Venice, City Hall.
The Hungarians' kicking someone while they were down was no surprise to Franz, but to prevent another Pressburg Massacre,
he had specially sent five full infantry regiments—8,000 men in all—to Pressburg in the name of the War Department. That brought the city's total strength to 15,000.
In fact, if not for the historical massacre, Pressburg would have seemed like the sort of impregnable fortress that could never fall.
As Vienna's last line of defense in the east, its importance went without saying.
Over the centuries, the city had been captured only three times: by Suleiman the Magnificent, Napoleon, and Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa.
Its walls were high, its moats deep, its firepower formidable, and its supplies plentiful. It also stood where the Morava River met the Danube River, with water on three sides.
Only one side faced the enemy, severely limiting an attacker's numerical advantage. By any measure, it deserved to be called impregnable.
Franz couldn't imagine how such a fortress had failed to hold out for even a single day.
But given Austria's many bizarre exploits throughout history—for instance, sending every officer to their deaths at the start of a war and causing the entire command structure to collapse.
Or trying to annihilate an enemy with half their numbers, only to be annihilated themselves; or cracking the enemy's code and then contacting them to ask if they planned to change it...
Franz decided to replace the commander on the eve of battle, though naturally he couldn't do it by transferring or promoting him in a way that would cause conflict.
Franz decided to send the general in charge of Pressburg on vacation. Although Austrian soldiers' benefits had been atrocious throughout history, officers enjoyed plenty of perks.
Besides one day off each week, they got seven days