Chapter 124 - Northern Surrender
Chapter 124 – Northern Surrender
Berengar was currently sitting on the seat of power within Innsbruck, kneeling before him were the surviving Lords of Northern Tyrol. Having lost their regents and the overwhelming majority of the forces they could muster in their disastrous attempt to retake Innsbruck, these men were left with little support to defend against Berengar's invasion. Seeing as how these men were in control of the nearest provinces to Berengar's forces stationed at Innsbruck, they knew their days were numbered and that Tyrol would soon fall into the hands of Berengar. These relatively wise men had traveled to Innsbruck to officially surrender the North to Berengar, and by extension Duke Wilmar.
Berengar, who had a smug smile, was resting his face onto his fist while listening to the terms of surrender in which the Lords presented. At the head of the group was an older man with long white hair and a matching beard. He was a Lord who was the sworn vassal of the Baron of Landeck and was the man representing the interests of the dozen or so Northern Lords who had gathered to surrender to Berengar officially. The man kept himself standing with a cane and slowly annunciated his words.
"Viscount Berengar, on behalf of the Lords of Northern Tyrol, we present the terms of our surrender. First and foremost, we will recognize you as the reigning authority of Tyrol until Duke Wilmar has defeated Count Lothar and decides on whether or not his family will remain in power. In return for this, we want you to leave our realms in peace and not bring your war to our doorstep; enough blood has already been shed resisting your rule. "
Berengar nodded his head and smiled gracefully at the elderly man .
"I accept this condition, are there any more demands?"
The elderly Lord nodded as he continued to speak the terms that the nobility of the region had come up with to negotiate their surrender.
"As you know, we have suffered sabotage to our food storages during this conflict; as such, we would request aid in regards to the crisis we are now facing in our lands."
Berengar thought for a moment about this, while the harvest this year was exceptional for his territory, it was not to the degree where he could feed the other Viscounties and Baronies, it would be some time before he received such yields, as such, he would be forced to buy the grain at his own expense and transfer it to these Lords. However, if he did not do such a thing, many innocent people would starve to death during the remainder of the winter, and he would be directly responsible for it.
As such, he decided to bite the bullet and pay the expense to supply these regions. After all, he was waging war to gain territory and population to aid his growing ambitions. Losing a large chunk of the population of the lands he would conquer from starvation would greatly hinder his future progress. As such, Berengar nodded and agreed to this condition as well.
"Very well, I will pay for your food stores to be adequately resupplied. Anything else?"
The older man nodded his head and spoke of his last condition.
"If you win this war and successfully put down Count Lothar's rebellion, and the Duke decides to appoint Liutbert as his father's successor, we request that you honor this arrangement and do not act as a usurper! If you are truly waging war for the sake of restoring Duke Wilmar's authority to Tyrol, then you will have no problem accepting this condition!"
This put Berengar in a difficult position if he accepted this request, and he was not rewarded with the County of Tyrol for his efforts; he would have waged this war in vain, but if he denied this condition, then he was essentially making it publically known that he was actually nothing more than a usurper, and that would further embolden the remaining regions of Tyrol to continue to defy him, which would be disastrous as he did not have enough men to lay siege to every city and town in every province of Tyrol. He was relying on a few overwhelming victories at key provinces to force his enemies to the negotiating table. They would be much more likely to do so if they believed Berengar was acting in the interests of Duke Wilmar instead of himself.
Berengar tapped his finger on the armrest of the chair he was seated in several times before coming to a decision. After several moments of near-silence, Berengar finally voiced his decision on this condition.
"I accept… If that is all, then I hereby recognize the surrender of Northern Tyrol."
Seeing Berengar accept the third and final condition made many of the other noblemen smile; truthfully, aside from the Barons, and Viscounts directly under the vassalage of Count Lothar, most of the lesser noblemen who lived in Tyrol were not exactly supportive of Lothar's rebellion and had merely been following orders. With Berengar accepting the final term, they felt that he was sincerely acting as a loyal supporter of the Duke rather than a man who was using the current crisis to usurp the County of Tyrol for his own greed.
As a result of this surrender, Northern Tyrol was temporarily under Berengar's control. He planned to be marching upon Southen Tyrol and Trent shortly in order to capture the remaining territory of the County of Tyrol. For now, Berengar had to think of a way to convince Duke Wilmar to revoke the title of Count of Tyrol from the von Habsburg-Innsbruck dynasty and appoint his own dynasty as the future Counts of Tyrol. Little did he know that when Duke Wilmar finally heard the news that Northern Tyrol had surrendered to Berengar after a little over a month of combat, he would begin to favor Berengar's abilities greatly and would become far more amicable to the idea of making Berengar and the von Kufstein Dynasty the Counts of Tyrol.
For now, Berengar was in the process of resupplying his forces and giving them a much-needed rest; it would be at least a week before he would march upon the South. Luckily for him, Linde had already implemented the process of conscription, and soon enough, he would have reinforcements on the way; it would only take two more months for several thousand more men to finish basic training, by then Berengar would be able to replace his losses, and even gain a significant boost to his armies numbers.