The Eternal Empire (8 page)

"Next the Republicans," his
voice was beginning to slur now, "they said much the same as the radicals
but blamed the institution of the Emperor. They believe that the subjects of
the Empire will be able to sort out the economic problems themselves if they
suddenly become citizens of a Republic instead. Haven't quite worked out the
logic of that myself yet but they seem quite convinced."

Magnus sat back with a drunken, smug
look on his face, and closed his eyes.

"What about us?" asked
Marcus. "What did John Phocas say?"

He shook his head and opened his eyes.
"Oh yes! Nearly forgot about us!" His speech was quite slurred by
now. "John said that the Empire needs to harness the skills of its entire
people, and to work with our neighbours to increase trade. We need to overhaul
the machinery of government to make it work better and more effectively."

Marcus thought about this for a moment,
while Magnus finished the dregs in his glass. "That sounds all very well,
but what are we actually going to do?"

Magnus leaned over to Marcus so that he
could whisper in his ear. His movements were rather unsteady.

"At this very moment, John Phocas
is locked in negotiations with certain other parties!"

"What about?" asked Marcus,
but got no reply.

Magnus had passed out.

8th
January 1920

Roman
Embassy, Minden, Saxony

Cornelius slept late after his session
with Lucullus and missed the breakfast which was served in the communal kitchen
in his building. He managed to get some bread and cheese from the cook and
headed back over to the offices.

He had been allocated an office
adjoining the legates with full access to his files whilst he was away. A
legionary showed him to his desk. There was a pile of files and a note from
Lucullus on top. Cornelius picked up the note and read it. Before the legate
had left for Constantinople that morning he had gathered together all the files
that Cornelius needed to study.

Cornelius sat down at the desk, picked
up the first file, took a bite from the chunk of bread and started to read.

Saxon Army - Capabilities

There are two parts to the Saxon
army, the permanent establishment and the citizen army. The permanent
establishment consists of the full time army staff, regimental cadres and about
60 regiments kept at full strength for training and garrison duties.

The citizen army is organised on a
regional basis with each city, town or group of villages providing one or more
regiments of approximately 1000 men. There is known to be over 100 of these
reserve regiments at present. The men spend six months training in a permanent
unit before being transferred to their citizen army regiment. They train
regularly, but quality is variable and it can take two to three weeks for some
units to mobilise.

Three or more Infantry Regiments
make up a Battlegroup to which are attached additional units of artillery,
landships and support services. These are the main operational units of the
Saxon army and the nearest equivalent to our Legionary formations.

The permanent regiments which are
equipped with the new armoured motor carriages and landships appear to receive
the best recruits and equipment. There have been reports that one or more
centuries in each permanent Infantry Regiment are being trained in new tactics
which appear to emphasise action independent of the rest of the Regiment. A new
model of machine-rifle which is much lighter than that issued to the support
centuries has also been in evidence and appears to be issued to these
centuries. Additional information on these new tactics is being sought.

The cavalry regiments are drawn
from the country estates of the noble families, and are well mounted and
aggressive. However they still appear to follow traditional cavalry tactics on
the battlefield practising mounted charges unlike Roman cavalry cohorts which
have mainly converted to the role of mounted infantry.

The most effective arm of the
Saxon military is their field artillery. Since the last war, when they suffered
heavily at the hands of the Roman artillery, the Saxons have spent a great deal
of time and money on improving the number and quality of their guns. Each
regiment now has a battery of 12 medium sized guns attached plus some smaller
calibre weapons for close support. By the terms of the last wars peace treaty
the Saxon army is still prohibited from procuring large calibre siege
artillery.

Their supply and support services
have shown a significant improvement over the past few years but are still
relatively primitive by Roman army standards. Transport is primarily on foot
for the infantry regiments although a few have received some motor carriages,
but not in sufficient numbers to carry the entire unit.

Saxon Navy - Capabilities

From being an insignificant
coastal force thirty years ago, the Saxon Navy has been built up to a well
balanced ocean going fleet, although still smaller than our forces based in
Britannia. The Saxon Navy currently has four ships of the line, eight cruisers,
twenty-four fleet escorts and twenty torpedo boats. Two more ships of the line
are presently undergoing sea trials and should be operational in May and June
respectively. Reports from the gun foundries indicate that heavy guns have been
cast which are sufficient to equip four more ships of the line and ten
cruisers. Although no new Ship Act has been passed by the Saxon Assembly it is
expected that the ships to carry these guns will be laid down soon.

Saxon Air Force - Capabilities

The Saxons have only recently
built up a military air capability and appear to have organised their air force
along Roman lines. Aircraft are classed as either fighter/reconnaissance or
light bomber. The Saxons have not developed any long range heavy bombers
equivalent to our 'Victor' or 'Felix' aircraft.

According to our sources the
Saxons appear to have established twenty fighter and fifteen light bomber
cohorts of 25 aircraft each. Their main fighter is the Model V, a highly
manoeuvrable single wing aircraft with four machine guns, similar to our
'Lance'. Their light bomber is the Model VII, a twin engine aircraft with two
heavy machine guns and able to carry up to 1000 pounds in air shells. This
aircraft is similar in design to our 'Rhinus' bomber, and from observations
made by our agents its primary function is that of attacking ground targets.

