Chapter 8 September 405 AD Rome-Peace Treaty (Patreon)

                   Michael, the bishop of Rome, was gloomy as he entered the office of Trajan the Sixth. When the Emperor saw him, he asked, “Do we have any new information on the new Paulsland weapon?”

                   “Yes, my priests in Paulsland have been able to find out a few things but only theoretical information.”

                   “What do you mean theoretical?”

                   “I have been able to confirm that the weapons use boiling water, or more precisely, the steam of boiling water, to fire small pieces of metal down a tube at incredible velocity. They say the speed the metal travels is faster than the speed of sound, and at the time they sent the message, they did not know what that meant. On a practical level, my priests do not have the technical documents needed to build this weapon, and if they did, it would take nearly a year to to transfer information from my priest in Paulsland to here since all their letters have to go through the various Hindu nations that are still trading with us and Paulsland.”

                   The Emperor frowned and asked, “Is there any possible way for us to acquire this weapon before the Paulsland fleet reaches the Pillars of Hercules?”

                   “No. Even if one of these weapons were to show up in our port on the Egyptian Red Sea, we would not be able to deliver it to the Pillars of Hercules in time to fight the Paulsland fleet, much less have the time to find out how it works, retool or build a factory to make them or train our soldiers in this new weapon. I hate to say it, but our only choice is to make peace with Paulsland.”

                   The Emperor sighed and almost whispered, “Do you know what that will cost?”

                   “Half the gold fields south of the Great Desert if we are lucky. All of them if we are not.”

                   Emperor Trajan raised his eyebrow in surprise and asked, “What are the odds of them accepting so little?”

                   “It depends on who we are talking about. Currently, Paulsland is facing internal strife between the seventy families and their Kingsminister. The seventy families control the industry of Paulsland and are incredibly wealthy merchants. They have used their wealth to control the government of Paulsland for generations, but it looks like the Kingsminister is using this war to try to become a political leader in fact instead of just name. There are rumors that he is planning on becoming king, displacing their current eleven-year-old king.”

                   The Emperor frowned and said, “He wants to become a tyrant?” Tyrant meaning illegitimate ruler. “Traitors are always terrible leaders…. We should throw our full weight behind supporting him. A destabilized Paulsland would be good for Rome.”

                   “That is where things get complicated. The Kingsminister has a million-man army with him, and he has made it clear that he thinks it's in his best interest to defeat Rome, although that’s just a pretext to keep his current political position. The seventy families want the war with Rome to end right away so that they can take away his title as Kingsminister and also take away the massive army he has. So making peace with the seventy families will be fairly easy; making peace with the Kingsminister will be a bit more complicated.”

                   Trajan said, “I stand behind my words. Let's help this Kingsminister become the next king. Offer the Kingsminister the support of the Universal Church. We can have the priests in the Universal Church start singing his praise and condemn the young king. It will take him six months to a year to march his soldiers back to the capital of Paulsland. By then, everyone attending the Universal Church meetings in Paulsland will support the Kingsminister as the next king.”

                   “How do you want us to make the offer?”

                   “Send one of your priests, or better yet, if a bishop is nearby, send him to give the Kingsminister a message. Tell him that the Universal Church will fully support his bid for the throne, or whatever leadership position he wants, all he has to do is agree to a peace treaty where he, or Paulsland, or however he wants to put it, gets to keep everything he has taken, or even a bit more. If he wants to continue the war, remind him that Kush is still at war with Paulsland so he can have his war there, with the support of the Universal Church.”

                   “As you command, my Emperor.”

                   The bishop of Rome left, went to his office, found the cryptography book for the gold fields of Africa, and began writing a letter to the priest unfortunate enough to be near Kingsminister Jinka’s army. As soon as the letter was finished, Micheal himself brought the letter up the communication tower built directly into Trajon’s palace and watched as they precisely sent the letter out by Morse Code. From there, the message traveled from one tower to the next down the Italian peninsula, west across Europe, until it reached the northern Pillar of Hercules, and was sent across the water before making its way south along the coast of Africa until it reached the front lines of the war. Once it reached the final tower a messenger wrote down the message and took it to a nearby priest who deciphered the message, cursed, and discussed it with the nearby Roman officials. Once they were aware that the priest was to offer a peace treaty, the priest had the full support of the local government to go and meet with the Paulsland military.

                   Once the priest had all his ducks in a row, he made a white flag, put olive branches with it, and began marching toward the Paulsland army. It took him nearly a day of marching to reach the Paulsland forces, and once the soldiers saw the flag and olive branches, they brought him straight to Jinka. As they brought the priest to Jinka, the priest talked to the soldiers about the Universal Church and was pleased when one of the men was a part of the church. Although they seemed to enjoy each other's company, their conversation came to an abrupt end once they reached Jinka’s headquarters, a rather nice tent.

