Tyranny of Steel
chapter-205

After the battle in the fields outside of the city of Vienna, the Bavarian General who led the forces in Austria was no longer eager to fight Berengar and the overwhelming power of his armies, for to do so meant certain death. While Berengar marched every closer to Vienna's gates, the Bavarian General was discussing with his remaining commanders as to the best course of action.

A group of Bavarian noblemen was currently bickering about their options; one man, in particular, was tall and robust and voiced his thoughts in a boisterous manner.

"We must defend the Capital with everything we have! We have bled too much to accept defeat! If Vienna is to fall back into the control of the Austrians, then we shall make sure the enemy commander dies with us!"

However, after speaking his passionate speech, the Lord found that not a single person within the room agreed with his opinion; instead, he was instantly chastised by another nobleman who appeared to be the exact opposite of the tall, strong Lord in appearance. This feeble and meek Viscount quickly retorted

"Have you gone mad? Our army is defeated, we have even pulled out all of our forces from the southern Counties for this battle, and Berengar's ungodly weapons thoroughly smashed us! This is a war that can not be won! I suggest we surrender; Berengar is known to show mercy to those who willingly submit to his will; it is the best course to escape with our lives!"

However, the other nobleman was fearful of the consequences of such actions and, as such, pointed out his concerns at the first opportunity.

"Do you believe Duke Dietger will be merciful if we surrender Vienna and pull out all of our forces from Austrian lands? He will be outraged that we so thoroughly screwed up his conquest! Either way, we will face certain death; it is better to go out fighting!"

The two noblemen continued to bicker among themselves as the current General of all Bavarian forces within Austria listened to the opinions of his various commanders while entranced in deep thought. He did not know the best course of action, but the odds of survival were much higher by retreating. They had already lost far too many men to hold onto Austria, even if they successfully defended Vienna.

Eventually, the debate reached the point where the two noblemen were about to clash with one another, and thus the Bavarian General spoke up about the decision he had made.

"Raise the white flag; when Berengar arrives in Vienna, I will negotiate safe passage for all Bavarians within Austrian lands, back to Bavaria. The war is lost, and I will take full responsibility for our surrender!"

Hearing that the General would accept the blame for their monumental loss, the other noblemen instantly sighed in relief. As such they were much more amicable to the idea of retreating to Bavaria; with that said the meeting was concluded, and the commanders set the task for the few defenders left in the city to raise the white flag.

...

It took Berengar a few days to arrive at Vienna after his victory outside the city, mainly because he had to round up all of the equipment and bodies of his dead soldiers. Berengar would never leave such valuable technology to be scavenged and reverse engineered; as such, he spent the time to recover what was lost after every battle. More importantly, he regained his own soldier's bodies so that they could be afforded a proper burial back in Tyrol.

After arriving at the gates of Vienna, Berengar was quite shocked to see the white flag was raised. His overwhelming performance on the battlefield and his assassinations of the enemy commanders had frightened the Bavarians to the point of negotiating surrender. Of course, Berengar would never allow a white peace; he would force the Bavarian General to sign a heavily punitive peace agreement that would force severe stipulations upon the Bavarians for their crimes against the Austrian people.

If Duke Dietger did not accept such terms that his General would sign, it would give Berengar yet another valid Cassus Belli to invade Bavaria when he was ready to do so. Of course, it would be a few years before he could secure his reign in Austria and stabilize the situation; he was also expecting some Papal backlash in the coming years in response to his rapid rise to power. Thus he would not further expand his territory until all internal and external problems had been dealt with.

Berengar quickly gave an order to Arnulf as he gazed upon the white flag flying brilliantly into the clear blue sky above the mighty city walls of Vienna.

"Fetch me, my white flag, we will force these Bavarians to pay an exorbitant price for their crimes in Austria. It is time for some aggressive negotiations."

Arnulf quickly nodded and gave the order for the troops to fetch the white flag; after doing so, it was brought to Berengar, where he held it and rode out with his host, which consisted of himself, Arnulf, several of his commanders, and the necessary troops to secure his safety, all of which were battle-hardened grenadiers.

Seeing that Berengar and his host were riding out with a white flag, the gates of Vienna opened, and the Bavarian General rode out with his host, where they would meet the Tyrolean forces in the middle ground between Berengar's army and the city defenders.

After reaching a middle ground, the two parties stuck their white flags into the ground and began negotiating the Bavarians' terms of surrender. The Bavarian General was the first to speak his mind upon seeing Berengar in the flesh.

"I am Count Kuonrat von Roth, I assume you are the fabled Count Berengar von Kufstein?"

