by Eric Flint
There was a gloomy silence for a few seconds. Then one of the councilmen said: "I didn't like Stearns, not one bit. But let's be honest-whatever else, he kept the Swedes off our neck. Now here they are, back in charge again." Augsburg, one of the USE's seven independent imperial cities The commander of Augsburg's militia had a very different viewpoint than his counterpart in Darmstadt. Nor was he a cousin of Jeremias Jacob Stenglin, the head of the city council, and they certainly weren't friends.
Augsburg didn't have a mayor, as such. Stenglin played a somewhat similar role as head of the council, but his actual title was that of Stadtpfleger-"city caretaker."
"Fine, then," the militia commander snarled at Stenglin. "I'll resign and you can try to stand off the Bavarians when they come."
"If they come," muttered one of the councilmen at the meeting.
The militia commander shifted his glare to the muttering fellow. "We're talking about Duke Maximilian, Herr Langenmantel, not your betrothed. He'll come, if he takes the Oberpfalz."
That was a low blow. The councilman's intended had failed to carry through on her vows. She'd left the city altogether, in fact, eloping with their young parson. It had been quite the scandal.
While the councilman was spluttering indignantly, the head of the militia went back to glaring at the rest of the council. "I told you and I will tell you again. We're right on the border and Maximilian is running wild again. We can't hold the city against him without the co-operation of the CoC and its armed contingents and the support of the SoTF-which is controlled by the Fourth of July Party. Not against the Bavarian army."
Stenglin ran fingers across his scalp. Looking for the hair that was no longer there, perhaps. "I don't like those shitheads!"
The militia commander shrugged. "Who does? But the one thing about them is that they'll fight. They aren't good for much else, but they are good for that." A tavern in Melsungen, in the province of Hesse-Kassel "Here's to the health of our landgravine!" shouted one of the revelers, holding up his stein of beer. "Long may she reign!"
The tavern was full, as it often was on a winter's eve. Not a single stein failed to come up to join the toast.
Other provinces might suffer-would suffer, for a certainty, some of them-but not Hesse-Kassel. Not so long as Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Munzenberg sat in the provincial palace. The landgrave's blessed widow would keep the storm away. A fishing boat in the Pomeranian Bay "I wish now I'd voted for the bastard, instead of that useless Wettin." One of the two fishermen in the boat heaved at the net.
His partner frowned. "Stearns? He's too radical."
"Yes, I know. That's why I voted for the other fellow. And look what happened! When Stearns was running things, he drove all the foreign armies out of Germany. For the first time in years, we had peace. Didn't we?"
His companion made a face, but after a couple of seconds grunted his agreement.
"Right. Then we put in the duke and the first thing he does is get himself arrested and here we are, with the Swedes back on top."
He paused at their labor and stared out over the sea, gloomily. "I'll tell you this, for sure. The damn Swedes wouldn't have arrested the Prince. They wouldn't have dared."
His partner grunted agreement again. Immediately. Mecklenburg The noblemen's expedition never got to Schwerin. It got no farther than the southern shore of Lake Muritz. By then, CoC contingents from all over the province had gathered to meet the invaders.
They had no trouble finding them. As they had done during Operation Kristallnacht, the supposedly neutral USE Air Force had maintained reconnaissance patrols out of Wismar and provided the CoC contingents with regular reports on the location of their enemy.
Colonel Jesse Wood denied doing so, every time someone asked. But he'd kept a straight face while doing that, during Kristallnacht. Now he didn't bother to hide the grin.
The battle that followed lasted less than three hours. Once again, the Mecklenburger nobility found itself outclassed when it had to face a large force of CoC fighters coming out of the bigger cities like Schwerin and Rostock. Many of those men were not from the militias. They were former soldiers in the USE's army; some of them, veterans of the great battle at Ahrensbok.
But except for Mecklenburg-and Dresden, of course-the Germanies remained remarkably calm. There were scuffles aplenty; harsh words exchanged beyond counting; the same for threats. But rarely was any blood shed by anything more deadly than a fist or a cudgel. Berlin The chancellor's frustration mounted and mounted. His puzzlement, as well.
