Chapter 21

I smiled too and said, "You would make a good grandfather. You have patients and a quiet voice. Some grandfathers may be surprised to what the grandchildren can do. I pulled back my forces because I felt that we many be able to talk this out. By now the majority of your forces would be dead and those in the city would be racing through your camp and kill everyone that put up any resistance."

"First you say that you have stolen a few horses from the Mediomatrici..."

"There were two hundred and seventy six horses but forty seven were from your old enemies the Alamanni. Those were nothing more than robbers. I was hurt on the chest and thigh while another girl Arienh's age was hit by a spear."

The man looked worried and I added, "She may have a few fractured ribs but the spear only penetrated a finger's width."

"She no doubt had the same armour as you."

"That is true. In fact each of the cadets makes their own steel and then make the armour then the weapons. That reminds me, Arienh had armour on when she ran here to warn of your coming. You said you saw none of our armour before."

"It appears she removed her armour before she was captured."

"She is a resourceful girl, but then so are all the cadets."

"How many cadets do you have?"

"Twelve but that is enough to start shaking the world."

His eyebrow rose and he said, "The world?"

"You look to be a man of forty years or so. There is time yet that you may sit back with your family and talk of capturing Arienh. They may believe many things but capturing that girl will not be believed."

"Why is that?"

"She is going to be very famous perhaps more than a Roman emperor. You see I plan on taking over the crumbling Roman Empire if I cannot get its cooperation. Your government and people only think of slaves and war. You can become many times richer by making things and selling them to your own people. When I show you how to make real ships then you can sell your produce to the rest of the world."

"Our ships are no different than any other maritime nation."

"That is true, and that is why I have to show you how to build a real ship."

"What is a real ship like?" This again was said with a smile.

"A real ship does not have oars or sails. You may already know that steam can make things move. I believe the Greeks made a device that spins when water is placed in it then heated."

"I have heard of that. It's a toy."

"True. Now make an iron tube and weld one end shut. Fill it half full with water and then crimp over the other end. Throw it in a fire and get far away and see how it is just a toy."

"We should try that but twelve cadets cannot possibly fight the armies of Rome."

"I am fully capable of taking on Rome but you are mistaken about my methods. Your government is ruled by two bodies. One is your Augustus and the other is the senate. Those in the senate are very rich but the wealth comes from their farms and businesses. Those men are always twisting the laws so that they favour their aims. Taxes are put on these men and they simply lie or move most of their businesses away from the empire. The Augustus himself has businesses and farms so he is not beyond making a few adjustments to suit his needs."

"That may be but you were talking of fighting Rome."

"Yes. Your empire is directed by men with strong business interests. I cannot see this changing for thousands of years. It has been true as far back as there were men. Now I can attack Rome in two ways. You may not know it but we make glass. This is not new but we will soon be making sheets of perfectly flat glass six or more feet wide and as long as a mile if I wanted it that way. At the moment just consider eight feet in length. I can sell this glass to Rome and gain great wealth. Everyone with two aureii to rub against each other will want it. If it is taxed very high by Rome then the price will be higher but they will still buy it."

"That is an odd form of military manoeuvring."

"My point is that there are a great many products to sell to Rome that they cannot produce themselves. I will have no competition. Another way to do this is to move to your empire and make this glass there. I get taxed but my prices still stay very high. Now that I am in your empire I can influence your laws. With armour and swords to make, I can get the patrician class to help me if there is something in it for them."

"You would give us the secret of your steel?"

I smiled. "If we were at peace you could walk into the city now. All of the smiths know the secret and as such is not a secret any more."

A man came to the tent and pushed his way in. He looked at me with a worried look until Lucius said, "Yes," in Latin which I understood.

The man spoke but I didn't understand any of it. Lucius said, "It appears that an intruder attacked one of our men inside our perimeter."

Lucius looked at me and I said, "When I left he came out to take a piss. He is suffering from a headache not a knife wound. I try very hard to keep my word."

The man standing said something else and Lucius simply said, "No." Then after a pause he said a bit more. There was a minor conflict but Lucius sounded adamant.

When the man left Lucius said, "I have send orders to those on patrol to not engage the enemy unless they are attacked. We are having an important talk now."

"Peace talks are conducted better that way though sometimes they go much quicker with some military action."

"You are a very astute young man. I have already assumed that you are the only remaining son of Clovis."

"I am."

"You could be held captive."

"You would have to break your word. I think that may be a difficult thing to do. From my study of Rome I have found that it is populated by men in two extremes and a great many in the middle. You are one of those that would die to protect me now even though you know that I could defeat Rome and change its course."

