Chapter 138: Are There any Questions?

A couple of days had passed since the battle in the trenches, and Berengar was growing anxious; he did not yet know when Lothar would fall, and he was trying to rush his campaign as quickly as possible. Eventually, the wall came crumbling down, and when it did, he ordered a full storming of the city. Covered by artillery fire and continuous volleys of the rifled muskets. Line infantry and levies alike rushed into the gap into the wall, using whatever methods available to them to take the city.

Despite the fierce assault, the defenders of the city of Trent were undeterred; though the Prince-Bishop had successfully fled, it was their duty to defend the city with their lives; hopefully, if they did so, they could enter the gates of heaven. After all, in the eyes of the city's defenders, they were fighting against a horde of heathens who sought to bring down Christiandom. Religion was a powerful tool, and the weak-minded were easily compelled to die by the propaganda of the Church.

Yet despite the zealotry of the forces who gave up their lives to defend against the besiegers, they quickly realized that they were vastly outnumbered. Levies crashed with man at arms, and line infantry fired their muskets in concentrated volleys onto the enemy positions. Blood and guts spilled across the snowy streets as the defending garrison was pushed further and further back into the city.

Those more cowardly hostiles would hide in the homes of civilians, which Berengar would immediately order their clearing. Not willing to risk the lives of his soldiers, a grenade or two were lobbed into the room before busting down the door, usually resulting in not only the death of the defender but also the civilians who cowered in their homes.

As the battle raged on, the Lords who had submitted to Berengar's authority saw the tactics Berengar was using and were quite confused; they knew Berengar had an order not to kill unarmed civilians needlessly. Yet, here, his troops were lobbing explosives into the rooms which clearly contained such people. As such, they inquired to Berengar why he was breaking his own rules of war.

Berengar's stared stoically onto the battlefield, alongside the Lords of the levies who entered the city alongside him. Violence, blood, and despair quickly spread to every corner of the city, enemies' lives were taken, and many civilians were caught in the crossfire. As Berengar gazed upon the sight, he continued his lecture on the art of war for all the nearby noblemen to hear.

"My rules of war can be summed up in a single phrase. Victory at any cost! If civilians are caught in the crossfire between two combatants, then so be it. If civilians were to take up arms and rise against me in the act of rebellion, I would take 10 heads for every rebel to prove a point. Kneel before me, or die those are your two choices."

With those words spoken, the Lords who had submitted to Berengar felt chills down their spines. However, before they could protest, Berengar began to continue his speech.

"For example, say there is a village, and within this village, there is a garrison of enemy soldiers or a group of rebels who have taken up arms against me, but also in the village, there are dozens, maybe hundreds of unarmed civilians who may or may not express support for the hostile forces. I have no qualms ordering a bombardment of the town and razing it to the ground to ensure the destruction of my enemies, especially if it will spare the lives of my soldiers."

Berengar's concept of warfare stemmed from the fact that he was well educated on the history of warfare and tactics, as well as the fact that in his previous life, he had witnessed many young men in the service of the American Armed Forces losing their lives in Afghanistan where they might have been spared if the Pentagon was not so concerned about civilian casualties. As long as a region resisted the rule of the occupying nation, in Berengar's eyes, it was considered an active warzone, and whatever cruelty was needed to bring the war to an end was completely justified.

The battle continued to wage on, but this time Berengar was not at the front lines. Instead, he lectured the nobles about his vision of warfare and which extents were justifiable and unjustifiable in the pursuit of victory. As such, Berengar decided to move onto the actions he had restricted.

"As long as there is resistance in a region, it is a war zone, and any measure necessary to achieve a swift victory is justifiable. However, if the enemy surrenders, they should be afforded proper dignity unless, of course, they are rebels, rebellions can not be tolerated, and a brutal show of force is necessary to crush the spirit of those who believe in their cause. As for the civilians in the region, once the fighting has ended, no harm should be brought to them, for at that point, you have successfully conquered the region, and they are now your subjects. There are exceptions to this, but that revolves around a series of political actions, mainly regarding colonialism, and I will not get into the complexity of that topic at this moment."

As Berengar brought his rant to a close, the Lords gazed upon the city, which was lit ablaze by explosives. When combined with the corpses of the enemy soldiers, and the civilians caught in the crossfire whose blood flowed into the snow-covered streets, created an image of armageddon. When witnessing such destruction, and death Berengar turned around to face the Lords with a chilling smile on his otherwise immaculate visage before asking them the question on his mind.

"Are there any questions?"

The several Lords who had submitted to Berengar's authority and allied with him to crush the Southern Rebellion shook their heads in silence, with a look of horror spread across their faces. For a man to be smiling in the face of such a chaotic scene, only a monster would be able to do such a thing. Or so they thought, though Berengar was happy that his plans were progressing, internally, he could not help but sigh to himself at the needless loss of life. If his enemies were not so stubborn and surrendered the city to him the moment the walls came down, the region's citizens would not have suffered to such a degree.

Of course, the Lords had no way of knowing what Berengar was thinking inside the labyrinth that was his mind, and as such, they felt an overwhelming sense of dread, inspiring them to never take up arms against the man in front of them, for in their minds Berngar was a demon in the flesh of a man.