Chapter 1548: The Rise and Fall of the First Empire — The Ottoman Square

The plain on the south bank of the Danube was pitch-black under the night sky. Occasionally skirmishers from the two sides ran into each other in the open field and exchanged fire. A burst of gunfire would suddenly erupt across the empty plain, then quickly die back into silence.

Around the fortress of Győr and several thousand yards to its south, however, two expanses of brilliant lamplight glowed — these were the encampments of the army of the Holy Roman Empire and the army of the Ottoman Empire. Both sides had set up open camps, and campfires dotted the wilderness like two seas of stars fallen to the earth.

Between the two seas of stars lay a stretch of open flatland more than ten li wide. If nothing unexpected happened, a battle that would decide the rise and fall of the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire — and would also permanently change the entire pattern of the world — would soon erupt across this empty plain.

In his own tent, Zhu Hengli was bent over a table made from a few ammunition crates, using a quill pen to copy into a notebook a set of tactics and methods of warfare he had just finished summarizing — he had only with great difficulty persuaded the Ottoman Grand Vizier to let him come to the front line in person, to observe and record this decisive battle with his own eyes!

This battle would not only decide the fate of the whole world, it would likewise change the pattern of warfare for many years to come — because Zhu Hengli's father, Zhu Cilang, had brought out the golden finger he had kept at the bottom of the chest: the Minié ball! Oh, it was now called the wooden-plug rifled musket cartridge.

This kind of ammunition was very easy to load (because the bullet was one size smaller), and it allowed a rifled musket to fire faster than a smoothbore musket — an improvement already sufficient to change the pattern of warfare.

One must understand that the effective range of a rifled musket far exceeded that of a smoothbore musket — the difference between the two was as great as a cannon firing grapeshot!

A rifled musket could open fire beyond the effective range of grapeshot. If its rate of fire was fast enough and its numbers great enough, it could completely paralyze the enemy artillery placed in front of the line to support infantry operations. Moreover, a rifled musket using the wooden-plug cartridge could also pose an enormous threat to charging enemy cavalry. If the number of rifled muskets was sufficient, they could be used to fire volleys. Then a single rank of rifled musketeers could inflict casualties on galloping cavalry at a distance of several hundred yards, and before those cavalrymen reached them, they could usually complete three effective shots. With smoothbore muskets, they could usually complete only one shot.

Of course, although a rifled musket fitted with the wooden-plug cartridge was excellent, it was not entirely without shortcomings. The greatest shortcoming of the rifled musket was that its output was too low and its price too high. Had Aurangzeb not given the Ottoman Empire a subsidy, the Grand Vizier Ahmed Köprülü could not possibly have scraped together more than 6,000 rifled muskets for the Janissary corps within a few short months. Of these rifled muskets, 2,000 had been purchased from France, 300 had been brought by Zhu Hengli as a gift to the Ottoman Empire, and the remaining 3,700-odd rifled muskets had been bought by Ahmed Köprülü at high prices from nobles within the Ottoman Empire — because rifled muskets were expensive, they were rarely issued to troops, but they were the first-choice firearms used by nobles of every country when hunting. The stock within the Ottoman Empire was not small; even the Sultan's palace had several dozen of them (Mehmed IV was a hunting fanatic), and Leopold I's palace also had several dozen (his Empress Claudia Felicitas was a hunting fanatic). Thus, through the efforts of Ahmed Köprülü, the Janissary corps was soon equipped with more than 7,500 rifled muskets (the Janissary corps had originally been equipped with some rifled muskets already).

And the old man Ahmed Köprülü also knew that his "rifled musket advantage" was a one-time thing! As soon as the enemy picked up a single wooden-plug rifled musket cartridge on the battlefield, the Ottomans' advantage would be gone, and might even turn into a disadvantage. In the craft of gun-making, the Ottoman Empire was far inferior to European handicraft powers such as England, Holland, and France.

