Your Enemy's Mistake

News of the seizure of Genoa spread like wildfire through the imperial court, although the stigma of Lelouch's near banishment and shame in front of the court hung around his name like a miasma. The upper crust of Britannian society tutted and tisked as the Eleventh Prince of Britannia fell into the trap of populism that had swallowed up the continent and inflamed the French, although a few members of the imperial family considered that it could be an elaborate plan to get into the Emperor's good graces.

At the same time, covert cells met throughout London, discussing the seizure of Genoa by what was widely considered the most liberal portion of the Britannian Empire. Very few of the clubs actually wanted to overthrow the Britannian monarchy like the radicals in France, and Prince Lelouch's campaign in Italy showed a tempting possibility: a Britannian ruled constitutional monarchy where men weren't crushed under the royal yoke of the court in London. Of course, said monarchy was in the Mediterranean, but plans were laid by candlelight deep in the boroughs of London, then Cardiff, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, Dublin and Belfast.

In a strange mix of both groups, Reuben Ashford and his granddaughter Milly prepared to travel to Italy. The two had originally planned to visit the vi Britannias while in Europe on business, although Lelouch's sudden invasion of Italy urged them both towards Italy with greater speed than before, and for more than just sentimental reasons. It may have been cold, but Reuben recognized the potential to restore the power and status of the Ashford family by getting in on the ground floor of Lelouch's conquest of Italy.

Across the channel, the French Senate debated the issue of Lelouch's invasion of Italy, and their response. Of course, marshaling an army would be the usual solution, and efforts were well underway to raise new brigades and reinforce the current Republican Army; however, the civil war that France had fallen into, as well as their engagements in Greece, complicated things greatly.

"If the Britannian invaders and Bonaparte meet in battle, then we stand to gain! Leave the Sicilian Prince be!"

"He's already been reinforced by men from Genoa! If we let him grow too strong, he will swallow Italy whole and return it to monarchist control!"

"As hesitant as I am to say it, could we negotiate with the Britannian Emperor? Get him to bring his wild dog of a son to heel!"

"What leverage do we have, you fool? Charles zi Britannia has every reason to sit back and let his boy take Italy, if he can manage it. France is already at war with the Turks and Danubians, along with herself! Why add Britannia to the list through some foolish threat?"

"And what if the Sicilian simply doesn't listen? He's as Italian as he is Britannian! He could take Italy as his own and drop Sicily back into Britannian hands, if he pleased! If Charles used force to stop the boy we'd be inviting Britannia into France! Why not influence the civil war and support Bonaparte, while his men march through France?"

Schneizel was in St. Petersburg, desperately trying to keep Tsar Alexander at piece with Britannia as Cornelia did battle in Persia. At least at first, Britannia had hoped to take land from Persia, but the Tsar had prickled at the idea of greater Britannian influence in Asia, and high hopes of annexation had cooled into a commercial treaty, concessions, and the installation of a Shah friendlier to both Britannian and Russian interests.

News from Europe took a while to travel through the Baltic Sea and reach St. Petersburg, but he heard murmuring of chaos and unrest in France after the death of the Emperor Napoleon. Schneizel felt that the only thing keeping Alexander in check was the threat of Napoleon's military prowess, and he predicted an invasion of the Duchy of Warsaw within a few years.

Lelouch's exploits in Italy reinforced this belief, although Schneizel would keep his ear close to the ground. It was frustrating to be so far from the action in Europe, but Schneizel's obligations kept him in Saint Petersburg, even as the Russian Bear reared to strike at France from the east, to compound on wars from several fronts and from within.

Jeremiah and Lelouch met shortly over a month after his departure, each army strengthened by volunteers- 6,500 or so from Turin and her surrounding and 8,000 from Milan, leading to the Army of the Risorgimento having some 25,000 men and 50 rifled guns from Sicily, resupplied by with ammunition from home as well.

It was early June, and Lelouch's next destination for the army was Tuscany, where he would seize Lucca and Florence before marching to Rome herself, to parley with the Pope. Hammering out a deal with the Pope would be difficult, and Lelouch did not like the idea of converting to Catholicism only to get excommunicated for taking over the city of Rome as his own. It would take half a month to reach Lucca, as things were looking.

