Chapter Summaries

Karl prepared to test his expanding Carnford Army by organizing it around an improved Spanish Great Square, while its development remained constrained by limited and unreliable firearm production. He distributed battle-tested veterans among recruits and militia to speed training and stabilize the ranks.

• Karl adopted the Spanish Great Square as the army’s basic framework and set its composition at sixty percent pikemen, thirty percent Musketeers, and ten percent Swordsmen and Shieldbearers.
• Karl hoped to increase the Musketeer share but kept the current ratio because Carnford lacked enough firearms and still relied mostly on reliable Matchlock Rifles.
• Hector’s workshop expanded to produce around two hundred rifles a month, but defective Flintlock Rifles and limited output failed to meet the army’s needs.
• Karl assigned two hundred veterans and recovered soldiers to train recruits, lead companies, and serve as Militia Camp officers.

Karl watched Carnford’s recruits practice marching in a square formation and fire a coordinated musket volley, pleased by the sound and growing discipline. The army resumed its advance, while its shortage of cavalry remained a concern that Karl hoped Earl Rochefort could help address in a future battle against Sauron.

• Brendan ordered the square formation to halt, and the Musketeers moved into a firing line.
• Otto had the Musketeers check and relight their matchcords before ordering them to fire a volley loaded with gunpowder but no bullets.
• Karl listened to the gunfire and imagined facing Sauron’s formations, while smoke engulfed the firing line.
• Otto ordered the Musketeers back into the square formation, which resumed marching.
• Karl considered Carnford’s small cavalry force and counted on Earl Rochefort’s experienced cavalry to protect the army’s flanks in a future battle.

Karl reflected on the cost of maintaining his armies and developing Carnford, then realized the territory’s revenues could not keep pace with its spending. He decided to use his forces to raid the wealthy Sauron strongholds, leaving the plan to plunder them as the story’s next step.

• Karl compared the discipline and battlefield cohesion of full-time soldiers with the weaknesses of the militia.
• Karl reviewed the mounting costs of his armies, shipbuilding, Tunbao construction, refugee relief, and town administration.
• Karl recognized that Carnford relied mainly on customs duties and hoped autumn taxes would ease its financial pressure.
• Karl recalled the wealth the Sauron raiders had taken from their own invasions and realized their strongholds held riches his territory needed.
• Karl decided to use his armies for offense and plunder the Sauron strongholds.

Karl planned to raid the lightly guarded Sauron outposts and praised his soldiers after their tactical drills, granting them a day of rest and ordering them to review the exercises. Otto finished his duties and headed home, eager to see his wife Marissa and their newborn daughter.

• Karl decided that small raids on Sauron outposts could train his army and bring in wealth without risking a direct battle.
• Karl praised the troops' drills, granted the soldiers a day off in camp, and ordered officers to collect detailed summaries of the exercises.
• Otto restored order among the Musketeers, relayed Karl's orders, and ensured the muskets and guard arrangements were in order.
• Otto looked forward to seeing Marissa and their newborn daughter, then set off for home.

Marissa sewed a military cloak at home while caring for her newborn daughter in the family hut. Otto returned from training and quietly greeted his sleeping child, leaving the family together in their modest home.

• Marissa worked on a Carnford army cloak while her daughter slept nearby.
• Marissa remembered how her daughter had become a source of hope for her and Otto amid war and hardship.
• Otto came home from training and carefully shut out the cold before approaching the crib.
• Otto's touch stirred the baby, so Marissa gently soothed her and warned him to be careful.
• After his daughter fell asleep again, Otto washed his face and turned to Marissa.

Marissa and Otto discussed the expanding army, Otto’s hopes for promotion, and the new literacy requirement for officers. Marissa encouraged him to study for their family’s future, and Otto carried her to bed while their daughter slept.

• Marissa asked Otto about the loud gunshots, and he explained that the soldiers were practicing with firearms.
• Otto boasted that he might become a Lieutenant Commander as Karl’s army grew, while Marissa imagined the wealth and status that promotion could bring.
• Otto told Marissa that promotions would require officers to read, and that he had learned only a dozen characters so far.
• Marissa urged Otto to keep studying so their family could have a stable future, and Otto promised to persevere.
• Otto embraced Marissa and carried her to bed, while she quietly warned him not to wake their daughter.

Karl planned a limited summer campaign to destroy small Sauron camps near Carnford, train his troops, and seize supplies without provoking a large-scale response. He resolved that the raids would be small, swift, and aimed at annihilating the settlements, including their civilians.

• Karl studied a rough map of Carnford and its surrounding regions before drafting his Summer Purge plan.
• Karl identified the campaign’s aims as removing Sauron outposts, giving his troops real combat experience, and capturing supplies to ease Carnford’s logistical burdens.
• Karl decided each operation should deploy only five hundred to one thousand troops to limit supply demands and avoid drawing Harald’s attention.
• Karl required the forces to move quickly, finish each sortie within two or three days, and strike their targets in a decisive assault.
• Karl concluded that the Sauron strongholds had to be annihilated, and he rejected sparing their women, children, or elderly.