"Where do you want Rome to go?"

"I once read a book about the third century. You had three factors that each could have destroyed you. There was external invasion, internal civil war and economic collapse. I could precipitate an economic war. Carthage was a competitor of yours. I too will be. My products will be so cheap that the businesses in the Roman Empire will collapse. You might call this a 'Cold War'.

"I will sell to your enemies all that they want. Rome will fight back with their armies but they will only die. This would bring on invasions into your land.

"I can also back factions in Rome with my gold and equipment. Civil war is bad but I am afraid it is easy to formant with greedy men. Rome too uses this strategy.

"I explained three crude methods to get my point across. I want slavery abolished completely. The empire is ruled by Romans. This will change with Romans representing Romans in popular elections. The senate will have representatives of all races. The state will distance itself from religion so those that want to believe in a certain way will have the freedom to do so but not have the support nor the hindrance of the state. The Roman army will now be a police force that follows the laws set down by the senate."

"We follow those laws now."

"You follow laws made by Romans even if they try to apply to Germans outside of your empire. I would have you follow the laws set down by representatives of all the empire not just a faction."

"I understand. Please go on."

"Romans have devoted themselves to learning the science of war. Nothing else was very important to them. As a result you had a thousand years to learn and grow. You grew very little. The rich have nice homes. You have made dams then channelled the water to cities. You have made large mines but you kill the land and the water along with a lot of slaves to gain what you want. I can get what is needed with a fraction of the workforce."

"What would we do with all the slaves?"

"It will be a slow process. Everybody from slaves to the patrician class will gain an education. Those educated children will form the bureaucracy and the senate in later years. Laws will change. You may be surprised to know that you are a slave in may ways."

Lucius only smiled knowingly.

I said, "The Senate owns you even if you think it is duty. The slaves I mentioned will have to now get jobs and then get paid. Now the free slaves can purchase what they want. This means that more has to be produced to fill the demand. This will mean more former slaves have to work and get paid. What I am saying is that the great majority of the world will be wage slaves. They are free otherwise. The great bulk of your future wealth will be generated within your borders as I mentioned before."

Lucius said, "I understand what you are saying but it hinges on new things that the Romans and other races want very much to acquire. Do you have so many things to sell that you could wage this cold war?"

"More than you can count. I mentioned my ships. They will be made of steel this thick," I said with my fingers showing two centimetres thick. "A mighty engine using steam will turn a giant screw in the water to push it forward. The ships can be a thousand feet long but they will have to extend far under the water and few ports would be able to allow them to dock. Smaller ships of only five hundred feet will have to do."

"Are you sure iron or your steel can float?"

"It is the shape it is in. A boat made of wood will hold more than a raft made of the same amount of wood."

"I understand that."

"Getting back to ships, mine will sail around the world. Trade with China and India will be very profitable. There is also a lot of undiscovered land that awaits our coming. Rome has barely touched Africa and without good ships then the rest will take a long time to be found."

"Men will find them if there is silver involved."

"That is very true. And man's greed is one thing that can be used to understand us. Rome though is not all about the greed of the few because there are many good things that not only have to be saved but to be improved."

"Like what?"

"You make good roads but they have to be improved considerably."

"What is wrong with our roads?"

"There is a hard substance that will flex. It is like very thick skin. I mentioned that ships will have a device that burns fuel and the steam is used to make something turn. A cart five times longer than what we already have can have these soft but firm wheels. The device I mentioned will cause the vehicle to move. It can carry children to a large place of education or fruit to a city. My glass could be carried on these vehicles. Similar vehicles could also take warriors and all their equipment.

"To do all this the roads have to be higher and with a smoother surface. There will be so many vehicles that sometimes four roads are needed to carry them in one direction and four more to get back. The speed would be sixty miles in a single hour. They could go faster but problems happen with animals and people crossing the roads. All this means that there has to be many more bridges and culverts have to be made."

Lucius said, "The images in your mind are very vivid. I wish some of them were true but alas this cannot be."

"Do you mean about the battle we will have to wage, perhaps tomorrow?"

"We are going to fight? I thought you may surrender. That way your people will be spared a great hardship."

"It is your cohort that will be the ones surrendering I am afraid. I will try to keep the deaths to a minimum if I can but soldiers have to die. Your emperor will not understand your surrender without a fight and I really want you to help me after the battle. Would it be possible if your Immunes and of course the children and any wounded stay to one side and under my protection. I will give my oath on this."

"You sound very sure of yourself."

