Tyranny of Steel

Throughout the past few weeks, while the Austrian Expeditionary Force gathered on the coast of Gibraltar, the war in Granada had been waging on. The central defensive line commanded by General Ziyad was crushed at Granada's northern borders, and by now, they had been forced to withdraw to their Capital City.

While this had transpired, General Arnulf and the Granadan Royal Guard had become trapped deep behind enemy lines, struggling to survive as Duke Lorenzo de Benavente ruthlessly pursued them across the plains of Andalusia. After the attempt on his life, he had refused to show mercy to Arnulf and the men beneath his command.

Currently, the city of Granada was enjoying its last few days of peace, as the men, women, and children contained within prayed to their Deity for their very survival. After all, the Crusaders who would soon beset upon them would never show any mercy.

What little remained of the Granadan Royal Army scrambled to form a line of defense to protect their capital city from the ferocity of their enemies. Luckily for them, the Austrian Reinforcements had finally arrived, where they immediately dug themselves into a massive and well-fortified trench line. 25,000 Austrians, standing side by side with 5,000 Granadans patiently waited for the arrival of the main Aragonese Army.

Standing a few miles outside of the city was the primary force of the Aroganese Army, supported by tens of thousands of crusaders from the Order of Santiago and Calatrava. At its head was none other than King Felipe de Trastámara with an army of 50,000 men at his back.

The Aragonese King had personally led this Army to defeat Granada. After all, the Castilians were currently struggling to route out the remnants of the Granadan Royal Guard, and the Portuguese armies were God knows where. Thus, in his eyes, the glory for defeating Granada and completing the Reconquista naturally fell to him. At last, after nearly 700 years, Iberia would once more belong to its native sons.

It was with this in mind that he sneered with disdain upon the supposedly meager fortifications standing between him and total victory. He cared not that the Austrians had arrived insignificant number to halt his advance.

They may have powerful weapons on their side, but Aragon had the power of the Lord God almighty backing them, and thus the foolish King feared not what sorcery Berengar the Accursed had managed to conjure from the depths of hell.

After receiving a scouts report about the nature of the enemy's defenses, Felipe gave his order to his troops, who were sitting back and waiting for the battle to begin.

"Forward march and fear no evil, for God is on our side!"

Tens of thousands of men immediately began their charge, attempting to take the trench line from the Austrian and Granadan forces. Completely unaware that they were walking into a massacre.

The Aragonese were quite confident; recently, they had begun to manufacture their crude version of the arkebuse. It was made of cast iron, and they had utterly failed to standardize its caliber. Still, nevertheless, the Aragonese were now equipped in some small capacity with the weapons the Granadans utilized. It was with this in mind that they recklessly charged towards the enemy, foolishly believing they would not be fired upon until they reached a distance of a hundred feet.

The Knights were the first to enter the fray, as the horses attempted to gallop over the barbed wire; however, overburdened by barding and their riders, it did not take long for the Catholic Cavalry to get stuck within the defenses that the Austrians had made.

It was only after the Catholics reached a range of roughly 600 yards that the echo of the Artillery roared in the air. The screams as the shells twirled out of the barrels of the mighty 1422 Field Guns resounded across the battlefield, like that of a titan escaping from the pits of Tartarus.

The shells landed upon the Army trapped within the field of mud and barbed wire. As they detonated, piles of men were torn into chunks of meat, and others were ripped apart by the white-hot shrapnel. Blood-curdling screams accompanied the sound of gunfire and Artillery to form a symphony of war.

Felipe gazed in horror at the rear of his Army as he witnessed the destruction wrought upon his Army. The very sight of the 75mm High Explosive shells erupting and engulfing his men in fiery blasts was exactly as the Pope had described. Somehow, someway Berengar the Accursed had conjured hellfire upon the battlefield!

The terrified King of Aragon immediately wet his hose as he could no longer contain his bladder; after doing so, he immediately cried out in a shrill voice befitting that of a hysterical woman.

"Retreat! For God's sake, retreat!"

The echo of gunfire and explosions had wholly drowned out his order despite this. Instead, the men within the field were given their conflicting orders by their officers. That being that under no circumstances were they to retreat; if they wanted to survive, they must press forward at all costs.

As the King witnessed his Army being torn to shreds and refusing his orders, he immediately gave up and ordered his House Guard to retreat. Thus the King fled the battlefield as his Army valiantly tried to overcome the technological gap between them and their foes.

Adelbrand, on the other hand, stood upon the city walls beside General Ziyad and the young Sultan Hasan. They watched the massacre unfold from a distance with a pair of binoculars. With a wicked grin on his face, Adelbrand immediately declared to his allies.

"Wonderful, isn't it? The power that His majesty's Army possesses is not limited to what you see here. I am certain that we will be wielding even greater weapons in five years. As for what you see here? It will probably be issued to the reserves. Aren't you glad that his majesty has a soft spot for Saracens such as yourself?"

Hasan could hardly believe his eyes; by now, the Iberians had begun to withdraw, the rapid rate of fire of the needle rifles, combined with the explosive power of the rifled breech-loaders, had indeed, and utterly torn the enemy army to shreds.

Within minutes of the battle beginning, tens of thousands of men lie dead in the fields outside his capital city; as for the remainder of the Aragonese Army, they were either wounded and bleeding out or struggling to retreat from the trap they had marched into.

The young Sultan only had one thought on his mind as he witnessed the sheer level of bloodshed beneath his very eyes.

Whatever it takes, I must marry my sister to King Berengar. Without a marriage to bind our two houses together, this could be the fate of my people one day...

As Hasan was thinking these words, Adelbrand reached into his satchel and pulled out a folder where he instantly handed it to the young Sultan with a stoic gaze. Confused by this action, Hasan immediately inquired about what was inside.

"What is this?"

The Austrian General refused to look the Sultan of Granada in the eye as he continued to gaze upon the carnage on the battlefield below. However, without the slightest hesitation, he revealed a hint of the true nature behind the folder.

"It is a gift from his Majesty King Berengar. While I win your war for you, he wants you to get to work and begin implementing what is inside of this folder."

Hasan looked through the folder briefly and was confused by what he was staring at. Nevertheless, there was sure to be somebody within his realm he could comprehend its contents. He handed it to his General Ziyad and gave him a command.

"Have this folder brought to somebody who understands what is contained within."

Ziyad immediately nodded his head and saluted his Sovereign. After doing so, he gazed upon the battlefield in the trenches below. The Aragonese crusaders were annihilated with it; the echoes of gunfire and artillery had begun to fade.

This day would mark a turning point in the centuries-long Reconquista. The ruthless massacre of the Aragonese Army at the hands of the Austrian First Division would spark out an outcry by the Catholic World, and countless volunteers would soon march from their homes to end the combined threat of the Austro-Granadan Alliance.

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