As Lelouch marched south, thousands of French soldiers who had previously garrisoned Italian cities marched towards Rome, consolidating under the first Napoleon's stepson, Eugene de Beauharnais, the Viceroy of Italy. 35,000 men had consolidated near Rome, and Beauharnais planned to march and meet the Sicilian Prince near Siena, stopping him before he could reach Rome, at least.

Beauharnais knew the battle would prove decisive, as he had no real chance of reinforcements if things went badly. He couldn't predict how skilled this vi Britannia was, but the prince must have been confident to invade Italy with a mere 3,000 men. He hoped that it was just royal arrogance, but even he knew that some of the royal Britannian children were very skilled- like that witch of a woman, Cornelia.

INFANTE CARLOS ESCAPES

In yet another setback to the French efforts, Infante Carlos of Spain has escaped his imprisonment in Valencay, aided by Spanish separatists. His elder brother Ferdinand died in prison, and Carlos is likely being spirited to Spain. The prince had been imprisoned for some 17 years before his escape, and he still maintains his claim on the Spanish throne due to divine right. This may mark the beginning of revolts in Iberia, compounding on chaos in France and Italy.

Republican and Bonapartist forces first met outside the town of Vichy, when scouting parties from both forces met in rolling farmland, and once the chaotic cavalry battle had calmed both sides moved forces to meet the enemy, with the Republicans fortifying on top of a hill, placing dozens of cannons which could fire over the farmland, accompanied by near 21,000 infantry.

The first day of battle was relatively peaceful, as Bonapartist forces arrived and camped in the dense forest that made up the edges of the farmland, keeping far away from the guns which promised certain destruction if a charge was made across the flat farmland. 33,000 men supported the Bonapartist army, but they couldn't bring as much artillery to bear without them being destroyed by entrenched Republican guns.

On the second day of battle, a detachment from the Bonapartists crept through the woods to the west of the Republicans, moving while the two forces exchanged a furious barrage of shot over the farmland, smoke billowing across the fields of wheat and bouncing cannonballs tearing furrows through the fields. When the Republican guns fell silent, the flanking force of 16,000 charged, just over 200 meters away, bayonets gleaming as they crossed the fields.

The infantry began to slow and clump as they climbed the hill, harried by shot from the main Republican forces as the gunners turned their guns in a panic, and while they could only fire once before the two forces meet in a melee, rounds of canister shot tore through the Bonapartists at point blank range, killing hundreds. At the same time, the remaining 17,000 Bonapartists charged, although they would have to cover nearly the twice the distance of their comrade's charge.

However, not all of the Republican guns had fired at the first charge, and turned to meet the second as the Republican western flank descended into chaos, bayonets clashing as the attackers desperately tried to clamber over a stone wall the Republicans hid behind, nearly invisible at a distance because it was so choked with ivy.

The flanking detachment began to evaporate under the hot June sun, sending panic through the remainder of their forces as Republican cannons killed men by the column. Realizing that meeting the Republicans in force on the ridge would only result in disaster, the Bonapartist general called a retreat as his forces fled to the south, leaving 1,500 Republican dead behind him, along with nearly 12,000 of his own men. The battle of Crechy, as it would be called, almost immediately gave the Republicans a massive advantage in the civil war.

Tuscany was a beautiful country, its rolling hills hiding miles of olive orchards and vineyards, although the grapes had not grown in size yet. Lelouch almost feel some of his "eager volunteers" sloughing off the main army, but his personal Sicilian guard remained steadfast as they marched towards Lucca.

Lucca was, like many cities in Italy, as old as the Roman Empire, and its walls were going to be a serious obstacle- if anyone was defending them, that is. As the army of the Risorgimento entered Lucca, they met no resistance, and the leader of the city invited Lelouch to talk with him.

"You noticed the lack of a garrison, signore?"

"Yes, of course. It was a pleasant surprise, not to have to take Lucca by force, but I figure this means the French are gathering for a confrontation?"

