Count Friedichs War for St.Gallen(1)
10th June 1071, Ulm
The Lord has given me another son, we christened him Friedrich in honor of my father and grandfather. With these developments the inheritance and continuance of our family is secured. Praises to the Almighty one.
Second in line to the county, little Friedrich
Preparations for war are going on smoothly and ahead of schedule. Coupled together with the birth of my second son, I believe it to be a sign of God, it might be time for us to strike.
The familiarly coded knock of Friedrich's spies interrupted his entry to the chronicle and one of the more mysterious contacts of his stepped into the room.
Storing the book into a nearby cupboard, the count stood up to greet him, but was interrupted by the hoarse whisper of the hodded man.
"There is no time, mylord, just take this."
Shoving an untitled book into Friedrich's hand, his contact turned around and left the room again.
What the..?
Steps on the floor alerted Friedrich as another knock on his door heralded even more visitors.
Friedrich shot the inconspicous book another look before storing it right next to his chronicle.
"Come in"
Two guards in the Duke's colors walked into his room, eyeing the corners.
"Mylord, we have been alerted to an intruder roaming the castle. We chased him all the way to this tower. Have your seen something suspicious perhaps?"
Nonplussed Friedrich shook his head.
"Unfortunately not. But how come I have not been alerted to this intruder? After all I am in charge of the duke's safety."
Clearly feeling uncomfortable, the guards avoided eyecontact.
"I am sorry, mylord, but I cannot say."
Annoyed Friedrich glared them down and said: "Fine. But as you can clearly see, I know nothing of this intruder. If you do not have other business I would ask you to leave, since I am busy."
"Very well mylord."
Looking relieved to be let go that easily the guards quickly left the room.
As soon as the door was shut, Friedrich took the book again and opened the pages, in hopes of some sensitive information but what he read was only gibberish.
Frowning he took another look.
It must have some secret somewhere...
----
17th May, 1074, Tübingen
Friedrich was looking through the book of gibberish for what he felt like the thousandth time. But the words sprawled across the parchment still made no sense at all. Angrily slamming the book shut he threw it to the ground just as his brother Ludwig walked in.
"What's wrong Friedrich? After all these years you are still looking at that book?"
"What if I am?"
Ludwig crossed the room to pick up the book.
"Ever considered not reading it like a book?"
"What do you mean? It is obvious that it is encoded, I am not that stupid."
"That's not what I meant. Just look at it, don't you think it looks familiar? All these circles, lines and squares..."
"I already tried to replace them with the alphabet, it does not work."
Ludwig waved his words away and laid the book onto the desk.
"Just watch my finger as I follow this line here..."
"What..."
And suddenly realization hit Friedrich.
It is a map!
"Do you know from which place it is?"
Ludwig smiled happily.
"Guess what? Rheineck, Fortress of the Count of St.Gallen."
"Are you sure?!"
"Why should I lie to you?"
Friedrich took a long look at his younger brother, who had since childhood always tried to best him. "I guess so...."
He might have finally grown up to put his own ambitions behind our families...
"You do know what this means do you?" Ludwig asked.
"Well we get a detailled plan of our enemy..."
"Take a closer look! There!" Ludwig pointed at a specific part of the map and Friedrich fixated it.
"Is that actually a side entrance to the main keep?"
"It most certainly looks so, brother. If we use this, we can sneak into the castle and take it by surprise with a small group of men, no need to hire mercenaries for a lengthy siege!"
Friedrich looked at his brother, astonished.
"Indeed. Go and fetch me Otto and the rest of the council, we will finally press our claim to St.Gallen!"
"On it already." Ludwig hurried out and left a more than happy Friedrich to wait in the library.
As Ludwig closed the door and ran down the stairs, he could not control himself any longer and burst into laughter.
"That fool!"
Reaching the exit towards the courtyard, he recomposed himself, but could not hide a smile.
As soon as Friedrich dies in this stupid endeavour, there are only two little boys between me and the county....
------
18th August, 1074, Konstanz
At the ridge of a hill overlooking the valley, Friedrich eyed the assembled flags of the county of St.Gallen on the opposite hill suspiciously.
