117 They will fear us
Hi guys, I'm not dead, I finished my ordinary exams approving all, now I just need the final exam to finish college, as I said at the end of January.
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POV of Lothar von Ruppin ninth- tenth moon 284 AC
''Well, it seems you have seen the value of my skills archon, what proposal do you have for me'', I said while wiping some of the blood draining from my armor.
''Yes, your skills will greatly help the great and illustrious city of tyrosh, but first, are your men as strong as you?'', said the archon stepping down from his podium and walking towards me with a lot of enthusiasm
''The knights of house Ruppin are one of the strongest in the kingdom of Prussia, but none can match my strength, as it is a characteristic of the main line of the Ruppins, so no, no one is as strong as me'' I said as I watched the archon getting smaller and smaller as he walked towards me
''And your sons too knight lothar?'' said the archon, rubbing his hands together with great interest
''My sons are dead'' I said with a bit of annoyance.
''Oh... well... we can accept your requests, but we want to add some limitations to your actions, considering that you requested autonomy, you must know things that common mercenaries don't have access to, bring a map and call the general'' he said to the archon, and then he gave orders to the slaves that were in the room.
The slaves brought a table and shortly after a map and several magisters approached dodging the pool of blood that the other slaves were trying to clean up.
''The war was not favoring us at the moment, we lost the last battles against lys and we had to retreat, normally Myr should have attacked lys to keep the balance of power, but they preferred to attack us, we lost some important cities in the north of the disputed lands, but we managed to stop their advance here'' said the archon pointing me to cities in the disputed lands.
''This is why in this military season we want to recover our possessions before our recent defeat, the towns and cities in this area are not touched, no looting, no enslaving... you can make use of the women if you want, but those people that inhabit the towns are slaves, property of Tyrosh that you must recover'' said the archon with a serious voice.
''But for this area these are lands that frequently change hands, you can do whatever you want with the populations of the area, the coastal cities should surrender at the sight of a considerable army, although I doubt that with your men you could besiege a walled city if that were to happen, we kindly ask you not to make a massacre, enslave the population and consider the city of tyrosh to be the first to whom you offer those slaves to use them to repopulate the city'' said the archon pointing me deeper areas in the disputed lands
''Is everything captured in plunder and battle mine?'', I asked the archon and the magisters who looked at me in fear and amazement.
The archon looked at his companions and smiled at me.
''Everything captured is yours, horses, weapons, metals, cloth, slaves, everything, we just want you to crush our enemies'' said the archon smiling.
I continued to negotiate my terms for my services, although there was discomfort on the faces of the tyrosh politicians, it seemed they understood that I was a safe investment if they wanted to see their enemies defeated in front of them.
When a man in colorful armor and blue hair entered the room
''New mercenary, he has a special contract, explain him the plans for the next campaign avoiding too much compromising details because he will act with a lot of autonomy'' said the archon to the general.
The general looked at me observing my whole body and began to speak.
''Until next year we will try to recruit an army of thirty thousand mercenaries to support the other thirteen thousand we have already deployed in our possessions'' said the general with an emotionless face.
''According to our informants, lys expects to recruit between twenty five thousand and thirty five thousand to add to the twenty two thousand men that are deployed in their possessions, while Myr has twenty eight thousand men deployed and they have around thirty thousand near their city, they are recruiting, but not so much we expect them to increase their men by fifteen thousand,since as they have been winning in the last campaigns many mercenaries changed...sides''continued speaking the general to stare at me in his last words.
''Our campaign is directed against Myr, we will recover our cities, strengthen the garrisons and we will wait for lys to act because they should attack Myr, but we can no longer trust ourselves, so your men must accompany us to fight against Myr'' said the general looking at me.
I looked at the map and although the plan was basic it was crazy to think it would work they made a plan where everything depended on Myr being distracted fighting against Lys and having to defend themselves from both sides, the problem was if Lys decided to attack Tyrosh again.
