Rise of Dachwald (Boxed Set, Books 1 through 2)

by Lawlis, Daniel

  “Yes, General,” the officer responded.

  General Fuhdor got on his horse and headed straight back to the City of Sodorf. Despite the fact the journey took forty-eight hours, he didn’t stop to rest.

  When he finally arrived in the city it was early morning. He considered stopping for a brief nap, but decided against it. This was too important. He walked into the temple and began ringing the huge bell. About a half hour later the nobles began pouring into the temple sleepy-eyed and exhausted. But he could tell by their lack of complaining they weren’t really surprised to be having an emergency meeting. It wasn’t every day that 524 soldiers were turned into mincemeat.

  He waited until all four hundred nobles were in the room. It was obvious to all he didn’t bear good tidings.

  “It’s true,” he said soberly. “All of it. Ruksin wasn’t lying about a thing. He does indeed seem to have been the sole survivor. By the time I left that scene of utter carnage and destruction, my men had already accounted for most of the bodies, but there were so many scattered throughout the forest it’ll be difficult to find all of them. Some were even flung into the trees. It also didn’t make counting the dead any easier that so few of them were still in one piece. Many of our countrymen were sawed in half or bashed into pieces. The Dachwaldians used some kind of booby trap . . . a tree . . . it must have been covered with spikes and blades . . . that came swinging down from above. The expertise behind this attack is what frightens me the most. They picked excellent ground. A sunken, muddy road. There just wasn’t time to get the hell out of that damn trap’s way.

  “What’s particularly unsettling is how they seemed to know exactly where we were going to march. Exactly where. After all, there are other paths that go to the northern border. How did they know we wouldn’t use one of those? Were they just guessing? If I had that kind of luck, I’d play cards for a living. No, it wasn’t luck. It wasn’t chance. It was a well-planned, well-organized ambush. Face it, gentlemen. We’re already at war, like it or not. A war that will determine the future of this nation and the survival of our race.

  “Our ancestors were far too easy on them at the end of the Seven Years War. They should have knocked their castle to the ground and publicly executed all their leaders. We can’t go into this war with the idea of accepting a conditional surrender. There are only two options: annihilate or be annihilated!”

  Applause broke out. There had been a drastic change in the nobles over the last several days. Reality had come and bitten them right on the nose. There wasn’t a pacifist among them. The utter reality of these events made it impossible for them to retain any illusions about this conflict. Their minds had been on the horrors of the Seven Years War. Thousands of Sodorfians being executed in cold blood by the Dachwaldians. The only people taken as prisoners, Sodorfian males strong enough to work as slaves in mines looking for pheorite and other substances to make weapons. When the Knights of Sodorf had crushed the Moscorians and the Vechengschaft at the battle of Dachwaldendomel and proceeded farther north into Dachwald, they were appalled at what they found. Entire camps that had been set up for the extermination of Sodorfians.

  The few survivors told the grisly tale. They had been led in small groups into a room surrounded by thick stone walls. Soundproof walls. Once inside, they found out, all too late, what the real purpose of the room was. The floor of the room was moveable, and in an adjacent room several Moscorians would turn a wheel that caused the floor to roll backwards. As it did so, it revealed a blazing, fiery pit below, into which the Sodorfians fell. To attempt to describe the horror the Sodorfian men, women, and children went through in those last final moments would be in vain. As the floor slowly started opening up like the jaws of some horrible monster, everyone in the room began rushing away from the edge of the receding floor. Quickly, however, they ran out of space. As they ran out of room, there was nothing to stop them from falling. As they fell, many of them desperately grabbed onto the other people that were farther away from the opening pit to try to prevent themselves from falling.

