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"Uhm?" Did Ghort see it?
"Did that fleet of King Peter's sail yet? Did the troops from the Connec
start marching yet?"
Ghort saw it.
"I don't think so. Why?" He had to ask.
"Yes," Ferris Renfrow said, over Else's left shoulder. "Clue us in, Captain
Ghort."
Members of the Collegium and a couple of Hahsel's top planners all clumped
together, drawn by Ghort's enthusiasm.
"It looks like your plan is just to punch through the mountains and go after
the castles and cities. Same as if you were going after any other Firaldian
principality. Same fts the last four or five times somebody tried."
An imperial staffer pointed out, "Cities and pasties are where the wealth
and nobility are."
"Sure. But not the food, dear heart. Not the food! Tell him, Pipe."
The son of a dog. "I think I see. Mainland Calzir is heavily dependent on
bread. But wheat doesn't grow well there. It does
flourish over here, on Shippen. Shippers fecundity was one reason the ancient
Brothens occupied the island."
"Exactly!" Ghort enthused. "Wheat and silver mines."
"Explain more clearly, please," one of the Imperials said.
"Eighty percent of the people live on the mainland. They raise wine grapes,
olives, and sheep. Most of the grain is grown on the island. Across the Strait
of Rhype. Now, we have a sizable Direcian fleet up here, going to head this
way. It can cut off help from the western Pramans. The fleet could pick up the
Connecten contingent as it follows the coast. Those troops could land on
Shippen. They could stop any grain from getting to the mainland. Which means
no bread on the mainland. Where they have lots of extra soldiers, sailors, and
animals from Lucidia and Dreanger to feed."
Ghort preened, smug with good reason. "How long can these assholes over here
eat grapes and olives and goats? For a while, yeah. But they're used to bread
and fish. They don't have no fishing boats left. So eventually they're gonna
be eating roots and grass and river mud and, maybe, each other's babies. How
long before they don't got strength enough left to fight? Not too long. If we
show up down there in time to take their fields away or keep them from putting
in any spring crops."
That caused a buzz.
What seemed as obvious as a naked woman in the street at high noon when
first Else looked at that map, and which was just as obvious to Pinkus Ghort,
was not at all obvious to men heavily vested in a strategy calculated to
deliver them personal mastery of some castle or town, following the same
strategies that had failed the Chaldarean liberators repeatedly since the
Praman Conquest.
Ferris Renfrow asked, "You didn't see this, Captain Hecht?" With slight
weight on the patronymic.
"Did you? No? I did sense that something was there. But I'm from a place
that's landlocked. We don't think ships. Did anyone here see what Captain
Ghort just pointed out?" Softly, Else told Renfrow, "Pinkus wasn't blinded by
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what he hoped to steal."
"Enjoy it while you can.
The cat was out of the bag. The pig had escaped from its poke. There would
be no stuffing them back.
"Excellent thinking, Captain Hecht. Captain Ghort,]' Bronte Doneto said.
"Inspired and inspirational."
Ferris Renfrow eyed Else with abiding suspicion.
There had to be a catch, to Renfrow's way of thinking.
There was a catch. Of course.
This time Calzir would not survive. The intervention of Dreanger and Lucidia
sealed Calzir's fate. Even Sublime's enemies did not want those vigorous
kaifates to establish a bridgehead on the Firaldian peninsula.
Calzir could not be saved. But Else could try to salvage its people.
Calzir's Pramans might survive a quick victory, after little fighting.
It had worked that way in the Connec when Volsar4 overran the Praman towns.
That was how it was happening in Direcia right now. Peter of Navaya never
persecuted those who did not resist him, whatever their religion. He was a
firm ally of Platadura, which, while remaining Praman, supported him in most
of his adventures. Which had caused the inflexible Sublime to bark at Peter
more than once.
Peter of Navaya was no more impressed by Sublime's dis* pleasure than was [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]