30th July 1574
"I guess it wasn't that bad, wasn't it?"
Sitting atop my trusted Helga, I watched my five armies march out of the now dismantled camp, along with the long line of carriages holding most of the necessary supplies. Yet contrary to what one might think, rather than carrying food stocks and barrels with beer and freshwater, most of those wagons were filled to the brim with my weapons and ammunition for it!
"Well, playing around with small fries as we did so far was still acceptable, but bringing her to the battlefield? One that I'm not even sure if we can claim for our victory? No way."
Not even looking at the governor as I spoke, I raised my hand in response to the salute of my passing soldiers. With my eyes focused on my ranks, and his most likely aid at the carriages filled to the brim with the weapons and ammunition that I sold to the main army, we both just sat on our horses in silence, waiting for at least half of the army to move out.
"To be honest, it was a bit harder than I expected."
Obviously, I wasn't stupid enough to reveal to anyone that my wife was already confird to be pregnant. Doing so would only invite trouble to my doorstep, and with being all the way on the other end of the vast country of Commonwealth, there was nothing I could do to prevent harm from coming to Elia.
This was also one of the reasons why out of four armies that were prepared for in the city, I only took the two that went through the complete training, leaving the two groups of relative newbies back and tasking them with completing their disciplinary period.
In the end, if the war would turn out in the way that I was worried it would, then rather than using up all my forces at once, having a place with continuously growing fresh troops awaiting my command and ready to depart at any given ti, was far more responsible in a strategical sense!
"You say? Well, seeing how she accompanied you on most of your journeys, I'm not that surprised. Rather than that, I kind of expected to have a sleepless night while staying back at your mansion!"
Suddenly bursting out in a hearty laugh, Jan finally dropped his surveillance of the weapon-filled carriages, allowing his eyes to wander back on my face.
"But still, it's a good thing she didn't take it that badly. I will speak from my own experience here, but if you didn't force her to stay back now, you would never be able to free yourself from her demands. Won should be held at a short leash!"
Hearing those words, I could only imagine how quick this man would be pulled apart into myriad pieces if he dared to say sothing like that in the modern society of my original tiline. Yet as much as I despised this way of thinking, I knew that as much as I loved Elia, I had to put so limits in place, otherwise just like Jan told a mont ago, not only she would get on top of my head, but our relationship could quickly turn sour with both sides being dissatisfied by that kind of outco.
"Anyway, as long as it works, it works. No point talking about it right now. On the other side, I can't stop thinking about how pitiful it is that we can use my boats. While lending them to the crown to transport supplies on the baltic could be advantageous, we are still not at the point when proposing such a thing would be accepted easily. After all, I'm not as blind as to not notice those stares, filled with suspicions, that the other generals are sending at when they think I won't be able to notice them"
Without the King in place to put those ambitious nobles in their places, even this unitary army of the Commonwealth was bound to have more than just a single commander. Sadly, even though I knew how this would most likely end if this kind of stupid command chain were to be preserved during the tis of combat, I could only hope that the proposition I asked Jan to push forth would be ultimately accepted.
"Anyway, it just appeared in my mind. Any progress with that offer of mine? As suspicious as they must be of , I doubt even a single of the generals is stupid enough to deny that my type of army works in a way different way than the rest of this clusterfuck of troops."
Pointing at the other formations that were slowly entering the short road of mine that connected to the main trade route leading east, with my chin, I could see a look of disappointnt surfacing on Jan's face.
"I hope you didn't really expect for this proposition to go through. Allowing you to detach yourself from the main army and operate independently With how they still think that you might really be the real traitor, there is no way they would ever allow that!"
Exhaling the air out of my lungs, I forced a look of disappointnt on my face as well, while giggling within my soul. With how poorly this entire campaign was organised, there was no way all the parts of the army would reach the set rallying point at Smolensk. In fact, I even had my doubts whether this grand city, called the gatehouse to both Lithuania and Russia, was in fact, still in the Commonwealth hands!
"Yeah, I never expected them to accept that. Yet."
Just as I added this last word, as if I wanted to foreshadow so of my plans to Jan, a horseman appeared from the mass of the people in the distance, quickly making his way towards our position.
"Report, sirs!"
Despite travelling on the horseback, the perspiration all over the man's face betrayed that reaching our place wasn't as easy as it would appear to be.
"Speak up!"
Once again cursing the formalities in my mind, I allowed the man to talk. While I knew that military required the drill of command and response to be in place, but just looking at the ssenger I could tell that the news that he was bringing were too important to waste ti on such unnecessary formalities!
"Sirs, the Ostros army They made their move!"
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