Kapitel 6: The march south I

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Here is the new chapter

I tried to apply what was recommended to me, I hope I did it right XD

I started to use the third person for the actions, but some continue in the first person.

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Friedrich von Roon POV

'Problems, problems and more problems, this situation we find ourselves in is complete garbage, how the hell could it happen, one moment we were celebrating the great victory that had happened against the catholic league and the next moment we showed up in this disgusting place they call the seven kingdoms.'

'What seemed like a moment of happiness and celebration of the long and bloody war was over, and we could enjoy the fruits of victory, but now we are here, with profound problems, far from our logistic lines with no reinforcements on the way or any supplies at the mercy of fate itself, but as always, the king intervened in a quick way to have a solution, but it is not a definitive solution if we do not act fast we will fall by the own weight of our army'.

Almost all the officers know it, it is no secret, the morale of the soldiers is at rock bottom, rest and payment for their services had been promised to all the soldiers who had served more than 10 years during the war, which are almost the totality of the army that accompanies us, since the less experienced troops were demobilized before, but now they must once again fight and the rest and gold that had been promised should wait to be able to overcome this difficult situation in which we find ourselves for the moment.

As the days passed, the march south did not stop, it was not uncommon to see in marching columns many Prussian soldiers with sad and tired faces and how they dragged their feet in every step they took being an obvious sign that there is no motivation and this is a serious problem known to all Prussian officers, as although these soldiers are used to suffer, this situation could reach the point that the soldiers would say enough and mutinies would start.

In the years of continuous defeats, mutinies by newly recruited soldiers were quite common, but during the reign of the new king it had never happened, during his short period not a single mutiny had been generated, he managed to fill all the soldiers with pride and purpose to continue fighting, although it seemed that all was lost, by using promises of titles and economic benefits, to give the initial motivation that they would be paid when the war ended and later by his continuous and brilliant victories against armies far superior to his own he avoided all conflict with the soldiers and concentrated on winning, but now the tactics he had used to get the army ready for combat were now working against him.

The moral tactic of delivering more food to our men, so they would forget the problems with more food was also not an option, unfortunately, we are low on supplies, although by our standards, this army is relatively small, there are too many horses and I don't think they will consider slaughtering them until it is the last option, we have food for only a couple of weeks and considering there are many mouths to feed, and we don't know if we can sustain ourselves by plundering the villages, since the rebel nobles of this place have no grain to sustain this army, the paramount lord of these lands gave us permission to solicit supplies from some villages on our way to the reach, but surprise surprise, those filthy peasants had almost nothing to offer us, our men we sent out to gather food returning bringing back some bags of wheat and apples, but nothing else some of our patrols were followed by groups of those peasants mostly women, children and once in a while a merchant looking to follow the camp.

Although those filthy scum of peasants, following us have not been able to enter the camp and many have been suffering the hardships of walking for hours following our footsteps without receiving food, it seems they saw the perfect opportunity for us to feed them,

although the Prussian officer was extremely concentrated thinking about all the events that had happened in the last days, he was still checking the accounting of his tercio with the ledgers that the quartermaster officers had given him, but that atmosphere of tranquility that inhabited the Prussian officer's tent was interrupted by the entrance of a knight bringing a message

''Von Roon, Captain General Lothar von Ruppin, is holding an emergency meeting with some commanders, the Captain General considers your presence necessary immediately,'' said one of the knights serving Lothar von Ruppin.

''Some special reason?, our scouts have not reported any enemy forces nearby for at least two days march'' I said with a serious tone while looking at the knight.

''Lothar made a discovery that he considers to be of utmost importance to the army and wishes to discuss strategy with the high command officers, your presence is mandatory'' said the knight.

''Well, I will be there soon, you may go now knight'' I said, getting up from my chair.

The Prussian knight, having delivered the message, withdrew from Friedrich von Roon's tent, leaving the latter to wonder what would be discussed at the council of war.

'And now what does that fanatic Lothar want?, we have little time to sleep, and he thinks of calling a meeting of the nobles so late, I hope it is really important, since the end of the war he has become a constant headache with his insistence on religion and the bible'.

I looked for my tunic and put it on, leaving my tent, I watched as my men began to light fires and prepare something to eat, probably some tasteless dough, but that will take away their hunger, or so I hope, since the rations are quite controlled to ensure that we do not run out of food a few days into this campaign.

In a way, I understand the discomfort of my men, I know it is necessary for every commander to be concerned about the food, health and morale of his men, but at this moment we are fighting for our survival and difficult times require drastic measures, I just hope my men can resist this small effort even if the war lasts another six or seven years I think my men could resist or so I think.

Leaving my area of the camp and I went to where Captain General Lothar von Ruppin's tent was located, while walking through the camp, I saw how there was a large group of people sleeping outside the camp.

