Chapter 396 — The Rout of the Second Coalition
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
The Whitewater River wound its way along, flowing from the southern edge of the Leslie domain all the way to the northern foot of the Dark Mountains. Count Peppo stood at the bow of the "warship," watching the newly built walls of Tansang Town slowly recede from view, his heart brimming with ambition.
"Warship" was nothing but an intimidating name; in truth it was merely a large merchant vessel that sailed the inland rivers. But the Peppo family had always commanded the finest shipbuilding craft in the Southern Frontier, and any vessel they built was the sturdiest of its kind. In this land far from the sea, where no true warship existed, the merchant ships refitted by Franin Peppo were the finest warships to be had.
And besides, ever since the Storm Church had fallen and become the Children of the Storm, and humanity had been sealed off from the ocean by the tides of magic in the sea, the Age of Great Voyages had long since ended. The various maritime technologies and concepts of surface warfare that had only just begun to sprout had died in the womb almost before they could develop. For several hundred years humanity had muddled along on the limited inland rivers, and the backwardness of warship technology was inevitable.
These "warships" refitted from merchant vessels and cargo ships were already the capital Count Peppo prided himself on.
A nobleman acquainted with Franin Peppo stepped onto the bow and stood beside the count, watching the walls of Tansang recede. He could not help but sigh with feeling: "Look at these brand-new walls. Viscount Andrew Leslie put them up in a single year... Heaven knows how much money he's made from those boatloads after boatloads of ore."
"Backed by a Cecil domain dripping with gold and silver, that sickly weakling of the Leslie family only needs to pick up two or three stray gold coins from his master to grow rich," Franin Peppo said, gazing at the walls of Tansang Town with an arrogant expression. He saw that although the bricks were all newly laid, there was no sign of rolling logs or cauldrons of hot oil between the battlements—only a row of old catapults, of unknown age and long unused, mounted atop the new walls. He could not help shaking his head. "Yet the newly rich are always shallow. In the end he dutifully stepped aside—no honor to be had, no profit to be shared. At most he can trade this 'cooperation' for a neutral peace."
"I heard that at first he wanted to stand with the Cecil family and left the envoy you sent waiting for many days," the nobleman beside him said with a sigh. "It was only when Count Horsman wrote personally and dispatched his own messenger that he agreed to open the river and let the great army pass... Most unwise. Had he known, he should have cooperated from the start."
"If he had cooperated from the start, I'd instead be worried he might throw stones down on us as the army passed through the river," Count Peppo said with a laugh. "That Viscount Andrew has been walking alongside the Cecils since last year. It's only natural he'd hesitate when the situation shifts."
As he spoke, several dozen vessels great and small had already sailed past the stretch of river before Tansang Town, while the sparse soldiers of the Leslie family stood on the walls, watching helplessly as this coalition army, bound to attack the Cecil domain, passed before their eyes.
When the wind shifted, the fleet began to pick up speed. With the combined power of sail and oar, these sturdy, massive wooden ships shot toward the Cecil domain like arrows. The mages brought by each noble activated the runes set along the ships' flanks, further reducing the effect of the river's waves on the vessels. After about half a day of sailing, dense, unbroken forests began to appear on both sides ahead of the fleet, and the Whitewater River grew narrow and swift.