BY HERESIES DISTRESSED – snippet 15:
.II.
Royal Dockyard
City of Cherayth,
Kingdom of Chisholm
“Thank you, Commander Ahzmynd,” Captain Andrai Gyrard said as the Chisholmian officer behind the desk signed off on the requisition order for replacement spars. Properly speaking, Gyrard ought to have left this interview to his purser. A full captain, the commanding officer of one of the Imperial Charisian Navy’s most powerful galleons, had far better things to do with his time than to spend it hobnobbing with dockyard officers just because he wanted a few spare spars before heading off to conduct an invasion. And if that was true of most galleon skippers, it was especially true of the man who commanded Emperor Cayleb’s flagship. Handling routine chores like this one so that their captains didn’t have to was precisely the reason the Navy had pursers in the first place.
“You’re welcome, Captain Gyrard,” the Chisholmian said, setting his pen back into its desktop holder as he looked up from the document with a smile. “At least this is one requisition I can be certain is going to end up where it’s supposed to end up, rather than on the black market somewhere!”
Gyrard chuckled, although, truth to tell, he wasn’t certain whether or not Commander Ahzmynd truly had been making a joke. Prior to Chisholm’s involuntary participation in the Group of Four’s attack on Charis, the Royal Chisholmian Navy had been fighting a losing battle against corruption and peculation. Certain of its officers, secure behind the protection of highly placed aristocratic patrons, had been far more interested in finding ways to line their own pockets than with safeguarding their navy’s combat readiness. All sorts of vital supplies had “mysteriously disappeared,” and all too often, officers who’d tried to do something about it had paid a stiff price in highly placed aristocratic enemies.
So it was entirely possible that this particular Chisholmian was referring to the sweeping reforms which had been rammed through his own navy by the Earl of Sharpfield, its senior officer, as part of the navy’s mobilization before his departure for Emerald and the Battle of Darcos Sound. Any truly competent officer must have welcomed those reforms, after all.
There was another possibility, however, and that second possibility helped to explain why Gyrard had come to deal with this matter in person. Much of Safehold accepted the stereotype of the Kingdom of Charis as “a kingdom of moneylenders and shopkeepers,” populated by greedy, scheming Charisians who were always on the lookout for ways to squeeze a mark out of any opportunity which came their way. There was an enormous amount of unspoken envy in that stereotype, of course, but that made it no less real. And there were more than a few Safeholdians who would have added “unscrupulous, dishonest, and shifty” to all the other adjectives. After all, if they hadn’t been unscrupulous, dishonest, and shifty, then they wouldn’t have been so much wealthier than those far more worthy souls who cherished the stereotype in the first place!
Since the invasion fleet had arrived in Cherry Bay, its Charisian officers had encountered quite a few people who obviously shared that stereotypical view of them.
“Seriously, Sir,” Ahzmynd said, “it’s been a privilege to be able to supply your requirements. And,” his eyes hardened ever so slightly, “I, for one, was delighted to have the opportunity to do it. Especially here.”
Those no-longer-smiling eyes met Gyrard’s, and Cayleb’s flag captain felt himself relax internally. Not everyone in what had been the Royal Chisholmian Navy before its merger into the new Imperial Charisian Navy would have shared Kynai Ahzmynd’s opinion on this particular subject. The invasion fleet’s decision to bypass Kraken Bay, where the city of Port Royal had been built almost a century ago expressly to serve as the Navy’s primary base, to anchor in Cherry Bay, so much further to the north, might not have been the most subtle possible way to deliver a message, but it had certainly been effective. The incredible mass of galleons anchored off Chisholm’s capital city — and especially the fifty thousand Imperial Charisian Marines embarked aboard the transports — was something not even the most ambitious Chisholmian aristocrat could overlook. As pointed suggestions went, this one was more pointed than most. And those who had found the greatest personal advantage under the old system had understood exactly who been intended to absorb that point.
“I’m glad you feel that way, Commander,” Gyrard said now. “And I’ve been impressed by the professionalism you and most of the other dockyard officers have displayed.”
“It’s been a relief to be able to display it,” Ahzmynd said, with rather more frankness than Gyrard had expected, even now. “I won’t pretend that anyone in the Navy was happy about what you Charisians did to us at Darcos Sound.” His mouth tightened briefly, and his eyes darkened, but then he shook himself, and his mouth relaxed. “On the other hand, it wasn’t exactly like you’d been left a lot of choice, was it? Most of us understood that, too. The ones of us who could think, at least. And,” he bared his teeth in a tight smile, “since Earl Sharpset got home, those of us who found that difficult to understand seem to have been finding ourselves with quite a lot of, un, free time on our hands.”
