Road to the Crown

Chapter 313: Unreal offer

24th October 1574

"How bad is the situation?"

Contrary to my expectations, the envoy turned out to be not only a young man in his forte, but from how fluently he was speaking the local language, I could tell that he had to be born in Commonwealth, but due to some life choices of his or the local warlords, he ended up becoming muscovite.

After all, in the current times, there wasn't such thing as nationalities. The lowborn would consider themselves the be locals, born in the city of A they would call themselves Aers. Outside of that, merchants never would bother with such stupid ideas like nationality, when their job itself required them to know as many languages as they could while keeping contacts in as many places as they were capable of.

The only social class in the current world, as much as it pained me, that cared about such elaborate stuff like homeland or nationality, was the nobility. With how directly they were involved with managing the country, something that was clearly visible with how the senate was now in the full control of the governance of the Commonwealth, the feeling of attachment to certain greater group managed to sprout in the noble souls.

In the original timeline, this process would have to be refined by the fires of constant wars and the overall deterioration of the country, that pushed the great majority of the meaningful nobility to press for reforms. Everyone in the future United States of America would pride themselves in holding the title of creating the very first constitution in the world, yet no matter how future Poland would strive to promote it, the world would often forget that it was the Commonwealth nobility that pushed for creating the very first European constitution that was worldwide second only to American one!

"Would it suffice to say that right now, we have no way of rejoicing the main forces in Ostrog? With how important this meeting was for my lord, he decided that even losing my entire unit would be worth it as long as I could pass the several requests that he deemed to be of absolute priority if you wish to keep an ally in the Commonwealth hinterlands."

This kind of sentences was nothing but a wild guess on my end. While the fact that the enemy diplomatic mission outnumbered my soldiers by far didn't mean that I could just go with a less risky route. In the end, everyone that I was talking with right now, would end up dying by the end of the day. Outside of the envoy himself, even a single enemy soldier operating behind my lines could generate great costs once he would turn efficient in sabotage kind of war. That's why I didn't really mind if my words would miss the mark by a margin great enough to alert the envoy. One could say that it was nothing more and nothing less than your simple high-risk, high-reward play on my side!

"That is indeed quite troubling. For as long as it will take us to take over the major checkpoints along the new, designated border, we will be unable to provide you with any real support. Outside of those few men that I brough here to reinforce you, for now, that's all that I can offer you. Unless you could somehow sabotage the Commonwealth war-effort, I won't even be able to promise you any other help in any near future either."

Shaking his head with visible regret, the young man in front of me looked around the area. For some reason, this simple scan of the surroundings suddenly turned his attention up a notch, as if something somehow alerted his vigilance.

"Where are the lookouts?"

Just a simple change of tone was all that this man had to do to alert his entire group. In one instant, muscovite soldiers drew their weapons, instantly sparking the same reaction from my soldiers. At least, given how my people knew from the very beginning that this entire meeting was nothing more but a smart scheme, their weapons were already prepared, hidden under their coats rather than being held in the natural carrying position as it was the case for the muscovites.

"I would advise you to not make any rash decisions."

Finally reaching towards the cup of my beer that I hid below my chair, I openly brought it to my lips and took a hefty sip. Once the glass left my face alone, the envoy could see a wide smile formed on my face, as I stared at him with pity.

"What is the meaning of this?! Who are you?!"

As flustered as the man was, something that I could observe from the rapid changes appearing on his face, he remained sane enough to remain perfectly still at his seat. Maybe it was just me, or maybe the sight of several guns pointed directly at his face had a similar calming effect to even the strongest calming drugs that in the future I knew, unruly mental patients would get tanked into their veins. 

"Since you already realised the truth, let me explain your situation properly."

With a single gesture at one of my aides, a young man who had the balls to volunteer for this mission despite never holding a gun in his hand, quickly brough my preferred crane of choice, allowing me to stand up without forcefully ignoring the insane pain that would come close to paralyzing my leg. 

