by Eric Flint
A little laugh went around the table. There wasn't much humor in it, though. The implications if the SoTF's army was neutralized by the Bavarians were…
Not good. The Fourth of July Party also controlled Magdeburg province, but its military forces were quite small. The dominance of the Committees of Correspondence in that province, especially in the capital, meant that there was no real need for a powerful provincial military to maintain order. Magdeburg province was quite homogenous, too, both in social as well as geographical terms. In that respect, it was quite unlike the sprawling SoTF, with its variegated terrain and social mosaic.
Given that reality, those CoC activists in the province inclined to join the military volunteered for the USE's national army. On a per capita basis, Magdeburg province provided a larger percentage of the USE army's enlisted ranks that any other province in the nation.
The relationship between the Fourth of July Party and the Committees of Correspondence was complex, and varied some from one region to another. Taken as a whole, the relationship was quite close. Almost unanimously, CoC members voted for the FoJP candidates in any election except in those few places where they ran candidates of their own. In return, once elected to office FoJP politicians were generally supportive of those programs and initiatives desired by the CoCs of their area.
But there were always some frictions, also. As a very rough rule of thumb, CoC activists tended to view their FoJP counterparts as shaky-kneed moderates prone to excessive compromise, and FoJP members looked upon the CoCs as being often impractical and unrealistic firebrands.
Both views were stereotypes, but like many stereotypes they contained some kernels of truth.
"The thing that worries me the most," said Rebecca, "is that the CoC success in crushing the anti-Semites after the Dreeson murder, especially combined with the events in Mecklenburg-"
The populace of that hardscrabble Baltic province had rebelled during the post-Dreeson Incident period, and driven out its aristocracy.
"-has made them over-confident of their own military strength. It is one thing to defeat the sort of disorganized or hastily organized para-military forces they encountered during Operation Kristallnacht. It is another thing entirely to confront regular military forces. Even leaving aside the Swedish army under Oxenstierna's direct control, there are a number of significant provincial forces which we can assume will support the chancellor's counter-revolution."
"Can you summarize?" asked Helene Gundelfinger.
"If I may," interjected Ed Piazza, looking at Rebecca. "I've just finished examining the question."
She nodded and leaned back, trying not to smile. She was quite sure that the president and vice-president of the SoTF were operating in tandem here and that Helene's question has been pre-arranged.
Piazza and Gundelfinger got along very well.
Chapter 5
"Here's the way it stands, as best as I can figure." Ed rose from his chair and went over to the wall of the room facing the windows. Where portraits would normally be placed on such a wall in most townhouses of this size, hung instead a very large map of the United States of Europe.
There was a wand hanging from a hook next to the map. Ed picked it up and began pointing with it.
"As I said earlier, we have to assume that the SoTF and the Oberpfalz will be pre-occupied with Bavaria." He swung the tip of the wand northwest to indicate Hesse-Kassel. "And we figure that, for her own reasons, Amalie Elisabeth will keep her province neutral. That brings us to the heart of the opposition's strength, which today is in Brandenburg."
The wand now pointed to the northeastern province's capital, Berlin. "Oxenstierna has somewhere in the vicinity of twenty thousand Swedish troops here, just about as many men as Torstensson has in his two USE divisions facing Koniecpolski at Poznan. Those are professional soldiers, skilled and experienced, and will do whatever Chancellor Oxenstierna tells them to do."
He swept the wand back and forth across the entire country. "Some provinces with strong and moderate rulers like Hesse-Kassel and Brunswick will try to keep their reactionaries under control. Westphalia too, for somewhat different reasons. But even they won't succeed entirely. In provinces under direct Swedish control like Pomerania, the Main and the Upper Rhine, they won't try at all. In fact, you can be sure and certain that Oxenstierna will be doing all he can to whip them up, especially the Mecklenburg noblemen in exile."
"You're still talking in terms of paramilitary units, though, aren't you?" asked Anselm Keller. "Not much different, really, from the sort of forces the CoCs can put in the field."
