PART 53: Here Comes the Sun King (January 7th 1837 – March 15, 1840)

ALL LODGES OF THE BLACK CHAMBER:
This is Agent Helios.

Russia, Third Rome, has done us quite the favor. Russian Imperial troops will shortly march on the Dunin monarchy, cutting off the spigot of Lithuanian and Hungarian forces currently reinforcing the German front. It is in Germany, therefore, where the Victorians will presently be at their weakest. The “Holy Roman Empire” is not a real empire in any sense of the word, and, indeed, the true Holy Roman Empire (if such a thing can ever be said to have existed) died with the stroke of a headsman’s sword when our Royal ancestors had Empress Branwen von Habsburg executed. The British are too far west to reinforce Berlin; the Byzantines are present in force, but we feel that, far from the Republic’s borders, their continued presence is unsustainable.

We should note, however, that the weakness the Holy Roman Empire represents within the Victorian League is not merely strategic or military in nature: it lays bare the incoherence of their entire political program. The Victorian League attacks the status quo not because they believe in revolutionary change, but because the current balance of power is unfavorable to them. Elsewhere, revolutionary republics are quick to defend the status quo when they find it advantageous:

“We believe the Germans should be free,” say the Victorians. “Furthermore, believe that Germans are most free when corralled into a rump state ruled by a von Habsburg cousin; a latter-day attempt to revive what already was a pale moon reflecting Roman glories long since departed the world, because nationalism is counterrevolutionary.”

Far better, far less hypocritical to admit that the Germans should not be free. Does the German peasant care whether the lord who protects him speaks French or German? Would he benefit from the farcical Byzantine notion that lord and peasant are somehow equal? In Byzantium, the constitution says that everyone from the richest captain of industry to the lowliest farmhand or coal-miner is equal before the eyes of the law, with the same rights and responsibilities.

Shouldn’t those occupying fundamentally different positions in society have rights and responsibilities appropriate to their station? When a French lord receives title to a factory, he is still feudally obliged to protect his subjects working in it. Not so the Byzantine robber-baron! It is possible to adapt to a changing world without dissolving the feudal bonds with have tied together Europe for centuries.

Scipio Lodge, we want a report on the state of the Southern Front.
-Agent Helios of the Black Chamber

TO AGENT HELIOS
The Byzantines continue to hold the Alps, but their designs on liberating Bavaria– much less relieving the HRE– have been put paid to.
-Scipio Lodge

TO AGENT HELIOS
There has been little fighting within the Republic itself.

The newspapers of the major urban centers– particularly those in Greece and Anatolia, far removed from even the Southern Front– seem as concerned with wars in China, Hindustan, and Korea as they do with the Victorian League.

The National Assembly’s main concern re: the Victorian League is their own position within it relative to the other members.

-Croseus Lodge

TO AGENT HELIOS
French troops are gradually overwhelming the remaining Byzantine, Dunin, and Habsburg forces all along the German front.

The Byzantines remain dominant in the southern theater, however.

The world at large still sees the Victorians as winning the war, and the Byzantines have accordingly further expanded their war-goals. Tellingly, they have called for the release of French to Tirol to Austrian rule– clearly, they have little faith in being able to relieve northern Germany and chose something they see as much more readily attainable.

The other allies likewise have done their best to transform fait accomplis into cassus belli.

The Byzantines must be worried, however– they left the Crimean Republic to fend for itself against the Byzantines’ traditional enemies in Da Qin and Asitelahan.
-Brennus Lodge

TO ALL LODGES OF THE BLACK CHAMBER:
On the ground, we recognize that the war might be difficult to follow, fought as it is across the greater part of a continent. Accordingly, we will provide you with a Versailles-eye view of the various fronts c. the summer of 1837. Please adjust your operations accordingly.

The Byzantines remain strong in the southern front, but there are enough French troops in the region to keep them confined to defending their borders and the territory they’ve occupied in Tirol.

The Lai Ang advance across the Pyrenees has stalled. We have dispatched more troops to the Western Front to drive the heathens back to Iberia.

Regrettably, the early naval setbacks suffered by the Victorians proved ephemeral, and the northern front is now characterized by total Byzantine-British control of the Channel and British landings in northern France.

