Tyranny of Steel

Vászoly György stood at the head of his army. By Hungarian law, he was technically considered a nobleman of higher standing within the Kingdom, but it was difficult to define his actual place in the hierarchy. After all, the Hungarians did not exactly have a complex system of hereditary titles, unlike western Europe. At least not at this point in time. However, in terms of wealth and power, the man was akin to a Grand Duke, practically a monarch in his own right, and distantly related to the Royal Family.

It was because of this that the Hungarian monarch had tasked him to lead one of the give armies that were sent to war against the Byzantine Empire. Unfortunately, the campaign through the Dinaric Alps resulted in a stalemate, where the Byzantine Forces under the command of Strategos Palladius Angelus had entrenched their position and halted all Hungarian advances.

In truth, György was disappointed in how little he contributed to the war effort. However, just as the Crusade for the Holy Land ended, Berengar the Accursed declared war on the Catholic World, giving the man a chance to redeem himself. He had been away from home for too long to know that his son Viktor had sent his only surviving daughter to Kufstein.

Because he was unaware that his daughter lie in the heart of his enemy's Empire, György had every desire to set the Reich ablaze. The King of Hungary had spared no expense and drafted all the peasants he could manage into the army. He also equipped them with black powder weapons and the best armor money could buy.

Though the peasants of this army had limited training in the use of their weapons and battlefield tactics, they were now all battle-hardened veterans from their conflict with the Byzantines. It was because of this, György believed that his army of one hundred thousand men would smash through the German borders. After all, this was just one of five armies of such size, and the others would be assaulting different sectors of the enemy's defenses at the same time.

The German Border Guard was sparsely spread throughout the entire fatherland. However, Berengar had deployed a significant number of German soldiers from the Army to reinforce the eastern defenses. After days of scouting out the German lines, György found the perfect location to strike.

At a particular section of the German Border, there was roughly a brigade worth of soldiers stationed in its defense, and he believed that with his overwhelming numbers, he could charge through the gap and enter the fatherland. He prayed that the other four armies found locations similar to this.

What he did not realize was not only was Palladius in pursuit of his army, but the German National Railway was completed, and the German soldiers could easily deploy from other sections of the border quite rapidly. Thus, after setting his sights on the German border in the distance, György gave the order to march in its direction.

"Forward march!"

Unknowingly, the moment György and his army appeared within the vicinity of the border, a group of Jaegers who were hiding in a nearby brush spotted their location and swiftly reported back to the nearest command with the Hungarian Army's coordinates. How did they do this? Berengar had ensured that every Jaeger team was issued a portable radiotelegraph, which could be used by a trained individual to relay information back to the main forces.

Thus, after reporting the coordinates of the Hungarian Army to the section of border that they would soon attack, the Jaeger team absconded from the scene, allowing the artillery strike they had just called in to take place. This also acted as a warning, which permitted the Colonel in charge of this section of the border to call for reinforcements.

With the crackling thunder of artillery fire, the horses which the Hungarian cavalry were mounted upon became spooked. They trotted back and forth, and bucked wildly in an attempt to throw their riders off of them. However, it only took a moment for the explosive blasts to disrupt the Hungarian army.

György could hardly believe that his troops were being attacked. They were in the middle of a mountain ravine and were well over six kilometers away from the enemy defenses. Just how did they manage to attack him? Since his cavalry could no longer ride their horses, he issued an order he never thought he would have to in his life.

"Dismount and charge on foot! God wills it!"

After saying this, György charged forward on horseback towards the enemy border. His army thought that the man was insane, but when they halted, another nobleman called out to them and challenged them to face their fears.

"What are you, a bunch of women? They can't kill all of us. Let's move!"

This challenge to their manhood caused the men in the army to suicidally charge through the artillery fire, which resulted in thousands of men being blasted into bits. However, they were right about one thing, the artillery on this section of border was not enough to kill them all.

Unfortunately, artillery was not the least of their worries. The moment the Hungarian army crossed into the thousand meter depth that was no-man's-land, Gatling guns fired them upon. Miraculously, György remained entirely unharmed, despite the men behind him soaking up bullets like a sponge, and he continued to charge forward towards the German trenches.

The man had a great hope in his eyes, because despite the losses he had suffered, he and his men could still overwhelm the border defenses, or so he thought. However, the moment he stepped foot into no-man's-land, he activated a land mine.

Before he could even realize what had happened, the mine bounced into the air before exploding, sending a thousand ball bearings in all directions, and blowing the Hungarian nobleman apart! The projectiles practically saw the man's midsection in half as he died on the spot.

When the German defenders saw this, they screamed in laughter, and hollered taunts at the Hungarian army who foolishly rushed head first into a minefield. Now that the enemy had entered their trap, the Germans began to unleash fire from rifles and Gatling guns alike, cutting down those unfortunate enough to get in their sights.

The death of the Hungarian commander came as a shock to the other members of his army, but they did not know what had killed him. They expected it to be another artillery strike, thus they boldly rushed forward into the minefield, where every other step a poor unfortunate soul would have his life claimed by the terror buried beneath the surface.

The amount of landmines that the German Empire manufactured over the past few years for the sake of establishing border security is unknown, but on the eastern front alone, it was expected to be in the millions. After all, they were relatively simple devices to manufacture, and German Industrial output was massive.

Before the Hungarian Army could even reach the trenches, they were being blown apart left and right. If that wasn't bad enough, artillery still pounded those in the rear, while Gatling guns and single shot bolt action rifles continued to spray their bullets at them in an overwhelming fog of lead.

It did not take long before the men of the Hungarian army were too afraid to continue their advance. But they were well within the range of artillery, and thus they were left with only one choice. Press forward. However, was such a thing so easy?

The infantry soon found themselves struggling to navigate their way through the labyrinth of barbed wire was erected across no-man's-land. To make matters worse, the Germans designed the barbed wire defenses in such a way as to lead the enemy army through the area where landmines lie. It was a complete and total massacre.

The Germans continued to cheer as they ruthlessly fired upon the Hungarian infantry who exploded every couple of steps. The sight of their comrades blowing to pieces in front of them had a significant effect on the minds of those who had gathered for this assault.

One soldier, who was too petrified to move forward, simply knelt down and prayed to God for his safety. However, before he could finish the sign of the cross, a bullet struck through his bascinet and splattered his brains all over the place. Eventually, the Hungarian army lost their resolve to continue the fight press and retreated, but by then three-fourths of their army had been wiped out, and they were still stuck in a minefield.

The moment they realized that by running backwards they would achieve the same result as charging forward, hundreds of men simply lied down and accepted their fates. Not daring to move a muscle in fear that they might explode. The sheer hopelessness of the no-man's-land defeated the army before they could even reach the trenches.

As for the Germans, they never got tired of firing their weapons, and continued to open fire on the enemy until the no-man's-land was nothing but a sea of corpses. The five thousand men who defended this section of border did not even need the reinforcements they had called for. For the vast ocean of landmines had done their work for them.

This would be a common sight in the German-Catholic War. There was a reason Berengar was so ruthless with his border security, it was not to keep refugees and illegal immigrants out, but entire armies. Who would dare to walk through the no-man's-land that surrounded the fatherland? Only a fool or a madman would make such a desperate gamble.

The death of Vászoly György, along with a fifth of the Hungarian army, would have dire consequences on the eastern front. However, perhaps the most important development that would come from this immense loss of life was the fact that the young girl Vászoly Noemi had lost her father in this suicidal charge. When news of her father's death reached Noemi's ears, the girl would violate the Linde's orders, and approach Hans for comfort. After all, she needed her precious "little brother" to get over her grief.