The first thing that Carlo did upon returning from hosting the emissaries of Myrmidens and Bouellia was call back his council for another meeting. It was now imperative that he begin preparations for war. To that end, he charged Eric de Roelef to sail for Tilea immediately with the Spices to get the best price he could within the week and return with the profits in Imperial Crowns or Marienburg Guilders, as they would spend more readily than any of the various Tilean coins minted by the feuding cities of Tilea. Especially as the dwarves would refuse to take them.
He then charged Karoline Blaumann to first inquire with the King of Karak Izor about purchasing three-hundred dwarf-made three-quarters plate, three hundred dwarf-made pikes, three-hundred dwarf-made sallet helms, and three-hundred dwarf-made longswords all of exceptional quality. In addition, she was to inquire about seven hundred-fifty suits of dwarf-made chainmail hauberks, seven hundred-fifty dwarf-made kettle helms, two hundred-fifty dwarf-made pikes, three hundred dwarf-made crossbows, one hundred fifty dwarf-made shortswords, and one-hundred-fifty dwarf-made parma-style shields, all of fine quality.
"That will be costly if you wish them to be delivered on time. The Dwarves can perform such a feat, but not for normal prices for such items. Not even for a valued trade partner." Offered Karoline.
Carlo turned to Jan Willem Dejong. The man had needed to be dragged away from a miniature feast he had been partaking of in order to attend the sudden council. He still sported a spot of cream sauce from his linguini on his silk cravat. "How much of the treasury will we need to pay for the next five weeks of expenses?" He questioned.
"I beg your pardon?" Exclaimed Jan Willem.
"You heard me, how much of the treasury do we need to pay for the next, call it five weeks of expenses?" Repeated Carlo.
"If you mean to spend it all on the troops to equip, train, feed, and quarter them, I would say we could get by on some thirty-thousand guilders, assuming the sale of those spices you captured goes through?" Answered Jan Willem, turning his gaze toward Eric de Roelef.
"They'll go through, I can promise you that much, though likely I'll only be able to get seventy-five percent of their value for such a short time in port. I will lower the de Roelef cut for this one action to just ten percent, with five percent to my contact. You will be looking at roughly one million five hundred-ninety-three-thousand seven hundred-fifty guilders in profit. Not as much as the one million six-hundred-thousand you would have if you'd allowed my contact to shop around, but it will be more than enough. Plus, by seizing Quaterain and Bouellia in the coming war, your revenues should go up by half-again what they were previously." Offered Eric de Roelef, doing some quick math in his notebook.
Carlo turned back to Karoline and asked, "Would you be able to make the Dwarves a deal for those for seventy thousand guilders?"
"I might be able to get them to throw in some cannons for that much. We'll see what King Grimbrow says on how many and what kinds. I don't imagine he'll turn down gold, though." Smiled Karoline.
"Good. Once the guilders from the spice sales come in, our treasury will be more than refilled. Just in case of trouble at sea, though, I'm ordering Admiral Karolski to take both the Colorful Raconteur and the Beluga to escort the Shisha Dream. I want this to go as smoothly as possible. We're all counting on those guilders." Nodded Carlo.
"On that note, Mio Capitano, the troops await." Cut in Dante from where he had been leaning against the archway of the door into the council chamber. Dante was currently dressed in his own mercenary finest, though where Carlo's clothing screamed Myrmidian, Dante's did not. Dante was a worshipper of Ranald, as he always believed that good luck could swing fate around to your survival during battles, all else being equal. His ostentatious clothing tended more towards blues and whites with a silver X hanging from a golden chain on his neck, an extremely ostentatious good luck talisman that he'd had made and then blessed by a wandering priest of Ranald. His weapons were different from Carlo's saber as well. Dante favored a gladius, the short stabbing sword popular among venators and legionaries.
Carlo inclined his head and followed Dante down to the mustering field. To get there, they had to exit the Citadel, leave the artificial plateau the citadel was built atop and into, and head out of the gate into the town briefly. As they passed through in their brief walk from the Citadel to the Silk Road Gate, Carlo took in the mood of the people of the town. There was a renewed spring in everyone's step now that food was coming back into the village from outlying settlements and the Greenskins had been defeated. Optimism tempered with caution since the militia and guards had been called to muster by the New Count.
