Chapter 36 March 407 AD Paulsland-More Assassinations

                   After hearing the news of what happened to King Shimbir, Wauta got an idea. Maybe, just maybe, this awful war could end, and he could finally go home if Kingsminister Jinka died. Seven years ago, just half a year from the time he could leave the military and start his life, this never-ending war started because the Kingsminister ordered an attack on Rome.

                   The worst thing about this war was that Kingsminister Jinka was openly profiting from the war he started. Wauta believed Kingsminister Jinka had the power to end the war, but the war was far too profitable for him to end. Technically, the armies of Paulsland were building fortifications on the border of Paulsland and Kush. This was the normal strategy of Paulsland, as Paulsland had always built up infrastructure as they conquered. The problem was that alongside those fortifications, the army was building steam-powered factories owned by Kingsminister Jinka and his supporters. Kingsminister Jinka was paying nothing for all the work the army was doing but getting all the profit.

                   Oddly enough, the soldiers whose religion was the Universal Church were happy about it. They were so happy they bragged about it. They felt that Jinka, who was profiting immensely from this war, should become the next King of Paulsland. They didn’t mind building his factories for free because it would help him become the next king. Many soldiers were disgusted that this traitorous conversation was allowed and encouraged, but they had learned to keep their mouths shut.

                   Wauta was one of thousands of young soldiers who had growing discontent with this war. When this war was over, he would be seven years late at starting his carreer, he would have eight graduating classes competing with him for jobs and supplies, chances were that when he received his pay it would be far less than normal, as in Paulsland soldiers received the bulk of their pay at the end of their service to help them start a carreer. The longer this war went on, the worse Wauta’s financial prospects were, which fed into his bitterness that Jinka was profiting so much from his suffering.

                   On a personal level, Wauta became engaged to a girl six months before this war started, but he had been away so long that she broke the engagement and married a much older man who wasn’t young enough to be called up by the militia. Then Wauta’s father died from a heart attack last year, and now his mother had cancer. He had nine siblings, three of them were serving near him and one further away, two were grown and married sisters, and three were still living at home. The little ones needed someone to take care of them as their mother withered, but her adult sons were away at war, making Jinka rich, and perhaps preparing the way for him to be king, despite Paulsland’s laws and traditions.

                   Wauta decided to make one attempt to kill Jinka. Jinka’s schedule was pretty well known among the army, as Jinka sent word ahead whenever he would inspect a fortress or factory that was being built. The problem was that he didn’t have any guaranteed methods to kill the man.

                   The steam weapons were guarded, and Wuata had to admit for good reason, as the Kush occasionally attempted to bring their steam weapons in range, and the steam weapons would have a duel that always led to a lot of deaths. That said it was suspicious that the only people he knew who were assigned to steam weapons were members of the Universal Church.

                   Wuata was an above-average soldier with his spear and sword, but Jinka always wore armor and always had guards around him. Besides, if Wuata took down Jinka with a blade, he would be caught and executed. Wuata was not suicidal; he wanted to go home.

                   Wuata refused to use poison. In part because he didn’t think it had any chance of working, as Jinka assigned himself test tasters after the poisoning incident at Flattop Mountain. Furthermore, he hated the idea of killing his fellow soldiers like that. His problem was Jinka, and those that Jinka gave favor too, not the infantry that were being screwed over by this never ending war.

                   Day after day Wuata considered how to kill the Kingsminister, and there were no really good options. It was rare that Wuata’s orders brought him near Jinka, although when they did, he usually knew a few days in advance. Even when the Kingsminister was around, there was no method he could think of that would allow him to take his life and allow him to get away.

                    As days passed he grew more and more impatient, until one day he was ordered to bring something from the fortress he was busy building, to the steam factory. As he went about to follow his orders he noticed that Jinka was in the distance giving another speech in front of the factory that would bring him massive amounts of wealth, built by poor soldiers who should have gone home years ago. Wuata stared at the man and gave him a hateful glare, although he was lucky that at three hundred yards Jinka couldn’t see him. When he looked away in disgust he noticed a group of elephants standing by their troughs, secured to spikes beaten into the ground, eating as their masters went about their day, likely eating their own lunch or listening to the Kingsminister prattle on about how wonderful he was, and how great it was that the army was gifting him so much labor.

                   Across the Erythraean Sea, in the land of Hinduism, there are many nations. Traditionally, to be a king in those nations, you have to supply battle elephants to your army. Paulsland rejected this idea because elephants panic easily. Instead, Paulsland used elephants to help build large projects. In this case, thousands of elephants and their handlers had been brought to the border to help build Paulsland fortresses and Jinka’s factories. These particular elephants attendants were missing, and well, elephants easily panic. Wuata saw his opportunity.

                   He had long ago learned that if you don’t want to be noticed, seem confident. With that in mind, he marched directly to where the elephants were, and then began looking for lamps. When he found them, he also found a mostly empty barrel of coal oil just two feet away from where the lamps were stored. He looked around and nobody was paying him any attention. The elpehants were eating their lunch, most people were listening to Jinka’s speech in the distance, and those that were not were going about their day.

