When it came to the Habsburg family's allied forces, it wasn't as if they were nothing. Although they had been on a downward trend recently, the residual influence of the Habsburg family was still present. They had also gathered considerable support this time, and the scale of their allied forces was not much smaller than that of the French allied forces.
Especially the allied forces gathered in Luxembourg, their numbers were even slightly greater than those of the French allied forces.
It was precisely because of this that Franz II felt confident enough to rush to the Luxembourg border to meet the deficit lady.
However, Franz II never expected that Napoleon, who did not adhere to martial ethics, would directly lead his troops to sneak attack Luxembourg.
In terms of troop strength, France's forces in the Luxembourg direction were indeed fewer than the Habsburg family's forces.
But in terms of combat effectiveness, the French army's combat effectiveness was indeed slightly stronger than that of the Habsburg allied forces.
Firstly, the French army was equipped with percussion guns imported from Daming. In terms of accuracy, range, and loading speed, they were all superior to the flintlock guns equipped by the Habsburg allied forces.
Secondly, among the French army, there were not only a large number of senior officers who, like Napoleon, studied under the Daming army, but also a large number of junior officers who had experienced training in Daming.
Although the French officers did not learn the essence of the Daming army's unity between officers and soldiers, and between the army and the civilians, they were far superior to the Habsburg allied forces in tactics and military discipline.
Especially under Napoleon's command, there was an elite force fully equipped with Daming military equipment and trained entirely according to the Daming army's training model, known as the "Little Daming Army of Europe."
Therefore, when Napoleon led this army to attack the Habsburg allied forces stationed in Astdorfler that day, the Habsburg allied forces were caught off guard.
"Who can tell me what on earth is going on!"
"Those more than 5,000 French frogs outside the city actually blocked our 20,000 allied forces in the city and are beating us?"
Franz II, who had just returned to Astdorfler that day and was dizzy from the bombardment, was also furious: "Can any of you tell me if there is any other way besides staying in the castle and being bombarded by the French frogs!"
Zweig, the chief minister of Austria's interior, was also bewildered. After pondering for a long time, he bowed and said, "Your Majesty, I believe we cannot simply defend. We must find a way to counterattack."
Franz II grunted and asked, "Then, how should we counterattack?"
Zweig said, "We can send cavalry to charge the French frog artillery positions, and then have the musketeers sally forth from the city to engage the French frog musketeers."
It was obvious that with no other good solutions, the method proposed by Zweig became the only method.
Fred Jellinek was appointed commander-in-chief of the cavalry on the spot by Emperor Franz II of Austria, responsible for leading the cavalry in Astdorfler that day to charge Napoleon's army, and Ernest Gold was also appointed commander-in-chief of the musketeers, responsible for seizing the opportunity to sally forth and engage Napoleon's French musketeers.
However, no one expected that when the drawbridge of Astdorfler castle that day was slowly lowered, Napoleon, who personally led the troops to attack, burst into laughter.
Seeing Napoleon so overjoyed, those around him could not help but ask, "General, why do you laugh?"
Napoleon pointed his whip at the city gate of Astdorfler that day and said with a smile, "I laugh at Franz II's lack of wisdom and Zweig's lack of strategy—if they had held the gates firmly, our army could only have bombarded them with artillery and implemented a scorched-earth policy; besides that, there was truly no other way."
"However, Franz, after all, has no experience in leading troops in battle, and Zweig only knows how to write essays. They actually dared to send cavalry out of the city to fight. Isn't such child's play an act of national ruin?"
After saying that, Napoleon summoned his personal guards and ordered, "Fetch my secret weapon!"
The personal guards took the order and left. After a while, someone from the French rear pushed an object to the front of the artillery position. First, they carefully unpacked the box, then they fixed Napoleon's so-called secret weapon. When the gates of Astdorfler were wide open that day, and the Austrian cavalry led by Fred Jellinek sallied forth, Napoleon's personal guards lit the so-called secret weapon—
The Divine Machine Arrows.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"
As the fuses burned out, sixty-four large skyrocket-like projectiles were hurled towards the Austrian cavalry formation.
As everyone knows, warhorses, after strict training, can charge under artillery fire. However, facing sixty-four large, rust-nailed skyrocket-like projectiles, which they had never seen before, the Austrian warhorses also found it a bit too much.
The consequence of being unable to endure was that the warhorses were startled. Some simply galloped away with their riders, while others simply threw their riders off their backs and then galloped away. And they all perfectly avoided the French artillery positions.
Looking at the scene before him, Napoleon could not help but burst into laughter again: "I said it, the future wars will be wars without cavalry."
However, Bessières, who was accompanying Napoleon, could not help but shake his head and say, "But I must remind you, such a luxurious war, apart from the Daming army, no one else can afford it—just this set of Divine Machine Arrows alone costs two hundred taels of silver. Do you know what that means?"
Napoleon naturally knew what two hundred taels of silver meant.
Two hundred taels of silver, roughly two thousand copper coins, was enough to buy a thousand catties of rice in Daming. Calculating based on one catty of rice per person per day, a thousand catties of rice would be enough for a three-person family to eat for a year.
Or, to put it another way: the annual income of an ordinary three-person family was about twenty to fifty taels of silver. Even at the highest of fifty taels, this set of Divine Machine Arrows was equivalent to cutting off the income of an ordinary three-person family for four years.
And this was calculated based on the income of the people of Daming. If it were calculated for the commoners of France, this set of Divine Machine Arrows was almost equivalent to the income of an ordinary three-person family for seven to eight years.
However, Napoleon did not care: "Don't worry, you should remember what the instructor said—wool always comes from the dog. Every set of Divine Machine Arrows we shoot out now will bring us war reparations of three hundred or even five hundred taels later."
While Napoleon did not begrudge the two hundred taels of silver per set of Divine Machine Arrows, Franz II was heartbroken to the point of suffocation for those five hundred cavalrymen.
That was five hundred cavalrymen!
Although the Habsburg family could afford to lose five hundred cavalrymen, these five hundred cavalrymen did not show any of their due effect, and to be rendered useless in this way was simply too unreasonable!
What made Franz II even more distressed was the three thousand musketeers who had made war preparations.
The cavalry was useless, what about the musketeers?