21st of September 6747
Roche-Fidèle, Province of Plaines-Vaillantes, Empire of Fiercœur, under the territory of the House of Cœurvaillant.
Time: 10:13 AM, 10:13
“Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am sure that you all know why we are having a meeting, we are here to discuss how to deal with the rumored invasions.” The emperor told everyone.
“We have gathered intelligence which confirms that the House of Loups Chantants and House of Grandes Ombres are planning an invasion, the same thing as the Caravandales.” Duke William of Rivièreclaire said to the emperor. After hearing this, everyone’s eyes widened, and their jaws dropped, filling the hall with silence.
“Our forces are outnumbered even if the Caravandales are excluded, but since they are also planning to invade us, we are the ones outnumbered!” Count Jérémie of Prairie shouted to William of Rivièreclaire. Not expecting the Caravandales to join.
“We can fight them if we ally ourselves with the Vivaglomerati Tribes, I hear from their merchants and messengers that there are also rumors that their relationship with the Caravandales has been turning sour.” Marquis Frédéric of Valcouronne said to Duke William and the Emperor.
“We should also change some of our tactics, not only are we fighting nomadic tribes, but we are also fighting against a standing army.” Another General, Gabriel of Valéron said. "Remember, the usual tactics we commonly use would likely be useless as we are not only fighting nomadic tribes, but another standing army! If we were to deploy war wagons against the Caravandales cavalry, the artillery of both the Chantantois and Grandombres would likely lead to the destruction of our war wagons," he adds.
"That doesn't surprise me, our enemies have plenty of trebuchets, catapults, and ballistas. However! We have the advantage of one thing, black powder weapons, invented over 90 years ago." Count Charles of Astraleine told everyone.
"And what can those weapons do better than bows or crossbows? Fire lances won't do much, rockets do little than intimidate horses but not a well-trained and experienced standing army, hand cannons, and muskets outrange bows and crossbows but they take as long as a crossbow to reload and are far more expensive!" Marquis Louis of Châteaulac said to the Duke of Astraleine.
"Ease of use, range, intimidation, and lethality. We can have cannons and smaller handheld ones with long barrels and a stock. Gunpowder weapons such as artillery have plenty of potential. They might not be effective against horse archers but they will be effective against enemy infantry and artillery. We already have large gunpowder weapons capable of throwing lead farther than a trebuchet or a ballista can," The Duke of Merblanc, Jean-François said.
This statement only made the Marquis of Châteaulac question the opinions of the Duke of Merblanc, and made him think of what to say, causing him to shut his mouth for a while, but then he replies, "What does the duke in command of the navy have to do with the army? I know more of the army than you do!"
Then Count Pierre of Verdantcolline replies to him: "Our spies say that the Chantantois and Grandombres are still trying to make gunpowder. This is a very good thing for us, their artillery is inferior in terms of range. Due to this, we can use war wagons far more effectively if we destroy their artillery before can destroy ours."
"This is a very good advantage! If our war wagons are safe, we have better chances against their cavalry! No matter how strong their cavalry charge, or how accurate the enemy horse archers can shoot, they can't defeat a fortification without dismantling it or starving the occupants!" The Count of Cristalneige, Antoine replied.
"They outnumber us but we have more tactics at our disposal... What a bizarre situation." The Emperor said. "However, there is one thing to do before we must plan our defense, how will the enemy invade?" He adds.
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"They are likely to bring a fraction of their forces from our western border, the Chantantois have large mountains in the middle of their territory, so some will come from the west, but I think most will come from an invasion to our south." Duke Jean-François replied. "This is where the navy gets involved, they are likely to invade us by sea at our southern territories." He adds.
"How about the other factions? Küstenland is likely to attack the House of Grandes Ombres and the House of Loups Chantants and then attack us, or maybe they will help us." The Emperor took a look on his map, seeing how close the Küstenländers are.
"Conisering how close they are to us, they are the ones more likely to launch a naval invasion to us, or any of the other belligerents in this war." Duke Moses de Étoilemer pointed at certain areas of the map. "Looking at how close the Province of Merblanc is to their territory and considering how strong our military presence there, they many not invade this part, but rather invade my territory. It may be farther but much less defended. The same goes for Yuzhnoye Poberezh'ye, they are the worst enemies we have, considering how close they are. We are lucky that Pustynna Rzeka is there to deal with them, otherwise, this war is lost until we have a good military leader." He added.
"If a joint invasion from Yuzhnoye Poberezh'ye and Küstenland were to happen, the Province of Merblanc is more likely going to be the target." The Emperor showed the location of the First and Thirteenth Armies in the Province of Merblanc.
