Chapter 164: Death of a Duke

For the past few months, Duke Wilmar of Austria has been in the process of conquering Bavaria. However, despite his initial progress, he currently found himself in a stalemate with the armies of Bavaria, which have returned from their campaign in Northern Germany to reclaim the land in which they had lost to Austria. Despite the advantages the Austrians initially had in this war, they now found themselves struggling to maintain the ground they had conquered.

The Bavarians had made great gains in Northern Germany, pursuing their claim for the vacant throne, however after realizing that the Austrians had stolen their Capital, they were forced to withdraw from their holdings and leave it to reconquest by the House of Luxembourg and their allies. As such, they were in a furious state as they gazed across the battlefield to see the Dastardly Austrians who had attacked them while they were pursuing their ambitions.

The two Dukes led their respective armies with Duke Wilmar von Habsburg in control of his personal forces and those of his vassals. Duke Dietger von Wittelsbach was in charge of the Bavarian army. Seeing as how nearly all of the two Duke's forces were gathered for this event, this would be the single most important battle of the war in Southern Germany to decide who would reign supreme, Austria or Bavaria. The battle ultimately would take place outside the city of Passau in Eastern Bavaria. Duke Wilmar was currently discussing the plans for the grand battle which was about to take place with his vassals, who were commanders in his army.

"Count Otto, my old friend, I wish for you to command the rear-guard, make sure that our flanks hold the line against any potential attack, especially that of Cavalry."

Seeing that he was not tasked with leading the Vanguard, Otto frowned, however despite his objections, he agreed to the Duke's orders and voiced his support.

"I will do as you command your grace."

Duke Wilmar was, of course, pleased with this result, as for the next comment from the Duke, it surprised nobody.

"Count Walfried von Salzburg, you are tasked with leading the Vanguard!"

Walfried pounded his chest as he saluted his liege while responding to his orders.

"You honor me, your grace!"

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With those two positions taken care of, Duke Wilmar moved on to his overall strategy.

"While Walfried advances with the Vanguard, I will lead the cavalry which we will split into two units and circle around the enemy's lines where we shall attack them from the rear of their flanks. Once the flanks are crushed, the Bavarians will have to fall back and reinforce their lines; as they do so, the Vanguard will rush in and cut them down before they manage to do so."

It was a simple enough strategy and had worked numerous times before; as such, none of the Lords who were present had any complaints about the tactics they would use to defeat the Bavarians. The last remark the Duke made was about his archers.

"The Archers will be placed atop both of these hills on both sides of the battlefield, where they will rain missiles down upon our foes."

After these words were stated, all of the Lords who witnessed this conversation nodded in agreement. Shortly thereafter, they were all set to the task, and the battle had begun. The Archers took their positions on the hilltop and began to rain their arrows down upon the enemy forces, just as planned.

However, unfortunately, it appeared as if the Bavarians were just as well equipped as the Austrians; as such, the arrows were largely deflected off of the heavily armored infantry of the enemy. The fact that the Bavarians were so well equipped was shocking to the Austrians, seeing as how the Austrian Lords had spent a fortune on Berengar's arms and armor preparing for this war. Despite this fact, the Bavarians seemed to be equally well equipped, at least for the most part, which began to fill the Lords of Austria with doubt over Berengar's loyalty.

Nevertheless, now was not the time to worry about such concerns, and though the arrows could not pierce the brigandine or plate, they easily slid into the gaps in the enemy armor when fired in a volley numbering in the thousands. There were still many wounds inflicted on the Bavarian troops before they arrived in combat with the Austrian infantry. Still, it was strange that there was no sign of Bavarian Archers or Crossbowmen deployed to the battlefield, which filled Count Otto with angst as he commanded the rear guard, watching the battle from afar.

The moment the two feudal armies made contact with one another, blood and death began to spray about the fertile grassland that was the battlefield. Corpses littered the field as the steel-clad armies clashed with one another like an enormous metallic tidal wave. As the battle continued to rage, Duke Wilmar finally found an opening for his cavalry, and as such, he began his charge; just like in the battle plan, the heavily armored knights mounted on horseback broke into to units and went around the vanguard of the enemy army where they proceeded to attack their flanks from the rear. With their lances couched, and the force of the horse's charge, even high-quality steel plate armor could be damaged by such a powerful blow.

