THE RINGSTETTEN SAGA III: BREITENFELD

Previously on the Ringstetten Saga:
So, we have Gerhard "parti pour l'armée", during wartime, and finding Liselotte as more than a friend, while she merely sees him as a brother figure. Gustavus paying slightly more attention to this li'l blond ensign. And the Swedish ranks soon find themselves in the half-occupied Electorate of Saxony (its capital, Dresden, still remains intact). Soon, the hitherto neutral (and overweight) Elector George von Wettin visits the Swedish camp with his ranks (in finer scarlet doublets), including a patriotic red-haired Law student from Leipzig (don’t forget Kurtius, for he’ll soon prove his mettle!), and they garrison there, striking an alliance with Sweden. 
That's the setup for the battle of Breitenfeld!
The upcoming confrontation is the talk of the encampment: this is no petty skirmish against some colonel, but a battle royale against Count Tilly himself! And the Swedes' first confrontation with the League's leader, on top of that!
No wonder Gerhard, like all other subaltern officers, is so stirred. Every ensign and lieutenant wants His Majesty to see the worth in him.
On the eve of battle, both armies prepare the best way they can. Gustavus Adolphus, thirsty and excited, visits another nearby estate, Krostewitz or Crostewitz, home of the Elector's favourite brewery, where the hop harvest is being celebrated. Draining his tankard of spicy mulled beer at one fell swoop, he greatly praises the drink he has quaffed, and even rewards the estate lord with a ruby ring of pure gold.
In the meantime, in the morgue in suburban Leipzig, now the League's headquarters, the badass and foolhardy Count of Pappenheim tries, with the aid of his fellow generals, to coax the Count of Tilly into giving battle. The careful Walloon would rather wait until reinforcements arrive, yet the younger generals' coaxing and taunting finally leads him to give in, to confront the Swedes at Breitenfeld. At last Gottfried zu Pappenheim will have some action and excitement: the scar on his forehead, shaped like the crossed swords on his clan's coat of arms, flares up like whenever he is enraged or excited, for he is burning to fulfil the prophecy that a Count of Pappenheim scarred with his family crest, riding a white steed, will defeat a great ruler on the field of battle...
While the younger leaders of the League coax Tilly throughout the night, Gustavus lies asleep in his pavilion after a night of revels and fireworks, dreaming that he wrestles against the septuagenarian Walloon, pulling his opponent's silver hair, receiving a bite from the old count on his left arm in response, yet, being younger and stronger, the Swede quickly pins the Walloon to the ground, ripping his chest open. Right when he was going to see if the Count of Tilly had got a heart, the King of Sweden awakens. The sun has not risen over the Saxon plains and the towers of Leipzig yet.
So, the Swedes routed the Catholic League at Breitenfeld, on the northern outskirts of Leipzig, on the 7th of September 1631. That's as true as it can be.
The Protestants charged with all their fury. And they won, in spite of having the sun in their eyes and being outnumbered, thanks to their more modern equipment and revolutionary strategies, courtesy of Gustavus "the Great" Adolphus (The song he had written, "Do Not Despair", may have played a role in the League's defeat), who managed, in the heat of battle, to take the hill where the Leaguers' cannons were posted, then to turn the cannons 180 degrees, against Tilly himself.
Considering that Gustavus was much younger, and thus much more open-minded and impulsive, than Jean de Tilly, this is no coincidence.
The few Catholics who had survived and not been taken prisoner fled into the woods, letting the Swedes reconquer Leipzig, Halle, and all the villages in the area. Pappenheim had been left for dead on the battlefield and was later rescued by his own, while Tilly had been nearly slain or taken prisoner. Both generals were unconscious and severely injured, unable to take action until the springtime of 1632.
It was hard to inform Count Tilly, when he came to, of the Breitenfeld debacle. When the Catholic League's leader was made aware, he burst into tears of blood (literal tears of blood, due to cranial injuries). Yet he was determined to survive at least for half a year more, to set up the last stand against the Swedes in spring.
It was the first defeat in the "Old Corporal's" career, and it marked the turning point.
It was also the turning point for the victorious young "Lion of the Midnight Sun".