With the Victorians being pushed back on all sides, the eastern and German fronts have merged into a single disorganized mass of remnant forces rapidly being dismantled by our own armies. We will note, however, the tenacity of the Dunin forces, which remain on the front even as the Russians ravage the eastern frontiers of their liege-lady’s lands.

Our primary goal is to prolong the war as long as possible. We recognize, that with so much of the fighting taking place on French soil, it our people who will bear the brunt of this stratagem.

But with every victory…

…or even every costly defeat…

…our advantages in resources, industry, and manpower vis-à-vis the Victorians are magnified.
-Agent Helios

TO AGENT HELIOS:
So much for the vaunted independence of Byzantium’s client “republics”.

The Byzantines are so desperate for reinforcements to hold Tirol and the Alps that they’ve placed the armies of the Iranian Republic under Byzantine officers and sent them marching north.

Having a vassal is one thing. Insisting that your vassal is a free and equal partner is just crass.

I assume they’ll pay the price for their cavalier attitude towards the relations of lieges and subjects shortly, now that French troops are no longer needed on the German front.

Pity about Poland, but they weren’t exactly pulling their own weight, were they?

On the balance of it, though, we’re doing better than we were just a few months ago.
-Croesus Lodge

TO CROESUS LODGE:
Believe us when we say we appreciate your desire for swift vengeance against your former countrymen, Croesus Lodge. However, it is our firm opinion that the hammer must fall on Lai Ang first.

The other monarchs of Europe are growing increasingly skeptical of the British and Byzantines’ mad scheme to rearrange the face of European politics along liberal lines.

All revolutions inevitably devour their own young.

It should be proven beyond a doubt that any right-thinking and rightfully-crowned monarch backing the revolutionaries does so at their own peril.

The de Leóns have ruled Iberia for centuries. We are confident that, in time, Sultan Lan II de León will see reason and acede to the prior balance of power.

The Byzantines are growing increasingly desperate– readily abandoning their frontlines whenever they sense the prospect of an easy victory.

They’re hoping to convince the British to declare the war won and make an honorable peace, you see.

We are not pleased with what happened at Chur, of course. However, we have urged our generals to be aware of how easily baited the Byzantines are in their present aggressive footing.
-Agent Helios

TO SUNSET LODGE:
Be advised that a sizable Byzantine-Iranian force under General Timotheos Helladid is marching west in an attempt to relieve the Lai Ang.
-Scipio Lodge

General Timotheos Helladid, commander of Byzantine forces on the western front

TO SCIPIO LODGE:
Thank you for the warning; however, it seems that a long overland march did half the work in defeating this army for us.
-Sunset Lodge

TO SUNSET LODGE:
Take care. Byzantium is stronger than you can know. While the other members of the League falter, Byzantium is steadfast. The future of the Continent will be a struggle between Byzantium and France.

I have it reliable authority that many Byzantine armies remain on the field in theaters where we had thought the Victorians entirely defeated.

Helladid reportedly runs rampant behind our lines, disrupting our every attempt to reinforce the western front.

Meanwhile, General Gerasimos Spyromilios commands an impregnable Alpine fortress.

If you doubt my assessment, I suggest you take it up with Jean-François Lyautey, Marquis de Bonac.
-Scipio Lodge

TO SCIPIO LODGE AND SUNSET LODGE:
Helladid is doubtlessly no match for for the sum of our forces in Iberia, but he is adept at find weak points in our lines and coming down hard on them.

And every victory he wins tilts the war further in the Victorians’ favor.

Sunset Lodge, we want you to stress at the generals you have access to that destroying Helladid is of the utmost importance.

Scipio Lodge, Spyromilios and his colleagues are gradually bleeding us dry in the south, hampering any effort to consolidate our forces there. Your responsibility is to assess Byzantine strength in the region. Are there reserves lying it wait south of the border, ready to spring on any reinforcements moved in from other fronts? Or are Spyromilios and Danglis presiding over a one-dimensional picket?
-Agent Helios

TO AGENT HELIOS:
Far be it my place to question your judgement, but… well, that’s exactly what I’m about to do. Are you sure you aren’t overstating the importance of this Helladid? He’s not even in overall command of the front! Isabella Valdez of Lai Ang outranks him.

