Chapter 151: Brandenburg

I got up at dawn. Under the pale sky, the dark black mountains in the north looked like iron, solemn and majestic. When the red sun first rose, the peaks turned a dark brown. Then mist rose, and milky white veils wrapped around the heavy mountains, separating them. Like a jade belt winding around the winding peaks, it made the spiritual peaks that poked out look as charming as village girls wearing white scarves.

Looking at the dark brown rolling mountains far from the camp, one peak stacked on another, like waves on the sea under the night sky, extending endlessly to the far edge of the sky and disappearing into the deep, misty clouds. If I stretched my gaze far, I would see endless rolling hills. The vast forest sea, in the middle of the bare forest with only branches left, was dotted with green cypress trees that remained lush. Paired with the few sharp peaks that stood straight up as if to pierce the sky, it truly looked like a clear ink wash painting with a good balance of density and space. After a while, the mist scattered again. The exposed rock walls and steep stones were dyed red by the morning light, then slowly turned bronze, contrasting with the brown trees and black earth, looking especially magnificent.

The half-month journey was about to end. We had reached the northeast corner of Count Markin’s territory. If we continued east for about half a day, we would see the full view of the Northern Fortress.

The closer we got to the fortress, the closer we got to those hills. After all, the fortress was located at the only flat entrance and exit among the hundreds of miles of rolling hills. These rolling low hills were the greatest barrier on the northern border of the Duchy. Without them, the barbarians living on the northern wasteland would certainly charge straight in.

If we fought against those guys who moved like the wind and invaded like fire, simple defense would not work very well. Because they would not occupy the land for a long time. For them, the raids to the south were simply to plunder and get supplies for winter. Of course, whether they also took the opportunity to solve the problem of too many people in each tribe, clean up the old, weak, sick, and disabled, and use such battles to train their tribes to keep their bloodline was unclear.

As the saying goes, you cannot be a thief for a thousand days and guard against thieves for a thousand days. Day and night guarding, there will always be a moment of negligence—people are not machines after all! Even machines break down sometimes! And going on the offensive often does not produce very significant results either. Basically, after spending a lot of manpower and material, the best you could hope for was to make the other side quiet for a year or two. This is because among these bandit tribes, some had a nomadic economy, some had a hunting and fishing economy, and some were a mixed transitional form of both. None of them truly had an agricultural economy.

In the nomadic economic ecosystem, herders, as the top layer of the “human—livestock—grass” food chain, always played the role of regulator and manager. They consciously and actively tried their best for the normal operation of this system, full of experience and inheritance of harmony with nature. Nomadic tribes had a reasonable way to use and protect the grazing grasslands. They moved with the seasons, following the water and grass to graze. This kind of nearly homeless lifestyle made it difficult to find their specific tracks. You could only search based on “water,” the essential factor for survival. To make life convenient, pastures were generally limited to areas along rivers and lakes. But with the vast sea of grass, where exactly the lakes were, and where the rivers flowed, even the most skilled guides among the grassland tribes could not explain it all. It was even harder for outsiders coming to clear them out.

From the perspective of “grass,” every pasture had strict limits on the types and numbers of livestock it could carry. In the relationship between this social economy and the grassland ecosystem, ecological balance was never broken. Even if major natural disasters occurred, the entire ecosystem could gradually recover itself. Thus, the nomadic economy survived and developed according to its own laws, and the grassland ecosystem maintained a balance between grass and livestock in a normal state. The extreme scarcity of material conditions on the grassland made herders understand resources better. They did not focus on the cycle of their own labor, but on the cycle of the grassland and the recycling of materials. Under the constraints of such an environment, no truly unified large state could ever appear on the grassland. What could be had were only large and small tribes. Their political structures were not only loose, but the tribes were also scattered far apart. The possibility of catching them all at once was almost completely lost.

The previous several northern expeditions, rather than being a blow that made those barbarians unable to go south for a short time, were more like a heavy loss for them, or a temporary intimidation by force. It was more accurate to say that after some tribes were wiped out, a large amount of pasture was left empty on the grassland. The majority of tribes that were not affected fought endlessly over these survival resources that were crucial to them. So, in the first few years after the cleanup, these robbers from the grassland simply had no time to look south.

Just like the ancient Tianchao before I transmigrated, the nomadic tribes around us were always endless to suppress and hard to pacify. When the empire was strong, the border trouble could be reduced or even eliminated for a short time. Once national power declined or the war situation made them unable to take care of themselves, these insatiable hungry wolves would return. They burned, killed, and plundered without doing any good.

This kind of limitation rooted in the external environment and productivity was almost an unsolvable problem at that time. Only with the development of firearms did the nomadic tribes become a vulnerable group on a global scale. And with the further development of technology and productivity, once the problems of logistics and communication were solved, the grassland would truly be incorporated into the territory of states established by agricultural civilization.