"Yes. I know little other than the fact that they marched to Rome under orders of Beauharnais."

Lelouch nodded. He wasn't expecting free reign over Italy, and this would be the first sign of French resistance. Hopefully, the war between the Bonapartists and Republicans would be a drawn out affair, but this would likely be the first of several attempts by the French to reign Italy.

Florence "fell" in a similar fashion, but Lelouch marched towards Rome with more caution, using what little cavalry he had as vedettes to scout the enemy and portions of his Sicilian infantry also marched ahead of the main column in a role similar to the French Tirailleurs.

The army had been on high alert after crossing the Arno, but no French columns had appeared, no charging cuirassiers with their sabers flashing in the warm June air. His scouts first reported French forces in the distance near Siena, with them taking a defensive position on the hills that made up so much of the Tuscan landscape.

More scouting had informed him that Beauharnais had formed a grand battery to rival his stepfather, Napoleon, and placed it on the crest of one of the largest hills in the region. That would be an unenviable position to take, if not for his rifled guns, the finest of which could bombard the enemy from nearly 4 kilometers away.

The Sicilian Prince seemed to be setting up his artillery on a slightly lower hill about 3 kilometers away, and through his telescope Beauharnais could see the men heaving the cannons uphill, working in teams of dozens to pull the heaviest guns up. What was he thinking? He must have known that the guns couldn't fire over the rolling hills between them, which were covered in olive orchards.

He couldn't think Beauharnais enough of a fool that he would charge across a orchard to attack his position, could he? No, there had to be something else; however no battery Beauharnais had ever heard of could cover 3 kilometers though. With time, the guns were in position, and it seemed like vi Britannia really intended to use his guns on that hill: through his telescope he could even see the puffs of smoke as the guns fired, reeling backwards with the force of their blasts.

After a few moments of calm, his artillery fell into a state of panic, enemy shot landing within in their ranks and sometimes even striking the guns and sending them spinning or knocking the wheels off of the carriages, sending splinters flying into his artillerymen. Good God, how? No guns could be that accurate, could fire at such a range….

Rifling. The Britannian prince had gotten his hands on rifled guns. There was no other explanation, and no fortress in Europe that could resist guns like that, no battery could match their range on the field. Beauharnais shouted to his men: "March into the orchards! The orchards! The enemy has rifled cannons! Leave the guns!"

Some of the more experienced artillerymen seemed to have guessed, but the younger ones began to panic. Fortunately, the great mass of his men moved into the orchards, their formations loosening into something like a skirmish line as they approached the enemy position. The trees would the enemy artillery less effective, but it crushed the effectiveness of his cavalry, which was one area in which he had the Britannian prince decisively beaten. However, what those rifled guns could do for France…. They could help in the Grecian front, or they could turn the civil war in France for his stepbrother, Napoleon II. Hopefully, the rifling would make canister less effective and increase the spread to the point of ineffectiveness...

Lelouch was worried that the enemy would retreat from the field after he used the rifled guns, but it seemed Beauharnais wanted to end the battle even with such a disadvantage against him. Lelouch had placed 2,000 of his Sicilian rifle infantry in the orchard in front of the hill he had placed his cannon on, with the remainder of his infantry positioned between and behind his cannon. What little cavalry he had, some 500 Sicilian infantry trained to ride horses and fought dismounted, like the dragoons of old, he sent to the side, although making sure they would swing wide enough to avoid the spread of Beauharnais' infantry.

Beauharnais was grateful for this olive orchard, as it hampered the effectiveness of the enemy guns, making it harder for the enemy to strike his men, although occasionally a shell would strike a tree, sending a massive spray of splinters into his men.

He almost sagged with relief when the shot stopped landing, and then he froze. Why would he stop firing? Instinctively, Beauharnais ducked as a shot from an enemy skirmisher soared over his head. He couldn't get an exact count of the enemy's line, but there must have been hundreds, spread wide in the orchards in a loose line, their long guns- rifles, of course – firing in tandem. These men were no rabble, they aimed well and his men were falling rapidly from accurate shots to the head.

