Swiss Arms Chapter 166

Swiss Arms

Chapter 166

-VB-

Hans von Fluelaberg

1310

John was a grown man now, but I hated the fact that he looked like a corpse by the ti I relieved him.

He's led people to battle before, like how he had fought against the late Count of Sargans. But I knew for a fact that his war with Sargans hadn't been half as bloody as what had just happened here in Ricken Pass.

I walked over the mud up to his forr ward, who was surrounded by a few of his n. They all looked bloody, either from their wounds or from the blood of the n they slew.

"John."

The boy - no, the man - looked up, hollow eyed from ntal strain and physical exhaustion. His guards stepped aside to give us room to talk.

"Hans. I didn't think you'd be able to help ."

His words made my heart swell. Even though he thought he wouldn't get any help, he still stood his ground and made the enemy bleed.

And from what I could see, it was his n who paid the price for it more than anyone else.

"If I chose the regular way back to Fluelaberg, then I might not have reached you in ti. But I found a shortcut, even if it cost a few people in the hazardous crossing."

"Oh. I see," he muttered. "But you ca."

"Yes. Did you think I wouldn't?" I asked him with a scoff. I was half tempted to ruffle his hair, but he was a lord in his own right, and he didn't need to belittle him in front of his n, even if that's not what I would be trying to do. "... You did good. Handle the clean-up here, and go ho if you want to. You did far more than you needed to. I'll be sure to send so help."

John stood there for a long while, staring down the valley where hundreds of his people had died under his command, never mind the thousand plus others from other parts of the Compact.

"I'm… I'm sorry, Hans."

I raised an eyebrow. "For what?"

"The rangers. I had a company of them, and I barely used them correctly. I gave them the low ground instead of the high ground. I had them fight in the thick of it instead of picking apart nobles, knights, and n-at-arms-."

"Hey."

"I should've pulled them back and -."

I reached out and grabbed his shoulder.

He jolted.

… Yikes. I was going to need to get a therapist or act as one for him after the war was over.

Fuck, I should think about training therapists, too.

So much to do. So little ti…

"You did the best that you can," I replied. "My rangers aren't dumb. They are under strict orders to ignore dumb orders from anyone. If they followed your order, then they saw rit and no better options. If they did, then they would have spoken up."

He looked up at , mouth slightly ajar and trembling.

"You did good, John. Take pride in their acceptance of your order and the trust they gave you."

He gulped and nodded.

"Okay."

"Good. Now, you and the rest of your army clean up the site. Loot up, drag out the living from the mud, and get them treated."

"What about you?"

"This can't be all that the Habsburgs have," I grunted. "And even if it is, they still have towns, forts, and cities that can provide tax and manpower. I'm going to go and put them all to the siege."

"... With just a thousand sothing army?"

I snorted. "Kid, I am a one man army," I drawled. "If you forgot, then let remind you that I was the one who stord and burned castles with less than five hundred n during the Unruly Year."

John chuckled. "Right. Who am I to forget who I'm talking to?" he asked before nodding and stepping back. "Take care out there. And good luck, Count von Fluelaberg."

"Rest well, Count von Toggenburg. You've earned it."

As I walked away, I gestured for my rangers who were attached to John to follow. Despite how exhausted they were, they did.

"Are you doing okay?" I asked the man. He was Captain Yusef Blauross, one of the few Jews who entered my service as a soldier.

"I am, my lord," he replied.

"How many?"

"... Two."

"Two?" I asked after a pause, though I didn't stop walking.

"Two dead. Everyone aside from wounded."

I grunted. "Against the kinds of odds you were put in and the situation you had to fight, that's a goddamn miracle. Good job, Yusef."

"Thank you, my lord."

"I want you and your n to go back to Fluelaberg and rest. I'll spare half a dozen people to help you cart the wounded and dead over. You'll have to make haste if you don't want to be in the sa convoy as dead n for long. But before you go, did John do well?"

Yusef didn't respond for a while. "As well as he could have. I have no regrets."

He bowed and left quickly after that.

I stopped and looked around the battlefield.

Thousands were dead. Even more were wounded and dying.