Regardless, we’re confident that the remaining Victorian forces on this front will eventually be encircled and destroyed. The reason that they’re making so many attacks of opportunity on comparatively weak targets is because they consider themselves unable to engage with our main armies.
-Sunset Lodge

TO AGENT HELIOS:
My sources within the Byzantine military leave much to be desired; however, by every indication Byzantium has significant forces at its disposal. The politicians in Constantinople are supremely confident, and have spent much of their time drawing up plans for a Byzantine-led European order on their napkins.

I will note that the “subordinate” Helladid separated his forces from Valdez’s and handily defeated our general Joséphine-Félicité Bonaparte, comtesse de Ségur.

Spyromilios defies the Marquis de Bonac at every turn; the snows of the Alps run red with French blood.

Could it be true? Could the old order be crumbling? I shudder at the thought.

Will the conquered subjects of Byzantium fall spellbound to liberal delusions?

France is the glorious sun of Europe. But even the sun can be eclipsed by the moon.
-Scipio Lodge

TO AGENT HELIOS:
Helladid has “advanced deep into the French interior” in order to “disrupt French supply lines”.

Which is to say, he has abandoned the Lai Ang armies he was sent to relieve and retreated far away from any major fighting.

Our generals tell me they’ll mop him up after they’ve destroyed Valdez.

I would like to politely request that my noble colleagues in Scipio Lodge quit trying to read the future of the Near West in Asian tea-leaves.

Or have they simply forgotten who holds Japan’s leash?
-Sunset Lodge

TO AGENT HELIOS:
I am pleased that the good comtesse de Ségur, having utterly failed to defeat Timotheos Helladid, who even now runs rampant deep in the French heartland, has followed up that triumph by being routed by Spyromilios.

Certainly, attrition is taking its toll– every small French army Spyromilios routs depletes his own numbers.

But how many Byzantine troops lurk behind the frontier, ready to spring into action to reinforce him?

Intelligence is still preliminary, but I estimate it as “a lot”.

The Somalian Republic seems to believe that the wind is blowing inevitably Constantinople-wards. They will not intervene in our present conflict, of course. But shouldn’t we be concerned that the Republic is already assembling allies for their next war against us?

And with their research into battlefield medicine, Byzantine doctors now regularly work miracles on the wounded and maimed. Casualties who would be left for dead by any other European power might be back on their feet and fighting again in a matter of days!
-Scipio Lodge

TO AGENT HELIOS:
I know we’re all extremely concerned about the war and all, but you should know that Scandinavia– already facing an attack from Russia– has now fallen victim to renewed Holy Roman expansionism.

This is concerning for two reasons: First, it indicates that the Holy Roman Empire remains belligerently committed to upturning the balance of power on the continent and thereby damning us all to a century of war and disorder. Second, it indicates that only slightly over a year after horrendous setbacks at the hands of France it is already capable of fielding a sizable army again.
-Croesus Lodge

TO SCIPIO LODGE:
We are making every effort to defeat Spyromilios. Please keep me informed of any relevant intelligence. It is absolutely imperative that we learn everything we can about the size and disposition of Byzantine forces within the Republics’ frontiers.

You are right in your assessment of Spyromilios as a canny foe. He has become adept at avoiding any battle in which he might conceivably be outnumbered.

Gradually, however, we are whittling him down. This is the last major front of the war; we can disassemble his army at our leisure.
-Agent Helios

TO AGENT HELIOS:
Can we? Can we? How many of your subjects will die for the sake of a “war of attrition”? Can you, who wrote so movingly of the obligation and responsibility a liege-lord has to even the least of his subjects, countenance the massacre of good French soldiers in an alpine battlefield?

Certainly we have a great many more soldiers at our disposal than the Republic does (and by this point the contributions of the remaining other members of the Victorian League are negligible, with the exception of the British navy’s continuing blockade of our ports). Lai Ang has been pushed south of the Pyrenees, where they belong. Austria and the Holy Roman Empire are out of the war. The corpse of the Dunin monarchy is being picked clean by Russia, Third Rome. And while the British still control the Channel, their attempts to turn that into an invasion of northern France have been a dismal failure, even with the aid of what’s left of Helladid’s army.