  Unfortunately, not only did this not save them, it simply dragged other people into the pit with them. Furthermore, any attempt to survive at best delayed the inevitable, as the entire floor itself eventually receded leaving no escape from the hungry flames below. The pit itself was about sixty feet deep, and the flames were about forty feet tall. There was a passage from an adjacent building that led underneath this house of death, and below, enslaved Sodorfians worked there, shoveling fresh coal into the furnace from which came the flames. They were told if they assisted in shoveling the coal into the furnace, their lives would be spared. Hence, they assisted in stoking the flames to which their fellow countrymen were fed in exchange for their own safety.

  The Knights of Sodorf had ordered a very thorough investigation of all these atrocities. After discovering the undeniable culpability of hundreds of Sodorfians in assisting the Moscorians in liquidating Sodorfians, all such Sodorfians were executed. To their credit, they accepted their execution bravely and honorably. Before being hanged, they gave tearful apologies to their fellow Sodorfians and explained that they were simply frightened to death and were extremely sorry for what they had done. Only a few objected to being executed. In fact, most were happy at having the opportunity to vindicate themselves as far as was possible under such circumstances. Nonetheless, the complicity of Sodorfians in the wholesale murder of their fellow countrymen left a black mark so foul upon the legacy of Sodorf that it was rarely discussed in polite company and history books gave it terse treatment.

  One might indeed wonder why the Sodorfians so blindly walked into this house of death. The sanitary conditions in these extermination camps were deplorable. Outbreaks of lice were common, as were many diseases. The pretext for them going inside the fateful room was to have a special powder put on them that would kill the lice and other undesirable creatures.

  This troubling imagery was vividly present in the minds of the Sodorfian nobles today.

  Finally, Bundor spoke up: “General Fuhdor, as many people in this room likely know, I am definitely one of those guilty of causing the decline in the quality and quantity of the Sodorfian army. After all, I have numerous times called for military spending cuts, and, unfortunately, many times I was successful. Also, I called for fewer full-time soldiers, arguing all we really needed was a reserve army. Well, that’s all in the past now; I am more than willing to give my full support to the military. But, the problem still remains: how are we going to get an army large enough to go take on the Vechengschaft? After all, over five hundred of our Sodorfians were wiped out in a single battle, and all of the evidence thus far appears to indicate we didn’t even inflict a single casualty on the Dachwaldians! This is certainly not the sign of having an army that is ready for war. Right now we’d be doing well to simply survive the next couple of weeks—that is, if the Dachwaldians plan on making any more attacks on us in the near future, especially if they are executed as ingeniously as this last one! We need to be looking towards our defenses. Yes, maybe conquering them eventually can be seriously considered. Right now, offense would be suicide.”

  “Sir Bundor, I can’t deny the veracity of your comments,” said General Fuhdor, “and I also want to say I appreciate your willingness to admit your anti-military stance in the past has not been helpful. However, seeing you are willing to move on and correct that position, I’ll try to look past that and look towards the future, and to do so with a spirit of unity, not finger-pointing. As to your logistical concerns, I don’t deny that attempting to attack now would indeed be insanity. Offensive action is something we won’t be able to take for quite some time. For starters, I propose we immediately conscript every Sodorfian between the age of fifteen and forty-nine, the standard age group for conscription in times of national emergency. If we conscript every man between those ages, it should give us an extra one hundred thousand men.

  “We currently have about 9,500 Sodorfian regulars and six thousand Hugars
. I have many excellent instructors in my army, and I assure you that, within several months, we can make good soldiers out of the greenest recruits. As for money, well we are going to have to immediately begin a special military tax; that is a given. Having an army of this size is going to require sacrifices. While we gather this large army, there are many other things that our country can do to defend itself. First of all, we can start having regular patrols along the northern border to alert us to the first sign of any hostility from Dachwald. Secondly, we can begin building larger walls around the city. We have no castle in this country that can even be remotely compared to Castle Dachwald. The twenty-foot walls that surround this city do offer some refuge, but they offer very little protection against a disciplined army. We will need to begin building booby traps around the city, raising the height of the walls, and building more trebuchets to put inside the city to hurl missiles at any oncoming enemy. Although my engineers don’t know how to build anything quite as crafty and deadly as that monstrous instrument of death that destroyed those brave Sodorfian regulars, my engineers are certainly capable of making very high-quality trebuchets and can begin doing so immediately.”