His men's musket shots simply were not landing as often as the Britannian rifles, and squinting through the shaded leaves of the olive trees he could see a tremendous mass of men and cannon on the ridge of the hill, shouting as the infantry moved in front of the cannon, presenting thick blocks of bristling bayonets, like gleaming hedges.

The skirmishers pulled back further, running uphill and weaving between olive trees, sprinting up to their fellows and crouching to load and fire at his infantry, as if getting off as many shots as they could before they could retreat into the narrow gaps between the dense blocks of infantry. Before he could give a command to retreat, a rifled bullet struck him, and he fell from his horse as his men broke into a panicked rout.

As the panicked men ran towards their camp, fleeing from the Britannian infantry, Lelouch did not pursue, although few of the French soldiers stopped to ponder why as they fled towards their cannons. As they approached the ridge, they could see activity up there, although Beauharnais had left no one behind as he ordered his charge….

And then the orchard was filled with chaos as cannons fired on them from both sides, rifled shot from behind and French cannon from the front, seized by the small wing of cavalry Lelouch had sent to the side at the beginning of their charge. Caught between a rock and a hard place, the French morale evaporated and any men not caught up in the barrage fled to the sides, deciding that returning to camp to grab their possessions wasn't worth dying by their own artillery.

Lelouch and Jeremiah rode over after the battle, and saw all the guns that the cavalry had commandeered during the battle: nearly all the field pieces of the army of Italy, although a few would require too much repair work to use properly and were as such spiked (the process of jamming a steel spike into the cannon's touch hole to effectively disable the gun), but a yield of some 40 pieces of artillery, even if they were smoothbore, were worth their weight in gold for Lelouch's campaign.

The enemy's camp proved to be a similar windfall, as the chaos of the rout left the camp undefended and mostly untouched, still full of spare munitions, food, and excess clothing. Some of the French uniforms were saved, no use in giving up such a potentially useful tool, Lelouch figured, but the rest were used as bindings for what few injuries the army of the Risorgimento had sustained during the battle, or were used to patch up the rough clothes of his Italian volunteers.

He would really need to commission some uniforms for the men, but hopefully Lloyd was well under way in building textile factories in Sicily. He was honestly worth more on the home front than he would be accompanying Lelouch in the field, and Lelouch did not savor the idea of potentially hauling the man's entire lab apparatus by horse through the hills of Italy. Croomy would keep the man in line, he hoped.

With the main French army in the peninsula crushed, there was nothing but time between Lelouch and his next destination: the eternal city, Rome.

When Milly and Reuben arrived in Palermo, they found a city buzzing with excitement, and rumors about Lelouch's exploits were rife. They had a bit of trouble getting into the Norman Palace, but once Nunnally heard they were waiting outside they were invited in with great haste.

Nunnally gave the Ashfords a placid smile as Sayoko carefully wheeled her over to give them just as much of a hug as she could manage. "Milly! Reuben! It's been so long!"

Milly smiled broadly. "I've missed you too Nunnally! We were coming to visit you but we just had to hurry over when we heard your brother Lelouch invaded Italy, leaving you all alone! When I get my hands on him…"

Sayoko came in again, a newspaper in her arms. "Mistress Nunnally, I have a paper from the mainland, with news about Lelouch. Shall I read it?"

Nunnally nodded. "Well now we can learn about what Lelouch is up to together."

FRENCH ARMY OF ITALY SHATTERED

Reports have come in of a decisive confrontation between Lelouch vi Britannia's army and the Viceroy of Italy, Eugene de Beauharnais' forces, which resulted in a massive victory for the forces of the Risorgimento. Survivors of the battle describe a pitched fight in an olive orchard in Tuscany, where Sicilian artillery played a key role in turning the tides of battle. Some men insist that these guns were rifled, but if so this would be the first recorded case of such weapons being used in an actual war, and to tremendous effect apparently. Beauharnais died in the battle, shot off of his horse, and the remaining French were caught between Lelouch's battery and French guns seized by his cavalry. The road seems open for a march to Rome, with some 25,000 men lying dead behind him, according to conservative estimates.

