Chapter 178 – Revival (Part 1)
A year had pa.s.sed since the exam started.
Despite only a year having pa.s.sed, our territory developed at an amazing rate.
Public order improved in the territory, foreign relations stabilized too, the trading post succeeded and the influx in the population steadily rose.
Especially in the beginning the trading post was only made up of merchants wanting to make a big fortune in one stroke and that"s dissipated but there are merchants who regularly trade with the elves and it became a big boon to the territory"s finances.
But there was another reason our territory was enjoying a boom.
Because of the war clouds stirring in the continent"s north.
A half year ago, as Dana Litalin had predicted, the Aman Kingdom went to war.
The firs target of the current Sultan Saloc of the Aman Kingdom was the Seilan Kingdom which was situated on the northern border.
Without any indication, the Aman army suddenly invaded and the Seilan Kingdom couldn"t put up proper Countermeasures in time and collapsed.
The justification that the Aman Kingdom cited was to suppress insurgents and reclaim lost territory.
Honestly, it was the same as having no pretext.
It was because all the Countries existing in Arena now had revolted against the rule of the Aman Kingdom that had once conquered the whole continent and founded their own Countries.
If you argued it like that then from the point of view of the Aman Kingdom, all Countries in the world were insurgents.
On top of that, the Aman army engaged in immense brutality towards the occupied Seilan Kingdom
Every place they pa.s.sed, enormous ma.s.sacres took place.
Their reasoning was that they would not forgive any insurgents, but honestly they invaded another Country without a declaration of war and basically went through and ma.s.sacred all the people.
Like Hitler who started World War 2, Sultan Saloc has gone mad.
Starting with the Arend Kingdom they began being bashed on from various Countries.
Especially the king of the Arend Kingdom, Alsefon the 3rd resolved to criticize Sultan Saloc. He created waves by revealing his suspicions about their relationship with the wicked dark magician group.
In the Seilan Kingdoms cruel ma.s.sacre, he a.s.serted it was for the dark magicians and suggested creating a grand Counter alliance against the Aman Kingdom.
Sultan Saloc brushed it all off as nonsense but because other Countries had sensed the dark magicians" cover activities, the anxiety kept growing.
Anyway, everyone was paying attention to where the Aman Kingdom"s army, which was currently stationed in the Seilan Kingdom territory, was going to march to next. The north of the continent was in complete chaos.
Whether it was the migrants of the Seilan Kingdom that was destroyed in the war, or the refugees felling in fear of the Aman army"s aggression and slaughter, everyone was coming down south.
And lately, it had been rumored in the south too that our territory was a good place to live. Because of that, they flowed down to us.
With the sudden influx of refugees there was the problem of public order. But as if she had been waiting for it, Cha Ji-hye went into action.
"There are now a lot of people without jobs so I"ll have to recruit soldiers."
With the abundance of capital we had gathered so far, we decided to organize an army.
Currently, it could only be said that our territory"s army was in complete disarray.
Combining the regular army and guards, the troops numbered about 500, but among them only 100-some soldiers were actually armed with weapons and armor.
And of those 100-some soldiers, they were enlisted for monster eradication so they had to be armed. But even then it was only cloth armor with spears and some arrows.
The rest of the military had spears but not with iron tips, but rather wood with the tips sharpened into points. What made it even funnier than that was the reality that because there weren"t enough arrows, there were more soldiers equipped with catapults and slings and the like.
I"m told if war breaks out, if we forcefully conscript all the civilians in the territory to fight, they would have to bring their own weapons and armor.
So of course they came bearing sticks and farm tools.
Did they say conscripts without weapons throw rocks? Anyway, it"s a complete mess.
Elaborate formation and tactics…can"t be expected at all from this army.
"It"s much more serious that I thought."
Cha Ji-hye was determined to fix this.
But even though she was a soldier herself, she wasn"t a person from Arena so we needed a separate specialist.
"Well, getting a specialist is easy."
Not too long ago, someone I know well was in a big war.
"Mr. Odin?"
-Good to hear from you. I heard the baron is prospering.
"Haha, thanks to you, Odin."
-Don"t mention it. What is it?
"Could you acquire someone good at handling an army?"
-Do you mean in the matter of reorganizing the army?
"Yes, I would like to find someone who isn"t an examinee, but a specialist from this world."
-Hm, that"s not hard. I have someone in mind, I"ll send them over to you. He is a veteran with a long history of war so he"ll be able to help quite a bit.
"Thank you very much."
-He goes by Baronet Raymond, as a veteran who knows the battlefield like the back of his hand. He"s given over his a.s.signment to young successors and is resting. He was slowly considering retiring but I"ll try and convince him. But as much as he is knowledgeable he is also prideful, so you cannot be negligent in your duty or treatment to him.
"Of course. Actually he"ll be the one responsible for the entire army of our territory. We actually have to tear down the preexisting army and fix it from the beginning. I want start it from scratch and train them from the ground up."
-Sounds good. I"ll call you back.
And then a few days later, I got a call from Odin.
-Baronet Raymond has agreed. He liked that he would be responsible for forming a new crack unit. It seems he wants to make an army according to his exact army philosophy.
"That"s excellent. When did he say he could come?"
-He said he can go at any time.
"Really? Then I"ll send an eagle right away."
-Uh, an eagle you said?
"Yes, the faster we get this going, the better.
