Tyranny of Steel

Over the past few months, the War for the Holy Land had reached a stalemate. The crusaders had seized acre and, with its fall, so too did much of the surrounding area end up in the hands of the Catholic Church. As a response to the losses they had suffered, the Byzantine-Timurid Alliance made a strategic withdrawal to Jerusalem, where they regrouped with allied forces from the Province of Egypt.

During the months since the Crusade had begun, tens of thousands now lied dead, and the Catholics had begun to purge the lands that they conquered. Germany had remained neutral, as their allies had not called upon them for support. Instead, they provided military aid in the form of weapons and armor to the Byzantine and Timurid forces.

While waiting for hostilities to reignite, Sultan Salan of the Timurid Empire used this limited timeframe to rush his soldiers through the training required to use the muskets and cannons that they had purchased from the Reich.

Because Germany had a massive industry dedicated to the manufacture of saltpeter, they did not rely on natural deposits and could easily export what excess they had to their allies. Thus, unlike the Catholics who had to carefully manage their gunpowder stockpiles, the Byzantine and Timurid forces were free to conduct as many drills as they required.

When the Catholic Kings became aware of this, they realized that the longer this war dragged out, the less likely they were to win it. As such, the Crusader commanders met in Acre to discuss the issues they faced.

King Aubry de Valois, King Lawrence Lancaster, the Duke Marcel de Burgundy, King Andrzej Jagiellon of Poland, the King of Hungary, as well as the grandmasters of the Orders Hospitaller, and Red Dragon were all gathered in a dedicated meeting area. They were seated upon rather plush chairs as they debated the best course of action to end the war as swiftly as possible.

Aubry did not have his usual feminine demeanor, considering he was dealing with representatives of the church. He had tied his long honey hair into a ponytail and forsook the use of makeup. He glared intensely across the room at the Duke of Burgundy, who was his ex-lover. The fact that the two men could enter the same room together without resorting to violence was impressive in itself.

Duke Marcel de Burgundy was a man in his early thirties. He was a handsome man, with mid-length auburn hair and deep blue eyes. If looks could kill, then Aubry would be a dead man right now. The French King had just made a suggestion, one which the Duke of Burgundy could not tolerate. This he repeated his former lover's words as if the suggestion were completely insane.

"You want me to lead my forces to the holy city and draw the enemies out of Jerusalem? How the hell am I supposed to do that? The enemy is preparing themselves for the next round of hostilities. They will not bother to leave their fortified walls in pursuit of a small force of Burgundians!

What we need to do is march on Jerusalem while they are still unprepared, and take the city by force. Either we take the Holy City, and declare Catholic rule over the region, or we are defeated. One thing is certain, we can not sit here and wait any longer!"

Aubry did not respond to Marcel's rejection of his plan, and instead merely pouted. The other monarchs were uncomfortable with the current situation, but it was ultimately the King of Poland who denied both suggestions.

"By now, the Strategos of Egypt has marched his forces into Jerusalem. If we assault the city, it will be a costly affair. Assuming we are victorious, then we will not have the remaining men necessary to take the rest of the Holy Land. At most, we will own a few cities on the coasts which we will barely be able to maintain control over. There must be an alternate path forward."

Ultimately, it was the opinion of the Grand Master of the Order of the Red Dragon who came up with a solution to the problem at hand.

"Perhaps I can make a suggestion. My Drake Cannons have a superior range than those used by our enemies. We can effectively sit back and bombard the city into submission. No matter how many men may defend the city, it does not matter if they can not reach our artillery. They will be forced to surrender eventually, and we won't have to risk the lives of our soldiers."

The various kings gazed upon the Grand Master of the Order of the Red Dragon with dumbfounded expressions on their faces. The reality was they were so used to being technologically behind their enemies in all aspects that they did not even think of this as a possibility.

Though the rifled muzzle loaders of the Order of the Red Dragon lacked explosive firepower, or versatility to be truly effective on the field, they were excellent siege weapons. They could likely bombard the enemy's defences until nothing remained. Still, the amount of gunpowder needed for such a siege would be no paltry sum. Thus, King Lawrence of England was quick to voice his concerns.

