Chapter 5
"I hope you're aware that conditions over winter will not be very salubrious," said Longin.
"I hope we don't end up spending three days on a platform under a bridge with some idiot who is a captive and so sacred, but I do know what to do," said Jadwiga. "Jurij drilled us all with ruthless efficiency on how to survive the curiosities nature sees fit to inflict upon the world to test our preparedness. I also swim like a fish, for Helena taught me, and I can fell a tree and drive a pile as well as any of the shovel-masters."
"Oh. Well, I am glad you have some idea," said Longin. She wasn't about to be scared off enough to leave at the Lubomirski Palace to be sent home.
"I'm not delicate and weedy, you know," said Jadwiga. "Any more than Queen Krystyna is."
"No, she's very capable," said Longin.
"Are you in love with her?" asked Jadwiga, bluntly.
"I... no," said Longin. "Fascinated? Certainly. Do I like her? A very great deal. But I am... uncomfortable with her... romantic ecumenism."
"I don't get how a girl can fancy girls either," said Jadwiga. "That was what you meant, wasn't it?"
"Er... yes," said Longin. "Your choice of dress is not, then, a reflection of Queen Krystyna's choice of lifestyle?"
"No, it's just that it's more comfortable," said Jadwiga. "And more practical for a military lifestyle. And if nobody questions who your page is, you won't have to find any long-winded explanations."
"I suppose not," he said.
Jadwiga firmly suppressed the urge to play with his long, delicately curling moustaches whose ringlets bounced intoxicatingly when he talked.
That might be something she could allow herself to do when he was more used to having her around. She was in no hurry; she had already waited for him to come home.
She would dig in for a lengthy siege.
oOoOo
Longin had to be impressed by the fortitude the princess showed in travelling east at speed, and did not turn a hair to sleep in military barracks.
At last they reached the point of road building, and he was able to pick up the little knight and swing him round, and be directed towards the road head.
Andrzej Kmicic wiped the sweat off his brow.
"We're going very well, Pan Podbipięta, as you can see," he said. "Colonel Wołodyjowski is a wonderful man, and he has been training us. I am ashamed to think that I was a good warrior before I knew him; now I am becoming a fair warrior, and a competent engineer."
"Your reward is in a letter from the Lady Oleńka," said Longin, passing it over. "She also bade me bring her personal greetings that she hoped that you were ready to consider settling down, perhaps after Easter."
Kmicic changed colour several times.
"It would be an honour, if she is also ready," he said. "Will you excuse me to read this?"
"Certainly," said Longin.
Kmicic took himself into the privacy of his own quarters.
"He is your opposite," said Jadwiga.
"I beg your pardon?" said Longin.
"He lets all show on the surface, though I think he is not as shallow as he looks. You appear serene, but you are deep, I think."
"It does not always do, to be too careless of showing one's emotions," said Longin.
"They should be kept for those closest to you," said Jadwiga. "But you were not made to be an island, or a man of ice. It does not harm to let the ice crack a little."
"I am afraid that if it cracks too much at the wrong time, there might be a deluge."
"Then those who skate on the ice should be prepared to drown."
"You speak nonsense!"
"Do I? Well, then, I apologise."
oOoOo
Jadwiga was able to admire her lord's strength as he loaned it to the road builders, as he had done to help get Jurko's bridge finished. Indeed, his strength was a great help bridging water courses on the way, and Jadwiga had no doubt that the road would be driven through, despite the mess of the rasputitsa, before Christmas. There was time, too, to build passing places, for when vehicles found themselves head to head, which would form the basis of a second width when the road was widened.
And when they reached Smoleńsk? Then there was the big, still forest which guarded Russia, the other side of Smoleńsk. And a big, still forest was a big, still resource of road building material. And the more that was felled, the harder it was to hide brigands or Russian partisans inside it. Such peasant villages as they came upon should be treated kindly and well, so they knew which side to follow when it came to war.
And if they were happy with the Poles, word of a road would not even reach Moskwa before the road did, and by then, it was too late. And of course, what could a road be but a convenience for trade? One might be surprised if the Moskale seemed to resent it.
She might regret missing Christmas with her family in Warszawa, but on the other hand, she was learning a great deal, and she might enjoy the Advent services, knowing that she joined in the time honoured worship along with all who were dear to her.
And Michał Wołodyjowski had brought in his men too, to speed things along.
oOoOo
Dear Jurij,
This should reach you before Christmas. I am writing on behalf of your cousin, Symeon Kurcewicz, who felt I could handle the subtleties of language better.
Andrzej Kmicic and his men are acquitting themselves well now they are starting to understand the concept of self-discipline. Symeon has taken them on to start building roads, of a more permanent nature than corduroy roads. I understand you tasked him to put a good paved road to Smoleńsk from Orsza. He decided that hard baked brick would do the job well, as Orsza has clay suitable for brick-making. I give the lad credit [oh how young he seems] he listened to brick makers, and told them what he wanted. The bricks are somehow harder than house brick, some arcane addition to the clay I suppose, or the way they cook them. Andrzej probably knows! He has called the road the ten million brick road, which he reckons is about how many bricks were used. It's by way of an experiment to see how well it stands up to traffic, because as he pointed out, there are often clays for brick making where one would have to ship in stone; and if it needs cobbles on top, then at least there will be a good bed for it. I'm impressed by his industry and innovation; God stayed my hand for a reason when I duelled him and did not kill him. You can pass on to his Oleńka that he has redeemed himself thoroughly. They made a good job of it, and with a camber to run water into ditches at the side, which have gulleys leading into pipes of the same hard brick or clay. I loaned him a couple of companies of hussars, and they've built the road in ninety-five days, which is pretty amazing.
