Chapter XXI: "Old Cranky's" trouble on the Southwest.

Late May 1111 VTE

Karl, unlike his King, was not faring well in his campaign towards Bellona. From the very day he entered Syrenia, he had run into nothing but problems. Within the heavily wooded forests and hills approaching Bellona from Nötborg, along the winding roads, he had faced constant attacks from local partisans. He did as best as he could to counter them, with his own rangers he had raised and trained personally. But they couldn't be everywhere at once, and along the narrow roads, ambushes were a near constant threat.

Progress was extremely slow thanks to this and the terrain, and he had nearly run into disaster several times already. In late April for example, his rearguard had been cut off in a pass on both sides and it has only been Karl's quick thinking and decisive action that prevented them from being destroyed. With him suffering losses every day from these partisans and due to desertion, that was caused by the increasingly plummeting morale of his army. Karl was left at an impasse.

King's Mountain, where Karl managed to rescue his rearguard

The 68-year-old, known affectionately as "Old Cranky" or the "Grand Old Count" by his men was still a brilliant and energetic commander despite his age. No one in Selenium had fought in more battles than Karl and knew war as well as him. He had been opposed to the idea of a march from Nöteborg to Bellona from the very start, pointing out the terrain being awful and the problems a wise local commander could cause his army.

He had wanted to take his 40,000-man strong army and strike towards Aquileia. He pointed out that there was no realistic way for him to take 40,000 men to Bellona at one time without massive risks. While Magnus refused his proposal for Aquileia under the grounds that it would allow Pomerlane to concentrate all of his forces in Syrenia at one location, and that furthermore it would not provide pressure on other fronts; he did agree to allow Karl to plan his operation from Nöteborg as he saw fit.

Thus, "Old Cranky" had decided to lead 15,000 of his best troops with only the lightest of cannons to Bellona while leaving the rest back at Nöteborg. While his plan would have worked and was a good plan, Karl did not foresee the tenacity that the local mountain men and foresters would put up.

But now that it had become clear to Karl that his plans needed to change, Magnus be damned, he decided in Early May to pull back his forces into Selenium and come up with another plan. With a series of forced marches, he managed to almost all of his now depleted force of 11,000 back to the border in just a week.

In Nöteborg, Karl looked over a map and began to theorize his next move. He briefly considered a naval operation on the Concordian Peninsula before ultimately deciding to march to the Northeast along the Nöteborg-Eldslott road before turning his army towards Lake Ryuguard. From this road, he would march towards Venusia and then towards the coast.

If the King wanted someone to get their army slaughtered on that hopeless trail to Bellona, Magnus should just replace him. He would just take his men from Aarstad home and retire. Writing a letter detailing his plans and also detailing this last detail, he set out with 30,000 men in Mid-May, leaving 5,000 behind at Nöteborg. Selen willing, this road would be much easier, and he could at least take Venusia by the end of campaigning season, providing his men warm winter quarters. He knew Magnus would not be pleased by his change of plans, but Magnus could lick his arse!