  The nobles immediately began clapping, expressing their satisfaction.

  Fritzer spoke up, “I agree with General Fuhdor, and as emergency leader, I decree we will increase taxes to the extent General Fuhdor sees fit, begin military conscription for all males aged fifteen through forty-nine, and begin increasing the height of our city’s walls and adding trebuchets inside. I grant General Fuhdor authority to implement whatever he feels necessary to accomplish these ends.”

  Every noble immediately voiced his agreement with Fritzer’s decision.

  Chapter 31

  Work began immediately. Messengers were sent throughout the land, giving gory details of the horrible attack and warning everyone to prepare for war. Over the next several months, thousands of Sodorfians were conscripted. To General Fuhdor’s delight, very few resisted. They were excited to defend their country against this horrible enemy. General Fuhdor was also pleased that of the approximately one hundred thousand recruits conscripted, only around ten thousand failed to meet the strict physical requirements. Most of those rejected were healthy enough that if the situation grew even more desperate they could be called upon later. Thus, the army had been increased in a matter of months from 9,500 Sodorfian regulars and six thousand Hugars to 99,500 Sodorfian regulars and six thousand Hugars.

  The Hugars were a different breed of warrior, and none of the Sodorfian regulars would be eligible to join their ranks until they had either spent at least a year as a Sodorfian regular or distinguished themselves exceptionally in combat. The traditional weapon for the Sodorfians was the pike, which they had treasured for centuries. Aside from the Knights of Sodorf, which were heavy cavalry and very effective with lances, long swords, and battle axes, the Sodorfian pikemen were one of the few troop types that had been able to withstand the devastating cavalry charges of the Vechengschaft and Moscorian cavalry. But this wasn’t their only weapon of choice. They also liked to use the long sword and crossbow. Unlike the Vechengschaft and Moscorians, who favored the longbow, the Sodorfians preferred crossbows, and, if they used bows at all, they preferred smaller ones, since it afforded them greater mobility.

  General Fuhdor saw to it that discipline was rigorous. All soldiers, including new recruits and those already in the army before the undeclared war broke out, trained from about five in the morning to nine at night. This included classroom training and physical training. Some of the classroom training was dedicated to teaching the military history of the Seven Years War, but most was dedicated to teaching tactics.

  Although everyone was expected to know how to fight on foot, not everyone was expected to be able to fight on horseback. After all, the army instructors reasoned, one can always fall off a horse and be forced to fight on foot, but there are very few scenarios in which one would be forced to fight on horseback. That said, all received some training in horseback combat. Although a smaller part of the combat curriculum, they also studied Gicksin: unarmed combat, consisting of locks, throws, strikes, and chokes.

  Finally, after about six months of intensive training, General Fuhdor considered all 99,500 Sodorfian regulars trained and ready for combat. He was surprised that during these last six months there had been no attack from Dachwald. After the ambush near the border, he had been nearly certain another attack, probably even larger, was imminent.

  (they’re probably just biding their time to catch us off guard again)

  He wasn’t sure what they were up to. His spies and scouts had been unable to obtain any detailed information as to what was going on in Dachwald. He assumed that perhaps they were rearming, just waiting for the right moment to strike.

  (maybe they know they lost their one and only chance to catch us off guard and are waiting for us to make a move)

  If there was ever a time when they would have had a decent chance of wiping them out and taking over, it was right after that ambush. Their army then had been small, demoralized. Especially those who had seen the carnage firsthand. The Dachwaldians must have known launching such an attack would lead to war . . . .

  (all that matters is getting the largest damn army this world’s ever seen and sticking a boot so far up their ass the toe comes out their mouth!)

