While Larys and his party were travelling to Xiangyang to have a meeting with King Gu, there was another meeting going on back at the Luxenberg Palace in Hannover. With the recent sinking of his ships, King Victor ordered his loyal vassals to give counsel on what a cross-continental war would look like.
Every single vassal was in attendance for the meeting. Victor's brother-in-law, Duke Jacque Reuss was one of the first members to arrive as well as his maternal grandfather Duke Lucious Cassell. Then followed Victor's father-in-law Cedric Dupont. Dukes Verdant, Godert and Gundenvarg.
Field Marshal Wellesley, Field Marshal Schwarzenberg, Marshal Bessières, Marshal Soult and Marshal Lefebvre also took up the call to convene in Hannover. All of the generals remained where they were stationed, this was to ensure stability and reduce a big cluster of high-ranking commanders in one place. It would be easy to cripple the military if all of them met a tragic end at the same time.
In the meeting room, all of the men gathered to discuss the possibility of war with another continent. "Gentlemen, thank you all for answering my summons. As you all know, a detachment from the main fleet was sunk while guarding the Bulgar-Simbar Straight. We have not confirmed who the actual culprit is, but we have a growing suspicion that it was the Kingdom of Gu," Victor said confidently.
There was a slight grumbling in the room as they quietly debated with each other. Victor's father-in-law, Cedric Dupont was quick to ask the first question. "Would it not be easy to figure out who they were? Surely the survivor saw what nationality they were, or maybe they could see their sails?"
Field Marshal Schwarzenberg responded with the information that the sailor had recounted. "The survivor mentioned he could not see who the attackers were. When they boarded our last remaining ship, he was already floating away on some driftwood. All he could identify was that they were speaking a foreign language."
This answer caused some more grumbling. Victor watched as his country's vassals grumbled and speculated. He did not want this to go on for too long, so he interjected and tried to spin their meeting into a more productive approach.
"How about instead of worrying about trying to figure out who attacked us, why not try and figure out how we could approach a whole new scale of warfare? I have thought about it briefly, but we would need a lot more ships to ferry across our army, and depending on the continent we would require a vast amount of supplies. Could we make it work?"
Victor's question left the room silent, each of them slowly internalising a viable idea of how a war across the ocean would work. "My Liege, in theory, it could be possible, even if we do not possess the number of ships to ferry the entire army," Field Marshal Wellesley stated.
"Let us say that our enemy was the Kingdom of Gu. We could use our entire navy to ferry a few corps to a port city and capture it. Once captured, we would use the city to create a toe hold, so that we can have an entry point into the country. This would mean we could do multiple trips of ferrying troops over."
Wellesley's words stoked a positive reaction from the important men gathered. Marshal Soult even built on Wellesley's idea. "I concur with the Field Marshal. If we found the right location, we may only need two, potentially three corps to manage the defence. Ideally, we could catch them off-guard and that would delay the time for them to muster an army."
Everyone seemed to back the idea, apart from Marshal Lannes. "My Liege, it is risky to abandon a few corps in a foreign continent temporarily. Not only would we need to consider the possibility of them facing an enormous army, but there is also the threat of rebellion. We do not speak their language, and there are only so many interpreters that we have at our disposal."
Marshal Lannes had made a valid point, this swayed and divided the opinions of the people gathered. Although the room was divided, this meeting had proven fruitful for Victor. He had no idea how a cross-continental war would work and now all the ideas bouncing around the meeting room were building his knowledge.
"Gentlemen, please simmer down. This is currently hypothetical, we have not confirmed anything just yet, however, that is not to say that we should not be ready for it, just in case," Said Victor.
The room was in agreement with that and the rest of the meeting was to discuss what was needed and how it would be carried out. This involved troop movements, supply logistics and planning the expansion of the navy. Many of the commanders were able to come up with a contingency plan if their soldiers were called upon to fight on another continent.
For some of the senior vassals present, the looming threat of a continental war was concerning. For the likes of Duke Cassell and Duke Gundenvarg, they could never have fathomed the possibility of warfare on such a grand scale. There had never been a war of this scale ever in the history of Syronnea.
Truthfully, it terrified them. As the Kingdom of Luxenberg grew they felt more and more useless, perhaps this was the grim realisation of old age. Both Dukes were a shell of their former and glorious selves. Jasper Gundenvarg had to now use a walking cane to assist him, while Lucious Cassell was beginning to enter the final years of his life.
Neither of them could ever predicted the evolution that the continent had been through. Families with rich histories crumbled in the wake of Victor's ascension to power. A continent that had not been united in over a century, now found itself forcefully united by someone who had barely scraped into his thirties.
Once the meeting had concluded, both Dukes took their time to reflect on their life leading up to this point. The time for the changing of the guard was nearing and soon they would be succeeded.
While they were reflecting, the time for the meeting with King Gu was drawing near.