"I am as sure of this as I am that the sun will come over the horizon tomorrow morning. I will try to pull back our men. You should make a very sturdy wall. It will not matter because I have an onager like device that will make a hole through a full grown oak not just a small tree. Instead of a stone we throw iron but instead of it being heavy it is small and goes very fast."

"If the wall is of no use, why build it?"

"You are what I think is an honourable man. You will one day face your Augustus and tell him you did everything you could to protect your men. He will not be able to fault you on any point, that is if you happen to survive."

"You sound like we have no chance."

"You don't. I will talk to those in the city. The ones that are going to fight you will do so as honourable men. The rest I would hope would tend to the wounded. My people pick up booty and I cannot stop it. If one person collects the coins and keeps a tally then those that survive will get their money back."

"They will not be slaves?"

"Call them prisoners of war. They have certain rights and privileges. If they are honourable then they will get the freedom of the countryside."

"So you think that we will have to fight tomorrow?"

"Unless you want more time to prepare."

"You would give me more?"

"As I said before your effort is only to show your Emperor or Augustus that you fought bravely and did everything that could possibly be done.

A little boy got up. He was about two and a half. He was holding his dick in his hand and hurried out of the tent. I chuckled and said, "Boys never change. Tell me about your children."

"If you will tell me about your cadets?"

We talked for an hour and when I was offered breakfast a second time I accepted. The older boy was admiring my helmet and I looked at Lucius then put it on the boy's head. The boy only spoke Latin and Jón or I knew little of his tongue. It didn't matter much because we knew he liked the armour.

Lucius tried to find out about the black powder and the grenade but I avoided telling him much. He would know all he wanted to know when we attacked. He admired my swords and I actually told him how we currently made steel and how the swords were fashioned. When I was finished he said, "Why have you told me this? You said we are going to fight." A light seemed to come on then he said, "I see. You do not think we could carry it far."

"Not just that. This is a crude method of making steel. Iron and steel can be made in a large ceramic container that will produce two thousand talents of liquid iron or steel at one time." I drew the cross section of a rail and said, "Two of these about a pace apart can support a giant engine powered by steam. It can pull long coaches that ride on the steel. When I get these put in place in Italy then you can move troops quickly but also travellers, fruit, grain or any commodity you want. They usually go only fifty miles an hour but they will go to three hundred in a few centuries."

"That fast. I would love to be able to go that fast."

"You can travel almost that fast and sooner too but we need to make a vehicle that flies."

"Flies, like a bird?"

"The wings are fixed. A different and more powerful engine turns a propeller. This propeller turns very quickly and pulls the vehicle through the air. You will not believe it but we already have a toy propeller. They are made in the city by a fellow Roman and his German troops. I will ask if he wants to come and visit but he may not. He has lost a leg so he cannot fight. He was fed regularly and he is free to do what he wanted as long as he stayed on our land. You or the other soldiers may think him a deserter but he was captured and treated for his injuries."

"I would like to talk to him. If he came to me he would have the same oath given to you."

"I will ask him then. Getting back to the bad part of war. How long would you like to prepare?"

"I believe you will attack and you will use your onager. How effective it will be is to be seen. Rome could use this weapon if it were made available to them."

"You may not believe this, but Rome will get this weapon. I want a strong Rome that has changed its ways. You have some rough spots that have to be rubbed away but the rest is good and very much worth saving."

At noon I walked from the camp with my helmet on and my weapons and cloak carried in my arms. The Romans left me alone and I got half way to the city before a pair of horses raced to me. Forni pulled up beside me and said, "Did they capture you."

"No, we just had a talk. We are going to have a battle in two days. We better get two more cannon ready. The Romans are going to strengthen their camp and then we are going to knock it down."

The gate opened for us and Grímkell was livid at my approach. "Do you know what you did? We raced off to kill Romans and you did nothing except get captured. Your father will be angry at you and lock you up until you are an old man."

Jón was now in control and said, "No he won't. I was talking with the Roman. In two days at noon I am going to attack and destroy his fortifications. He is going to go into the forest and cut trees."

"What!"

"I am going to kill some Romans in two days. They have a chance to defend themselves but they will fail. I am fairly sure a messenger was sent telling about this so we better have this wrapped up because a legion or more will be here in a month or so."

"A legion? We cannot stand up to them. You have killed us."

"Get twenty men and I will show you the weapon. I will show Lucius too while we are at it."

"The Roman?"

"Yes the Roman. He will see what he faces and perhaps there will be more legionnaires that will surrender. They make good soldiers if we get to train them soon enough."

