Free The Jongurian Mission by Greg Strandberg Page A

Adjurian Civil War which followed. He began to read the last few chapters.
    The war with Jonguria had dragged on longer than anyone had anticipated , the book said, and the ranks of the army and navy had grown thin. Peasants with no previous military experience were called up to fight, forcing them to leave their homes and families to an uncertain future. Nobles began to question the king’s strategy at court. It was clear when the stalemate developed that the current strategy had failed. The king was unwilling to admit this and argued that the fight must continue, as he was very militarily-minded, having grown up in Mercentia and been trained as a soldier. He could not understand why his armies were unable to defeat the Jongurians, and believed that if only more troops were thrown at the enemy, victory would come.
    The king was persuaded to keep these views by his councilors, many of whom cared only for the trappings of power and were unconcerned with the heavy losses among the citizenry. A small group of Regidian advisors viewed the growing discontent over the war among the citizenry as a chance to secure more power for themselves.
    Regidia sought out the same supporters she had when the succession crisis and previous Civil War had erupted fifty years earlier. Promising favor and royal positions of power to high-ranking nobles, Regidia enticed the provinces of Equinia, Allidia, Hotham, and Oschem to join in the intrigues, and a coup was set into motion. The provinces of Fallownia and Shefflin could not be persuaded to go along with Regidia, seeing their agricultural and mining interests too important to jeopardize, while Mercentia was not even considered in the proposal as the current royal line hailed from there.
    The conspiring nobles waited for the right opportunity to act, viewing a large military failure on the battlefield to be the propitious moment. For this reason, pressure was put on the king to stage a massive military strike to end the stalemate. It did not matter to the conspiring nobles whether Adjuria won the war or not; indeed, it would be far easier to establish a new royal line if Jongurian interests did not have to be dealt with, as they would were the Adjurians to be the victors.
    The king was pushed into a risky military move, called the ‘ Breakout,’ which entailed a joint strike against the city of Waigo from two fronts simultaneously. The ‘Breakout,’ however, proved a massive failure, and the nobles acted swiftly. With peasants on the point of rebellion because of further increases in conscription to keep the war effort going, peace was called for throughout the land, a call which the nobles encouraged. However, peace was not enough. The nobles wanted more: a complete change of the royal line. The Regidians were the main voice in this chorus, seeing themselves as the beneficiaries of such a change. The court was split upon this, however, and it looked as though the current king would continue to rule after the peace negotiations concluded with Jonguria.
    Seeing their well-laid plans going by the wayside, the Regidians knew that the time for drastic measures had arrived. They would dispose the king themselves. An assassin was dispatched into the royal palace dressed as a Jongurian soldier. Equipped with a Jongurian-made crossbow with a Jongurian poison on the tip of the bolt, the assassin, with the aid of the Regidians, gained entry into the king’s chambers and shot the king in the chest, escaping undetected. The poison was an unnecessary measure: the bolt killed the king instantly.
    The king’s assassination was set to renew the war, but the now Regidian-controlled court called for a cooling of tempers, and an end to hostilities. They made the claim that evidence indicated it was not in fact a Jongurian soldier who killed the king, but a Shefflin mercenary, an accusation made because of the province’s refusal to go along with the Regidian intrigues. Most people did not believe this, but it