A few of the older women who had been with the initial settlement were gossiping near one of the wells. Carlo only caught a few minutes of their conversation, but it seemed as if the older generation had been through this before. Those who came over once the Citadel was rebuilt by the Dwarves had seen the muster called up right before the late Count Maartin van den Meer had expanded against Bouellia and the Voivode of Uvetosk, who had ruled a collection of four villages of around 600 people apiece. The Voivode had been completely demolished in the two weeks that had followed and had his lands annexed and Bouelia had lost their previous Duc along with a swathe of southern territory up to the current border. The trio of older women was excited to see what the target of Carlo's expansion was going to be.
It certainly gave Carlo a moment of pause. If this had happened before, who was to say that Khypris or Bouellia would not pick up on what he was doing? Thankfully though, the militia was still partially mobilized from Bigsmasha's attack, so having them muster now wouldn't be too bad, and the Mercenaries on gate duty claimed that Baroness de Estang's party had left the city on horseback an hour before he had issued the call to muster. He'd personally seen the Harpy's coach leave with them. Carlo's powers could detect no lie within the man's body or face, and so he was inclined to believe he was in the clear as far as secrecy went, though he would need to find a Spymaster soon to delegate such matters to.
What was very much not in the clear was the militia. As he and Carlo reached the mustering field and beheld the sight of the militia, he winced. Their lines were ragged and uneven, their formation would barely be passable for the militia of a small village of backwoods mountain folk, not a territory slightly bigger and more populated than Sartosa. Their equipment was a shambles, with most having a padded jack and a spear, with perhaps every third man having a bow or scuffed-up halberd instead. About the only good thing that could be said was that most of them looked hale and hearty. Of course, when the two most prevalent occupations in the militia were farmhand or miner, being in decent shape was a must. He couldn't say much about how they held their weapons, though. The bowmen held their bows like they at least could aim at something with a reasonable chance of hitting, and some of the spearmen seemed to have more than the bare minimum of competence, but the rest seemed to have been given two weeks of training by the Blue Banners that mostly amounted to 'stick them with the pointy end and make a line.'
Studying the body language, drill, and movements of his militia, Carlo put them through their paces, marching them around the field and running them through attack drills. All the while using his Myrmidia-given powers to analyze and come up with a training plan to use with another of his Myrmidia-given powers. After an hour of this, he knew what he had to do. Activating his Myrmidia-given powers, he began to drill the first company of the Mijndorp Militia, dismissing the rest to Barracks.
Leading by example, he demonstrated the Tilean Pike manual of arms, inviting those who thought he was all talk to take a swing at him to see he did actually know his stuff, cajoling them into straighter formations, having Dante work with individuals who might need one on one instruction, and just generally trying to shape them up. He did this until two hours after sunset, lighting the field by torchlight when it became necessary before he was satisfied. Tomorrow, he would do the same with both of his Guard companies, but for now, he dismissed the weary first company of the Mijndorp militia back to their billets as he and Dante returned back to the Citadel.
By now, dead tired as he was from a full day, all Carlo wanted was to collapse into bed and sleep until morning. His new bride, on the other hand, seemed to want to deny him sleep for at least another hour. As he entered their chambers, he found her laying on the bed, waiting for him with a coquettish smile on her face, beckoning him to take her again.
"I suppose one more hour won't kill me." He muttered to himself.
It would be slightly more than an hour before he could sleep. . .
XXXX
AN: So yeah, rush job means he has to spend the bulk of his treasury getting good equipment for his forces.
Fortunately, he's expecting a major payday to come sailing back across the Black Gulf from Tilea in a week. Unfortunately, there are plenty of Pirates in the Black Gulf. That's why he sent his entire 3 ship navy to guard the payday.
Of course, some pirates don't particularly care about whether a ship is heavily armed or escorted before attacking.
Some pirates think that the bigger the fight is, the more fun it is.
You all know which ones I mean. . .
Also yes, that is Tiger Warrior Training Technique he's using. The book doesn't actually describe how it looks, but I've chosen to represent it as him actually getting physically involved in unit training to lead by example since the Charm has the touch keyword in its write-up.
Anyway, next will be a pair of Interludes, first with the Duc of Bouellia and his preparations for war, then Admiral Karolski as he escorts Eric de Roelef and over a million and a half guilders back to Ijssel in the face of a pirate attack by a Scrap-happy Greenskin Korsair. Then we'll be back with Carlo.
Also, if you'd like the end bit to be slightly more NSFW, check out the version over on QQ.
Stay tuned.