Chapter 146. War? War just changed.
"...Alrighty then." - I riposte as Taras makes an invitation that, in retrospect, was in no way sudden and very much inevitable. So I follow him into the longhouse that serves as the village community center. Which in practical terms means a bar. It used to be just an empty lot near the village center with some logs and a bit of tarp tented over, but when I got my tentacles on it, it became a bit more... substantial. In a show of Slavic practicality, Taras and Vasil have had been leisurely walking me around the village (and several surrounding ones) and rather transparently letting me indulge in mindless trespass and betterment for the last few days. Their excuse was that everyone was spooked by the airship so showing off the owner of it as a benevolent if absentminded person assuaged the worries of common folk. After a few instances, at least half of my harem would accompany us, because one of the first cases they showed me was a decrepit well. Apparently, it was the first well used by the village, then they dug a deeper better one and let this one fall into disrepair because the spring filling it was kinda lackluster and the well just couldn't support the water needs of the whole village by that point. Now it's a mineral spring. And Taras had personally (if discreetly) begged my harem to always have someone "witchy" accompanying us to handle my expected "magical mishaps". Somehow, breathing metal-fueled flames was not quite enough to prepare Taras for my drilling by stellaration method. Admittedly, the column of vaporized earth was a very funny color for a smoke cloud.
That being said, the mineral waters are actually pretty good. I'm guessing that this region roughly corresponds to what I knew as Kuialnyk back in my first life. It sort of tracks, except that the place that would be the estuary is still just a gulf. Of course, locals don't know it under that name, since there are no Tatars to borrow the vernacular from. The locals simply know it as Gustoi, which means thick. This is because while it is not a complete estuary yet, the bar is well into the final formation stages and it is possible to cross the mouth of the gulf without getting your knees wet by this point. That in turn results in the future estuary already beginning to gain hypersalinity. Which is amply appreciated by locals who use it for salt-making.
Anyway... The people inside the longhouse have had been introduced to me... for the most part. The three guys are new. Two are kinda obvious bodyguards, while we are at it. Meaning the guy between them is a big shot. Considering that khorunjy Bogdan did not actually run around with bodyguards, and he is basically the second to highest tier of big shot in the country already, I have an educated guess that I'm about to talk with hetman himself. Not exactly a moment I expected to ever happen to me. Not talking to hetman, I mean, but rather who he turned out to be. Let us hope I will be better to him than Peter the Great managed.
"Pan Mazepa, I presume?"
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Whew. It took four hours and it was just preliminary talks. Officially, we are meeting hetman only tomorrow. As a head of state, there are certain political expectations and rituals that even I have to observe. Especially so, given that I have literal princesses with me. So there will be an official thing tomorrow where hetman officially welcomes assorted high nobility guests into the country and exchanges the formal assurances of goodwill and cooperation with their nominal leader/host, namely me.
In part, this whole thing is necessary because aside from the economic and civic considerations, Mazepa saw it prudent to warn me about the impending "overly vigorous politics". He had dispatched a number of scouts to the area, which is an eminently sensible thing to do - both because he is about to be in the area and because there are high-profile guests in the area. And even if the guests are capable of taking care of themselves, why risk any surprises?
And so, we find out that Vallah is making moves. Technically speaking, there is a separate principality of Basarab separating Kraina from Vallah, but Basarab is ruled by a cadet branch of the same house Vlad is currently the head of, and while they like being nominally independent, there is no way the adolescent Stefan Basarab has the cojones to deny daddy Vladdy. Not to mention that according to some rumors, Stefan is very enthusiastic about Vlad's politics, to begin with, and in fact may be quite eager to underscore his loyalty by being extra cruel to "enemies of the state". What it amounts to is that we're about to experience a number of Vallah-Basarab raids on the Kraina villages in the immediate vicinity. And while no one wants to say it out loud, it is commonly presumed that getting taken in as a prisoner by them more likely than not ends in being sold to the Sultanate as a slave.
