Chapter 863 Charge

With a burst of crying and shouting, the Austrian soldiers began to cross the barricades. Someone saw Pierne trapped under the barricades, and the soldier raised his gun after hesitating for about a second to free him.

Franz walked through the streets full of corpses and blood plasma, and he knew that this was just the beginning.

The barricades in Venice did not cause Franz too much trouble. Whether it was queuing up for shooting or knocking on the turtle shell, it was not a problem for his army.

The advantage of lever-action rifles over old-fashioned muzzle-loading smoothbore rifles, even flintlock rifles and matchlock rifles is extremely obvious.

This can be seen from the casualties ratio of both sides. After more than an hour of fighting, the Austrian army suffered less than 50 casualties, while the bodies of the rebels in one street before exceeded 500.

The battle in the periphery soon reached the ears of Daniele Manin in the city hall. The battle in the town square had just ended, but this did not mean that he won. It was just that the loyal soldiers temporarily retreated back to the barracks.

Daniele Manin now faced a dilemma, that is, to continue attacking the remnants of the loyalists, or to destroy the new force.

At this time, there were three groups of people loyal to Austria in Venice. If they were really allowed to gather together, the rebels would have no chance.

Among the three forces, only Franz's reinforcements did not have the geographical advantage, and if the intelligence was true and Franz was in the army, Daniele Manin felt that as long as the reckless archduke Franz was captured, the war would be over.

"Citizens! We are the descendants of the Roman conquerors! We are God's chosen people! Fight for freedom and God! We must never surrender!"

"Long live! Long live freedom! Long live Pius IX!"

The sparse shouts in the square made Daniele Manin very unhappy, especially the phrase "Long live Pius IX". The old charlatan only knew how to collect tithes, which he thought was simply despicable.

In fact, if Franz could be caught this time, Daniele Manin was ready to try to be the Governor of Venice.

Thinking of this, he became energetic again and shouted.

"Our great Venice is now facing an unprecedented crisis! The evil Austrians do not want us to be independent!

For this reason, they sent their evil army and the evil prince!

But this is also our opportunity! Our troops are ten times theirs! As long as we catch their evil commander, then we will win this war!"

Daniele Manin's analysis could not arouse people's interest at all. At this time, the square was in a mess, with a large number of corpses uncollected, and many dying people begging.

At this time, Daniele Manin used his trick.

"Kill an Austrian soldier for 100 florins! Whoever catches Franz Joseph, I will reward him 10,000!"

As the saying goes, there must be brave men under a heavy reward, but this time there were few people who responded, because the reward he promised last time had not been paid.

In desperation, Daniele Manin ordered the supervisory team to drive the crowd to the battlefield.

At this time, the rebel army, together with the soldiers who defected from Austria, totaled less than 20,000. But Daniele Manin and the leader of the rebels, Fabio, were still confident. After all, according to the latest news, the Austrian reinforcements were less than 5,000.

Soon the vanguards of both sides exchanged fire, and huge explosions came one after another, which made Daniele Manin a little uneasy.

His feeling came from the previous attack on the port area. At first, the rebels in Vienna were unstoppable, but they collapsed under the attack of the naval guns in the port area.

The effect of hundreds of naval guns firing at the same time was simply devastating. At that time, Daniele Manin suddenly realized that he was also a mortal.

So he wanted to use the Austrians to get rid of the Austrian navy, but it went against his wishes. A series of accidents made him a gambler.

That's right. Daniele Manin now has everything blocked on being able to quickly capture Franz and then use hostages to force the Austrian army to surrender.

"Don't worry! Mr. Manin. The Austrians have been blocked by us in the barricades. It's only a matter of time before they surrender."

Fabio, the former deputy commander of the Austrian defense of Vienna, said that he had served in the Austrian army for more than 30 years and was very familiar with the Austrian army's tactics.

At this time, the Austrian army still used the offensive tactics of the Napoleonic era. As long as they had a chance, they would continue to attack.

But what General Fabio didn't know was that Franz was very clear about the future trend of strong defense and weak attack. The latter didn't care whether he was on the defensive or not. He only knew that he had the advantage.

The Venice rebels had been attacking frantically. Although Franz could push the front line back directly, it would be better to shrink a little if fewer people died.

So the Austrian army returned to the barricades and used obstacles to block the attack of the rebels. However, it was Franz's abnormal strategy that gave General Fabio an illusion that the Austrians were in trouble and they were going to withdraw.

At this time, Fabio even made the decision to divide his troops when his troops were insufficient, just to avoid letting Franz, the big fish, escape.

However, the gap in training and weapons soon became apparent. The rebel soldiers rushed forward in waves and were then harvested by various explosives and bullets.

In just one hour, the number of Fabio's soldiers killed was more than in the past half month.

Bordeaux actually wanted to find a place for Franz to drink tea, but the latter was not a traditional aristocrat. He didn't want to pretend to be calm, nor did he want to go to the front line to cause trouble. He just found a relatively clean room to observe quietly.

The situation was completely one-sided. As long as the rebels passed the corner, they would be shot by Austrian soldiers immediately.

At this time, the Austrian army, as the defender, not only occupied the key nodes, but also snipers occupied almost all the commanding heights.

The rebels obviously had no countermeasures, and their firepower was also crushed by the Austrian army. Franz's light cavalry had much stronger firepower than the Venetian rebels and rebels.

However, even so, the opponent still adopted an offensive strategy, which made Franz conclude that the opponent's commander must be a mediocre person.

In fact, this view is not entirely correct, because the Napoleonic offensive tactics were popular in the military at this time, and it was not possible for anyone to violate the template of authority.

Seeing that the place was already covered with a layer of corpses, Franz felt that it was time to counterattack, and he did not want to give the opponent's commander a chance to reflect.

"Attack! Destroy them in one go! We will liberate Venice today!"

Franz's words received a warm response from Colonel Monta and other senior officers.

"Yes! Long live the Austrian Empire!"

Colonel Monta put the whistle to his lips and took a deep breath.

A sharp whistle sounded, and all the soldiers began to put on their bayonets. The rocket launchers and grenadiers (soldiers using grenade launchers) on the side fired all their ammunition as quickly as possible.

The smoke filled the air, and then the deafening shouts of killing sounded, and the Austrian army began to charge.