''My men and I will attack the men of lys who are already deployed,by the numbers you indicated they are very over extended in their holdings,they will be easy prey for quick attacks on their logistical lines''I said looking at the tyrosh politicians.
The general looked at the archon with a slight frown.
''Knight lothar I suppose you have a very good reason for your proposal'' said the archon stopping smiling when he heard my decision.
''We have horses and with the gold you will pay me we will buy more and it will not be necessary for you to worry about the men of lys, if the campaign starts next year and we act fast and with strength, I can with my men start a scorched earth campaign in the lands of lys that will prevent them by having a higher operational range, leaving them out of your equations, but everything will depend on how fast we attack, since we can not leave to chance the participation of lys against you we have to break the legs of their armies and they can not do anything'' I said pointing to the areas of influence of lys.
''You will be unsupported, outnumbered, sacrificing your valuable cavalry that we need to control the vast terrain of the conflict'' the general closed his arms.
''What matters are the results, the men of lys will not know what hit them, we will attack all the places that could be used for their future campaigns on land, because what I understand that the fleets of their cities do not participate in the war'' I said replying to general
''No, the fleets do not participate if trade begins to be affected, we will all suffer the consequences, since many new players could enter the war since their interests would be attacked by collateral effects and the possibility of increased pirate presence'' said the archon.
''Well, we will go in for a fight immediately, I hope that when you see my results you will consider an increase in my fee, but if we agree for the time being on my remuneration I will immediately go on duty and move to the battlefield to destroy the men of lys before the city campaign begins and if necessary I will join your fight against Myr'' I said as I prepared to leave.
''Knight lothar, it is not necessary for you to leave so quickly, we would be glad to have you as a guest in our city, to be treated according to your noble lineage'' said the archon again smiling.
''No, I will leave immediately, every second I waste in this useless conversation could be killing one of your enemies or destroying their camps, for the next six months my loyalty is to tyrosh, your enemies are my enemies, but I will seek battle as soon as possible to begin to adapt to how we will have to fight in the future against the enemies of your city'' I said as I took my leave.
We signed the contract with all the terms I demanded as well as the terms of the city of tyrosh about which areas I cannot loot and that I must consider them for the sale of the goods that are caught.
There were no more attempts to change my mind and with my escort we left the city as fast as we could, we organized everything as quickly as possible and we will buy supplies and equipment for the future campaign using the down payment given to me by the archon and we would buy horses in the city where we would disembark.
''Commander'' said Antti as we headed to the dock.
''What's going on?'' I asked the young Finn.
''I need your authorization to leave a few hundred of my men in the city to gather information, you know sensitive material to try to manipulate these politicians, I would leave some of our veterans with the newer ones to continue taking advantage of the situation to train the new ones...many of them have not yet tortured a man to tears of agony or as my master prefers...''' said Antti but I interrupted him before he finished.
''Desolation, for knowing that he can never escape...well, two hundred I guess that will be fine for the city, we can't leave more either we will totally depend on surprise attacks with speed and violence'' I said to antti who nodded to my words and went to give orders to his men.
Antti left some of his men in the city to try to gather information within its walls while the rest of my men and I headed off to seek battle.
We paid several ships to transport us and arrived at the city under tyrosh's control that was closest to the conflict with the city of lys.
It only took a week and we began to prepare, we bought horses although expensive, we now had another spare horse to maintain great mobility as it would be key to gaining victories against the mercenaries.
The terrain where we would fight was ideal for fighting on horseback if the maps given to us by tyrosh's men are true there are only decent walled cities on the coast as they are places they can easily supply with their fleet while the cities away from the coast are scarce and poorly defended as they frequently change hands.
We had to understand the mind of the mercenary, someone cowardly who would flee at the first instant when things got ugly and considering that the Essosi fear the horse lords the most, we knew exactly what we had to do, we had to make the mercenaries fear us as much or more than the Dothraki.
We traveled light as we moved through the towns and countryside that were in Lys control, but owned by Tyrosh. In most towns we had to stop and take official control of the town and if it had a Lys mercenary presence they were to be captured and turned over to Tyrosh's city or tortured by the Finns in case they thought to have valuable information.
