A Lull Between Battles

While Hohenzollern Development Company was carrying out a sweeping reorganization, the fighting on the Schleswig battlefield remained deadlocked.

After the main Danish force successfully withdrew to Flensburg, Denmark's new commander began directing the Danish cavalry to delay the Allied Forces' march.

To pursue the retreating Danish army and counter the harassment of the Danish cavalry, Prussian cavalry units repeatedly sallied out. Both sides began a desperate chase across the boundless snowy plains, each fighting to gain the upper hand.

Using villages, forests, farmland, and scattered buildings, the Danish cavalry appeared and vanished like ghosts, often springing out from places the German Allied Forces least expected.

In some narrow terrain, the Danish cavalry could even wipe out small Allied units, causing the Allied Forces no end of trouble.

The Allied commanders began to gnash their teeth at the Danish cavalry. Then, with an order from headquarters—

The main Allied cavalry force, which had long been preparing for battle, finally took the field.

The earlier positional warfare had not been the cavalry's stage. The cavalry officers could only watch their infantry counterparts reap military glory.

Now, they could finally show their prowess on the battlefield. The cavalry units swiftly assembled and charged out.

Faced with Allied cavalry several times their number, the Danish cavalry began to buckle. Their commanders directed them to fight as they retreated.

Thanks to their familiarity with the terrain, the Danes could always find a point to break through. Though the Allied cavalry held the advantage in numbers, they found it difficult to annihilate the Danish cavalry completely.

The Allied cavalry commander hardened his resolve and began spreading his troops out into several columns, pursuing the Danes from different directions.

As long as they could slow the Danish cavalry's retreat, they could deal the Danish cavalry units a crushing blow.

Relying on their numerical advantage, the Allied Forces quickly discovered the Danish cavalry's movements. After coordinating with the relevant units—

The Allied cavalry swiftly seized the opportunity and pinpointed the Danish cavalry's position. The two sides fought a brutal encounter battle.

The Prussian and Austrian cavalry, who had galloped across the European continent for many years, were clearly formidable opponents.

Whether in equipment, horses, training, or experience, the Allied Forces held a clear advantage.

Led by battle-hardened Prussian cavalry generals, the Allied Forces easily dismantled the enemy's tactics.

The Allied Forces' cavalry commanders, especially those from the Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire, possessed superb command abilities.

They launched a full-scale charge against the Danish cavalry across the snowy plains. In barely half an hour, the Danes had lost more than half their men.

The Danish cavalry commanders had no choice but to order a retreat, but the Allied Forces clearly had no intention of letting them go.

The Danish cavalry fled for their lives, only to be mauled again by Allied cavalry during their retreat. Only a small portion escaped to Flensburg.

Not long after the Allied cavalry won a great victory, the main infantry force caught up as well, and the Allied Forces launched the Battle of Flensburg.

On the 7th, finding defense increasingly difficult, the Danish army withdrew from Flensburg and returned to Denmark. The Allied Forces pushed the front line to the Danish border, and the war came to a temporary halt.

On February 18, the Prussian Army occupied Kolding. The Danes attempted to use every available building and piece of terrain to form a new defensive line, but time was too short; they simply could not make it in time.

But the Austrians lent the Danes a helping hand. Schleswig was already completely under Allied control, and the Austrians did not wish to continue advancing. The two sides entered a brief ceasefire.

The Austrian Empire had joined this war reluctantly from the start, because it understood that even without Austrian participation, Prussia and the German Confederation could still secure victory over Denmark.

But if Austria did not join, Prussia's influence over the German territories would inevitably expand.

Austria might then be cast aside by the nationalists. Moreover, Prussia had at this time taken the initiative to share leadership of the war equally with the Austrians.

Bismarck had even dangled the Duchy of Holstein before the Austrians to lure them into the war. Once the war ended, the Austrians could gain control of the Duchy of Holstein.

Driven by this situation and these interests, the Austrian Empire entered the war. Now that Schleswig had been recovered, the Austrian Empire no longer wished to expand the war further.

While Prussia and Austria negotiated, the Allied troops rested and reorganized at the Danish border.

Kane, an utterly ordinary Austrian farmer, had been forcibly conscripted by his village's lord when war arrived.

Kane had taken part in the Battle of Königshügel, then experienced the Battle of Flensburg. Now, he was resting in a temporary position on the Danish border.

The soldiers around him were acquaintances from Kane's own village or nearby villages, while the officer leading them was the headman of his village.

"Kane, do you still have any tobacco?" a fellow villager asked.

Kane lay atop a mound of earth, his hands folded behind his head, his head resting on his arms, one leg crossed over the other, his eyes fixed on the sky. "No. I finished it yesterday."

"Sigh, who knows when this war will end? And there's no telling how things are at home," another of Kane's comrades lamented.

"Lads, don't be anxious. The scale of this war is nothing much. Back when I joined the Imperial Army to resist Napoleon, that was a truly terrifying war. There were people upon people, an endless sea of them. All you could do was charge forward with your comrades." The speaker was the village headman.

The headman was an elderly man who had fought in the war against France in his youth.

"Uncle Morey, how did Napoleon's army compare to the Danes?" Kane called the headman by name and asked.

"Napoleon! He was an extraordinary figure. Before I ever stepped onto the battlefield, I already knew his great name."

Morey recalled thoughtfully, then continued, "At the time, I thought Austria was the strongest country in the world. Yet His Majesty the Emperor's army still lost to Napoleon first. It was only after I enlisted that I learned the nations of all Europe had joined together to overthrow Napoleon, that usurper of a nation."

Morey told them everything he knew. Of course, as an old farmer, he had only heard a few things from his officers when he was young.

"Back then, war was far crueler than it is now. France was at the height of its glory. Rumor had it that Napoleon's officers all knew demonic magic, and under its evil influence, French soldiers would charge forward without fearing death!" During a pause in his speech, Morey somehow produced a cigarette from nowhere, lit it, and took a puff.

"My unit clashed with the French at a place called Garidon. The French, led by Napoleon—though it was actually other French officers—charged at us." Morey took a deep drag and exhaled a cloud of smoke.

"The French across from us fought as though they did not value their lives at all. My comrades fell one by one around me. Some lost arms, some lost legs, and the worst lost half their faces!" Morey seemed to return to those distant memories of war.

"Luckily, reinforcements arrived in time. Only by relying on strength in numbers did we drive the French back. Back then, we fought every day. Within a few days, the people around you would all be replaced by new faces. Luckily, my life was tough, and I survived..."

As Morey recounted his experiences from his youth, the young men around him held their breaths and listened intently to the "story."

Awaiting the arrival of a new war.