Berengar smiled as he nodded his head before responding to the man's question.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Berengar's tone was overtly sarcastic, to the point where Kuonrat merely rolled his eyes upon hearing it and began to declare his intentions.

"As Marshal of the Bavarian forces in Austria, I hereby declare my intent to surrender to you Count Berengar von Kufstein under the conditions that all Bavarian soldiers left in Austrian lands be allowed safe passage back to our homeland!"

Berengar's lips began to curl wickedly as he heard this, and he thus began his intense negotiation.

"I will allow that under the condition that reparations are paid for the damages dealt to Austria by your armies and that the realm of Bavaria and its reigning authority swear by God not to invade our lands for at least another five years!"

The General's face scrunched as he heard these terms; he did not have the authority to establish these concessions on his own fully, they would have to be brought to Duke Dietger to do so, but being aware of Berengar's personality if he did not accept some concessions, then he and his men would not be allowed to return home alive. Thus the most he could do was agree to these terms and hoped the Duke Dietger honored them. As such, the man sighed heavily before addressing the point of reparations.

"How much do you desire to be paid?"

Hearing the man so easily accept Berengar's terms and begin to negotiate a price, Berengar knew the man was desperate to return to Bavaria and thus started with an absurd figure.

"A hundred tons of silver, I believe that is a price well worth the damage you have caused to Austria! You can pay it in installments over five years if necessary."

Berengar's whole intent was not to receive payment or secure a peace agreement but to give him an overwhelming justification for his future invasion of Bavaria. Though the damage destruction wrought upon Austria was in itself justification enough, he did not want to appear as a warmonger so early in his rise to power and thus needed to look like he was responding to a broken treaty rather than as an act of conquest.

When the Bavarian General heard such an unreasonable demand, his jaw nearly dropped; there was no way Bavaria could afford such reparations, a hundred tons was 200,000 pounds. That weight in silver was an astronomical figure. As such, he quickly began to debate with Berengar over the figure he cited.

"At most, we can afford 10 tons; 100 is simply being unreasonable!"

Berengar scoffed at the man's negotiation tactic and instead criticized him.

"You have butchered Austria's population and devastated her lands through scorched earth tactics; the amount of time and money it will take to repair the damage is close to the figure I have mentioned. You will either agree to my terms, or I will lay siege to this city and every fort your people still occupy, killing every Bavarian I come across!"

Berengar's voice had risen to a state filled with fury, and thus his tone had greatly frightened the Bavarian General; this was the outcome he feared the most. There were still thousands of Bavarians left in Austria, and they had already lost most of the 50,000 men sent into the region. Such a loss was monumental in this era, as it significantly depleted Bavaria's ability to raise income. Thus after careful consideration, the General nodded his head and sighed deeply.

"Alright, under these terms I Count Kuonrat von Roth surrender to you, Count Berengar von Kufstein."

Both men knew in their hearts that this agreement would not be honored and that war would eventually break out again, but what this managed to do was secure the Bavarians safety back to their homeland to focus on their enemies to the North and buy Berengar enough time to stabilize his rule across Austria. Thus they were both happy with the arrangement.

After hearing the man accept his terms, Berengar smiled before declaring the war to be officially over.

"Very well, you have at most three months to fully retreat from Austrian lands; if you remain any longer, we will consider the treaty to be violated, and the fighting will resume. I promise you, if such an occasion were to happen, not a single Bavarian within Austria would survive my wrath!"

Kuonrat nodded his head in agreement and pledged Berengar

"I promise you; there will be no Bavarians remaining within Austria's borders by the withdrawal date you have given."

After hearing this, Berengar smiled before saying one last thing.

"Good, I will leave you to your lonesome; for the time being, you must have many things to manage if you are to withdraw from Austria. Farewell"

Throughout this entire exchange, a scribe had written down the treaty, and received signatures from both men, when it was fully signed into an agreement, Berengar departed from the field, with his copy of the agreement in his hands.

As for the Bavarian General, he put on a facade and smiled at Berengar as he left the field and returned to his army. It was only after Berengar had exited earshot that Kuonrat voiced his concerns to his nearby commanders.

"Prepare for a full withdraw from Austria; I want every Bavarian soldier who still holds breath to retreat from these lands as quickly as possible!"

One of the commanders had a worried expression on his face before asking the obvious question on his mind.

"What do we tell his Grace?"

Kuonrat sighed heavily before giving the order.

"For now... tell him nothing; we will inform him of our surrender only after we have fully withdrawn."

With those words said, the Bavarians began to prepare for a full retreat, one that would signify the ending of the war within Austria. Berengar and his allies had been victorious, and the young Count of Tyrol had fulfilled his promise to end the war before the leaves fell from the trees.