Tyranny of Steel

While the Bavarians were halted at the Tyrolean border, the same could not be said for the rest of the Duchy of Austria, at the moment the Duke of Bavaria's forces were laying siege to Salzburg, the Count of the region was missing in action, nobody knew if he was alive for dead after the battle in Passau, and his eldest son was currently staying within Graz with his wife and three children. The defense of the County of Salzburg was left to the second son of Count, who was slightly more intelligent than Wolfgang but was by no means a genius, let alone a master of military strategy. As such, the region was in dire straits while it faced the Bavarian forces.

Wolfgang's younger brother Adelbrand opted to give his troops the orders to stay within their castles, and fortresses challenging the Bavarians to fight them where they had the advantage. On paper, this might seem like a good idea; however, in reality, this left the towns and villages that provided the food to the Castels, Cities, and Fortresses completely defenseless, resulting in the raiding, raping, and burning of Salzburg's common population by the invasive Bavarians. Of course, Wolfgang had no way of knowing what was going on in his family's territory, nor did he really care. After Otto arrived with his armies and secured Steiermark, the fearful man opted to stay with his in-laws, allowing the lands that should be under his protection to burn in the fires of war.

This, of course, infuriated Ava as she had yet another dispute with her little sister. Since their last catfight, Adela had been increasingly winning the little battles she had with Ava to the point where Ava would rather stay in the Castle in Salzburg than continue to be insulted in this manner. However, once more, Ava decided to provoke a fight with Adela now that she had nowhere else to return to. At the moment, the two women were standing in the Grand Hall fighting over, well frankly, nothing of importance.

"I am just saying, where is Berengar when we need him the most? He supposedly has an army capable of wiping out 30,000 men of the Teutonic Order, and yet he hides in his mountainous territory like a coward! If he is as great as a man as you claim, he should be leading the charge against the Bavarians, and yet Salzburg bleeds while he sits back and does nothing!"

Adela pouted after hearing her eldest sister slander Berengar once more and quickly countered her remark.

"Berengar is the Count of Tyrol, and as such he is currently protecting his lands from the invasion of the Bavarians; according to our father, he has completely halted the enemy's advance into Tyrol and is currently maintaining his field armies in the event that the Bavarians break past his fortifications! He is doing far more for his family's lands and the people within it than your cowardly husband!"

Now that Adela knew her sister's weakness, she made every remark a stake to the heart, which greatly wounded Ava's pride, and in all reality, she was correct. Rather than deal with his own enemies, Wolfgang hid in Graz under the protection of Otto's armies while his lands were torched and his people massacred by the Bavarians. Of course, even if he did show up to counter the enemy, there was not much an inbred dullard like Wolfgang could do about the situation. Still, Ava was greatly dissatisfied with her husband's behavior, and of course, Adela took advantage of that.

Ava was scowling at Adela's remark, yet she quickly offered a retort; after all, much like Adela, she was privy to Otto's intelligence about the situation in Austria. However, Berengar had taken borderline paranoid lengths to remove spies and scouts of other powers from his territory; with his vast intelligent network, a part of it was dedicated solely to counterintelligence, and as such, gaining information on the events in Tyrol was quite difficult. Mostly they had to go with the intercepted messages they took from the Bavarians.

"According to father's reports, Berengar is sitting back in Kufstein enjoying himself with his lover and bastard child while his armies defend his borders, just how exactly are those the actions of a Great Man as you proclaim him to be?"

Ava had a point, Berengar was not currently at the frontlines as he had always been in the past, but the reason for this was simple. His army was a well-oiled machine, and the garrisons were explicitly trained to defend their star fortresses in the most effective means possible; their commanding officers were battle-hardened veterans from Berengar's campaign in Tyrol and knew full well how to siege a fortress and how to defend one.

There would be no purpose other than morale for Berengar to stay at one of his defending forts. The men were already in high spirits due to the exceptional conditions they found themselves in and the minimal losses they suffered. No matter how many times the enemy rushed at the star fortresses, the combination of rifled and smoothbore muskets alongside the 24 lb cannons was enough to quickly repel any attempted invasion. When one could repel an invasion in under an hour and spend the rest of the day playing cards and drinking tea while munching on biscuits and cookies, there was not a lot of anxiety to be had.

If Berengar was going to enjoy luxuries while his soldiers were defending the borders, then he sure as hell was going to make sure his troops maintained some degree of luxury as well. Thus cookies, biscuits, tea, and other luxury items were shipped to his troops at the border to enjoy themselves with while they weren't in battle. There was no army in the world aside from Berengar's who could so thoroughly enjoy a siege in such a manner. Of course, due to the constant letters, Berengar had written to Adela, she was thoroughly informed of such matters, and as such, she was well prepared for such an attack by Ava.

"Hmmph, you really are lacking in intelligence. Berengar may be in Kufstein, but his armies are well supplied and even have luxuries such as properly constructed tenements for shelter, cookies, biscuits, tea, as well as meat and eggs for meals. The only reason Berengar himself is not present on the front lines of defense is that it would serve no purpose. His armies are fully capable of defending his borders without him, and he makes sure they enjoy a similar level of luxury as himself while they are doing so!"

Being thoroughly defeated in the current war for words, Ava was once more showing an ugly expression; she could not confirm nor deny whether or not Adela was telling the truth, and as such, she was quite perturbed by this. Just how exactly did Adela know so much more about the situation in Tyrol than she did? Ava honestly did not believe that Berengar cared so much for Adela that he would constantly write to her informing her of his progress and daily life. I mean, after all the man had taken a lover to enjoy his time with while Adela was stuck in Graz, just how much could he care for the girl? Nevertheless, Ava recovered from her poor attitude and once more began to sling mud in Berengar's direction.

"If he has such an easy time defending his borders, then why does he not send his field armies into Salzburg to liberate the region and end the people's suffering?"

Ava had a smug smile on her face as she asked this question, believing she had caught Adela in a corner. Nevertheless, she did not expect Adela to respond in the manner in which she did. The young adolescent girl smiled with a look of pity on her face for Ava. Clearly, the woman had nothing but boobs for brains; the answer to this question was so obvious Adela felt embarrassed to point it out to her older sister. Nevertheless, Adela masterfully executed her retort by looking at Ava as if she were a simpleton before stating the reason.

"Because Salzburg is not Berengar's responsibility; it is your husband's..."

The moment Ava heard those words, she felt as if her mind had imploded. Despite just a few moments ago believing she had cornered her little sister in this little argument they were having, Adela had so masterfully evaded her vicious strike and dealt a deathly verbal blow of her own. Realizing that she had been defeated, Ava had a hard time controlling her emotions; with every fiber of her being, she wanted to claw Adela's cute doll-like face off. Yet, she resisted the temptation to do so and instead snorted before walking away from her little sister. Ava absolutely refused to engage in this little debate any further.

Adela, on the other hand, was entirely satisfied with the result of this entirely meaningless debate, she had once more beaten her eldest sister in a war for words, and though this may seem pointless to logical and rational individuals such as men, to a young woman such as herself, this was a great moral victory.