Cornelius put down the report and made
a few notes. He then went through some other files and charts extracting data
and transferring dates and figures to his note pad. There was more to the Saxon
military than its order of battle and something about what he had read was
nagging at him, but he could not put his finger on it. However the mark of a
good analyst is his tenacity and his commanding officer in Asia Minor was
correct, Cornelius Petronius was an excellent analyst. Once he started to see a
pattern in the data, no matter how vague it was, Cornelius would stay with it
until he had an answer that made sense.

For the next three days Cornelius
followed one line of thought after another, cross checking information from one
file to another, rejecting hypotheses that did not fit the facts.

14th
January 1920

Constantinople

Marcus pushed his way along the row of
chairs to a spare seat beside Magnus. The meeting room in a hotel next to the
assembly and senate buildings was filled with members of the Modernist party.
John Phocas and other senior party officials were on a raised platform in the
front. It had been a week since his arrival in the capital and most nights had
been a succession of 'intellectual discussions' at various taverns with Magnus
and other party members. Initially Marcus had been amazed by Magnus, who could
happily drink himself into oblivion each night yet show no signs of a hangover
the next morning. Now he was quite used to it, and the broad smile and hearty
welcome he got no longer surprised Marcus, although it did irritate him since
his head was still throbbing.

"Just in time," said Magnus,
a little too loudly for Marcus, "John arrived a couple of minutes ago and
judging from the general expressions, they are happy about something."

"I'm sure we are about to find out
what they have been up to," said Marcus as he settled himself into a
chair.

John Phocas stood up and faced his
audience. He was a small man, in his early fifties with dark hair greying at
the edges. He looked like a shopkeeper in a small town, and if you passed him
in the street you would be unlikely to give him a second glance. But a life
time in politics had taught him how to project himself, and when he wanted to,
he could dominate a crowd by the way he used his voice and moved his body. Now
he just waited for the last person to sit down and for the talking to subside.
When he had everyone's attention he began.

"Good morning gentlemen, and to
those of you who have just returned to the capital, welcome back. While most of
you have been feasting and making nuisances of yourselves amongst the voters at
home," there were scattered laughs at this, just as Phocas knew there
would be, "your leadership has been busy putting together a legislative
programme that will lay the foundations for a modern Empire!"

There was a noticeable stirring amongst
the audience at this bold statement. They knew that their leader was a good
showman but he was not generally prone to overstatement.

"The Empire is in a financial
mess, and is desperate to get out of it! The Emperor will be willing to accept
changes in order to balance the treasury." He paused to scan the faces
before him. He had their full attention.

"Other parties in the assembly
also realise this, which presents both opportunities and potential dangers. The
danger as always comes from the reactionaries who would turn time back on even
the few progressive changes made in the last thirty years, but it is on the
opportunities that I wish to concentrate this morning."

All present were aware of the
unofficial grouping of the parties in the assembly. The 'radical group'
consisted of the Republican and Radical parties, who were looking to make
dramatic changes to the structure of the Empire in one form or another. They
controlled 110 of the 400 seats in the assembly, but since they were generally violently
opposed to each other on economic and social issues, they rarely co-operated.
The 'progressive group' included the Modernists with 83 seats and the
Federalists with 53. They often worked and voted together, but the Federalists
were split into provincial groupings with a weak party leadership. It was
difficult to depend on them. The 'reactionaries' which Phocas had mentioned
referred mainly to the Senatorial and Traditionalist parties. The 40 members of
the Senatorial party rarely stirred from their comfortable chairs in the
assembly except to vote against just about anything, whilst the 53
Traditionalists were openly aggressive, calling for military action against
those it regarded as enemies of the Empire, both inside and out. The Equestrian
party was often grouped with the reactionaries, but this was mainly due to the
image it had of being the party of the rich industrialists. Named after the old
knights of Republican Rome, the 61 Equestrian members in the assembly were
intrinsically conservative but fundamentally pragmatic.

John Phocas picked up a sheet of paper
from the desk behind him and waved it in front of him.

"Last night, on behalf of the
party, I put my name to an alliance with the Radical, Federalist and Equestrian
parties to put through a series of laws that will transform the economic life
of the Empire!"

There were exclamations of disbelief.
Radicals and Equestrians working together! It seemed impossible to comprehend.
Phocas let the noise die down before continuing.

"The parties have come together in
order to support a series of laws which we all agree will be of benefit to the
Empire and its people." The leader of the Modernist party began to read
the salient points of the agreement.

"An Education of the People Law
will provide for universal schooling for all children. All Church schools will
be incorporated and a land tax will be imposed to pay for it."

That will annoy the Senatorials,
thought Marcus. Free education for all had been an objective of the Modernists
for some time and had been opposed by the reactionaries as an unnecessary
expense.

Phocas continued to read. "A
Pension Law will ensure that all citizens of the Empire will be provided for
when they are too old to work. This will be financed by a tax on luxury goods
and on all salaries including those of the church, government and
military."

Magnus leaned over to Marcus and
whispered in his ear, "That's one for the radicals. The reactionaries will
be frothing at the mouth when they hear about that."

"The legal system will be
reformed." Phocas raised his voice slightly to allow himself to be heard
above the noise in the room. "There will be a central legal system for
all. Church and military personnel will no longer be outside the jurisdiction
of the civil courts."