Youth World

Chapter 13 – First War

Three days had passed, and the metallurgists sped up their construction of halberds and pikes, finally producing enough to equip the whole military. Many bows were also made, as well as thousands of arrows, though not of very high quality. A lot of other weapons were also produced, as the entire camp was going into full war effort, although we were still producing the necessities of survival and other regular projects. I guess what I meant to say was that all spare labor was used in the construction of weapons related stuff and anybody related with those professions were working faster. Yeah, that's what I meant.

The very same morning after the day that the messenger had delivered us the news about the battle, I had sent messengers to contact a bunch of tribes, groups and settlements that were relatively close to us. Many of these messengers had come back with positive news and friendship treaties, as well as treaties of delineation. This made sure that we could launch expeditions into Southern Seattle without being attacked by anyone else.

However, the most important piece of information arrived this very morning. An envoy which had been sent to the areas north of our enemy returned with news of an alliance with the northern tribes who Southern Seattle was at war with this very instant. He told us that the tribes agreed that if we won, we'd receive all the lands south of the Seward Park peninsula, as well as the entire Duwamish River and both sides of its shores. This was amazing news, for this meant we didn't have to deal with any potential attack from that direction.

We had also received other treaties that were vital for our plans to succeed, though these were largely for the long term. The numerous tribes in the Renton area agreed to cede all lands north of the Cedar River and allow us safe passage through their lands to access our shipbuilding center on the Duwamish River and the salt collection center near the former city of Burien on the coast of the Puget Sound, under the condition that we protect them from Southern Seattle who had been raiding their lands and that we allow them to occupy our land once we finish migrating. My diplomat agreed with this, since those terms were favorable to both us and them.

We had also settled boundary disputes with the other schools that abutted our territory. We demanded terms favorable to us, and since we were leaving anyways, these people saw no reason to provoke us lest they get butchered by our superior troops. I had my diplomats act very polite and humble in front of their leaders, but they were instructed to clearly communicate the military power of our group and that we weren't pushovers. All of the other leaders got the message.

At the moment, I stood at the southeastern end of our camp, saluting the brave soldiers who would perform a not so honorable sneak attack on the enemy as they were sleeping. The force consisted of a hundred halberdiers, two hundred pikemen with shields, a hundred archers, fifty slingers and fifty troops carrying incendiary devices. It would take these men and women about six to seven hours to reach their destination at the very least. This timing was perfect, since this meant they'd realistically reach their destination at around 8 o clock and this would give them four hours to rest before launching their attack.

Standing before all of these soldiers, I found it fitting that I address them with a grand and splendid speech before they set off and risk their lives. I really wanted to go with them but doing so would leave the camp unattended. Guess I wasn't going to get any personal glory for this ȧssured victory.

"Brave men and women of the Cascadian Army," I began, "Today you will embark on the first chapter of your glorious military careers! As we all know, the loathsome and abhorrent South Seattle Tribe had killed four of our harmless citizens who were just travelling through land that didn't even belong to them! We must avenge the deaths of our comrades, and in doing so we will be protecting Cascadia's interests and, most importantly, our own safety. Now who's ready to win a war!"

"WE AREEE!"

The echoes of this roar could be heard for miles. I nearly had to cover my ears due to the sheer sound of the commotion. This uproar made football games seem like a quiet, empty library.

"Cascadia! Cascadia! CASCADIA!"

The soldiers were chanting the name of our country over and over again. I waited a bit for them to settle down.

"I will share a drink with you all, and hopefully that brings you all the luck that you'll need for this expedition."

I picked up a cup full of water and chugged the whole thing. The soldiers, raising their canteens, followed suit. They only had a brief sip, since fresh water was scarce, and it couldn't be provided elsewhere.

"March on!" Julius commanded.

As the army marched southwards to go around the lake, I personally shook hands with every soldier that crossed my path. I patted some of them on the back, and others on the head. After half an hour or so, all of them were far beyond the horizon, and I was still waving at them to make it seem like I truly cared about them. However, this wasn't a political façade. I really did care about these soldiers with all of my heart.

