Chapter 116: Getting The War Back On Course

A week had passed since the rebels had tried to capture the Hirschmann palace. The bloody affair had left the rebels in a dire position. Almost three-quarters of their comrades had died in the assault. That in itself was bad, but it was worse when General Bertrand and General Tauentzien led their troops to wipe out the rebels.

Bertrand headed to the western part of the city to deal with the bank that had acted as a headquarters for rebel leaders, while Tauentzien went south to deal with the merchant warehouse that acted as a supply depot for them.

The rebels did not have the men or means to stop the Luxenberg soldiers, their resistance was futile and consequently, the majority of their remaining comrades found themselves dead or captured.

For the rebels that had surrendered, General Bertrand showed no mercy as executed them all and added them to the field of impaled corpses. His intention was to show that the rebels had been utterly defeated and that those who looked to surrender and apologise for their actions would face a similar fate.

After that, the rebel activity halted altogether, and those few survivors of the rebel forces, they went into hiding, fearing what Bertrand the Impaler would do if he found them. His infamy had grown tenfold during his deployment in Joltz, not only was feared within the city, but many people over the continent were becoming aware of his cruelty.

With the flames of rebellion extinguished, Victor was able to continue his war against the Fontaine Faction. His first order was to redeploy General Tauentzien and 3rd corps to Auderbrast. They would take up residence in the city as its new garrison while Victor's force would journey to conquer another city of the Fontaine's.

The Grand Duchy of Fontaine had 3 core cities in its domain. The capital, of course, was Osterbon, as it was the grandest city that the Fontaines controlled. The second was Amsardam, which was between the city of Joltz and Osterbon. It was an unremarkable city, but its surrounding territory boasted a lot of pastures that were used to breed and train the army's warhorses.

Finally, there was the ashen city of Doulon, the industry powerhouse of the Fontaine Faction. In the city were musket factories, blacksmith workshops and a cannon foundry. Even the lands surrounding the city were important to the industrial sector of the city. There were a few iron mines that had been bountiful for the last 10 years as well as many lumber mills.

For Amsardam, the only downside of having all these industrial and warfare-based buildings was that the surrounding lands of the city had a hard time producing any crops. Barley, rye, wheat and flax struggled to grow in the pastures which had a negative effect on the city's food supply. Although the city was able to generate a lot of money through its wares, it could simply outsource their food supply to a city such as Auderbrast, which produced a lot of food. 

Victor's plan was to take the city of Doulon and cut off their supply of weapons and ammunition. Without Doulon's supplies, the Fontaine army will slowly exhaust their ammunition surplus and be faced with an difficult task of melee combat against a well supplied army.

In Victor's force, he still had 6th and 9th Corps as well as his Royal Guard. With the addition of the Congreve Rockets, siege warfare had become easier, but there was only a limited amount of rockets remaining, so Victor was careful to decide when to use them. In their absence, Victor was still confident in his regular 12-pounder cannons and their effectiveness.

It would be a 2 week march to the city of Doulon from Auderbrast, so it gave Victor plenty of time to come up with a plan to take the city while maintaining a low amount of casualties. There was still a Fontaine Army that consisted of 220,000 infantrymen, 30,000 cavalrymen and 600 guns, which was still a formidable force. They could easily pose a threat to Victor, if not for Grand Duke Fontaine's paranoia.

The Kingdom of Luxenberg's army still had 250,000 infantrymen, 33,000 cavalrymen and 800 cannons. The only issue was that the army was so spread out that they could be easy targets for the Fontaine Army if they decided to stop guarding Osterbon.

With that in mind, Victor needed to keep the conquest going, and so, within 2 weeks Victor's troops were at the doorstep of the Doulon. Staircases of smoke could be seen ascending to the heavens as dark clouds began to roll in from the south. 

It was almost nighttime when the Luxenberg troops arrived and there was no point in trying to rush a quick assault on the city's western walls and gatehouse. As such, Victor dedicated the next day and a half to focus on properly creating a secure siege camp.

Trenches were dug and sudes were placed along the outskirts of the camp. Cannon positions were being prepared for the forthcoming attack on the city. Victor planned to approach this siege as basically as possible. Using a barrage of cannon fire to collapse the walls and send the infantry in to finish the job.

The siege itself was not the only plan Victor had been cooking up, there was another, more intricate scheme happening in the shadows. One of which could help Victor further tip the scales in his favour. 

Before Victor set out on the march to Doulon, he contacted one of his spies in Osterbon. His spy was given a very special task. If correctly executed, the Fontaine army would suffer a major blow. On the other hand, if the spy failed, his life would be forfeited and would not live to see the end of the war.

The spy was to infiltrate the Fontaine palace and discreetly get in contact with Duke Albus Godert. Victor's intention was to secure him and his army's loyalty in exchange for the release of his family and a few other concessions. If Duke Godert's loyalty was swayed, the Fontaine Faction would lose 23,000 infantrymen 2,000 cavalrymen and 100 guns. 

And so, while Victor was besieging Doulon, another scheme was at work.