from october 9 to october 14, the rebel gottscheer forces drove french troops out of the gottschee region and laid siege to the city of neustadtl to the north. erker may have led the troops in this siege, or he led the gottscheer defenses against the french troops as they tried to force their way in at schweinberg. in neustadtl, the rebels were driven off thanks to the arrival of reinforcements under general carlo zucchi, the bravery and quick thinking of defending commander captain luigi tarducci, and their own ineptitude. at schweinberg, 100 french soldiers tried to dislodge an unknown number of rebels (though probably not much more than 100) from their formidable defenses. that battle ended after several hours of fighting with the french withdrawal after their commanding officer was cut down by gottscheer fire.