What was keeping the anarchists from anarchy?
Chapter 23
Paris, capital of France After he finished reading Servien's precis of the latest reports from France's agents in the United States of Europe, Cardinal Richelieu rose from his desk and went over to one of the window in his palace. The Palais-Cardinal had been completed five years earlier. It faced directly onto the Louvre and his office gave him a marvelous view of the royal palace from which, ultimately, derived the cardinal's own power.
Behind him, the intendant Servien studied his master with considerable sympathy. It couldn't be pleasant for him to contemplate the state of affairs in the USE. France's chief minister was in much the same position as a tethered hawk, forced to watch squabbling doves heedless of his presence. The tether, in his case, being France's own very tense internal political situation. What reliable troops the cardinal still had in his possession needed to be kept close at hand.
Feeling the need to say something, Servien cleared his throat. "It's a great pity, isn't it? To have to sit here and do nothing."
The cardinal lifted his shoulders slightly, as if he'd begun a shrug and found it too much effort. "Just another reminder, Servien, if we needed it. God created the world. We did not."
Was there a trace of reproach in his tone? A suggestion that the Almighty had fallen down on the job, here and there?
Probably not. Unlike a hawk, Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu was philosophically inclined by nature. Not what any sane person would call a contemplative man-certainly not any one of the cardinal's many enemies. Or, if you could summon their ghosts, the even larger number of enemies he'd put in the grave. Still, he had a capacity to accept the trials and tribulations of fate in a calm and stoic manner.
He'd needed it, these past few years. Madrid, capital of Spain The chief minister of the Spanish crown, Gaspar de Guzman, Count-Duke of Olivares, was far less inclined toward philosophy than Cardinal Richelieu-and his master the king of Spain less inclined still.
"You're saying we can't do anything?"
Olivares kept his eyes from meeting the king's gaze directly. Philip IV's tone of voice had a shrill quality that indicated his temper was badly frayed. He was normally not a bad master to serve-indeed, he could often be quite a pleasant one. But he was also a devotee of bull-fighting, and in times like this was prone to act as if he was a torero in the arena himself. With, alas, one or another of his ministers designated as the bull.
"Well…"
"Nothing?" Angrily, the king slammed his palm down on the table that served him for a desk in his private audience chamber, on those occasions when he felt like dealing with affairs of state directly. Infrequent occasions, fortunately.
"Your Majesty…"
"Why am I paying for my tercios, then?"
Olivares decided this was not the time to point out that the king's payment of his soldiers was erratic. That was traditionally true for Spanish armies, but the situation had gotten even worse than usual of late.
"Answer me!"
There'd be no way to divert the king, obviously. Not today, after he'd just finished reading the latest reports on the turmoil that had enveloped the United States of Europe.
"We simply can't do anything, Your Majesty. Between the unrest in Portugal and Catalonia-"
"Why were those seditious books not banned?"
"They were banned, Your Majesty, but…"
It was hard to explain such things to a man who'd
been born, raised and spent his entire life in the cloistered surroundings of Spanish royalty. Banning unpleasant items from the Real Alcazar was one thing; banning them from Spain, quite another. Spain was one of Europe's largest countries and more than nine-tenths of its borders were seacoast-more than three thousand miles of seacoast. Not all the tercios in the world could police it effectively, assuming Spain could afford the payroll-which it certainly couldn't.
Smuggling was even more of a national pastime for Spaniards than bull-fighting. How did the king imagine that it would be possible to keep out copies of Grantville's texts on Spanish and Portuguese history, when smugglers routinely handled livestock? All the more so because there weren't that many of those texts, and most of them were just a few pages excerpted from encyclopedias.
A few pages, alas, were more than enough to encourage Portuguese and Catalan rebels to persist in their nefarious activity. In that cursed world the Americans came from, Portugal and Catalonia had rebelled in 1640-not more than five years from now. And while the Catalan revolt failed in its purpose, it had been a very close thing. As it was, Spain lost much of the province to France.