Grímkell told Jón that only Forni had come home early this morning. He sent Forni off again to bring the artillery to an area both close to the city and close to the Romans.

The noon meal was very frosty with Astrid and Dagmar. Others too had taken their cue from them and were angry at me too. Jón was able to eat but he cut it short to get away. The food was better here but the company was better in the field.

A servant was sent off for shovels and twenty men were assembled to protect the cannons and the cadets. We were half way to our destination at a leisurely walk. The Romans avoided us and we did the same for them. We met up with the cadets and all of them were at the low ridge looking down over a cleared field. Large trees were half a Roman mile away. Most of the cadets looked sleepy but they were excited.

Jón said, "Arienh, go to the Romans and invite twenty of them to come to see a demonstration of our weapon. Tell Lucius that I won't hurt his soldiers today if they behave themselves."

"Really? Lucius?"

"If he sees then he can begin to understand. We are still going to fight unless he decides to run. I want him alive and on our side if at all possible."

"Shall I go the way I am? I do not have my armour."

"Yes, and you did a very smart thing by denying the enemy a chance to find this out. I am proud of you."

She turned red but a big smile blossomed on her features. Before she left I said, "Ask Lucius if he want to bring his boys. They may like what they see and tell him I have three toys for his family."

"He only has two boys."

"There is a big boy I met too." Arienh smiled and hurried off toward the Roman camp.

We ran through a simulated attack on an enemy position but no shots were fired. It took twenty minutes before a column of Roman calvary came our way. Our own men had got back on their horses and formed one row as if ready to charge but the lance butts were on the ground.

Lucius stopped next to the guns where we stood at attention. "Are these your onagers?"

"These are some. We have different kinds like the short ones over there." Jón pointed with his finger. "They shoot high into the air to drop behind fortified walls."

The horses were all taken away and there were a lot of angry men. They felt naked without their mounts but the horses would bolt at the sound of the explosions. The men stayed a respectful distance away and Arienh lit the powder in the pan. It flashed and in a second the cannon roared and rolled back three metres. Before they could recover the other cannon fired and I think that the soldiers would shit themselves.

The cadets fired five rounds of solid shot each as quick as they could at the targets in the distance. They then loaded up with small grape shot and stood ready. If somebody was going to come now they would be greeted the way Jón and I wanted.

The smoke eventually blew away and the horses were called for. The two boys were crying from fright and Lucius was trying to calm them. When the horses came, they were just as worried as the men.

Everybody but the cadets went to see the damage to the mature trees. Even without explosive shells there was awesome damage. Not only were trees shot through but the ball had continued through others some were deflected only to cause damage in a new directions.

It was not just the Romans that were in shock, so were the Frisians. The balls were hard to find and most were buried deep in the ground or had bounced and struck higher in a tree. We only found two of the balls anyway. One had to be dug from the ground while an axe had to be used to cut a tree down to get the other ball. They were of iron and had not shattered but they had seriously deformed themselves.

We came back to the cannon an hour and a half later. I stood beside one and said, "That was solid shot. We didn't put all the powder we could in the cannon so it was slow. The thunder you heard could be contained in a lighter projectile and when it explodes, thousands of iron pieces move in every direction. A man in armour is the same as a man without. Besides those two projectiles we have others."

The cadets brought out the various loads and showed them. The Romans that knew German were busy translating what was said. When the last two were shown I said, "The cannister with nine balls and the one with many smaller balls are designed to strike men. Nobody stands up to them.

"The city is defended by six more of these cannon and more of the mortars."

The cadets loaded the mortars but the two boys were asked to assist so that they would not be as frightened this time. The cadets fired one round almost vertically after checking the wind and Jón counted the seconds. When we heard the thunk, enough seconds had passed for him to say, "That ball that you saw travelled over a mile straight up. I can prove by mathematics but you will have to take some figures on faith."

Nobody said anything about the mile and they were not going to argue. A shell was put in but this time the elevation was at thirty degrees. The fuse this time was just wood with some powder in a small hole that would lead to the charge in the centre. When the mortar or cannon fired, the flames would lick around the projectile and ignite the powder leading to the centre of the projectile. The timing was not good but I didn't have a machine shop or a way of casting steel yet.

Lucius said, "After seeing this, I believe everything you have told me."

"Are you prepared to face me in two days or are you going to retreat? The legion could be here in a month if it hurries but longer if it is engaged. I can kill five thousand men as easily as five hundred. My advice is to go. Staying to face even the two cannon you see is insanity." Lucius didn't say anything and I hoped in a way he would just leave but I knew that if he was commanded to return, he would.