The Chisholmian’s dust-dry tone was so biting Gyrard snorted in amusement. Sharpset had returned to Chisholm with the surrendered galleys Emperor Cayleb — although he’d been King Cayleb at the time, of course — had “spontaneously” returned to Chisholm even before he had proposed marriage to Chisholm’s queen. Since the earl’s return, and especially since Queen Sharleyan had accepted Cayleb’s proposal, Sharpset had attacked the twin problems of his own navy’s lingering corruption and the challenge of preparing for the merger of the Chisholmian and Charisian fleets with vigor. In the process, quite a few Chisholmian officers had found themselves abruptly turfed out of their comfortable, profitable assignments. At the same time, those of them who appeared to be prepared to resist the merger had also found themselves summarily relieved of duty.
“Fair’s fair, Commander,” the flag captain replied after a moment. “Most Charisians understand how little choice Chisholm had about obeying the Group of Four’s commands. We know it wasn’t your idea to attack us, and most of us deeply regret how many of your people were killed or wounded in someone else’s war. At the same time, I won’t pretend there aren’t also Charisians who aren’t exactly prepared to simply forgive and forget. And, by the oddest happenstance, those officers who share that attitude seem to be finding themselves with quite a bit of unanticipated ‘free time’ of their own.”
“I thought that was probably the case, Sir.” Ahzmynd’s swivel chair creaked gently as he leaned back slightly. “In fact, I didn’t see how it could be any other way, to be honest.”
“No, it couldn’t be,” Gyrard agreed. “People are people. Some of them aren’t going to be able to put the past behind them no matter what. It doesn’t even mean they aren’t trying to, sometimes. It’s just the way it is. So it’s not really hard to understand why some officers would be . . . uncomfortable with all the changes coming at them, even completely disregarding all of the religious implications.”
He watched Ahzmynd’s eyes as he spoke, but the Chisholmian only nodded.
“You’re right about that one, Sir.” He shrugged. “I don’t think anyone in Chisholm, except maybe Her Majesty and Baron Green Mountain, ever expected things to come to a head with the Group of Four this way. It really hasn’t helped smooth the way for our Navy to combine with yours, either.”
Ah yes… this will be important later on, since militarized elements will feel that they are being forced to fight alongside heretics, and former-military elements will try to organize Loyalists in the ways they know how.
For some reason, Chisholm (navy wise) is reminding me of Spain.
BTW 7 days to B-Day.
Hopefully there will be survivors this time.
Snicker. It never fails. Just as the conversation gets *extra* interesting, the snippet cuts off and we have to wait 48 more hours to find out what’s next…
RH
Good! They appear to be wasting very little time before being off to visit with Hektor!
I thought it was Sharpfield, not Sharpset.
I hope it IS Sharpfield. “Sharpset” would be just too much of a joke!
Something I noticed but of course isn’t fully explained (yet) and I’m curious about…
“Since the earl’s return, and especially since Queen Sharleyan had accepted Cayleb’s proposal, [Sharpfield] had attacked the twin problems of his own navy’s lingering corruption and the challenge of preparing for the merger of the Chisholmian and Charisian fleets with vigor.”
Given that Galleys are flat out useless in modern warfare (even in what passes for modern on Safehold), I’ll admit I’m quite curious about what exactly this means. We do know that the Chisholm Navy did possess something like six galleons before Darcos. They were still old-style with towering castles and all that, not properly designed for cannon combat, but they were galleons rather than galleys at least. Plus we’ve had about three months of prep time. If Chisholmian build rates (especially after Sharpfield got done eviscerating the grifters) compares remotely to Charisian, then they should have at least the first round of conversions just about ready (assuming they knew what to do, but I’ve long suspected they did and we just weren’t told about it on-camera).
On the other hand, all the comments about the 50,000 marines makes me wonder just how much of an Army Sharleyan actually had (and/or has). If this was such an “unsubtle statement” then it must be showing the aristocrats that they don’t want to get frisky. I’m just not sure if this is because the whole kingdom doesn’t have much of an army (in which case the aristocrats don’t have much trained manpower available to try to bribe or otherwise subvert) or if she actually does and with that PLUS the 50,000 newcomers anything they tried would end up being little more than a minor inconvenience for the overwhelming power of the combined army.
Can’t wait to find out for sure! :)
RH
Chisholm does not have the frigate (Charis is in the frigate/man o’ war stage) production capacity but the kinds of equipment used on all wooden ships on Safehold, spars, rope, etc would be readily available in quantity if the production of these items kept on even in the wake of Chisholm’s ship losses. The question raised in this snippet is over items that ships need since the ships, for Chisholm, will come in time. If Chisholm wanted they could build 5-year ships like Charis had to, but if they haven’t done so by this point, their best contribution will be either supplies or troops.