As for tribes with a fishing and hunting economy or a mix of nomadic and fishing-hunting, they mostly lived on the frosty tundra in the north or at the edge of the distant grassland where it met the forest. Even from the perspective of northern expeditions and cleanup, based on existing records, they had never reached such a range.

However, I had heard news of those people from the confessions of various tribes. Of course, among the occasional raiding barbarians, there were members of those tribes. This was confirmed by both the captives and the bodies, proving that those tribes on the edge of the grassland were not imaginary.

Originally, the territory of the Duchy when it was first established did not include this land in the north. At that time, it was the territory of several small northern lords. But as nobles in a republican system, relying only on their own strength, they were powerless to stop the southern invasion of the barbarians. Whenever this happened, they would lead their subordinates and the common people to hide in carefully built and strong castles, letting the barbarians run and plunder on their own land.

Of course, some supplies were also appropriately left outside the castle to avoid the barbarians starving and wasting effort to attack their final safe haven. Even so, castles were sometimes broken, and lords were sometimes taken hostage.

Except for the first few years, the barbarians found that living nobles could bring greater profits. This was much more cost-effective than killing them with one sword after breaking into the castle. These extra ransoms were sometimes even equal to the plunder obtained after breaking into the castle.

If it were just like that, it would be fine. But after this last natural barrier in the north disappeared, the path for the barbarians to the south became almost flat.

On the west side of the Duchy, there were still some hilly areas acting as a buffer. But at that time, on the east side of the Duchy, except for the Taiswei Mountains which served as the watershed with the Kingdom of Lucia, it was all open plain. These places suffered greatly when the barbarians invaded from the south. Fortunately, the Duchy itself was strong and could kill large groups of invaders until their bodies lay everywhere. But for the constant harassment by small cavalry units, while being extremely annoyed, they had no good solution.

At that time, the three generations of ancestors of House Bolerum saw the difficult situation of the Duchy having no natural defenses inside. They immediately proposed the policy of borrowing the bandits to expand the territory and forcibly occupying the natural barriers to keep the enemy outside the national gate. A few years later, when the barbarian invasion to the south ended and they returned north, they organized a knightly order and killed them all the way. Taking advantage of the situation, they completely swallowed the Republic of Styria to the north and incorporated it into the territory of the Duchy of Nohan. At the same time, at the most important entrance and exit among the northern mountains—Boniface, which the barbarians called Imyumeifu—they built defensive works: Brandenburg, also known as the Northern Fortress.

Thanks to this merit of helping the Duchy expand its territory, House Bolerum rose from Baron to Viscount. At the same time, feeling that their family’s foundation was unstable and their population was not large, House Bolerum did not transfer to a larger territory. Instead, they accepted part of the original Duchy as compensation. This is why the title of House Bolerum was Viscount, but the area of their territory did not match it. As for the nobles in the original Republic of Styria, except for a few knightly families that were recruited by the Duchy and continued to enjoy privileges, the majority of the rest became Exiled Nobles elsewhere.

With the barrier of the natural defenses, the barbarians in the north could no longer raid south at will as they did in the past. As for taking a detour through the mountains, even if they came in, how could they take the plundered goods out!

So now, the winter battles every year, rather than the enemy having the purpose of plunder, were more like a way to consume the excessive population that the grassland could not support. Of course, in this, there was also some meaning of training soldiers. The evidence was that the barbarian tribes appearing outside the Northern Fortress were almost completely different every year.

For them, the targets they could plunder were not just the Duchy of Nohan. Training their army here and then attacking easier enemies might be a good choice in their eyes. If by some chance they broke through this defense line one day, the huge profits that followed would really make the barbarians drool.

Even the barbarians knew that a country that was constantly plundered had much less wealth accumulation than a country that was not plundered. However, since Brandenburg was built until now, for nearly 200 years, their wish has never been realized.

Thanks to the stability of the northern border and the disappearance of plundering, the Duchy of Nohan maintained a relatively stable political situation for a long time in the following period. This allowed the Duchy to recover from the losses of previous wars in a relatively short time. The overall strength then steadily improved with the passage of time and the continuous development within the territory. It can be said that it was because of the victory in this battle that the Duchy of Nohan now has its political status on the entire Western Continent.

George, riding on a horse, drank the cool boiled water from the water bottle and bit hard on a piece of smoked meat in his left hand. The beef, marinated with spices like Sichuan pepper, was smoked to maturity in the thick smoke of burning apple wood chips. The taste was quite good when chewed. The only problem was that it seemed a bit too salty. Even considering that the nuts and unleavened bread had almost no salt, the intake of salt like this, according to the health standards before I transmigrated, seemed a bit high. However, this meat, which could not be considered completely dried, could not be preserved for a long time unless it was pickled with a bit of salt.

