Outskirts of an Empire-Chapter 2
Here's the next installment of my AAR/battle report series. Enjoy!
Time flies by and the year is 1107. With the successful conquest against the Moors led by Ruprecht the Brave, Emperor Heinrich desires more power and land, which the Pope utterly refuses. His greed and hatred towards anyone who disagrees with his judgement has led to a sudden war with Poland, a nation that the Holy Roman Empire had once fervently supported against the Danish who were by now eliminated as a threat…and as a people. Europe is plunged into war, a war that even the Pope cannot stop as the two sides take their stand on the battlefields. In a sudden sweep and act of bravado, Emperor Heinrich orders Peter the Wrathful to siege Uppsala up in Denmark in order to crush the threat of the Poles from the North. Although Peter the Wrathful is a totally inexperienced commander, he does what he is told, and marches to the doomed city and waits, starving its citizens to death. Meanwhile the capture of Magdeburg by General Gottfield and his army of town militia had finally caught the infuriated eye of the Poles who attempted to parley before more bloodshed who sent an army to crush the army. The Reich and Poles are standing head to head and the mighty blows of the to powers will start to shake the world until one or the other is completely vanquished…
Act I- Uppsala
The cold freezing air bit on his open skin, not covered by the sheer weight of his armour. For 3 long years his foe had survived under his barricade and he was getting extremely impatient. He had other important things to do, like executing criminals, stealing from taxes and spending more time with his foreign mistress…as one does. Peter the Wrathful grumbled as he did his usual patrol of his men, who were themselves just as bored. “Be strong my countrymen, they will soon rot in their graves,” he reminded his troops for the 10th time since the start of the siege. “The more we wait, the greater the blood we will spill on their land!” His men kept silent. Each man knew the dangers of disapproving the Wrathful’s comments. Behind his youthful face was a demon, a savage beast to anyone who opposed him. He was a reckless young man…the perfect man for the job (at least in Emperor Heinrich’s opinion), even though he was a poor commander and his loyalty ever so doubtful.
The one thing common to all sieges is when the enemy is on the verge of defeat; one would prefer to die in battle than to die as a living skeleton, a rotting living corpse. And this day was no exception.
“MEN! TO THE BATTLE LINES! FORM UP! FORM UP!” Peter the Wrathful bellowed, his sinister voice penetrating the hearts of the enemy. But, like in all sieges, when the enemy sallies out, there is no time to position and so the Wrathful’s men were caught totally off guard as the enemy poured out of the gate.
Peter’s lack of judgement had caused him to make very serious errors in the past and although he vowed not to make them again, he often did. Peter, being the selfish noble he was let his men take the full brunt of the attack, galloping with his bodyguard to the unprotected left flank away from the enemy archer and crossbow fire and positioned himself for a charge. Unfortunately for him his men were breaking not because they were too weak and frail to compete with Polish arms and axes but because of the fact that they were swarmed by them like hornets stinging them painfully and so 2 squads decided to flee from the battle. However as they turned their heads to take one final glance at the battlefield, they saw the inner demon of Peter staring at them wildly, which quickly changed their decision and they charged straight back into the fray.Crossbowmen quickly provide cover for the frantic troops of Peter the Wrathful
The reckless Monster turned to his foe and charged head on. As the cold wind blew across his form, a sinister smile spread across his face and the Poles knew what they were facing. He ploughed straight through the left flank, skewering anyone in his way with his joust and almost immediately the entire flank was gone, either fleeing back into the castle or just simply covered by the red coloured snow as the horses’ hooves trampled over their broken bodies.
