Blood And Iron (ASOIAF/GoT)

Chapter 12: the beginning of the problems



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POV of Emil

I had managed to stabilize the rider we had captured that if he survived the day, it will be the will of the almighty, but at least I managed to bandage his injuries properly.

'Well it did some good to pay attention to the medic on how to make tourniquets with bandages, as most of the injuries one can suffer fighting in full plate armor requires unquestionably the treatment of a medic, losing an eye or a broken leg or arm is nothing that first aid can solve.'

''another victory for the vaterland, isn't it'' said Bertram who was helping me with the prisoner.

''yes I thought our enemies would be more competent, but they leave a lot to be desired, they are too trusting, our captain would give us a good whipping if an army was moving through our territory and no one noticed'' I said grinning

''or worse than the punishment tea from a Finnish tortured master'' I said

''ha, ha, ha, those idiots definitely know how to hit where it hurts, I still remember what happened with the ham we stole three years ago'' said Bertram

''We were lucky they didn't execute us for that, stealing from the nobles' supplies, what idiots we were''I said looking at my friend.

''yeah ha,ha,ha,ha,ha, with a bit of luck, they might give us a day off because we have been almost seven days actively helping the Finns'' said Bertram

''well, it's totally up to Friedrich von Roon and you know him well, if we get a day off he will immediately throw us into the gym to train and be ready for another fight, he's not going to waste an opportunity for us to improve our combat skills'' I said looking at Bertram

the cart jumped with a hole in it, and we almost fell down because of the jump

''shit, secure the prisoner, if he falls we will win the prize of cleaning the latrines'' said Bertram a bit scared.

We regained our balance and secured the captured rider in his position.

''warn the damned holes, blind man, we almost dropped the prisoner'' said Bertram looking at the one in charge of the horses pulling the cart.

''it's not my fault, the road is in bad condition'' said the soldier.

''uff, we almost fell, the roads are in pretty bad shape, it seems that they have not done enough maintenance, there are many holes in the roads, and it is not the first one we will find, so hold the prisoner well, I don't want them to punish us for that, we must take advantage that we don't have to march with them'' I said looking at Bertram.

''yeah, sure I'll keep an eye out'' said Bertram while looking at our prisoner's wounds.

''Captain, is it safe to take off his helmet?'', Bertram said to the captain.

The Prussian captain stood watching his subordinates and then looked at the rest of the marching column, remembering the scorching sun they had to endure, after he stood thoughtfully and looked at the clear skies of the reach he longed for the warm autumn days of his home.

''Yes, of course, you have permission'' said the captain to everyone.

At that moment, we all took off our helmets and were able to relax a little from the infernal heat of this place.

Our comrades began to put their helmets on the supply wagon, now we have less space, but now we are all more comfortable

During the return trip, the Prussian soldiers shared their stories, jokes, but what was common for them was that they hoped this war would be over soon and if they would ever be able to return home again.

After a return trip, we were arriving back at our temporary home, the war camp

When the logistics wagon stopped, Bertram and I immediately got out and started to move the prisoner to one of the cells, so he could have that conversation with the Finns.

'If I'm honest, I don't envy him at all, only inhuman screams come from the tents where those torturers work'.

After that, we formed a line, waiting for our commander Frederich von Roon to give us more orders or if we could do anything else.

A while of waiting and our officer arrived, as always, showing his stoic face without any kind of emotion on him

The captain handed him the report and I saw after he read it he began to nod his head and I saw a small smile forming on his lips as he knew the result of our trap

''You have done well my men, it is good to know that the hard and tiring training has served for something, unlike your counterparts in other tercios we have once again exceeded the expectations of our beloved king and that has not gone unnoticed in his eyes'' said Friedrich von Roon with a slight smile.

''The king has personally ordered me this, you have two days off, but that does not disqualify you from attending the common tongue classes, which I remind you are obligatory and whoever does not attend will be personally confronted with me, you may retire'' said the officer and went back to his tent.

Bertram tapped me on the shoulder

''God smiles on us, two days, what are we going to do?'', asked Bertram.

''Eat and sleep without thinking that tomorrow could be the last of my days, ha,ha'' I said with a smile.

''Oh, come on Emil these are free days, we can go to the village near the camp and go for a drink, a good beer would be great right now, so I can pay you for the beer you bought me in Munich'' said Bertram trying to convince me

''I don't know, it could end badly, we barely speak their language and if we make a fight with them, they will punish us and the punishment won't be soft'' I said, worried.

''Do you have any currency,'' I asked

''Something, but today is Monday, and we can collect our weekly salary, so let's take off the heaviest parts of the armor, we collect the salary and go drinking until we might get lucky and taste the local delicacies'' Bertram said, winking at me

''You weren't married?'', I said, looking at him seriously.

''I got married because my parents forced me to because they didn't want their only son who reached adulthood to leave without offspring and I haven't seen my wife in four years since we were mobilized, I only saw her once'' said Bertram without giving it any importance.

''Well, come on'' I said

We headed for the logistics officer's tent, there was a small queue of soldiers looking to get paid.

We waited for a while until it was our turn to receive our pay

''Name and company'' said the logistics quartermaster.

Emil of the second company of pike men of the tercio of Lübeck'' I said to the officer.

The man looked for my name in the books and when he found it, he looked at me again.

''Soldier without ranks, two silver coins'' said the officer, handing me my coins.