"You are sure that we can take that hill from him in a frontal charge, Ludwig?"
Ludwig came closer and pointed at the left flank, where the banners of the bishop of St.Gallen were visible.
"The bishop is a craven and will turn his tail at the earliest sign of danger. If we come at them in force he will tremble and run, taking his men with him." His hand wandered to the right, where the Count of St.Gallen had made his command known. "Which will let us turn the flank on von Dillingen's center."
Friedrich remounted and turned around to inspect his own forces.
"Considering the reports of our scouts, we are slightly outnumbered, especially after the first clash at Rheineck, where we won the battle but lost more men. I doubt it will be that easy again."
Ludwig put a hand on his brothers shoulder.
"Trust me, if their count leads the charge up the hill, each one of our levies will fight as good as ten of Dillingen's men."
"Hmm..."
"Do not worry, brother, I'll command the center and cover you."
Friedrich did not reply but put on the helmet which his page had been holding the whole time.
"Give the command for a general charge, as soon as we are ready."
Ludwig nodded and left.
"What do you think, Otto?" Friedrich asked his second brother, who had followed their conversation silently.
"Hmm..you will not like what I want to say, so I prefer to remain silent."
Annoyed Friedrich replied: "I guess you were about to suspect Ludwig of some atrocious plot to harm me again, but I told you already, I trust Ludwig now, if he had not solved the mystery of the book, this whole thing would be meaningless!"
"Just let me take command of the attack towards the bishop and stay put in the center, brother. I know you trust Ludwig, but I do not and you have to admit, taking that hill by frontal charge is as suicidal as it can get. In my opinion we should just stay put and wait for them to come. We already lost too much in Rheineck, when you followed Ludwig's advice to attack before our army had a chance to rest from the long march."
"Why are you that suspicious? He is our brother!"
"Wasn't it you who always told me to have an eye on him? I'm just saying, that you do not need to be as reckless as Ludwig is. Don't forget all the things that happened before your sons were born. He always opposed you and tried to build up support for his claim to the county."
Otto's words got Friedrich thinking again.
"I guess there is some truth to your words, although I believe him to be loyal to me now."
He sighed.
"I'll let you take command of the attack on the left flank and try to support you from the center as good as I can. But do be carful."
Otto simply nodded and turned around to his new command as Ludwig returned.
"Everyone is ready, brother."
"Very well, listen to my orders for the battle: Otto will assault the left flank with the bulk of our cavalry while you take the right. I want us to erect a shield wall after we storm up into melee range until the bishop's forces are routed by Otto. Then we will attack again and hopefully take the field by the end of the day."
Ludwig's face showed no signs of emotions, he nodded and rode to the right.
Friedrich turned around to his army and gave the command to advance.
---
19th August, 1074, Konstanz
A great battle has been fought yesterday. It shall be the first of many decisive ones for our future! We met the forces of St.Gallen with a charge onto a hill, where the enemy had established himself. After making it through wave after wave of arrows and thrown spears, our attack hit home and the Bishop of St.Gallen fled the field as Otto threw his forces at him. Before clearing his flank Otto was wounded as a lucky pikemen took down his horse, but he is well and will recover soon enough. Meanwhile at the center and the right we met stiff resistance, that only started to crumble as their flank got turned upon. The Count of St.Gallen tried to stop our assault as he formed a shieldwall, effectively stalling our advance, but as it looked like the day might turn against us. God the almighty guided an arrow against him and struck my enemy down. In panic the army of St.Gallen evaporated as we chased the fleeing men down. Glory to God for such a clear victory!
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Author's Notes:
First of all thanks for reading and welcome aboard to all new readers!
Hopefully you enjoyed this update.
Some random stuff:
-I kind of ran out of patience waiting for more cash to hire mercs and be on the safe side of the war, so I just DoW'ed and went with it. Thankfully I got the event with the mystic trait to kind of cover up for my hastiness as Count Friedrich actually has the Patient trait.
-I centered all the screenshots in this update, but I want to know how you as readers feel like they should be put. Centered like in this one or bound to the left like the previous.