Although George loved food, he also knew the necessity of giving up his hobbies and enduring these unpalatable foods when necessary. Fortunately, the rations used by the team, although criticized for their taste, were of excellent quality. As the saying goes, “If you are not bitter enough, think of the Long March of 25,000 li; if you are not tired enough, think of the old revolutionaries.” Compared to these people, George felt that his treatment during the march was already quite good.

After days of traveling, shortly after noon, George finally saw Brandenburg. The high and straight city walls had crenelations every few steps, each two meters wide. From the wall holes under the crenelations, thick ebony poles, hard as iron and extremely corrosion-resistant, protruded. They could to some extent counter siege ladders like this.

At the same time, when necessary, watchtowers could be set up. A watchtower is a covered wooden building that can provide an extra layer of protection for the defenders. When war came, the watchtowers built could expand the defense range and protect the ramparts and towers. The defenders could stand in these wooden corridors and throw stones, or pour boiling water and quicklime to burn the enemies.

However, the most significant change here was that the city walls were not straight. They changed from a convex polygon to a concave polygon. This improvement meant that attacking any point of the castle would expose the attackers to more than one bastion face. The defenders could use crossfire for multiple strikes. While preventing shooting blind spots, it also made it easy to send more firepower to the parts where the enemy focused their attack.

Moreover, like Kosta Castle, Brandenburg had no shooting holes on the outer walls. However, its entire city wall was not made of azure stone but of huge obsidian bricks laid in an interlaced pattern. And while reinforced with ordinary adhesive, it seemed that molten iron was also poured in. It was said that in key parts like internal beams and columns, besides the original obsidian, specially reinforced steel with enchantment was used.

At the same time, to strengthen the firepower for defense, on each city wall, a huge diamond-shaped tower was built every 20 meters. The towers were covered with cross-shaped shooting holes with circular bullseye holes and crenelations. A considerable part of the openings were larger than others. Behind the thick city walls, siege weapons like crossbows existed. As for the secret passages and hidden doors used for surprise attacks, they could not be seen from the outside at all.

In the city, slightly further away from the city wall, there was a tower made of the same obsidian material, which was far taller than other buildings. That was the command tower of the entire fortress.

The guards patrolling back and forth on the crenelations and the flags fluttering in the wind on the central tower both showed their own vitality. Especially those guards, from a distance, one could feel a sense of grimness.

Seeing the building before him, George could not help but make a sincere praise in his heart. Although in the world before transmigrating, George had not seen no buildings more imposing than this, this was the first time in this world that he saw such a high-level achievement in human engineering and architecture.

Judging by the design of the appearance and the relatively complete firepower network, it reached the level of the mid-to-late 16th century of the world before transmigrating. The special building materials and the effect of magic made it, in terms of height and the feeling it gave, far exceed the Avila Castle in Spain that George had seen before transmigrating.

Just as George was staring blankly, Ahuatan Knight beside him spoke up: “Does it feel very imposing! But the city walls here are only part of the rear defense line. When you see the wall facing the great grassland, you will know what a miracle means.”

George turned his head to look at Ahuatan Knight. Seeing his earnest expression, he felt even more expectations in his heart. But just then, George noticed a group of girls in white clothes on the roadside not far from the fortress.

The white clothes made of linen were not pure in color, could not be as light as fine gauze, and had no exquisite bead embroidery or other decorations. With his eyes honed over many years, George could clearly tell that their quality was almost poor. Their style was not simple within luxury, but pure simplicity. But for some reason, this kind of clothing always made George think of wedding dresses from before he transmigrated.

“What’s going on with those girls?” George asked Ahuatan Knight beside him in a questioning tone.

Ahuatan Knight chuckled twice, with a strange expression on his face, and said to George: “These! They are girls hoping to make a living from those soldiers who cannot stand loneliness. Some are specifically engaged in this industry, and some are village girls from nearby…”

Hearing this, George understood that these also belonged to the category of prostitutes, and specifically the streetwalkers of legend. As for those in the tavern, they should be the ones stationed there.

Moreover, because they were too poor to buy bright and good clothes, and the weather was too cold, they could not go out on the street to attract business like the prostitutes in The South wearing strips of cloth. So they all wore cheap white skirts to receive guests. In this era, white wedding dresses were actually the uniform of prostitutes.

However, from a distance, they were passable. But once you got closer to look, there were indeed many women who were disgusting. Rough skin and uneven teeth were common. Some even had frostbite and bruises. As for their figures, it was hard to see clearly under those loose clothes.

After all, ancient people had poor living conditions and aged early. Some women in their early twenties already looked like modern grandmothers in their thirties or forties. Of course, among them, there might not be one or two that were barely passable, standing out like a crane among a pile of crooked melons and rotten fruits.

“Do our soldiers have such heavy tastes?” George muttered softly.

Unexpectedly, Ahuatan Knight actually gave a proper reply: “For them, having a way to solve physiological needs is good enough. They are not that picky.”