You might have asked if Gerhard was killed at Breitenfeld. Well, he only sustained some flesh wounds (we can't off a leading character so early on!). And he proved to be rather brave and clever: he was shot in the left shoulder, and... instead of getting back to the encampment for the surgeon to tend to his wounds... he bandaged the wound with his flag, though it was against regulation. So the flagpole became like an unusually long tonfa, which he thrust among the Catholic pikes and even killed some with the blasted flagpole and his own short officer's sword. He even thwacked Count Tilly with the flagpole (IT'S NO JOKE!). And his detachment took an officer prisoner.  A dark-skinned and raven-haired gent three years older than Gerhard. With a glittering breastplate and frilled collar. Now don't forget this POW, for he's another leading character (the quartet is complete!).
So, the unit led by Ensign Gerhard von Ringstetten slew twenty men and three officers (and took an officer prisoner) with a broken and pointed wooden flagpole. This is a rather modest list of casualties, but the fact that there are three officers among them is what makes such an effort stand out.
They even captured the flag of Tilly’s own regiment. This flag depicts a quaint chapel with the Virgin Mary on top of its spire and a linden growing by its side, with the words For Church and Realm. It becomes one of the Swedish ruler's foremost trophies, and the ensign presents it to the King after battle.
Gustavus Adolphus slept that night in a modest cart with equally cheerful and fiery General Johan Banér, one of his favourite warlords. And they had a good time until dawn. 
Though the wounded ensign, before being taken to the estate for his convalescence, has given up all hopes of being promoted to lieutenant, he is left speechless by the fact that most of the slain on the twilit battlefield are embracing equally deceased or mortally wounded enemies, as if they were good friends or bound by blood ties, reconciling when it is already too late.
The next day, the winners started to celebrate their unexpected success and to raid the League's encampment. They took all the cannons, lots of money and provisions, some camp followers like the stunning Natasha as POWs, Madonnas (for their children to play with)... In short, everything that the fleeing foes had left behind. And they snatched it all like a swarm of locusts.
Of course, our ensign received a nice share of the spoils and presented half of it to his would-be father-in-law, who insisted that Gerhard should keep it for himself. He also offered the prisoner he had made to his liege as a gift. But His Majesty freed all the POWs and had them join the Swedish ranks. And he also made young Ringstetten a lieutenant!
At the same time, Liselotte tended to Gerhard's wounds, giving him a whole bottle of brandy to drink before the surgeon removed the bullet. She congratulated him and looked at him. It had been, so far, the best day in his life!
The prisoner that Gerhard had made was put under his command as his orderly, or personal servant. His name was Alois, and he had been a half-Croatian, half-Flemish captain of pikemen before his capture. He looked typically Mediterranean, with nutbrown eyes and a copper suntan... but he was far more reserved than his new commanding officer.
He is by no means the only one: all the prisoners of war have been offered places under the Swedish flag and accept them as a token of gratitude for their lives having been spared.
Another POW, a young Austrian count who had been Alois's ensign, Rainer Leopold von Liebenstein, is also put in Gerhard's company, keeping the rank of ensign but with the flag of Sweden, and soon clashes with his new commanding officer, mistrusting the rank of Lieutenant and Prussians, while flirting with Liselotte just to provoke young Ringstetten, whom he calls "Herr Leutnant" in a sissy-sounding ironic tone. Actually, Rainer’s whole outgoing and serious personality is but a façade that conceals his insecurities from losing his whole company, save for Alois, and most of his commanding officers, to enemy fire at Breitenfeld.
As for Kurtius Waldmeister, he tells the Elector that he'd rather join the Swedish army, and soon he appears, trading his scarlet doublet for a blue one, in the Swedish encampment.
Gustavus Adolphus, as we have mentioned before, had slept that night in a modest cart with equally cheerful and fiery General Johan Banér, one of his favourite warlords. And they had a good time with each other until dawn.
The next day, while Gerhard recovers in Breitenfeld and the people of Leipzig celebrate the victory, Gustavus sallies forth towards Halle an der Saale. Catching up with Tilly's personal surgeon, the King of Sweden pressures him to tell about the wounds the old count has received in action: three gunshots, none of which has pierced his skin, yet all three have caused large dark bruises containing blood clots that the surgeon has taken out. Thus, the old warrior is extremely weak and still unconscious, yet expected to recover at least when springtime begins.
Cue autumn turning to winter, and the Swedes getting from Saxony to the Rhineland. What happens next will be related in another post.
To be continued!