Chapter 802: An Unexpected Harvest
Schaeck beckoned to the major standing beside him. "Luca, how much further is it to Leuven?"
The younger man was taken aback. He glanced at their surroundings, his expression hesitant. "Six miles... or perhaps eight?"
Schaeck, a complete amateur in military affairs, hadn't even bothered to send out scouts. At this point, he truly had no idea where they were.
Schaeck nodded, leaning close to the ear of Luca Schaeck—his own nephew. He lowered his voice. "Tell me, how do you think we can take Leuven?"
"Take it?" Luca pulled back, his neck shrinking into his collar as he cast a wary eye at the soldiers nearby. "With just these men?"
Luca had only been a lieutenant until his uncle’s sudden promotion to brigadier general, which had seen him fast-tracked to the rank of major. Between the two of them, their combined command experience didn't even match that of a competent junior officer.
Schaeck followed his nephew's gaze. He saw several soldiers in tattered uniforms, lacking even basic necessities like blankets or hats, trudging forward with listless, dragging steps.
These troops under his command were remnants of the Austrian army Joseph had defeated. After their surrender, they had received very little in the way of logistical support. A few had been lucky enough to scavenge Walloon police uniforms, but the rest were still clad in their original, worn-out Austrian gear.
Luca muttered under his breath, "If you actually intend to engage Lieutenant Colonel Desweigh in battle, we’ll probably end up surrendering a second time..."
Schaeck glared at his nephew, ready to deliver a sharp reprimand, but a thought suddenly struck him. His eyes swept over the soldiers in their ragged Austrian uniforms, and he fell into a contemplative silence. 'Surrender? Hmm, that might actually be the way...'
Luca waved his hands frantically. "No, absolutely not! Uncle, let’s just turn back."
He knew all too well that for the two of them, surrendering to the Austrians was a death sentence. Their previous defection to the French would almost certainly lead the Austrian Emperor to sentence them for high treason.
Besides, his uncle was now a brigadier general and he was a field officer. Without the protection of the French, all of that would vanish like smoke.
Schaeck allowed himself a smug smile. "No, I truly am going to surrender to Desweigh."
'Go and pick out three hundred reliable soldiers immediately. Have them change back into Austrian uniforms. Move!'
'Oh, wait. Give each of them ten florins as well.'
"What?" Luca’s jaw dropped, but seeing his uncle raise his riding crop, he nodded in a panic. "Yes, General!"
Once his nephew had departed, Schaeck sent for a captain named Vermeer and gave him a set of detailed instructions.
This Vermeer was the most capable officer among his "turncoat army," but the man didn't exactly respect Schaeck, so Schaeck usually avoided him.
But right now, he had no choice but to rely on this company commander.
At half-past five the following afternoon.
A group of bedraggled stragglers from the Westmalle Legion appeared outside the walls of Leuven.
These men claimed to be part of a logistics unit transporting supplies for the Duke of York. They insisted they had been driven here after the Coalition forces were crushed by the French at Mechelen.
Lieutenant Colonel Desweigh had already heard rumors of the disaster at Mechelen. Seeing these soldiers in their ruined Austrian uniforms, hearing them speak Dutch, and witnessing their wretched state, he didn't suspect a thing. He ordered the gates opened, allowing them into Leuven, and even provided them with food and wine.
The "stragglers" and their officers began telling the garrison horror stories of the Coalition's defeat. They claimed sixty thousand French troops had already pushed the front lines into the Netherlands. The news left the defenders of Leuven trembling with fear.
A day later, Vermeer appeared to the west of Leuven leading a thousand men dressed in Walloon police uniforms. He was only a company commander; commanding a thousand men was the absolute limit of his capability.
Lieutenant Colonel Desweigh scrambled to form a defensive line to meet the attack. However, the rumors of the "Duke of York's total defeat" had already gutted his troops' morale. Despite having nearly two thousand soldiers, they were pinned down and suppressed by the smaller force across from them.
By the afternoon, the "stragglers" who had infiltrated Leuven set fire to the city’s supply warehouses. They began spreading word that tens of thousands of French regulars were about to begin their assault on the walls.
Consequently, when the Austrian soldiers on the battlements saw Schaeck’s main force of three thousand appearing in the distance, their final shred of will to resist evaporated.
Even Lieutenant Colonel Desweigh was convinced he was looking at the vanguard of a ten-thousand-man French army.
He weighed his options and, under the unanimous urging of his officers, abandoned Leuven and fled toward Scherpenheuvel.
It wasn't until Vermeer sent word that Leuven was under control that Schaeck finally breathed a sigh of relief. He had been waiting nearly four kilometers outside the city, ready to turn tail and run with his nephew the moment Desweigh’s forces showed any sign of victory.
He hadn't expected that tricking his way into Leuven would be so effortless.
After holding a grand entry ceremony into the city, Schaeck immediately dispatched a messenger to the French Crown Prince with news of the "Great Victory at Leuven."
He then left his nephew and Vermeer to hold the city while he took his personal guard and hid in a small village two kilometers to the south, terrified that Desweigh might realize the deception and return with a vengeance.
...
Mechelen.
Joseph had received news of Gaillard’s capture of Brussels that morning. By the afternoon, a messenger from the Flemish Legion arrived with the news that Leuven had also fallen.
He wasn't particularly surprised that the Walloon Defense Force had defeated the Dutch. The core of that force, the Walloon police, had been trained at the Paris Police Academy; their combat effectiveness was certainly no worse than the regular armies of Prussia or Austria.
However, the fact that Schaeck had managed to seize Leuven left him genuinely astonished.
After Joseph questioned the messenger in detail about the specifics of the battle, he found himself marveling at the sheer audacity of it.
'That fellow Schaeck might not know the first thing about real warfare, but he certainly has a head full of schemes. It seems Thien might have a real rival on his hands in the future politics of the Flemish Republic.'
Joseph turned his attention to the map on the wall. With the unexpected occupation of Leuven, he had secured a significant strategic advantage in the Flanders Region.
Leuven commanded the primary eastern route out of Brussels.
This meant that if Prussia or Austria wanted to reinforce the Duke of York now, they would be forced to take a long detour from Scherpenheuvel through the Netherlands, circling around the northern side of Antwerp.
The opportunity for a decisive counterattack against the Coalition forces had finally arrived.
Of course, before that, he needed to stabilize control over Brussels. Simultaneously, the province of Ghent to the west had to be taken as well.
Once that was done, only the province of Antwerp would remain in enemy hands within the Southern Netherlands.
At that point, the Netherlands itself would no longer be safe.
"Your Highness, it is almost two o'clock," Eman reminded him softly from the doorway. "You are expected at the General Staff’s operational briefing."
"Right, I'm coming."
Joseph exited his tent and turned left. Thirty meters away stood the large briefing tent. He had been staying at the front lines, only three kilometers from Mechelen.
Lefebvre and the other officers were engaged in a spirited discussion. Clearly, word of the success in Brussels had already reached them.
"Next," Davout declared loudly, "we simply need to hold Brussels firmly. The enemy won't be able to gain another inch of ground in the Southern Netherlands!"
Lefebvre nodded with a grin. "I just received word that Lieutenant Colonel Masséna has completed his preparations for a general offensive at Diekirch. The main Prussian force is positioned just to his northeast."
Diekirch was a vital city in north-central Luxembourg and the site chosen by the French Army of the Rhine for the final, decisive engagement.
Comments