                   Wuata looked for the elephant cleaning brush and quickly found it as the brush was on a long pole designed to reach all parts of the elephant. Then he dipped the brush in the oil and then began “cleaning” the elephant with coal oil. Then in just three minutes, he “cleaned” four more. Nobody even paid attention, as it was not uncommon for the infantry to be punished with extra chores like cleaning the elephants.

                   As soon as he was done, he grabbed a lamp, filled it with oil, and let it spill on the ground as he walked away. Once he was thirty feet away, he lit a match and thought to himself how ironic it was that Jinka’s company made matches, lit the oil, and calmly walked away. He still had orders to fulfill.

                   A line of fire made its way to the elephants over the course of a minute. Plenty of time for Wuata to disappear, especially since nearly everyone else in the area wore the same set of armor.

                   When the line of fire reached the first elephant, the elephant started screaming and moving. When elephants are little, their masters tie them to a long iron rod that is in the ground at least ten feet. The elephant pulls and pulls on the rod until they learn that when they are tied to something in the ground, they cant pull it out. When they are adults, elephants believe they are too weak to overcome any post they are tied to because of the iron pole they could not budge when they were babies. Even as the fire burned the elephant, it did not want to pull away from the post it was tied to because of the lesson it learned as a baby elephant, but soon the flames grew too great and the pain to intense, and the elephant pulled away from the wooden post and broke it, and began to run. Unfortunately for the other elephants, it ran into them, and those with coal oil brushed on caught fire as well. As they caught fire all the elephants that were having lunch panicked, and began breaking their restraints, and charging in random directions, including towards Jinka.

                   As the Elephants trumpeted in pain and terror, everyone, their handlers, the soldiers, Jinka, and random civilians looked toward them, and when they saw the panicked elephants running in every direction, the crowds began panicking, but Jinka stopped it.

                   He yelled with a booming voice, “STAND THE LINE! PUT YOUR SHIELDS UP AND SWORDS OUT!” Jinka achieved his position by being competent.

                   As soldiers heard what he said they obeyed, and repeated his order, “STAND THE LINE! PUT YOUR SHIELDS UP AND SWORDS OUT!”

                   Most of the soldiers were not carrying their shields or spears as they were building fortifications, but nearly all of them had their swords. As they heard the orders, they pulled out their swords and pointed to the elephants, and the soldiers got close, body to body, to make a wall of swords and bodies.

                   With that said, many men were by themselves, and they had to run for cover as elephants charged in every direction. As the elephants ran they caused horses and oxen in the area to panic creating more chaos.

                   As the elephants charged, their first victims were the pieces of equipment near them. Cranes, carts, stone cutting equipment, half-finished walls, and pieces of steam machines. As the elephants smashed the equipment around them they also smashed the people using them for cover, and so the screams of men soon sounded out with the trumpets of hurting elephants.

                   Seven elephants charged directly for the crowd of men who were listening to Jinka before the elephants burned. The men stood their ground, shoulder to shoulder, swords out. As they approached, Jinka shouted, “HOLD THE LINE! PROTECT YOUR BROTHERS! YOU ARE MEN OF PAULSLAND YOU WILL NOT COWER YOU WILL STAND AND PROTECT!”

                   Each man who heard his words repeated them, so all their battle brothers could hear and stand.

                   When the seven elephants reached the wall of swords, most of them turned away, except the two who were burning. They made two huge holes as they tore through the wall, but as they passed through the soldiers who escaped death by inches, their belleys were pierced with swords, but they did not stop. They did not even feel the swords as the pain of the flames made it impossible to feel as their bellies were cut open and intestines flowed out. They didn’t even feel it when their back legs stomped their own intestines.

                   Fortunatly for jinka they were still dozens of yards away when they lost so much blood they passed out. He was still safe, but others were in danger. Those who found safety, either by hiding in a structure, or by being in a large group with swords out, stayed where they were as the elephants caused chaos.

                   Things did not calm down until the steam weapons were repositioned to shoot behind their lines, and they began shooting the elephants.

                   Almost as soon as the elephants were dead they began an investigation to see what happened. They were able to determine it was sabotage very quickly. As soon as they knew about the sabotage, the priests of the Universal Church spread rumors it was a failed assassination attempt. They didn’t actually think it was, but they easily convinced Jinka it was, and so he fell further under their control. Soon after it became obvious that Jinka favored anyone who was a member of the Universal Church, as those soldiers got promoted exclusively, and Jinka started giving them shares in the various factories they were building. Many soldiers began to convert just to get better treatment.

                   As for Wauta he got away cleanly. He was sad for those he killed, but sadder that Jinka lived.

                   Days after the assassination attempt, news spread across Paulsland that an assassination attempt was made on Jinka’s life, and ninety-three young soldiers died by the assassin's plot. At least that’s what the Universal Church papers said. Other papers gave several other possibilities, but it didn’t matter, everyone in power began thinking they needed to protect themselves from their political opponents and some began wondering if the best way to protect themselves was to assassinate their enemies.