Chapter 104: Call to Arms!
Much like Linde had predicted, within a week, Berengar received a letter from Count Lothar informing him to rally his forces and begin the march to war. In the northern parts of Germany, battles were already being waged between the House von Luxembourg with the backing of their allies against the House von Wittelsbach. Duke Wilmar of Austria had already begun his march into Bavaria with the majority of his forces thus launching an attack on the Wittelsbach"s while their main army was away. However, he foolishly trusted Lothar with the defense of the border in which Tyrol shared with southern Bavaria.
After receiving the summons, Berengar had sent the mercenaries he had already prepared for the occasion to rally at Innsbruck, with a chest of silver and a letter informing Lothar of Berengar"s "temporary" absence. Currently, Lothar was standing in the Great Hall of Innsbruck surrounded by the various n.o.bleman who had answered his call to arms where he was reading Berengar"s letter aloud for all to hear.
"Dear Count Lothar von Habsburg-Innsbruck,
It is with a heavy heart I must inform you that I am unable to reach the rally point at Innsbruck at this time. Due to several complications, mostly due to weather, I cannot round up my forces in time to meet up with you and your other Bannerman. As such, I have sent this small force of mercenaries and a trove of silver to act as compensation for my absence. I will rendezvous with you at the location of the target when conditions permit it.
Sincerely,
Viscount Berengar von Kufstein"
The various n.o.blemen who had gathered could not prevent themselves from scoffing at the contents of this letter. Clearly, the young Viscount was a coward, hiding behind his walls while the rest gathered for the future conflict. Many of these men had done business with Berengar and felt a great sense of disdain for the man who helped supply them with the equipment they needed to field their armies. A middle-aged Viscount was first to voice his objection to the matter.
"Does the boy seriously intend to sit back and wait for the battle to be over before arriving? Apparently, my estimation of the "Mighty Berengar" was greatly exaggerated!"
The excuse of weather conditions was laughable after all these men lived in Tyrol and suffered the same conditions, yet they had all managed to answer the call to arms. Though some of the n.o.blemen were happy with Berengar"s absence, he was known to be an excellent commander, and they did not want to compete with him when it came to rising in the ranks when Lothar came to power.
Lothar merely stood in silence for a few moments thinking over the reasoning for Berengar"s actions, yet not once did he suspect that the young Viscount was about to stab him in the back and lay siege to his home while he was off at war. Thus he made an equally foolish decision as Duke Wilmar and permitted Berengar"s behavior, as the old Count decided he would permit Berengar to stay in Kufstein until his forces were ready for battle.
Part of his reasoning for this was that Lothar had vastly underestimated the power of Berengar"s armies. He was unaware of the vast military buildup which Berengar had made over the previous months, nor how well every one of his soldiers was equipped. Firearms were still a rare and primitive design at this point in history and considering Berengar had done an excellent job of hiding the effectiveness of his muskets and cannons, Lothar merely believed he had a few peasant levies equipped with the not so impressive hand cannons.
On top of this, Lothar had purchased all of the high-quality equipment from Berengar"s professional forces shortly after the war with Kitzbühel, and due to how busy Berengar had been selling arms and armor to other forces, he did not believe the young Viscount had time to equip his own army properly. Lothar had little need for a bunch of under-equipped levies, this was a more sophisticated era of warfare where smaller armies of professional men at arms fought against one another, the days of ma.s.sive hordes of peasant levies equipped with hunting spears, and a lack of armor was long pa.s.sed. Thus he made a bold declaration in front of all the gathered n.o.blemen
"Forget Berengar; if he wants to hide behind his castle walls like a coward, then I will allow it; we march to Vienna at first light!"
The gathered n.o.blemen all nodded with a satisfied expression; without Berengar and his armies, they felt a lot more secure about gaining Lothar"s favor. Though they were entirely unaware of the already strained relations.h.i.+p between the young Viscount and Count Lothar, thus they were unable to predict the vicious thoughts that Lothar was secretly thinking in the back of his wicked mind
"When I am done with Vienna, I will come to root you out of your castle and have you beheaded for this act of treason!"
Clearly, the target of his vengeance was Berengar; Lothar had never forgiven the boy for spoiling his schemes with lambert, nor had he forgotten the fact that he turned his daughter into an unwed teenage mother. Who would possibly marry his daughter now? He had tried to convince Berengar to take responsibility and marry Linde, but the boy was stubborn about marrying the von Graz girl, and this by itself had made Count Lothar thirst for his blood.
As such, Lothar spent the remainder of his waking hours going over his plans for dealing with Berengar; after all, by the time the Teutonic Order arrived in Kufstein, Lothar was certain he would be a Duke. By then he could truly gather a great force to crush this little ant who kept invoking his ire. Lothar had no way of knowing that Adelheid had been sniffing through his office while he slept that night, looking for any semblance of a plot against Berengar; on behalf of her sister, she willingly worked with the young Viscount to overthrow her malevolent father.
During that night, Adelheid found letters from the Papacy informing Lothar that the Teutonic Order had already sent an army of 10,000 soldiers on the warpath to Kufstein and that they would be arriving in a matter of months. The girl rapidly copied the contents of the correspondence and sent it to Linde in the cover of night. Her father and his allies were completely unaware that his home in Innsbruck was already compromised by Berengars vast spy network. These spies would have a role to play in the upcoming Siege of Innsbruck, which would forever go down in history as a major event of Berengar"s rise to dominance.