“Well?” his uncle barked.
“Yes, sir. General Izmailov is a great general and a great asset to Russia.”
“But a friend of Shein’s-one of his proteges, in fact. Keep your distance from him, boy. Sheremetev’s not fond of Shein. The war party didn’t do well in this last shake up. I’ll try to keep your general alive for you, but not to the point of risking the family. Now tell me about Khilkov. What went on? And why did Izmailov let him do it?”
Tim told him. It wasn’t like General Izmailov had much choice, considering Khilkov’s family connections. Then they went on to the situation in Rzhev and the Polish border in general.
“Rzhev was a mistake, sir,” Tim said. “They didn’t have the steam ships to take advantage of it, even if they had held the town. It really was one of the magnates going off on his own.”
“I don’t doubt it, boy. That’s what started that business with the false Dmitris, back at the beginning of the Time of Troubles. Poland uses its magnates to test the waters.”
“Yes, sir. But they didn’t have the logistic train to support it even if it had worked.”
“You seem pretty sure of that, boy. The Poles are cavalry. They need their horses but can steal the rest.”
Tim hesitated. He was in fact quite sure that cavalry would be trashed if it lacked infantry support and Russia controlled the rivers for troop transport. But his great uncle was a boyar of the Duma and ruled the family with an iron hand. “Not with us controlling the river with steam barges. War horses need grain, horseshoes, and so on. Cavalrymen need food and equipment-which breaks in the field-and gunpowder. They would do damage but with the steam barges to put troops in front of them and the walking walls and cannon… especially with the AK3’s… they are going to run out of cavalry long before we run out of bullets. Over the course of an hour cavalry can outrun a steam barge, but over a day they can’t keep up. With the dirigible to locate them…” Tim shook his head. “They wouldn’t last a week.”
“Tell me about the flying ship.”
“It told us where they were. That was important in Rzhev, but would have been even more important if the Poles had tried to push farther in. It would have let us see where they were going and get there first. They would have been forced from one trap to another, until they were utterly destroyed. Cavalry is doing well to cover thirty miles a day; a dirigible can cover that in an hour or two, if the wind is good. Then go home and tell the infantry and mobile artillery where the cavalry is headed. Cavalry’s day is over except as support troops. If that.” Which was a risky thing to say because his great uncle had been a cavalry commander under Ivan the Terrible.
All in all, it was a grueling interview and Tim was happy to get back to the Kremlin. Though Tim didn’t know it, the interview had a strong effect on the policies of the Boyar Duma. Cavalry, which had always been the province of the service nobility, was downgraded in importance and so was the service nobility. Instead, the Streltzi class with its rifle companies would be given more support and respect. It wouldn’t happen in a year or even a decade, but between the destruction of Khilkov’s cavalry and the many reports, both official and unofficial, the writing was on the wall. Eventually, because the service nobility was the class that produced the bureaucrats and the Streltzi class was the class that produced the merchants, the private sector would gain-a bit at a time-the ear of the government and the public sector would be heeded a bit less. The years of limited mobility would not be allowed to lapse. With inflation, that would mean that more and more of the peasants would be able to pay off their debts to the lesser nobility and seek factory jobs.
Totally by accident and without ever knowing it, Tim had struck a blow for freedom. A small blow. Even a tiny one. But enough such tiny blows and even the massive edifice of Russian serfdom might eventually fall.
Tim had a week in Moscow to get all the new uniforms made, then he got sent as executive officer to a cousin who was leading a contingent of cavalry to the city of Murom. It was too late in the year, unfortunately, to use one of the new steam barges for the purpose. The rivers were already freezing over. Tim had hoped to ride on one of them.
“How is it, my friend,” Ivan asked Tim, grinning evilly, “that you have all the connections, the rank and a letter of thanks from the czar and I get the plum assignment?”
It was, Tim thought morosely, an excellent question. Of course, Ivan’s grin made it even worse. “I told you I wouldn’t be able to leave anything out,” Tim said, referring to the meeting with his uncle. “I’m being reminded I need to learn to follow orders. So while you become the aide of Captain Ruslan Andreyivich Shuvalov, new commander of the dirigible Czarina Evdokia, I become the Executive Officer of Cousin Ivan Borisovich Lebedev. Which means I get to do all his work while he gets drunk and bothers the local girls.”
“Your cousin who is also a captain and the new commander of the Murom Streltzi. Murom being the family seat of the newly famous Gorchakov family. So the whole town is supposed to be full of electricity and every peasant’s hovel has indoor plumbing.”
“While you get to go flying in the newest and biggest airship in the world. At least, I think the Czarina is going to be bigger than any other so far built. In a just world, you would be stuck as Cousin Ivan Borisovich’s aide in Murom with its electricity, and plumbing-which I bet is not as good as rumor says-and its small force of Streltzi. While Nick would be the captain of the Czarina and I would be his executive officer, running test flights over Bor.”
“That would be illegal and you know it. You’re great house and Nikita Ivanovich Slavenitsky is deti boyar. They can’t place someone of your family rank under someone of his.”
“Fine, so leave Nick as captain and let you be his aide and Ruslan Andreyivich Shuvalov be his executive officer. Not the other way around.”
Ivan sighed histrionically and Tim wanted to hit him, mostly because he knew his friend was right and he was being silly. Then Ivan continued, “Sheremetev’s faction won in the latest shakeup. With the death of the patriarch and the purges in the bureaus, the Gorchakov clan-while not in disgrace-didn’t exactly come out of it smelling of roses. Besides, you know as well as I do that the Sheremetev family outranks the Gorchakov family. If the Gorchakovs were in better odor at court then Captain Slavenitsky might have gotten the slot but Ruslan Andreyavich Shuvalov wouldn’t have been put under his command even then.
“With the shake up, the riots, the patriarch’s death, Sheremetev has been declared Director-General by the Boyar Duma. He is the effective ruler of Russia and he is going to do everything he can to shift any of the glory that comes out of the up-timer knowledge to the Sheremetev clan. That’s why his up-timer Cass Lowry is to be put in charge of the Dacha. And they couldn’t put you under the command of Captain Ruslan Andreyavich Shuvalov any more than they could put you under the command of your friend Captain Nikita Ivanovich Slavenitsky. That’s the drawback of being of a great house. The only way they could make you the executive officer of the Czarina would be to put your cousin in command of her.”
“Anything but that.” Tim shuddered.
“See!” Ivan said. “And Captain Shuvalov is a capable man, if a bit of a cold fish. So, since you’re guarding the Gorchakov family seat, what’s happening at the Gorchakov Dacha?”
Part Six
Chapter 70
February 1636
Cass rode up to the Dacha with a mixture of trepidation and glee. He was finally going to get his own back from that traitor Bernie and his bitch Natasha. And he planned to have a little fun with that Anya chick, too. At the same time, Cass knew he had to be careful. Sheremetev and his gang weren’t the sort of people you crossed. But sooner or later, they’d get bored and leave the place fully in Cass’ control. Then he’d have the run of the place.
For several weeks things went along pretty much as they had before. The Dacha’s contacts with the outside
