C90: The Road to King (30)

The southwestern tip of the former Bridget territory, this is the location of Berthaquin. At the top is a mountain range, below is the ocean. It was a natural fortress for sure.

Most of Berthaquin territory is mountainous. If I exclude the mountains, the usable land is about half that of Aintorian. Considering that the mountains can be used for slash-and-burn farming, there’s some room to spare.

The territories I’ve decided to start with are Berthaquin, the neighboring territory of Raihein, and Brinhild, which used to be Bridget’s territory.

Aside from the population, there is a lack of people who can rule properly.

It takes a lot of people to maintain a single city. Leaving it to just anyone would have negative consequences, as security and people’s spirit would decline. That’s why I gave up on the eastern side of Bridget’s royal capital, which was occupied by Lunan’s troops, for now.

I’m going to start building it up from here and later occupy the eastern side as well.

“As you said, immediately after the invasion of Narja, most of the troops in the southeast of Bridget retreated to Lunan. I obeyed orders and stayed behind to secure Brinhild!”

Of the troops led by Fihatri, 20,000 had retreated to Lunan. Perhaps they joined Ronen who fled to the southern part of Lunan. Well, I’ve left another spark over there. If that spark was useless, I could use other methods, but I was going to watch the heat of the spark for now.

Ronen was the real enemy who had caused her father’s death. With Hayna intellect she would not spend effort on the dying Lunan, but would have tried to take revenge on Ronen.

“What about the population of southeast Bridget?”

“There is some difficulty because they are essentially Bridget citizens…….We’ve tried to encourage them to move to the west, where we are, but we’ve failed to win them over.”

“Well, that can’t be helped. Don’t keep anyone from leaving your territory, even in Raihein and Brinhild. Forcing them to do so at a time like this will have a fatal effect on public sentiment.”

“Yes, my lord!”

I can’t help but think that the people of Bridget perceive me as just another enemy but if I govern them well my influence will increase.

First of all, I have to concentrate my power as much as possible.

There was a lot of work to be done, but the first thing I did was to inspect each of the roads leading from Brinhild, the old royal capital of Bridget, to the eastern part of Bridget. To the north is a mountain range and to the south is the coast, in other words, it’s blocked.

The east is the one to watch out for. The road to the east was open, but there was a small cluster of mountains on that side as well. I went to inspect the mountainous area because it had a barrier to stop enemies from entering Brinhild, the royal capital of Bridget.

“Sir, it looks like it’s this way.”

The first barrier that Fihatri took me to.

[Brin Hill barrier]

[Endurance 50]

It was worse than I thought.

“There are a few guards down there, but they don’t seem to be in good condition. It’s a long stretch of country to the east, and the mountainous terrain blocks most of the enemy, so they may have been caught off guard.”

In the end, it was necessary to repair the damage at a cost. Although I had brought in all the gold that was in the basement of Aintorian, there was a limit.

As the population grows, relying only on that gold will be a problem later on. For now, I have no choice but to enforce a policy of tax exemption, a policy that will cost me a fortune.

“Supply as much food as you can and gather as many men as you can using the food stored in Bridget’s royal palace. We’ll need to build an extension.”

“Very well, my lord!”

I can’t leave my flank unprotected. There is no force that can invade this region immediately, but I must be prepared. I plan to promote trade in the future, so I’ll have to make money that way.

What’s important is the barrier that will protect me. That was the first priority, and then I started to allocate the population.

If we were to establish a kingdom while declaring the revival of the ancient Aintorian Kingdom, the first step would be to use my current territory and the royal capital would be Brinhild.

It’s not bad. It’s a place with a reasonably good royal castle.

[Aintorian Domain]

[Total population 1,050,000]

Since I have not yet proclaimed a new country, the total population of the three regions labeled as Aintorian territory in the system is 1,050,000.

The existing population of Aintorian is 250,000, it’s a lot for a single territory, but that’s because I’ve implemented an aggressive influx policy.

Besides, the existing population of Brinhild, Raihein, and Berthaquin is about 500,000. This was a small number considering that Brinhild was the royal capital of a country, and the population of the rest of the country had left due to the war I had started last time.

The rest were refugees from the Lunan region who had followed me.

As for the most important public sentiment, the existing population of about 500,000 people in Bridget had a bad number of [43], while the people I had emigrated from the Aintorian territory beforehand, that is, the people who had come to trust only me, had a high number of [92].

In addition, the refugees who had come with me after I had defeated the great army of Narja after the war had begun also had a reasonably stable public sentiment of [85].

The total of these was 60, which is not a very good number. I have to wait for Bridget’s citizens’ public sentiment to rise slowly.