  (but what about the lack of Sodorfian refugees? there are several thousand Sodorfians—or were anyway—living in Dachwald; surely SOME of them would have crossed over by now)

  Being in a state of war—and likely in a state of racist frenzy and violence as well—many Sodorfians would have wanted to return to Sodorf. The fact that none had crossed the border bothered him. Unless the situation in Dachwald was so peaceful and had changed so little that there hadn’t been any need for Sodorfians to emigrate from Dachwald, that could only mean none had been permitted to leave. Perhaps they were already being dealt with. Dealt with the way they were during the Seven Years War. Getting prepped to have lice and other nasty critters removed from their bodies. Come, come, now; don’t dally. Time for your cleaning. Yes, just walk right in through here; we’ll take good care of those pesky lice. Don’t pay any attention to that burning smell.

  (the bastards!)

  As this imagery crept into his mind he felt a nearly irresistible urge to attack right away. What was he waiting for after all?

  (unless you enter with an army that can actually defeat them, you may as well just stay right the hell here)

  This undeniable reality kept him from doing anything rash. By Kasani, he needed to obtain some good intelligence on the current state of affairs in Dachwald. Its political stability, the treatment of Sodorfians there, the strength of the Vechengschaft. His patience was wearing thin like an overused glove. There was a sense of imminent danger throughout Sodorf. Everyone knew this was the calm before the storm. The calm didn’t fool anybody. Not completely anyway. And definitely not General Fuhdor.

  An elaborate warning system had been put in place to warn Sodorfians of attack. Lookout posts had been set up throughout all of Sodorf equipped with large bells. In the event of an invasion, these bells would be rung, and whenever a lookout heard a bell being rung, he would in turn ring the bell at his post. So many of these lookout posts had been set up that if the Dachwaldians were to attack Sodorf, within less than an hour most of Sodorf could be alerted in a domino-type effect of alarms being set off. The walls surrounding the City of Sodorf had also been successfully raised. Once a mere twenty feet in height, they now stood a proud forty feet tall. They bristled with ballista towers, merlons, and crenels. As for some of the smaller towns throughout Sodorf, such as Seihdun and Seisphen, there had not been sufficient time to improve them so drastically, but they had been made more secure. Outside of numerous small towns such as these were placed large wooden walls, as well as twenty-foot-high stone walls. Some trebuchets were placed inside each also.

  Several days later General Fuhdor was still ponder
ing the wisdom of launching an immediate offensive on Dachwald. His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a messenger.

  “General Fuhdor, I have very urgent news! Some Sodorfians were found in the northern regions fleeing for their lives. They are badly battered and bruised. They have been branded, whipped, beaten . . . it’s horrible! Please, you must come and hear what they have to say!” exclaimed the messenger excitedly.

  “I’ll kill those responsible—I swear it!!” General Fuhdor shouted angrily, purple veins bulging out of his neck.

  (this could be the end of the waiting game!)

  He got on his horse and accompanied the messenger to Seihdun, where the Sodorfians were currently resting and trying to recover from their wounds. After about eight hours of hard riding, General Fuhdor and the messenger arrived.

  “They’re in here, sir,” the messenger said. General Fuhdor went into the room expecting the worst. He wasn’t disappointed. Emaciated Sodorfians, looking like human skeletons lay on the beds inside the room. Scars from whip marks were visible on their bodies. Large S’s were branded onto their neck. They looked like escapees from a shipwrecked slave ship. Most of them were deeply asleep or staring blankly into space.

  “Things have gone insane in Dachwald,” an old Sodorfian said, looking directly into General Fuhdor’s eyes. “They’re butchering all Sodorfian men, women, and children. We were lucky—we escaped.” He began coughing violently.

  “How did this happen?!” General Fuhdor asked. “Why didn’t you all flee as soon as the slaughter started so you could alert us?! We would have worked even harder to get an army ready to invade Dachwald had we known for certain that these atrocities were being committed—we would have invaded Dachwald immediately!!”