But as we’ve discovered, the Byzantine army is very hard to kill.

And they’re getting better and better at killing us.
-Scipio Lodge

TO AGENT HELIOS:
I urge you to reject Scipio Lodge’s histrionics. Spyromilios is a somewhat impressive general, but aggressive– reckless– easily baited out of his Alpine hiding place, easily tricked into overextending himself.

I urge you make Scipio lodge obsolete as soon as convenient.
-Sunset Lodge

TO SUNSET LODGE AND SCIPIO LODGE:
There is a natural order to the world which will always reassert itself.

The Ayiti Federation in Avalon, France in Europe, Somalia in Africa, China in Asia. These continental hegemons have reigned supreme for time immemorial. The likes of Byzantium, Britain, and Lai Ang shall soon find that there is no place for them among the rulers of Europe, as the Hindustanis learned when they sought to challenge China for supremacy over Asia.

However, we have no inclination to make anyone obsolete. We are not Alexios V— our advisors should not fear to speak their minds. We are their king, and they are bound to follow our will once we have taken our decision— but if we did not want their input we would not request it of them.

In this case, however, Sunset Lodge was entirely right. Spyromilios walked straight into the jaws of a trap.

After depleting his ranks, we left an opening for him to advance:

And advance he did.

Of what use are expensive new rifles when there are no men and women left to fire them?

Can Byzantine doctors raise the dead? We think not.

Nonetheless, we should capitalize on the destruction of Spyromilios’ army as soon as we can. We have ordered our generals to invade northern Italy before the Byzantines can regroup.
-Agent Helios

TO AGENT HELIOS:
Truly, God is on our side— for not only has He seen fit to grant our armies victory on the field of battle, but he has struck down our hated enemy, the Byzantine President Turhan Toraman.

His Vice President has assumed office in his stead.

Evgenia Kasdaglis, Seventh President of The Byzantine Republic
Inaugurated November 1st, 1839

The Julians

I do not envy Kasdaglis in the least– the National Assembly is holding elections with the Alps in French hands and nothing between us and the soft underbelly of the Republic save 22 demoralized regiments– the shattered remnants of Spyromilios’s army.

The Byzantine people tire of war— perhaps they shall soon realize that revolution is nothing more than perpetual war.
-Sunset Lodge

TO SUNSET LODGE:
Are you sure it was 22 divisions?
-Croesus Lodge

TO AGENT HELIOS:
They’re calling it “the Miracle at Bozen”– Spyromilios’ army patched back together by brave citizen volunteers replacing the dead and ingenious military doctors healing the wounded. You should have seen the Marquis de Bonac’s face as they all hove into view. As if so godless a people can have “miracles”!

Doubtlessly your generals, ministers, et al are urging you to press the attack– commit more troops, for if you throw enough troops into the maw you will eventually overwhelm the devil Spyromilios through numbers alone.

Perhaps.

But think about this: the Revolutionary Army of General Gerasimos Spyromilios is currently composed of some 40,000 soldiers– 22,000 infantry, 6,000 horse, 12,000 artillerymen. Mere months ago, they numbered barely over half that, and had last been seen fleeing south of the Alps in disarray. Think about a state capable of the feats of logistics necessary to accomplish this feat.

Now think about how vast the Byzantine Republic and its client republics are. Think about how many more such armies likely wait in the myriad fortresses and army camps of Greece, Anatolia, Italy, Azerbaijan, Persia. You have charged me with determining the precise size and disposition of Byzantine reserves behind their lines.

The Revolutionary Army is only a fraction of total Byzantine strength. I have reliable intelligence from my best sub-agents indicating a total Byzantine army comprised of over 150,000 soldiers.

What’s more, only a relatively small part of the Byzantine population is mobilized.

If the situation became truly dire, the Byzantines would be able to support an army twice the size of their present one.

I urge you to conclude an honorable peace with Great Britain while you still can; I doubt the Byzantines will be as forgiving should leadership of the Victorian League ever pass to them.
-Scipio Lodge

WORLD MAP, MARCH 5th, 1840