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Chapter CXLV – For these be the days of defense.
🕑 Added 2025-07-27 15:02:21 +0000 UTC
45th of Spring 5860
Aroghlie, Union of Dwarves
The Army of the Republic had regathered on the square in the middle of Aroghlie. Their regimental banners flew excitedly in the wind, so did the flags of the Republic which was hung in the houses around the square.
There was a celebratory, ceremonial mood in the air as some of the dwarves in the army had requested leave after the liberation of their homeland. They were leaving their uniforms and weapons behind, handing them to new troops who had volunteered from the liberated town. Some men had lost their lives on the march, some had lost it during the battle, but the new volunteers meant that these negligible losses were already replenished. They’d receive training on the march, whenever the army would set up camp, since today the Army of the Republic was to go on the march. They were only waiting for…
“Mayor Whitebeard.” Brown welcomed the dwarven lady with a handshake (having to lean down due to their height difference) as she entered the square with an entourage of dwarves. “Good morning.”
“Good morning, I’ve got my ministers councilmen right here. We’re ready to hold the fort down while you’re gone.” Whitebeard gave their names one by one “We’ve already gotten work to gather a National Guard unit for our Union, to first repair the walls and then to restart work on the highway.”
“Praise the Lord, this part of the operation seems to be going well. Admittedly, I estimated Aroghlie to be the easy part. We’ve had your support here, but for the elves… hopefully deposing their chief is enough, to remove the threat for now.”
“If you manage to make her armies scatter, then I don’t think she’ll be able to break through our walls again. At most she can then act as a nuisance, maybe a glorified bandit.”
Brown shook his head “That could still do great damage. Beyond the elven forest lies the way to the Imperial capital, but I don’t think we’d be able to march forces large enough through that forest without losing too many men on the way. Ideally, we’d be making plans to strike the Imperial core directly while the Empire seems unstable from the great changes being forced upon it. For now however – for now we have to deal with much more immediate threats.” He turned towards gathered troops and shouted “Captains! Get ready to march out!”
On his orders Ayomide and co. began commanding the troops into formation. The rookies slowed down the process a bit, but in the end, four thousand men had lined up in columns. For Gemeinplatz standards this was a large army, it looked impressive, but would it be enough to deal with the coming storm? The only way to answer was that to march, and so “March!” they did.
The dwarves, whoever wasn’t too hungover after last night anyways, curiously watched the procession from their windows. Some of them were on the streets, handing their liberators food and drink for the upcoming journey, some were cheering from the window, and a few were silently watching this odd thing called “the Republic” take march. The remains of the walls of Aroghlie had been cleaned up a bit last night, to make a comfortable passage out for the men. They passed by the ruins of the walls that they had blown up yesterday, hoping that they wouldn’t have to come back to blow it up all over again.
The columns walked forward, until they turned around, the opposite direction of the half-built highway of the Republic. The highway to Periligoul was one left over from the Empire, mostly maintained because it served as a connection point between eastern Gemeinplatz and the capital. In front of them lay dense forest, denser than anywhere in Gemeinplatz, that seemed to await them with its open, gaping maw.
The Army of the Republic began its march towards the elven lands.
47th of Spring 5860
Karabush, State of Karabush
Tubman stood on the walls of Karabush, watching the landscape spread in front of her. The area lacked trees; it was vast grassland that seemingly stretched forever. A few trees here and there, loads of bushes, and a mass of tents parked right in front of the walls. The biggest mass of people she had seen ever since her timely death.
The enemy army certainly wasn’t numbered forty thousand, maybe twenty thousand at most. That wasn’t too surprising – mobilization, especially on such short notice, was certainly not easy business. Some had certainly either died on the way, deserted, or had never shown up in the first place. Some had certainly stayed back to keep watch for potential slave rebellions or bold counterattacks. Tubman had also done her best, with the inexperienced men she had, to harass the enemy on their way. Ambushes, damaging roads, and evacuating villages… if she had to retreat again Tubman would do as the Russians did to Napoleon.
“How are things looking, Miss Tubman?” Kyauta appeared quietly and suddenly right behind Tubman, as usual.
“A bit better than I imagined, thank the Lord” replied Tubman. “Not good mind you, but, better. We’ll just have to wait and see what Providence has in store for us.”
“They’re setting up the cannons already.” Kyauta pointed at the ground below, where the first canons had been dragged forward by siege engineers.
“We should be able to maintain the walls better than the ones before us. We have much more men garrisoned here. We could delay and hold them here for a few months, I feel. The only issue is…” A thousand men. One town, a relatively small one. They had captured the town without having sieged it, so the town still had its supplies remaining, but the garrison was way oversized for the previous administration’s preparations. “…food. If Captain Brown doesn’t arrive in two weeks, we’ll begin starving. That’s with us giving minimum rations to everyone.”
“…what do we do if we begin starving?” asked Kyauta reluctantly.
“We pray to God that we won’t get to that point.” Tubman of course had a plan for such a case, but she’d rather not think about even the possibility.
“Understood. I will pray as hard as I can” replied Kyauta.
“That’s about all we can do, outside of pelting our besiegers with the occasional projectile. Pray, hope, and wait. I’m sure the righteous will see their victory.” Tubman continued watching the scene down below. It was a disorganized gathering of men. The banners of various noble houses flew down below, denoting who owned what part of the army. Knights in shining armor were sitting down on stools, playing a round of cards, while levies in plain clothes were sitting by fires and entertaining themselves with a chat. Below was twenty thousand souls, all united in the sole purpose to murder Tubman and co. United against a cause that they barely understood or heard of, other than being told that the forces of the Demon King needed to be defeated and the slaves returned to their rightful place.
Her thoughts were interrupted with a BOOM as one of the cannons below were lit up. Tubman felt the ground beneath her shake as a cannonball lodged itself to the wall.
The siege of Karabush had begun, again.
