Lina's plan was to send the nearly twenty thousand mercenaries under her command to attack the heretical lord whose territory lay closest to Lorraine. The force was large enough to intimidate most opponents, even if its members lacked the discipline and experience of a regular army. The target was a relatively small tribe capable of gathering only about a thousand fighters, so surely twenty thousand mercenaries could handle them, provided they did not manage to get in one another's way.
The tribe possessed few resources and posed little immediate threat to Lorraine, but its territory was considerably larger than its military strength suggested. Lina intended to seize the land and then donate the entire territory to the Church. It would be a generous gift on paper, and she hoped the gesture would earn her goodwill among the religious authorities.