"Almost a thousand dead on our side," I muttered as my mind whirled to life and categorized all of the dead by their colors, weapons, shoes, and even helts. It was in tis like these that I hated my Gar's Intellect stat. It helped see things I would otherwise miss, but in other tis (like Barnard who was laying in the mud over there with his eyes wide open and Samuel with his open mouth and a spear sticking out of his neck), it was just … a curse.

I wondered how many of them were those who I knew personally.

I took a deep breath in and let it out.

Yeah, I was going to strike at the Habsburg vassals, but it wasn't a purely strategic decision.

They wanted to loot my Compact, kill my people, and bring down everything I'd built up.

I was just going to do the sa thing to them, just a bit more humanely.

I won't burn their hos, but I'll bring down their walls. I'll take their gold, horses, cattle, and even stored grain.

They'll suffer, but most of them will be alive to suffer instead of dead like how they intended it for my people.

-VB-

Fluelaberg's Sweep remains infamous in modern day northern Switzerland and southern Germany for its swiftness and thoroughness.

Starting at the County of Kyburg, he put castles, cities, and towns to siege. Each siege took no more than a month but usually ended in one or two weeks. Each ti he conquered a castle, he had his n tear down all of the castle's outer walls. This too took around a week. And before he left to repeat the cycle, he always took all of the provisions and cattle kept by the defenders, leaving them destitute.

Over the course of 1310, he did this to the entire Habsburg vassals in Swabia. He struck Kyburg, Grelfefensee, Zurich, Habsburg (the ancestral seat), Brugg, Waldshut, Laufenburg, Sackingen, and Rheinfelden before circling back around to strike at Lenzburg, Bremgarten, Luzern, Sempach, and Willisau.

He struck any and all cities, castles, towns, and even monasteries that provided manpower and supplies for the Battle of Ricken Pass, but spared any and all towns that did not. This was why Muri, Beromunster, Kussnacht, Baden, Konigsfelden, Zug, and Sursee were spared; they had not - for one reason or another - send levies or supplies to the Habsburg vassals that attacked the Compact.

But the towns that did were stripped bare like Kyburg. It is said that there were material convoys that road all over Swabia during that ti period, constantly hauling looted goods from Habsburg vassals to the stores of the Compact. And the reason why he was able to strike so hard and fast in a dieval blitzkrieg across those towns was because many of their most senior and veteran defenders had fallen in Ricken Pass. They already didn't have enough people to defend themselves properly. Even if the count had not swept through the region, bandits would have been a problem because of how few n were available to fight back.

However, one town in particular fought back

after Count von Fluelaberg had left to attack another town. Bremgarten sent n (whether they were operating independently or under the vogt of the city did not matter) to attack one of the loot convoys leaving Luzern. They struck and killed half a dozen n before they were overwheld by the surprisingly well trained convoy guards.

When the count learned about this, he filed it away and continued his pillaging of Habsburg vassals.

But once he was done with Willisau, he ca back to Bremgarten. He forced everyone to leave the town, took everything of value, then set the town on fire, and finally executed the

vogt, counciln, and the captured n who attacked his convoy.

"I spared you and your hos," he allegedly spoke. "And yet you tried to stab in the back for the rcy I showed you. Since you obviously do not want it, you are now free to be holess with just the clothes on your back."

It is unknown whether or not this was the true course of events that occurred or if there were other facts that are missing in the retelling of Fluelaberg's Sweep. However, it is true that Bremgarten did nearly burn down in totality during this ti period and it had been one of the towns sacked by Count von Fluelaberg.

Regardless of the facts, Fluelaberg's Sweep effectively neutered the entire region's ability to raise more levies and arm their soldiers and thus the ability to help their liege lord as the war continued on.

Though records are, once again, not completely clear, it is estimated that Count Hans von Fluelaberg looted close to seventy thousand silver guelders worth of goods, livestock, and coins. Of these, half were distributed to the families who lost soone at the Battle of Ricken Pass while a quarter were used to pay the soldiers. The last quarter was pocketed by Count von Fluelaberg and Count von Toggenburg.

The Fluelaberg's Sweep concluded Habsburg Swabian participation in the war, and equaled out the number of n each side now fielded. While the Compact lost nearly a thousand soldiers, Habsburg lost nearly all of their five thousand n in the Swabia, balancing out what was once 21,500 to 15,000 in Habsburg's favor to 16,500 to 14,000 which was close to a nurically even comparison.