Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 810 Deception and Investigation

Princess Jeanne was very pleased that "Black Cardinal" Doyan had been very supportive of her plans.

Before the operation, when explaining her strategic plan, many high-ranking Ming officers didn't quite understand her insistence on annihilation warfare. Princess Jeanne could only explain that it was a kind of obsession—because in previous wars, France had suffered setbacks due to heavy losses in several major battles, leading to a series of problems. Now, given the opportunity, she naturally wanted to use it against the enemy.

Fortunately, Daoyan and others were quite supportive of her. As a result, Princess Jeanne was given a better opportunity to demonstrate her abilities.

Since the Crusades' operations were completely undisclosed, it wasn't surprising that the King of Wu knew their route and timing. After receiving news from scouts, the King of Wu publicly announced that the enemy was already in pursuit and, excluding the time it took to deliver the message, would arrive in five or six days. This time, however, they were well-prepared and therefore did not intend to continue hiding, but rather to welcome them back and end the war.

For the next two days, the entire military camp descended into a festive atmosphere. King Wu announced a reward for all the soldiers, personally leading his entourage in a two-day banquet. The entire army, including the envoys, enjoyed another grand feast. On the afternoon of the third day, after nearly finishing the purchased food, they marched out of the camp in great fanfare and began their northward march.

The King of Wu still had more than 20,000 troops here. However, after Princess Jeanne secretly left with her entourage, during the days of entertaining the envoys and holding banquets, the monk Daoyan sent people everywhere and temporarily gathered several thousand able-bodied men from the surrounding prefectures and counties, also under the banner of a regular army, to fill the ranks in the camp.

In addition, to prevent anyone from discovering that the princess was missing, he made special preparations in advance by sending a group of important officials to inspect the area.

The areas controlled by Wu were a mix of enfeoffed and directly administered territories. These included regions directly governed by dispatched officials, as well as the domains of hereditary nobles. These nobles varied in size; some were larger and subordinate to prefectures, while others were smaller and under the jurisdiction of counties.

In the Rhine River basin, where influence was profound, the hierarchy of nobles differed from other places. It wasn't based on the rank of a nobleman, but rather on the rank of an official. For example, a nobleman who held the hereditary title of commander was a powerful figure in the region; while a hereditary centurion was roughly equivalent to Jeanne's family, who were probably just village chiefs.

Here, there's no particularly clear boundary between directly administered and tributary states. Although the names are similar, some areas lack powerful lords, allowing the imperial court to directly govern down to the village level, while others only extend to the prefecture level. The differences between hereditary military officers on paper aren't significant, and it's difficult to say which is "inner" and which is "outer"... However, the people of the Central Plains are quite accepting of this aspect, perhaps having become accustomed to this complex and intertwined administrative system.

The advantage of this system is its extreme scalability. The imperial court didn't care much, and everyone adapted quickly because it was indeed very suitable for the local situation where the original feudal order was extremely chaotic and the relationships between the major and minor lords were completely unresolved.

As for civil matters, they are actually simpler due to the unique local circumstances.

For most nobles, administrative management is far more troublesome than fighting on the battlefield. Many lack both the will and the ability to do these things well. In such cases, it's better to leave them inactive than to put them in charge.

In Sir Hans's hometown, there was a lord nicknamed "The Drunkard." His favorite pastime was raiding Austria, bringing the spoils back to his territory, and then squandering them.

Like many nobles, the "Drunkard" had absolutely no refined tastes, spending his days indulging in street taverns, drinking cheap liquor, and visiting low-class prostitutes. When he got tired of that, he would lead his troops out to plunder, and the cycle would repeat itself. As for managing his territory, he simply ignored it completely, leaving it all to his subjects to figure out themselves.

Because the drunkard completely neglected his duties, neither actively investing in or developing his territory, nor sponsoring the church or pursuing art, his land flourished. The locals respected him greatly. Later, a special festival was even established to commemorate him, which continued for a long time afterward…

Even in France, where the economy is strong, the situation is similar. Princess Jeanne complained to others that many of their courtiers were too naive, often making people both laugh and cry.