"All of those men dying… how horrible, but at least Lelouch is alive."

Reuben turned to the young girl. "Do you know if those rumors about rifled guns are true?"

Nunnally nodded. "Absolutely. Lelouch talked to me at length about a man he hired, a Lloyd Asplund, and how he made the most ingenious rifled weapons, from guns to cannons."

"That Asplund, the eccentric?"

Nunnally giggled. "He is quite eccentric, but he's very inventive. Before we realized quite how single minded he was, we invited him to dinner with us, and before he took so much as a bite he took a look at my wheelchair and sprinted off to make a better design in his workshop. It did turn out to be a better design, but Lloyd has no care for decorum although Mrs. Croomy helps keep him in check. He's working on factories now, like the sort they have in Britannia proper."

After an… enlightening conversation with Asplund, Reuben arranged to sail with a resupply fleet that planned to meet Lelouch at Rome, stocked with more rifled guns and supplies, but no soldiers. Milly had elected to stay in Palermo to give Nunnally some company, although Reuben was sure she would have words for Lelouch when they met again.

Dismounting his horse, Lelouch stepped onto some of the most storied ground in the world, where Caesar walked, where Aurelian was proclaimed restorer of the world, and where Constantine won at the Milvian Bridge and converted the empire to Christianity. This city was also home of the Popes, and while Lelouch was welcomed into the city with open arms, he knew much was riding on his impending conversation with His Holiness, Pope Benedict XV. He was an odd one among bishops, very liberal, and many suspected French interference in the Papal election to avoid the ascension of a more conservative Pope.

The Apostolic Palace was truly a splendid building, and while Lelouch did not consider himself a connoisseur of art, he couldn't resist gawking at the roof the Sistine Chapel before settling down to discuss politics with Pope Benedict, Jeremiah by his side as several of the Pope's Swiss Guards looked on in silence.

"Vi Britannia" the Pope nodded.

"Your Holiness. I have come to request your aid in converting to Catholicism, among other things."

Benedict rose his eyebrow. "I assume you are not converting out of some deep religious sentiment, but purely political reasons?"

"Could I convince you that I had a sudden religious revelation when I held the Iron Crown of Lombardy in my own hands, when I saw the nail which pierced Christ's flesh?"

The Pope frowned at him. "I suppose that's a no. I do admit that converting to Catholicism and gaining your approval would be very important in stabilizing my rule over Italy."

"And you plan on seizing all of Italy?"

"I do. From Calabria to Istria."

"And what of your father? Will you submit Italy to Britannian rule?"

"Yes. A large part of the reason I could even pull an invasion like this is the autonomy given to Sicily. I hope to secure similar terms for the rest of Italy."

"So is a conversion all you want from me?"

"An endorsement of my conversion, and if possible, my territorial ambitions in Italy."

"What do I get out of this, vi Britannia?'

"Sovereignty and a unified Italy ruled by someone who will be more open to your interests than Bonaparte or the Republicans. Plus, I am the one here with an army in Rome."

The next Sunday Lelouch took the Catholic Eucharist and spread news of his conversion far and wide, as there was no use in being a secret convert. The men seemed relieved to be serving under a Catholic leader, and he refilled his ranks with volunteers from Rome, leading to an army of 30,000 with 2,800 being his original Sicilians.

At the same time, a ship from Sicily docked in the harbor, bringing with it supplies and guns for his rapidly swelling army, along with a familiar face.

"Lord Ashford?"

And that's a wrap! Thank you very much, VectorMaximus, your review gave me a lot to think about. I kind of ret-conned the Persia situation, admittedly, because once I sat down and thought about it I realized that invading Persia with hopes of annexation was a little silly. The Battle of Crechy definitely took inspiration from the American battle of Gettysburg, but Bonaparte isn't out of the fight just yet. The battle was plotted (with help from google maps) in and around an actual town named Crechy, north of Vichy. I wonder if anyone reading this has been there? I'm proud of the battle scenes this chapter, tell me what you think!