"Yes…and no. I agree with Becky that the CoCs are overconfident because of their success with Kristallnacht. But there they were fighting only the most extreme anti-Semitic reactionaries. They made it a point not to attack-and the favor was returned in kind-what you might call the more standard sort of reactionaries. Local noblemen, town patricians, guild masters, the like. That meant that they didn't often come up against regular militias with experienced and seasoned leadership. When they do-which they most certainly will in the event of a full civil war-they're going to discover things are a lot tougher for them."
He paused for a moment, studying the map. "Still, if the war was simply fought between the CoCs and the sort of forces that provincial and local reactionaries could put in the field, I'd bet on the CoCs. Hands down, in fact. The CoCs possess a truly national organization with a national program, where the reactionaries are a sack of potatoes. A collection of inveterate squabblers with a thousand petty privileges to defend and twice that number of petty grievances to avenge. If the CoCs in one province get into trouble, CoC columns from elsewhere will come to their aid-as they did in Mecklenburg during Kristallnacht. Rarely will you see provincial reactionaries behaving likewise. There's simply no comparison in terms of leadership, especially on the national level. On the one side, you have people like Gretchen Richter, Spartacus, Achterhof. And on the other?"
He shrugged. "It's hard to even come up with names. Oxenstierna is a titan surrounded by toads. No, the real danger lies elsewhere. With regular armies, not irregular forces."
Piazza moved the tip of the wand all the way across the nation to point to the southernmost province of Swabia. "There are three other large Swedish armies in the USE. The first is here in Swabia, under General Horn."
Bugenhagen started to object but Piazza waved him down with the hand not holding the wand. "Please, Albert. Yes, I know Horn's forces are legally part of the USE army, not the Swedish. In practice, though, Horn's soldiers are mercenaries, not the sort of often-CoC-inspired volunteers that fill the ranks of Torstensson's three divisions. They will do whatever Gustav Horn tells them to do, have no doubt about it."
"And what do you think Horn will tell them to do?" asked Strigel.
"Oh, and isn't that an interesting question." Piazza lowered the wand and tapped it against his leg a few times. "My guess is that Horn will stay out of it. He'll do in Swabia what the landgravine of Hesse-Kassel will do in her province. My reasoning is as follows. First-"
The wand came back up and tapped the area of the map just to the west of Swabia. The only legend there was: controlled by Saxe-Weimar. The map had not been updated to reflect the USE's formal recognition of Bernhard's newly-formed County of Burgundy as an independent realm, which had happened only recently.
"Horn is specifically assigned in Swabia to keep Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar in check. That assignment came directly from Gustav Adolf himself, which gives Horn a good legal pretext to stay put if he chooses to use it. Secondly, while he has more troops than Bernhard does, he doesn't have that many more. It's a simple fact that if Horn pulled out a large part of his army that Bernhard could probably overrun Swabia."
Rebecca shook her head. "I doubt that he would, Ed."
"I don't think he would either. Bernhard is one of the sharpest pencils in the box. He'll be looking to play both sides against the middle if we fall into civil war and gain whatever advantages he can fo
r that little kingdom-in-all-but-name he's putting together. But he won't take the risk of choosing one side over the other-what if his pick loses?-and he won't try to grab any territory that is clearly under USE jurisdiction. Sooner or later the civil war would end, and whichever side won would come looking for him with blood in their eyes. At which point he'd be a small fox facing an angry bear. No, he'll stay out of it. Besides…"
The wand-tip came back to Swabia. "This map doesn't reflect it yet, because it's still not formally established. But the fact is that in the real world the former duchy of Wurttemberg has seceded from Swabia and is operating as its own republican province. So far, Horn hasn't used force to squash them. But he can always claim that what few forces he doesn't need to stare down Bernhard will be needed to keep order in Wurttemberg."
Ed lowered the wand again and went back to thoughtful leg-tapping.
"Horn has plenty of excuses-perfectly legitimate ones, mind you-to keep his army effectively neutral in any civil war. 'Neutral,' at least, so far as the rest of the USE is concerned. I don't doubt he'll rule Swabia with a firm hand and try to keep Wurttemberg under his thumb. So what it all comes down to is his own temperament and inclinations."