The Reich engages the Poles in bloody combat in the freezing cold
The enemy captain, Captain Szymon notices that his entire army is in flight and furthermore, the Monster is heading straight at him. Doing what Poles do best, he flees inside the castle hoping that he will at least die falling on his sword than being butchered by that beast. But there can be no escape from dreaded general like Peter. He chases after him cutting down anyone in his way and soon reaches the fleeing captain, who now looked more like a terrified chicken than a notable captain of the Polish Empire. Szymon’s exhaustion would be the end of him and as he turned around to inevitably face his foe, his horse was sliced and he fell down, breaking his leg and thus allowing Peter’s men to capture the trophy. Szymon watches as the might of Poland is wiped out, reminding him what had happened to Denmark 10 years before when they had got in the way of the Reich.The Monster approaches the doomed Poles, confident in utterly crushing them
In a matter of moments the battle had ended. 300 of Peter’s men laid dead. All of Szymon’s had perished. Peter the Wrathful laughed as he walked around the city killing anyone in his sight as his men torched the building and slaughtered the people. Blood stained the cold ground and the bodies froze in the cold air. Szymon, chained up to a tree watched in terror as his beloved town was destroyed, was wiped out, was erased from existence, replaced by the Yellow and Black flag of the Reich. At last Peter the Wrathful walked up to the poor man. “Now who was it who did not accept my authority?!” the Monster proclaimed as he brandished his bloody streaked sword…..The Polish Captain attempts to flee, but to no avail
The doomed city awaits Peter the Wrathful’s judgement
Chapter II- Magdeburg
Gottfield was an entirely different man from his distant relatives: Peter the Wrathful and Ruprecht the Brave. Although he was accustomed to show *some* dread whenever he emerged victorious from battle he usually met it with a sigh of relief. Even for his age (16 years) and his surroundings he was abnormally caring towards everyone, his brethen, his countrymen whatnot. Nevertheless he followed the Kaiser’s commands and in 1106 he captured Magdeburg with relative ease, sacking the town for its wealth and resources. Poland, which was now in dire threat of ending up like the Danes and the Milanese had recently just learnt from their agents that Magdeburg was lightly defended by a young inexperienced general and a group of untrained militia and sent up a force of peasants and the woodsmen of the nearby areas to retake the city from the Holy Roman Empire.
The messenger ran as fast as he could. He hoped he could make it on time. He passed a great Cathedral and behind it was a small town, with wooden walls, barely protected by its garrison just like . “My liege!” the man shouted! Urgent news!” Gottfield was rudely awakened by the clamour and rushed outside his room. “What in God’s name is going on?! Can’t you see I’m a little busy. The messenger immeadiatley thought that the town was doomed but that was no matter; he could easily run away from the Kaiser’s eyes which were too focussed on destroying the Poles than inspecting his lowly servants. “Our watch towers have spotted a small Polsky army heading this way my liege! They will arrive within a few days sir!”
Gottfield was shocked. Even though he was so young, he could not stand the horror and the pain of warfare again yet he tried not to show this on his face. Gottfield dismissed the messenger and at once ordered the defences to be prepared. The militia were drilled. Swords and shields were prepared. And within a few weeks the day had come.
Captain Ryksa was an ambition-driven leader. Killing an enemy general in his opinion would be the ultimate goal he would achieve to become inscribed into the Polish royal family and this was an ample opportunity. Here was a young, inexperienced general who would definitely fail to defeat Poland on this day. He prepared to build the siege needed to take the city until suddenly a horn was blown from within the gates. “Prepare yourselves men!” He bellowed.The Polish army arrives to take back what was theirs
Gottfield’s men poured out the gate, quickly aligning themselves in a straight row. Gottfield himself took full advantage of an open flank from where the battle could be quickly finished off with a mighty cavalry charge. In his first error of the day, he charged in an act of rashness and impatience, before most of his men had positioned themselves resulting in a failed charge on the Polish nobles. “RETREAT!” he screamed as he saw several of his men fall to the ground dead, men whom he had trusted with his life, men who had sworn to protect him, men who had trained with him, men who had fought with him. He tried not to think about it.Gottfield and his army prepare for the bloody sally
The first, failed charge…
Finally after positioning his men much more carefully than before, Gottfield sighed. He raised his sword to the heavens and shouted “For the Kaiser! For God! For the REICH!” and with that he ordered an all out assault on Ryksa’s confident men. Confident in the fact that they had better arms, better training and better blood than those Germanic barbarians.
