Once Percy was handed over to them, Derek didn’t attack at all this year.

Come to the end of October, Dominic came over, “it looks like Derek is having trouble with Ludnus, as soon as he left the city it divulged into riots.”

“Really?”

“Yes, there were many loyalists to the crown within the city, so he has been stuck sorting it out. Even if he wraps up everything today, as it’s the end of October, he won’t move out until early spring.” Dominic explained

“You mean he could interrupt our planting season?” Fred asked.

“Well, not really,” George chimed in. “He would be planning to conquer this land; he wouldn’t touch the fields during the assault.”

“I see.” Fred said, “so any ideas on our next plan of action, we are currently at wartime, and this can cause unrest amongst the populous.”

“At the moment it shouldn’t be a problem until spring now, it’s not like the city is on lockdown”

___

The first ship was finally built, it was one of the early frigates.

“Do we have enough sailors for these ships?” Fred asked they needed 100 men for this ship, 70 sailors 20 marines and 10-man command staff.

“We have started recruiting sailors, but we would only be able to man 1 galleon 4 lightships for now, but what about these marines.”

“The first musketeers I am going to have trained as marines, we now have 60 Muskets and have made two platoons of 30 already.”

Fred got aboard the new ship for its maiden voyage, it was being escorted alongside 4 other vessels, one an old ship that had a skeleton crew, once they were out in the sea, the crew would be ditching it and the ship will become target practice.

“Are you sure we should be getting on for its first voyage?” Earl Daniel asked.

“Yes, I need to make sure we can smooth out any problems,” Fred answered. Fred was boarding it with Daniel, Henry, and Mendes. As well as 30 Musketeers. After the war, Fred was going to have the musketeers join the navy as marines, and they might be used as marines during the war.

They had finally set sail from the port, with the ship only unfolding the bottom row of sails to match the fleets speed, however, they weren’t going at their full speed either as they navigate out of port waters.

It was a full-rigged ship, meaning it had 3 masts with 5 square sails each, with Jib sails running between them. The ship was equipped with 20 demi-culverins and 16 sakers. Fred had expanded the cannon blueprints and with the experiences gained by the craftsmen, they could start on better cannons.

Most of the cannons on the walls were undergoing a replacement. This extended period of peace gave them a good chunk of time to swap out the rest.

Next to it was the current styles used by this world. 1 full mast, one or two half-mast, and each mast had 1 sail and the masts weren’t even half as tall.

“Are you sure we won’t topple over?” The captain said, he was a veteran seafarer and was transferred over to this ship to train the sailors.

“Not as likely as your other ships.”

“Are we going to be able to keep up with the fleet?” the captain asked again.

Fred just smiled, “Give the order to all vessels, full mast.” They felt a little jolt as the masts were coming down, something the captain didn’t feel on other vessels, then he understood why they were speeding away from the fleet.

The other vessels were a standard representation of the latest technology in this world; however, they could only go 2-4 knots on average, and 6 if the winds were strong, but this vessel was travelling 12 knots under normal winds.

After 10 minutes they were out of sight to the fleet, “Helmsmen, bring us around.” Fred ordered. “Return to the fleet.”

“Aye-Aye cap… er,”

“Admiral, go with that, for now, to make it easier.”

“Aye-Aye Admiral.”

He swung the ship around at a tighter corner too, compared to his experience.

It took them 2 minutes to spot the fleet and another 4 to meet up.

“Give the order to prepare the target, and Bring the… let’s name this ship DES Brandon, to 500 meters starboard from the target. And load 3 heavy cannons starboard as well.”

“DES? Brandon?” Mendes asked.

“DES, Duke of Essex’ ships, and Brandon, I was thinking of naming the forts up north as they grow to become small towns, And I was thinking of a naming system for my ships, towns for lightships, county capitals for the heavy ships,” Fred responded.

“What made you think of that?”

“Well, the military and navy need tradition to boost the morale of the men and give us prestige what better way to start a tradition.”

___

They brought the ships into place and folded the sails of both ships to reduce speed.

The target practice was now abandoned in the middle of the ocean, its skeleton crew boarded another ship.

“Right men,” Fred had all the men above deck for a presentation, par 3 to fire the cannons below deck. “These demi-culverin cannons, as you’ve seen on land fire roughly 1500 meters, and can fairly accurately hit a stone wall. That ship in the distance is 500 meters, 1/3 of the distance of the cannon effective range. What do you think will happen when the men below, fire the cannons at it?”