Not surprisingly, the Catalan malcontents in this universe were simply being encouraged to try harder.
Fortunately, the king was distracted by other thoughts. Blessedly, by angry thoughts toward someone other than his chief minister. "It's because of that fucking Borja, isn't it?"
This was not safe terrain, certainly, but it was safer than the terrain they'd been treading on. "Yes, Your Majesty, I'm afraid so. Cardinal Borja's…ah, papal adventure-"
"His adventure? Say better, his lunacy-no, his rampant vanity-better still, his plunge into Satanic pride!"
"Yes, Your Majesty. Well said! Whatever we call it, though, his actions have stirred up a great deal of unrest through Italy, including in our own possessions."
"Indeed." The king's glare was still ferocious, but at least it now had a different focus. "Explain to me again, Gaspar, why I can't have the bastard assassinated?"
"Ah, well… That would just compound the damage, I'm afraid. As I said before, Your Majesty, Borja's precipitate action has simply left us with few options, and none of them very good. If we kill him-if anyone kills him-then there's little doubt that Urban will take back the papacy. And he's…ah…"
"Now bitterly hostile to us on the picayune grounds that we overthrew him and murdered several dozen of his bishops and cardinals, including his nephew Francesco."
"Well. Yes."
The king spent the next minute or so calling down a variety of divine ills and misfortunes on the person of Cardinal Gaspare de Borja y de Velasco. The tirade spilled over into outright blasphemy-not that even the boldest of Spain's inquisitors would have said a word on the subject, with the king in his current mood. It was notable also that at no time did Philip IV refer to Borja by any title other than profane and profoundly vulgar ones. He certainly never used the man's newly-minted title of "pope."
When he finally wound down, most of his fury seemed to have been spent. It was replaced by a sort of sullen resignation that was not pleasant to deal with, but no longer really dangerous.
"The essence of the matter is that we have no resources to do anything significant about the heretics. The USE crumbles-the same swine who-ah! Never mind! It's too aggravating to even think about! We just have to sit here, on our hands, and do nothing."
Olivares decided to interpret that as the king's summation rather than a question. That way he could avoid, once again, having to say "Yes, we can't" where the king wanted to hear "No, we can." Brussels, capital of the Netherlands The king in the Netherlands-Fernando I, as he now titled himself, being the founder of his new dynasty-looked around the conference table at his closest advisers.
"We're all agreed, then? We will take no advantage of the current civil conflict in the USE. Beyond, of course, using it to apply more leverage in existing negotiations over trade matters and minor border disputes."
They'd decided on that term toward the beginning of the conference. "Civil conflict," as opposed to "civil war." There were important connotations involved.
The advisers, in turn, all looked around the table, gauging each other's expressions.
Rubens provided the summary. "Yes, Your Majesty, we're agreed. The benefits involved simply aren't worth the risks."
"Small benefits," said Alessandro Scaglia, "with very great risks."
One of the advisers wiggled his fingers. "I don't disagree with the decision, but I don't honestly think the risks are that great."
"No?" said Miguel de Manrique. The soldier's expression was grim. "Stearns might come back to power, you know. He's bad enough, but what's worse is that he'd only do so if Richter holds Dresden. How would you like it if she came back here, with a grudge to settle?"
Archduchess Isabella's hand flew to her throat. "Oh, dear God. Nephew, listen to Manrique! None of your headstrong ways, you hear? King or not, I won't have it. I want some peace and quiet in these last few months before I slip into the grave." Poznan, Poland "The king is adamant, and the Sejm still more so. That's just the way it is, young Opalinski. They'll have no talk of a peace settlement."
Stanislaw Koniecpolski shifted his shoulders under the heavy bearskin coat. Even for January, the day was cold, but the grand hetman wouldn't be seen shivering in public. It was hard not to, though.
Lukasz Opalinski wasn't even trying. He had his hands tucked into his armpits and was making a veritable stage drama out of shivering.