"Do you think they'll be alright?" The leader of the metallurgists asked me. They were taking a brief break at the moment after they worked their buŧŧs off to manufacture that many steel weapons.

"Oh, definitely. Do you see how much of a technological difference there is between our two groups? Also, we're operating under the cover of night. I'd be surprised if anybody in our expeditionary force died."

"Well, that's reassuring. However, only time will tell."

I parted ways with the man and headed back to the center of camp. I seemed to spend a lot of time here. Why was I here again? Oh. It was to grab a bite. I had forgotten to eat lunch because I was so preoccupied with helping prepare and organize the expedition.

The chefs were quite tired after preparing a massive meal for the troops, so they didn't have much energy to cook meals for everybody else. Even though they had smiles on their face, I could tell that they were horribly tired. After receiving my portion and taking my time with the meal, something that I hadn't been able to do since the very start, I headed down to the papermakers' portion of the camp. As I passed by the butchery, I grabbed some animal glue which would be paramount to my project. Once I arrived at the papermakers' area, I could see massive sheets of paper being laid out on flat pieces of rock, pretty rough in appearance.

"Welcome to our humble camp, Alexander," the leader of the papermakers approached me, "Are you here to see how much progress we've made?"

"That's partially correct. I can see you guys have tons of paper here. The process is pretty difficult, right?"

"Man, it's exhausting! However, we're getting a gist of things and we've also discovered a way to make the method faster and more effective, so it's getting easier."

"That's good to hear. I have a task for you guys, and that involves making cardboard. Could you guys do that?"

"I mean, that wouldn't be a problem, but we don't know how to make cardboard."

"I'll tell you guys how. First, I'll need two sheets of paper. Could I grab them?"

"Sure thing!"

I went to the flat rocks and grabbed two sheets of dry paper. After applying glue to the part of the paper facing up, I curved the paper so it formed a semicircle with the glued surface on the outside and then placed another piece of paper around it so it'd stick to the glued surface. Now, both pieces of paper glued together formed a semicircle.

"That is step one. Could you guys all get started?"

"On it!"

The papermakers did this with hundreds of massive sheets of paper. As they were doing this, I glued piece after piece of paper on top of each other until there was a stack of a few.

"There. That is how you make cardboard. However, I'll need you guys to do one more thing. Take the biggest piece of paper, draw a circle inside it, cut a roughly 30 degree angle off of it, and then roll it into a cone. Apply glue all around it, repeat the process again, and put that piece of paper around the one with glue around it. Do this a couple of times until you've used the same amount of paper as the cardboard semicircle, and we have a nose cone. Understood?"

"That doesn't sound too hard. Say, Alexander, are we making a rocket of some kind?"

"Precisely."

"Oh ho ho! That sounds really overpowered. I mean, everybody else isn't even in the stone age!"

"Believe me, it is. Even if it doesn't hit the enemy itself, the sheer sight of a rocket flying at their positions would send them running. It's a perfect weapon for the navy and even the army, though field artillery would be more useful for them."

We then proceeded to spend much of the afternoon building as many of these rockets as possible. Each rocket was affixed to a stick either 25 feet long or 15 feet long, depending on the variant. We had nearly fifty of these done by the time dinner came around. Good thing I had hundreds of people in the papermaking profession, or not I'd never be able to do this.

After dinner, the papermakers and I brought all of the cardboard rockets to the chemists.

"Hello! Do you guys have the gunpowder I asked for?"

"We have a decent amount of it. Wanna see?"

Some of the chemists opened massive wooden barrels, filled to the brim with black powder. How did they make so much in such a short period of time?

"Absolutely astonishing. Could you guys help fill these rockets with black powder?"

There wasn't enough black powder to fill all the rockets, but there was enough for at least half of them. The chemists even made some fuses, which they stuck into the rockets after drilling a hole through the bottom.

"Great job, everybody! It's really late right now, so how about we store all these rockets in the armory, and make some more tomorrow?"

"I believe that would be a good idea. Well, it's been fun working with you guys. Good night!"

I headed to bed that day, unable to sleep due to the battle that I knew was raging at the moment on Beacon Hill.. Eventually, I was able to fall asleep, but by that point it was already past midnight.