Chapter XLVII: The Crime of the Century

June 14th 1112 VTE, Fort Aurelia, Grand Principality of Syrenia

Kieselbach, much like his master Pomerlane, was not one to sit on his hands and hand his enemies the initiative after victory. He understood that the Dragoons would be scrapping for a fight after his actions at Fort Aurelia. Indeed, Magnus had already sent a force to deal with him already. Kieselbach's plan was thus to defeat whatever Magnus was sending after him and take the city of Arretium. Rightfully predicting the path that his foe would take, he set out for the Palatine Heights, a position he had remembered as being perfect for such an engagement.

Battle of the Palatine Heights

June 22th, 1112

Sure enough, just as Kieselbach predicted his foe chose the unimaginative, coastal road to intercept him. 10,000 men under a certain Olaf af Münso had marched down the road at great pace, receiving false reports that Kieselbach was understrength and sieging Arretium. Neither one of these reports were true, indeed Kieselbach outnumber Olaf's army by 2,000 men and was clearly superior in quality.

It thus should be no surprise that when Olaf's army met Kieselbach's at the Palatine Heights, it stood no chance. At 12hrs on June 22nd, Kieselbach pulled out a classic oblique attack upon the Dragoons that day by marching his men down from the Heights to concentrate solely on the Dragoon Left Flank. Olaf, who was suffering from poor scouting already was caught off guard by this sudden show of force that seemingly came out of nowhere. Olaf did his best to try to wheel his army around to face the Imperial army, but the rather poor quality of his army showed quite well. After one volley, the Syrenian levies fled from the field and Olaf was suddenly down to 5,000 reservists. Some of reservists fought bravely but with the collapse of the left, the entire line began to fall like dominoes. To Olaf's credit, he constantly ran up and down his line trying to get them to hold, but it was all in vain. All it took was 45 minutes and Olaf's army was destroyed. 500 Dragoons were killed or wounded, 2500 were captured, including Olaf himself and 7000, which were most of the levies and some reserves managed to escape into the wilderness, where nearly all of the levies would desert as well. Much to the surprise of the Dragoons, who expected the man they called the butcher to do the same to them, Kieselbach had nothing but praise for them and their commander's conduct during the battle.

When men stand strong when all hope is lost, and their commander equals their own braver, they deserve all the praise and respect in the world as prisoners of war.

Kieselbach would send the 2500 POWs back to Geminiacum while he personally would keep Olaf in his own company for the time being, as an honored guest. Now with the relief army gone, Kieselbach could turn his attention on a much greater prize, Arretium.

The Horrors of War come to Populonium

June 26th 1112
When what was left of Olaf's army regathered at Populonium, only 688 were left. The new commander, Klaus Strutz was outraged by the Syrenians and their conduct during the battle. Strutz was a cruel and foul tempered man who was not above resorting to ungentlemanly conduct. As far as he was concerned the Syrenian People were weak, cowardly and submissive to a man he considered to be the great Satan himself, Pomerlane. These same people. They needed to be taught a lesson they soon wouldn't forget. After all, if Pomerlane had conquered this land by fear, he believed the same could be true for the Dragoons.

Thus, on June 26th, he ordered the population of Populonium to be slaughter to a man, plundered and burnt to the ground. The village which had been the site of Magnus's great victory in May now became the site of a blood bath. The 324 residents were fallen upon in the middle of the night and many were butchered in their houses. Screams, crying and pleading for life were ignored with brutal efficiency. The women of the town, from old women to girls as young as 8 were raped before being killed while men were subjected to sadistic tortures before their deaths. Not even the village's livestock or pets were spared.

In the end, only 2 villagers managed to escape in the chaos, a young girl and a blacksmith's apprentice. Strutz himself had partake in the cruelty with apparent glee, raping two women and killing a dozen others in the town. All things of value were stolen by the Dragoons and the bodies of many villages were put in cages or were billeted before the village was set alight at 900hrs on the 28th.

Strutz had achieved his objective with ease and marched his men back across the Vesta with all kinds of loot in tow, to be sent back home. Strutz himself had kept a beautiful 13-year-old for his own pleasure, making her the only other of her kinsmen to survive. Now it was the task of Strutz to try to gather another army, as he planned on bringing yet more terror to the Syrenian people in the future. "The Butcher's" reign of terror had just begun.

Ruse de Guerre at Arretium

July 7th to July 9th 1112
Hitting the anvil will the iron was hot; Kieselbach gave no time for the Dragoons to recover from their defeat at the Palatine Heights. The day after the battle, he set out for Arretium, determined to take the important town and drive the Dragoons completely from the south bank of the Vesta River valley.

But it would be no easy feat to take the well-fortified town. It had a garrison of 5,000 men and had extensive fortifications that had been constructed over the winter and spring. Furthermore, the town was well supplied for any siege. This would be no easy feat for Kieselbach to pull off, indeed, it was quite impossible for his army. But such things as odds were never one to deter the megalomaniac from pulling off impossible victories. Immediately upon arriving on July 5th, Kieselbach noticed that the Tarquinian Hill, which overlooked the town and the river from the southeast, was notably lacking in defenses and would be the key to Arretium in his eyes.

The Dragoons had not fortified the key hill, mainly because of how hard it would be to approach it through the marshes and woodlands were on the hills southern and western flanks. Furthermore, the hill had direct line of fire on any advances from these directions. Thus, the Commander of Arretium Axel von Wolin had only partially fortified the hill and placed an artillery battery atop it.

