Chapter 430: Little Outing

Archibald, who had made contact with Finance Minister Adelbert thanks to my introduction, sent word that the unaffiliated mercenaries lingering in Breisburg had boarded boats on the Main River and made their way downriver into Basel.

Then August spotted a group he believed to be mercenaries scouting near the border and reported it to me at once.

In the old days, fighting during Lent was considered taboo. But these days, plenty of nobles don’t observe Lent properly at all, and the Count of Basel seemed to have decided to launch his provocation before the blessing of spring arrived. In the end, it all came down to pride.

The Count of Basel regarded his defeat at the Battle of Euz as a humiliation. I’m called a war hero now, but five years ago, in the great war, it was the Count of Basel whose name rang out as a war hero.

He must not have been able to stomach being measured against me and coming up short. Nobles these days value pride as much as appearances, so the count’s provocation had been a foregone conclusion.

"I’ve fought a border skirmish with Basel before."

"You said you went to war with Basel back in Baron Constance’s day, didn’t you?"

"Back then, I was a raw novice, barely more than a squire."

August gazed out from the walls of Hissen toward the front, seemingly lost in old memories. With the two Streit companies and the main body of the Gale Knights assembled, roughly eight hundred men were gathered at Hissen alone.

That was the largest force I could field at present.

If I called up a levy, I could gather around fifteen hundred.

But I wasn’t about to pour Rosenheim’s future into a border skirmish. Honestly, just maintaining the troops we had was already a strain, not least because I had boldly sunk enormous sums into developing the territory.

If I started producing gunpowder and cannons in earnest, the Basel lot wouldn’t dare pick a fight, but quarrels between princes aren’t entirely a bad thing. This one hands me a justification to strike back at Basel.

In other words, once I’ve repelled the invaders, nothing can stop me from marching into Basel’s lands. The amusing part is that since Rosenheim and Basel haven’t formally declared war, my justification only extends as far as a border skirmish, too.

The distinction between a skirmish and a full-scale war is the ultimate self-deception of princes who relish their petty wars and their plunder. But that’s how the world of the nobility and the order among princes work, so I may as well make use of it.

In practice, frontier princes like Belfort and Euz frequently get into scrapes with foreign princes as well. The classic examples in the west are Belfort and Besançon, and Euz and Épinay.

What’s more, Euz and Épinay fought a border skirmish not long ago. Having taken part in it myself, I was astonished at the scale of this so-called skirmish. Some four thousand men clashed across the two sides. How is that a skirmish?

Burgundy and Beren were plainly at each other’s throats, but rather than call it a full-scale war, they played it down as a trifling little skirmish between Euz and Épinay. Rosenheim and Basel are now walking the same path.

Viktor, who was with us, spoke with complete confidence.

"The time has come to show those idiot mountain goats the greatness of Streit."

Viktor, who had personally captured the Count of Basel, argued forcefully that Basel clearly didn’t know its place if it was picking a fight again, and that this time we had to teach them a lesson they’d never forget. August backed his bold words.

"Sir Falkenheim, you took the Count of Basel prisoner with your own hands, so I imagine you’re confident. If you capture him again this time, we can end this skirmish easily."

"Sir Einbeck, that feat would have been impossible if our lord and Sir Steinhof hadn’t pinned down the Swiss mercenaries. What I’m looking forward to is seeing what our lord’s new gunner corps can do."

"Hmm, I’m curious about that myself. I heard they crushed a force more than twice their size at Vintenheim with barely any losses, but I have trouble picturing what that battle looked like."

"Ha ha ha, one thing is certain. The enemy knows as little about the gunners’ strength as we do."

The true strength of the Streit gunners remained veiled. Calling the rout of a single mercenary band a revolution in tactics would be an absurd overstatement, and a win in this skirmish wouldn’t change that either.

These gentlemen aren’t so fickle that a bit of success in a princely skirmish would have them rebuild their main line around gunners overnight. Gunners only began to draw serious attention after the Spanish mercenaries made their debut in Europe.

Artillery, which battered down gates and delivered a tremendous shock, was one thing. But to the nobles and princes, my policy of raising a gunner corps looked like an eccentric waste of money, the sort of thing that made them click their tongues.

So for the time being, I’d quietly keep reaping that advantage.

Viktor, who had been laughing heartily with August, turned to me.

"My lord, once we’ve driven off the mercenaries Basel hired, what then?"

"Well now. Maybe we’ll take a little outing."

"Pardon? An outing, all of a sudden?"

I just grinned at the two baffled men. I hear Basel has plenty of sights worth seeing, so maybe I’ll take my men on a sightseeing trip. The Count of Basel will have a fit, of course.

Hissen, which guards Rosenheim’s southern approach, is a fairly large fortress. It sits at a key junction on the roads to the south, so any overland route from Basel to Breisburg has to pass through here.

When relations soured, Baron Constance slapped on outrageous tolls, which forced Basel to rely on trade along the Main River. The resulting grudge festered until a diplomatic insult set off a war.

The man who mediated between Rosenheim and Basel in that war was Karlus, the current Grand Duke. The war ended in a draw, and Basel gave up the overland route in exchange for preferential tolls at Breisburg.

The problem now is that Breisach’s port has been paralyzed, cutting off Basel’s exports.

On top of that, I, the thorn in his side, am involved in the matter. Add wounded pride, and it was more than enough to sour the Count of Basel’s temper. That’s why he pushed ahead with a provocation that doubles as a test of me.

In terms of sheer strength, Basel currently outweighs Rosenheim by a wide margin. When the house of Baron Constance was wiped out, everything in Rosenheim ground to a halt, and the territory declined rapidly.

Our populations aren’t remotely comparable, either. If Basel fully committed to mobilizing, couldn’t it muster close to three thousand men? All the more reason to crush them properly this time, and shake some money loose while I’m at it.

Territorial fighting originally sprang from the Germanic culture of plunder.

They may play the part of refined nobles now, but that nature hasn’t gone anywhere.

"Gustav, you don’t have to be so tense in front of our lord."

Gustav, who had risen from captain of Rosenheim’s youth militia to commander of the Second Company on Oscar’s strong recommendation, didn’t seem to hear a word of it and remained rigidly at attention before me.

New commanders are like that.

It’ll take him some time to get used to it.

Gustav had passed Oscar’s training with flying colors and proven himself capable of commanding gunners, earning command of the Second outright, but people still whispered that he’d gotten the post through connections. So now he has to produce results.

He still has a long way to go, though.

"Well, new commander of the Second, have you gotten the hang of running a company?"

"Yes, sir! Fortunately, the gunners are all from Rosenheim, so they follow my orders."

"But I hear you’re having trouble with the pikemen who are supposed to protect you."

"...They dismiss me as a green commander, sir."

Gustav gave an awkward laugh. Unlike the First Company, which had seen real combat, the newly formed Second had a subtle rivalry simmering between its gunners and pikemen. I’d been mulling over what to do about the Second.

"Gustav, if you can’t solve this, your company doesn’t fight."

"Th-the pikeman commander respects me, sir, so please give me a little more time."

"That’s something, at least. I’ll give you a bit more time. See that you sort it out."

I could settle it in one stroke if I stepped in, say, by announcing a reward for following Gustav’s orders. But that would only stunt his growth.

Even if fighting broke out this very instant, I wouldn’t hesitate to leave the Second out of the battle if he couldn’t resolve the problem himself. Afterward, I’d either restructure the company or replace its commander.

I intended to watch and see how Gustav handled it.

It was a kind of test.