Lieutenant Colonel Gregor truly couldn't figure out the enemy's intention.

One of the older officers wondered, "Does the enemy want to consume our ammunition? Maybe they're unaware that this fortress doesn't lack weapons or ammunition…"

A young officer hesitantly stated, "Sir, is it possible that this is a conspiracy of the enemy? Could it be that they want to lure us out, and then ambush us and seize the fort?"

"Nonsense! Our enemies are clearly a group of recruits. Did you not notice the lack of discipline and formations amongst them when they attacked and escaped?"

Lieutenant Colonel Gregor finally made such a judgment. If it wasn't for his lacking numbers, he really would've ordered his men to meet the recruits in the open field since such opportunities were rare.

Another young officer with a broad nose and slightly thin eyes smiled and suggested, "Lieutenant Colonel, it seems that the enemy has abandoned a lot of weapons. We should send some men to pick them up. Maybe, we can sell them on the black market!"

Lieutenant Colonel Gregor fiercely admonished him, "Ambrose, sometimes I really want to split your head and see why it's filled with so many idiotic ideas!

All you think about is getting rich! Do you think our enemy is a fool?! Why don't you go out and try to see whether the enemy will kill you or not?!

Our task is to keep this fortress safe! What's the use of some guns if we fail to hold our ground?!"

In fact, the young officer named Ambrose was not entirely to be blamed. In this era, the budget of military forces in most countries was spent on arms, ammunition and training, which left little pay for the soldiers. The main source of income for soldiers was through robbing and pillaging on the battlefield.

However, since this war was being fought inside the Austrian Empire, it was impossible for the Austrian soldiers to commit robbery. This meant that seizure and sale of the arms and ammunition of the enemy was their only source of income. Of course, to give them peace of mind, Franz had promised to reward land to the meritorious soldiers and officers.

In the past, the only way to obtain land was to become a noble. Unfortunately, this was really too high of a hurdle. Except for a few lucky and talented people, it wasn't possible for most people. First, the title of a noble was extremely valuable mainly due to its rarity. More importantly, nobles, even knights, had to be bequeathed thousands of acres of land as their fief. There simply was not enough land to enfeoff more than a few people at a time.

(1 ha ≈ 2.5 acres = 15 city acres)

Therefore, Franz made some changes to the system. Specifically, he made it so that ordinary soldiers could also obtain land as reward for military merit. However, there was no longer an attached title of nobility, nor were there any noble privileges. In essence, the new system was equivalent to the government using land to pay salaries and rewards to the military personnel.

Since they wouldn't be ennobled, the threshold of entry was significantly lowered, and it became much easier for ordinary soldiers to obtain land. Basically, as long as one entered the battlefield and fought a battle, they would be rewarded with a few acres of land. Soldiers that successfully performed important tasks would be awarded with up to ten acres of land.

In addition, in order to limit land mergers, Austrian land redemption laws provided that the area of land redeemed (purchased) per capita could not exceed 20 hectares i.e. 50 acres. However, the land awarded to soldiers as merit was not included in the calculation which was an hidden benefit for the military personnel.

Ambrose wryly smiled and replied, "Uncle Gregor, you know that I am my father's second son, so I won't be able to inherit the title or the land. I have no other choice than to employ less than glorious methods."

Lieutenant Colonel Gregor retorted, "Damn boy, then why don't you want to work hard and earn a title for yourself? Even if you only manage to become an honorary knight, your father would be more proud of you than if you earned even 100,000 gulden."

In this era, the senior officers of the armies in Europe were essentially children of the aristocracy, especially the second sons who would not inherit the title. In fact, the colonial movements in most European countries were spearheaded by these second sons who were anxious to obtain land and titles and become nobles.

Ambrose shook his head and replied, "Uncle Gregor, I also want to obtain a title, but, with my skills, it is unlikely that I will ever obtain one."

Then, his eyes sparkled and he excitedly stated, "Uncle Gregor, how about we launch a night raid against the enemy. If we succeed, we could deal the enemy a major blow and obtain their weapons!"

Lieutenant Colonel Gregor rubbed his forehead and gave up his plan to mend the thoughts of Ambrose, his elder sister's son. Even if they wanted to launch a night raid, they needed to consider the actual situation. Although the enemy was nothing more than a ragtag bunch, they still vastly outnumbered his men. According to the intelligence, the enemy had close to ten thousand men while he only had two battalions, not even one-fifth of the enemy's numbers. Meeting them on the field with such a wide disparity in numbers would be nothing short of suicide.

* * * * * * * * * *

Sardinian army barracks

Colonel Scilla ordered the flogging of all the cowards that escaped from the battlefield today, and even executed a few of them according to the military law so as to deter the rest.

In the afternoon, fighting began once again. Perhaps it was due to the fierce punishment meted out to the cowards or perhaps it was due to the bravery and discipline of the veteran soldiers, the fighting in the afternoon was much fiercer than the one in the morning.

Picking up his telescope, seeing the flesh and blood flying, and the soldiers rushing to the enemy's position, Colonel Scilla nodded with satisfaction. This is what war should look like, not the farce that took place in the morning. Unfortunately, he was unaware of a strange conversation that was taking place in the middle of the battlefield.

The corpse of soldier was lying on the battlefield. Suddenly, the "corpse" moved and turned its head to a nearby corpse. Then, the "corpse" opened its eyes and spoke to the nearby corpse, "Matteo, the knowledge in the Battlefield Survival Manual is really useful! Those Sardinian bastards usually look down on us, but now they're rushing to their deaths like idiots. How funny!!"

Surprisingly, the other corpse replied, "Of course, Mr. Guardini spent a lot of money to purchase this manual from an old mercenary in order to reduce our casualties on the battlefield."

He then slightly turned to his friend and cautioned, "Nicolò, be careful not to let the Sardinians find out about this manual. If they also learn of its contents, they'll force us to act as the vanguard against the Austrians."

The young man named Nicolò clenched his fist and said with a smirk on his face, "Yes, let the Sardinian and Austrian dogs bite each other to death. Then, we will finally have peace in Lombardy!"

Unbeknownst to the two men, the Battlefield Survival Manual that they so praised was not written by some old mercenary, but was prepared by Franz to deal a blow to the Kingdom of Sardinia. This manual was the fruit of his research on the history of the Italian Wars of the 16th century, so he didn't hesitate to spread it within the Sardinian army. Anyway, these tactics were created by the Italians.

This manual was a compilation of 36 articles, which were known as the "36 life-saving tactics," all of which were accompanied by explanations in the most plain and easy-to-understand words. For example, when starting an assault, one should look for favorable terrain on the battlefield and pretend to be dead. The choice of this terrain was very important as it needed to be able to block the enemy's stray bullets, and needed to be comfortable enough that one could lay there for many hours.

Another tactic was that, when defending a fortress, one shouldn't try to aim and shoot at the enemies. Instead, it was best to just thrust the rifles out and pull the trigger. After all, even if one aimed, the probability of one being able to hit the enemy was extremely low, so there was no reason for one to literally stick their neck our and risk their life by becoming an easy target for the enemy's gunmen. Finally, the manual included a fifteen-word golden rule: if you can win, fight; if you can't win, run; if you can't run, surrender.

-TO BE CONTINUED-