Steel Empire
Battle of Diinnsbruck 1

With Innsbruck completely under Berengar's control and the walls intact, the young Viscount quickly installed his cannons at the best position of the city walls. Unlike the Kufstein walls, which were expertly designed to prevent blind spots, the medieval walls of Innsbruck did not allow for proper coverage, especially with at least 15 field guns, or a small number of weapons, given that he left his three cannons at Schwaz, he was limited in the use of artillery, but that was fine, hundreds of rifles among his troops, could make up for the lack of defensive artillery. As for the remaining smoothbore rifles, they can be placed through showdown and effectively against enemy forces that are too close to the wall.

Berengar was currently standing atop the city walls of Innsbruck gazing into the distance with his binoculars, it had been more than a week since he had captured Innsbruck, and finally, troops could be seen in the distance. Sabotage and assassinations targeting the enemy Lords of Tyrol and his realm had been going on since the beginning of his campaign. Because of this, they had caused quite severe damage throughout the hostile Tyrol region, he said, enraged the nobles and regents who ruled the region replaced their Barons and Viscounts who were not involved in the ongoing siege of Vienna.

Because of the anger these Regents had experienced, they had sent whatever armed forces they could muster to attack Innsbruck; after all, they had sent out armed forces of whatever sort they could muster to attack Innsbruck, they did not believe Berengar's forces would be well equipped to withstand the siege after the losses they had to suffer during the two sieges and ambushes. They were completely unaware that Berengar had captured Innsbruck without much resistance, and thus the casualties were quite low. As Berengar had planned, his enemies would descend on Innsbruck with the rest of their combat power, allowing him to deal with them in a single sweep. As for what happened after this battle, Berengar intended to threaten the challenging realms into submission and march to their weakened garrison if necessary.

Eckhard approached Berengar and realized that he was gazing into the distance with binoculars; the old veteran thought the enemy was on the horizon and thus asked about the important details.

"How many?"

Berengar smirked wickedly at the approaching troops before handing the binoculars over to Eckhard.

"Look at yourself."

Eckhard looked into the binoculars and frowned. What he saw was more than ten thousand peasant levies, supported by about a thousand armed men who most likely acted as key components of the garrison protecting the cities from their enemy territory.

After putting down the binoculars and returning them to Berengar, Eckhard voiced his opinion.

"It seems they have designed cannon fodder from the commoners to attack our defenses. It will be a bloodbath that will definitely affect Tyrol's productivity for many years to come."

"Decades...However, it is a sacrifice that must be made; without showing our incredible strength here to the Lord of Tyrol, we will be forced to besiege every city, every city, the casualties would be catastrophic not only to our own troops but to the local population."

Because of this, Berengar raised a red flag nearby and raised it in mid-air; this acted as a signal to the artillery crew to raise their own red flag. Within seconds, each artillery crew was informed of the need to load their weapons and began to act accordingly. When the soldiers sitting in the fortress saw a red flag waving in the air, they immediately became alert, realized that the enemy soldiers were approaching, and started loading their rifles.

The defending soldiers waited a little over an hour before the enemy was within range of artillery fire. However, artillery still did not fire; with explosive shells, the 1417 12 lb Cannon could fire at an effective range of 1680 yards at an altitude of 5 degrees. However, they had no plans to attack the target at such a distance. Otherwise, the enemy would have escaped back to their homes long before the defenders had inflicted mass casualties on them.

Berengar himself had loaded the rifle and stood in the fortress awaiting the arrival of the enemy. After some time, the enemy soldiers stopped within firing range, at the hands of Berengar, and many of his soldiers could reach over 500 yards with their 1417/18 Rifle. The reason for this was due to the effectiveness of the mine ball projectile and the length of the long barrel, which was 6 inches longer than the barrel used by the 1861 Springfield Musket-Gun, the Springfield Musket, it was used by Union forces during the American Civil War from Berengar's previous life.

Unaware of the enemy's effective range, the enemy began to set up their siege camps within the range of their rifles and cannons; only after they dropped their defenses and became preoccupied with the hard work of setting up camp, did the enemy begin to set up camp, Berengar gave a signal to start the attack.

"Fire!"

With those words, more than half a dozen cannons and hundreds of rifles were fired in unison, unleashing waves of devastating bullets and a ball of lead that penetrated deep into the hearts of the enemy forces. When the enemy commander stared at the thunder of weapons and slaughter raining down on them, they were completely shocked. Although they had heard Berengar's forces were mostly equipped with hand cannons, they estimated the effective firing range to be only a few yards; never in their wildest dreams did they imagine the tremendous destruction that befell them as they built their camp.

The commanders quickly acted and immediately ordered his men to rush towards the wall with the stairs in hand; they did not even have time to make siege weapons; therefore, they could only hope to pass through the wall by using the stairs. Although intense fear was in the eyes of the grumbling peasants who felt as if the hand of God was crushing them under his grasp, they gathered courage and tried to approach the wall.

What followed was a battle that left the enemy desperate, as only death and destruction awaited them now that the battle had begun.