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Ulriczeit-18-27-2492
"What are we waiting for?" asked Joachim, as we waited hidden in the snowy forests of Ostermark.
"We must stop certain nobles who have fallen into the trap. As soon as they appear, we surround them… and have a very polite talk with them," I replied calmly, watching the snow-covered road as the flakes piled up on my armor.
The wind blew harshly, biting into the bones even under the armor, and time seemed to stretch on endlessly. At last, we saw what we had been waiting for: a column of knights and infantry marching toward Bechafen.
"We've got them where we want them. Don't fire yet. We outnumber them; they shouldn't even try to resist… unless they're very stupid," I said as my men rose from the snow, throwing off their white cloaks and stepping out from the woods.
In an instant, we blocked the road. My cavalry closed the way in front and behind, and thousands of musketeers deployed on either side raised their weapons, forming long firing lines aimed directly at the nobles' column.
"Well, well… quite the noble escort, heavily armed too, from the looks of it. Almost as if you were heading to defend the Kislevite border… though the border isn't toward Bechafen, is it?" I said with a smile, as my troops secured the ambush.
The men began glancing at one another, uncertain.
"All right, let's make it simple," I continued. "I know what you're planning. And that is treason. I carry the Emperor's mandate for every action I've taken, and I have proof that your intent was to expel Imperial forces from this province. Surrender, and I will spare your lives."
The soldiers looked at each other, wavering. Slowly, they began to throw their swords into the snow, ignoring the desperate cries of the nobles ordering them to stand firm.
I gave a signal with my hand, and my men moved into formation, stripping the surrendered soldiers of their weapons. The knights too began to drop their lances and swords, surrendering one after another. Only the most desperate tried to flee; their horses were shot down and the nobles captured immediately.
"Margrave Gotthold Schurz… and Margrave Richard Dornier, of Essen and Heffengen," I said, recognizing the banners of two of Ostermark's most powerful houses.
The nobles remained silent, their faces twisted with rage.
"From the looks of you, you've run out of words. So tell me: what made you do something as foolish as rebelling against the Empire?"
One of the margraves, his voice thick with anger, snapped back: "Do you really need to ask? For decades we've fought to shake off the yoke of Talabecland. We've paid taxes and sent men only for them to profit, while here we received nothing. Years of resistance, and then you arrive… and destroy everything we achieved."
"Destroy it?" I replied, my voice as hard as ice. "I bring you an Imperial army nearing fifty thousand men. I bring safe roads, protected fields, a border secured against the Kislevites. Soon enough I'll sweep the greenskins from your forests as well, and Ostermark will be safer than it has ever been. And instead of supporting me, you try to undermine what we've built."
Another margrave muttered bitterly: "But you undo everything we fought for…"
"Then you'll have to adapt," I shot back, glaring at them. "If you like it, fine. If you don't, I don't care. From now on, there will be a permanent Imperial army in Ostermark. And it will be funded by Ostermark through its taxes. You're getting everything you claimed to want: security, a shield against Kislev and the beasts. All you have to do is pay the price. Gold, arms, and powder in exchange for your lives. That is the new reality."
"What shall we do with them?" asked Joachim, watching the captured nobles.
"We need them alive. I can't afford to earn the hatred of all the nobility by executing every traitor. Confiscating their wealth and lands will be enough… their titles will remain, at least for now," I replied calmly, though the decision had been made long before.
My men escorted the prisoners toward the fortress under construction. There they would serve as forced garrison, or at worst, as labor for the works the dawi oversaw with their rune-etched picks. A humiliating life for a noble, but useful for the Empire.
The margraves who had led the failed attempt at rebellion marched in chains beside me, while fifteen thousand of my men accompanied me back to Bechafen. The chancellor must have felt very secure in his chambers, ignorant that his plan had collapsed before it even began.
The gates of the city opened at my approach. My troops already controlled the local garrison, which we soon turned into prisoners as well. Their loyalty was compromised, and I could not trust them to guard the villages of the rear. At the front, against the enemies of the Empire, they would serve better.
I entered the chancellor's residence without resistance. I found him in his chamber, his gaze lost, like a man who already understood the end of his game.
"So… this was your brilliant plan?" I said, advancing slowly. "A hasty rebellion, with the sole idea of expelling my garrison from Bechafen? Is that all you could muster? I gave you time to prepare something more competent… and this is what you bring me." My tone carried more disappointment than fury.
The young chancellor lifted his eyes, weary. "We don't have many soldiers. Ever since the damned Knights abandoned us against the greenskins, our defenses collapsed. The little gold available went to maintaining the League's fortresses."
"Yes, I noticed. I expected a much larger noble host… but six thousand men are nothing. Not even with Bechafen could you reach ten thousand. Did you really think ten thousand poorly armed peasants could stand against my fifty thousand?" I shook my head, almost amused at his naivety.
"I thought… that if I could retake my city, I might cut off your supply lines. I believed desertions and a rising of my people would force you to retreat and negotiate. But it seems I couldn't even achieve that," he admitted bitterly. "What will happen now?"
I crossed my arms. "I have no intention of killing you. But there will be a complete restructuring of the local nobility and landholdings. The power of the great margraves is finished. Their estates will be broken apart and handed to lesser nobles, mere administrators of the Emperor. That way, their offices can be revoked at any time."
