I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1276 An Empire Leaky in Every Direction

Before Koschusko even entered Krakow, his staff officer arrived with several men dressed in thick linen clothes, excitedly saying:
"Marshal, they are from the Tarnovsk silver mine. They say the miners rioted yesterday."

Koschusko looked at the group and bowed, saying, "Thank you for your heroic actions, which have bought us valuable time."

Upon seeing their hero, the leading silver mine official excitedly patted his chest and returned the salute, saying, "It was all for the motherland!"

Then, as if seeking credit, he continued, "Marshal, we have completely taken control of the silver mine, and almost all the steam engines and other equipment are intact. We can start mining now."

Koschusko also smiled: "General Nezewaska must be very eager to hear this news."

Another silver mine foreman stepped forward and saluted: "Marshal, there are more than 800 miners in the mine who are skilled in using flintlock muskets. They hope to go with you to fight the invaders!"

Koschushko hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Will it affect mining?"

"If everyone works an extra two or three hours a day, it shouldn't have an impact on more than 500 people."

The Polish commander-in-chief waved his hand: "Then bring them on, I do need more soldiers."

Yesterday, local resistance groups began coming to join his army, which now numbers over a thousand, and all of them are armed with their own weapons.

Since there was almost no fighting, the Polish army did not stay in Krakow, but continued its rapid march southwest to Olomouc.

By the time Koscuszko's army left the former Polish border, it had been reinforced by more than 3400 soldiers and tens of thousands of mules and horses sent by the people.

Meanwhile, 1 Polish troops under the command of General Zawonczyk bypassed the Carpathian Mountains from the southeast via the Durak Pass and then entered the heart of Austria.

Koschushko has extensive experience in deep behind enemy lines. Several years ago, he raided Crimea, covering thousands of kilometers. Currently, with ample logistics and flat terrain, his troops can travel approximately 28 kilometers a day.

Just six days later, the Polish Winged Hussars, acting as the vanguard, had already arrived at the Olomouc fortress.

General Wilczek peered through his binoculars at the Austrian soldiers slacking off outside the fortress, then turned to his staff officer and asked, "How much longer until the infantry arrive?"

"It will probably be tomorrow morning at the earliest, General."

Wilczek frowned. The Austrians were clearly unprepared, and it was difficult to guarantee that his several thousand men would not be discovered by the enemy's patrolling cavalry.

If the enemy begins to strengthen its defenses, the difficulty of capturing this place will inevitably increase exponentially.

He hesitated for only a few seconds before leaping off his horse and calmly ordering the messenger, "Order everyone to prepare for infantry combat. We are going to capture this fortress!"

Soon, more than 3 winged hussars began to take off their heavy cavalry uniforms, carefully put away their "wings" with few feathers and their sabers, and then picked up their carbines.

When they appeared more than 400 meters in front of the fortress, the Austrians finally noticed the anomaly and began to alarm and sound the alarm.

Yes, because Koschusko carefully kept hidden along the way, no Austrian army ever discovered them. Even the few peasants in the villages who saw them assumed they were troops being transferred from somewhere in the empire to Vienna and paid them no attention—Austria had too many member states, and no one could recognize those messy flags.

The cannons on the fortress began to roar, but the Winged Hussars did not carry any cannons. The foot cavalrymen stood tall in skirmish formation, charging towards the fortress from three directions, braving the whistling cannonballs.

These expensive cavalrymen were soon shot and fell, but this did not hinder their progress in the slightest. When they were thirty or forty paces from the fortress, they began to raise their guns and fire at the enemy troops on the walls.

Others laid hastily found planks in front of the wall and reinforced it with soil. For every meter the makeshift ramp extended, several Polish cavalrymen would be hit by bullets, but someone would immediately come up to continue their work.

The outermost wall of the fortress was designed to defend against cannons, so it wasn't very high. Just over 40 minutes later, a passage appeared in front of the southern wall.

Several cavalrymen, dressed only in gray shirts, immediately shouted "For the motherland!" and strode up the wall.

Bullets immediately came from both sides, knocking down the two soldiers in the front, but the third Polish soldier finally managed to stand on the wall.

He fired a shot at the nearest Austrian, then roared and charged at him.

The Austrian troops were clearly intimidated by this fearless spirit. Despite their numerical superiority, they abandoned their positions and fled towards the second layer of the inner wall.

The battle continued until nightfall, and the space between the first and second layers of the walls of the Olomouc fortress was piled high with corpses, the stone slabs on the walls stained dark red with blood.

Although the Polish cavalry failed to breach the inner wall, they held their ground at the first wall and refused to retreat.

Keep in mind that they didn't bring any siege equipment at all, and they only had carbines with very short range. They fought the enemy entirely with their lives and courage.

The Polish infantry finally arrived at 9 a.m. the next day.

Because the outer walls of the defensive cannons were controlled by the Winged Hussars, the Polish artillery was able to get close and fire, quickly breaching the second and third layers of walls.

Around noon, the flag of the Polish Royal Second Division appeared at the highest point of the fortress.

By this time, the Winged Hussars had suffered more than 600 casualties.

Koschusko held a simple farewell ceremony for the fallen soldiers, and the next day he led his army along the southern slopes of the Sudetenland Mountains toward Ore.

After capturing Olomouc, a crucial pass at the junction of the Sudetenland and Carpathian Mountains, the terrain ahead was almost entirely flat.

After a forced march of 11 days, nearly 50,000 Polish troops finally arrived at the south side of the Nachsze Pass.

This is the only mountain pass in the central Ore Mountains.

The day after they left Olomouc, the 14,000 soldiers of Zawonczyk's army also captured the Neuhøyser fortress after a relatively easy battle.

The Austrians never expected that their eastern hinterland would be suddenly attacked.

Even though officials from Preszow and other places had repeatedly reported to Schönbrunn Palace several days earlier that Polish troops were suspected of invading, Vienna's bureaucratic practices and appalling inefficiency meant that a force of several hundred men was not dispatched to verify the situation until three days prior.

At this point, Zawonchik's army was only 140 kilometers away from the east side of Vienna.

After the Austrian scouts were easily wiped out, the Austrians realized something was wrong.

Franz II hastily ordered his brother Archduke Johan to lead 13,000 Vienna garrison troops to Neuhausel to intercept the Polish army.

(End of this chapter)