Piazza smiled, quite wickedly. "Happily for us, Axel Oxenstierna was the father of Horn's wife, while she was still alive. By all reports, Horn detested his father-in-law. And still does. So I think it's not likely that he'll be inclined to do as the chancellor says, so long as he can claim a legitimate reason to refuse."
Piazza now pointed further north on the map, to the adjoining provinces of the Upper Rhine and the Main. "There's another sizeable Swedish army here, under General Nils Brahe. This one's legally as well as practically under the Swedish crown, so there's no ambiguities involved. But my estimate right now is that Brahe will do about the same as Horn. He'll keep the Main and the Upper Rhine stable-that's a genteel way of saying that he'll squash the CoCs there if they get rambunctious-but he won't intervene in any conflicts elsewhere."
"Why wouldn't he?" asked Strigel. The question was not a challenge, simply the product of curiosity.
"I'm guessing, you understand. But, first, Brahe's army isn't as strong as it used to be. I doubt if he even has ten thousand men left. Gustav Adolf figured the French would still be licking their wounds so he could afford to draw down Brahe's forces in order to bolster the ones he was taking into Poland. And while that was probably true then, will it still be true if the USE gets convulsed by a civil war? Cardinal Richelieu is under a lot of political pressure. He might be tempted to relieve it by getting back some of the territory they lost after Ahrensbok."
"Or Monsieur Gaston might go haring off on his own expedition, just to show how it's properly done," chimed in Helene.
"Finally," Ed said, "I think Brahe will stay put along the Rhine because he may have another problem to deal with, which is up here in Westphalia." The wand now moved to indicate the USE's large northwestern province.
"Ah! Of course." That came from Constantin Ableidinger, who suddenly broke into a grin. "I hadn't been thinking of that. If Oxenstierna launches a civil war here in the USE, he will be creating a gigantic Danish headache for himself, won't he?"
"I don't think there's much doubt about it," agreed Ed, nodding. "With Gustav Adolf incapacitated and given the still-fuzzy laws of the Union of Kalmar, you could make a good case that King Christian IV is now Kalmar's regent."
Rebecca smiled. "And I will bet that even as we speak the king of Denmark has every lawyer on his payroll assembling that case."
"Don't anybody take that bet," cautioned Piazza. "Yes, I'm sure he is. More directly to the point, the governor of Westphalia is none other than Christian's son Frederik. Who, I will remind everyone, is still petitioning to have his title changed to 'Prince of Westphalia.' So what are the chances he will be paying much attention to Oxenstierna?"
"The CoCs are quite strong in Westphalia," said Albert Bugenhagen, "especially in the big cities. They're politically sophisticated, too. If Frederik decides to thwart Oxenstierna, they'll give him tacit support."
"That's what I figure," said Ed, "and it's the final reason I think Brahe won't move far from the Rhineland."
His expression got a lot more grim as he shifted the wand to the east. "We have quite a different situation with the final Swedish force of any size within the USE, Baner's army marching to Saxony from the Oberpfalz. Baner's a brute, pure and simple. A capable one, but still a brute. He doesn't much like Oxenstierna, but then he doesn't much like anyone. He'll still do what Oxenstierna wants him to do, partly because he'll see that as his best route for advancement but mostly for the good and simple reason that he agrees with Oxenstierna."
Ed lowered the wand and took a deep breath. "Things are going to heat up in Saxony before much longer. If there is a civil war, that'll be the cockpit."
Chapter 6
Dresden, capital of Saxony Gretchen Richter studied the man sitting behind the desk. He was slight of build, with a large-featured face framed by long, light brown hair and decorated with mustachios and a goatee. Two bright blue eyes peered at her above a bony nose. The gaze was composed of equal parts of apprehension, suspicion and curiosity.
He seemed to be using the desk as a shield to protect himself against her-more like a barricade, perhaps. He held an old-fashioned quill pen as if it might serve him as a pike against charging cavalry.
