Chapter 40 January 404 AD Flattop Mountain Paulsland-Cannons (Patreon)

                An army of just over seven hundred thousand men marched toward a lonely mountain in Paulsland. The mountain was a strange one as it was alone, surrounded by grassland, with roads leading directly to a gate at the bottom of the mountain. The mountain was nearly two hundred yards tall with sheer cliffs ringing it. At the bottom of the mountain was a massive gate, that led to a road that went from the gate to the top of the mountain diagonally. At places, the road was carved directly into the mountain, and at other places, wooden bridges were anchored directly into the rock wall of the mountain, creating an odd patchwork of roads that made the mountain navigable. The road only covered half the mountain. On the other side of the mountain were cranes used to hoist things from the bottom of the mountain to the top.

                The strangest thing about this mountain was that, unlike most mountains, it did not have a peak; instead, it had a flat area that was nearly one square mile. That one square mile was completely covered in roads and buildings. Most of the buildings were warehouses that were as tall as they could make concrete reinforced with bronze rebar. These buildings housed the discoveries, inventions, and prototypes of the Illuminati. Ringing the top of the mountain was a wall and dozens of towers, each with all the latest innovations that the Illuminati were testing. Since many of the things they tested were secret by order of previous kings, they had to be able to pull those weapons out at night, test them, and then put them back into warehouses before anyone unauthorized could see them in action. In fact, the Illuminati owned seven hundred square miles of land on the northern side of the mountain so that they could test their innovations without harming anyone with their test.

                The bottom of the mountain, near the gate, usually had buildings owned by the Paulsland military for use in housing and training those who camp to man camp. In fact, it was the only buildings at the bottom of the mountain for miles, but due to the impending invasion, those buildings were burned down, and adjustments were made in the warehouses and towers on top of the mountain to find places for the inhabitants of the mountain to sleep.

                Most of the mountain’s inhabitants were worried about the nearing army, but the ruler of the mountain was not. Busara had spent the last few days preparing for the Kush and Roman armies to arrive at his mountain. The wait was a bit longer than he liked because the rainy season had unfortunately been in full force for nearly a month.

                There were several reasons why the Kush and Roman armies were coming by his mountain. The biggest reason was because it was on the way to the capital. Kush had long wished for Paulsland to stop sending addictive substances across their border, and they thought that if they went to the capital, they would be able to force Paulsland to change laws regarding those substances. This was not a conjecture on Busara’s part. Kush had sent an ambassador’s ship to tell Paulsland that they would immediately stop their invasion when certain drugs were outlawed in Paulsland. This was pure lunacy on Kush’s part. Every girl in Paulsland learns how to make medicine when they are thirteen or fourteen, and unfortunately, some of those medicines are very addictive. Paulsland could not stop the addictive drug trade if they wanted to. Part of the problem was that Kush and Paulsland had very different governments, and so the ruling class of Kush did not understand that Paulsland worked by the consent of the people, and the people would never consent to give up their right to make drugs.

                The second reason they were coming to Flattop Mountain was because the Paulsland army they were chasing made their way to the mountain. The reason why the Paulsland army made their way to Flattop Mountain was because it was the only fortress in Paulsland that could hold so many men. Unfortunately, as the Paulsland army retreated, the Kush and Roman armies were able to reduce it to just a hundred and ten thousand men. Thankfully, the Paulsland army was able to get some separation from the two armies once the rainy season started and disrupted the baggage trains of the other two armies. That said, the Kush army was very motivated to attack the Paulsland army because, after every battle, they were finding various painkillers on the men they killed and wounded, as it was normal for Paulsland soldiers to have emergency medication on their persons.

                The third and least important reason to the unofficial-allied Kush/Roman army, and most important to Paulsland, was that the two armies wanted to get a good look at the archives of the Illuminati, which were on Flattop Mountain. Kush and Rome had no way to know this, but the Illuminati had orders going all the way back to King Paul, telling them to protect the secrets here at all costs. In order to facilitate this, King Paul made Flattop Mountain the training base for man camp. It’s the area every man in King Paul’s time learned to fight. The purpose of this was so that if the Illuminate archives were ever threatened, every man in Paulsland would be incredibly familiar with the defensive layout of the mountain and thus able to fight more effectively at a moment's notice.

