No Battle No Life

8 hours before ‘Smashing the Rock’ is executed, Fort Carré

Karl’s army, which included his personal army along with troops from Hungarian feudal lords around Budapest, numbered about 25,000. They had dragged their exhausted bodies night and day as they rushed to the western borders of France. By the time they reached Fort Carré, they were on the brink of collapse.

— They had been on a forced march for 4 days and nights, and had set out from Budapest for a French fort that hardly any of them had heard of.

“We can finally have a good rest…” A feudal lord soldier moaned as he lay on the ground. “I really can’t take much more of this sort of marching. I’ve never even walked that far in my life.”

“Yeah…” Another man released his heavy gear as he agreed.

“But didn’t that Prime Minister Karl say something about wanting to teach the arrogant Frenchies a lesson? He’s probably just sore over what happened in Aude… And now we provincial troops have to suffer.” Another soldier said as he lay down beside the first.

“Oi! You lot! Stop laying there and wasting time, look what I found!” A slightly plump soldier said excitedly behind them.

“What… I have no interest in anything besides sleep now.”

“It’s wine! So much wine! Just nearby!”

“Tch, alcoholic.” The 2 on the ground grumbled disdainfully. “No wine beats that of our hometown.”

Fort Carré, Karl’s temporary command room

“Did Mary come?” Karl asked as he picked up a bottle of quality red wine and poured 2 gla.s.ses which he placed on the map that lay out on the table. He picked up 1 gla.s.s and inspected the blood red contents as he shook the gla.s.s.

“My respected Archduke Karl, I apologise but Mary said she was unwell and stayed back in Vienna.”

“Hai, why are these women so shallow… Feeling unwell? She didn’t seem unwell at all that night? Does that mean she just doesn’t want to come? Never mind, you can drink this gla.s.s with me.”

Karl did not seem unhappy at all, and gave an expression that seemed like it was normal for him, and raised the other gla.s.s to his adjutant.

“Your excellency, we are presently in France… And Paris has issued a warning already…” The adjutant’s voice was weak and soft, and transmitted the words he meant to say but didn’t– That this was enemy territory and they ought to be careful.

“The feudal lords nearby are all loyal to our great Austro-Hungarian Empire. There’s nothing to be afraid of. Besides, we’ve been marching for so many days now. It’s time we let loose for a bit.” Karl raised the gla.s.s once more and looked at the adjutant.

“But…” The adjutant looked at the map, “We…”

“Stop looking at the map! This is an order!” Karl yelled out angrily as he used his other hand and swiped the map to the floor.

“Karl… You’ve changed so much… Has that big victory really changed you?…” The adjutant muttered softly as he raised the gla.s.s helplessly.

— Why are the contents in this gla.s.s so red? Such redness, it reminds one of blood…

“What are you mumbling about? Come, to a long and prosperous life for our Emperor!”

“To a long and prosperous life for our Emperor…”

“Don’t be so sombre. I’ll give an order to let everyone be on off for tonight, so they can all have a goo drink!”

“Ah?! Your excellency is really too messed up… Uuuu…” The adjutant was about to protest but another gla.s.s of wine shut him up, and a third, and a fourth…

“I don’t believe that those Frenchies can fly here from Paris.” Karl said indignantly.

When the time comes, how shall I receive Dawn? She should probably repay my saving her right, well then…

— I’m getting excited just thinking about it… Maybe I did drink too much…

30 minutes before ‘Smashing the Rock’ is executed

As the night grew darker, apart from the found of rustling leaves and the calls of beasts, the sound of raucous partying in Fort Carré filled the air.

Though most of the troops had by now gone into dreamland from the long march and copious amounts of liquor, a number of them were still drinking and partying.

— They were the late night shift of guards.

— Or perhaps, the new batch of alcoholics.

After drinking a large amount of alcohol stored in the Fort, they began to complain about their officers.

