Chapter 1 (partial)

Now that we had conquered the Franks and started to absorb them into our culture, there was an immediate problem that resulted from our victory.

We now had a border with the Gauls. They were related to the Celtics and could communicate with many of our people. This territory was the area that would become known as Germany. The Gauls were an expansionist group due to pressure from the Slav tribes. Broken into small tribes, they could be handled easily. Once one of the tribes became dominant, they would be a handful.

Our ability to communicate with them was another opportunity for us to change their culture. Unfortunately for me, there was a dominant tribe at our northern border. This area would become Alsace-Lorraine in the future. Alsace-Lorraine would be the site of many future battles between modern France and Germany. The area is rich in coal and iron ores, which was a constant bone of contention.

I wasn't ready for a battle with the Gauls then, so I had to stabilize our mutual border to avoid war. By stabilizing the border, I meant making it so strong they wouldn't dream of crossing it. Sure, they could dream of crossing our border but not do it.

Our common border was too long to build a wall along its length. At least all at once. We had done this enough that my people had it down to a science. First, we kept a large army stationed along the border to prevent incursions while we built our defenses. This tactic was countered by the Gauls stationing troops on their side of the border.

The only difference was that we understood logistics and the need to provide food to our army. The Gauls were still at the point where they lived off the land.

Living off the land worked for an army on the march, not for a stationary army. They soon had killed off all the deer and wild pigs in their area. They had to go further and further to keep their men fed. Any farmer in their area had long fled, leaving little in their wake.

On the other hand, we cut roads immediately so supplies could be brought to the new front. In some cases, we were able to rehabilitate old Roman roads. Our frontlines had been laid out. Along the frontier, we had a series of forts built. At first, they were nothing but rough camps built like the old Roman marching camps.

As soon as one of these camps was ready for occupancy, we usually started on a more permanent version in a few days. They could withstand anything less than cannon fire with double-wide concrete walls and watch towers. Inside the walls, we built standard barracks and support buildings. We also added oversized warehouses. The idea was to have more than enough food to feed our people and provide the Gauls food if needed.

I wanted to be a good neighbor while being prepared to fend off attacks. The surveyors started laying out the roads and railroad paths to connect Paris to the northern border. There would be three main roads and mainlines out of Paris. There would be several roads crisscrossing so traffic could be diverted from one location to another as needed.

While the physical stuff was underway, we also opened a dialog with the chieftains along the way. We wanted the local Franks to benefit from what we were doing and to influence the Gauls on our border.

We ensured that our Franks were well fed and had MASH units visit them to address health problems. Baroness Agnes had started with a single mobile hospital. She now had one hundred of them fully staffed and working our country and our allies.

They moved freely about the country. We always sent a guard contingent along, but it was woe to anyone who attacked a MASH unit. They were hailed as miracle workers everywhere they went, and to attack them was madness. The locals would hunt them down and kill them to a man. It only took a couple of times, and the units were sacrosanct.

All along our border with the Gaul, we sent teams to upgrade their food and grain storage and improve their roads and MASH units to help with their health care.

Cast in Time Book 6 Available in June 2024!

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More details coming soon.

Earl E. (Ed) Nelson

I have always wanted to be an author. I had my first rejection slip in about 1965. Wish I had saved it. For many years the only writing I did was technical as pesky things like three children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren came along.

My technical writing was in the field of quality in several different journals. I worked in the field of quality for over fifty years, starting as a line inspector and ending up as a Vice-President of Quality and elected a Fellow of the American Society for Quality.

Then a wonderful thing happened. I lost my job and was out of work for almost eight months. To keep from going crazy I wrote. I posted my stories on an online site, and lo and behold people read them and said nice things. Fast forward about eight years and I am retired and writing for the fun of it.

A lot of what is in my stories is based on my life experiences, gasp! Give or take a lie or two that is. The one fortunate thing in my career is that I got to travel worldwide and have been to most of the locations I write about.

In my younger days, I tried hot air ballooning, sky diving, white water rafting, spelunking, and target shooting. I have collected stamps, drove in road rallies, lowly rated by the US Chess federation. I built a Kentucky long rifle and a dueling pistol. I am a licensed HAM radio operator. My hobby is having hobbies.

My true passion is reading. Trapped in a hotel room I would read the telephone book. The TV would not be turned on. I have averaged 200 books a year for the last sixty years. I knew those long flights were good for something.

BTW I was born in the middle of an air raid in England during World War II, the house next door was destroyed and our windows were blown out. That is probably the most interesting thing I have been involved with. Mum never forgave me. Happily married for 56 years I hope my wife doesn’t catch on to what a goof I am.