I have a distinct feeling Mazepa would rather I gather mine and fuck off to the airship so he does not have to deal with the potential diplomatic hassle of his squabbles with Vallah drawing the attention of very powerful if distant neighbors from the west. However, he seems to understand I'm not going to be ordered around and wisely constrains himself to just voicing the warnings and giving reassurances that Kraina will do all that they can to ensure we are not harmed. However, all this looks to me like a very convenient pretext for dealing with Vlad for good before he earns himself the nickname "Impaler". I have this distinct hunch that if I bully Stefan properly and then send him packing to daddy Vladdy, there will be no other option for Vlad but to respond to it personally. Disrespecting his underlings is one thing, abusing his blood relatives is quite another. Personal, let's put it like this. This was not the initial plan, but everything I heard about Stefan so far paints him as a very acceptable target to me. Vlad has a thing about impalement, Stefan just has a thing for cruelty in general. He was not really mentioned in the game much, period, and what was there seemed to imply Stefan was the "casus belli" Vlad originally used to start the conquest of the Transbalkan. Apparently, Stefan did something... attention-getting to moderately-high ranked schlachta girls from the neighboring regions of Rzeczpospolita.
Rzeczpospolita is a funny thing in itself, actually. Imagine an assembly of thousands of petty feudals. The schlachta, as they are known locally. Rzeczpospolita considers the schlachta to be the citizens of a democratic republic. To clarify, the citizen is not a specific noble, but the noble house and EVERYTHING under their aegis, all of that constitutes ONE citizen. And those citizens live in a state of democracy much along the lines of Athenian direct democracy. Where they all gather up and vote on what the country should do. Within the "citizen", however, it's absolute despotism of the head of the family all the way. Up to and including the right to execute any commoners within their own sphere of influence for no reason beyond "I want it so".
Rzeczpospolita kinda lacks much in the way of major landowners, for one reason or another no schlachtish owns more than maybe a town at best. Some are more equal than others, however, by having important industries in their domains. The owners of mines and foundries, for example, tend to have WAY more say than someone who just breaks even on self-sustenance with their remote village. That being said, nominally they are all equal before the law, and so when Stefan starts taking liberties with the daughters of "not so important" border schlachta, the response of Rzeczpospolita is along the lines of "he raped a princess, gather your swords" rather than much more expected by Stefan appeasement. Long story short, in the original story, Rzeczpospolita invaded Basarab following the provocation in question, tried Stefan in his own castle and sentenced him to be burned at the stake for "defiling our daughters without consideration". The game does not really expand on this topic much, but reading between the lines, the reason why Stefan got executed like this was less "because he raped some noble girls" and more "because he refused to marry one of them to tie him politically to Rzeczpospolita".
...Fuck. I'm gonna have to swat them down if I get Vlad off the chessboard before he does, innit?.. I hope not, but Rzeczpospolita worries me. Admittedly, a good part of it can be attributed to my memory of previous world histories. Poland and Ukraine had a very... fraught history, let's put it like this.
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"Welp, this is no good." - I sum it up curtly, as I finish drawing the lines on the map. We are currently hovering in the air to the west of the village, scouting the area while I am also collating the data from my own eyespiders with the less thorough but much further-ranging data from krainian scouts. Forewarned means forearmed... But the size of the force Stefan is personally leading is a bit over the thousand. Either he intends to split up into several divisions further in or he has his mind on something grander than just harassment of borders. If it were me with his task, I would take... a hundred horsemen. Thrice as many horses at least, both to tote the extra supplies and to switch horses in case we need to make a rapid exit. He has three hundred horsemen with him and eight hundred of infantry... Sort of. I count all the people running his logistic train and such among infantry for simplicity. The actual pike line would count only slightly under five hundred men. The rest are archers and assorted laborers who probably could serve as the last resort line if needed, but I can't make up my mind on how many of them are actually dedicated archers and how many are handymen who happen to have a bow. They're clearly auxiliaries in any case. The horsemen are all armed with a shortbow and a spear, though, so they're definitely the hammer to the pikemen anvil if the army is engaged wholesale.
