy to the west and conduct surveillance and reconnaissance. I always feel that there is something in that forest over there."
"As you command, Your Highness."
On the other side, after watching the Spaniards change their formation through the telescope, Morris sneered: "This Son of God is really a coward. He actually deployed half of his troops on both sides of the battlefield." After saying this, he shrugged and spread his hands: "I only have so few troops~~ There is no division at all."
After the generals around laughed for a while, Morris said proudly: "It seems that the Son of God is not that good. It was clearly 18,000 people against 30,000, but he ended up using 15,000 people to fight against our 18,000 people... Haha, since I joined the country's independence war at the age of 16, I have never lost when I have the advantage in terms of military strength!"
"Sir, we will surely achieve another great victory under your command!"
"Defeat this false son of God and show those Catholics that we are the representatives of Christ on earth!"
"Hahaha~ Well said, everyone. Order the entire army to advance!"
Under the orders of the commanders of both sides, the two armies began to slowly approach each other to the rhythmic drum beats of the military band.
When the distance between the two sides was reduced to about 1,500 meters, the Spanish side took the first step and began to bombard the other side with artillery.
As time travelers, Rudolf and Philip knew that in modern wars, artillery was the king of war. Therefore, they spent a huge amount of money to equip each division with 10 12-pound infantry guns and 5 18-pound guns. Moreover, after the improvements made by the time travelers, although the Spanish artillery still used black powder, the Spanish artillery had a longer range than other countries at the same caliber.
Therefore, the artillery shells fired from 1,500 meters away still fell into the coalition forces' formation. More than a dozen solid bullets smashed out more than a dozen bloody paths, with broken limbs and arms all along the way.
Although he was a little surprised that the enemy had so many artillery and the range of their shells was so long, Morris did not retreat at all: the coalition army had very few artillery pieces, only five, and their range was less than one thousand meters, so he could not count on his own artillery. Therefore, he had to endure the damage from the enemy's artillery fire until he was within the range of his own muskets!
Although all the soldiers under Morris' command were mercenaries, they benefited from the high salary, the commander's strong control over the troops, and long-term rigorous training. Therefore, although the artillery caused some casualties to them, the entire army was still in strict formation without any disorganization.
As for the Danish army, although this army was the first country in Europe to adopt rifled guns in history, the lack of Minié bullets resulted in the army's musketeers firing at a very slow speed. However, the descendants of the Vikings never lacked fighting spirit. Therefore, like the Dutch army, they endured the damage caused by the enemy's artillery fire and marched forward at a steady speed to the beat of the drums.
"Order the military band to speed up the drums!"
Although the army was still in a strict formation, the Spanish artillery fired too fast, so Maurice immediately issued the corresponding order.
An excellent commander is always able to control his troops with ease. Soon after the order was given, the rhythm of the military band began to change. The Dutch soldiers changed from marching at a constant pace to jogging, and finally to running at full speed.
"Preparación~Fu ego!"
When the Allied soldiers approached within 600 meters of the Western Army's front line, the commanders of the Western Army's front line gave the order to open fire in unison.
Following a burst of orderly gunfire, a cloud of smoke rose from the Western Army's side, while the soldiers in the first row of the Allied Forces' charging army fell down almost in unison!
"Second column, Fuego! Third column, Fuego! First column, fire again~!"
…
"What's going on? How is it possible? The Spanish muskets can fire so far and so fast?"
Through the telescope, he saw that his own soldiers had not yet entered his firing range, but the enemy had already started shooting - and it was continuous shooting. His own soldiers kept falling down, which made Morris, who had led this army to countless victories, feel surprised and heartbroken!
Speaking of which, European wars had indeed been undergoing a constant self-revolution by the 15th century, with the emergence of the matchlock gun.
At the beginning, due to the relationship between gunpowder and ignition device, the matchlock gun had slow loading, short effective range, and was greatly affected by the weather. Therefore, the musketeers had to be protected by enough cold weapon soldiers - the Spanish phalanx was the most suitable for the level of musket technology at that time. Therefore, from the 15th to the 16th century, the Spanish phalanx was invincible.
Later, with the emergence of flintlocks and fixed gunpowder, the power of muskets increased further. It was necessary to reduce the proportion of cold weapon soldiers, increase the number of musketeers, and change the thick square formation to a thin and long horizontal formation, so as to output as much firepower as possible. However, since the muskets at this time were still smoothbore muskets, the range was only about 200 meters. Soldiers holding cold weapons could only rush to the front with certain casualties, so the pikemen had to be placed in the front, and the musketeers were diagonally behind to output firepower - this was the Morris horizontal formation.
Later, with the popularization of rifled guns, especially the emergence of Minié bullets, muzzle-loading muskets developed to a mature stage. Musketeers no longer needed the protection and support of spearmen - the era of line-up executions truly arrived.
In November, it was a contest between Maurice's horizontal formation and the Spanish square formation. Maurice, who was ahead of his time, could defeat the Marquis of Spinola even without the 10,000 Danish reinforcements - this was the difference between the times. Similarly, in Liege at this time, even the 15,000 Spanish new troops could easily defeat the Dutch-Danish coalition forces with a numerical advantage - this was an epoch-making difference!
