EP.27
Every day they lived suffering from hunger was hell, but they could not end the life they had been given, so even though they paid 90% of their income as taxes, the residents of Bruno had to live each day while being chased by the death tax of the opposition party.
The emperor, who belatedly learned that all the people of the territory were in danger of starving to death due to the tyranny of the wicked lord, ordered the vicious lord to be taken down from his position and imprisoned for trial.
And I, Captain Peter Jaeger, was appointed as the next Lord Bruno.
Although I can manage a lot of money at once with the support of the crown prince and the emperor.
It is certainly remarkable that they succeeded in supplying food to the people of the territory who were dying of starvation until the next harvest season and lending one cow per household to enable them to farm well, thereby making it possible to collect taxes normally like other provinces from next year. It will be evaluated based on work.
This is because it takes a lot of effort to fix a broken machine, and in so many cases, some people would rather buy a new machine than repair it.
This is because I received a nearly ruined estate and spent several months reforming it so that it could be run like a normal estate as long as it lasted until the next harvest.
Unfortunately, the orders I, Captain Peter Jaeger, have received require that this territory not only be fully normalized within a maximum of two years, but also prospered to the point where it can at least serve as a relay base in the coming war.
Therefore, at the current rate of development, it will be difficult to meet the demands of the Crown Prince and Emperor.
I muttered as I touched the rough blueprints of several machines that changed history in my hands.
“Anyway, I have to meet His Highness the Crown Prince and report on the current state of the territory and the forward base, so I will have to get all the support I can, starting with excellent engineers.”
As soon as I made that decision and completed all the preparations to go see the crown prince, I immediately got on a horse and headed to the imperial capital.
**
Fifteen days later, in the drawing room of the crown prince’s mansion.
A golden wall covered in gold leaf, a silk flag engraved with the emblem symbolizing the crown prince, elegant furniture made of the highest quality wood such as ebony and agarwood.
A place where only the crown prince’s invited guests can enter, with paintings symbolizing the crown prince’s achievements hanging on armor and weapons inlaid with gold and jewels.
As I enter this room, I feel intimidated by the fact that I have now become a low-ranking noble in name and reality of the empire.
So, the moment I entered the room, my eyes widened and I looked around, ignoring the butler next to me… no, the butler whose status was slightly higher than mine.
The butler of the prince’s residence next to me spoke in a tone of instruction, one by one, instead of blaming me for being so foolish.
“Lord Jaeger, if you sit here on the sofa and drink some tea while you wait, His Highness the Crown Prince will come.”
When I heard those words, I wondered for a moment whether I should apologize for ignoring the butler and being distracted by the luxurious interior.
He waved his hand as if he understood my feelings and signaled for me to sit down and wait.
As I sat down and waited for about an hour, the door opened and the crown prince walked towards me and spoke.
“Yes, Captain Jaeger. My heart rejoices when I see you. Originally, you were not allowed to command a battalion with your rank, but I personally took the irrational step of appointing an official battalion commander to your battalion only on paper, and entrusted the actual battalion commander duties to you. What results have you had? “I think I would be disappointed if there were no tangible results that would make me happy.”
“As a result of doing our best to repay the trust of His Majesty the Crown Prince, the Bruno Estate is expected to recover to the level of other estates when the harvest is carried out safely next year. In addition, my battalion has already prepared sufficiently to be able to perform well in actual combat. “Just…”
The crown prince was receiving the report in a good mood, but when he suddenly heard me say ‘just’, he said with a serious look on his face.
“In order to send the 12 knights and wizard company you requested to form a battalion, the commander must be promoted to major in order to help. Originally, you would have to be a lieutenant colonel or higher to command a battalion, a company of knights, and a company of wizards, but since this is a request from you, the so-called hero of the Rhineland, I will make a special effort to do so. So, I hope you’ll take that into consideration as well.”
Originally, a wizard company consisting of 16 wizards was placed under the infantry battalion.
However, in order to get the wizard I wanted, I needed to negotiate, so I made a big statement of 12 knights and then tried to put the wizard company she was in under my command by saying that I didn’t need to accept any knights.
What on earth was the crown prince thinking? I never thought he would give a knight to a wizard like that.
But what I need to get from the crown prince now is not a knight or a wizard who can be called the god of battle, but support… right?
So, I looked at the crown prince and spoke with a very apologetic expression and voice.
