Steel Empire
The Hunters Who Became Hunted

The Tyrolean army was marching, Berengar was leading his two divisions in the Salzburg field currently leading his majestic army. Each soldier who served beside him wore blackened steel plate armor, with black, gold, and white clothes underneath. Some wore half plates, while others were equipped with three-quarter plate armor.

Non-commissioned officers and noncommissioned officers stand out from the usual enlisted personnel. Their armor was decorated with brass to show off their prestige and to show each of the troops leading their units. Although they might become a bigger target for the enemy, with the protection their armor provided, they would rarely have to fear deadly attacks from a distance.

By this time, Berengar and his army had set up a camp in the field. Berengar spoke to General Arnulf and several high-ranking officers about the current situation in County Salzburg. Arnulf was the first to reveal new information.

"Our scouts have reported that the Bavarians have begun to flee their posts. We are not sure of the reasons, but they may have known our advantages in this conflict and sought to reduce casualties. In a hasty retreat, they had started burning down every village they encountered. They slaughtered people, burned fields, and slaughtered livestock. The Bavarians are determined to stop our progress by any means necessary!"

Berengar immediately frowned when he heard this report; this was a scorched earth tactic, a strategy Berengar personally despised. The principle was simple: when the Bavarians retreated, they would destroy all the resources that Berengar and his army could possibly exploit, forcing the Tyrolean army to slow their advance. Troops that cannot eat cannot function.

Fortunately Berengar had anticipated the use of this tactic and had long established a supply caravan to follow his troops behind. His forces are protecting these caravans and will continue to bring much-needed resources such as food, water, and ammunition from Tyrol to the front lines. Logistics was the key to victory, and Berengar had no plans to advance beyond his ability to supply.

After hearing this report, he gave orders to his officers.

"Make sure supplies are rationed properly; I don't want to see any waste of products that men are consuming. As for our progress to Salzburg, we could only slow down and wait for the supply caravan to follow. Jagers are skilled in wilderness lore, setting them up for foraging tasks and hunting for whatever food they can get!"

Hearing the Count's orders, the officers quickly beat their chest guards to salute before responding.

"Yes sir!"

After saying that, they were ready for the task, and the army began to fulfill its orders. As for Berengar, he had remained in his post with Arnulf by his side; the man had been a valuable ally and a formidable General in the past and was once again beside him. Berengar appreciated his advice and quickly began to ask the man's opinion of what the Bavarians were planning.

"Tell me, General, do you think the Bavarians are planning an ambush for us?"

Arnulf nodded before expressing his opinion.

"That's what I'm gonna do. Now, the Bavarians must realize that they are facing tremendous firepower. So they have no chance against us in the open field or in the siege. The best they could do was to engage in battle. small battle tactics to try to prevent our advance long enough for them to gather the necessary strength to overwhelm our army with large numbers."

Berengar's face turned into a worried expression as he began to anticipate the next move of that Bavarian player.

"Stop our progress, and make sure our supply lines are well protected. I fear they will try to disconnect us from our logistics network; in doing so, they will try to weaken us with friction; I will not let my men starve. in the field temporarily cut off from the support of the homeland. Better to move carefully than to walk into a trap."

Arnulf nodded in agreement with this thought and began to give his advice.

"We must divide several Grenadier units and arrange them for the task of finding and destroying enemy skirmishers and their encampments. I find it hard to believe that the Bavarians fled the region completely; they may be waiting to ambush our troops. ." 

Berengar nodded in agreement before adding any suggestions.

"I want Dragoons and Mounted Infantry assigned to protect supply caravans; they must have more than enough firepower to prevent potential ambushes while still maintaining the necessary mobility to compensate for the caravan."

Arnulf quickly made mental notes of the commands he received; he would immediately pass these tasks on to the necessary units. The Tyrolean Army was extremely strong mainly because of its superior training and equipment but also the diversity of the troops they employed.

After giving Arnulf his orders, Berengar parted with Arnulf for the night and immediately proceeded to his tent, where he slept quietly. As for their new units and orders, they quickly began to spread out to fulfill them.