"Do we have enough gunpowder to sustain such a siege and still have some leftover for our forces afterward?"

The King of Hungary was the one to answer this question, as he had a smug smirk on his face.

"Of course, it will cost a pretty penny, no doubt, but I can easily send a message to the Golden Horde to increase the supply of saltpeter. As for the funds, I doubt the Papacy is lacking. I'm sure the Pope would be more than happy to fund the resources required to be victorious in his crusade."

The various heads of states continued to discuss this matter for a few more moments in explicit detail before deciding on a proper course of action. Ultimately, they unanimously agreed upon on the idea of bombarding Jerusalem into submission.

---

Little did the Crusaders know that while they were conversing on how best to achieve victory in their crusade, their rivals in the city of Jerusalem were having their own strategic conference on how to best win this war. The Strategos of Egypt was quick to voice his concerns over the defeat at Acre.

"I may have only just entered this conflict, but my scouts report that the enemy has introduced new artillery pieces to the battlefield. We should be very cautious about how we proceed. If we do not know the capabilities of these new weapons, we might make a serious error that could cost us not only control of the city but also the war. We need to send some spies to infiltrate Acre and find out what extent that these new cannons are capable of."

Salan nodded his head in agreement. He had witnessed the use of the cannons himself. It would appear that they were capable of great range, greater than the ability of the cannons they themselves used. However, he was aware of the utter lack of capability in the personal spy networks of the men gathered.

Unlike Germany, which had a national intelligence agency, the Byzantine and Timurid Empire relied on personal networks established by the nobility. The Strategos of the Balkans had the most extensive of these networks, but he was from a rival faction, and would not easily support the men in this room. Thus, Salan had thought of an alternative way to gain the information they needed, and he was not afraid to voice his suggestion.

"We should ask Germany to assist our operations with their intelligence. Nobody has a greater intelligence network than the Reich. I'm sure it would be easy for their agents to find out how capable these new weapons are."

The Two Strategos' had twisted expressions as they heard this. The relationship between Germany and the Byzantine Empire was a complicated one. While Berengar was an ally of Palladius, and the Byzantine Royal Family, he actively impeded the other factions who fought for control of the Empire.

These two Byzantine Generals were from the Hawkish faction that once supported Decentius, it would not be easy to make a request to the Kaiser for support. Ultimately, they could only rely on a proxy to deliver the message to them. Thus, the Strategos of Palestine voiced his opinion on the matter.

"I fear it is not so simple. Meeting with the Kaiser and making a personal request of him is not an easy task. Since the Emperor has not requested German Assistance in this war, Berengar has taken a neutral stance. At most, he is willing to provide us with military aid in the form of weapons and armor. He is only in contact with Palladius, and the Emperor himself. If we request either of them to speak with him on our behalf, then we will be asking for humiliation.

The only way to do this is to send a personal representative to the Reich, and bargain with the Kaiser for use of his agents. This will take some time, as Kufstein is far away from Jerusalem. It will take weeks just to arrive in the Reich's capital, let alone secure a meeting with the Kaiser. However, it is our best shot. After all, we can not infiltrate Acre on our own, and Germany is still technically our ally."

Of course, these men had no way of knowing that Berengar's agents had long since infiltrated every corner of Europe and the Mediterranean, and were already aware of the so called Drake Cannons in use by the Order of the Red Dragon. It was a simple matter of relaying what information they had already received to their allies.

Since they were unaware of this reality, the men present felt it was too large of a request to make, believing that Berengar would have to take additional covert actions against the Church in order to find out this information. As a result, the men would delay the time it took to receive this critical information by first sending a messenger to the Reich, hoping that they could get an audience with the Kaiser.

If they had known that Germany already had this information, all they needed to do to obtain it was dispatch a man to Constantinople, and have the German Embassy relay a telegraph to the Reich requesting access to this information.

With renewed hostilities on the horizon, every second mattered. Unfortunately, the leaders of the Byzantine and Timurid forces under-estimated Germany's capabilities, and had thus taken a longer route to discover the information they desperately required. Only time would tell if they would come to learn of the exact capabilities of the Drake Cannons before they were besieged.