After receiving several batches of reinforcements from home, Batthyany now had seventy-three thousand men at his command.
However, the Austrian garrison in Pressburg had received support from Haynau's forces, bringing their total strength to a terrifying one hundred and twenty thousand.
Attacking a fortified city held by one hundred and twenty thousand men with an army of seventy thousand was, by any reckoning, a reckless move.
But if one side had no idea how many troops the other really had, then this game, whose outcome was already set in stone, could go on.
Franz had sent Haynau and his troops to reinforce Pressburg partly as an extra safeguard. After all, Batthyany had once been Pressburg's commander-in-chief.
What if there were still collaborators Franz hadn't uncovered? Or what if, during this time, the Hungarians had corrupted the five regiments Franz had temporarily assigned there, along with the garrison troops later ordered to reinforce them?
Haynau's troops came from Salzburg and had virtually no ties to the Hungarians. There were no Hungarian officers in their ranks, either.
At the same time, Haynau's personal relations with the Hungarian military were abysmal. The two sides looked down on each other.
Haynau was of mixed Jewish descent, and officers who had risen from the bottom naturally looked down on those who rested on their ancestors' laurels.
On the other hand, this was also Franz's way of protecting Haynau. After all, the latter had just purged Vienna of a nest of pests that had entrenched themselves there for centuries.
There was no guarantee that this nest of pests had no loyal and righteous men among them. History was full of great heroes who had fallen at the hands of common men.
From Caesar's death before the Common Era to Sun Ce, the Little Conqueror, during the