“So, why do you seek my audience?” Fred asked.

“Earl Derek wishes to make an offer,” Corinth said.

“Earl Derek? I thought he was claiming to be a prince?” Fred asked with a smile,

“Well, young master Frederick, nobody will become a prince if this war drags out,” Corinth stated.

This piqued the interest in the room. “It seems Sir Corinth has a wider network than myself,” Fred commented.

“We are merely closer to a port, I no doubt believe you will receive the same news in the next few days,” Corinth reassured.

“And what might that be?” Fred asked.

“Before that, my lord wishes to sell the city,” Corinth stated.

“I have heard rumours that it is not his to sell,” Fred stated.

“Yes, it is not his to sell, for the next 5 days,” Corinth corrected.

“O, someone leaving I presume?” Fred inquired.

“Are you interested in the city?” Corinth asked.

“No, I’m here to see the sites,” Fred said. “Maybe, you can persuade me to buy it.”

“My lord wishes to join your retinue. As count of Ludnus,” Corinth offered.

The room was bewildered. “So, your Lord wishes for me to purchase the city on the condition that he gets to keep it? How about the count of Galopenterrer?”

“My Lord wishes for a county with a port,” Corinth explained.

“O, what for, allow Normandy to have a staging site for invasion?” Fred chuckled.

“The opposite, young master Frederick.” Corinth said, “you see, my lord, has claims on Normandy mainland, the opposite side to the claims, Maine has, and wishes help to take them back.”

“I see,” Now Fred was interested, helping a member of your retinue reclaim his property was a common pretext for expansion. “And why should I help him with these troubles, there is no assurance that he would give me the city, and we haven’t built a level of trust for me to go through with this.”

“As a goodwill gesture, I can tell you the piece of news that you will receive in the next few days, as well as what this means for our side, and our future plans.” Corinth offered.

“Go ahead.” Fred offered.

“The news is that we have gotten wind of the king’s return,” Corinth commented.

“How reliable is this piece of news?” Fred asked, this was big, it meant they were under a heavy deadline for this war.

“We have been given orders based on it being true,” Corinth said.

“Which is?” Fred asked.

“The current commander has been issued orders to grab as many towns as possible heading south then west while holding you here,” Corinth stated.

“And that is why Derek will take back command of Ludnus in 5 days, they have given up on the war and are hanging him out to dry,” Fred stated.

“If they are doing that, Derek would become the enemy of the king, as well, it means the duke of Normandy is planning to stay in the empire, it would be difficult for Fred to accept him, never mind, taking back any of his claims.” Mendes stated.

“We have gathered enough evidence that this claim to the princedom was the dukes doing, as well as proof of the duke’s plans for independence, enough to force him to go through with it,” Corinth reassured.

“I see,” Fred said, “So what are the plans for your commander?”

“The current commander plans to split the forces into 3 groups, Derek’s men will remain in the city, then the commander will take an army and sweep the port towns, and the third army is commanded by Harold’s brother, and will be sweeping the river towns, to try and prevent you from crossing,” Corinth explained.

“Who’s Harold?” Fred could only think of his brother.

“Harold was the commander who led 600 knights into your trap at Bristol.” Corinth reminded him.

“O yeah, the guy in our prison.” Fred laughed but didn’t show a hint of awkwardness for forgetting his name.

“He’s still alive?” Corinth asked.

“Yeah, his armour is pretty good stuff, quite a few of the counts survived, unfortunately.” Fred sighed.

Corinth was stunned, did Fred want them dead, “it would have been very devastating for Normandy if they died,”

“Yeah, and now we are supposed to treat them as special guests, as they demand such high-quality beverages and food, and yet I’m the one who’s rude for even suggesting that we throw them in the dungeon until the ransom has come.” Fred sighed again, “They are supposed to be war prisoners.”

Corinth was stunned but realised Derek would get along with Fred. Jacques ‘coughed’ at this to remind Fred of where they are.

“Where was I,” Fred murmured. “Oh yeah, so once they left, Derek would surrender the city, then I would have to play catch up, or, I send some of my men round through En Traindelire and rush towards Brillante to guard against them, leaving my army here completely undermanned?”