As such, the heavily armored Knights of Austria led by Duke Wilmar crashed into the enemy flanks, driving their lances through their chests and ending their lives. Quickly the Bavarian flanks began to crumble, and the plan seemed to be working perfectly. However, unlike Duke Wilmar had estimated, the moment the enemy flanks crumbled, the men began to route and fled into the distance. Seeing this as an opportunity for victory, Duke Wilmar charged ahead of his infantry and into the routing forces.

However, this turned out to be a grave mistake, as the enemy forces were pulling a classic feigned retreat. By the time the Knights of Austria arrived in front of their enemies, they were encircled by thousands of crossbowmen and archers who unleashed a massive volley from 360 degrees around the Austrian Knights. Though the bolts of the crossbows could not penetrate the toughness of the steel-plate armor, they could get into the gaps between them, causing injuries to the Knights and Nobleman who were encapsulated, as well as their trusty steeds.

Before long, the entire contingent of Knights who had broken the Bavarian flanks found themselves dismounted as the continuous volley fire had gravely injured their horses; many of them were wounded or had even perished in the attack by the crossbowman. After all, the plate armor of the time was not as advanced as what Bernegar equipped his cavalry with. Many Knights wore mail aventails for throat protection, rather than gorget or great bascinet, which allotted some degree of steel plate throat protection. Thus the crossbow bolts of the heavy steel crossbows were capable of piercing through the mail aventail and into their throats.

Duke Wilmar and his surviving Knights quickly recovered from the attack. However, they soon found themselves surrounded by the enemy infantry, and they were a long way off from their own army. As such, a vicious struggle appeared as the Knights of Austria battled to the death with the men at arms of Bavaria, where the Bavarian Knights were located Wilmar did not know. Though the Austrian Knights were afforded greater protection and had better skill than the Bavarian men at arms, they were severely outnumbered. They quickly found their ranks dwindling as they were surrounded on all sides and ruthlessly battered by the Bavarian forces.

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Duke Wilmar stood side by side with his Knights and Vassals, who had followed him into death as he parried an oncoming spear thrust and lunged towards the soldier's face with his longsword, piercing through the man's skull and ending his life. However, he shortly thereafter received a crossbow bolt in the crook of his elbow, which pierced through the gap beneath his plate armor and through the mail and gambeson which protected it. With a massive bolt piercing through his elbow, he no longer had the ability to wield his longsword with his dominant arm and thus resorted to using the weapon one-handed with his off-hand.

Count Otto gazed in horror at the sight of the Austrian Knights being rapidly cut down by the enemy forces, yet there was nothing he could do. He was tasked with protecting the rear guard, and he was far too distant from his Lieges position to provide any aid. All he could do was watch as the ranks of the Austrian Knights slowly dwindled in a desperate struggle to wait for the Austrian Infantry to arrive at their aid.

However, right when the Austrian infantry was about to intervene, the Bavarian Cavalry rushed upon their loose and disorganized ranks, which was the result of panic, and began to halt their advance. Duke Dieter was at the head of the ranks of his Cavalry as they lanced through the Austrian Vanguard as if they were cutting through cream cheese. The last thing Duke Wilmar saw before he was viciously struck upon the back of his helm with a mighty Warhammer was the devastation wrought upon his forces by the Bavarian Army. He quickly collapsed to his knees from the impact, where he was once more struck by the Warhammer, ending his life.

As for the fate of Count Walfried von Salzburg, he had either perished in the Conflict or been captured alive; to Count Otto, such a thing did not matter at the moment. Despite being his daughter's father-in-law, Otto had no plans to stay behind and rescue the man. As such, he quickly ordered his troops to withdraw from the battlefield, for the Austrian army had already lost.

With this one battle, the Fate of Austria had seemingly been sealed, the Duke was dead, and his armies were routed. Those few who survived and remained free from bondage were the members of the rear guard who watched their armies cut to pieces. When all appeared to be lost, they fled the battle scene and headed back to their homes in Austria. After all, someone had to defend the homeland from the massive Bavarian invasion of Austria that would soon follow.