In the middle of the night, the Grenadiers tasked with a search and destruction mission advanced beyond the main host, determined to find the Bavarian troops waiting for them. In doing so, one battalion was sent out in total and divided into six individual companies where they explored the region in front of them. 

If one of the companies comes into contact with the enemy ambushers, the other companies will be alerted by the sound of gunfire and advance to that position, besieging the enemy ambushers and taking their lives.

Right now, one company of grenades had made first contact with the enemy; therefore, they had secretly crashed into the tree line as they pulled back their flintlock hammers. The Bavarians had not yet realized that the Grenadiers were within reach, and they were sitting by the bonfire enjoying themselves.

They had seen that the Tyrolean army had stopped their advance, so they waited patiently in the perfect position for the ambush. After the rifle was loaded and directed to a distance of a hundred yards, the Captain in charge of the company gave his orders loud enough to be heard by the people nearby.

"Fire!"

immediately the thunder of a hundred and twenty rifles exploded, echoing in the distance. As they do so, the main projectiles fired from their muzzles find their way into enemy ranks. The torso was torn apart, with a gaping hole the size of a golf ball that appeared through the chest protector of the enemy.

The unfortunate victims had their limbs cut off by bullets and thrashed on the ground while screaming in pain. A flash of volleyball fire instantly illuminated the area, and the surviving members of the ambush force realized that they had been surrounded. 

Several dozen armed Bavarian men were killed on the spot, and even more, wounded. However when compared to the size of the ambush troops, this was not much. However, what happened next instantly frightened the Bavarian skirmishers as they heard war cries filling the air around them as if over a thousand voices were shouting powerful words in unison.

"God is with us!"

Shortly after, Tyrolean grenades gathered in enemy positions. They were alerted by the sound of gunfire and saw the glint of a muzzle. They quickly formed a line and opened fire on the Bavarian ambushers.

Gunfire echoed through the air, and the advancing Bavarian assailants were quickly cut down as they attempted to approach the grenade ranks. The scene quickly turns chaotic as more men have their lives wiped out by one mini ball projectile that pierced through their chests. Others gulped their own blood for a period of time before finally leaving this world.

Even before the Bavarians got the chance to release their swords into the Tyrolean army, steel balls were lit and thrown into the enemy ranks, where they quickly exploded, causing them to explode, sending shrapnel and body parts flying through the air. 

Although the Grenadiers were outnumbered, the Bavarians began to panic, trying to figure out a way to get out of the siege. However, all they managed to do was hit the bayonet wall ready to engage in close combat. The long triangular bayonet was thrust into the crevices of the armed soldiers, creating devastating wounds, which would be very difficult to patch assuming they were able to survive the onslaught. 

Eventually, the Bavarians finally managed to muster up resistance and clashed first with the grenades that surrounded them. Despite this last daring resistance, damage had been done to the Bavarian line of skirmishers, and they found themselves quickly pushed back. Right now, a sea of corpses and blood had filled the floor, and Tyrolean Grenadiers advanced past the corpses and entered the battlefield.

With each stab of the bayonet, a Bavarian is wounded or killed. Slowly but surely, the Bavarian Ambushers had shrunk to a few hundred people whose backs were clinging to each other as over a thousand bayonets pierced them from all sides. Shortly thereafter, the surviving Bavarians threw away their weapons and shouted with all their might.

"The result! I surrender!"

With a statement of surrender, the Tyrolean grenades put an end to their violence and quickly gathered the survivors for questioning. With a little over a hundred captives, they could easily figure out the whereabouts of the remaining ambushes and possible plans by the Bavarian army. So the Tyrolean forces herded their prisoners back to the Tyrolean encampment, where they would be interrogated for any information they stored in their minds.

As Berengar slept, his grenades mercilessly hunted down the first Bavarian Ambush installed and captured several hundred prisoners whose intelligence would be crucial in the battle ahead. Thus, the tactics he had employed earlier in the day had paid off, and Berengar would have had a much faster conquest of Salzburg than he had anticipated before.