Chapter 1592: Henri Is Not Afraid — God Will Protect Us!

Outside Vienna, on the banks of the Danube.

The red-and-white battle flags of Austria flutter in the wind, and across the open fields, soldiers stand like a forest.

Tens of thousands of Austrian Army soldiers, wearing tricorne hats and neat white uniforms, shoulder Jäger rifles or ordinary smoothbore muskets and stand in utter silence. Over a hundred battalion squares and at least four hundred company lines form a formation that strikes dread into the heart.

Their ranks are almost eerily precise — nearly a hundred thousand soldiers, in unbelievably strict order, deployed flawlessly along the Danube.

The officers of every battalion and every company stand at the head of their units, the leather chin straps of their tricorne hats pulled tight. The late-autumn wind of Austria blows across faces solemn to the utmost, yet no one moves.

This killing intent, this formation — how could it possibly be a rabble?

This is impossible!

Archduke Henri de Mancini of Austria can hardly believe that the army before his eyes is his own Austrian Archduchy's army. The formation looks almost like his father's guards.

Of course, the Austrian standing army is formidable in its own right, with extremely strict training, and it imposes the "leadership principle" on every officer and soldier — that is, junior officers and soldiers must possess the spirit and ability to take responsibility, ready at any time to assume duties one or two ranks above their current position.

To put it plainly, soldiers are trained as non-commissioned officers, NCOs are cultivated as officers, and junior officers are groomed as mid-level officers.

The reason for this is that the Austrian Archduchy sits in too dangerous a position, where war could break out at any moment. Moreover, constrained by its population and the control of its suzerain, the Austrian Archduchy cannot maintain too large a standing army.

So François Eugène, who oversees the military affairs of the Austrian Archduchy, could only pursue a thorough elite-forces policy! At the same time, to facilitate rapid expansion of the army, François Eugène personally compiled the curriculum for the Austrian Archduchy's four-year compulsory education for males, stuffing it full of "military physical education." He also inserted NCO training and officer training content into the middle school and university curricula of the Austrian Archduchy.

These policies were not carried out for merely three or five years — they have continued from around 1680 to the present, a full twenty years!

Twenty years of compulsory education and military physical training seem to have truly paid off at this moment!

Before the vast array formed by a hundred thousand Austrian soldiers stands a square wooden platform set atop the Danube embankment. The platform has some height, and from it one can take in the entire army's formation at a glance.

At this moment there are only four people on the platform: Archduke Henri de Mancini of Austria, the heir apparent Karl von Mancini, Chief Minister François Eugène von Savoy of the Austrian Archduchy, and John Churchill, Inspector General of Training of the Austrian Army.

Karl von Mancini is the elder brother of Maria Theresa von Mancini, the eldest son of Henri and Marie Anne, only eighteen years old this year and still studying at the military academy in Vienna. Now, seeing a hundred thousand troops drawn up in formation, he is so excited he is nearly in tears.

With such a powerful army, why fear the Ottoman Empire? This time perhaps we can push all the way east and retake Constantinople!

On François Eugène's somewhat ugly face, there is also an expression of excitement. With such elite troops, he is certain to go down in history for defeating the Ottoman Empire!

John Churchill can barely contain the joy in his heart — he never imagined the Austrian Archduchy's military strength was so great. Wonderful! He will not return to Rome, and he will never go back to England. He will just stay here and become an Austrian! Being an Austrian has a great future!

From now on, he will be John von Churchill!

Henri de Mancini, the Archduke, however, shows little excitement or joy, his brow still furrowed.

These troops look impressive, but can they actually fight?

They only know how to stand in formation. The four-year elementary schools, middle schools, and universities all conduct related training. But knowing how to stand in formation is not the same as knowing how to fight!

Archduke Henri knows that Austria's four-year elementary schools, middle schools, and universities do not teach much shooting. The men may be able to manage a smoothbore musket, but they cannot possibly use a Jäger rifle to hit a target two or three hundred yards away.

