Chapter 274: The War Part
"1000 coins!" King Donald the Second shouted, raising his hand from the armrest of his chair to signal his financial offer to the people in the room.
"No, 3000!" King Aedh MacNeill stated, responding immediately.
While King Donald was planning his maritime strategies, King Aedh MacNeill recognized that his own kingdom of Ireland was an island entirely surrounded by water.
He ruled over six thousand foot soldiers and two thousand horsemen, and he required reliable navigation to move his forces across the sea to engage in wars and maintain his power and honor among the neighboring rulers.
After all, the ability to arrive at a specific coastal location without delay was a primary requirement for initiating a successful siege against an enemy fortress in the ninth century.
The king of Norway, Erik, also entered the bidding process by offering four thousand coins, because his method of expanding his power relied on landing his spearmen on foreign beaches before the local defenders could organize a counterattack.
"4000 coins!" Vizir al-Hakam said, turning his head to look at the other kings sitting on the wooden benches.
Vizir al-Hakam did not actually intend to win the auction for the magnetic compass, because he was participating in the bidding process merely for his own entertainment.
Despite his lack of serious intent, his participation forced the other rulers to continually increase their offers, which caused the total price of the magnetic compass to rise rapidly.
The kings and the noble merchants present in the room exchanged verbal bids in increments of one thousand and two thousand coins, evaluating their collected silver and the weight of the metal stored in their strongboxes.
With all these men competing for the navigational tool, the price reached a number that exceeded the standard yearly income of a minor kingdom.
Erik decided to stop bidding when the price reached nine thousand coins.
"11,000 coins!" Aedh MacNeill declared, placing both of his hands flat on the table located in front of him.
And so, this offer remained unchallenged by the other men in the room, because eleven thousand coins was a quantity of silver that weighed over thirty pounds and represented a significant portion of the Irish treasury.
King Aedh MacNeill possessed an annual income generated from the farming of wheat, the breeding of cattle, and the collection of tolls on the river trade routes within his borders.
Spending this amount of silver meant he would need to delay the building of three new stone watchtowers along his southern coast, but he calculated that possessing the magnetic compass would provide a greater long-term military advantage by allowing his fleets to navigate the ocean safely...
The auctioneer, who sat on a wooden stool near the wall, recorded the number and the name of the winning buyer in his paper ledger using ink and a feather pen.
"The first part of the auction is over, and the war part will now begin!" Gyda announced, stepping down from the elevated platform where she had been standing during the sale of the civilian inventions.
After securing the completion of the sales for the microscope, the spark lighter, the telescope, and the magnetic compass, Gyda transitioned the focus of the event toward military equipment.
While the guards removed the water bowl and the metal needle from the display table, Gyda asked Leofric to walk forward and take her place at the front of the room.
"I greet all the rulers and commanders present in this room..." Leofric said, standing behind the wooden table and looking directly at the kings and dukes who were waiting for the next phase of the event.
Despite not holding the title of a king, Leofric possessed significant power and honor within the military hierarchy of the Iron Kingdom, and the foreign leaders gave him their full attention because they knew he directly controlled the distribution of Ragnar’s weapons.
Leofric began a discussion about war and the specific methods required to achieve victory in the ninth century.
He recounted the factual details of military engagements, explaining that combat between two armies involves moving large groups of men across varied terrain, maintaining communication between different units, and managing the physical fatigue of the soldiers.
"A ruler can win a war through strategy, rather than just relying on having a higher number of men." Leofric stated, maintaining a steady and clear voice as he delivered his speech.
With all these concepts introduced, he explained that strategy means calculating the amount of food an army consumes each day, choosing to fight on high ground where the enemy must walk uphill, and ensuring that the supply paths remain open so that reinforcements can arrive when needed.
He told the kings that armies often lose wars because their commanders fail to provide clean water or force their men to march through thick mud, which slows their movement and makes them vulnerable to attacks from the side.
He elaborated that a proper military campaign requires a supply train consisting of wooden carts pulled by oxen, which carry the heavy tents, the spare weapon shafts, and the bandages needed to treat injuries.
If a commander marches his foot soldiers too far ahead of this train of carts, the men will exhaust their personal rations within three days and lose their physical strength, rendering them incapable of holding their defensive formations when engaged by enemy forces.
And so, Leofric shifted the topic of his discussion toward the specific tools of combat, elaborating on how the weapons Ragnar creates provide a distinct advantage on the battlefield.
After all, he needed to tell them that the workers in City Titan heat the iron in brick furnaces to a specific, high temperature to remove the impurities, and then they fold the metal repeatedly on the anvil.
This process produces a material that retains a sharp edge for a longer period and does not break upon impact.
While Leofric was detailing the construction of weapons, he also explained the creation of defensive equipment.
He told the kings that Ragnar’s armor consists of metal plates that are uniform in thickness, which distribute the force of an incoming weapon strike across a wider area of the soldier’s body, preventing the weapon from piercing the skin and causing fatal injuries.
Leofric decided it was time to reveal the physical items to the buyers.
He gestured with his left hand toward a series of wooden boxes that had been brought into the room by the guards and placed on the stone floor near the display table.
Each wooden box was covered by a piece of plain linen cloth to conceal the contents from the viewers.
Despite their prior exhaustion from the high financial costs of the previous bidding session, the kings, dukes, and noble merchants leaned forward on their wooden benches, focusing their visual attention on the covered boxes.
"The first item on display is..." Leofric announced, grasping the edge of the linen cloth that covered the closest wooden box and pulling it backward to expose the object resting inside.