As to 50k Marines, in a capital city a group of highly trained soldiers can pretty much wreak havoc even outnumbered, especially on civilians. The Marines are there to demonstrate Charis’ fielding capabilities to Chisholmian leaders, which is important since Charis as an Empire must worry over the internal stability of its new acquisitions.
I’m also curious to know how many troops were left home to defend the Empress.
I would expect not very many, Paul. If you read between the lines, they’ve spent months training up their force levels to one that could support the invasion of Corisande and building the weapons and armor and whatnot for them. And they were apparently having trouble getting enough armor and weapons built in time. So as soon as they hit their target levels, they boarded ship and hit the road (so to speak).
But I also don’t exactly think that she’s defenseless. I suspect that the troops had to go through more than mere “basic training” before they were ready to be part of the invasion force. While not truly “elite” on the level of Green Berets or the Safehold equivalent, the troops that left with Cayleb were more than grunts fresh out of basic still cleaning mud from between their toes. At least if Cayleb wants to win they were! :) This means that there were troops who went through basic and then moved on to advanced tactics training on Helen to get ready for the invasion, and at that point I *very* highly doubt they just shut down boot camp! I’m sure they are working (if slightly less franticly) to build a second wave in case it is needed (or troops to help garrison Corisande and/or take on Tarot as needed after the initial invasion is successful).
So my gut feeling is that almost no invasion-ready troops were left behind. But in the month that has passed a few more ships have worked up to active duty and a few thousand more troops are at least close enough to ready that they can provide her with a ready-reaction force for whatever may occur. (If anything does, of course, but who here really thinks there’s any chance it won’t? … *chirp* … *chirp*)
RH
Robert, let’s not forget that Sharleyan has most of the Royal/Imperial Guards units to defend her. For that matter, until recently Charis didn’t need a large army. Its main defense was the Royal Navy.
True, Drak, but right now where is the immediate threat going to come from except the Temple Loyalists? Bishop Halcom is planning something, we know that much. What, where, when, and how big remains to be seen. But unless he’s still stuck in “strike at the head and the body will die” mode then the Royal Guards won’t be able to be in enough places to stop all the attacks.
And the Navy won’t be able to do much about them until repulsorlifts and the like are reinvented… Unless you’re suggesting the Temple Target Collection :) will be ready before Cayleb can get back from Corisande to deal with it?
RH
Correction, the navy could help in transporting forces around to hot spots. But other than that they aren’t going to do much for internal “incidents”…
RH
The primary defenses against attacks from within are always a combination of intelligence, reasonable security precautions, and the good will of the people at large. But even so, you can never prevent every attack.
The big danger is unbalancing those — going too far into being a police state (which erodes the good will of the people), or going too far into being undefended (which erodes the other two).
Right Robert, the Temple Loyalists are the biggest problem Sharleyan will face. The fleet will prevent any outside force from being a big problem. However, IMO the only way she’d be safer is if Merlin was on Charis to provide ‘visions’ to locate the Temple Loyalists. She doesn’t need more troops. She needs more intelligence on the Temple Loyalists.
I think one of the dangers for the new empire will be the fact that currently the ports/cities in each sub unit are staffed by Navy/Marines/Army who are locals and whose tribal sub unit loyalty excceeds that of the loyalty to the Empire.
They should send 1/2 of the navy/Army in Chismholm & Emerald and move them around and centralise all training in the empire so that the new emperal defence force will fully integrated
I wonder if Cayleb’s Charisian spymaster is still getting written daily reports from Merlin, even though he’s thousands of miles away. If he found them waiting at his desk every morning, what would he think?
I also suspect that Merlin is watching the bigger merchants with “true church” loyalties, with the hope of detecting funding links – but there were the previous snippets.
Merlin’s intel is still relayed to those who know the Secret.
I just saw on Amazon.com a July 7 release date. I thought the date was July 21. Are we lucky and getting the book 2 weeks early?
I sure hope so! :)
@#9. Probably not many. In BSRA, Lock Island visits Helen Island to witness the training for the field artillery, and infantry. He ends up talking to Seamount about having to expand their training facilities, because they’re starting to get so many troops. Brigadier Clareyk comments that they can squeeze two battalions in if they push, but that’s about it. They don’t give actual numbers, but they talk about new regiments, and brigades.