So even now, the flintlock smoothbore musket remains the primary firearm of the Austrian Army's infantry. Only veterans from the standing army or riflemen who have passed the marksmanship examination are qualified to use the expensive Jäger rifle.

Not counting skirmishers (riflemen), in an Austrian Army infantry battalion only one company is fully equipped with Jäger rifles; the other three companies have only smoothbore muskets (pikes have already been abolished).

Furthermore, the Austrian Army's cavalry is relatively weak, because most of the knightly class of the original Austrian Archduchy migrated into the territory of the Roman Empire.

So Archduke Henri could only replace them with the Knights of Goa, and the Knights of Goa simply cannot compare with the knights of Austria.

Moreover, because the Austrian Archduchy is a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, it is also difficult for the Austrian army to recruit cavalry outside its borders. Therefore the Austrian Army's cavalry is very weak, numbering only a few thousand, and it has not been concentrated into cavalry divisions; instead the cavalry is distributed among the various infantry divisions.

"Your Highness!" François Eugène leans close to Archduke Henri and says in a low voice, "Intelligence indicates that the Ottomans are concentrating at Győr, seemingly preparing to launch a surprise attack on us!"

"A surprise attack?" Henri I frowns deeply. "Would they? We have already concentrated a hundred thousand troops. The Ottomans surely would not dare to attack?"

Indeed, with a hundred thousand troops so valiant and imposing, and Mehmed IV not being particularly bold, how would he dare to strike?

John Churchill suggests: "Why not advance on the fortress of Győr ourselves and seek a decisive battle? Your Highness, rest assured, victory will surely be ours!

For God is on our side, and God will surely bless you and Austria!"

This Henri de Mancini feels somewhat uneasy, because he does not truly believe in God! And the bullet that killed Saint Leopold was procured for the Ottomans by him.

Henri muses: if God truly concerns Himself with the affairs of men, He probably will not bless him.

"Archduke," François Eugène suggests again, "we could advance along the Danube toward Bratislava and show the Hungarians our strength. The Phanariot Grand Duke in Bratislava is deeply unpopular, and he lacks sufficient strength, and even more lacks legitimacy. If the Hungarians there learn of our strength, they will most likely rise in revolt and drive out the Phanariot Grand Duke of Bratislava and the Ottoman garrison!"

Phanar is a district of Istanbul, the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople of the Orthodox Church. Most of the people living there are Greek-speaking remnants of the Eastern Roman Empire.

After the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire, these people became obedient subjects of the Ottoman Sultan and were settled in the Phanar district, serving as the "superior Christians" and "European pathfinders" within the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Sultan often appointed bureaucrats from the great Phanariot families to serve as Grand Dukes or Governor-Generals of conquered Christian vassal states. And Royal Hungary, after being conquered by the Ottoman Empire, also became a grand duchy, called the Grand Duchy of Upper Hungary, and an Ottoman official from the Phanariot Argyropoulos family was installed as its Grand Duke.

However, this Grand Duke of Upper Hungary is not as skilled at winning hearts as Archduke Henri of Austria, nor can he secure for the Hungarians the same "neutral" status as Austria, nor can he turn Bratislava into a "free financial center" like Vienna, and of course he cannot spend money on education or maintain low taxes over the long term — this Grand Duke is here to extract wealth for the Sultan. If he were to keep taxes low and fund education, where would the money for the Sultan come from?

As a result, the common people of Upper Hungary discovered that the Grand Duke sent by the Ottomans was worse than the kings of the House of Habsburg, and even more inferior to the Grand Duke of neighboring Austria!

Some quick-witted Hungarian nobles began traveling back and forth, seeking to promote a merger of the Grand Duchy of Upper Hungary with the Austrian Archduchy.

"Good!" Henri nods. "That is indeed a fine idea!"

Henri certainly does not want to become Grand Duke of the Hungarians. His clever scheme is to divert the disaster eastward — as long as the Ottomans go to Upper Hungary to kill and burn, will Austria not be preserved?

(End of Chapter)