“It will hit the target.” One sailor shouted while many of the younger sailors agreed.

The captain and the older veterans shook their heads, they too were sceptical of the cannon’s efficiency on water, but from how this demonstration was going, it seems the young master knew the limitations as well.

“Fire!” Fred shouted; he gave them the command to stagger fire the cannons on his order at 2-second intervals.

The first shot went straight into the water at 100 meters from DES Brandon, the second 100 meters in front of the target and the third overshot the ship, the closets the round got was 30 meters above the mast of the ship.

But the worst part was if height was perfect for all three shots, only one would hit, the other two landing behind the ship.

“We are firing at a sitting duck, with the largest area presented to us, and we are as stationary as possible.” Fred addressed the crowd. They were shocked from how bad the shots were, “Cannon crew 3, 4, and 5 starboard, go and load your cannons, sailors bring us into 100 meters starboard facing.”

“Aye-aye, Admiral.” The men rushed off and swung the ship around the other side of the target.

In the next shots, Fed had all but the gunners present on the top deck to view.

After the 3 cannons shot again this time one hit and the other two were quite close to hitting as well.

“As you can see, Range is very limiting for the cannons on the sea, the maximum effective range is from 85-90 meters, but ideally you want to be 60-70, as it would be very rare to hit a stationary target.” Fred explained, “Go bring us in closer to 70 meters and this time load all starboard cannons on the lower deck.”

This time he went below deck to the cannon crew, “Before firing, can someone answer me, what happened to this ship when we fired one cannon?”

One of the crew sergeants answered, “The ship tilted over,”

“Yes, correct, it wasn’t much, but enough to notice, now answer me this, what would happen if we fired all of the cannons at the same time?”

“We could capsize the ship,” one of them answered.

“Correct, to mitigate this, the gunnery captain will give the order front or back, the lieutenant of their respected side will then start the first cannon from either front or back. Then each cannon will perform a staggard fire pattern. Going forward or backwards down the ship, so we don’t capsize. Everyone understands?”

“Aye-Aye Admiral.” They shouted. Most of them probably wouldn’t understand or remember without drill practice.

“Over to you captain.”

“How would I know to start it from front or back? Admiral.”

“So, most of the time start from front to back, you only really need to start it from the back if the target ship is behind and is starting to overtake, as if you start from the front, the ship might not be in sight of the last cannon when it comes to his turn.”

“I see.” Their first volley round went poorly as Fred expected, the men were firing under the call of different sergeants and some of the cannons fired at the same time.

“Right, all men do 20 push-ups.”

“What?” they all groaned and moaned,

“Now, that is an order. Captain, stay with me, it will be your duty to copy what I’m doing now.”

“Ok.” The captain responded.

The sailors found a space for themselves and started push-ups.

After they were done, Fred ordered “Reload your cannons. Prepare for next shot.”

After this round 7 out of the 10 cannons messed up, Fred called these crews out. “Each of you has fired out of line so another 20 push-ups.”

“Why are we getting punished for the gunner’s mistake?” one of the leaders asked.

“Your team has to do 30 push-ups now. Chop-chop.”

The Loader heard disproving groans from his teammates at him.

Once they were done, Fred addressed the sailors again, “If you don’t want to be hated by your teammates you better improve your discipline and effort.”

___

They spent the week out at sea. Going over practise drills and so forth, the practice target was Swiss cheese at the end of it and was completely collapsed. They returned to see a second built ship.

“What are you going to name this one?” Mendes asked.

“DES Well-wisher,” Fred responded.

“Well-wisher? and which fort are you going to name with that?”

“The fort on the other side of the river, it houses the first well across the river, a proof of our expansion into uncharted land. I heard a lot of adventures toss a Silver coin into that well before they head off into the forests on their adventure. So, Fort Wellwish.”

“I see.”

The crew of the Brandon split in half for the two ships to copy over the training drills to the new men, as Fred wouldn’t be able to continue training them. This was coming to the end of December.

___

On the last day, they opened up the new grand hall that had finished construction in Spring this year. A lot of locals had heard about the tradition of Fred’s family and started their own celebrations in the city now, and, as usual, merchants had smelt the fresh blood of profit.

In the grand hall, it was the first time Earl Daniels, as well as Baron Mendes & Henry, experienced such a thing, they had heard it through the grapevine from their wives and sisters who frequented social activities with Thomas’ and Edward’s wives.