'What an unpleasant sight, these filthy peasants dozing outside our camps, but the king does not want us to get a bad reputation with these people, the less hatred they feel towards us the less they will resist in the future, so for the time being we are not expelling them from the vicinity of the war camp'.

Friedrich von Roon continued walking among the camp of his fellow officers, checking on the conditions of the other tercios, until he reached the tent of Captain General Lothar von Ruppin, which was protected by the fearsome Teutonic knights who were assigned as bodyguards to the Prussian captains general, von Roon approached the tent to enter the war council.

The knights let me pass as they recognized my face, entering the tent were already seated a group of nobles who seemed to be extremely furious about something.

It was no surprise, my seat was as far away from the important nobles as possible, clearly showing that they only invited me so as not to insult me, but my opinion will not be heard by the old nobility, as I am only a mere nobleman with dominions over a small village, who hardly deserves to be where I am now

Lothar von Ruppin was the face of the old noble nobility who were replete with titles and thousands of knights who served them faithfully and had many privileges of resource exploitation and taxes to their names, they are the most conservative group within the kingdom and considering how conservative the kingdom of Prussia is compared to other kingdoms that is a lot to say, just thinking about how arrogant that group of nobles are makes my blood boil, those are the boot-licking idiots who insisted on fighting on unfavorable terrain or applying antiquated tactics sacrificing thousands of valuable Prussian lives.

Von Roon sat down in his place and began to observe everything around him, relying explicitly on the food on the table.

But one thing made my heart happy and that was the food that was undercooked and burnt in some cases, when we showed up here it was without servants, all the nobles lost their much loved servants who dressed them, prepared their meals, fixed their clothes, looked after their horses and many other things they consider jobs unworthy of their titles, as most of those idiots have never touched cooking utensils to cook with their soldiers or use a shovel to dig and place a stake

it was clear that these proud idiots were in trouble because now they had to do everything on their own or with the help of their knights, who coincidentally, by the level of wealth these knights have would also not know how to prepare a chicken, or whatever this is served up

I took a knife and started to touch what was on the tray, and it was burnt and raw at the same time, shit, this is worse than I thought, for my safety I should not eat anything here, I could get seriously ill just by eating something

After a long wait, the rest of the high-ranking commanders and important nobility had gathered here to listen to the highest ranking military officer, only after the king.

''Well lothar how much longer are you going to keep us waiting here, may I remind you that tomorrow we must continue marching south, and you are taking valuable rest time away from us, why are here?'', said duke Helmuth von bock.

''Yes, I apologize Duke Helmuth, but this is of the utmost importance, not long ago, we discovered something, which must be discussed with great urgency, as this information calls into question our whole plan for the future in these lands'' said Lothar as he looked at the nobles standing near him.

The captain general carefully observed the reactions of many important nobles of the kingdom and, being satisfied with what he saw, he cleared his throat to continue speaking to the Prussian officers.

''Well, as you all know, the group of these strangers, Tully and Corbray, who helped us to get to the reach in the most discreet way possible, dropped some alarming information, they are pagans who believe in multiple gods'' said Lothar with an angry tone.

When I heard this I had an uncontrollable urge to get up from my chair and leave, seriously the alarming news is that they are pagans, what worries the captain general more than anything else is the religion of the rebels.

Almost all the ancient nobility were furious with this information, even some of the younger officers, who began to issue insults against the Westerosis.

''That is why I called this emergency meeting, we must make a joint petition to the king to cease immediately his aid to these heathen polytheists, since the king still does not seem to know who we serve, as head of the state religion of the kingdom of Prussia he cannot submit to the authority of heathen savages'' said lothar in a loud voice.

All the nobles began to hurl insults at the pagans and I include myself, although I, personally, do not appreciate the religion, it is the best way to rise politically, to be accused as a heretic, crypto-Catholic or atheist is a form of political suicide or to be held to a duel to the death by some fanatic Prussian lord.

''They are savages, who do not know the light of the one true god, we must end our services now and exterminate these heathens, the rebels and royalists'' said a nobleman.

''Now I understand this rebellion, these treacherous savages who attack their rightful lord are a plague or worse, we must exterminate them all, or they will be a disease that will affect good Prussian morals, saying they can defy their king if he is a bad ruler'' said another nobleman

''We can't trust them anymore, they are evil, we must warn the king and sound the war drums, we still have time to deal a mortal blow to the rebels if we start marching north and then south to finish off what is left of the royalists'' said another nobleman

almost all the Prussian nobles were hurling insults against the Westerosis and the rest only kept silent before the shouts of the fanatic lords, but they were interrupted by a blow that destroyed part of the table at which they were seated.

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