Moreover, there was a tradition there, of unknown origin. People admired those who were physically strong and acted roughly, to the point that many nobles and knights deliberately presented themselves as indifferent to knowledge and culture. Conversely, it was believed that only priests and women devoted themselves to the study of culture. The typical image of a church scholar was that of a pale-faced, thin man in loose monk's robes—although many priests also had to engage in production and armed themselves for self-defense, and this stereotype persisted.

Therefore, sometimes the noblewomen in the court were more cultured than the male nobles. It was also customary for female nobles to preside over cultural and artistic events. Even Princess Jeanne's study of Aristotle's theories was something she had to learn herself from priests, because most male nobles were simply too lazy to study and couldn't even muster a proper class.

I wonder what Aristotle would think if he knew that among the ruling class here, only women were willing to study his "Politics"...

In short, as long as they demonstrate a little initiative and policy stability, most people are happy to entrust their territories to the imperial court. However, this also dramatically increases the workload of the government. How to utilize the limited local administrative talent to manage this increasingly complex system is a true test of the imperial court's coordination and management capabilities. Even now, it remains in an exploratory stage.

This time, Abbot Daoyan also announced that he would take this opportunity to inspect the war preparedness in various regions. Furthermore, the borders of the Wu King's territory and its surrounding areas are not particularly clear, so preparations must be made to coordinate with surrounding nobles and church territories to maintain stability in the rear during the decisive battle. Therefore, the workload is considerable.

Under the imperial order, Huang Zicheng and a group of high-ranking civil officials left the camp in a high-profile manner to carry out their duties in various places. Their caravan was quite large, quickly attracting the attention of everyone else.

Among them was a special convoy, said to be Princess Jeanne's entourage, currently heading west to make contact with French lords there. Some envoys wanted to meet with the princess, but officials from the Ministry of Rites stated that in other places, due to current limitations, they couldn't intervene. However, this was still the palace grounds, and therefore, protocol had to be followed. As a concubine, Princess Jeanne was not allowed to meet with outsiders casually.

After some thought, everyone realized that they hadn't seen the princess at all in the past few days. Both her tent and carriage had consistently had their curtains drawn, with only a few maids coming and going, delivering supplies. Therefore, their doubts dissipated, and they all remarked that the Ming Dynasty truly lived up to its reputation as the most advanced civilization; look at how meticulous they were! Some even went so far as to organize some items to take back so their people could learn from them.

On the battlefield, the Crusaders' marching speed was indeed roughly as they had estimated.

When they reached the ferry crossing, Sigismund sent out a large number of men to scout the area.

In his own army, there were still a number of light cavalrymen from Cuman and Hungary, so there were still people who were relatively good at performing this kind of task.

In addition, the local mercenary groups also included some lightly armed riders. Although Central and Western Europe lacked this tradition, resulting in questionable combat effectiveness and morale among these men, they could at least serve as human alarm bells. Therefore, commanders were accustomed to placing them at the front lines, so that if they were eliminated or routed, they would know from which direction the enemy was approaching.

The Holy Roman Empire nobles, of course, had made thorough preparations and studies for this operation. During their previous battles against the Purple Horde, they had discovered that the latter frequently utilized its superior mobility and organization to launch surprise attacks with elite troops. This "King Wu" regime had close ties with the Purple Horde. Reportedly, they had even sent their heirs to lead troops to train within the Purple Horde army; therefore, their tactics likely shared many similarities.

In previous battles, the King of Wu's on-the-spot command was initially poor, with a very simple and straightforward approach that failed to consider the overall strategic situation. However, after being defeated several times, they suddenly changed their style, starting to lead the Crusaders in circles and intentionally using the created time difference to defeat some other noble armies, preventing the Crusaders from expanding their advantage.

Therefore, the Crusader commanders believed that initially, these self-proclaimed "Ming Army" groups were likely a relatively large contingent among the many peasant rebels. Later, the King of Wu joined them with his elite troops, which suddenly improved their command level.