“Our officer is way too weak… He’s always pulled along by Karl… If I were him…”

“Our officer too… He’s just a sycophant… All he knows is… To kiss Karl’s…”

*Dong*!

All these men were drunkenly lying on the floor and one of them caught sight of a platoon with his blurry vision.

— The things you see with such vision isn’t always real… Apart from us, there’s no one here… What other squad is there to patrol at night besides us…

A night breeze made the flame of a nearby torch flicker and he managed to catch a clear glimpse of these people– They were all wearing the same uniform as he was… The one at the head was even carrying a sword by his side… And that sword was emitting some sort of… Light…

Forget it, don’t joke around, how could a sword be emitting light? … It’s probably another night patrol… I’ll just… Sleep first…

Just an hour ago, Tu had brought the 300 troops to the side of Fort Carré. He went around the designated gathering point and built a pontoon upstream before using it to cross to Fort Carré through a secret underground tunnel.

Tu was actually rather familiar with Fort Carré as he had personally led a 300,000 strong force formed from a coalition of Deutsche feudal lords across the Barker mountains and attacked Fort Carré from Austrian territory. In the end, he was only able to break the Fort that had only 4,000 men defending it at the cost of 20,000 on his side.

When he was leading the siege, he nearly died to a stray bullet to save someone…

That was a thing of the past. After he took the Fort, Tu personally scoured its insides and had found this secret pa.s.sageway then– Which now greatly served him.

This secret pa.s.sageway was built as a means of retreat for the garrison. After the non-aggression pact was signed, it had become abandoned and was now just an ordinary waterway.

“Alright, we’re here… Everyone down!” Tu ordered as he entered the pa.s.sageway first. “Warriors, you will now be facing the enemy. For the sake of your ideals and beliefs, be prepared to fight tooth and nail. I now order you to separate yourselves into 3 squads, One will follow me, and the other 2 will disperse themselves amongst the enemy’s stores and armory. When the fire appears, it’s showtime!”

“I hope it will all not come to waste. Everyone who contributes tonight will be rewarded by me! All those who do not obey will be cut down on the spot!” In the secret pa.s.sageway, Tu’s words got the 300 personal guard troops, who were already eager to fight, even more riled up.

“Long live the king!” They cheered, slightly softly to maintain their cover.

“Take off your capes, move out!”

“For France!”

30 minutes before ‘Smashing the Rock’ is executed, Fort Carré, Karl’s temporary command room

Unlike his adjutant who was now currently collapsed in his tent, Karl was still conscious.

“Looks like good wine has to be paired with good women huh.” He sighed helplessly.

“Eh?” He heard the cry of an eagle, but why would there be an eagle so late?

— Wait, this cry, it sounds like it’s approaching me. I might as well go have a look since I have nothing to do anyway.

Karl walked out of the room and raised his hand which was in a black glove up high as the eagle landed on his arm.

— Looks like there’s a letter attached…

Karl was a little stunned when he opened up the letter but he quickly recovered and began guffawing. “Hahaha, Dawn is really thinking for me huh. Why couldn’t she have said so in the palace? Haha… How could there be a French attack on me? This place is so far from Paris…”

Karl waved his hand and sent the eagle away before throwing the letter into a bonfire nearby.

— What a joke, how could a Frenchie with such an uncool name be my match? It’s almost 1am… Time to sleep…

Karl yawned and went back into the room…

At this time, Tu’s troops had successfully entered Fort Carré and had begun their respective missions while Lannes and the rest had made it to the gathering point.

Several thousand artillery men had rea.s.sembled 500 heavy guns which were separated into 4 echelons, and were now in position with all guns pointing toward Fort Carré.

“Grouchy, didn’t you have a special mission to execute? Why are you with us now?” Lannes asked Grouchy, who reached Fort Carré with his troops as directed by Tu just as Lannes’ men were finishing up their work.

“Eh? … My orders said that Davout would be in charge of the special mission?”

“Davout? Isn’t he conducting training in the mountains? How could he come here?”

“Then…”

The 2 went silent.