"Dear God, it's cold!" he hissed. Then, tight-faced: "And I suppose they insisted once again that we had to sally from the gates and smite the invaders. Applying the brilliant tactic of a hussar charge through deep snow against rifled muskets firing from well-built fieldworks."
Koniecpolski chuckled. "They did indeed. But there, I'm afraid, they are trespassing onto my rightful territory, and I am not legally obliged to listen to the silly beggars. No, rest easy, young man. There'll be no idiotic sallies out of the gates of Poznan. We'll stay behind these walls in comfort-using the term loosely, I admit-while the German shits freeze out there."
He did another shift of his shoulders. A rapid succession of shifts, actually. Not an outright shiver, but certainly a close cousin. "Besides, there's a bright side to continuing the war."
Koniecpolski had his own hands tucked into opposing sleeves of his coat. Not wanting to expose them to the elements, he used a gesture of his head to point to the compound behind them. From their height atop one of the bastions, they had a good view of the now-largely-dismantled APC that Lukasz had captured from the enemy.
"You can be damn sure that one of Gustav Adolf's demands-he'll be inflexible about it too-will be the return of that APC. I'd much rather keep it for a while. Walenty tells me they're making great progress."
Opalinski smiled. "He's not bragging, either. I'd say he was, except every day that goes by, Ellis gets more unhappy."
Walenty Tarnowski was the young nobleman who was bound and determined to establish what he called "advanced mechanics" in the commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania. Unusually for a scholar, he was quite willing to get his hands dirty, too. Koniecpolski had given him the assignment of studying the captured war machine to see if he could duplicate it-or, since that wasn't likely, see if he could design a simpler and more primitive version of the device.
Mark Ellis was the American soldier they'd captured when they seized the APC. Under questioning, he'd claimed that he knew very little about the machine, being a civil as opposed to mechanical engineer. He'd also claimed he would refuse to talk under torture.
The latter claim was dubious, to say the least. The number of men in the world who would refuse to talk under torture was minute. The problem was rather that their talk was usually babble, and Koniecpolski saw no reason to think the up-timer would be any different. Besides, he had no desire to stir up American animosity toward Poland by mistreating one of their people. Sooner or later, after all, Poland would ne
ed to negotiate a peace treaty.
So, Tarnowski toiled on, day after day, with no help from Ellis. But he really was quite adept at this "advanced mechanics" of his. So who could say? The time might come-and much sooner than people thought-when Polish hussars would ride into battle on iron horses instead of fleshy ones. .Gloomily, Mark Ellis listened to Walenty Tarnowski's depiction of today's results. This morning's results, rather. The nobleman had all afternoon to ferret out still more knowledge.
They'd gotten in the habit of eating lunch together. Perhaps oddly, given the way they'd started, the two men had gotten to be on very cordial terms. You could even say they'd become friends, in a way.
Mark still insisted he would say nothing, nothing, nothing-subject him to what agony they would! To which Walenty replied that he was a student of advanced mechanics, not a torturer. And besides, Mark had nothing to say anyway, being a mere civil engineer. The ritual insults exchanged and mutual honor upheld, they'd then proceed to have the sort of pleasant chats that young men will have when they're in relaxed and convivial company. Walenty, being a Polish nobleman, called it "intelligent conversation." Mark, who fancied himself a West Virginia hillbilly, called it "shooting the shit."
In truth, Mark Ellis was very far from being a hillbilly, unless you chose to slap the label on any and all West Virginians-which would certainly be objected to by at least three-fourths of the state's population. He had three years of college, just for starters, where any self-respecting hillbilly would only grudgingly admit to having graduated from high school. The one and only characteristic he shared with hillbillies was, ironically, the one he insisted to his Polish captors not to possess-he was, in fact, a very good auto mechanic.
So he knew, better than most people would, just how much progress Walenty was making. It was pretty astonishing, actually. Mark still thought there wasn't much chance the Poles could produce a functioning armored fighting vehicle of their own, not for a number of years to come. There were just too many technological obstacles to overcome-many of them ones which not even the USE could handle yet.
