Chapter 396: Austrians Arrive in Granada (1/2)

A few days had passed, and the first of Berengar's armed forces had stepped foot upon the soil of the Iberian Peninsula. In southern Granada, Thousands of Austrian Soldiers gathered together with their arms and artillery as they prepared to advance north.

However, until the remainder of the division could arrive; a temporary city devised of tents was set up on the edge of the region for the time being. This city of tents was used to house the thousands of soldiers waiting for the rest of their division and supplies to arrive. A General who had earned his spot in Berengar's good graces was currently leading the First Divison.

With his swift victory over the Swiss, Adelbrand von Salzburg was sent as the leader of the First Division until he regrouped with Arnulf and the forces of the Royal Granadan Army. At that point, Arnulf would seize command of all Coalition Forces in Granada by decree of King Berengar von Kufstein.

For some time now, the Reconquista had become a proxy war that Berengar used to divide the forces of the Catholic Church and force his enemies to spend time, bodies, and resources on a fight they simply could not win. Unfortunately, the Granadan Army proved less competent than he had initially estimated. They forced him to enter the war years in advance of what he had planned.

Berengar himself was in the process of leading the Kingdom of Austria into a new era of Industrialization. He could ill afford to march an army to war at the moment. Instead, he had begrudgingly dispatched a portion of his Army to his ally's territory under the supervision of one of his top Generals, who was loosely related to him.

Adelbrand was a young and ambitious Duke who was always a skilled warrior with a mind for tactics. Despite his age, he had gained an advantageous position in the Austrian Royal Army and proven himself on the battlefield by leading a campaign against the Swiss, which ultimately resulted in their annexation.

He was the young brother of the incompetent dullard Wolfgang von Salzburg, the husband of Ava von Graz, Berengar's cousin and Adela's sister. The man had distant ties to Berengar from a familial aspect, and thus the young monarch was more inclined to trust him.

Adelbrand, of course, was fiercely loyal to Berengar and his regime, seeing the meritocratic approach to succession and military matters to be an enormous improvement over the medieval primogeniture system. After all, if Berengar had not risen to power, he would still be kneeling beneath his idiot of an elder brother, that is, if he was still alive.

While Salzburg was being burned to the ground under Bavarian occupation, Adelbrand took up the mantle to defend his home, despite it being a lost cause. Wolfgang had fled to the relative safety of his wife's family's estate, leaving his people to suffer under the wrath of the Bavarian Armies. If not for Berengar's intervention, it is hard to say precisely what the young Duke's fate would have been.

Initially a Count, he, much like his counterpart Otto was raised to the status of Duke when Berengar rose to the position of King. Now he was tasked with leading the First Division of the Austrian Royal Army, which was the most battle-hardened and elite Division of Berengar's forces to battle in Granada.

Granted, he would be forced to cede his authority to Arnulf, who would act as leader of both Granadan and Austrian forces. Nonetheless, he held significant power in this campaign to eradicate the Catholic Kingdoms of Iberia.

Eventually, Adelbrand noticed the arrival of the Granadan Sultan, who gazed upon the field of feldgrau clad men with a look of hope in his eyes. Hasan had a joyous expression as he witnessed the arrival of the Austrian forces.

He was in for a big surprise, as Berengar had initially informed him that he would only be sending 10,000 men to aid him. Ultimately Berengar had opted to send a whole division, which just so happened to be the most veteran force he had under his command.

Berengar was the type of man to under-promise and over-deliver. He had initially expected it would take longer than six months to equip his entire first division with the arms necessary to win this conflict in extravagant fashion.

However, due to his ongoing Industrialization, and the efficiency of his workers, the arms factories produced more than enough weapons to fulfill the demands of a single Division. Thus, in the end, Berengar had sent the entirety of his First Division along with one of his most capable Generals to achieve overwhelming victory.

The first division comprised of three Infantry Brigades, one Cavalry Brigade, one Artillery Brigade, and a few support battalions, which consisted of specialty units like Jaegers, Medics, Pioneers, etc. Not all of these men had made their way to Granada yet, and as such, Hasan was unaware of the immense force that Berengar had committed to his cause.

Upon noticing that Adelbrand seemed to be giving commands to his troops, Hasan approached the man and quickly asked the question on his mind.

”Are you the man in charge here?”

Luckily for Adelbrand, since Berengar had first met Hasan, the man had been studying his German and could now communicate effectively with the leaders of the Austrian Army. In response to Hasan's question, Adelbrand threw up a standard military salute and reported his name and rank to the Sultan of Granada.

”Major General Adelbrand von Salzburg, I have been tasked by his majesty King Berengar von Kufstein to lead the First Division of the Austrian Royal Army to victory in this campaign!”

Though the Granadan Royal Army had sought to emulate Austria's mighty military, they had yet to fully encompass the proper scale and unit designations that Berengar had used. After all, at the beginning of this conflict, they had less than an entire division's worth of men to field.