The chancellor blinked, startled. "But… wasn't this meant to be temporary? What happens when Talabecland reclaims its rights?"
I smiled sideways. "Nothing is more permanent than the temporary. The letter says 'temporary control.' For how long? Ten years? A thousand? Ten thousand? It was never specified. That was the trap. As long as Ostermark remains in a state of emergency, the Emperor can rule these lands as absolute lord. That was the agreement."
"So… if I had done nothing, would you have just left quietly?" asked the chancellor, bitterness dripping from his voice.
"Yes," I replied coldly. "I would have left you bound to the Imperial general of the garrison, watched, subordinated, controlled. But now… now I can do whatever changes I want. Reduce your power, strip you of the city, and do it all using the same Imperial law you swore to obey. I will expropriate almost everything, though I will leave a few lesser nobles standing so the local nobility does not panic. The rest… will serve the Emperor. And me."
The chancellor collapsed into his chair, defeated, his eyes vacant like a man who had realized too late the full reach of his mistake.
"When you're done lamenting, leave this castle. It's no longer yours. Is that clear?" I said with a sneer, while Joachim and I left the chamber.
"So what do we do now?" asked the young man, the future Elector Count, walking at my side with a frown.
"For the moment, reorganize everything. Send forces to every corner of Ostermark, remove the League's garrisons and replace them with our troops. The administration must merge into a single body: taxes and recruitment under one hand. Before we leave, there must be thirty thousand permanent soldiers here, well-equipped and maintained by these lands. With that, Ostermark will be secured for the Emperor: a vast stretch of land and tens of thousands of souls serving his armies."
Joachim nodded, but replied cautiously: "That's the general idea… but what should I do, concretely, when the time comes? If one day I must decide in your absence."
I looked at him sharply as we descended the corridors of the castle, now taken by my men. "Delegating is an art, Joachim. You cannot blindly trust the common folk: they are fickle, impressionable, ignorant. You will always need the nobles, even if we have just punished them. They are the only group with education, with networks of influence, with the respect of the peasant. Use them."
Joachim listened intently, and I continued: "Make sure the land is worked in an orderly fashion. Irrigation canals, windbreaks of trees, grain warehouses. Create a stable recruitment system, capable of feeding the army we've left here consistently. And most important: an administrative apparatus that collects taxes efficiently. Watch corruption like a hawk: gold that vanishes into the wrong pockets is one less army for the Empire."
"I understand…" said Joachim, nodding at my words.
"About your father, tell him to take charge of Bechafen temporarily. It seems he does not enjoy being much at the front receiving orders, and for now we will not stay here long. We already have what we wanted; now it is only a matter of seeing how the region evolves once we've laid stronger foundations for the central governance of the Empire," I answered.
As we sent patrols to all corners of Ostermark to reorganize the province, I received grim news: the new Tzar was gathering an army in front of our fortress, and everything suggested he intended to attack.
At such a warning I was forced to act quickly, concentrating all available men in the area. What the devil was he thinking… if he hoped to consolidate his reign with a swift victory, he would not find it against me. So I left several dawi of Duran to continue organizing the system in my name and marched immediately to the fortress, determined to greet the new Tzar with a defense worthy of the situation.
I arrived in two days, after a forced march. It was evident this was going to be a major battle. I immediately began preparing my griffon, which in recent weeks had already accepted a saddle on its back. The beast had grown to an imposing size, far greater than a simple demi-gryph, and I thought it was time to test it in battle against Kislev.
The fortress was still under construction: the dawi worked tirelessly, hammering stone upon stone, raising walls, opening spaces for cannon emplacements, and drawing defensive lines that used the course of the rivers. On the far side of the stream, however, Kislevite forces could be clearly seen gathering.
They did not have the numbers, not even close, but they had something dangerous: an abundance of mages, many of those ice-witches who could complicate any battle. Their army was composed mostly of green recruits, even less experienced than mine, though among them a handful stood out, better equipped with armor and weapons more serious than mere spears or bows.
Meanwhile, my army continued to gather. With the patrol forces, the troops of nobles forced to cooperate, and my personal veterans, we outnumbered them perhaps three to one. By my calculations, their numbers were around eighteen thousand men, a poor showing for what I expected of a kingdom like Kislev.
On one of those days, at the only bridge still standing, the Kislevites requested an audience. I was not about to deny them. I approached riding my griffon, its wings spread wide, and on the other side appeared a warrior mounted on a massive war-bear.
Crossing the bridge, I could confirm what I had already seen from afar: a poorly trained, poorly equipped army. Even at such a crucial moment, their lack of discipline was blatant. Soldiers chatted among themselves instead of staying alert, some looked nervously to the sides, and others, incredibly, had left their weapons stuck in the snow, as if waiting for it all to end on its own.
They were not the force one would expect of the new Tzar. It looked more like a hasty levy than a real army. It was evident that, with a little pressure, their formation would shatter like frozen glass under a hammer.
The idea settled clearly in my mind victory here was feasible, and if I could rid myself of those cursed ice-witches, the rest of the army would collapse inevitably. After that… nothing would stop us from marching on Kislev. All it would take was to impose enough terror and spill just enough blood to then place a puppet on the throne or tear up large chunks of land... or establish the cult of Sigmar as the official religion.
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If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
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