Of course, this tactic placed too high demands on the soldiers, causing many peasants to fall behind the regular army and get lost along the way. As a result, the scale of the operation gradually shrank, and they could only run back to their base, quickly gather some men, and then return to intercept the Crusaders and prevent them from attacking and destroying their base.

The nobles on the Holy Roman Empire's side judged that these "Ming troops" were likely weaker than their own; otherwise, they wouldn't be in such a hurry to spread propaganda. Therefore, it was best not to give them too much breathing room. Moreover, a swift decisive battle would put less pressure on their side.

On the other hand, Easterners are known for their cunning, so the Ming army would certainly try to ambush them. Now that they've reached the crossing, the army will be in a vulnerable position as they cross the river. The Ming army is likely waiting for this very opportunity.

Therefore, after observing the surrounding terrain, Sigismund first sent men to the city on the other side to sound them out; then he sent light cavalry across the bridge to search for traces of the enemy in the series of hills behind the city.

After some time, they had prepared the supplies needed to cross the river, and the scouts returned one after another. The Cuman vanguard said that there were no enemies in the city, and the mayor and council had sent bread and salt, indicating their friendliness. They agreed to allow Sigismund to enter the city to search, but hoped that the main Crusader force would not enter, otherwise everyone would surely suffer. In exchange, they were willing to pay a ransom, hoping the Crusaders would consider it.

Furthermore, they discovered an ambush on the mountain. A large group of Ming soldiers were hidden on both sides of the mountain pass, seemingly waiting for the Crusaders to arrive. However, the Cumans discovered them during their search and quickly called for the Hungarians and other cavalry to engage them. The Ming army was greatly surprised, seemingly not expecting to be discovered, and after a brief battle, they fled. Now, they had occupied the hilltops on both sides of the pass and found no other enemies.

The nobles breathed a sigh of relief, but Sigismund was still uneasy. He had employed Cumans for years and knew that while they demanded little and did a lot, they were notoriously unreliable and prone to making empty promises. However, he also had his own regular forces.

Although many of the cheap mercenaries he had hired deserted along the way, his core vassal group remained. Therefore, he appointed Duke Frederick of Saxony as the rearguard, leading his men to maintain order on this side of the bridge; he also sent Duke Ludwig of the Palatinate upstream to ferry a portion of the knights across and seize the beachhead. Then, he dispatched his trusted general, Pippo Spano, with elite mercenaries to cross the bridge and take control of the city. If there were no problems, he himself would then lead the main force of knights across the river.

(Author's note: Spano was an Italian mercenary general. There isn't much of a story about him, but he was a ruthless man who could hold his own against Yang in his prime. However, his employer, Sigismund, preferred to micromanage the battles himself, so Spano performed well in small battles under his independent command, but he couldn't perform at his best in decisive battles...)
However, the entire process that followed was uneventful. After Spano occupied the city, he personally went to the hilltop to check again. He reported that he had checked once more and found that there were indeed no enemies in the city. Although reluctant, the mayor and councilors, after being intimidated, gave in and obediently opened the city gates.

However, he also advised Sigismund against sending his army into the city, as the soldiers would undoubtedly plunder extensively. While this would relieve their pressure, give those who didn't want to fight or were even preparing to flee a new target, and allow the emperor and nobles to share in the spoils, the looting would inevitably waste a lot of time.

In the current situation, if we let the soldiers into the city, they won't be able to be pulled out for at least two or three days. By then, the Ming army should have already reached the southern hills of Osning and occupied those hilltops. Fighting them then will be much more difficult. So, it's better not to be afraid of offending people, stick to discipline, and get through as quickly as possible.

As for the mountain, he went to check it out as well. Judging from the traces of the battle, the Cumans weren't entirely exaggerating, because there were indeed signs of fighting and casualties. However, it was hard to say whether the Ming army was on such a large scale. He tended to think that it was just a sentry, or one of those harassing squads they often encountered along the way; in any case, it certainly wasn't their main force lying in ambush there—otherwise, the Cumans wouldn't have been able to defeat them.

Hearing these reports, Sigismund was relieved and began to organize everyone to cross the river.

(End of this chapter)