I quickly got out of the line after putting my coins in my bag and waited for Bertram to finish as well.

After Bertram received his payment, we took off some of our armor and met up with a group of our comrades who also had the intentions of going out for a good beer in the village which was quite close to the war camp

''I hope there will be no problems'' I said to Bertram.

''Shouldn't all the civilians have all the metal objects requisitioned so we have iron to make repairs to our armor and at the same time prevent them from having a way to defend themselves against us'' said a sergeant who heard my question

''Nothing to worry about Emil just relax, they are not going to kill us now, the enemies are kilometers away'' said Bertram putting his arm around my neck.

We continued walking until we arrived at the village, it was not much, a small village of maybe five hundred inhabitants, the only thing of interest that this village had was the inn that some of our men had seen.

We entered the inn, and it was quite clean for what one could expect in these lands, we all started to take a seat and a woman approached us.

''What do you want?'', the woman said in the common tongue.

"Did you understand anything?", said Bertram.

''not much'', I answered

''eeeeeee... what .... recommended''I said rather nervously

''Black sausage, eggs, bread and beer'' said the woman.

''Ah shit, I didn't understand almost nothing''

''Yes, please''I said with a smile.

The woman left

''What did you order?'', asked Bertram

''I think sausage and beer'' I said hesitantly.

''Interesting, I wonder what the food is like here'' said Bertram.

We waited for a few minutes until the woman brought us what we had ordered, some rather black sausages and scrambled eggs with bread and a mug of beer.

Bertram began to eat as if he were starving.

''This shit lacks salt'' said Bertram with his mouth full.

I started to taste the food, and it was quite tasteless, even the camp food has more salt in it.

''You're right it wasn't good'' I said looking at Bertram.

I took the mug of beer and took a sip and to my surprise, it was as if the beer was very diluted in water barely leaving any taste of the beer.

''My god it's too diluted'' I said annoyed.

''Really?'', said Bertram.

He quickly took a sip and just seeing the frown on his face I noticed that he was also angry about what had happened.

''These damn westerosis dogs think we are idiots, and they are trying to trick us'' said Bertram quite angry.

''It could be a mistake, we should try to talk to them before doing something stupid'' I said, attempting to calm Bertram down.

But when I was attempting to calm my friend's anger, many of our comrades also started to complain about the same thing regarding their food.

''Who do you think you are ripping off, you whore, or have you forgotten who rules this land, woman'' said another soldier.

''Three pieces of silver for this garbage, you must be joking'' said another soldier.

''A beer diluted in water, and you charge as if it were a wine for nobles'' said Bertram.

The shop owners were pale with fear, as several men began to insult them in a language they did not know, and many had already drawn their weapons to threaten them.

There was little they could do because it was just a matter of seeing that they had given us wooden cutlery so that we could eat means that they had nothing to defend themselves, and now they had to stand up to soldiers with axes and swords.

I looked at the sergeant who had accompanied us, but to my surprise the one who was supposed to be calming the spirits was also participating in the conflict, apparently nobody wanted to settle things by talking.

'I must do something, the officers were clear, any problem that occurs on these sorties will be paid for with execution'.

Quickly, I made my way to stand in front of the owners.

''HAVE YOU IDIOTS GONE INSANE?'', I shouted.

''CAN WE ALL BE PUNISHED FOR THIS STUPIDITY IF WE WERE SCAMMED WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING BUT NOTICE THE OFFICIALS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT IF WE TAKE EVERYTHING IN OUR OWN HANDS WE WILL ALL BE EXECUTED'' I continued to shout.

As I named the punishment for our actions it seemed that some of the soldiers' common sense returned and things began to calm down.

''Ok, put your weapons away, pay what you have to pay and we will make a joint complaint to our officer and they will take care of everything'' I said in a calm voice.

Everyone started to calm down and started to pay the coins that some of us had been asked to pay.

The woman said some words to me while she was crying but I didn't understand anything

I also should have paid four silver coins for the two rations as Bertram kept insisting that we should not pay and tell the officers.

He group of Prussian soldiers returned to their camp furious at what had happened that the Westeroses had charged them for a meal, two weeks' wages for a tasteless meal and diluted beer.

arriving at the camp he just wanted to sleep, but he had to give the report to von Roon, there were few things that would make him angry and not knowing something that happened under his command was one of them.

von Roon's tent had no knights to protect it, as the nobleman is simply too poor to have knights.

''My lord I have important information'' I said entering the tent.

The first thing I saw was our officer with a piece of meat in his mouth while holding a compass in his hand as he made plans on a map.

Quickly, he took the piece of meat out of his mouth and looked at me.

''Report'' my officer said to me

''My lord, there was a conflict in the village, the westeroses charged us two weeks wages for bad food and beer that was clearly watered down to make it last longer, the soldiers wanted to take justice into their own hands, but I managed to talk some sense into them before things escalated'' I said in my most formal tone possible.

von Roon's eyes widened.

''Gosh, you did very well, Emil, some reason why you think it happened'' said my officer

''I should do a little more research, but apparently people earn on average more than we do, as I saw some locals paying the same without any problems'' I said looking at the man

The officer remained pensive looking at his subordinate thinking about what he could do to solve this problem

''We have to go to see the king and you will accompany me to tell him everything you know'' said my officer standing up

''Wait what?'', I said surprised.

''We must not waste time, we must act, luck favors the brave'', said von Roon almost pushing me to go to the castle where the king was staying.

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