                Although it was ludicrous to think that an army of just seven hundred thousand men could take Flattop Mountain, Busara didn’t care, he was going to use this army as an excuse to use the steam cannons and rifles. The Illuminati had wanted to publicize steam-powered machinery for nearly a century. If the first steam-powered machine they publicly demonstrated happened to be a weapon Busara didn’t care since it should get the ball rolling. He hoped that since he was using the steam weapon to protect the Illuminati headquarters, which everyone knew must be protected at all cost, he would not face any legal issues. He may face assassination, but he doubted a jury would convict him. Far from it, if someone tried to bring charges for using a steam-weapon during a time of war the jury might just have that man executed. Juries in Paulsland were two-edged swords, but the threat of assassination was very real.

                Busara considered the risk worth it, and so had the other Illuminati members, including the Illuminati guard, spread rumors about a new weapon that would destroy their enemies. Although the steam rifles and cannons were made advanced enough to be deadly about sixty years ago, and the Illuminati had developed them much further since then, the Illuminati did not need the people of Paulsland to know they hid information for so long. Even if the only reason why they hid it was because they were constrained by previous kings and the seventy families. The seventy families controlled the newspapers, and they would make sure all the blame fell on the Illuminati, regardless of the truth.

                Either way Busara was impatient to use the steam-weapons. Although the massive army could be seen in the distance, they did not attack the mountain right away. Instead, they took the time to set up a camp and rest for a day before probing the mountain. Busara wasn’t sure if the Romans were still with them or if they decided to head off and complete a different mission, it didn’t matter for his purposes. That said, Busara couldn’t do anything but wait, not for the enemy armies, but for the leadership of the Paulsland army. Busara really did not want to risk assassination, and there was a good chance he could use the general in charge of the army taking shelter on his mountain as a decoy. When the Kush army in the distance began forming up to attack Busara thought he may have to risk the full wrath of the families alone, only to be relieved when General Shujaa finally arrived.

                General Shujaa was nervous as he asked, “The Kush army is at our doorstep, are your steam weapons ready?” Shujaa looked scared and desperate. He had been chased by the Kush army for months and did a fantastic job of keeping his army together as they fled, but that wasn’t how Busara looked at the scared man before him.

                Busara looked down on the general who, in Busara’s opinion, had pathetically lost his nerve. That said, how could a general of Paulsland have courage when the seventy families chose military leaders based on those who feared them? Every young person in the nation learned to fight starting from their first day in school, but knowing how to use a sword and spear did not make a man courageous, just knowledgeable. Thankfully this coward clearly did not know about the seventy families’ interdiction on steam machinery, otherwise, the idiot might have decided to try and stop Busara, and Busara needed the hundred and ten thousand men on the mountain to see the steam weapons, as through them the news of the weapons will spread across all of Paulsland. It certainly wouldn’t spread in the papers the seventy families controlled.

                After a moment of hesitation, where Busara was mostly trying to cover his contempt, he said, “We can have the steam weapons ready as soon as you order them to come out.”

                “I so order. Prepare the steam weapons! We are outnumbered seven to one, you should have had them out days ago.”

                Busara shook his head and said, “The steam weapons are experimental and fragile, I am afraid I will need a written order from you to use them.”

                “What are you doing, man? If the Kush army or worse, the Romans take Flattop Mountain, we will never be able to get rid of them.”

                “What about when Kingsminster Jinka comes?”

                “What about Jinka? Yes, he split his army in half and is personally leading a million men to fight the Kush army, but he won’t even make it to the capital before the Kush army does. If we have to wait on him, we are going to be waiting at least half a year. We can’t wait. Just give me some paper, and I will give you your order in writing.” Busara pointed to a nearby desk with pen and paper. Shujaa almost ran to the desk and began writing out the order to use the experimental steam weapons, and that if they broke he would take responsibility.

                Busara looked at the written order and wanted to laugh. If the seventy families had a complaint, they could take it out on this idiot. It’s their own fault that Shujaa was signing off on this order, as the seventy families and the kings of Paulsland had not wanted the knowledge of steam machinery getting out. Their power base was built on limiting how many factories could be built in Paulsland; as long as the only power source for factories were rivers, then nobody could compete with them, as they already owned all the real estate that was useful for building water-powered factories, but as soon as steam could power a factory anywhere then anyone could build a factory, and they would lose control. As for Busara, he wanted to be the one selling the steam engines.

                The Illuminati was supposed to guide the nation. They were supposed to create technology, finance the sectors that were created from the new technology, and create the winners and losers of Paulsland. Busara wanted the control that the seventy families had. He felt that the Illuminati was always supposed to have that control, and this was the first step to taking it back.