A US Army battalion holds 500-1500 men, a regiment holds from a few hundred, up to 5,000, and a brigade is usually made up of two to five regiments or battalions. In the description in BSRA, each regiment is two battalions and each brigade is two regiments. The description in the scene says that Clareyk’s command is made up of 2,200 men and on active operations it would be higher.
E, text evidence for “Merlin’s intell is still relayed to those who know the Secret”? Remember Cayleb’s Charisian spymaster isn’t in on the Full Secret. How does the Brotherhood get Merlin’s intell to him without explaining how it is gathered. He is going to ask questions about a new source of intelligence.
*Charisian* galleys are still entirely modern and effective in combat, except perhaps against Corisande. They are as good as what the other guy has. With modern cannon, they are better.
By the way, Weber’s galley tactics…main guns pointing forward and advancing in column … make no sense and are the opposite of Mediterranean experience, when ships so armed advanced in line. Also, no rationale for eliminating rams, which were effective in warfare as late as 1870 (Battle of Lissa, steam ironclads) seems to be present.
What does Chisholm’s army do? The sequence is smash Corisande fleet, land Charis army, transports now not needed, go back and fetch Chisholm army. Even if they are not up to Charis standards, they can doubtless liberate Zebediah and install its Grand Duke as a sovereign member of the Charisian Empire. Ditto the other small islands.
Probably mix in Chisholmian troops with Charisian in the initial stages to get some field command experience into them so they’re confortable with new tactics by the time the rest of Chisholm’s army arrives.
GP, I’m not entirely sure advancing in line is such a bad idea for a “patrol” or “chase” formation. Advancing in line for standard combat would be foolish indeed, I agree. But when they are just patrolling home waters they have to be spread out to at least some degree in order to get coverage. Also if they are trying to chase down an enemy that is ahead of them and they don’t know precisely where the enemy is (and they can’t because of lack of satelite survelience and the like), then it makes some sense as well. If their chasers are indeed their “main” guns then they would probably try to sail partially past the enemy and then turn to engage. Even if not they’re almost certainly going to have to do some degree of turning and maneuvering before battle is fully joined.
As for the lack of rams, perhaps they were simply never developed on Safehold. Whether or not the “general peacefulness” that some people thought existed prior to this point really did on land, on sea it would be a bit more likely. In part because until recently no island nation was worth much more than a rip in a space suit. In part because even the large island nations have so much lower population they didn’t have the spare people to waste on warfare. (And any really small islands would have been even lower.) And there are several other reasons to think there hasn’t really been the kind of constant sea warfare that the Mediteranean saw. The distances involved, especially. The Med is tiny compared to the distance between Dohlar and Charis. Especially in width, length is a slightly different matter, but most of the warfare I remember from my history was between peoples a few hundred (or less) miles away. So if there was less warfare to begin with, and then you add in perhaps an increased interest in capturing the enemy rather than just killing them all, then the idea of head-on ramming might well have never developed.
RH
Advancing in line *is* the galley combat formation, and has been for 2.5 thousand years. Remember, these ships are not like 18th century sailing vessels in which the battery can be fired sideways. They — until Merlin appeared — are ships in which the battery fires dead ahead. In an encounter between a column and a line, the line has an enormous advantage; it can bring its entire weight to bear on the lead ship. Ships in line other than the first cannot even fire until they break out of formation, unless they want to hit their own people. Also, folks at the rear of the column cannot board until they catch up with the front, while ships in a line can cluster and swamp each ship in the column one at a time.
GP… sorry I mispoke, I said line when I meant column. And I agree with you that IF their “main” battery is pointed forward AND they don’t have any side guns worth sneezing at AND IF a column runs into a line it’s up a creek and a half. But my point was that I wasn’t sure they wouldn’t have time to get OUT of column and into line (or even just alter formation in some other fashion) in which case in a patrol or chase situation it wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
I also am not sure that they really consider their chasers their “main” guns. For that matter, I’m not sure that aside from Charis anybody’s even really thought about it at all. Remember that gunpowder has only been around for 80 years and under military use for a decade or so before Merlin shows up. Given that the situation Merlin steps into has been building for a century or so, there probably haven’t been too many major naval wars (if any) since the invention of gunpowder. As a result, there may not have been much more than an isolated pirate or two that most navies ever had to worry about, and no matter how bad their formation 10 or so galleys manned by a “proper navy” are still going to take care of any pirate they’re likely to run into… pre-Merlin, of course…
Also, it’s very hard for us to think in an “if it isn’t completely broke don’t even think about fixing it” mentality… but that’s the society they grew up in, and that will make some big differences in what gets developed and what doesn’t.
RH
Grr… looks like I forgot to end a tag… sorry about that…