About what she'd expected. The very fact that Duke Ernst of Saxe-Weimar had chosen to meet her in his office with himself seated at his desk told her a great deal about the way the man approached the world. The leaders of the Spanish forces besieging Amsterdam with whom she'd negotiated had been politicians, first and foremost. Despite the vast formal gulf in rank between themselves and a printer's daughter like Gretchen, both Don Fernando-then the Cardinal-Infante in command of Spain's armies in the Low Countries; now the King in the Netherlands-and his great-aunt Isabella, the Austrian archduchess who was the Netherlands' regent, had always met her sitting down at chairs in an informal setting.
But the duke was not really a politician, no matter that his older brother Wilhelm Wettin was now the prime minister of the USE and his youngest brother Bernhard had carved out an independent principality for himself from the Franche-Comte and parts of Swabia. Instead, Ernst was an administrator-what the Americans called a bureaucrat. His natural and instinctive response when face with a challenge was to withdraw into his redoubt, his desk. There, armed with pen and ink and paper, he was best equipped to deal with whatever might arise.
A very good administrator, by all accounts. Even a fair-minded one, and no more prone to favoring his own class than was more-or-less inevitable given his origins and upbringing.
Gretchen had spent some time discussing Wettin with Dane Kitt, just a few weeks before coming to Dresden. The SoTF soldier had been in Grantville for the birth of his daughter at the same time Gretchen had been there attending to some personal matters for her husband. Kitt had served in the Oberpfalz during the Bavarian crisis and had given her a hilarious depiction of Wettin's insistence on bombarding the Bavarian defenders of Ingoldtadt with Lutheran religious tracts hurled by a catapult. That story meshed with what her grandmother had told her about Mary Simpson's assessment of Wettin: the slightest whiff of chalk dust acts on that man like perfume.
She decided that was probably where the chink in his armor could be found.
"Saxony's schools are generally good," she said abruptly. "Especially here in Dresden. But almost none of them are secular. Correcting that problem has to be one of our first priorities."
Fiercely, she added: "We won't be satisfied with purely religious schools, no matter how good they are. They certainly have every right to operate according to the basic principles of the separation of church and state. But those same principles require the creation-or support and expansion, if they already exist-of secular schools established by the government of the province."
Duke Ernst stared at her. Clearly enough, this
was not what he'd been expecting to hear from her. Certainly not as her opening remarks in their very first meeting.
"Ah…" he said.
"And we won't accept pleas of poverty. Saxony is a rich province. This is not Mecklenburg-and even in Mecklenburg they've begun creating public schools, now that the boot heel of the aristocracy has been thrown off."
That last statement was certainly true, in and of itself, but she'd really added it to allay whatever suspicions the duke might be developing that she was trying to undermine his resolution to oppose her at every point. Which, of course, she was.
One of the negotiating ploys she'd learned from watching Mike Stearns was the value of giving your opposite number a choice between alternatives, one of which was so unsavory that it made the other look tasty by comparison even if it wasn't actually a taste the person would normally enjoy at all. A standard form of that maneuver was to present a choice between persons: either make a deal with me or-here a finger would be pointed to a nearby ogre-you'll have to try coming to terms with that creature.
As often as not, Gretchen herself had been the ogre to whom Stearns had pointed. The CoCs, at least, if not herself personally.
But there was a variation on the tactic which she'd also learned from watching Stearns. It was a more subtle version in which the opposite party was given a choice between personalities rather than actual persons. In essence: Either make a deal with me when I'm in a good mood and we're discussing something mutually amenable or we can wrangle over something that puts me in a really foul mood.
The actual expression she'd heard Stearns use was "or we can talk when I'm on the rag." When she'd asked for a clarification of the expression from Melissa Mailey, she'd been stiffly told that it was quite offensive to women and Melissa would say nothing further on the matter.
That had been enough in itself, of course, to make its meaning clear. Gretchen had found the expression amusing rather than offensive. Who cared what men thought about such things? If men didn't like the inevitable by-products of female anatomy, they could bear their own children and see if they liked being pregnant any better.