“Well, you would only need to defend En Traindelire, to kill 1 third of our army, then march on Brillante, for the other third, we only have 4000 men left, most of them being under Derek, as he managed to prevent most of his men from sallying forwards,” Corinth explained.

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“So, remind me what Derek wants for this?”

“He wants to become a retainer of yours as a count of Ludnus or a port town, allowed to keep his men and help with his claims in Normandy, as well as push the evidence of the Duke of Normandy’s plans for independence to the courts,” Corinth explained.

“Can you give us a minute?” Fred asked rhetorically.

Corinth left the tent. “What do you think?” Fred asked the group.

“We cannot give Ludnus to him,” Jacques stated,

“No, he is asking for this as a high offer, so that our counteroffer is not too low,” Mendes responded.

“We need to confirm the rumours,” Jean said.

“No, we need to confirm that the commander inside the city believes the rumour, and is acting in accordance with it, first,” Fred argued.

“What, send someone in with Corinth, to snoop around?” George said,

“Yes,” Henry confirmed. “A rumour like this, we will definitely receive in a few days.”

“Are we agreeing to these terms,” Jean asked.

“Would the family be happy with me taking him on as a retainer?”

“The family would expect the lands on the mainland to be directly taxed under them, a lot of members are not happy with your tax cuts, claiming that you are reducing the family’s income and that it isn’t fair,” Jean argued. The duchy had a policy that a third of tax revenue not collected by the crown goes to the duchies treasury.

“Have we not already surpassed the tax revenue compared to before, the family is receiving a lot more from their cut of the tax revenue,” Fred complained.

“They are jealous of your financial success and are claiming that it’s due to robbing the family. They will pick at anything to get a bigger portion of the pie; they are already arguing in the dukes’ courts to force you to revert the tax cuts and prevent you from expanding them across Albion.” Jean continued.

“And what do the dukes say about this?” Fred asked.

“You stated what your plan was, you stated what will happen, that the tax revenue would be back to normal within 2 years and would continue to grow from there, you have overachieved, it took you 1 and a quarter years to return to normal tax income, and you have the backing of a lot of merchants that are affiliated with the duchy, the dukes don’t want to rock the boat of something that is working,” Jean continued explaining.

“But they have to be seen as fair” Henry stated. “a lot of skilled people are trying to come to Albion for the cheaper rates and work. This is draining skilled people from other areas of the duchy.”

“I see, that’s fine, they can tax the mainland lands however they like, and I’ll tax Albion how I like.”

“Well, it won’t be that great, with the king coming back, he will be putting pressure on you to revert the taxes, especially the 30% crown tax that you completely severed,” Jacques explained.

“So, what about what Derek suggested?” Fred asked.

“If what Corinth said was true, we cannot be stuck here wasting time sieging a city we might not get while the enemy goes after the cities in the south,” Henry said.

“Then what city do we give him?” Arthur asked.

“Fellinger, we can ask him to move all of his troops straight there, when he hands over the city,” Fred mentioned.

“Fellinger? The port town furthest to the east?” Jean asked, this was one of the towns he was tasked to capture.

“Yes, it will remove the threat of his troops while we deal with the rest, and he has to get through two towns to attack Ludnus,” Fred explained.

“Are there any demands we want?” Jacques asked.

“Yes, I want it in writing that if he betrays me, I gain claims on all of his lands,” Fred stated.

“He wouldn’t accept that,” Henry argued.

“No, he wouldn’t accept it if I gain all of his lands immediately, this still requires me to conquer the lands off of him, it just means that I have a legitimate excuse to take them.”

“Then, shall I call in our guest?” Jacques asked.

“Yes.” Fred agreed,

Corinth came back in “So have you given any thoughts of our offer?”

“Yes, we can agree to your terms, I can offer Earl Derek Fellinger, up northeast, if he accepts it, he is to march all of his troops to that town when he hands over the city, as well, should he betray me or seek independence, I gain full claims to all of his cores,” Fred commented.

