Event Summary:
In the same year that Frederick ascended the throne, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and leader of the Habsburg family of Austria, died and was succeeded by his daughter Theresia, Philip
Trek intuitively felt that the opportunity had come, and sent troops to Austria on the pretext that women had no inheritance rights, and his target was Silesia.
In his hand he held the Tiger wolf master trained by his father. Without any suspense, Frederick occupied Silesia. But the brutal slaughter and bloody scenes on the battlefield frightened Frederick for the first time.
Three years later, Theresia eased up, and with the support of the British, she decided to retake Silesia. Frederick lures the enemy deeper,
When the Austrian and Saxon alliances were planning to ambush the Prussian army, Frederick immediately decided to send cavalry to attack the flank of the Osa coalition army on the hill, completely disrupting the other side's battle plan, and Prussia won.
Austria could not bear this series of crushing defeats and had to make peace. Prussia signed the Treaty of Dresden, which recognized the Prussian occupation of Silesia.
King of Prussia
Frederick the Great is one of the greatest generals in European history.
In 1740, at the age of 28, Frederick ascended the throne as King of Prussia.
In that year, Karl VI of the Holy Roman Empire died, and according to his will, the 23-year-old princess Maria Teresa inherited the most prominent throne in Central and Western Europe and became the heir to the Austrian throne. The two young princes and princesses, who succeeded to the throne in the same year, began a career of fighting each other.
According to the custom, the Holy Roman Empire can only have emperors and not empresses, so Maria Teresa's succession is illegitimate, which provides a very appropriate excuse for the European powers to interfere in Austria.
The Elector of Bavaria was not stable about the queen's position, believing that it was a good time for Prussia to expand and annex Silesia, so he expressed to Queen Maria Teresa that Prussia was willing to support her succession with military force.
But asking Silesia in exchange was obviously to take advantage of the fire ~ so the Queen of Austria categorically rejected Frederick's proposal.
Frederick looked at the situation, and if the Huairou policy did not work, then grab it!
So Frederick decided to send an army to seize Silesia, and he thought that after the robbery, it would become a fact that the Queen of Austria would not agree to it. Frederick violated the battlefield conventions of the time,
Sneak attacks began before war was declared against Austria.
In 1740, Frederick of the Chicken Thief led 80,000 Prussian troops south to raid Silesia. The Austrian garrison had only a small presence in Silesia, and the undefended defenders were quickly defeated. Silesia fell, with only a few isolated forts still garrisoned, and Frederick led 20,000 Prussian troops under the fortifications of Nissburg, ready to besiege it for a long time.
Frederick's stubbornness
King Frederick II of Prussia had a gentle personality when he was young, he had no interest in leading soldiers to fight, his heart was full of music, art, literature, and the melodious flute often echoed in the palace.
However, his father believed that men should wear armor and love the battlefield, musical instruments were destroyed by the king, and Frederick was forced to learn tactics and mathematics that he did not like.
Frederick was very bitter inside, and he was forced to compromise while secretly preparing to resist.
In order to get rid of his father's control, the young Frederick, at the age of 18, united with his little friend, an aristocratic young man named Carter.
Prepare to flee to England together. But the artistic young man, who was bent on flying away, was unsurprisingly caught, and Carter, who fled with him, was beheaded in front of him
。 Frederick was later suspended as crown prince and imprisoned in a castle.
A year and a half later, Frederick's temperament changed drastically, and he expressed his willingness to give up his previous stubbornness and devote his energy to governing the country and training troops.
This boy who once had a dream seems to realize that he has the future of a country on his shoulders, and he has his mission,
For prussia, in order to become a real man, he went to the harsh and ruthless military camp to train his life.
Although Prussia is an inconspicuous small kingdom, but through his grandparents and fathers Taoguang, Prussia's military strength can not be underestimated, Frederick boarded the throne to inherit the throne, the nightmare of childhood dissipated, leaving only his strong and domineering Prussian signature on the european land, Frederick the Great is like the light of the rising sun.
The two sides met in the village of Mulvets
In April 1741, Austrian Marshal Nehberg led 22,000 troops from Moravia, east of Silesia, to rescue Nissburg and sent cavalry to attack the supply line of the Prussian army.
Strategically, as long as the Austrian army was able to hold the front and cut off the supplies of the Prussian army, the Prussian army isolated in Silesia was in great trouble. In order to break the Austrian blockade, Frederick decided to attack.