                   As the priest entered, Jinka asked, “Are you bringing me your surrender?”

                   “More of a peace treaty.”

                   “Why would I want a peace treaty? I have weapons of war that allow my men to devastate your legions long before they can get their ballistae in range. I can tear through your walls like an arrow through paper, and half of your fortresses surrender before we can even do that much because your slaves are so quick to rebel and join our side.”

                   “That is great for those slaves, but what benefit is it to Paulsland or you personally? Paulsland is not the same as Rome, you will not extract the wealth of this territory and send it all to your capital, far from it, instead you will build infrastructure and schools, and write out property deeds, and appoint governors. With so much new land, it will take Paulsland years, if not decades to begin building the infrastructure found in other parts of your nation. Can Paulsland afford to do what your law says is necessary? And if so, how does that benefit you? You and I both know that the seventy families will take the best pieces for themselves.”

                   Jinka mumbled, “Not if I have my way. But no, I won't accept your peace offer.”

                   “We know that you want to be King. The Universal Church is prepared to fully support your bid to become king of Paulsland.”

                   That caused Jinka to pause for a moment before saying, “No, it's too soon for this war to end.”

                   “Then go fight Kush.”

                   “I won’t get a chance. Kitako will be at the Kush capital within six months.”

                   “That’s Paulsland propaganda. Even with your new weapon, you’re not taking down Kush that easily. Yes, your weapons have more range, but they cannot overcome the mountains of Kush so easily. If Kitako thinks he will have them beat in six months, then they are baiting him into a trap.”

                   “It doesn’t matter. I could not agree to this until I was sure Kitako was defeated.”

                   “Don’t be short-sighted. You must have heard the news that a Paulsland fleet with the new weapons destroyed the Roman fleet that was blocking the mouth of the Roman River.”

                   “Yes.”

                   “We are prepared to sign a peace treaty with very unfavorable terms when they reach the pillars of Hercules. We can not afford for them to show up in Portus outside of Rome. If they reach the pillars before you sign this treaty, then your enemies will receive the credit for ending the war. When that happens, do you think they will allow you to keep the gold fields? Even if its just to make you look bad they will allow us to keep them and take something else. The seventy families are far more concerned with winning political points against you than taking land from Rome. We want you to sign a peace treaty before that fleet reaches the Pillars of Hercules, if not, then there is no point in continuing these peace talks with you. You have no way to threaten Rome or our industry, unlike that fleet. The only thing you can threaten is our gold fields. Yes, they are valuable, but losing them is hardly a threat to our empire. Paulsland’s war with Rome is about to end, the question is whether you, or someone else will take credit for it. You can either be a hero or a forgotten figure. You can have the support of the Universal Church, or Shimbir can. It's your choice.”

                   Jinka frowned, he did not like the implications. Jinka was well aware that the only thing the seventy families wanted was the Great Swamp, as they wanted to build hundreds of new factories on the many rivers that fed the swamp. Once Jinka’s steam shovels reached the gold fields he would become the richest man in the world; he needed the gold fields. If the seventy families made a peace treaty they would likely allow the Romans to keep them with a peace treaty just to screw over Jinka. That said, they didn’t technically have the authority to make a peace treaty, and Jinka could continue fighting afterward, but if he kept fighting a war after the peace treaty was signed, then he would have to be willing to bring his army to the capital and take the ivory throne by force. He wasn’t ready to do that yet, his army just didn’t trust him enough at this point. Besides, if he refused to abide by a peace treaty, it would be simplicity in itself for the seventy families to cut off the supplies to his army, if they did that, he would never make it back to Paulsland with the army intact. Jinka hated to admit it but the only way he was going to get the army back to Paulsland in one piece was by agreeing to this deal and publicly letting the world know he was heading to Kush.

                   “I will agree to your proposal, but I want Paulsland to have the entirety of the gold fields of Africa.”

                   The priest sighed and said, “To the victor goes the spoils.”

                   Two days were spent hammering out the exact agreement that they would both sign, and another three days went into the off-the-record agreements, but after nearly a week, the Rome Paulsland war was over. A month later, when the Paulsland fleet showed up at the Pillar of Hercules, a ship with a white flag sent several messages to the fleet that proved a peace treaty had been signed. Once the Emperor received word that the fleet had turned around he breathed a sigh of relief, now he could focus on the invaders of Britannia, who were blocking him from strategic resources. Gold was nice, but copper, tin, and iron won wars.

                   As for Paulsland they still had to fight a war with Kush and the seventy families were desperate to end as they would finally be able to strip Jinka of his power. But they had to win the war first.

                   Although both nations were focused on their wars, due to the exchange of a massive plot of land from Rome to Paulsland, a great migration had started, and it would be a headache to both nations.