Swiss Arms Chapter 167

Swiss Arms

Chapter 167

-VB-

Hans von Fluelaberg

1310

Despite how thoroughly we wiped out the Habsburg Swabian vassals and got plenty of loot and reward for everyone, this didn't change the fact that I had my troops engage in a high intensity warfare compared to what everyone else practiced at this ti.

And it was very visible in how exhausted they looked and felt as we entered Fluelaberg.

Of the original one thousand five hundred soldiers (trained levies, trained volunteers, and rangers), I returned ho with one thousand one hundred. For having defeated multiple armies that outnumbered us, put siege to towns and cities that should have withstood us, and then winning it all, this was a miracle.

To , it felt like a personal failure because those four hundred dead were all people I've t in person, shook hands with, drank and ate with, and promised to keep them safe. The guilt was not so strong as to make depressed but it did frustrate when I saw hopeful eyes among the watching crowd who ca out to greet us at the mouth of the Fluelaberg valley.

And as the soldiers split off to et their families and friends, I saw a few soldiers first approach their neighbors while carrying bundles.

We did not burn the bodies of the dead. It was against Catholic doctrine because it was the belief of the wider Catholic Christendom that when the Day of Judgent ca, people would rise up from their graves as resurrected people. Whether or not they chose to interpret the Bible literally or taphorically was not my concern. What were my concerns was the fact that I could not carry bodies in convoys along the Swabian campaign, and so had to bury the dead where they died.

Those bundles included the rough location of the marked grave, a larger share of the loot for the widow and her children (or their closest kin), and whatever equipnt that could be salvaged.

For the hundreds who did not make it ho, that's all that was left of their service.

Of course, I would take care of their families; not only was it my feudal obligation - the noblesse oblige that so many forgot or ignored - but it was one of the sure fire ways to ensure that the community remained loyal and tightly knit. A community where everyone within it knew that should they fall in the line of service their families will be taken care of was a community with people that would willingly die for the sake of the community.

Was it cynical of to think of my people like that? Of course not. It was realistic. Furthermore, my service to them in return as their lord would not be disingenuous or half-hearted.

So of the n who died left behind children who had been born here in Fluelaberg. I was invited to see those children's first day. I was offered the chance to na more than a few.

Each and every single one of these people were mine and mine alone.

In a way, their deaths fueled my desire to fight even more.

But they could not give more than what they had already done. This wasn't a ga where the manpower number magically went up without regards to how many people there were in the nation. Two hundred dead across the County of Fluelaberg, a two part fiefdom divided between Rheintal and Fluelaberg itself, represented one percent drop in total able body male population as per last census data. It also represented a breadwinner or a major earning mber of a hundred eighty families. Of the two hundred dead, one hundred of them were small-scale farrs. Thirty were skilled artisans of various skill levels. Only seventy were full ti soldiers, who were town guards, patrol soldiers, rangers, and a few dedicated cavalryn.

Allowing anymore able bodied n to die was to start risking the security of my fiefdom, my people, and my family.

Where did that leave ?

My rangers.

While they also patrolled the fiefdom along with the regular soldiers and patrollers, they were, first and foremost, a recon op corp. They specialized in sabotage, scouting, long range assassinations, traps, and guerilla warfare. They also suffered the least out of all branches of my ager military, of which only it was the formal part of my retinue. With my regular forces dented by ten percent, they were the only ones I was willing to depend on for further battles.

Besides, war was their job.

And they have proven themselves ti and ti again both at Innsburg and the Swabian Campaign.

-VB-

Isabella von Fluelaberg

Isballea let out a final gasp and collapsed on top of her husband.

She panted as she laid on top of him.

She … might have been impatient ever since she heard that he had returned ho. So impatient, in fact, that when she saw him returning from his campaign, she waited exactly one al before she dragged him off to their bedroom.

And the result was this.

She was very happy with herself.

Hans's arms wrapped around her, and she snuggled into him.

"Finally ran out of hot steam?" he asked her, and she blushed a little.

"Yes," she huffed.

"Did you really miss that much?"

"Yes."

"Well, I missed you, too."

She humd happily, but her heart lurched with frustration. "... You have to go back out."

"Yeah."

She sighed.

"Stay for a week at least?"

"Of course."

As much as she hated watching him go, war was not a woman's place and he was sorely needed in the battlefields.

But that was also what concerned her.

n… n weren't that different from won. They got lonely just as won did. They wanted companionship, and while a few n might be able to hold out for their wives over a long period of ti, she didn't know whether Hans was one of those n.

She knew that she had been the one to chase after Hans, not the other way around. She knew he loved her, and she loved him, but there was always that fear that he might get bored of her.

So she took her ti to make sure he knew just how much she loved and wanted him. Was it sotis embarrassing? Definitely.

But even that embarrassnt made her feel great when she was with him.

And he was going to leave again soon.

She pushed herself up from his chest and looked down at him. She bit her lips.

"One more?"

His hands reaching for her waist was the only answer she needed.

-VB-

Hans von Fluelaberg

My Swabian campaign took the rest of winter and half of spring. By the ti I returned ho, all of the farms in the Compact showed plenty of growth unlike the farms we burned across Habsburg Swabia.

However.

I could see it.

With my supernatural eyes and high Intellect connecting dots and pointing out to everything that looked different compared to years before, I could see it.

All of the farms looked smaller and less dense.

And it made sense.

When I went to war at the height of spring, I picked up a bunch of people, including many farrs who had nothing else to do during winter. However, the campaign had dragged on into spring. Part of the reason why I had pushed for a high speed campaign across Habsburg Swabia, which included plenty of actions from yours truly, was because sooner or later, I would have to let my farrs return ho to plant their crops.

Hell, even if I didn't let them, I would have desertions.

So I had wrapped up the campaign as quickly as I could, which was why I burned so much that I could have looted instead.

That still hasn't changed the fact that I returned ho almost too late for planting season. All of the farrs were now back at work planting their crops or fixing their farms that might have been damaged while they were away at war.

And as much as I wanted to spend the whole week back ho with Isabella and our son, I still spent three days touring my direct fiefdom (sans Rheintal) to have a better grasp of my situation at hand.

The verdict was … It was stable. I did, however, make a note to myself to expect a smaller harvest yield this year.

Again, this ant that I really couldn't afford to raise the levies again to take to even more battles. There was also a limitation on how much food I could import, and my burning of Habsburg Swabia wasn't going to do anything good for food prices.

I closed my notebook with a huff.

"Guess my rangers will need to eat a lot of bundnerfleisch in our next campaign."

Not that most of them would complain about that.