Karl drafted a plan to destroy nearby Sauron settlements and create a scorched-earth buffer, but realized Carnford lacked the foreign intelligence needed to carry it out safely. He decided to consult Richter about building an intelligence network, then fell asleep at his desk before finishing the battle plan.

• Karl ordered that Sauron settlements be stripped of supplies and burned, with key strategic locations considered for permanent garrisons.
• Karl judged Carnford’s army capable of raids but recognized that the Intelligence Bureau had almost no foreign intelligence.
• Karl acknowledged that he knew little about the nearby Sauron strongholds, their defenses, or their ability to support one another.
• Karl decided to summon Richter the next morning to discuss establishing a foreign intelligence network.
• Karl grew exhausted while considering the unfinished battle plans and fell asleep over his desk.

Karl awoke alone in his dark study and felt the weight of his responsibilities and the loneliness of the night. He discovered Princess Louise had covered him with a warm blanket, and her quiet kindness brought him peace as he settled back to sleep.

• Karl woke from an uncomfortable sleep at his desk and felt stiff, exhausted, and lonely.
• Karl decided to spend the night in the study rather than disturb Princess Louise.
• Karl found a wool blanket on his shoulder and recognized Princess Louise's scent on it.
• Karl remembered Lady Eileen's words about the companionship and care marriage could bring.
• Karl wrapped himself in the blanket and fell asleep again, feeling less alone.

Karl woke in the study to find his mother and Louise worried about him, then met with Richter to review the growing Intelligence Bureau. Richter reported that operatives had infiltrated the Grimm caravan and described a scout unit still undergoing training.

• Karl's mother and Louise found him asleep in the study, and Louise explained that she had covered him with a blanket and forgotten to wake him.
• Karl thanked Louise, reassured both women, and promised his mother he would not spend another night in the study.
• After breakfast, Karl summoned Richter and asked about the Intelligence Bureau's staffing and funding.
• Richter reported that the Operations Division had thirty operatives, including Franz and Ernst, who had infiltrated the Grimm caravan as ship guards.
• Richter explained that eight army recruits with hunting or scouting backgrounds were training as scouts to gather intelligence for Karl's future campaigns.

Karl approved Richter’s reconnaissance plan for a small-scale campaign against Sauron border tribes and summoned military and civil officials to discuss the operation. The meeting began with officers weighing its military risks and officials considering its logistical and political consequences.

• Richter endorsed Karl’s plan to eliminate scattered Sauron tribes and recommended forming disguised reconnaissance teams to locate and assess their outposts.
• Karl ordered Richter to organize reliable scouts and gather accurate intelligence over the coming weeks.
• Karl summoned Brendan, Roland, Miller, Edgar, Morr, and the new army’s training officers to the Council Chamber.
• Karl presented the Summer Purge plan to the assembled officials, outlining its goals, principles, and reliance on Richter’s reconnaissance.
• The officers assessed the campaign’s military feasibility while civil officials considered its logistical needs and potential effects on the border and refugees.

Edgar urged Karl to wage a merciless war against the Sauron tribes, citing their attacks on Carnford people and the many dead, wounded, and missing. Brendan agreed that the tribes had to be confronted but warned the council that attacking them in unfamiliar territory would require careful planning and reliable reconnaissance.

• Edgar reported that Sauron tribes had ambushed Carnford hunters and prospectors, killing or wounding at least thirteen and leaving more than twenty missing.
• Edgar urged Karl to destroy the tribes and their means of survival, and several officers and Morr showed their anger and support.
• Brendan calmed the council and explained that Carnford would be shifting from defending familiar ground to attacking in unknown mountain territory.
• Brendan warned that the army had little intelligence beyond Richter's reconnaissance and that Sauron defenders would know the terrain and could use hidden traps or routes.
• Brendan noted that Carnford's soldiers had not trained for covert mountain marches, assaults on camps, or withdrawals under pressure, making accurate intelligence crucial.

Karl and his officers discussed the risks and tactics of an operation against Sauron tribes, agreeing that caution and thorough preparations were essential. Karl settled on deploying seven hundred soldiers and asked Edgar and Morr to confirm that supplies could support them.

• Brendan warned Karl that the operation was necessary but urged the officers not to underestimate the complexity of war or the Sauron tribes.
• Karl agreed, describing the tribes as less organized than Harald’s regular legions while warning that their mountain knowledge could make them dangerous.
• Karl proposed a force of seven hundred men, including two battalions and a hundred cavalry, and Brendan and the other officers approved the number.
• Karl asked Edgar and Morr whether supplies and transport could support the force for one to two weeks in the mountains and forests.
• Edgar reported that they could provide enough high-standard food rations for seven hundred men for a month.

Karl organized the preparations for a campaign against Sauron raiders, assigning logistics, troops, training, and intelligence work. He set a ten-day deadline to decide whether and where to attack, with the purge to be completed before the autumn harvest.