Therefore, in order to maximize the "rifled musket advantage," Ahmed Köprülü decided to concentrate the use of the rifled muskets, gathering all 7,500 of them into 50 newly established long-rifle battalions. Each long-rifle battalion was composed of 150 long-riflemen, 120 matchlock men, and 270 pikemen. The 150 long-riflemen were divided into two parts: one part was a long-rifle company made up of 120 long-riflemen (subdivided into 4 platoons); the other part was a skirmisher squad of 30 long-riflemen with especially outstanding marksmanship, directly under the long-rifle battalion commander, specially responsible for screening the main body and sniping enemy artillerymen and officers.

And the tactics and formations adopted by these long-rifle battalions resembled the European-style square, using the pikemen as the ramparts and letting the long-riflemen and matchlock men provide the firepower.

At the same time, Ahmed Köprülü also formed many "half-batteries" equipped with 6-pounder cannons (that is, units equipped with 4 to 6 six-pounder guns), directly attached to regiments (composed of three to four battalions).

According to Ahmed Köprülü's conception, the tactical thinking of the long-rifle battalions would be to use pikes and matchlocks to protect the long rifles, to strike the enemy's artillery and cavalry at long range, and then to use the long-rifle battalions to protect their own artillery half-batteries as they approached the enemy infantry square, using the 6-pounders to fire grapeshot at the enemy.

Zhu Hengli recorded Ahmed Köprülü's "self-created" infantry square tactics in his notebook, and even gave it a name: the "Ottoman Square." Then he put it away in his pack. Afterward, fully clothed, he lay down on his camp bed. Sleep was out of the question — tomorrow was the day of the decisive battle!

He was a perfectly good diplomat, and now he had been dragged onto the battlefield too! He had to think carefully about who had dragged him into this. It seemed to be that smoke-belching, thoroughly rotten Sixth Uncle, the Prince of Fu!

No, once he returned to Yingtian, he absolutely had to go and tell Mother, and have her blow some serious pillow talk, and make sure Sixth Uncle got exiled to Africa to be a king.

Leopold I was also too excited to sleep that night.

Because he was soon to become the hero of Catholicism, the defender of Christ, the protector of Central Europe, the liberator of Hungary — and perhaps even the liberator of Serbia and Bulgaria!

If his luck was a little better still, he might become the liberator of Constantinople, and once again plant the banner of Christ upon the walls of Constantinople!

At this thought, Leopold I was so stirred that he was nearly in tears!

Just as his eyes were about to be drowned by his own tears, the voice of Charles of Lorraine came from outside the tent.

"Your Imperial Majesty! There is important news!"

Leopold I said, "Come in, quickly."

Charles of Lorraine lifted the tent flap and walked into the tent. Seeing the Emperor wiping away tears, he was somewhat taken aback: "Your Majesty, are you..."

"I got sand in my eye. A gust of wind blew in just now," Leopold I said. "Charles, what important news do you have?"

"It came from Lorraine," Charles said. "A French army of 100,000 led by Louis XIV in person has reached Lorraine, and is waiting for you to permit them to enter the territory of the Holy Roman Empire!"

"Is that so?" Leopold I smiled. "Charles, do you think we really need them?"

Charles of Lorraine was stunned for a moment. "Your Majesty, this is 100,000 French troops! And the one actually in command is the Prince of Condé!"

Leopold gave a cold snort: "He has only come to claim a share of the spoils now that he sees our victory is in sight. If I permit him to enter, and let him share in the glory of victory, then... you may well never become the Grand Duke of Lorraine."

France's occupation of the Duchy of Lorraine was "illegal." In all of Europe, only Holland recognized Lorraine as belonging to France; all the other states recognized the Duchy of Lorraine as part of the Holy Roman Empire, and recognized Charles IV as the Grand Duke of Lorraine.

So the possibility of Charles becoming Charles V was still very great!

But if Louis XIV thus became the savior of the Holy Roman Empire, then who could ever demand the Duchy of Lorraine back from him?

For a moment Charles could not say anything. Although years of military experience told him that the Ottoman Empire most likely had a follow-up move, and that the war before them would not be easy to win,

he was still utterly unwilling to give up his rights to the Duchy of Lorraine!

Leopold I looked at Charles. "Charles, wake me at four o'clock tomorrow morning! I am going to kill the Muslims!"

(End of Chapter)