The Wives had pestered them about starting it and now the three stationed in Bristol, at the celebration’s source, the wives could visit for winter.

This year, Fred had managed to find an evergreen tree to use as the centre of attraction for the Grand Hall. He used Light Mana Crystals as baubles, with wires going through the tree meeting at the bottom where they could power it with neutral mana crystals.

He had also decorated the wiring to look like tinsel.

___

Near the end of planting season, scouts rushed back to the city from Oxford, the Norman colonial army was en route to capture the town.

“So, it begins,” Fred said.

They were in the Grand Hall which had been turned into a war room with a miniature 3d model of the city. Fred had carpenters and Cartographers make the model of the city and the extended 6 miles surrounding it since august.

“It looks like it,” Mendes responded.

“How do we get them to attack the fort and not the city walls?” Daniel asked.

“It would be preferable for them to attack the city walls, first off, the town is at the mercy of the fort, second, due to the flat terrain, we could easily get a few naval bombardments in.” Fred responded.

“Did the scouts get a numbers-count?” Baron Henry asked.

“They Claimed 6000 men.”

“That’s more than double, we have only 2500 men,”

“That’s not all of their men, the Counties on the south coast haven’t been levied, and I doubt he left Ludnus with nothing,” Dominic said.

“That’s fine,” Fred said. “Most of the troops are from the mainland, they are banking on this ordeal, with their truce with Burgundy and the duchy of Lorie valley separating Normandy and Aquitaine, they can afford to send them over, in fact, I believe they were planning to take Albion to stage their own independence.”

“What do you mean?” Daniel asked.

“They are pissing off the king too much with this, and they have sent 1/3 their army from the mainland over, if Burgundy offered the colonies of the east midlands area, with a quick war for the empire’s lands north of that and the expansion we did on our side, they could form Albion into a kingdom.”

“But why would Burgundy help them in that?” Daniel asked again

“An ally for independence,” Mendes commented.

“But what if they fail, the king will not let them off?” Daniel asked.

“They can either perform exceptionally well in the war with Burgundy or join them,” Fred responded.

“But how can you come to that conclusion?” Daniel asked Fred.

“You’d have to be thinking the same thing,” Mendes answered for Fred. He remembered the conversation Fred had about heading north afterwards to contribute to the war with Burgundy.

Fred didn’t answer and just looked at the model on the ground.

“Ha, no way, Impossible you would have to have a stronger army than the mainland, the family won’t support you.” Daniel laughed at Fred’s naivety.

Mendes looked at Daniel like he was an idiot. Daniel looked confused. “What?”

“He cannot match up to the mainland’s army, but the army needs to get here to demonstrate that strength.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Fred doesn’t need Military supremacy if he has naval supremacy. And also, the family may not abandon Fred, Burgundy would take us as an ally, we don’t have much bad blood, and they would take any help they can get weakening the kingdom.”

Isabella and George were giving Fred thoughtful looks. Fred hadn’t mentioned anything like this directly, but the stories Fred told them about, of an independent Albion, spanning a global empire, he always had a shine in his eye whenever he talked about it.

“But…” Daniel was about to rebuke Mendes when he suddenly had a flash of memory of the ships he boarded.

“This kingdom is on the brink of collapse; Toulouse has a strong foundation in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. Even the duke resides on the border fort there, and with an unsteady foothold in Middle Graecia and the Mediterranean islands they might not want to fight with Burgundy for fear of losing those lands.”

“Nobody knows what the future will hold, but one thing is certain, the dice has been cast.” Fred finally commented. “Furthermore, are the houses not in the perfect position to become king.”

“What do you mean?” Baron Henry asked this time.

“The Angevin Kingdom, the former house, my mother and father, can reunite de Plantagenet and De Ansul if they were heir successors, as well, isn’t Edward’s wife an offspring of the earl of de Anjou.”

“The law forbodes intermarriage between dukes, and we are not that strong.” Baron Henry quickly tried to deny it, the succession was still up for debate for the dukedoms.

“The law, enforced by the King, who is weak, is rumoured to be injured and is already involved in 1 secession war, potentially 2 and a duchy who seeks to lose too much to help, with the western emperor looking for a time to strike.” Fred explained, “We are already even with Toulouse staying neutral, it is in their best interest to side with Burgundy-savoy.”

“I would have to bring this to the attention of the dukes.”