Franz II's journey went very smoothly. After all, he had over a thousand Court Guard soldiers escorting him.
Even after obtaining guns, Vienna's rioters did not really dare attack regular troops.
In fact, the moment most people spotted the royal insignia from afar, they instinctively did not dare approach.
As for the young men from the New Barracks, they were confronting the Hungarian army east of the city at the time. Most of them were loyal to the royal family as well; their target was merely "treacherous ministers like Tugut."
Thus, by the afternoon two days later, Franz II's carriage had already passed through the Vienna Forest on the north side and headed for its first stop, Hammersdorf.
The following day, Grasalkovich's side had finished resting and regrouping. They immediately began their full-scale assault on Vienna's rebels in accordance with Hoendorf's orders.
The fewer than eight hundred recruits trained by New Barracks Instructor Ehlers were no match for the regular Hungarian army. They held out for only two hours before being divided and crushed.
In truth, they had already done very well.
These recruits had trained for barely more than twenty days. Many of them fired with their eyes shut. If not for Lucas and the hundred-odd noble youths who had received military training since childhood serving as the core and stubbornly holding the line, they likely would not have lasted even half an hour.
Of course, Ehlers's command ability was utterly lacking as well. He was only a Captain, after all; ideals alone could not win a war.
Before long, Ehlers and Lieutenant Schwarz each led two or three hundred men in retreating into Vienna's outer city, calling upon the citizens within to fight the Hungarian butchers together.
However, by that evening, the Hungarian Legion's cannon finally arrived in