Imperial Diet VII

[Cecil XIX]

Edmund Becker walks morosely into the Diet.

My Lords, Prague is relieved. The enemy fought like Demons, and I have a new-found appreciation for the men who have had to fight such armies.

Edmund sighs, and lower his head.

I myself can only barely defeat them... I was forced to wait until the setting of the sun and allow the Pole's infantry to withdraw. And Lorenz...

...

Lorenz Zirn is dead. He fought well, assaulting the enemy from behind. But the enemy refused to break.

Edmund quickly shuffles around and exits the Diet.

[gibsonsg91921]

Lorenz Zirn was too young and eager to die. He died a hero's death, however. Ironic - he refused to leave the plague but died in battle anyways. May he rest in peace - his energy long defended Austria from her foes.

[AussieGiant]

The Chancellor stares hard at the departing figure of Becker.

Standing slowly he addresses the chamber.

From what I have read the field report indicates Lord Becker's defense was exemplary.

Lorenz was always my most aggressive commander and I respected him for that. He held his own safety in little regard when facing the enemy and for that he should be commended. Both the Poles and Hungarian's always thought twice before engaging him in combat and that gained my admiration in the few short years I knew him.

He will be sorely missed my Lords.

That brings the year of our lord 1350 to a close and I can already see the Exchequer's Officials queuing for the coming year.

I will be back as soon as I have made sense of reports and inform you all to the best of my ability.

Turning, the Chancellor strides from the chamber, his night black clock billowing out behind him. Rather than his retinue in attendance there are numerous darkly robed figures with him.

[Ramses II CP]

Lorenz Zirn is to be saluted for his valiant sacrifice. Indeed, if God does not lift this terrible affliction from the land the day may come that we all envy Count Zirn's noble end.

Fritz von Kastilien

[Ferret]

A messenger with the white wolf of the Bresch family sewn onto his tunic presents a letter to the Diet:

Gentlemen I am announcing a new policy. I have thought very long and hard about this, ever since Jan von Hamburg used the same policy but I have decided its introduction will benefit the Reich as a whole. I would like all prisoners to be released.

I know some of you, especially Fritz, will strongly object and to be honest there is little I can do to enforce it, you will still be generals though you may not own land or command armies if you continue to disobey the rule. My reasoning for imposing it is thus: the people are not our enemies. It is the Tyrants who rule them and stop them embracing the good will of the Reich. It is their generals that need to be killed. The same goes for cities as well, they do not need to be sacked as the wealth you are taking away from them would be paid to us through taxes anyway.

The people also fight for us once we liberate their lands from our enemies. I doubt their is any man in this Empire who commands a pure army of Germans, we train ,en from our enemies old soldiers. That is the way to think of it. By releasing those men you are allowing them to go home to their farms at the end of their campaigning season and the next season when we own their lands then they will be taking up arms for us. By executing them you are taking future soldiers away from the Reich. I shall send a messenger with a copy of what I have just said to the Diet so all men can have the choice of benefiting te Reich or hindering its rise to unparalleled glory.

After reading the letter the man apologizes if it did not make perfect sense as the Duke wrote it with the Franconian nobles as an audience and is too busy to re-write it.

[AussieGiant]

The Chancellor:

This topics never seems to die the death it should.

Arnold stands and strides onto the Diet floor.

While I have never sacked any settlement and will never do so in my life time, I simply can not comprehend this approach to the men that take up arms against us. The civilian populations are innocent, but the men who fight in the armies of our enemies are NOT!!

If they and their leaders choose to fight us, then they must also choose the consequences of their actions.

To release or not to release prisoners has, and always will be a choice for each commander to make himself.

It is a general's choice alone to make and is part of the privilege AND DUTY of command. These choices also have consequences my Lords. I for example may be seen as one extreme version of this matter.

Raising his voice and a hand to the sky the Chancellor exudes a feeling of dread. Most feel the skin on their arms and neck tingle, for others there is clearly a change in the chamber. The temperature seems to drop momentarily.

The idea of penalizing general's for making one choice over another is short sighted and weak in my estimation!

I have no problem with a general's choice to let prisoners go but I certainly do not accept that any general in this Reich being disadvantaged for ensuring that captured soliders never lift their sword arm against us again!!

With that the Chancellor takes his seat and the unease and feeling of the room returns to normal.

[Ferret]

I shall not penalize anyone for doing so unless there is a specific band of men that I ordered to be released. You must bear in mind, lord Chancellor, that many of the men who 'take up arms' are civilians, mere militia forced to fight and those same men will later willingly fight to the Reich. I shall inform my generals that the choice is still theirs but I may be slightly biased towards those benefiting our nation. I was simply trying to get across what I believe. I accept the death of permanent soldiers who will never fight for us and strongly encourage the execution of enemy generals or royal family members but I also strongly advise the nobles of our nation to release the militia, as these are the men who will fight for us one day.