Swiss Arms 172 (Patreon)

Swiss Arms

Chapter 172

-VB-

Hans von Fluelaberg

1310

After a long time thinking about it, I chose the most direct route possible. 

The reason for this was rather simple. 

Even if I could get around the entire eastern half of the Alps without being detected to go around and strike the second Habsburg brother from the rear, it would have little to no difference between that and just walking up and fighting him and his army.

The fact that I didn’t have accurate maps of the region also helped to make that decision. 

Which still hampered directly marching up to the man’s face and punching him, but at the very least, I had a rough outline.

From Munich, I would travel directly south and then west back to Innsbruck. From Innsbruck, I would cut south to Sterzing. From Sterzing, I would head east into the Puster Valley, passing through Bruneck. Instead of continuing through the whole length of the Puster Valley, I would move through the less populated and more wooded Gailtal Valley, which runs parallel to the Puster Valley. Leaving Gailtal Valley on the other side of it would see me directly in sight of Villach, and from Villach, it would be less than a day’s travel east to Klagenfurt to relieve that city of the siege Duke Frederick of Austria put it under.  

I also didn’t need to rush down there. A lot of my people were extremely exhausted after the march and then the battle, regardless of how much work they actually did. So I wanted to take a slow march, give everyone plenty of time to rest, get their energy up, and be ready for the battle in the best condition by the time we arrived

And I could afford to do this because the Habsburgs wouldn’t move while they were besieging the fort. They also wouldn’t move without hearing news about the battle that took place in Bavaria. And everyone knew that the news of the battle would reach them before we did. That was also why I was moving slowly. If they received the news of the battle far before we arrived there, then they might move because the strategic situation changed. They might choose to leave the siege to help his older brother in Bavaria. 

By going slow, I could react to the changes without an exhausted army. 

Because that was the thing I began to notice. 

My soldiers - professionals, volunteers, and mercenaries - were flagging. 

Over the course of six months, I marched them from Fluelaberg to Innsbruck, from Innsbruck through the Arlberg Pass, from the pass to Toggenburg Valley and the Ricken Pass, from Ricken Pass back to Fluelaberg, and from Fluelaberg to Munich and then to Moosburg. 

The first portion of the travel there was over forty wegstunde* and from then on, each travel segment except for the bit within the Compact only grew in length. Even if he gave everyone a full month to rest at Fluelaberg, this was still a lot of marching.

And it’s only been four, five months. This was an abnormal amount of marching and traveling for this period. Wars, after all, didn’t break out as often as it did around me. 

And while my rangers and the mercenaries might be more tolerant of the situation at hand, the volunteer soldiers won’t be. 

Which just meant that I needed to assess their condition.

---

“Are we tired?” Jonas, one of the volunteer soldiers who led his own group of five, the smallest unit in my army, scratched his head. 

We had stopped by a village named Kundi. We have yet to reach Innsbruck, and I would have preferred to spend the night there so that everyone could have a bed to sleep in, but the sun was setting so we had to camp here. 

“Yes,” I confirmed. “I wanted to ask if you and your men were tired. We have been marching and fighting for close to four months, after all, not counting the one month we rested at home.”

Jonas looked at me and seemed to think about it. He stirred the stew that was inside the black pot over a small campfire while the rest of his group sat around and waited for his response. 

There was no groveling, no bowing. Well, there had been some bowing when I first showed up at their tent but not right now. Well, my people didn’t do that in general around me because that’s what I’ve been asking them at least in informal settings. 

This group’s tent wasn’t the only place that I showed up at. This was actually the fourth place I visited to see the general mood of my soldiers. 

The answers from most of the others had been that they weren’t tired… yet.

“... I think we are a bit tired,” Jonas replied after a while. “But not tired enough to quit because I know what the Habsburgs want.”

I nodded slowly. “I see. And you know what the Habsburgs want?”

“I’ve heard about it enough times from the rangers and the mercs to know what kind of pieces of shit those nobles are,” someone else in the group snorted. “I think a good twentieth of your people ran away from Habsburg lands.”

I… didn’t know that, mostly because I had ignored where my immigrants came from to claim ignorance.

“They want to take everyone else’s shit,” Jonas agreed. “We’re not gonna let them. We have a good thing going under you. People like me can learn. My children are learning in your schools, milord. If the Habsburgs come around, they’ll shut it down because it’s education being given to peasants.”

There was a high chance that might happen.

Okay, I could see that my people had a personal stake in this, not just fighting for loot and glory. 

“So if we had to do what we’ve done so far for another six months?”

Jonas grimaced. “... I guess I’ll have to.”

“Not ordering you. You know that.”

“I know. We know, milord. But … those Forest Canton folks didn’t become what they are because the Habsburgs are nice people, you know?”

“Oh, I know.”

“Then there’s your answer, sir. We’ll fight as long as we can.” 

It was a good answer as any. 

-VB-

Wegstunde: around 1 hr of travel. Average 4 km. So 40 wegstunde is 160 km, plus or minus 8 km.

A/N: a little reveal of some of the volunteer soldiers’ motivations beyond the loot and glory. Fluelaberg is a town whose majority population aren’t from around there. The closest (and majority) are from villages like Schiers and Davos while some of the furthest are from places as far away as Morocco. That and their frequent interaction with the Forest Canton mercenaries in both peace and war meant that even the commoners had a good idea about what all of this war was about and who was behind it. And the news about the Battle of Ricken Pass has made its way through the Compact and Fluelaberg alike, an army of nearly five thousand Habsburg vassals who were marching to lay waste to it all.