“Obviously, I need knights and wizards to be active on the next front. However, rather than organizing my battalion now, we need more support to make Bruno Castle and its surroundings, which will be the front line of our territory on the next front, ‘function as a war base’ within two years. “Without additional support, it is absolutely impossible to complete preparations as a war base by next year.”
The crown prince’s face was rotten, but he didn’t raise any objections or questions to me.
Obviously, no matter how much you think about it, completing preparations in just one year is impossible unless a miracle from God happens.
He must have understood that it would not be easy to build a city capable of being used as a supply base for the front line in just two years.
So he looked at me with a worried expression and asked.
“I risked everything on this expedition to Czechia. So, if you need support, don’t hesitate to speak up.”
“Thank you for your kindness, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. “Then please take a look at this first.”
Then I took out a scroll made of paper from my arms, handed it to him, and said,
“First of all, it contains the formal training method that I previously devised and personally trained my soldiers to raise the capabilities of the imperial soldiers, as well as an educational method called ‘drill’ that allows new recruits to act like human beings as quickly as possible. Please read it.”
In other fantasy novels, when the main character trains soldiers in a new way, he tries to hide it from the outside world.
Training methods such as formal training and drills are difficult to create for the first time, but once created, they are quickly copied because they are simpler than you think and the results are excellent.
So, even if I had not handed over the training method to the Crown Prince, the Reich Empire and Francois Republic, who had tasted the ritual, would have already copied the training method through the spies they dispatched to the territory.
If that happens, the skills will be taken away and I will have no choice but to suck my fingers and watch.
It would be best to voluntarily hand it over to the crown prince, who is my greatest ally, and then receive an appropriate compensation.
On the other hand, the crown prince did not care whether I was thinking this or not, and read and spoke with such eyesight that I wondered if the documents I had given him would break through.
“I was looking forward to it because I heard that you, who were active as a student platoon leader throughout the Rhineland, had a secret way of training soldiers. “He gave an amazing explanation at every detail, such as why this type of training method is necessary and which method is advantageous when uniting soldiers.”
“I just brought it because I thought my method of training soldiers would be of some help to His Majesty the Crown Prince, but since he thinks so highly of me, I don’t know what to do with it.”
Although he said ‘it’s just a small thing’, that was just a word he chose to pretend to be humble.
In reality, if only what I wrote on the scroll were introduced to the military, the training time for soldiers would be reduced by at least 1/3 and their skill level would increase by more than 1.5 times.
And the difference is, ‘Which soldiers are better trained and more unified?’ It will appear very prominently on the battlefield where victory and defeat are determined.
In addition, if high-ranking people at the Chief of Staff read this, wouldn’t my promotion be a little faster?
“You can stop pretending to be humble. By the way, seeing as you came even though I didn’t call you yet, doesn’t that mean you have something urgent to say? “Anything is fine, so hurry up and tell me.”
I said anything was fine, but if I were to be honest and say that it would be difficult to prepare Bruno’s territory as a war base within two years, my military career could end here.
“As you know, His Highness the Crown Prince, we need enormous support from the military to revive Bruno’s territory to the point where it can be used as an important starting point for the war within two years. I also believe that the most powerful base city on the front line should be a wealthy castle surrounded by developed, strong walls.”
If you mix these words well, even if I make a slightly unreasonable request later, it will become a clever persuasion tool like jumping over a swamp.
“To do that, we need to build a workshop to produce military supplies, but the number of technicians and people who will do the work directly in Bruno’s estate is insufficient to build the factory. “You may think this is an unreasonable proposal, but please use your money to purchase as many day laborers as possible from other territories and give them to my territory.”
To summarize what I said, it is a crazy thing for a small business owner to go to the chairman of a large company and boldly demand that he support everything from investment in machinery and equipment to talented human resources.
So, under normal circumstances, if you were going to say something ridiculous to the crown prince, you would have been told to get out of the way.
The crown prince’s ‘political standing as a future emperor’ is at stake, but is it because he just received the valuable military training method I created?
“… If it is essential for the success of the Czechvia expedition… Okay, I will introduce you to an engineer, so talk to him about the details and come up with a detailed plan. Then we will provide support accordingly.”
They are generously providing somewhat unreasonable support that would not normally be available.
Is this why some businessmen say that the best time to make money is when a war breaks out?
See next episode
