7 The march south II

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Here is the new chapter

As for the power stones 180 for the bonus chapter for this week

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''Fight like a Prussian or die like a Westerosi dog'' -Friedrich von Roon speaking to the recruits

Friedrich von Roon POV

The duke Helmuth had given an extremely strong blow to the table where this meeting was taking place, showing a totally furious face while he looked at lothar.

''Seriously lothar, this is a joke?, don't you see the seriousness of the situation we are in, we don't even know how many there are, we are going to fight against an army that is almost as big as ours and your clever idea is to have more enemies, did you think something before proposing this idea or your fanaticism made you forget your strategy lessons because if I remember correctly my father taught you well'' said duke Helmuth with a tone as cold as ice while he looked with his only good eye at lothar with hatred.

All the nobles kept silent at these words, no one wanted to insult the lord of the death hussars of the Prussian army, in the face of the absolute silence, Helmuth continued speaking

''What you are proposing is stupid, we may win some battles, but we barely have supplies, if you would meet with the soldiers of the tercios you would find out that they are unmotivated, and you are proposing a war that could last decades, you do not consider the situation lothar, think a little'' the one-eyed noble continued speaking.

The duke sighed, looked at his fellow nobles and continued speaking.

''The king is aware of the situation, he knows they are pagans, and yet, he wishes to continue serving them because unlike you, he understands what a shitty situation we are in, and he didn't want to inform you bunch of religious fanatics because he knew you would propose this stupidity or similar, I thought you would be wiser, but I was wrong, the war changed the men I met'' said the Helmuth with a calmer tone

''So you knew this, why didn't you report it before, Helmuth, that we were under the orders of savage heathens, if we had acted sooner, we could have attacked the heathens while they were fighting each other'' said Lothar von Ruppin looking at Helmuth angrily

''Because it means nothing to our strategy lothar, we must besiege castles and get grain and other food from the locals, if we started attacking them for their religion, we would face extraordinary resistance from the locals, as we would be a threat to all, nothing unites people more than a common enemy and your stupid idea would make us the common enemy of these seven kingdoms'' said Helmuth continuing to use his icy and grave tone of voice

Lothar was about to respond, but the one-eyed noble rose from his chair, preventing lothar from speaking.

''if only your father saw you lothar would be so disappointed in what you have become, you were one of the most called for religious tolerance in the rule of our beloved monarch, may he rest in peace and now calling for a holy war at a critical time for us'' Helmuth said with a condescending tone against lothar

''I saw the light, Helmuth I understood my mistake, I knew that my idiotic idea of tolerance was not going to work when everyone was killing each other over religion''said lothar his veins were beginning to show with anger.

''You shouldn't blame yourself for the death of your children...'' said Helmuth, but Lothar didn't let him finish.

''DON'T GET MY CHILDREN INTO THESE HELMUTH THEY WERE PERFECT, MY FAMILY WAS PERFECT BUT THE CATHOLICS TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME THEY TAKE EVERYTHING AWAY FROM ME'' said lothar bursting with anger.

Helmuth looked at lothar and then at the rest of the nobility and began to move to the exit of the tent, seeing that the idea of settling this by talking was not an option among fanatics.

''I just want to warn you, what you are doing is treason, and you will be blacklisted by the Finn, the king's decision is the most strategically optimal so far, once again I remind you what we are, soldiers, and we have our orders, and we must comply without complaining, goodbye''said the duke as he walked out of the tent.

Just by naming that man, the faces red with anger quickly changed to pale, they all knew what he was capable of, that unhinged, the wretch could make your life impossible, since he has the royal favor, he is untouchable, even with all my complaints or those of other nobles has served to remove the favor of the king because of the effectiveness of that man when it comes to getting vital information from his infiltrations'.

At that moment, when the nobles heard that they would be investigated by the Finn if they continued talking about religion, almost all the nobles began to make excuses to withdraw from the conversation, either out of fear or because they would never consider betraying the king or both.

When a large group of nobles had left, I decided it was time for me to leave too, since I could excuse myself that the meeting had failed, and I would not insult the powerful and influential noble, as I left the tent I only saw how the most influential or brave nobles had stayed with lothar and continued talking about the problem of pagans, it seems that lothar's idea did not work, but in the same way he could influence the king.

