Chapter 167: 166: The Way is Blocked

Rain poured down upon the mountainous borders of Tyrol and Bavaria. At the moment, an army of Bavarians was on the march. At the head of the military was a Count who was quite upset about his current task. For the most part, he and the men of his army were proud members of the German Reformation, and Duke Dietger had tasked them to invade the heartland of their movement. Not only was Tyrol an important place in the hearts of German Reformists, but it also housed two of their leaders; that being Berengar and Ludolf. As such, very few men in the army were eager to fulfill this task. 

On more than one occasion, this Count by the name of Siegmund had considered outright insubordination. Yet, here he was at the borders between his homeland, and the capital of the reformation, debating whether or not he should go through with his orders. However, the closer his troops approached Tyrol, the more they were able to notice that a fortress was constructed in the area, one whose design was unlike anything Siegmund had ever seen before. It was in the shape of a star and flew the coat of arms of House von Kufstein. It was a fortress constructed by Berengar to protect the routes into his lands. 

Siegmund decided to halt his advance when faced with such a mighty fortress, which was visibly defended by relatively massive cannons and hundreds of men armed with what he perceived to be hand cannons. He was no fool, and he could tell by the design of the fortress that if he were to attempt to take it over, it would be a long and bloody battle. Not only were his men vulnerable to fire from all directions, but there were no blind spots to take advantage of. If rumors were to be believed, the hand cannons in which the defenders were equipped were devastating weapons. 

When faced with such a challenge, Siegmund only had three options; first and foremost, he could withdraw from the region and find another route into Tyrol, one he hoped would not be as heavily defended. The second option was for him to disregard his losses and attack the fortress in an attempt to force his way into Tyrol. His third and final option was to give up on the idea of attacking the region, and set up camp on the edge of the border, and act like he was doing something, hoping that his liege would not realize he had sat still and done nothing. After all, neither he nor his men were too keen on the idea of attacking Tyrol.

Count Siegmund von Augsburg took a few moments to contemplate his options when one of his commanders approached him. 

"Your excellency, the path forward is blocked by the strange fortress; I fear as if it will be a difficult task to invade Tyrol."

Count Siegmund immediately felt a headache looking at the situation before him. If he did not advance into Tyrol, he would be labeled an oath breaker, and after the war was over, Duke Dietger would surely come for him and potentially his family. As such, he mustered his courage and ordered the Army to advance on the fortress.

"Prepare to lay siege to the fortress! We have our orders!"

While giving out the command to his army, Siegmund told himself in the back of his mind.

'May God have mercy on my soul.'

As such, a siege camp was prepared, and within a few hours of preparations, the Bavarian army began to attack the Star Fortress. Men at arms rushed towards the fortress curtains, hoping that the solid portion of the wall would provide a steady platform to raise their ladders. However, the moment they came within engagement distance, the several hundred soldiers of Berengar's army who were garrisoned at the fort unleashed the 24 lb siege cannons onto the invaders. The explosive shells tore the besiegers asunder long before they made it to the wall section, which was their goal. 

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Limbs were hewn from the victims of the blast, and blood splattered across the grassy mountain pass. Yet this did not stop the dozens of cannons mounted on the fortress walls from firing in the direction of the invaders. The thundering echoes of the guns filled the air alongside the blood-curdling screams of the invaders. Though the defenders only numbered in the hundreds, the fortress was so well designed that even with their 1417 Land Pattern Smoothbore muskets, they were capable of causing massive devastation to the enemy forces. 

By the time the third volley of cannon fire went off, the besiegers had fled back to their siege camp, which was unbeknownst to them well within the range of the mighty 24 lb cannons. However, the defenders did not attack the encampment. Instead, they halted their fire and allowed the enemy to retreat. The goal was not to annihilate the enemy force as quickly as possible; if they did such a thing, Duke Dietger would take one of two actions, he would either abandon Tyrol altogether until he had successfully taken all of Austria excluding Tyrol, or he would send a massive invasion far more significant than the current force in retaliation. Neither of which was appealing to Berengar; as such, the young Count of Tyrol had tasked his defenders to wage a war of attrition. 

If Berengar's forces could keep these tens of thousands of men bogged down outside their borders indefinitely, Duke Dietger would surely continue to send reinforcements and supplies to ensure the offensive against Tyrol continued. This would significantly weaken their attack on the remainder of Austria and divide his armies, allowing the Austrian lords a decent chance to fight back. However, Count Siegmund had no way of knowing Berengar's plans and was simply in awe of the weapons that his opponents fielded. Thus he stood with his mouth agape after watching his army collapse so quickly against the mighty star fortress. The man was so shocked by the disastrous result of the brief engagement that he accidentally voiced his thoughts aloud for all the nearby men to hear.

"God is on their side, for how can man build such destructive weapons without divine intervention?"

These words weakened the already low morale of the troops, many of which were Reformists, and had no desire to attack the heartland of their religion. After saying these words, one of the commanders under Siegmund voiced his concerns.

"If God is on their side, then how do we fulfill our orders?"

It was only at this moment that Siegmund realized he had spoken his thoughts aloud, and as such, quickly came up with a scheme to avoid further conflict while making it seem like he was actively participating in an attempt to seize Tyrol. 

"Write to Duke Dietgar, tell him the Northwest passages into Tyrol are blocked by mighty fortresses, and we need reinforcements if we are to achieve our objective. He will either send us aid, which will give us a period of reprieve, or he will ignore our pleas, and we will have our justification to sit back and do nothing."

Hearing their liege's orders, the commanders all agreed that it was the best course of action and immediately set to task. As for the defenders in the fortress, not a single man was wounded in the conflict, and as such, they were sitting back and relaxing; after all, they had access to plenty of supplies and relieving forces. Theoretically, they could stay and guard the Northwest borders of Tyrol indefinitely. While the besiegers lived in an exposed and muddy siege camp, the defenders stayed in fine barracks to shelter them from the elements, which allowed them a sense of comfort as they guarded the borders of Tyrol. 

The stalemate at the Tyrolean border had just begun, and this star fortress was not the only one facing a similar situation, to the Northeast near the edges of Kitzbühel, the defenders were also facing a similar problem, after all the attempted invasion into Tyrol was a two-prong offensive designed to encapsulate the region swiftly. However, in its initial advancement, it had been completely halted. When Duke Dietger finally found out that his troops could not penetrate Tyrolean territory, he would be shocked that his strategy had failed so miserably. However, the sunk cost fallacy was a severe issue of the human psyche, and the old Duke would surely continue to send aid towards the besiegers of Tyrol at his own army's expense. 

As for the rest of the invasion of Austria, aside from Vorarlberg, the remainder of the Austrian counties were not as lucky as Tyrol to have its natural defensive Barriers, and as such, would fare far worse in the ongoing invasion. As the war progressed, Tyrol would become the symbol of Austrian resistance against Bavarian occupation, and Berengar would gain recognition as the leader of said resistance. As for now, the Bavarian invasion had just begun, and as such, no County had yet fallen to the enemy. While the attempts to invade Tyrol had been halted in their initial advance, Berengar was sleeping peacefully in the arms of his lover.

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