“Give them a volley! KILL THEM!” Ryksa commanded his archers. “Men! Get ready! God is on OUR side today and we shall take what is rightly ours!” The Polish white and red flag blew in the slight wind. His men agreed with their loud cries as they put up their shields and weapons.Gottfield raises his sword to the heavens trusting all his actions in God and the Reich
But nothing could stop the charge of Gottfield’s men desperate to save their town from the hands of the enemy. The enemy’s arrows bounced off his men’s shields though a few met a fiery death before even landing a touch on the enemy. The dark clouds covered the battlefield creating an ominous feeling for both sides. The fighting had begun.The Polish archers fire their fire arrows to knock out their foe’s morale
Gottfield himself finally trampled over the Polish nobles who had killed Kraus and Dietrich and a few others in the previous charge. “Revenge is mine!” Shouted the youth as he ploughed right through the left flank. “Attack him! NOW!” Ryksa cried out as he saw his advantage taking shape. Gottfield was trapped. He was trapped by Ryksa’s Polish nobles on his front, and by his men at the back who were to busy getting slain and butchered to care about their irrational general. He had to make a decision, and fast as Ryksa charged at him. “ONWARD MEN!” ordered Gottfield, an ironic command in Ryksa’s eyes since the general turned around at galloped back at his men. “The coward! He will die!” Ryska shouted as his men chased afterwards. However after a few seconds they had realised their mistake.The two sides clash on the open frontal flank
Ryksa had never anticipated that such a fool would act so different to what he had expected. He had planned that the knave would actually attempt to escape and thus be smothered by Polish arms and attacks, an infallible plan he thought. But unusually, Gottfield had attacked his battle-hardened troops from the back which were actually winning the Reich’s militiamen. This would be the pinnacle error and Ryksa immediately realised this. “Turn around you fools! TURNM AROUND!” Alas this was too late. In one of Gottfield’s more impressive actions, the charge crushed the unarmoured Polish woodsmen, their axes never getting the chance to bite into the horses’ flesh. The doomed Polish soldiers either died fighting Gottfield’s well-trained bodyguard or fled the battle hoping to escape the general. “The dishonour…O the dishonour”-Ryksa muttered as the ambitious captain ran as fast as he could. “The King would not want to here this…”The bloody melee continues with the Poles not unable to see what is coming towards their back flank
“Chase after them! Capture them all! Heinrich would be indeed pleased with this victory” commanded Gottfield as he galloped towards Ryksa. “Give up or be slain!” Ryksa new his end would come soon. He turned around and prepared for his last seconds of his life. At least he would die in front of the gates of a Cathedral. As Gottfield’s men galloped through his squad, the prize was knocked to the ground wounded, easily captured as he struggled to move on the grassy field. He watched, dazed, as his men were captured, others were simply driven to the nearby river where they drowned. He could not stop but feel a great sense of the end of Poland.The bloody battlefield, soaked with the blood of the noble blood of the Poles and Germans
Gottfield gathered the 400 men left of his militia army, battle hardened by this decisive victory and addressed them, “God has proven to us that it is Heinrich’s destiny, our people’s destiny and God’s destiny that the world will be lead by German might and supremacy!” Yet the young man only felt remorse and sorrow for what had happened. So many of his friends, brethren, and countrymen had perished throughout his whole life. As he looked towards the cathedral outside his town he could only think of the blood and sweat that had corrupted the entire Europe, a plague that was caused by the power hunger of a single individual. He vowed never again to put his own countrymen and brethren through the same ordeal again…Ryksa lies dazed on the ground, watch as the remnants of his army are captured or butchered
“And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,And her ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are peace.”(I Vow to Thee my Country [Thaxted])
To be continued….
Yep that’s the 2nd instalment of “Outskirts of an Empire.” I tried to be as subtle as I can when regarding teh personalities of Gottfield and Peter the Wrathful (Gottfield had the trait personal loss. U can guess what Peter had...) So once again I hope you all enjoyed it and comments and advice will be greatly appreciated. The 3rd instalment will be coming out soon featuring Emperor Heinrich himself! Until then enjoy!
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Originally Posted by parvus