Quickly, I returned to my camp because I had to take advantage of the time, since tomorrow would be a long day of march and I had to leave ready my report on the economic expenses and how many kilograms of food we were consuming daily, so that the logistics officers could be sure of how long our supplies would last.

When I got far enough away from Lothar's tent I took some time to breathe because this whole situation was making my head hurt, we were maybe minutes or even seconds away from starting a crusade in these lands, if the duke had kept silent, this would have escalated into a total war, a war without quarter against the inhabitants of these lands, but above all I was hurt by the impotence of not being able to do anything, even if I had spoken against all this they would have only ignored me, since in the eyes of those arrogant people I am just a nobleman who had come out of the mud two generations ago

But these lands give a new opportunity, the king has always been quite contrary to the enormous power that his oldest nobility has, since they have been the ones that have survived the attempts of centralization of the two previous monarchs, trying to take away their privileges that these have hoarded for generations, with a little luck, this retrograde thinking of the Prussian high command will be cleaned, and we will have a war council more focused on strategy than on religion to avoid making the same mistakes of the past that almost cost us the damned war.

When the young officer managed to calm down, he walked back to his camp, as he still had to solve plenty of administrative problems before he could call it a day.

Arriving back to my camp I found an unpleasant surprise, my men had let a group of these locals into the camp, among them some women, if they are prostitutes I will get into serious trouble, if there is an epidemic, this is serious the punishments will be severe and that includes me for being negligent.

I walked to the center of the camp so that the majority could hear me and focus their attention on me.

''May I know what happened in my absence, why did you let these filthy peasants into our camp, if information leaks out about this, heads will roll'' I said with a serious tone.

The surprised face of one of my men showed fear when he heard the possible punishment they were expecting.

''Lord Roon... what happened is that we needed .... help with the clothes, only a few of us know tailoring and we had to repair some pieces of clothing, so as not to go with ragged clothes, since that would not be worthy of a Prussian soldier, as you had told us'' said one of my captains quite scared.

''Very understandable captain, but why did you let them in, you could have left them outside, it was not necessary to break the military code to solve this problem, it left us susceptible to enemy spies entering our camp, now I will have to call the Finns to start an investigation of all these peasants'' I said with a cold tone.

The captain began to hesitate

I was sincerely thinking of sending to execute the guards who let these peasants pass, but I remembered that the king forbade executions during the army march because of the waste of time and it would not do morale any good if we started executing soldiers as if we had reinforcements on the way

''5 lashes to all who participated,20 for the peasants and leave them as prisoners until the Finns have checked that none of them is a spy that will not happen again, I will send a letter to the king to know how to proceed still do not apply the punishment because the king could request the execution of the sentries''I said with a serious tone.

''Understood, lord Roon, it won't happen again'' said the captain with a frightened face

I went into my tent and sat on my chair and began to curse my luck, this was a superior offense to the military code, I could be demoted for this, years of exemplary service could go to shit for this, just for a mistake of my subordinates, I know I could try to forget this, but more serious would be to lie to my king and I decided to make the letter that explained everything that happened and send it with a messenger.

Von Roon was fearful of his king's answer and to calm down he decided to continue with his work and finished checking the accounting books for an hour until a messenger returned with a letter from the king which was handed to the young officer.

I was afraid to open it and find myself degraded, but as the letter had not been brought by a Teutonic knight, at least I would not be arrested, but the punishment would be fair.

{Warn all involved with corporal punishment, but do not apply the punishments, we are not in times of harshly enforcing the military code

the king}

Apparently the king has been understanding of my situation, hopefully this will not tarnish my record in the future.

After receiving the letter, the young officer went to talk to his men so that they would release the prisoners and because of the king's magnanimity the punishments would be suspended, but in the case of a reoccurrence the major penalty, crucifixion or execution, would be applied.

Overseeing the release of prisoners and calming the fears of his soldiers, von Roon decided to end his day by going to sleep because tomorrow would be a long day of marching south.

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