A Mighty Fortress Read Online Free PDF Page B

thinking about why we made the changes we’ve made and looking for ways to make what we’ve already accomplished even more effective.”
    “That’s been my impression, too,” Merlin acknowledged.
    “As a matter of fact, I haven’t seen a sign of what I was most worried about,” Green Valley said. Merlin’s eyebrow rose again, and the baron shrugged. “Charis has never had anything anyone in his right mind would call an ‘army,’ Merlin. We had a navy second to none, and nobody wanted to face our Marines at sea, but in terms of anything a land power would describe as an army, Charis wasn’t even on the map.
    “Here in Chisholm, though,” he continued, sitting back in his chair, his expression intent, “the Army’s clearly the senior ser vice. It was the Army that broke the power of the great nobles and provided the stability here at home that let the Empress’ father—and her, in her turn, of course—build the Kingdom’s prosperity. King Sailys may have started building a navy as soon as he could, since Chisholm needed it to protect its commerce against Corisandian privateers, but it was only the prosperity created by the Army which let him do that. So while we Charisians have tended to lavish our admiration and pride—not to mention the dragon’s share of our wealth—on the Navy, it’s been the other way around in Chisholm.”
    He shrugged again.
    “Under those circumstances, what I was most afraid of was that the Chisholmians would automatically reject our advice about the new tactics. After all, what could a bunch of Marines know about the real conditions and requirements of fighting a war on land? In a lot of ways, that would only have been a reasonable question, too. For that matter, I imagine more than a few Charisian naval officers felt exactly that way where the Chisholmian Navy was concerned, when you come down to it. And the fact that it was our Marines who did all the actual fighting in Corisande—that their Army was completely left out, sitting here at home—could very well have fanned their resentment. Oh, they said they accepted the logistics arguments. That they understood we could only supply so many men across so many miles of ocean, which meant we couldn’t afford to take along anyone who wasn’t already equipped and trained with the new weapons. But I was afraid that, what ever they might have said, they would have resented being treated like some kind of farm team and left sitting in the dugout while the big- league players went off to war.
    “As a matter of fact, that was what I expected to happen, and not just because of any petty concern about the Army’s ‘honor,’ either. You know as well as I do that prestige—and the ability to point to past accomplishments—plays a big role in how big a bud get an army or a navy can expect to see coming its way. This is a professional army, with a professional officers corps, Merlin. They have to have been worried that being left home while someone else did all the fighting was going to . . . adversely effect their career prospects, one might say. I’ve seen a distinct undertone of resentment out of quite a few civilian Chisholmian bureaucrats who seem to think Charis has gotten an unfair share of the power and advantages under the Empire, so I don’t think it would have been unreasonable for the Army to’ve felt that way.”
    “I know.” Merlin nodded. “I’ve seen the same thing—from the bureaucrats, I mean—although, for some strange reason, they seem a bit more leery about showing their resentment around the Emperor or the Empress.”
    “No, really? I wonder why that might be?” Green Valley mused with an innocent smile, and Merlin snorted.
    “As I say, I really was concerned about the Army’s possible resentment over being ‘left out’ of the Corisande campaign,” Green Valley went on. “And I have seen a little bit of it, but not very much, thank Langhorne.”
    “So they don’t seem to be upset about the