The allocation was 600,000 for Brinhild, 300,000 for Raihein, and 150,000 for Berthaquin. It was done in accordance with the size of each region but the problem here was the lords of each region. I was troubled by the lack of personnel.

[Merja Haddin: 60 Martial Force, 57 Intelligence, 70 Command]

[Bente: 49 Martial Force, 38 Intelligence, 82 Command]

[Zint: 93(+2) Martial Force, 41 Intelligence, 52 Command]

[Yusen: 82 Martial Force, 69 Intelligence, 90(+2) Command]

[Givens: 70 Martial Force, 34 Intelligence, 76 Command]

[Mirine: 5 Martial Force, 74 Intelligence, 20 Command]

[Roserun Yurasia: 89(+3) Martial Force, 57 Intelligence, 95(+2) Command]

[Demasin Elheat: 96 Martial Force, 70 Intelligence, 97 Command]

[Lecter Fihatri: 81 Martial Force, 85 Intelligence, 89 Command]

[Voltaire Ganid: 30 Martial Force, 60 Intelligence, 61 Command]

[Berta Leman: 80 Martial Force, 50 Intelligence, 78 Command]

Elheat has not completely become my vassal but he was still helping me. So I was in no hurry. I was going to wait until he brought up the subject on his own. I’m sure he has his own problems. The good news is that Elheat’s vassals are now completely anti-Ronen.

They know the false image of the country of Lunan better than anyone else, so they will probably be able to persuade Elheat. Count Voltaire, on the other hand, stayed where he was. He seemed to have no intention of leaving. When he sees me, he flatters me.

Elheat’s vassals, Voltaire’s vassals and none of the Lunan lords and vassals who chose to accompany me had any special abilities.

Elheat’s vassals are specialized in warfare, so if Elheat became my vassal completely, they would be specialized in that field.

If I were to embark on a war of conquest, I would have to call them back to work with me anyway, but for now, I had to manage each region.

For this reason, I chose Yusen, who had already confronted the mountain tribes in Berthaquin and obtained valuable information, to be in charge of Berthaquin, and Haddin to be in charge of Raihein. They are the people I trust the most.

Fihatri was superior in some areas in terms of ability, but he had already done quite a lot of the work.

[Lord of Berthaquin]

[Yusen]

[Berthaquin’s people’s spirit has increased by 5.]

As soon as I appointed Yusen as the lord of Berthaquin, a surprising change appeared. Was it the result of Yusen’s high command ability? Or was it a result of Yusen’s already successful activities in Berthaquin and his desire for stability?

Haddin’s first assignment in Raihein had been uneventful.

***

I visited Raihein. The purpose of my visit was to stabilize public sentiment by announcing a tax policy prior to the development of agricultural land and the encouragement of fishing.

Raihein was larger than Berthaquin. Of course, in terms of importance, Berthaquin was by far the most important because of its iron production. It was practically the most important region because it could stimulate the mining industry.

However, in terms of agriculture and fishing, Raihein was bigger than Berthaquin.

[Raihein]

[Population: 325,031]

[People’s Spirit: 74]

The low public sentiment of the existing citizens and the migrants combined and became [74]. The migrants had heard about the general tax policy, but the indigenous people of Raihein had not so I set out on my own. The earlier I started, the more effective I could be in explaining things to them.

“Many new people are moving in, and that will upset the people. But……”

I went around to every village to make that speech. The effect of the tax policy is huge, of course. One year of tax exemption is not a small price to pay. This is true even today, and even more so in this age when the tax rates are much higher.

The tax policy also succeeded in reducing the dissatisfaction of the existing indigenous population, and public sentiment soared to [85].

In the end only Brinhild was left.

[Brinhild]

[Population: 624,501]

[People’s Spirit: 54]

It didn’t help that the lowest level of public sentiment was mostly the existing population. What they worried about more than anything else was that they were taking the place of the migrants.

Even in Raihein, the uncultivated land that is offered to the migrants. In general, the population of this period was small compared to the size of the country. Think of it as only 620,000 people in a place the size of Tokyo.

Anyway, I started my speech in Brinhild as well. The idea was not to disadvantage the existing residents of the area in any way, but rather to accommodate them with a one-year tax exemption. Since I intend to enforce the draft in the future, I have to do as much good as I can now to raise public sentiment.

“……That’s why I’m going to implement a tax policy so that the migrant population and the existing indigenous population can be well integrated!”

Naturally, no one complained about the tax exemption.

[People’s spirits have been raised from 54 to 76.]

[People’s spirits increased from 76 to 91 due to additional effects.]

But unusually in Brinhild, public sentiment rose even higher. It was a phenomenon that had not occurred in Raihein. I stared at the system, wondering what it was. There was no way an added effect could be created without a reason.