In mid-January 1660, the cold winter once again brought a truce into the land of Eastern Europe, and both the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the German Confederation led by the Habsburg Dynasty stopped their military operations and began to recuperate and replenish supplies in preparation for this year's war.

In particular, the German Confederate Army, in the war to overthrow the Kingdom of Poland, fought with the remaining Taiping Army 1st and 2nd elite grenadier divisions to defeat both sides, although the final victory, but the loss of soldiers was huge, this winter was just enough for the German Confederate Army to recruit a group of recruits and mercenaries from the Holy Roman Empire, replenish to make up for the losses.

The Prussian Saxon coalition suffered considerable losses in the Battle of Krakow, so the two armies finally met victoriously in Warsaw. William rightfully relinquished his position as commander-in-chief and took the command of the current Holy Roman Emperor, King Leopold I of Hungary and Bohemia.

Leopold I was now able to command the entire coalition of the German states of the Holy Roman Empire, making the Holy Roman Empire a united military dynamic for the first time after 30 years of war, thanks to the sudden establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom by Hong Tiancheng.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's relentless policy of depriving the white aristocracy of their rights deeply frightened the aristocratic group of the German states of the Holy Roman Empire, and even the nobles who took refuge in Hong Tiancheng would be deprived of all military power and most of the administrative power, and would be reduced to a rich family with an empty honorary title, which was obviously not something that the long-standing German aristocratic group could endure.

In the past, the war for the German aristocracy was at most a change of master, but now Hong Tiancheng's birth is to cut off their foundation and close the gap between their status and that of ordinary white civilians, and the German aristocracy naturally refuses to accept this result.

Thus, with the convergence of the German confederations of the Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburgs, whose strength had been greatly reduced after 30 years of war, could not have sent an expedition of 100,000 troops under any circumstances.

However, for Leopold I, the overthrow of the Polish puppet kingdom was only the first step in the war, and the ultimate goal of him and the German princes was to destroy the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and eradicate Hong Tiancheng, an outlier who had dug into the roots of the traditional European aristocracy!

Although only the German states of the Holy Roman Empire sent troops, Western European countries have more or less provided a certain amount of financial support, and Louis XIV of the Kingdom of France, a powerful country in Western Europe, even generously provided a French mercenary corps, with tens of thousands of French mercenaries, all armed with flintlock pistols!

In the battle of encircling and annihilating the first and second elite grenadier divisions of the Taiping Army, this French foreign mercenary born from the French regular army played a great role, but after the siege and annihilation battle, this French foreign mercenary regiment was transferred to the rear to rest and replenish the troops because the battle damage was too serious......

In addition to the mercenaries that were prevalent on the European continent, the German Confederation led by Leopold I consisted mainly of feudal knights and feudal aristocratic private soldiers, and then a small standing army formed by various powerful princes and electors, as well as a standing army loyal to the Habsburgs.

Most of these standing armies were the products of the 30-year war, which made the princes of the Holy Roman Empire deeply feel the inadequacy of the traditional feudal army, so they rebuilt all the mercenaries recruited during the war into a standing army, and established a complete system of recruiting new soldiers to supplement them, and formally established the system of standing army.

It can be said that the formal popularization of the standing army system in Europe is precisely due to the lessons learned from the 30-year war, which tends to produce fundamental institutional progress in the country.

Krakow, the traditional capital of the Kingdom of Poland, was severely damaged in the war, so the capital of the newly rebuilt Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania was established in Warsaw, where the current Marshal of the Polish-Lithuanian Restoration Army, Stefan Charnetsky, is now the owner of Warsaw.

After Marshal Stefan Czarniecki executed the Polish king, the power of the entire Polish puppet kingdom loyal to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Polish king completely dissipated, and he already had the prerequisites for ascending the throne, but Stefan Calnetsky made a public oath to restore the homeland of the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom and overthrow the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the main culprit of the destruction of Poland-Lithuania, before rebuilding the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom (that is, ascending the throne and becoming king).

Stefan Calnetsky's oath ignited the frenzy of the Polish national power mentality, won the support of a large number of Polish people, and the power of the Polish-Lithuanian Restoration Army was rapidly expanded.

In the face of a common enemy, the German and Polish nations cooperated with a rare sincerity.

However, in the general direction, the two sides cooperated well, but on a tactical level, Stefan Calnetsky was at odds with Leopold I, the supreme commander of the German Confederations in the Holy Roman Empire.

"Your Majesty the Emperor, I'm not questioning your decision and authority, I just don't want our soldiers to be buried at the guns of the Taiping Army, the risk of a head-on battle with the Taiping Army is too great, believe me, I know very well the horror of the Taiping Army." Stefan Calnetsky tried his best to persuade Leopold I, who was sitting on the throne, in the castle of Warsaw.

"Pay attention to your words, Your Excellency Marshal Stefan Calnetsky, it is my soldiers, the warriors of the German nation, the sword of the Holy Roman Empire, not us!

I understand the psychology of you Poles, you have been defeated repeatedly under the Taiping army in several years of war, and in the end even the country was sold by a despicable thief, so you are afraid of the strength of the Taiping army, and now even the courage to confront the Taiping army head-on is gone!

After the meeting, the size of the coalition army has exceeded 100,000 people, all of whom are soldiers who can go to the battlefield to kill the enemy, and Hong Tiancheng on the opposite side only has 70,000 troops, I can't figure it out, why we have a strength advantage of more than 30,000 people, but we can't take the initiative to attack instead of spending financial resources and manpower to build fortifications, and then spread out our forces all day to guard against which direction the Taiping army will break through?

Stefan Calnetsky: Have you forgotten even the most basic offensive advantage over defense?

In a defensive state, we need to take on the defense of hundreds of kilometers of borders, and we can't effectively concentrate our forces, but the Taiping Army can concentrate our forces to break through from any point, so why should we give the Taiping Army such convenience when we have an advantage in troops? ”