Building a Viking Empire with Modern Industry-Chapter 78: Scheduling Conflict

Much like Ragnar had predicted, within two days of the landing, Grandmaster Pierre de Valois received a courier from the Director of Industry.

In the southern regions of England, panic was already spreading among the Saxon lords as news of the Frankish invasion force reached their ears.

King Burgred of Mercia had already begun mobilizing his levies to the border, hoping to scavenge whatever remained of Northumbria after the Franks were finished.

However, he foolishly trusted the Church’s promise that the Crusade would stop at the Humber River.

After receiving the courier a terrified Saxon peasant holding a white flag Pierre had gathered his Captains in the Great Hall of Scarborough Fortress. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Currently, Pierre was standing at the head of the table, surrounded by the elite knights of the Order of the White Cross and the Papal Legate, Bishop Humbert, where he was reading Ragnar’s letter aloud for all to hear.

"To Grandmaster Pierre, CEO of the Order of the White Cross,

It is with a heavy heart I must inform you that I am unable to meet you on the open field of battle at this time. Due to several complications, mostly regarding the concrete curing schedule of City Titan, I cannot deploy my workforce to the beachhead to properly greet you. As such, I have left the Roman Road wide open and paved for your convenience. I will rendezvous with you at the ’Titan Defense Perimeter’ when my schedule permits it.

Sincerely,

Ragnar, Director of Jernheim"

The various knights and bishops who had gathered could not prevent themselves from scoffing at the contents of this letter.

Clearly, the self-proclaimed "Director" was a coward, hiding behind his half-built walls while the chivalric might of Europe gathered on his doorstep.

Many of these men had heard rumors of the "Viking Industry" and felt a great sense of disdain for the man who treated war like a business transaction rather than a holy calling. A scarred Frankish Baron was the first to voice his objection to the matter.

"Does the heathen seriously intend to sit back and wait for us to burn his countryside? Apparently, my estimation of the ’Iron Viking’ was greatly exaggerated!"

The excuse of construction schedules was laughable; after all, these men built siege engines and cathedrals, yet they had all managed to march to war.

Though some of the Knights were happy with Ragnar’s passivity, he was known to use trickery, and they did not want to chase him through the woods.

However, the open invitation to use the paved road seemed like the desperation of a man who knew he couldn’t fight in the open.

Pierre merely stood in silence for a few moments, thinking over the reasoning for Ragnar’s actions, yet not once did he suspect that the Director was baiting him into a kill box designed by a civil engineer.

Thus he made an equally foolish decision as the Saxon Kings of old and accepted the invitation, as the Grandmaster decided he would march straight down the throat of the enemy.

Part of his reasoning for this was that Pierre had vastly underestimated the stopping power of Ragnar’s "Industrial Corps."

He was unaware of the vast military standardization which Ragnar had enacted over the previous months, nor how well every one of his "Commissioned Officers" was drilled.

Pikes and crossbows were common enough in Europe, but considering Ragnar had done an excellent job of hiding the existence of the Lucerne Hammers and the Torsion Spikes, Pierre merely believed he faced a mob of Vikings with round shields and rusty axes.

On top of this, the Church had assured him that the "walls" of City Titan were made of mud and brick, a hasty construction that would crumble under a heavy assault.

Pierre had little respect for unfortified industrial zones; this was the era of the stone castle, and he did not believe a "factory" could withstand a trebuchet, let alone ten thousand men. Thus he made a bold declaration in front of all the gathered captains.

"Forget his schedule; if he wants to hide in his office like a clerk, then I will allow it; we march on Titan at first light!"

The gathered knights all nodded with a satisfied expression; without Ragnar meeting them on the beach, they felt a lot more secure about preserving their horses’ energy for the final charge.

Though they were entirely unaware of the already prepared "Welcome Mat" waiting for them in the mud, thus they were unable to predict the vicious thoughts that Pierre was secretly thinking in the back of his fanatical mind.

’When I am done with Titan, I will strip the skin from this ’Director’ and hang it from his own printing press as a warning to all who mock the Faith!’

Clearly, the target of his vengeance was Ragnar personally; Pierre had never forgiven the Northmen for disrupting the Frankish steel markets, nor had he forgotten the fact that Ragnar’s cheap wool was bankrupting the guilds in Paris.

The Emperor had demanded the liquidation of the Viking leader, and this letter by itself had made Grandmaster Pierre thirst for his blood.

As such, Pierre spent the remainder of his waking hours going over his marching order for dealing with Ragnar; after all, by the time the sun set tomorrow, Pierre was certain he would be the master of York. By then he could truly gather the spoils to pay his mercenaries.

Pierre had no way of knowing that Erik the Silent, Leif’s younger brother, had been working as a stable hand in the fortress courtyard, looking for any semblance of the Frankish battle plan; on behalf of his brother, he willingly worked in the horse stalls to undermine the invaders.

During that night, Erik found a discarded dispatch from the Frankish Emperor informing Pierre that after Titan fell, he was to execute the entire population of York to prevent the "Industrial Heresy" from spreading, and that he was to salt the earth so nothing would grow there again.

The boy rapidly memorized the contents of the correspondence and slipped out of the postern gate under the cover of night.

The Grandmaster and his allies were completely unaware that their base in Scarborough was already compromised by Ragnar’s vast intelligence network.

This intelligence would have a role to play in the upcoming Battle of Titan, which would forever go down in history as the death knell of the heavy cavalry charge.