Chapter XXXV: Pomulius's April Dilemma
Mid-April, 1112 VTE, Mansfeld, County of Mansfeld, Kingdom of Pomerania
Pomulius arrived back in Mansfeld with a demoralized and exhausted army on April 10th. The defeats and ultimate destruction of Mansfeld's army at Woltersdorf had been disastrous, leaving Pomulius to march hard back to his own lands in March in mud, constantly harassed by Imperial Cavalry raids. He had lost all of the gains he made last year, and his army was now reduced to 28,000 thanks to attrition, desertion, and skirmishes. While eventually the stragglers would increase this by 3,000 to 31,000; the strategic situation was dire.
Pomerlane had with a force of 30,000 crossed into Pomerania and was closing in on him from the west. Quedlinburg, with 27,000 was approaching from the South directly into the heartland of his Principality. And most concerningly, the Albingian League had formally declared their support for the Imperial cause and was marching their army of 18,000 to the south. This meant that he was about to be crushed on 3 sides by a total of 75,000 men, and the mere 3,000 men from the garrison of Mansfeld, along with the stragglers that joined him in Mansfield gave him a force that was outnumbered 2 to 1 by his enemies.
But there was some good news for Pomulius. His friend and cousin, the Freiherr of Osterstadt had managed to raise 30,000 men supplementing his now-named Army of Salzwedel to 44,000 men. Osterstadt and Pomulius both knew that this army would not be of much use against the Imperial forces yet thanks to it being made up largely of former garrison forces, reserves and conscripts. Time would be needed for it to reach an acceptable standard, at least 2 months. Pomulius was taking a great risk in particular by stripping the garrisons of their men, aside from Salzwedel, for this new army. But desperate times called for desperate measures. He could afford to lose cities and fortresses, aside from Salzwedel, but he could ill-afford to disperse his forces at this time.
Thus, Osterstadt moved his army to Brünzow in the hope that Pomulius would be able to hold out long enough until he could come to his aid. Pomulius also understood that the invasion of Pomerania by the Imperial forces would bring the rest of the Kingdom into the war, and local troops from nearby Princes would filter in to supplement his own army and the Royal Army itself would likely arrive in 2 months as well. If he could avoid destruction until then, he believed that the tables would be turned against the Imperials once again.
Still, he absolutely had to act now before the enemy armies could combine, and obvious target for him was the Albingian Army. It was smaller and most importantly, not lead by two of the best field commanders in the world. Crushing it would free up his northern flank and allow him to either take the war into Albingian lands or turn south and join with Osterstadt without the fear of facing an army of equal size but superior quality. He also believed that his ranks would swell after this victory and restore morale to his army.
On April 14th, Pomulius gathered his army outside of Mansfeld and gave a stirring speech to the men.
"You may think all is lost and defeat is certain against such a superior opponent. You may look at the ragged nature of our army and look on the faces of your comrades and believe all is lost. You may think that the foe we face is undefeatable. But I assure you, all is ONLY lost if we give us! This Pomerlane comes to destroy our way of life, plunder our cities, rape our women and enslave our children. Look what he did to Syrenia and you will see that will be our fate if we give up! Instead of just letting this tyrannical murderer ride over us, let us show him why us Pomeranians are known to be the greatest soldiers in the world! The whole world will soon marvel at our great deeds, let us march! FOR POMERANIA, AND FOR POMU!"
The same day, he began his march north to meet the Albingian army. His situation may be dire strategically, but the proud Prince was not going down without a proper fight.