Steel Empire
Killing the General

During Berengar and Eckhard's double advance into the occupied territories of the Duchy of Austria, Linde had orchestrated Berengar's spy network to carry out assassinations and sabotage once again. Currently, the same young female agent who had killed the Garrison commander in Meran was currently operating inside Vienna City; she was only one of the many Berengar agents stationed in the Duchy Capital.

He recently received a coded message claiming Berengar had succeeded in his campaign for Salzburg and would soon be marching his large army into Lower Austria and, by extension, the City of Vienna. Because of this, he had been assigned by Linde to make preparations for his arrival. 

Right now, the young and beautiful agent was holding a hidden gun in his pocket, which was a pepperbox revolver. The device could fire seven shots in a short period of time and would play a key role in his plans. 

The woman is currently dressed as a regular man, with************ tied by a cloth to hide her size. He wore a hood over his head and tied his long hair around his face so it looked like a beard at first glance. 

His task was a simple assassination; since the successful capture of Vienna, Duke Dietger has returned to Northern Bavaria to fight against the House of Luxembourg and their allies in the North. In doing so, he had left behind a promising General instead; he was targeting his leader General, who was currently strolling through the city. As he approached the man from afar, he began to hear the General talking to the other nobles. 

"Count Siegmund has been cleared of all suspicion; it has been revealed that Count Berengar of Tyrol had smuggled the Habsburg boy into his territory. The foolish boy had declared himself the rightful Duke of Austria and had placed Count Berengar as his Regent.

The General spoke to the Nobles immediately mockingly when he heard such news and proudly expressed his opinion.

"Count Berengar's? Berengar the Cursed, as the Catholics call it, the Reformers call him the persistent Berengar or Berengar the Conqueror; he has many nicknames. One thing was certain he remained invincible in battle and had a large army.

Of all the people sent to Salzburg, only 5,000 returned from the region alive, let alone from Carinthia. They say he himself has an army of 30,000 men on his back; you are renowned as a capable strategist. Tell me how is this possible?"

The general let out a heavy sigh before revealing his thoughts on the matter; it was something that he thought highly of as the war continued. 

"Heard had about 15,000 men in his field army when we first invaded Austria; this did not include the garrison he had reinforced with hundreds of men each. Within a few months, he had amassed an additional 15,000 by doubling his troops. He possessed a vast amount of heaven-defying wealth and industrial abilities. Thus, he could equip everyone with the right equipment.

In addition, his army used some form of revolutionary hand cannon, of which no surviving examples are found; therefore, we do not know how they function or how effective they are. By fully equipping his army with these weapons, he must have created a series of revolutionary tactics in order for them to work properly. So there is no natural way to know how to fight them without trial and error. No wonder he continues to thwart our best efforts to stop his progress. 

If the rumors are true about the power his troops have, then invading Austria is a mistake; in my humble opinion, it is a mistake, we must retreat to Bavaria until we can learn how to fight the advanced weapons and tactics he uses in his army. However, his grace Duke Dietger was determined to defend this land. So we have no choice but to keep it with our lives."

The general was greatly disturbed by the rapid conquest of the Duchy by Berengar; he had conquered critical areas and was now marching on the capital, due to the southernmost regency of Austria, he had conquered critical areas, the Bavarians have not made much progress in their occupation and have forced their forces to retreat to Vienna to face Berengar's attack with their full force.

"We can't back down, but we also don't have enough people to defend Upper Austria; if I were you, I would withdraw from the region and focus on defending Vienna; hopefully, if I were you, with this wall as our support, we can defend it. The area quite well."

The general, however, sighed and shook his head.

"The longer the Berengar army is divided, the greater our chances of defending our territory. If the other 25,000 men of his army and allies regroup with him, we will face an army of about 45,000 men; by then, we will have no chance of defending the city. We will make our final stand here in Vienna, and if we fail, hopefully Dietger can learn from our mistakes and use the knowledge gained from this disaster to better defend against Berengar and his troops in the future."

The two men sighed in defeat, fully realizing that they were unable to fulfill the orders given to them; if there was a chance, they would gladly surrender and be redeemed back to Bavaria, he said, for now, all they could do was wait, the arrival of Berengar, and prepare to the best of their ability. 

Unfortunately for the two nobles, there was an assassin in the middle, and they did not know that their conversation was being heard. The female agent no longer wanted to hear the conversation as it began to turn into a mockery; therefore, it was, he checked his pepperbox revolver to make sure the gun was properly loaded and pulled the hammer back before approaching the two men.

Before they could react, the spy took out a revolver from his pocket, pointed it at the Generals and Nobles chests, and fired two shots swiftly at their chest protectors. They couldn't even draw their swords before their hearts were pierced by the tin balls that were inside the revolver. 

Now that the sound of gunfire was heard, the woman fled into the distance, leaving the two men to bleed to the corner of the road with shocked expressions in their eyes. Until now, they had no idea that Berengar still had spies in town.

The last thought in the General's mind as his consciousness faded into the eternal abyss was one of deep regret; though brief, he ended up witnessing the exchange of one of Berengar's weapons. Unfortunately, he would die before he could report the information to Duke Dietger, and as such, shame was the only thing he felt right before he died.

As for Agent, she quickly left the scene, where she untied her hair around her face and changed her clothes into something more feminine. Not a single soul expected a woman to be the one who had killed the General, and thus she was spared the pain of moving once more. Instead, he will continue his efforts to sabotage the Bavarians in the coming days as Berengar slowly approaches the Austrian capital. 

For now, he writes a coded message and sends it with a carrier pigeon, where he will travel to Kufstein, and informs Linde that the operation was a success, The general and one of his commanders were killed, leaving Vienna in a power vacuum. , for at this time the various Bavarian commanders within the city would now be preoccupied with fighting among themselves to gain positions of control. 

By this one act, this spy had brought down the stability of Bavarian defence in Vienna; whoever replaced the General in taking command would definitely not promise talent, and thus, would not have, most likely it will damage security—allow Berengar easier in retaking the capital. As for the cities, towns, and castles in upper Austria, they also experienced a sabotage event that greatly angered the Bavarian soldiers who occupied the region, and demoralized them.

Berengar had long used his intelligence agency as an offensive weapon, and a defensive shield. His ruthlessness in targeting key personnel for assassinations and sabotage of important resources was one of his ways to claim superiority over his opponents. Unfortunately for them, Austria has long been caught in its web of intrigue. Thus he was always in a position of control during his campaign. This huge advantage was all thanks to Linde's efforts, because if Berengar had to manage his own Spynetwork, it wouldn't be this sophisticated.