• Edgar agreed to organize a supply convoy, and Karl authorized him to requisition laborers and pack animals and assigned about a hundred militia to escort it.
• Karl ordered Brendan and Roland to select two battalions, outfit the pikemen with Chain Mail, and train the Musketeers in sustained live-fire drills.
• Karl appointed Lyon and Thorsten to lead the best hundred cavalrymen, tasking them with pursuing survivors and blocking enemy escape routes.
• Karl ordered Richter to prepare maps from preliminary intelligence and directed company commanders to draft basic battle plans using them.
• Karl gave the officers and Richter ten days to complete preparations and determine whether and where to attack, before the autumn harvest.

The Imperial Council reviewed wartime achievements and debated how to fund the Northern Territory’s defenses, while political pressure protected Earl Eisenberg from scrutiny. The council’s proposed solution was to impose an additional agricultural tax on the Royal Capital and southern and northwestern provinces.

• Earl Rochefort presented two thousand Sauron heads, while Earl Fissella and Marquis York each claimed five hundred and Earl Eisenberg claimed a thousand.
• Earl Eisenberg defended his claim with a detailed battle report and witnesses, and Empress Dowager Katerina’s authority silenced the ministers who doubted him.
• Earl Rochefort recognized that Karl had secretly sold the extra heads to Eisenberg, Fissella, and York, leaving them with a costly but convincing way to claim merit.
• The council debated how to fund the Northern Territory’s defenses despite the empty treasury and the danger of antagonizing Eisenberg’s powerful cavalry.
• An old financial minister proposed adding two copper coins per acre to agricultural taxes in the Royal Capital and the southern and northwestern provinces.

Empress Dowager Katerina approved doubling the land tax to fund the Northern Territory’s defenses, despite warnings that struggling farmers could revolt. She also approved Earl Rochefort’s plan to build a defensive line from Fran City to Carnford, strengthening his influence as Earl Eisenberg watched with dissatisfaction.

• Empress Dowager Katerina ordered the annual tax increased from two copper coins per acre to four, overruling a governor’s warning that farmers might rise up.
• Earl Rochefort reflected that the tax burden and the kingdom’s troubles could bring famine and anger across the southern fields.
• Earl Rochefort proposed a chain of fortresses, strongholds, and supply stations connecting Fran City to Carnford to block Sauron raids.
• Empress Dowager Katerina approved the defensive line and assigned Earl Rochefort responsibility for its construction, with several departments and northern provinces to provide support.
• Earl Eisenberg recognized that the decree would strengthen Earl Rochefort’s position but kept his objections to himself as the Imperial Council ended.

Lucas and Felin used traps and ambushes to kill three Sauron hunters, interrogating one before scouting a Sauron village. Lucas observed the village’s defenses and reported them to Felin.

• Three Sauron hunters discussed people traveling north from Carnford and dismissed the threat they posed.
• A concealed snare hoisted the scar-faced hunter into the air, and a crossbow bolt killed the youngest hunter.
• A camouflaged attacker wounded and killed the burly hunter, while another scout covered him with a crossbow.
• The attackers interrogated the scar-faced hunter, crushed his fingers, and killed him.
• Lucas and Felin watched a Sauron village from cover, and Lucas described its palisade, entrances, and unfinished watchtowers.

Lucas and Felin completed reconnaissance of a Sauron village and returned with intelligence for a possible raid to free slaves and seize supplies, especially horses. Their backgrounds showed why both men served the Carnford Intelligence Bureau with fierce commitment.

• Lucas observed the village’s defenses, population, enslaved workers, crops, livestock, and horses while Felin recorded the details in shorthand.
• Lucas assessed the village as vulnerable to a rapid raid, with freeing slaves and capturing horses as priorities.
• Lucas and Felin concealed the bodies of three men, cleaned up blood, and withdrew unseen toward their base.
• The chapter described Lucas’s flight from a murder warrant in Franklin and how Richter recruited him into Carnford’s intelligence network.
• The chapter explained that Felin fled Field Territory with his sister after killing a tax collector, and that Carnford’s support made him devoted to Lord Karl and Carnford.

Three village women grew alarmed when their husbands failed to return from a hunting trip, and they sought help from their lord, Derek. Derek recognized that the disappearance of three experienced hunters was serious and unlikely to have been caused by ordinary wild animals.

• Annie worried that Barton, Old Black, and her husband had not returned from the mountains by nightfall.
• The women discussed the hunters' absence and the household costs of losing a slave before herding their livestock into the enclosure.
• When the hunters still had not come home, Annie and the other women hurried to Derek's house for help.
• Derek heard their account and concluded that the three experienced hunters could not all have disappeared because of a routine encounter with beasts.

Derek feared that Carnford soldiers had taken three of the village’s strongest hunters, and organized a night search that found no trace of them. He ordered the village to strengthen its watch as he faced the possibility that the enemy had reached the mountains near his home.

• Derek suspected that hostile people, possibly Carnford soldiers, were behind the disappearance of Barton and two other hunters.
• Derek blew the cow horn and gathered the villagers beneath the old locust tree.
• Derek organized the village men into search parties to check the outskirts and paths leading into the mountains.
• The search parties found no signs of the missing hunters, a struggle, or an accident.
• Derek sent the villagers home, ordered stronger night watches, and concluded that the Carnford People might have infiltrated the area.