The following day, Tresen River still resembled a bloody slaughterhouse.
Archduke Karl had dispatched his most elite Royal Moravia Corps, only barely managing to set foot on the eastern bank.
Yet, before they could establish a beachhead, the newly erected pontoon bridge was destroyed by the precise shooting of the French Artillery, and dense cannon fire instantly engulfed these thousands of soldiers.
By twilight, the dock at St. Palten was choked with countless corpses of the Austrian Army, while the city was perated with the nauseating stench of blood.
On the third day of the battle, both banks of Tresen River fell into an eerie silence.
In the previous attacks that seed to court death, the casualties of the Austrian Army approached one third.
Verossi had been busy until after ten o’clock, barely managing to muster enough troops from the still relatively intact units to launch an attack.
However, what Archduke Karl hadn’t anticipated was that the French people appeared to have exhausted their ammunition during the fierce battles of the previous two days, with only a few cannons sporadically firing now.
This glimr of hope made him unhesitant to commit all reserves to the battlefield.
Baron Vernick’s legion was the first to secure a foothold on the eastern bank, and with a very brave charge, pushed the French Army’s line back two or three kiloters.
Subsequently, Bajahaza Corps, Brannovatsky Corps, and Count Coburg’s Cavalry Corps successfully crossed this damned river.
Vienna was right in front, just a normal march would reach it in two days.
The entire Austrian Army felt hope budding within them anew...
On high ground several kiloters east, covered by dense forests, Surt reviewed the report sent via hot air balloon and handed it to Lannes beside him: "Most of the enemy has entered the expected position. I’ll leave the next steps to you."
"Yes, General." The latter responded excitedly in a firm voice, turned, mounted his warhorse, and galloped to the front line.
Indeed, Surt purposely ordered the French defense line to retreat to increase efficiency.
As a series of orders were transmitted to various corps by Sharp Signal Car, the whole French-Polish Allied Army quickly mobilized.
Mula commanded three French Cavalry units to first launch the attack from the downstream direction of Heizogen Castle.
When thousands of Chest Armor Cavalry thundered into the recently river-crossing Austrian infantry, the latter’s freshly amassed morale instantly collapsed.
With almost no effective counterattack, four to five thousand Austrian Army soldiers, like rabbits chased by hounds, turned around in panic and surged into the still forming lines of the Brannovatsky Corps.
Archduke Karl was just on the opposite bank observing this scene through binoculars when an uneasy thought suddenly flashed in his mind.
He shook his head vigorously and shouted to the Order Officer beside him: "Speed up the river crossing! Let the Hussars go first!"
Twenty minutes later, Count Coburg was maneuvering the Austrian Hussars with Mula, while Wandam and Rush’s two corps launched a raid along the river from the Austrian Army’s flanks.
Previously, the "exhausted ammunition" French Artillery seemingly found an ammo box, beginning a torrential bombardnt against the Austrian Army gathering on the eastern bank.
Lannes personally led 50,000 soldiers advancing rapidly across the over ten-kiloter-wide main battlefield.
Yet before his scattered soldier cluster engaged the enemy, most of the Austrian Army infantry lines had already fallen into collapse.
The Austrian Army’s pontoon bridge was overcrowded, with cries for help from those falling into the water heard at any mont. Moreover, more Austrian soldiers were continually being driven back by the French scattered soldier cluster, ultimately forced to turn and leap into the river.
On the west bank of Tresen River, Archduke Karl’s face was ghastly pale.
In truth, given his military talent, he might have realized earlier that it was the French Army’s trap, but subconsciously he tried hard to ignore this possibility, only to gamble on that sliver of chance.
He turned his head with difficulty and instructed the Order Officer: "Contact Vienna... Have His Majesty reinforce the defenses."
Just then, gunfire suddenly erupted from the southwest direction.
He raised his binoculars and saw a cavalry troop clad in red military uniform, swiftly sweeping past his rear encampnt like flas.
That was the Polish Army deployed by Surt upstream on the west bank of Tresen River.
Their mission was to prevent the Austrian Army from retreating to lk.
General Vilcek tightly gripped his cavalry lance, positioning the lance butt outside his boot holster, and coldly stared at the Austrian infantry ahead, leading more than 3,000 Winged Cavalry charging forward.
He had been suppressing his urge for revenge for too long, just for this day.
The hastily cobbled together Austrian defense line started flickering with fire, and Vilcek skillfully bent down, trying to hide behind the saddle.
But he quickly frowned and raised his head.
The shooting rhythm of these Austrians was clearly off, chaotic like the cawing of crows back ho.
He glanced sideways at the soldiers beside him, finding almost none hit.
A cold smile curled on his lips, and he waved, shouting: "Advance at a fast pace—"
"Steady your guns—"
"Charge—"
The red tide, accompanied by the "whirring" sounds of the cavalryn’s wings, darted past the Austrian line, and the 2.7-ter-long cavalry lances occasionally pierced the forward-positioned infantry.
When circling around to regroup, Vilcek saw multiple gaps appearing in the Austrian defense line.
He hadn’t expected the Austrian Army to be so easily routed, leading imdiately with the freshly regrouped thousands of Winged Cavalry charging toward the nearest gap.
When Archduke Karl learned that his rear army had been defeated by a cavalry force within less than 40 minutes, he was also utterly shocked.
Verossi, beside him, asked the courier: "Where did the enemy break through?"
"The defense zone of the Royal Third Infantry Division, General."
"Dammit!" Archduke Karl angrily smacked a chair over with his cane.
This corps was previously equipped with the Empire’s elite "Wind Gun," but after three months of warfare, those much-anticipated advanced weapons began to widely malfunction, never achieving a maintenance rate above 50%
Additionally, soldiers discovered that this gun, despite its extrely fast firing rate, couldn’t penetrate the French bullet-proof inserts at a range of 20 paces.
Thus, the Austrian Army General Staff urgently dispatched a batch of Flintlock Guns to replace all the Wind Guns.
Consequently, the soldiers accustod to using Wind Guns struggled to adapt, severely reducing combat effectiveness.
Earlier, the Polish Winged Cavalry happened to launch attacks from the positions of these gun-changing corps, leading to the rare situation of cavalry breaking through the infantry line head-on.
By the ti Boguslawski led Polish infantry to arrive, they saw only the enemy’s corpses strewn all over, with no Austrian defense line in sight.
Of course, the Winged Cavalry who were supposed to provide cover had already vanished.
As chaos engulfed the Austrian Army’s rear command center, the eastern bank’s Austrian soldiers began surrendering en masse.
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