On 10 April, the Prussian and Austrian armies met in the village of Mulvets in Silesia.
Prussian 21,000 trained soldiers against 19,000 Austrian soldiers
Many of them were recruits who had not really faced the battlefield, but the Austrian army had strong assault cavalry and a group of commanders with experienced combat experience.
Although the Prussian army discovered the Austrian army in advance, it was not able to attack immediately, on the contrary, the Austrian army did not wait for the Prussian army to fully deploy before it took the lead in attacking and occupying the opportunity.
The Austrian left cavalry, under the cover of the wind and snow, suddenly appeared in front of the Prussian army and scattered the formation of the Prussian army. In such a fierce battle, the two cavalry generals of Austria and Prussia were all killed.
This was the first battle under Frederick's personal command, and the soldiers on the battlefield were covered in blood, and the fierce battle scenes and the temporary defeat of the two wings made Frederick dizzy with the situation on the battlefield, and he gave command to Marshal Sverling, who was experienced in actual combat.
Tough wins
Marshal Sveling has a very rich experience in battlefield combat, and under his command,
The good qualities of the Prussian infantry played a key role in the unfavorable situation, the Prussian infantry was lined up in formation, and the soldiers of the Prussian army, which had the advantage of surprise attack, did not retreat,
Instead, insisting on defending their positions, Austrian cavalry and infantry were repulsed by Prussian artillery again and again.
In the evening, the Prussians, led by Marshal Sveling, launched a counter-offensive, and the Austrian army was almost exhausted by this time, and they could not break through the Prussian positions.
In the hasty retreat, the Austrian army left heavy equipment and withdrew from the battlefield, and Frederick finally won the first battle.
It's just that there are some twists and turns in the process.
In this campaign,
The Prussian army suffered more than 6,000 casualties, more casualties than the Austrian army, but due to the hasty retreat of the Austrian army, many heavy weapons were captured by the Prussian army
。 Although the Austrian army suffered fewer damage in this battle, the material and equipment used for combat were almost completely lost, and the idea of clearing Prussia in a short period of time could only be destroyed.
Frederick became more and more courageous
In early 1742, Austrian troops launched an attack on Bavaria along the Danube and posed a threat to Bohemia,
Frederick led an army of 35,000 men into the border between Moravia and Austria, posing as a minute-by-minute attack, forcing the Austrian army to withdraw and return.
After relieving the Bohemian crisis, Frederick marched north to crush the 32,000 Austrian army at Hortusicz in Bohemia.
At the beginning of the battle, the Prussian cavalry gained dominance with a rapid shock, but due to the lack of follow-up, they were repulsed by the Austrian army, and the two sides fell into a stalemate
。 Just then, a consistent Prussian army hidden behind the battlefield suddenly appeared,
The sudden appearance of the Prussians made the Austrians unresponsive for a while, and the Prussians who suddenly joined the battlefield gave the Austrian army a heavy blow, and the Prussians won.
In this battle, the losses of the Prussian and Austrian armies were more than 8,000 people, but nearly 16,000 Austrian troops were captured, and dozens of artillery pieces fell into the hands of the Prussian army.
This time, it was Frederick who, relying entirely on his own command, won the first undisputed victory. The battle gave the young king a winning trick, which was to attack the side of the battlefield more devastating and shocking than the frontal attack.
Although the battle was won, the Prussian army also suffered heavy losses, and Frederick was no longer able to fight any more.
After the Battle of Hortusitz, France, Bavaria, Saxony and Spain joined the war against Austria, while Britain allied with Austria against France.
Prussia, the country that ignited the flames of war, quietly stayed out of the matter.
epilogue:
As a generation of famous generals in European history, Frederick's first battle was a bit thrilling, but he learned the lesson, and when he led his army to the second battle, he pre-arranged the army and ordered the lurking army to raid when the battlefield situation was in a difficult situation, thus winning the battle.
Frederick's aim was only to annex Silesia, and after achieving this goal, he did not join the Franco-Austro-Chinese War. The embattled Austria was anxious to concentrate its forces against France and Bavaria, so Frederick reached a truce with Queen Maria Theresa
According to the agreement, Austria ceded Silesia to Prussia,
Frederick also achieved his pre-war goals with Austria, gaining Silesia.