Swiss Arms
Chapter 127
-VB-
Hans von Fluelaberg
I strode into Holzkirchen's town square with my rangers at my back and stopped right in front of the mayor and the few soldiers he had with him.
The man sweated like it was summer.
"W-We surrender to you," he said as he wrung his hands. "We'll comply with your demands, so please… We've only been a market town for a few years. We're not rich."
… Ah. He was worried about us doing the looting, raping, and killing bit, wasn't he?
"Don't worry," I yawned as I looked around. There were around a thousand people looking at us from afar. Some of them looked ready to flee. "I'm not here to sack the town. You would know if I was."
"W-We would?" the thin and short man asked in surprise.
"Of course! I like to start things off with fire," I joked.
He paled.
… Oaky, maybe that joke didn't fall right.
"Relax," I sighed. "I've never sacked any village, town, or city in my life nor do I plan to if things go my way," I tried to reassure the mayor whose people had nothing to do with their duke except living under his rule by fate of birth and being made the forward base for the duke's vanguard by happenstance. "I hope no I won't need to elaborate what may happen if the people of Holzkirchen rise up against our stay…?"
"N-No, milord. You won't see us acting out! I promise!"
"Good," I said with an odd. "Well, let's start with a bit of introduction. I am Count Hans von Fluelaberg, the leader of the Compact."
"... The Compact?"
I grinned.
I've been thinking. Sure, I took part in this campaign because I wanted to get rid of the man who caused all sorts of troubles for me and my people, but as time trudged forward on the campaign, I realized that I could go beyond getting rid of a problem.
Why, after all, there had to be cities and towns who didn't like their rulers. Maybe the taxes were too high. Maybe the rulers were assholes (like Louis). Maybe…
Just maybe…
I could convince them to become something like an "associate" of the Compact. Of course, as an associate, they would not have the right to vote on Compact matters, would be limited on trade, but limited trade with the Compact was much better than being limited overall by their liege lord who didn't want a strong town springing up in their territory.
Control over power was why town and city charters were limited. Why market towns needed a market charter.
If places like Holzkirchen could be convinced that, just perhaps, an association with the Compact could benefit them, then I wouldn't have to deal with my neighbor's troubles within my Compact.
Trouble would be kept in their lands where they belong.
The idea had come out of the left field, so I didn't have much prepared. Hell, by the very constitution I wrote for the Compact, I couldn't make a decision this big - offering association status - without everyone else voting on it.
So I would be sending back messengers so that everyone could vote on it by the end of the year.
Yeah, things like this took time, and in an era without internet or phone, it took even longer. But at the same time, putting the matter up to vote which would end by the end of the year was a very quick decision; something like this could take anywhere from half a decade to a full generation. My reason for it was simple. By making the decision process faster, I prevented quid pro quo corruption from setting in or at least mitigated its settlement and spread.
So I grabbed the mayor by the shoulder and led him away, extolling the virtues of the democratic system of votes, low to minimal taxes, and not needing to worry too much about the nobles.
He seemed reluctantly receptive by the end of it.
And even if things didn't work out and the mayor and the people of Kolzkirchen didn't want anything to do with it, I would start setting up a process which would expedite the admission process for those wanting associate status.
---
With Holzkirchen's surrender, three things happened.
One, slower members of the vanguard surrendered after getting caught off-guard by my lightning speed campaign and brutal aggression on the battlefield, so I sent them back to Tyrol so that they would be imprisoned for the duration of the conflict. This removed knights and soldiers who had experience fighting us and thus prevented the enemy from learning about
Two, faster members of the vanguard ran away, but not without leaving a lot of weapons, armors, and supplies. This would, of course, be used to bolster my army.
Three, the coalition now had a base of operation right outside of Munich.
That last point was important because if we hadn't captured Holzkirchen, then we would have had to operated from further back or with an enemy base of operation to our rear or flank. With its capture, we now had direct access to Munich's doorstep.
"You work fast and clean, count," Duke Albert, Duke Henry's brother and co-ruler of the Tyrol-Carinthia-Carniola Duchy, whistled as he looked around the still standing town. "And you didn't burn it down."
"Nah. It would have been a waste," I sniffed as I looked to former Duke Rudolf von Wittelsbach, who stood next to Albert. "It's going to be our ally's domain after this, isn't it? Needlessly burning the place down would have been tantamount to insulting his inclusion into our alliance."
Rudolf huffed. "... Thank you for not sacking the town, even though it was within your rights to do so," he said with a nod.
"Like I said. It would have been rude. We're here to get rid of a problem, not make one."
"Well said!" Albert grinned. "So what's the plan? Are we going to lay siege to Munich?"
"No," I shook my head. "We'll assault the Isar Gate. That's the easterly gate, right?"
"An assault?" Rudolf frowned. "We have a lot of soldiers, count, but nowhere near enough to launch an assault on a walled town." He paused. "Yes, that is the easterly gate."
"Don't worry," I grinned. "I'll make sure that the gate won't be a problem at all for us."
-VB-
Isar Gate: one of four traditional medieval gates for Munich. Only three remain standing, and Isartor is one of those three. If you also look at Munich today and the locations of the three gates (Isartor, Karlstor, Sendlinger Tor), you can see that the entire medieval city of Munich was barely a mile in diameter at its widest.