THIS IS A PRUSSIAN RECRUITER YOU IDIOT. Even when the man did recruit three more men for the army (but told Ulli that no, you are a different case, you are my dear new servant whom I shall never let go and we'll be always together). (Older Ulrich: Yes, I was that stupid.)
*facepalm* Poor guy.
Prussian recruiting practices, cahn, were some combination of violent and deceitful where enticement didn't work. It did work sometimes! Between the charismatic Protestant hero thing, and the fact that he could actually feed and pay his army consistently, Fritz got volunteers and sometimes even deserters from the enemy. But not enough to keep up numbers. So then we get ruthless recruiting. A lot of people were enlisted by being told that they were going to be officers, and when they showed up, were pressed as simple soldiers, aka cannon fodder. "Too late, you're here!"
The longer the Seven Years' War went on, the worse the manpower shortages, and the more desperate Fritz got.
Fritz: We won the battle! Casualties were as high or higher than the enemy's, plus all those desertions, and I practically need a new army now, but we won! Heinrich: OMFG YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG Fritz: But, see, if I make it look easy, no one will be impressed. It's only by going to the brink of defeat and suicide several times during this totally avoidable war that I brought on us, that I will be a celebrity in Europe afterwards for avoiding annihilation by the skin of my teeth. People will come from all over to visit me. Even Napoleon will be impressed and collect souvenirs after my death! Heinrich: Okay, well, sounds like a risky strategy, but let me know if you need me to be regent for our nephew or anything, after you commit suicide. soon?please? Fritz: Will do! Meanwhile, recruiters, go find me some more cannon fodder. Whatever it takes. I've got some Polish coin dies to work on here so I can pay them.
[ETA: Just to be clear, Fritz was not consciously trying to do things the hard way in order to make them look impressive any more than he was hoping for souvenir collecting by not-yet-born Napoleon. Or admitting that his diplomacy got them into a tight spot in the Seven Years' War. But 1) he was by his own admission after fame and glory when deciding to conquer Silesia, 2) he insisted on doing things a certain way, even when the cost was high and people like Heinrich were WTFing at him. And in hindsight, the extreme difficulties he had, of which many were of his own making, holding onto Silesia, contributed to how impressed people were with him when he finally succeeded.
He was capable of learning important lessons, like "not gratuitously pissing off Russian leadership," but some of them he had to learn the hard way.
TL;DR: Oh, Fritz.]
(Young Ulli for a hot minute wonders whether he could throw himself at the King's mercy, because surely the great hero of the Protestant faith would never, ever, sanction such practices.)
Austrian Trenck: You totally could! Enlightened bastard Fritz always respects law, as we know, especially international law.
...You know, Fritz is really the ultimate in teflon monarchs.
And that's when it hits our Swiss Shakespeare commenter writing in 1780: Hal is Fritz! Fritz is Hal! While yours truly goes.... zomg. He's actually not completely wrong there....
He's not! I have to say, back when I thought I was going to write a Fritz & Wilhelmine Yuletide fic for cahn (sorreeee), I went looking for a Shakespeare play, so Fritz could say, "Really?" and Wilhelmine could say, "Mom says I have to be on top of this for my upcoming marriage!" And when I decided on Henry V, I was like, "AAAHHH! I need to figure out how to underscore the Fritz/Hal parallels when it's 1729 and they haven't happened yet!"
And then that fic died the death of sleep deprivation and isn't on my WIP list anymore. But. The important thing is that I think Swiss peasant is onto something!
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Re: Ulrich Bräker: The Swiss Perspective
Date: 2020-05-04 03:19 am (UTC)*facepalm* Poor guy.
Prussian recruiting practices,
The longer the Seven Years' War went on, the worse the manpower shortages, and the more desperate Fritz got.
Fritz: We won the battle! Casualties were as high or higher than the enemy's, plus all those desertions, and I practically need a new army now, but we won!
Heinrich: OMFG YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG
Fritz: But, see, if I make it look easy, no one will be impressed. It's only by going to the brink of defeat and suicide several times during this totally avoidable war that I brought on us, that I will be a celebrity in Europe afterwards for avoiding annihilation by the skin of my teeth. People will come from all over to visit me. Even Napoleon will be impressed and collect souvenirs after my death!
Heinrich: Okay, well, sounds like a risky strategy, but let me know if you need me to be regent for our nephew or anything, after you commit suicide. soon?please?
Fritz: Will do! Meanwhile, recruiters, go find me some more cannon fodder. Whatever it takes. I've got some Polish coin dies to work on here so I can pay them.
[ETA: Just to be clear, Fritz was not consciously trying to do things the hard way in order to make them look impressive any more than he was hoping for souvenir collecting by not-yet-born Napoleon. Or admitting that his diplomacy got them into a tight spot in the Seven Years' War. But 1) he was by his own admission after fame and glory when deciding to conquer Silesia, 2) he insisted on doing things a certain way, even when the cost was high and people like Heinrich were WTFing at him. And in hindsight, the extreme difficulties he had, of which many were of his own making, holding onto Silesia, contributed to how impressed people were with him when he finally succeeded.
He was capable of learning important lessons, like "not gratuitously pissing off Russian leadership," but some of them he had to learn the hard way.
TL;DR: Oh, Fritz.]
(Young Ulli for a hot minute wonders whether he could throw himself at the King's mercy, because surely the great hero of the Protestant faith would never, ever, sanction such practices.)
Austrian Trenck: You totally could! Enlightened bastard Fritz always respects law, as we know, especially international law.
...You know, Fritz is really the ultimate in teflon monarchs.
And that's when it hits our Swiss Shakespeare commenter writing in 1780: Hal is Fritz! Fritz is Hal! While yours truly goes.... zomg. He's actually not completely wrong there....
He's not! I have to say, back when I thought I was going to write a Fritz & Wilhelmine Yuletide fic for
And then that fic died the death of sleep deprivation and isn't on my WIP list anymore. But. The important thing is that I think Swiss peasant is onto something!