Road to the Crown

10th October 1574

"So, what are your plans?"

After a good night of sleep, I once again meet with the patriarch. This time, in the open tent of my field headquarters, with a map lying openly on the table. After all, this place was clear from the enemies already.

"With how we were given two months time to finish our tasks, we still have about a month left before the deadline. That means, that as long as we focus our efforts, we can turn this place into a powerhouse in that time, before moving all the forces to the war."

From one point of view, stalling for the time like that couldn't do any good. With the enemy forces not restrained by our logistic and organisational problems, waiting a single month before committing forces could mean that two more cities would fall under their pressure!

But on the other hand, by sacrificing a single month, I could turn this place into an area capable of outproducing current Industrial powerhouse, New Tarnow, without even making an effort. Commonwealth forces would require those two months either way, as the support for the royal election candidates would only intervene once the time would be almost up. So it wasn't like my personal decision could change the flow of the events all that much.

"Are you sure about that? Wouldn't it be easier to just invest all our efforts into increasing our numbers?"

Only at this point did I realise the problem bound to cooperating with someone of the old date like Cheerio's patriarch. While he was surely a great man of his time, he grew used to constructions taking place over the span of years instead of days. I couldn't blame him for acting cautious, where directly recruiting more forces could give us a tangible edge over the enemy. 

"Yeah, I am. As long as we pull it through, the war will be conducted with my war carriages rather than with horses or sabres. If we manage to finish this place, even if only its skeletal outline, then by the time the first reinforcements will start arriving at the war-front, the course of the conflict will change instantly."

There was one additional reason why after a good night of sleep, I decided to go with this idea. It was impossible to speed up the process of forming new units for my army. In the older generation of the military, the one that Cheerio's patriarch heralded, troops could be rallied by simply pushing the serfs from one's lands into military service. Outside of some basic killing equipment and even less care put towards their training, they would act like the cannon fodder during the battle, bolstering the morale of the real units that could affect the battle. 

In essence, the military of the old type would burden its best units with the logistic required by the vast amounts of enlisted serfs. That was something that I would never allow within my domain.

A soldier's career would start once the candidate would sign the enlisting letter. This act was completely voluntary, with my manpower relying mostly on propaganda alone. At least, there was an important bright side to this point.

With how developed my lands already were, the lives of a simple person turned from daily toiling for some food, into a comfortable life with a great paying job, improved living conditions and nearly absolute safety. Basically, for the former serfs and merchants, the opportunities to enrich oneself were wasting on the streets of my towns!

As long as one was daring enough, then the tools offered by my lands were more than enough to build many fortunes over. And it was this land of opportunity that made people want to protect it. 

Contrary to the potential expectations of the other feudal lords, my army never lacked recruits. It was the problem of manning up the officer quarters required to train more troops. For a single soldier, after pushing through the month of hell, during which he would be trained to always follow the orders of the officer, two weeks of active physical training would commence, aiming to at least reinforce the condition of the future soldiers. After that, only two weeks of warfare theory and two weeks of practical experience exercises, and one could be said to be a proper… private. The lowest kind of soldier!

In order to advance through the ranks, a fresh private could either strive for the officer's training or attempt to ammas the experience on the field, so that he would gradually rise through the ranks due to his achievements and qualifications alone.

The second road was long and full of treacherous situations. Even though this was the most advanced technologically military in the world as of the date, there was always the chance that one would lie his head on the battlefield.

On the other hand, there were the officer's courses…

It would start with a month of heaven.

With a fresh batch of recruits assigned to a person, an aspiring officer would get to live a life in the luxury, all the while his bullied underlings would watch him with hate. During that period, the officer would be taught all the basics about the tactic and strategy of the battle. Once the real training for the unit would begin, the officer's candidate would have to perfectly score the knowledge tests about the basic deployment formations and how to operate with them. Only after this point, would the officer reunite with his future unit, building the relationship with the boys during the last month of the training. Once the process was done, the graduating officer's candidate would appoint two to three candidates from his own units, giving them the chance to enter the course themselves, before the entire unit along with its officer would enter the ranks of the proper military. 

This process would naturally speed up over time. In fact, I could foresee the moment when the amount of potential new recruits would start to dry up due to the massive enlisting campaigns. With more officers to draw from, some natural talents were bound to appear. Be it in a soldier who will perform some random miracle on the battlefield, or in an officer decisively trying a new tactic to save the day. All that I had to do, was sit down and wait for a few months before Tarnowian troops would turn into the most powerful military organisation in the entire damned world!

Sadly, I didn't now have those few months to speak off. 

Even as most of the officers in the camp busied themselves with drawing the plans for several strategic structures around the place, the training regime back in New Tarnow was putting hundreds of people through the hell of the training. 

The matter of officers drawing plans was yet another upside to this kind of military arrangement. Instead of relying on foreign, outside help to draw the schematics for the small settlements all around the province ranging from industrial areas, through the mining sites and living areas all the way to small and big military outposts aimed to supervise and protect the entire enterprise. Within just a few hours ever since my men started working on this new task, the map on the table would constantly receive more and more pinned pieces of paper on it, containing the detailed plans of a structure that should appear in the pinned place!

"So you are opting for using the time that we have left before the deadline runs off, to settle this entire place? Are you sane?"

Taking a long while to realise what I was speaking about, Cheerio's patriarch looked at me with shock in his eyes. 

And it could be said that he was rightfully stunned. To establish full control over the entire province and develop it to the point where it would once again start bringing profits… In a month? That indeed sounded insane!

"Listen, it's not impossible at all. With my building materials and the practice of my workers, building those places in such a short amount of time and filling them with essential machines is certainly doable. The only problem would lie in the food supplies, but…"

Taking a look at the great view that extended from the position where my headquarters tent was, I could already picture the ugly metal scars in form of iron train tracks, littered all over this place.

"I dare to say, that food's price right now is low. As long as a single train line will be finalised, I can buy any amounts of it form the markets all along the lower ends of the tracks. That means, you don't need to hurry with moving your serfs here, but I would advice to actually give them the freedom to move here themselves. You will be most certainly surprised about the enthusiasm and creativity those people will come up with."

Looking at the Patriarch with joy in my eyes, I could bet a huge part of my fortune just on what kind of face this old man would make once those poor people would be given the opportunity to improve their lands. Just by sending one rumour around, this simple-minded folk would rush to the land of promise, quickly supplying my lands with anything I would ever desire!

This would be another boost to my economy. Once they would arrive, some of them would quickly find employment in workers-hungry industrial areas. Using the money they would earn, they could buy the food from my supplies, generating the first flow of money. Later on, as some of them would begin to properly settle, I could see all sorts of places growing out of the poor soil as if this land was blessed by God himself!