We ignore the coastal cities that might have valuable elements but it would only be a waste of time as it is likely that they would surrender or prefer to wait for the security that a larger army provided by the city of tyrosh could deliver.
After almost 10 days riding taking control of several villages we finally arrived at our destination, we arrived at the lands that frequently change hands and where we would begin our intensive search for Valyrian steel we may find little but we can leave no stone unturned.
We had already divided into several groups, mainly the Finns had already begun their exploration and sabotage missions and as this mission brought the valuable warg we could maintain an excellent communications network as their eagles always managed to come back with valuable information.
As my group rode on, I smelled a familiar scent in the air, the smell of blood, specifically the smell of the battlefield.
Looking for the place where the smell was coming from I noticed in the distance that there was a large line of wagons that was stopped, as we approached the caravan we found that the Finns of Antti had overtaken us and had already attacked the caravan.
Did you capture the leader of the caravan alive?'' I asked the Finn who was wearing Antti's decorations and had anger in his eyes.
''No...the idiot broke his neck falling off his horse'' said antti very annoyed while wiping the blood from his knives.
''Anybody with important information?'' I asked again while observing that there were several wagons with cages transporting slaves.
''Most of them barely know where their cocks are, the rest are slaves for their service, the only one who might know something panicked and fell off his horse'' said Antti after getting up and kicking a corpse that was under a horse.
''What do you think of the mercenary resistance, better or worse than what we have observed so far'' I said while checking the spoils of the wagons.
''Minimal...the moment we came out from all sides of the dry brush that spread all over the territory they only tried to run away, no organized defense, no last stand , they only escaped when the arrows hit their target'' said Antti as he pulled a fork out of his clothes and swung it in front of me.
The fork was made of the metal we were looking for.
''We start with something, today a small fork, tomorrow a sword'' I said as I took the fork.
''I like your optimism commander, what should I do with the prisoners'' said Antti pointing to the group of men who had their feet and arms tied up.
''We should sell them to tyrosh for gold, but circumstances can change and I would not feel at ease handing over men who know how to fight to employers who may be our enemies tomorrow...so they will fulfill another mission, they will be the heralds of our arrival'' I said to the Finn who ran to get something from his horse when he heard my words.
''Well what do we do to them'' said Antti opening a leather bag that was full of torture tools.
''No need for so many tools, blind them, you know enough finger strength and that's it, choose one of the group that should keep an eye so he can lead the rest with his companions and can observe what will happen to them later on every time they face us'' I gave antti the orders before continuing to check our gains.
''Something you like inside the mercenaries' cargo? they were carrying a lot of variety of...meat...you want to keep some, we have authorization from the king to make use of the old slavery system'' said antti when he saw me watching the slaves that were in cages
''No,we just avoid giving war slaves to our employer...and as much as I hate the idea of heathens in our ranks we should consider some form of recruitment,probably the younger males we should keep to educate them in the true faith,the rest back to tyrosh to be sold'' I said to antti as I climbed on my horse.
''Understood, we already have a place for our camp in the heart of lys territory, off the main roads hidden in the bushes and some trees with a clean subterranean water source, an ideal place to ambush lys patrols the problem will be to hide our tracks, but we can always look for places to relocate our camp'' said antti pointing me to where I should head to
''Well, when you finish this mission go back to camp and we'll plan more attacks on the logistical lines'' I said as I directed my men to where we should set up camp.
''What should I do with the enemy wounded, some of them can't walk, they are just ballast'' said Antti as he walked fast to catch up with me.
''Kill them, impale them, be creative'', I said without much importance.
While I was reading some reports given to us by the other groups of our forces, I heard agonizing screams from the prisoners who had already started to be blinded.
I continued to ride, observing the landscape with nothing around me but our forces in this foreign land.
'I will triumph no matter what.'
''Prīmā vice vīvō vērē quia ego peccātor videō'' I said gripping the Valyrian steel fork very tightly.
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