After receiving Archduke Albrecht's declaration of war, Vincent Maurice let out a long breath. He had been afraid the Austrians would stay holed up in the Star Fort and refuse to come out.
In the previous attack, Vincent Maurice had organized fifty thousand soldiers and more than a hundred artillery pieces to ensure they could take the Star Fort on the flank.
After twelve hours of bloody fighting, more than ten thousand soldiers had failed to return to their units, and countless others were wounded. As for those who never returned, it was hard to say whether they had been killed or gone missing.
But deep down, Vincent Maurice hoped they had fled the battlefield, because the Austrian defenders took no prisoners.
In fact, Vincent Maurice had already noticed during the Battle of Sarrebourg that the Austrian soldiers were unusually cruel.
Aside from the few French officers they could claim as military trophies, the Austrian soldiers would stab every French soldier's corpse on the ground, making sure none of them could pose a threat.
This practice soon spread among the German Allied Forces, making the Battle of Sarrebourg exceptionally bloody.
Toward the end, military chaplains had no choice but to accompany the soldiers, lest they continue to butcher wounded French troops.
But after the French shot and killed a senior chaplain of the religious order, those chaplains wished they could nail a cross to every French soldier's chest to keep them from coming back to life.
For Vincent Maurice, Archduke Albrecht's proposal to fight a decisive battle outside Salzburg couldn't have come at a better time. Only then could he make full use of the Union Army's numerical advantage.
He couldn't help admiring the man. In his eyes, Archduke Albrecht had to be a great nationalist, willing to sacrifice his