Duke Jean-François de Merblanc raised his hand. "I have a proposal. Defend our western border and southern coasts. Establish two new field armies. We need to have Fourteenth and Fifteenth Armies."
"This is when our navy comes in, we outnumber their forces by a noticeable amount. Their navies combined have at least ten-thousand and five-hundred ships, ours consisted of two-hundred-fifty more ships than theirs, however, most of our ships are meant for boarding, unlike most of theirs, which is meant for shooting stones at enemy ships. We have the technology, however, we would need to partially dismantle our own ships and rebuild them." Count Loic of Cascadeclaire told everyone. "We must not let our people know that we will take a long time to prepare for an invasion by sea. They know that an invasion can arrive at any time. Which is why they armed themselves with crossbows and swords." He added.
"Not only should we deal with the likeliness of a naval invasion from Küstenland, but even worse, help from one of the most dangerous enemies, Lóngguó. The second civilization with gunpowder. Their technology is catching up to us for the past one hundred years. We need to improve our technology to increase the gap further. We need one-sided advantages to secure one-sided victories against any and all enemies."
Duke Moses de Etoilemer pointed at the map again. "The problem is, if Lóngguó, Küstenland and Yuzhnoye Poberezh'ye helped the Caravandales Tribes and the traitors from the Loups Chantants and Grades Ombres, we are essentially powerless even with the Vivaglomerati Tribes helping us." He said to everyone.
"With Lóngguó now being able to match our technology and now, numbers. We need another one-sided advantage. Without that, they will have a fair fight. We do not want that." Emperor Edgar showed a gun. "This is a captured weapon from Lóngguó. One of de Merblanc's Sailors captured it five years ago. It functions too similar to our Chargeur de chambre rifles and our old yet retired flintlock muskets." He added. "We should not let our people know."
"Your Majesty, this must be shown to the people, they must know how dangerous Lóngguó is, to justify the manufacturing of more Chargeur de Chambre rifles for our military to completely replace archers and crossbowmen." Duke Moses de Étoilemer suggested.
"But how do we distract our people from the facg that we are not yet prepared?" Prince Aaron asked.
"We must have some way of distracting our own people. We know that there is no "other world" but there is likely that "another history" exists." Duke William of Rivièreclaire told everyone.
Then Louis, the Marquis of Châteaulac said: "What is this nonsense you are talking about?"
"I plan to summon a hero to distract our people. There is no such thing as another world, that is why whenever we try to summon a hero from "another world", they tend to tell us that they learned something similar happened in their history, their world's maps look suspiciously similar to ours. Therefore, we can not only distract the population of our Empire, but learn from that person. We may learn from him, or her, how to use our situation to our advantage!" The Duke of Rivièreclaire, who is actually one of the Thirteen leaders of the Mages' Guild, (a special unit in both the military and also in the technological organization) told him.
"I am leaving. I came here for a discussion of strategy. Not some heroes in a work of fiction!" Marquis Louis de Châteaulac decided that this meeting makes no sense.
"Let him leave." The Emperor said. "Ignore the fact that he does not support this idea." he added
"That person may be weak in a fight, but strong in a battle, maybe someone who knows how to deal with both a standing army, nomadic tribes, and navies! If that person doesn't know how to fight? We will ask for information and history! Then we can use that person's knowledge to gain the upper hand in war, giving our people hope!" Jean-François, the Duke of Merblanc told everyone.
"It seems that a "hero" is our only chance in distracting the people. Do you agree to bring a hero to here or not? Raise your hands if you agree." The Emperor tells everyone.
"Normally, I will not agree to this action due to the cost of three-hundred gold bars but I think it is the best choice." Count Loic of Cascadeclaire said. "All of us can just fund the Mages' Guild." He adds.
As everyone thinks about if they should summon a hero or not, they thought that asking an actor to make a fake hero will not have the benefits of the potential information the real hero has. So everyone, except for Louis, Marquis of Châteaulac agreed to take a hero.
"Fools, this will fail. This is a waste of time and resources!" Marquis Louis of Châteaulac shouts to everyone as he leaves the meeting.
"So it is settled, we will summon one, however, expect the hero to be hostile, stubborn and suspicious of you, it is unlikely that what you say will seem believable to that person. That person may even attack us." Duke Jean-François of Merblanc told everyone.
"The war has already began, we have decided to mobilize through this meeting. Prepare the Thirteen field armies, fleets and the air services of both the navy and the army! Start conscripting soldiers for the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Armies!" The Emperor orders.