"Opinions, girls?" - I request. Right now, I am with my harem... and Roxolane's little brothers, who were sent along with me presumably under the pretext of learning the art of war firsthand, but practically to keep them in a safe place. I extended the offer to any children in the village below the teens, and some did take my offer. They're currently sequestered in the cabins and kept content by an assortment of toys and snacks.
Katherine bites her lower lip. "Horse archers, huh?" - she suggests - "If it was just us, I'd say fly up high over them and drop conjured boulders on them until they give up, but they will definitely raze the villages. I mean, I would not be surprised if they will just keep on marching even if we start throwing stuff at them now."
I shrug. "Technically speaking, I can throw something nasty enough to wipe them out before they reach the villages." - I suggest - "But in practice, this will be rough on the area. That is not the problem, though. I'm more of wondering why they are here with so many people. During winter, even. If I were planning to mount pressure, I would send horse archers with extra horses and fire arrows to set the granaries on fire and run away. Why bother swinging swords if you can let hunger do most of the work for you?"
She tilts her head. Frowns. Says nothing.
"They're out to conquer something?" - Roxolane suggests uncertainly - "Maybe Stefan thinks that he can expand Basarab a little at the expense of Kraina while carrying out Vlad's orders?"
"When was the last time there were some changes in the border between Basarab and Kraina?" - I muse.
"...Not since Radu Tepes." - Moon Unit supplies helpfully - "Radu Tepes had two sons, Dayn and Mircel. Dayn is Vlad's grandfather, and Mircel is Stefan's great-grandfather. Mircel was the firstborn, Dayn was much more capable politically, so Radu separated Basarab to be Mircel's birthright and left the rest to Dayn. But since Basarab back then was about a quarter of overall lands, Radu set about to conquer more land from Kraina to add to Basarab. Pretty successfully, too, he expanded Basarab all the way to Niester river. That's where things stopped and Basarab never gained any holding beyond Niester since."
I hum. "I... have my doubts about conquest theory, Roxy." - I eventually offer - "Getting all those people across the river is a problem. Getting everything needed to successfully occupy an area is even more of a problem. Stefan would be setting his men to be basically stranded with their back to the river. Given what I know of the history, Basarabs have had been trying and failing to achieve that much for decades by now, starting from Mircel himself. Stefan would be well aware of just how much of a problem pulling that off is. Even if I assume he is young, stupid and cocksure enough to figure he would succeed where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather all failed, there is something odd about his forces. Horse archers are his fig leaf to say he was out here to harass, but the presence of pikemen tells me a different story. Also notice how his laborers all have bows on them."
"He's clearly not planning to siege anything." - Lily-Anne muses - "Even if he is planning on getting timber in the area, there are certain elements of siege engines that are hard to source randomly and bulky enough not to be missed. The scouts would have noticed if they were carrying along torsion cables and forged fittings."
"Could he be planning on capturing your airship, mistress?" - Bridgit suggests uncertainly - "I mean, it sort of makes sense that he would bring along enough of the men to safeguard the area if he expected the need to force the secrets of airship out of you."
"...That... might be the cause, yes." - I agree tentatively - "Though I would expect more nets and harpoons and such if he intended to stop the airship."
"They all carry arkans at all times." - Roxolane objects - "Scouts wouldn't report on that specifically, everyone who deals with horses has those around. That they're also used to catch people is just... a thing that is."
"Would they expect to be able to rope a building?" - I suggest incredulously.
"Actually, yeah, it takes seeing your airship to actually believe the size of it." - Katherine interjects with a wince - "Until I saw it with my own eyes, I was expecting something more along the lines of extra luxurious carriage and some kind of flying monster to pull it. At least, that's how all the known means of flight were done before you made yours."
"You mean some people made viable flying options before?" - I repeat because this is kinda news to me. There are legends, of course, but nothing specific that could not be explained by embellishment.
"Sort of?" - Moon Unit confirms - "Sultanate, in particular, did make several moderately successful attempts to train the dragons to carry a howdah around. Of course, half the howdah had to be filled with meat to keep the dragon fed in flight, so it didn't really take well. Still, there were always thrillseekers who sought to train assorted flying monsters as steeds or beasts of burden, so it's of no surprise someone unfamiliar with you would presume the same method."
