Chapter 1589 - 1495: Loyalty and Betrayal
Chapter 1589: Chapter 1495: Loyalty and Betrayal
As twilight approached, the temporary camp of the Ninth Dragon Cavalry Battalion of Moravia was as tranquil as it always was before a storm.
In the officers’ tent on the south side of the camp, Major Victor Kosport squinted at the young man in front of him: "So, where are these ’rioters’ you speak of?"
Ten minutes ago, a guard reported to him that someone claimed there were suspicious individuals approaching the military camp.
The young man removed his hat and pointed to himself, "It’s me, Major. Lucas von Scheler.
"And, I’d like to correct you on one point, there are no ’rioters’; there are only the people, only revolutionaries resisting tyranny."
Kosport frowned, "You have quite the nerve."
The captain standing next to him immediately drew his pistol, aiming at Lucas’s chest.
Lucas glanced calmly at the muzzle, "If you shoot, tomorrow you’ll see the blood of the Viennese flowing from Schonbrunn Palace all the way to the Danube River, and it could very well include the blood of your own family."
The captain’s hand trembled slightly, he turned his head to meet Kosport’s gaze, and lowered the gun.
Lucas quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Yes, he was taking a gamble by coming here.
A student from Vienna University had previously mentioned that Major Kosport had been punished by a superior officer in Italy for refusing to massacre a village populated only by farmers and children.
"He sympathizes with the Liberals, or at least he is not an executioner," was the student’s exact words. His father was the very superior who ordered Kosport.
Major Kosport pulled a chair over and sat down, "So, what is it you want to say? You have three minutes before I have the soldiers tie you up."
Lucas nodded, "Actually, I’m not here just for the people of Vienna, but also for you and the soldiers here."
"I’m listening."
"I can tell you with certainty that the revolution in the city will be victorious. Do you know why?" Lucas pointed towards Vienna, "It’s not because those people are braver than your soldiers; they don’t even know how to use guns. It’s because they have been starved to the bone and hear the whispers of death every day!
"In the past half year, the price of bread has more than doubled, typhoid and malaria rage in the slums, and the poll tax and salt tax keep rising, draining the last drop of blood from them with the Emperor’s special war tax.
"The suffering they face is a hundred times more terrifying than your bayonets and cannon!
"So no matter what guns or artillery you have, they cannot be crushed, and in the end you and your soldiers will be swept away by the tide of revolution."
He bowed slightly to the Major, "I sincerely implore you, for the sake of this country’s tomorrow, do not enter Vienna."
Kosport, head lowered, avoided eye contact and sighed, "What you’ve said, I may not entirely disagree with... but I have sworn an oath to His Majesty the Emperor, and I must obey orders."
"An oath? Who taught you to defy orders in Italy?" Lucas pounded his chest, "It was your own conscience.
"That village survived, just as the people on the streets of Vienna are still alive today."
He stepped forward, speaking loudly, "I’m not asking you to betray the Emperor, but not to betray yourself!"
The tent was silent for a full half-minute before Major Kosport suddenly stood up, drew his sidearm, and smashed it onto the table with a thud that shook one’s soul, "Damn it! I remember you, Mr. Lucas.
"Now, please immediately leave my camp!"
Lucas bowed to him once more, "The people will never forget you."
After his figure disappeared, Kosport paced back and forth in the tent for quite some time before finally speaking to the captain by his side, "Heifer, have the soldiers move west after dawn tomorrow, and go as slowly as possible."
If his army were to enter Vienna, they should head south.
Heifer was taken aback and cautiously said, "Major, this could be considered treason..."
Kosport straightened his chest, "I have indeed sworn allegiance to the Emperor, but I have not sworn to be loyal to slaughter."
The next day.
Duke York, commanding the Moravian Legion, was discussing suppression tactics with his officers when a cavalryman came to report, "Your Highness, we’ve discovered over a thousand enemy troops near the dense forest ahead, likely armed insurgents."
Duke York nodded nonchalantly, and said to General Meckseli beside him, "I’ll leave it to you, please resolve it quickly, who knows what chaos Vienna is in right now."
He had brought 6,000 elite troops, which was more than sufficient to deal with over a thousand rabble.
"Yes, Your Highness."
Meckseli immediately issued a series of commands, but within half an hour, an aide came running, panic-stricken, "General, the Dragoon Regiment and the Twelfth Infantry Battalion have moved unauthorized to the west near Hunter Mountain and refuse to explain why. The Sixth Dispersed Battalion is also missing."
Hmm, the Twelfth Infantry Battalion had been convinced by Major Kosport and decided to disobey orders, while the Sixth Dispersed Battalion deserted on their own.
Duke York personally sent orders to these units, yet still could not mobilize them.
At one in the afternoon, he had no choice but to have Meckseli lead the remaining 2,600 soldiers to launch an attack on the student army.
In front of the woods north of Vienna, Jaggen personally held up the military flag at the front lines, continually encouraging the student army to hold the line with a hoarse voice.
However, although the students were high-spirited on their first battlefield, their lack of combat experience showed as they began to falter under the fierce attacks of the regular army.
Before two o’clock, their left wing was cut open by Meckseli’s hussars, and the student army’s mere 50 cavalry were unable to effectively cover them.
Jaggen watched through his binoculars as his classmates fell one by one beneath horse sabers, his face turning pale.
"Commander, we need to retreat!" an anxious captain of the student army pulled at him, pleading, "We’re about to be surrounded!"
Jaggen heaved a long sigh and was about to order a retreat when suddenly he heard gunfire multiply from the west.
Hadn’t the left wing collapsed already?
While he was puzzled, a student cavalryman rode swiftly towards him, shouting excitedly, "Commander, reinforcements, over a thousand strong!"
At Hunter Mountain, Major Kosport looked at his aide and chuckled, "Over 400 men ran off at once? So many don’t value their lives."
He knew those soldiers weren’t fleeing but had joined the riot, or rather, the revolution.
After leaving his tent, that fellow Lucas went around giving speeches in the Dragoon Regiment, evidently convincing quite a few.
Before the dense woods, the sudden defection of the dragoons and hundreds of scattered troops caught the suppression army off guard, and their once advantageous right wing instantly turned into a route.
In truth, soldiers of the Moravian Legion were also highly averse to suppressing the Viennese populace—their own family might be mingling among the rioters—so when the tide of battle turned slightly against them, they promptly dropped their weapons and fled with them.
While the student army secured victory, tens of thousands of protesters in the city of Vienna found themselves stymied by the Hofburg’s solid stone walls.
On the balcony of the second floor of the Hofburg, the chief commander of the guards, Count Nostitz-Rieneck, touched the cannon at his side and shouted coldly to the dark mass of people below, "This is a rebellion; leave at once!"