Chapter 800 50 to 1

The main force of the Orthodox Alliance has arrived.

"Fight! Fight! Don't be afraid! Our reinforcements are endless! As long as we hold on, we will win!"

Augustin Keller climbed up the bell tower while shouting. The Orthodox Alliance troops that surged like a tide have surrounded this place. He couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart, and at the same time he had a question, "Why are there so many people on the other side?"

But now Augustin Keller couldn't care so much, he had to arrange defense now.

As a result, he found a problem, that is, he only knew some of the senior officers, but he didn't know all their names.

At this moment, a rocket flew past the eaves of the bell tower, and brilliant flames rose in the camp, accompanied by steel balls and constant screams.

"It's a Congreve rocket"

Before he finished speaking, he heard more than one soldier in the camp shouting "Bomb! Run!"

Then there were more rockets and more screams. To be honest, Archduke Karl didn't want to fight like this, but those Orthodox Alliance soldiers couldn't even march in line.

Moreover, he did not expect that the other side could build a barracks overnight. Although it was very simple, if they were to shoot at close range, the Orthodox Alliance would definitely suffer.

So Archduke Karl decided that it would be better to carry out fire coverage. Although this primitive Congreve rocket was not suitable for killing queues and could not cause damage to solid fortresses, it was most suitable for indiscriminate killing, especially for simple wooden structures.

A large number of Congreve rockets were projected into Augustin Keller's temporary camp, and the buildings and supplies in the camp were immediately destroyed, and the fire quickly spread.

The greater disaster was the confusion of command. Neither Augustin Keller nor any of his officers could command this army, let alone this chaotic moment.

Some people wanted to line up to fight, some wanted to put out the fire, and some people scrambled for ships to escape. Chaos was unparalleled.

In fact, Augustin Keller also had artillery and Congreve rockets, but it was unlikely to expect the soldiers who made a living in this era to fight back on their own without a leader.

Of course, there were also brave officers who rushed into the armory to rescue supplies, but the series of explosions caused by the uncontrollable fire soon devoured them.

More than 30,000 people were trapped in this rural dock like ants on a hot pot. The few soldiers who rushed out became targets of the Orthodox Alliance Army. They had no time to do anything, not even to reload bullets and surrender.

The recruits of the Orthodox Alliance gained confidence after several rounds of shooting. With the front-line commander's shout of "Forward!"

The recruits were no longer afraid, but showed a bit of fanaticism, which looked even more ferocious under the light of the fire.

Flames and explosions occurred one after another in Augustine Keller's camp, and the ships in the port became everyone's life-saving straw.

In order to catch it, everyone fought and tried their best; in order to escape, they tried their best, and some ships capsized due to excessive overloading.

At the same time, the Orthodox Alliance Army did not intend to let them go. The queue was constantly advancing, and occasionally a few solid projectiles fell into the lake and stirred up water columns.

"I'm Augustine Keller! Let me get on the boat!"

Augustine Keller was knocked to the ground by a punch as soon as he stepped on the boat. His consciousness was blurred. When his vision gradually became clear, the last boat had already sailed away from the shore.

At this time, Augustine Keller recognized that the man who had just knocked him down was the officer from last night.

At this time, his camp had become a ruin, and the remaining soldiers were being killed. The battle was completely one-sided.

In fact, there was not much difference in the number of people on both sides before the war, but at this time, this army, including himself, could no longer squeeze out any courage.

Some people tried to swim away, but the lake water in winter was not so easy to endure? Most of those people would cramp and sink to the bottom of the lake after swimming for only a few dozen meters.

Augustin Keller listened to the continuous and urgent screams, and he immediately decided to kneel down and raise his hands above his head, and then kept repeating in German, French and Italian "I surrender! I surrender! I surrender!"

Note: The three most popular languages ​​in Switzerland are German, French and Italian.

The battle went on without suspense. Nearly 20,000 of the 30,000 troops Augustin Keller brought across the lake were killed or missing, and another 10,000 were taken prisoner.

The casualties on his side were less than 500, and a considerable number of them were accidentally injured. However, in any case, the 50 to 1 loss ratio was definitely a battle that could be recorded in history.

The vast majority of the dead died in fire and drowning, and the number of people who died in battle was not large. Many of them wanted to surrender, but the new recruits and grassroots officers of the Orthodox Alliance had no experience at all. They wanted to shoot any living creature before leaving.

If it were not for the timely arrival of Marshal Ulrich Salis of the Orthodox Alliance, the number of casualties would probably increase further.

This battle directly defeated the senior officials of the state of Schwyz. They witnessed the entire battle from a distance, and they didn't even have a chance to appear on the battlefield.

Then, when cleaning the battlefield, they had to dig out the charred bodies from the ruins and carry the cold bodies from the river.

Although they were not the ones who died, a chill went deep into their bones and could not be shaken off.

Cleaning up the battlefield was necessary, because even in winter, if the bodies could not be buried in time, it might cause disasters such as plague.

This battle greatly boosted the morale of Lucerne. To be honest, even they themselves could not believe that facing the same number of enemy troops, this battle was as easy as cutting melons and vegetables.

In connection with the first battle of Lucerne, Archduke Karl defeated Dufour's 60,000 troops with 4,000 people, and the former's prestige in the Orthodox Alliance reached an unprecedented height.

In fact, there were less than 2,000 people in the western valley that made the Free Alliance Shepherd Corps flee in panic.

It just happened that they could always look down from a high position and occupy a local force advantage.

As for why the intelligence was so accurate, the answer was military observation hot air balloons and telescopes.

The observers on the hot air balloons first discovered the enemy and then guided their own ambush troops to go there.

At the same time, the military literacy and weapons and equipment of both sides were incomparable. Archduke Karl's guards were all veterans who had received many years of military training. Although the weapons they used were not all the latest lever-action rifles, the lowest was the Lorenz rifle using Minié bullets.

This rifle should be considered an improved version of Lorenz in 1854, and its performance is stronger than that in history, but the Austrian rifle was developing too fast at that time, and this muzzle-loading rifle could only be used as a cover.

As for the artillery battle at the bridgehead, Archduke Karl felt that it would be better without the Swiss, because those new recruits did not know how to use artillery at all, and they had almost no other role except to cause trouble.

Archduke Karl established his absolute leadership in the Orthodox Alliance with two great victories, and at the same time to stabilize the rear. At least the people in Schwyz dared not have such thoughts anymore.

There was also good news from Ticino. Colonel Charles Duchat successfully defeated the Ticino defenders, and the situation immediately became unfavorable to the Free Alliance.