Corinth was taken aback by the last bit, at first, he felt it was too much, but he realised that Fred would still need to conquer the lands from Derek. It would just legitimise his actions in doing so.

“I believe my master will agree, but I would have to get him to personally sign the contract,” Corinth agreed.

“Fine,” Fred started writing on a piece of parchment, he wrote it in a standard of a contract from a 23rd-century standard, it was a lot different to what the people around them were used to.

Once he completed two copies, he asked Henry and Mendes to check that they matched. They were confused at the layout, to begin with, but then realised the ease of which it was understandable compared to what they were used to.

They then handed it to Corinth to double-check. He too was shocked.

“Why are there two signatures from either party needed?” Corinth asked.

“So, for mine, Henry will sign if, as stated below, he believes I have signed this document under no duress or coercion, and you or someone Derek trusts would do the same, normally it would be signed by a third party, but we don’t have that option available,” Fred explained.

“I understand, but you haven’t signed them,” Corinth stated.

“No, once Earl Derek is happy with the contracts, get him to sign them, come back to me and I will sign them, also, I will be sending in two scouts back with you to confirm your claims, my signature stands on their confirmation,” Fred explained again.

“I understand.” Corinth complied, he knew that there was no trust at the moment, only two people with compatible interests.

___

Corinth went back to Derek and managed to sneak in the two scouts, Derek was able to arrange his men on wall duty, or to be more precise, the other commanders pushed the duty onto Derek’s men.

Derek agreed and signed the contracts, and the scouts were able to do a little digging and after two days returned with Corinth, confirming the speculation, and getting an accurate date of departure, this meant they had 5 days to prepare.

Fred had 2500 men left to the enemy’s 4000. He started his scarecrow tactic again, and pulled back 1000 men, Fred was going to start breaking down his troop organisation to create a more streamlined army, he broke them down into the standards of his old world.

For now, he split them into companies, platoons and squads, a squad of 16 men to make a line, a platoon to have 3 squads, and a company to have 3 platoons + command staff to make it a 150-man unit.

He took 2 companies of Musketeers, which meant all of his musketeers and marines. 3 companies of halberdiers each one having a platoon of crossbow/halberdiers, an artillery company of 18 cannons, and a cavalry company, comprising of a platoon of knights and two platoons of heavy cavalry.

It was a good time to start professionalising his army. It took him 4 days to get them over to En Traindelire allowing him to have 7 days of practice drills with the army, it took the enemy a week to take Gulledge and prepare to move towards En Traindelire,

The army approaching them was a 1000-man army, Fred decided to have his men set up camp southwest of the town, meaning they can start a pitched battle in front of the town, and the enemy would be backed up to the river.

The other 1500 men of the enemy were heading down towards Brillante, where 200 marines were stationed, and sailors unloaded the cannons off the ships and turned into makeshift artillery units on the walls.

“So, Derek kept his promise?” Fred asked Mendes.

“Yes, they made it to Fellinger yesterday, our troops have taken over Ludnus,” Mendes responded.

“Tell Jean and Jacques to take 700 men and go for Galopenterrer,” Fred ordered.

“Yes,” Mendes had the orders sent.

“Scouts, any news of the enemy heading this way, have they discovered our whereabouts.”

“No Sire, they should reach the town by noon.”

“Good, prepare the army, we are moving south for a mile, we will swing around and position ourselves between the enemy and Brillante.”

___

Ha look, I see the town, they have hardly any defenders, this is going to be easy with my expertise” Harold’s brother boasted.

“Sire, we haven’t done a sweep with the scouts, what if this is a trap.” An advisor complained.

“Nonsense, the enemy doesn’t even know we are here, plus we needed to rush the town before they can send men from the north.”

As they reached about a mile away from the town, they started pulling forwards their catapults, these weren’t as strong as trebuchets, but they could be set up straight away and could start firing while they set up the trebuchets.

Then the commander heard a horn coming from his own troops somewhere down the line. “What is going on?” he asked as he turned to look, only to notice an army coming into view from the south.

“What the fuck.” He exclaimed.