-Baronet Raymond is a bit older in age so I"m not sure he"ll be able to handle the flight. I"ll contact you after I ask him.
Baaaaek-
The loud cry of the rake eagle.
It seems that number one that I had sent to Wolfenbrooke has returned.
I was hardcore playing games like a real baron but at that sound I put the notebook away into the virtual s.p.a.ce and went out onto the terrace attached to the bedroom.
Number one recognized me and descended over here. And majestically landed on the terrace banister.
But the only thing was that the man riding atop number one"s back was fl.u.s.tered and didn"t know what to do.
"This b.a.s.t.a.r.d eagle, every time it"s not considerate. How am I supposed to get off here……?"
"I"ll let you down, please wait a moment. Sylph!"
-Meow!
As soon as Sylph was summoned she read my mind and lifted the man up on wind.
"Huh?"
Riding the wind, the man landed lightly on the terrace.
A man appearing to be in his early to mid-fifties stood there.
With a rough beard and tanned skin, a confident physique gave off a tough appearance.
The man was wearing a suit of armor, had a battle axe on his back, and a bag of his belongings in his hand.
"You are a spirit summoner as I had heard."
The old man was the war specialist that Odin had sent, Baronet Raymond.
"How was your trip here?"
"Haha, it was a bit rough but it was a rather refreshing experience. More than anything it was good because I arrived quickly."
"Right?"
"Yes, baron, your excellency. Anyhow, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am the knight that guards the Count of Wolfenbrooke, Baronet Raymond."
"I am Baron Kim. Welcome. I thank you for accepting my proposal."
"Of course. I thank you for giving me such an opportunity."
Having just arrived and no doubt tired, we decided to discuss things later. I had a maid prepare a home beforehand and guide him there.
Then the next day, at a seat with Cha Ji-hye included, we headed into the discussion.
"Going forward I am planning on having all soldiers properly equipped."
"Looking at the current weapons inventory it will cost a substantial sum……"
Baronet Raymond looked worried as he read over the files of the territory army"s current situation.
I said.
"We have plenty of money so you don"t have to worry about that. More so than that, before we acquire weapons, I think we should start with the re-departmentalizing the military branches."
"Currently looking at the territory"s power, the ratio of soldiers is too low. The catapults and slings and the like we"ll throw away, and instead we"ll need to get bows. If we have enough money, crossbows, and we"ll need about 150 soldiers equipped with them. And we also need a cavalry so we can send them scouting as well."
Baronet Raymond began telling us his thoughts and opinions.
To protect the castle against an attack or invasion we"ll increase the archer forces up to 150, and for scouting and mobile warfare the light cavalry there needs to be 50, he insisted.
The remaining soldiers will be spearman and supply soldiers and Cha Ji-hye suggested the number of supply soldiers, who manage and transport the military supplies, to be less than 100.
"Can it be that little? If the supply corps isn"t properly staffed, I think smooth supply seems impossible."
Ask a surprised Baronet Raymond. I told him that we can use the 10 rake eagles to transport military supplies.
And also, the army is being fostered to defend the territory rather than attack, so there is no need to go out on expedition.
"If that"s the case then thank goodness. If all the things I have said beforehand can be fulfilled and we still have the leeway in funds, I think it would be good to have heavily armed foot soldiers in chainmail."
"Getting weapons isn"t hard, but it"s the training. Will you be able to properly nurture archer forces using crossbows and light infantrymen?"
Currently, in our territory, there wasn"t an archer who could use a crossbow nor a soldier who could fight while riding a horse.
Thankfully, Baronet Raymond put forth a plan.
"If you ask Count of Wolfenbrooke for aid in soldier training it will be solved. The Count of Wolfenbrooke has many veteran soldiers with a lot of experience and therefore has a number of people who can be a.s.signed as training officers."
There was that method.
I"m really becoming indebted to Odin.
We put our heads together and grappled and with the matter of military reorganization established, we each took to our actions.
I contacted with a big merchant who specialized in military item trade and ordered the necessary weapons.
Thankfully he was a merchant who regularly traded with the elves and was very cooperative with us.
In exchange for a tax favor in using the trading post, he cut the price by quite a bit.
But because of the creation of the light cavalry unit we needed 50 horses, spears, and chainmail to be acquired as well but we didn"t have enough funds.
The deficient funds was made up by selling majeong.
The eagles were hard at work hunting and their gathered majeong nearly didn"t fit into the virtual s.p.a.ce anymore, there was wiggle room when it came to selling the majeong.
150 archers armed with crossbows.
50 infantrymen to use for scouting.
100 heavily armed foot soldiers to head the fight in hand to hand combat.
Spearmen, 400.
Supply soldiers, 100.
We recruited 300 new soldiers and created a regular army of some 800 soldiers.
Thanks to selling a considerable amount of majeong for funds, the military reform was smooth.
Baronet Raymond, together with the training officers the Count of Wolfenbrooke sent to help in training, began to train and fix up the messy army that was in place.
About this time, from the north of the continent, new news was delivered.
It was news that the Seilan Kingdom, who had been putting up sporadic resistance, had fallen.
Without any differentiation between the soldiers that were caught either as prisoners nor the civilians caught in the occupied areas, all were slaughtered. Currently, the only people alive in the Kingdom of Seilan were the Aman soldiers and horrible rumor came from within it.
Killing as many people as possible to gather soul fragments, their intent was clear.
At this rate, the revival of Kajad Pun Aman might come faster than expected.