Chapter 502 - Marching On Warsaw

Eckhard stood at the front of his army. Since the battle which resulted in the death of the Polish Prince, the Austrian General had crushed every armed force he had come across. Now, after weeks of struggle, he had reached the city of Warsaw, the current capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. 

As Eckhard gazed through his binoculars, he released a heavy sigh. Despite his best efforts to coerce the Polish King to surrender, the only thing he could see were signs of resistance within the city. For whatever reason, the madman had chosen to fight until his last dying breath against the Austro-Bohemian alliance. 

As the trebuchets were behind the castle's walls and prepared for combat, Eckhard simple waved his hand, in doing so giving his artillery brigades the silent order to unleash hell upon the hostile city. Krakow was a massacre, it was a show of force intending to display what happens when Austria's citizens were attacked. Yet here in Warsaw, Eckhard had no plans to annihilate the city, instead he simply wanted to eliminate the enemy soldiers upon the ramparts. 

With an crackling thunder, the roars of the 7.5cm High Explosive shells shot out of the bores of their cannons and whistled in the air. Seconds later, they fell precisely onto their targets, resulting in a catastrophic explosion directly upon the Polish trebuchets. The fiery blasts engulfed more than just the siege weapons. Each shell was capable of annihilate anything within a hundred square meters, thus snuffing the souls of those unfortunate to be within the blast range. 

As the Artillery crews reloaded their guns, and prepared to fire another round onto the city, Eckhard held up his hand, ceasing their actions. 

"Hold your fire!"

The nearby officers relayed his orders to their troops, and the barrage came to an immediate halt. In the distance, a tattered white flag flew above the city's gates. Finally, somebody with some sense was willing to surrender before any further blood needed to be shed. 

Eckhard grabbed ahold of a lance, and attached a white flag to its shaft as he rode out with his personal guard, to meet with whichever man had the conscience to end this senseless slaughter before the entire city was massacred.

After meeting the host halfway, Eckhard noticed that the man across from him was roughly Berengar's age; he had a grim expression on his face, Eckhard recognized it the moment he saw it, because it was the same expression he wore every time he looked at his reflection. This was the stare of a man who had endured a hundred battles and was too tired to give a damn any longer. 

The young knight unleashed his sword, in doing so provoking Eckhard's guards, who raised their needle rifles preparing for combat. However, before they could pull the triggers, the man tossed the sword away. Upon witnessing this scene, Eckhard could have sworn he heard an echo the moment its steel blade clashed with the dirt below. 

The young man spoke with a voiced full of bitterness and defeat as his lifeless eyes gazed upon Eckhard with a look of understanding.

"The city if yours, on behalf of the People of Poland, I hereby surrender to the Kingdom of Austria, and its mighty army. Whatever you wish to do with the royal family is no concern of ours. I promise you, we will not halt your advance to the Palace. Whatever our mad king might tell you, we are done fighting. Enough blood has been shed already..."

Eckhard clutched the stuffed rabbit in his hand, which was stained in the blood of the Polish Prince. He gazed upon it softly before looking over towards the young commander with a questioning gaze. 

"You would disobey a direct order from you King?"

Surprisingly, the man scoffed as he gazed upon the rabbit in Eckhard's hand. He knew exactly who it belonged to, and could make an educated guess as to how the Austrian Field Marshal came by it.

"Tell me, how did obeying orders work out for our fallen prince?"

Now it was Eckhards turn to scoff as he responded with a single word.

"Poorly..."

Upon hearing this, the knight snapped his reins and prepared to depart with his men. As he passed by Eckhard, he left one last statement.

"Go, the path towards the palace is clear, do with the royal family as you please..."

Upon hearing this, Eckhard nodded his head in silence, before yelling towards his men

"The city is ours. You know the King's law as well as I. No harm shall come to the civilians now that the city has surrendered."

After making his orders clear, Eckhard rode off towards the palace, as the Polish Commander had said, his path was completely unobstructed. Every soldier within the city had laid down their arms long before the Austrians entered. There was a look of complete and total defeat on the faces of the civilian populace, as if all hope for victory had died with their prince. 

After riding through the streets, Eckhard entered the Palace, the guards who once protected the royal family had opened the gates wide for their conquerors. After reaching a certain point, Eckhard dismounted from his steed, and walked through the entrance unchallenged. 

He continued to walk through the halls until he entered the throne room where the King of Poland sat with lifeless eyes upon realizing he was totally defeated. By his side was his family, who clung together in fear of what reprisal the Austrian Field Marshal might take. 

When the Princess saw the bloody rabbit in Eckhard's hands, she fell to her knees and broke out into tears. Eckhard raised the rabbit in the air and noticed the girl's eyes following it. Upon seeing her bitter expression, he tossed the rabbit to her before making a snide remark. 

"I believe this belongs to you... A brave man died, ensuring that it was safe and protected. It is a pity, if you father had only given into our demands sooner, he would still be alive..."

The King could no longer keep his silence, and erupted into a state of total fury.

"You bastards killed my son! Yet you blame me for his death! The nerve you Austrians have!"

Eckhard merely scoffed at the deflection before chastising the man for his own foolishness.

"We never wanted this war. In fact, we gave you some fairly clear and reasonable demands. Hand over the territory that rightfully belongs to the German people, and no bloodshed need to occur. Yet in your stubbornness, you rejected our consideration for the lives of your people and attacked our civilians. Such criminal behavior can not be tolerated, and so we acted in retribution, and in doing so killed hundreds of thousands of your people. 

Even then, we offered you peace once more. All you needed to do was submit to our demands, and yet, undeterred by our might, you sent your son and an army to their deaths. We can't be held responsible for your foolish actions. 

Allow me to make this abundantly clear to you, your armies are defeated, what remains of them have abandoned you, and your family. The fact that you are still alive is simple proof that I am not a wicked man, and have no desire to see any further bloodshed. You have two options you can either submit, or you can refuse me once more and I will be forced to remove your head. I will then give your oldest living son the same offer I have given you. Choose wisely..."

The Polish King bit his lips so hard that they bled. He had no desire to do as he was instructed, but he knew he had no choice in the matter. Thus, with a heavy sigh, he calmed himself before nodding his head in agreement. 

"Very well, I King Andrzej Jagiellon hereby surrender to the Kingdom of Austria, and agree to all of its demands."

A bitter smile etched itself upon Eckhard's visage as he heard this. After a few moments of silence, he issued a command to guards.

"Seize the girl"

The moment he said this, the guards approached Natalia and her mother where they ripped her away from her parents. She cried miserably as the guards took her away. The Polish King tried to get in the way, but Eckhard ruthlessly punched him in the gut, dropping him to his knees. With a hate filled glare the man struggled to question Eckhard's actions.

"...Why?"

In response to this, Eckhard merely sneered in disdain before turning around and signalling his soldiers to withdraw. As he was close to the exit, he finally answered the man's question. 

"Because I don't trust you. The moment I withdraw my armies from these lands, you will turn on me, I am sure of it. By doing this, you will force me to exit my well-earned retirement all so I can clean up the mess you created. Thus, to prevent such unscrupulous behavior on your behalf, I will now take your daughter as a ward for King Berengar. Hopefully, you care more for her life than you do her brother's."

Though Natalia kicked and screamed, ultimately they dragged away her from her family, and brought her back to Austria, where she would live as Berengar's ward for many years. The war with Poland-Lithuania was officially over.. As for the rest of the Eastern Coalition, they would be back with a vengeance soon enough.