Andrzej is reading over my shoulder and said to tell you it's a mix of clay and shale cooked in a very high temperature kiln, and heavy-duty bellows going like all the imps in hell were at it, and salt thrown in to add a glaze to it. It may be more expensive than having stone brought in, but we shall see; clay kilns can be thrown up on any site quite readily, and so it has a versatility which stone does not. Though the start seemed slow, because of needing to bake the bricks, they dug out the whole bed of the road first, working against time before the worst weather – and it's an insane time to be building a road – well bedded with gravel, and then laid the bricks on top. It's a lot slower than a log road, even allowing for a good solid bed of stringers. It's pushing five hundred staje to Moskwa from Smoleńsk, but with the cut timber you've been storing to this end, and yes, I've had it all treated with pine tar, we should have no problems getting it well under way. And we shan't have any shortage of timber from the Russian forest, and indeed Princess Jadwiga suggested we start to cut it, and leave it cut and ready over the winter, perhaps hunting at the same time to supplement our diet. It is an invasion of a foreign national's territory, but it is hard to say exactly where the border is, and a road to aid trade can offend nobody, surely?
Michał Wołodyjowski.
oOoOo
"The Little Knight has discovered casuistry," said Jurko, happily. "Good, we shall be half-way to Moscow before rasputitsa, and therefore ready to respond to any sneak attack Aleksej makes on us, Russian fashion."
"What if he comes through the Ukraine?" asked Helena. "And can you be sure he will attack in spring?"
"Bohdan has been corrupting the Don Cossacks," said Jurko. "And that will also make it easier to move against the Tatars of the Crimea when we are ready. As to how I am sure, Papa introduced some pretty spies into Moscow, years since, as merchants, who trade via the Baltic and bring luxury goods to the boyars, who are willing to boast inappropriately when sufficiently wined and dined. And it's largely down to the superstition of the Russians," he added.
"What do you mean?" asked Helena.
"Well, Aleksej had a tutor, one Boris Morozow, who became his advisor, and he was instrumental in producing a pretty good treaty, despite Aleksej's own letter about dividing Sweden up," said Jurko. "Only it seems that Morozow irritated someone, and he got himself accused of witchcraft. And... you know what, love, 1648 really was a year of revolutions and riots, the Russian peasantry rose over the imposition of a salt tax, and Morozow was one of the people whose blood they wanted. So he's been exiled. And though he was as monstrously corrupt as any Russian boyar, he was a useful statesman. Which is when Papa quietly introduced spies. Once our own little problem with Karol Gustaw was settled."
"I see," said Helena. "That was prudent. I take it he presented it as a lark to some younger sons?"
Jurko chuckled.
"Well, if I didn't have plenty to keep me occupied here, I could see the appeal. I think we shall head east after Christmas, and stay out there, ready to move and counter whatever Aleksej does."
"Is it worthwhile opening negotiations with him?" suggested Helena. "I mean, we were able to negotiate peace between Chmielnicki and the Cossacks and the Rzeczpospolita."
"Russians don't keep peace treaties," said Jurko. "The idea is to let them initiate hostilities, and then crush them so thoroughly that they will never again covet Rzeczpospolita lands; and to hold Muscovy for a while as a protectorate, freeing serfs, teaching peasants, and making them see us as liberators. Which, essentially, we are. Russia is very backward. Why, if they've heard of putting a coulter on a plough to make ploughing easier, I've yet to hear of it, and they may have the wheel, but the idea of springs of any kind eludes them."
"Don't underestimate them," warned Helena.
"I shan't; Aleksej is reorganising his army along western lines, and he's brought in mercenaries from various places to help them train," said Jurko, soberly. "And this is why we started amassing materiel along the Russian border, quietly, but thoroughly. The one advantage we have is that he does rely on a conscript army, one whose members perform their duties by rote, even as those who manufacture the guns and shot for the army perform their tasks by rote, not understanding the subtleties of what they do to cast cannon and ball. And they will lack numbers of cannon; bronze is expensive, but they dare not even try to cast iron cannon, for iron, when cast, can readily 'honeycomb', leading to explosions. You can relatively easily make wrought iron cannons, made of sheet iron, bent into tubes with rings around, but I wouldn't want to use one. Britain, they say, has overcome the problems of casting iron, and we need to learn from them."
"Don't bronze cannons weaken?"
"Yes, but they bulge before they blow up," said Jurko. "And then you can stop using them. Cast iron doesn't give that sort of warning. But the advances in technology are very exciting, and we are at the dawn of many new things. War such as the thirty years war is terrible, but it gives advances in compensation, which can then be used for things other than war. Iron pipes, for example, capable of carrying high pressures of water, to run water mills. In the meantime, an English iron great gun costs ten red złoty a ton, as opposed to a bronze gun costing forty red złoty a ton. So we have purchased some from England, and looted others from Protector Cromwell's slave ships carrying his political prisoners. And we shall, in due course, cast our own."
Helena smiled at her husband's enthusiasm.
