Throughout October, life became increasingly difficult for the Ottoman army.

The Austrian fleet took the lead on the Danube and severely damaged the Ottoman transport fleet. The Ottomans quickly gathered several large ships to organize an armed fleet.

However, this kind of temporary fleet was really vulnerable to the Austrian river fleet. After several battles, it was unable to protect its own supply lines, and it was quickly wiped out.

The Austrian army had the tactical initiative and was able to launch attacks on days when the weather and wind direction were favorable, which expanded the already very disparate balance of power.

The Austrian river fleet successively launched several attacks downstream. Although each time it did not depart from Esztergom's one-day trip, and each time it started returning before noon, the results were only a few transport ships, but it caused a great deal of damage to the Ottoman army.

The mental pressure is extremely high.

How could the army be without food? On the one hand, Suleiman exerted great pressure on his own bureaucracy, and all the provinces along the way recruited civilians to join the food transport team.

On the other hand, the Ottoman army began to disperse. More than 10,000 people headed west to threaten Sekkesfehérvér, and they could feed the enemy along the way.

More than 10,000 troops went south to strengthen various strongholds, and at the same time raised food on their own to reduce some supply pressure.

More than 10,000 people crossed the Danube from a ferry that was out of reach of the Austrian fleet, joined forces on the east bank of the Danube, controlled several strongholds on the east bank, and then raised food and fodder on their own.

The Austrian side quickly noticed this continuous and high-profile division of troops.

"The enemies to the west not only threaten Sekeshfehérvér, some Ghazi rangers from the Anatolian Plateau have even approached the old border. They burn, kill, loot and commit all kinds of evil," Jones said of the "old border."

Naturally, it is the original dividing line between Austria and Hungary.

Ladislaus sent bureaucrats to various Hungarian cities through Vienna, indicating that he had no intention of establishing a monarchy, but a centralized state. The Austrians who understood and supported his intention naturally weakened the existence of the Kingdom of Hungary intentionally or unintentionally.

Feelings, I try to avoid even mentioning these words.

"This kind of Ghazi Rangers are like bandits who have been recruited. In fact, most of them are bandits who have been recruited. It is best if they can harass us. Even if we kill them all, His Majesty Suleiman will be happy."

Zberg was quite angry at this kind of Ottoman tactics. Although he also knew that fighting means using all means, this kind of method that specifically targeted non-combatants was always obscene.

Therefore, his statement about the Ghazi Rangers was a bit biased. There were indeed many bandits among these horsemen, but there were also many devout Star and Moon believers who were willing to fight on the front line purely out of their belief in Allah.

This kind of cavalry can even be said to be one of the origins of the Ottoman Empire. Although it has now withdrawn from the position of the first-class main force, it is by no means comparable to those Turkish bandits who are satisfied with eating large pieces of meat.

"Ghazi" corresponds to "Crusader" in the church of Cyric.

This kind of irregular force has limited power in a dignified formation. It is their duty to harass the enemy.

In fact, the Austrian intelligence service did not notice that some auxiliary cavalry from the Arabian Peninsula were also sent to the west. These Bedouins were also very suitable for this kind of work.

"The enemy has divided his forces several times, and his strength has dropped to 60,000 to 65,000. We have recently gathered a lot of Hungarian cavalry. The total strength is close to 50,000. We are indeed ready for a battle." Sazhastan did not think so at all.

He cares about other things. He points to the key points as soon as he opens his mouth.

All eyes were on Ladislaus, whose authority increased greatly after the victory of the river fleet.

The existence of this fleet has been greatly questioned from the beginning because it drained the limited reconstruction resources of the Austrian Navy. It is unwise to invest so many resources in the ditch.

Unexpectedly, it was such an arrangement that completely eliminated 80% of the Ottoman Empire's military advantage.

With this current strength comparison, even if he initiates a decisive battle and loses, he will not be evaluated as a "fool" like Louis II.

However, a defeat is a defeat, and the comfort of losing is honorable or that manpower is sometimes scarce is meaningless to Ladislaus.

The situation is still unfavorable for Austria. Frunzberg objected: "The enemy has divided his forces but has not moved north. Does he want us to attack Buda? Let's just confront each other like this and let them attack Esztergom. I think

Even if they come, we should not fight, but should continue to retreat westward to Bratislava, shorten our supply lines, tighten their supply lines to the extreme, and then fight decisively in Slovakia."