"Right now, you guys are kinda in the middle of the area that is the witness of the greatest development spree that this world has ever seen so far in its existence. As we are talking, my people are laying down the train tracks, connecting all sorts of mines to the logistical centres and laying the foundations for the industrial areas."

Taking a few steps to reach the nearby table, I made sure to move slowly enough to not alert the soldiers from either side. With the devious plan already budding in my head, unnecessary bloodshed here was the last thing that I wanted.

"All Ostros forces got decimated, and their household is no longer a thing. Their lands were divided between local nobles, and the most important points of interest in the province we are here right now were annexed to my private domain. Within the next two weeks, the forces that I scrambled together to defeat the Ostros, all the heavy, light and supportive equipment, will be produced by this land on the daily basis, supporting the war effort against your main armies. That means every single unit will be equipped with more thanks than your people have guns."

Dropping the bomb one after the another on the man in front of me, I could see how his expression continued to deteriorate. Even if he didn't understand more than half of what I said, just the confidence that was brimming from my words should be enough for the proper message to be conveyed.

"Why are you telling me all of that? Do you wish to flex? Or do you want to imply that despite having more men than you, we are doomed to lose if the fight were to break off?"

Seeing the strange look in the envoys eyes, I realisde that there was something going on that I had no clue about. Maybe they had some sort of ace card hidden in a place that my scouts missed? Or maybe they had some way of conveying the messages over the long distances?

This second guess was actually supported by the way in which they conducted the war on the border. Even though I didn't directly involve myself with this grand conflict, I wasn't as lazy as to completly ignore those few reports that were arriving in my lands about the negative progress of the Commonwealth forces. Faced with the Muscovitean advance on the entire length of the border, the old type of Commonwealthan army was simply unable to cope with the aggresion!

Still stuck at the idea of fighting the grand battles if the chances were even or turning towards the proxy war if the chances of wining the war were nigh, once they were attacked with something that I could only describe as the first world war style of conducting the war, then even the superior quality of polish-lithuanian troops couldn't change the inevetable outcome!

But as dangerous as it was for the commonweal to face against this kind of general strategy, there were a lot of reasons why this style of warfare only developed far later in the future.

And the most important of them all, was the means of instant communication.

To spread one's forces across the entire, insanely long border between Muscovy and Commonwealth, meant putting them at the risk of Commonwealth forces just riding from the top to the bottom of the border, using their mass alone to just wipe all the enemy contingents one by one. In order to counteract this kind of defense, the aggresor had to be capable of instantly moving his troops around, either to push them deeper into the enemy territory or to pull them back, clearing the path for the pancer fist of the defendant. 

And with how Muscovites were winning this war so far, I could tell that either they were insanely lucky, or they had some means of communication that even I couldn't figure out!

"Listen to everything that I want to say now. Right now, you are facing against my smaller force, that is capable of shooting everyone in your group before even a single one of my soldiers would have to change the magasine in their weapons. Even if somehow you would manage to clutch your way out, two more mobile units with machines far faster than horses are on the standby nearby. In other words, if we start fighting, then no matter the outcome, you won't be able to carry your head away from this place."

Starting with a light threat, I kept my eyes glued to the Envoy's face, trying to see whether my words were not pushing him too far. After all, a cornered man was the most dangerous one!

"Now, two informations that you need to understand at the same time. First, I'm the one who holds the power in this force. There are no doubles, nor there are any hidden figures pulling the threads from behind. But at the same time, while I hold this power, I never really bothered to use it on a huge scale. That's why, killing me would meant that my designated heir would take my place, while still holding all the means of conducting warfare against you."

Even if revealing my deepest secret soundded stupid, by doing so I proved that I dind't really care about it. After all, outside of some early work that I did myself, the entirety of the progress made by my people and lands came from their own efforts, with just a tiny amount of me overseeing their work!

"And since now you know that killing me wouldn't change anything, let's get to the crux of the matter. How about we call it a day and sign a peace?"

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