Kieselbach too understood this, by his natural ability to see the terrain and battlefield with a stroke of the eye or Coup d'œil made his own plans to take the hill in a Coup de Grace. On the night of the July 7th, Kieselbach personally led 75 picked me through the marshes and the woods to the south of the Tarquinian Hill. His army had been reported as being several kilometers away at sunset and not a threat yet to Arretium but Kieselbach was about to prove them all wrong.

As Kieselbach's men got to the edge of the woods facing the hill around 000hrs, they laid down for a minute as Kieselbach observed what was going on at the hill. "The Pickets aren't being very watchful; indeed they seem to be asleep!" Kieselbach whispered to his aide-de-camp. At once, Kieselbach stood up, drawing his sword and shouted

Give these poxed chamber pot drinkers hell boys, FOLLOW ME!

At once, the 75 Grenadiers rose upon shouted and stormed the hill. The hill's garrison was awakened from their sleep to see the Pickets being butchered by these madmen and his grenadiers. The artillery crews tried to put up a fight, but it was no use. The 200 or so men of the Battey surrendered without a single Grenadier being wounded. One shot was fired at Kieselbach, but it bounced of his cuirass. Kieselbach then ordered his aide to bring the 1,500 men that were at the other end of the woodlands and swamps to be brought to the hill at double time. These men would arrive at 330hrs, just before dawn and would begin to dig a trench facing the town of Arretium. Furthermore, Kieselbach had ordered 16 24 Pounders to be brought to the hill as well by sled on a small path from the southwest; a clear tactic that would avoid these cannons being stuck in the mud. They would arrive at 615hrs and be brought into position with the other cannons that were already on the hill to face the town of Arretium. With one move, Kieselbach had put Arretium in great danger but his plans for the town were not done yet.

Wolin was quite disturbed by this development and ordered 2,000 men of the garrison to attempt to retake the hill at 1200hours on the 8th. Unfortunately, by the time these men arrived in position, it was clear that the Imperials were dug in well enough to easily repulse any efforts. Lacking the men to truly take the hill, Wolin sent a letter to Magnus on the opposite bank requesting artillery support and reinforcements. He added that the situation was critical given this development, but he could hold out with support easily.

However, Wolin's situation seems to deteriorate even worse in his own mind after the fall of the Tarquinian hill thanks to other developments. Kieselbach had sent Zollenstein's 7,000-man Corps along another road the previous night so that he could give the illusion of another army, from Cumae, was gathering on the northern flank of Arretium. Furthermore, Kieselbach had taken measures to trick Wolin into believing his own force was much larger than it actually was. What was an army of just 13,000 now appeared two armies, numbering 20,000 men each. The approach of Zollenstein's Corp demoralized the garrison greatly as it had the intended effect. By 1600hrs, Wolin was in complete panic about his situation and was close to surrendering the town itself, but he wasn't entirely convinced that the Imperial's really had such a large force.

That was until the night of the 8th, when Kieselbach ordered hundreds of campfires lit to make the rouse more believable. Furthermore, he sent a letter to Wolin detailing that the relief army was defeated weeks prior and that he had an army of 40,000 and 200 guns ready to bombard and storm the city the next day. Wolin, now totally convinced, mulled over his options that night with his officers; all of whom agreed that surrender would be the best option. Thus, at dawn on the 9th, the flag of truce as raised over Arretium and the commanders of both forces met just outside the city. Kieselbach offered generous terms, promising freedom for the garrison and its officers if they left their arms behind and gave up the city. He flattered Wolin by telling him he was making the correct choice and that a wise commander knows that the lives of his men are more important than anything. At 930hrs, the surrender was finalized and much to the shock of Wolin, it was revealed that the army that attacked him was only 13,000 men strong. Utterly humiliated by this defeat, Wolin would return back to Selenium and commit suicide to preserve the honor of his family.

Aftermath

Kieselbach had managed to pull off what Pomerlane called "The Crime of the Century" by taking the well-fortified city of Arretium without firing a shot. The dashing cavalier was suddenly becoming a folk hero and his reputation as a brilliant commander was cemented by this victory. Demetrius's faith in Kieselbach was paying dividends and as he would soon enter into overall command of all forces in Syrenia, he was happy to have such a commander at his disposal.

Magnus on the other hand, was greatly frustrated at the failures of his commanders on the southern bank of the Vesta. He was experiencing the same thing as Pomerlane experienced the year before, with all of his subordinates failing him in some way. He could have destroyed Demetrius at Lagentium had it not been for the lapse of discipline of his men. He could have taken Cumae in the spring without his cousin's fuckery. Now, he received news that
his relief force had been destroyed, that a commander had committed an atrocity against the locals, and that Arretium feel without much of a fight. He remarked to his friend Adolf Frykman

In a time when simple orders are not being followed, and sheer incompetence is prevalent in our command; what hope do I have of victory?

Magnus was seriously considering pulling his army back to Trinitas for the rest of the year, as in his mind this year was lost. His objectives were now merely for Aquileia and Neapolis to fall while he would have to call on levies from back home to bring his strength up. It certainly did not help that Pomerlane himself had won victory after victory in Pomerania this year. After resting for most of July, the King decided that his best option was indeed to pull back to Trinitas for the time being. When he arrived, he planned to spend the rest of the year getting rid of the incompetent commanders which robbed him of victory this year. Furthermore, he prayed that Neapolis and Aquileia would fall, because in the back of his mind was a growing nightmare where Pomerlane conquers Pomerania and then is able to turn all of his attention on Magnus.

Such was the year for the King of the Dragoons.