With the show over I handed the three propellers and their launchers to the boys and their foster father. The serious look on the children's faces evaporated to that of wonder. The devices flew into the air and came down and the boys ran for them to do it again and again.

To the three I whispered, "If we make big propellers and a device to turn them we can ride through the sky." Lucius translated and the boys' eyes got even bigger.

We escorted the Romans most of the way back to camp while the cannons went right to the city gate.

When we stopped Jón said, "Will you be leaving or staying? I do not relish killing your people but I will. I am afraid though that you will be coming back under orders. I want Rome to work with me but they are just too big to even listen yet. They need their nose bloodied and I am afraid it is the army that has to take the wounds."

Lucius gave a quick translation then said, "I think we will leave if we are allowed to."

I turned to Grímkell and said, "Will you and the rest allow the Romans to withdraw? They will be back though and we can deal with all of them at one time."

Grímkell said, "I think that a hundred of our soldiers and those devices of yours will take a legion easily. They would be trembling at the iron flying so fast and they would be easy prey to our lances." We still looked at him and he said, "They are free to go. Others may attack but that is their business."

Lucius just nodded his head and turned to go. The rest of his troop followed behind.

With Lucius far enough away Grímkell said, "I do not like your weapons. They are not for a man."

"It is your kind of people that cause wars Grímkell. They want glory and go out to get it at any price. Women and children have to die for it as well as innocent men. You think too little before you fight. There are many ways to show your manhood without killing. None of them would be acceptable to you or your kind. Your kind are still needed though because the legion will be coming soon."

The priests had a heyday ever since the first success with the Romans. Now that they had been vanquished, everybody was in very high spirits.

I took a table at the side of the hall and had a crest made in bronze with the stylised eagle put on it. This table was now for the academy. There were a few mutters at first but I had the cadets talk in turn about our exploits. In typical German fashion they went into great detail where it was needed.

Aagt showed her wound for all to see. They didn't believe the number of horses taken from the Alamanni. They didn't believe the booty either. The six children that took on the three robbers were next and they went through every gesture that they had originally done and probably a few more.

The Mediomatrici camp was then described with a lot of detail by the two that had entered it with Jón. When they came to the part where they had to leave then the rest talked of riding past the camp in the dark with all the Alamanni horses.

Jón now got up and talked in less detail but I could tell that he wanted to tell his story just like the cadets but he held back with difficulty. He depreciated his own efforts but then talked about the traps that were set. Apparently the Mediomatrici had not wanted to follow after all or at least not yet. The numbers of additional horses was even harder to believe.

Arienh had to get up again and talk of her run from the Romans and the thoughts of hiding her armour and weapons. She took her time and said how frightened she was and then how Lucius had treated her. She made the man sound like a German in many ways. When she was running down she smiled and said how she was awakened and then her escape.

Jón finished up by saying that he just went back and talked to an enemy that may one day be a valuable friend. He used more words but he was tired.

Astrid and Dagmar were now going to console him but Forni got him to the forge and a bed of straw on a stone floor where he could rest instead.

The Romans pulled out early the next morning but Jón slept until near four o'clock in the afternoon. He felt like shit. I knew because I felt the same way and I had no sleep at all.

That afternoon the smiths were told of a legion coming and how the cannon needed shot or everybody would die. They took this to heart and started making shells. This would give us the best method of killing an enemy.

Two wagons left with a lot of small empty barrels. The cadets would try to get as much of the powder stored inside the walls as possible. When the barrel was half empty, it was still the biggest ever made and it took work to get it on a wagon. Fálki had done the same thing and his was full.

Grímkell had to go to the quarry for stone for the walls but I think it was to count the horses that were supposed to be there. Some of the booty was hidden back along our trail. A few wagons would go to retrieve it tomorrow but again with an escort and a few cadets to show the way and use any grenades if necessary.

The family that received the six horses had come along with a lot of others. Drudwyn and Calder had arrived already. Jón simply gave the refugees into Teirtu's care so he could find farms for them. The ploughing now was only at a reasonable level.

Teirtu had heard about Bran but since Bran was not of his tribe, then it was all in good fun. Jón personally found more fun by naming the refugee community Victoria after me. It was not even a German name but it stuck.

The village was growing well because Teirtu was demanding that they build the way Jón and I wanted. It looked like a model community, which indeed it was. Stone had been hauled from the quarry and used to make the first house. Jón and I were not around when the first few were built. We helped build one structure the way we wanted. This was going to be a community were everybody helped everybody else. The Mennonites came to mind and they too were of German decent.