"So... Why aren't we seeing aerial knight orders or something?" - I have to ask.
Moon Unit giggles - "Mainly because beasts that can fly are either too weak to carry more than at most a naked page, like pegasi, or too ornery and expensive to keep, like dragons."
"And where would I find pegasi, out of curiosity?" - I inquire, because WTF. First time I hear about them, and I have trawled both our personal library and the Parsee Academy library extensively.
"Aghand Bharat." - Moon Unit assuages my worries - "You have to be of maharaja line to own one, and they don't really exist in the wild. Presumably, they're viable chimera of albatross and pony."
Joy fucking joy. Don't tell me there will be pony shenanigans in the future. Oh well, I'll sort it when I'll see it. Back to the belligerents that are close by.
"A thought occurs to me." - I suggest - "If the harassment was the point of being here, might it be that Stefan intends to capture sotniks and khorunjy with the intention of holding them captive and tortured until they agree to some kind of concessions? That would explain both the harassment force and the camping detachment."
Princesses exchange glances. "Taking hostages in order to force hetman into talks in a disfavorable position, maybe?" - Katherine suggests - "Having most of your trusted men in the region executed if you do not agree to some comparably lesser concessions is a viable threat. Kraina can fight Basarabian forces off, but not mobilize quickly enough to catch Stefan unprepared. If hetman does not concede to Stefan's demands, he executes the hostages and then retreats to Niester, which he can hold. And if Kraina commits to full-on invasion of Basarab, that gives Vallah more than sufficient casus belli to join the war on Basarab side."
"Sounds likely." - I agree amidst the grim nods - "Very well. The villages he could hit on the way here are already emptied out and he knows about it. Even if he takes it upon himself to burn the houses, it will be just seen as sour grapes. So unless he suddenly decides on three days worth of march through the snowed wilderness up north, he has to come over here."
I pick up the tablet and deal Taras. I have gifted him, Bogdan and Mazepa a tablet each, it's both a "rare gift to signify friendship" and a considerable advantage for their communication. Mazepa's men delivered two hundred and forty gold pieces last night to cover the twenty tablets he urgently purchased to disseminate among his scouts and commanders. I offered to let him buy more and work out some sort of payment plan, but he is being cautious with "outstanding obligations at the beginning of the possible war". I can understand him, to be honest. The man is really cautious about making debts. It was hard enough to persuade him to take the tablets there and not "as soon as gold arrives", but he was swayed by the fact that two extra days of instant communication can make or break a military offensive.
"Pan Taras, how are things on your end?" - I request - "We have had looked at the situation from up top, and we're confident Stefan will have to come through the meadows to the west. He shows no signs of deviating up north and will pass the point of no return by the evening today. We should expect him to show up the day after tomorrow if we do nothing to stop him until then. I think it would be best if I put down some earthworks in the meadow, make it a problem for his horses. That way we can put him on the back foot, maybe get him to realize the jig's up."
"The men are arriving already." - he proffers from his end - "By the way, our deepest gratitude for moving the supplies by magic. Traveling light is so much faster. We should have six hundred cossacks ready by tomorrow, and thrice that much in three days. So we will hold. If you can put down some earthworks to halt Stefan before the village proper, we can come man them tomorrow. This shapes to be a good counterattack, so far."
"Then that's our plan." - I smile. Stefan annoys me. I don't even know why. But I want to break him. I want him to come back to Vlad a defeated depressed nervous shadow of a cocksure bastard he is right now. And what better tool to break men than sudden trench warfare? Now, let us see... If I trench it here, make it two layers, spread the barbed wire in front... Now some mines here and here and here, pillboxes cross-covering the area here and here and here. I think I will keep cossacks as the mounted reserve to pull a flanking action. The trenches are not familiar ground to them. I've been practicing for this for a while. Eventually, I will have to train some actual standing forces once I am actually in charge of some country... but right now, an army is me.