The retreat that Frunzberg is talking about now is different from the retreat that everyone said a few days ago. At that time, they expected the Ottomans to be full for the time being and not continue to advance westward. But now, regardless of whether the Ottomans come or not, the Austrian River Fleet

They would harass his supply line at any time, putting him in a dilemma.

"General Jevich, will it be okay for your river fleet to hold on?" Frundsberg asked Jevich politely.

Face is all earned by oneself. Although he still cannot enter the State Council, Yevich now has a seat in the Military Council.

"As long as Bratislava can prepare a military port quickly, there will be no problem. In fact, we have a more comprehensive grasp of the hydrological environment there." He had no objection to retreating. The closer he got to Vienna's river fleet, the more comfortable he became.

"Now is the time of the autumn harvest. No matter how difficult it is to supply the Ottomans, they can barely support it. Do you think Machiavelli and Hohenzollern's work is easy?" Sazastan did not agree to continue delaying.

Although the two people in charge of logistics were both his political opponents, he was not going to laugh at this moment. As a former Prime Minister of Spain, he was very clear about the burden that such an excessive army would place on the country.

Machiavelli must have been begging grandpa and grandma everywhere to borrow money now. Hohenzollern would probably vomit blood immediately when he heard that he would work overtime day and night to build a military port.

"Don't say that the enemy is chasing us. If the enemy is still unwilling to go north by the end of autumn, we will go south to meet the enemy."

"No matter what, it's better to stick to it. It's too risky to go south."

Frunzberg and Sazastam argued about the bottom line again.

"Okay, you two." Ladislaus raised his hand to interrupt their argument. "Suleiman probably won't take the initiative to go north. Even if he comes, we can detect it in advance by controlling the water channel. It's better to discuss the war.

It’s retreat, but we won’t fight for the time being.”

............................

Since Ladislaus still refused to fight, both sides could only continue to suffer. In comparison, Osman's life was more difficult.

Although Ottoman's national power is strong, how to transport it here is really a big problem.

In fact, compared to Machiavelli's troubles, theirs was a big trouble.

No matter how hard we try, the transportation capacity on land is limited. The roads can only carry so many horse-drawn carriages, but any more will lead to devastating jams and chaos.

For them, supply through the Danube River was still a top priority. The Ottoman bureaucrats in Serbia and Bulgaria racked their brains to collect ships and gather them in Belgrade. Then, they tried their best to use the night and the protection of their own troops to withstand the Austrian attack.

Supplies are sent to Buda.

Although the Austrian army was always careful not to attack the strongholds in the coastal villages that provided rest and shelter for the transport fleet, the Ottomans reinforced their defenses and drove away all the Hungarians near several important docks.

The fortified military strongholds are good for defense and can also prevent the Hungarians from supporting the Austrian army, which is more culturally similar.

Although the Ottomans were very tolerant of non-combatants in Hungary some time ago, and even the Sirik church was not specifically destroyed. As long as you paid the poll tax, you did not have to convert to the Star and Moon Demon, nor did it do anything to privately owned land and property.

Robbery.

This attitude allowed the area they occupied to be relatively peaceful in the past period.

It is difficult to leave their homeland. Hungarians who are half-farmers and half-grazers need a lot of land to survive. How can they easily leave the land that raises their families?

The Ottoman Empire also wanted to digest it slowly and first gain economic strength through additional poll taxes. Anyway, in a short period of time, the property of the so-called true theological church was enough to reward officers and soldiers and alleviate domestic conflicts.

Without their financial privileges, neither Sirik's nor Bane's churches could survive.

As time goes by, it will naturally be difficult for the local people to sacrifice for their faith for a long time, and there will be endless attempts to join the Xingyue Church.

At that time, it is just a matter of discretion. The conquerors will not give the conquered the same treatment at any time. The idea that we are all brothers under Allah and that Turkey and Hungary are one family is all nonsense.

But generally speaking, the Ottomans' methods were very deceptive.

However, under the pressure of the Austrian fleet, these conquerors were forced to show their fangs in advance.

Their ruthless driving and "raising their own food" certainly aroused resistance. The Hungarians with their large numbers of horses were not easy to deal with on the vast plains.
Chapter completed!