It was no accident that Henry appeared in West Prussia, but it was also for this reason that the army would not be left without a leader and miss the opportunity to fight. Henry also marched to East Prussia after temporarily integrating an army of 15,000 people from Silesia.
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Just when Henry was marching into East Prussia, Białysk was surrounded by an army led by Morak.
Ferdinand stood on the city wall, looking at the dust kicked up by the horse's hooves not far outside the city. He couldn't help but feel pity in his heart. No one thought that Morak's reaction was so fast, and he didn't even wait for the army in Biavisk to react.
Coming over, Morak's army suddenly appeared around the city. The rangers originally sent out for reconnaissance did not return with any information.
However, this is not to blame for the weak rangers in the Prussian army. Ferdinand's army only had more than a hundred rangers in total, and they faced thousands of Cossacks. These Cossacks had been on horseback since they were young.
Go like the wind, maybe other than the cavalry of the royal guard, no other cavalry can deal with these Cossacks.
The Cossacks wandered outside the range of the city's guns and constantly provoked the defenders on the city wall. However, under Ferdinand's strict orders, although the soldiers' eyes were reddened by the stimulation of the Cossacks, they still did not act rashly.
Ferdinand felt his scalp numb while watching the mobilization of Morak's army outside the city. He saw that Morak's army was carrying a large number of civilians.
Ferdinand did not understand Morak's intention to coerce these civilians. After all, such wars had occurred many times in Western history. Ferdinand did not expect Morak to be so frantic.
Can Morak not lose his mind? Now he must destroy the Prussian army in Biavisk as soon as possible, so that he can have enough energy to deal with the upcoming larger-scale crusade.
This leads to a premise, that is, one cannot lose too much strength. Originally, Ferdinand had nearly 5,000 regular troops in his hands plus the strength of four battalions in the city of Białysk.
There are at least more than 7,000 regular troops, plus some militiamen who can be temporarily armed, which means that the city's defensive force is nearly 10,000.
With more than 9,000 troops and 4,000 Cossack mercenaries under his command, if it is a field battle, he has 4,000 Cossack cavalry at hand. Basically, there should be no pressure. However, once the city is attacked, I am afraid that these forces alone may not be enough.
If Białysk is not captured, one's own army will have to pay for it.
Therefore, Morak decided to coerce ordinary people to attack the city. The advantage of this was to minimize his losses. Of course, Morak could not know whether these ordinary people would die.
On the second day, Morak ordered the artillery among the rebels to bombard the city wall of Białysk. In an instant, nearly a hundred artillery pieces of various sizes began to fire. The huge roar made everyone on the battlefield cover their ears.
When Ferdinand on the city wall saw the rebel artillery firing, he immediately ordered the artillery in the army to counterattack. One shell after another was pushed into the barrel by the artillerymen, and the artillery on the city wall also began to roar.
The artillery made the entire battlefield feel like an earthquake. From time to time, artillery shells hit the city wall and made big holes. Fortunately, as soon as the army entered the city, Ferdinand ordered everyone to repair the city wall. Otherwise, it would have been so strong.
Under the attack, the city wall really couldn't stand it.
But even the repaired city wall still collapsed some time after the bombardment. After Morak saw a part of the city wall collapse, he rode on his horse and waved his saber forward fiercely, only to see the original rebels.
The ordinary people in the military camp were driven toward the city of Białysk by the Cossack cavalry like sheep. Seeing this, Ferdinand was shocked.
Not only Ferdinand, but after Aziz saw that the rebels were actually holding the people hostage, the Prussian troops on the city wall also stopped shelling. The artillerymen looked at each other. They didn't know whether they should continue firing now.
Just when Ferdinand was stunned, a general beside him quickly asked:
"Your Highness, it seems that the rebels are going to use ordinary people as the vanguard. Should we continue the bombardment?"
After listening to the general's words, Ferdinand's face turned blue and white. He had never thought about this problem. What should he do? Should he just let the rebels advance like this and not do something?
Thinking of this, Ferdinand gritted his teeth, stared at the generals behind him with a pair of blood-red eyes and shouted:
"Order the artillery to continue firing and ignore those people."
But Ferdinand's words did not make the generals behind him move. After they looked at each other helplessly, a voice came to Ferdinand's ears:
"Your Highness, these people are innocent. Besides, if His Majesty the King pursues the case in the future, we,,,, why don't we send troops out of the city to rescue those people?"
This sentence completely angered Ferdinand, who yelled:
"You idiot, I know those people are innocent, but now their actions are helping those rebels, and do you think the Cossacks lurking among those people will watch us rescue those people, or do we want to
Are you willing to give the city to the rebels? Give me my order now. The artillery must fire with all their strength. If His Majesty the King pursues the case in the future, I will bear the responsibility alone."
After Ferdinand yelled, a general immediately raised his command flag and waved it down fiercely. Under the command of the command flag, the artillery on the top of the city continued the bombardment.
Seeing this situation, Morak was not only not depressed, but also burst out laughing. Morak said to his left and right:
"This Ferdinand is such an interesting person. Having such an opponent is one of the joys of life."
Just after the Prussian artillery on the city wall opened fire, the team composed of ordinary people turned into a hell of Shura. Some people were so scared to turn around and leave after seeing such a tragic scene, but they forgot that the Cossacks behind the team were not vegetarians.
To deal with those who dared to escape, the Cossacks would often kill them with a single slash.
Under the Cossack's butcher's knife, people continued to move forward cautiously, but soon as the casualties increased, these people would rather turn back and die under the Cossack's saber than continue to move forward and be reduced to ashes by cannonballs.
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Seeing that the forwards were unable to do anything, Morak nodded and ordered the forwards to withdraw, and that was the end of the day.
Seeing the rebels retreating, none of the people who should have been happy showed joyful expressions on their faces. Looking at the bitter expressions on everyone's faces, Ferdinand was not the same.
Who knows how many times the rebels will continue to behave like this. Although such behavior is meaningless to the rebels, it is a psychological crime for the Prussian army.
Those ordinary people who should have been protected by the kingdom's army are now not only unprotected, but are being harvested by the kingdom's army. This is no longer a war, this is a massacre, and it is a massacre of its own civilians.
It has to be said that Morak's move was very clever. Driving ordinary people to attack the city not only psychologically damaged the morale of the counter-rebellion army, but also increased the consumption of artillery shells in Ferdinand's army.
You must know that even if the shelling lasted only half a day, it consumed a quarter of the counter-rebellion army's artillery reserves, and the rebels had sufficient ammunition for the time being due to Russian support.
And because most soldiers are unwilling to massacre these people, the accuracy rate is extremely low when the organization fires.
Therefore, no matter what order Ferdinand gave, it would be beneficial to Morak.
PS: This situation is not very good after the new year. There will always be omissions like this. Thank you to some book friends for their kind reminders. I will definitely correct them in time next time. In addition, thank you all for your continued support. Finally, I would like to shamelessly ask everyone for some collections and advice.