Road to the Crown

"So? How did it go?"

Back in the Ostrog, I could finally sit down and enjoy some light drink with my dearest Elia. Despite being in the main office building, I allowed myself this minimal level of corruption to use the limited space within the building for the sake of a small amount of living space where I could rest after fulfiling my daily duties. 

"More or less, exactly how I planned. But well, not gonna deny it. It was tiring as heck!"

Finally able to relax, I stretched my hands out, far in the air, before allowing them to fall flat along with my body. Feeling the soft skin of Elia's lap below my head, I could finally relax and push the irritating thoughts about my play from before aside.

"It's okay… just rest easy. You don't need to try so hard anymore."

Gracing me with one of her killing smiles, Elia continued to rub her fingers across my scalp, gently massaging my head. Due to her belly already visibly growing, all other kinds of cuddling were a big no-no for me. Even when I knew that there were some couples that didn't stop from making love to each other almost to the day of their child's birth, given how there was no skilled and experienced medical personnel along with all kinds of cutting-edge machines that made their work that much easier, I was simply turning paranoid.

The vision of becoming a father, even when compared to the hurdle of managing such a prosperous and dynamic territory as mine, still managed to terrify me. To prove it, it would suffice to say that just a single thought about parenthood was enough to wash all the disgust I fell towards myself after the parade of lies with the envoy, focusing all the efforts of my mind on whether I would be a good father or not.

But why did I feel disgusted at myself? This kind of thinking was something unexpected given how well that meeting went according to any of the eye-witnesses. Sadly, in reality, it was nothing more but an elaborate ruse, copy of a huge scheme that I implemented back in my original timeline to finally free myself from the burden of managing the call-centre department of the company I was working in.

In fact, I didn't want peace. While it was true that giving others the simple jobs of extracting basic resources and primarily processing them was the way to go for the modern economies, it simply wouldn't work in the current situation.

In order for this kind of legendary "Japanese split" named after the first country that implemented it to work, there were two interchangeable prerequisites that had to be fulfiled in order for this kind of economic planning to work.

First one was simple and actually easier to achieve by the forces of a single, developed country. It was about the limited ability of the countries used for their resources to make the jump that separated them from the country initiating this policy. IN short words, it was all about the difference in the technological level between two sides. 

If I were to push all the mining, smelting and production of the iron ingots to Muscovite lands, then it would be only a matter of time before some of the 'broken' steam horses of mine would be reverse-engineered and manufactured on the spot. Even though they would obviously initially be of far worse quality, making their own engines would spell the beginning of an end of the subsidiary relationship of muscovy towards the commonwealth.

The technological advantage that I currently had over everyone else in the world was simply too small for this kind of scheme to work. As age-breaking as steam engines and other products of mine were, they basically all relied on the single concept of using steam power. Unless I could make the jump to the production and usage of electric energy, then the technological gap would be far smaller for me to comfortably throw my weight around.

Obviously, that didn't mean that I would lose my advantage any time soon. No matter what, the development always looked the same for anyone in the world that had to start from scratch. No matter how big your savings were, no matter how much manpower you could throw at developing the land, no matter how much resources you could siphon from the rest of your country. Some steps had to be taken slowly.

In order to create the very first steam engine, one had to understand the principle behind it and come up with a design that would provide the maximal amount of energy

But all in all, only after creating a proper power-base capable of producing all the materials necessary to expand the development elsewhere and introducing some kind of logistic improvements, would one be able to kickstart the growth on a real scale.

Right now, I finally reached that point myself. With Tarnow and New Tarnow serving as the providers of the raw material for setting up various industry across the province, I could slowly begin their shift towards higher-end producing as the means of the basic productions would be replaced to the province. Even though all the industry in the places that I already owned were long prepared for this step, only after the modernised means of transportation, the train, was finalised on the conquered land, could my forces finally begin this major shift.

In fact, one could say that I was implementing this kind of technologically-economical disparity within my own lands and I wouldn't be able to refute him. This process was layered down in the shape of a triangle or more picturesque - pyramids. Only the topmost part could hold the means to produce the highest-end product possible, with each step-down meaning simpler production of the greater scale. And just like I did with the Ostros province right now, I could repeat the same process in the lands conquered from the Muscovy once the war would end!

But there was still the other prerequisite that had to appear in order for me or literally anyone else in the world to implement this kind of practical economy. There had to be enough space on the markets to swallow all the production provided by all the layers of the pyramid. Contrary to what one could expect from the pyramid graph, the most money would always come from its very top. The more layers existed within the structure, the more complicated and hence valuable end-product would be sold. That meant that ultimately, the price of the resources required to produce it was nearing the point of a statistical error when compared with all the costs of manpower and processing.

And just like that, a problem appeared. Once markets would be filled to their full capacity, where would the money come from? Once there would be no more people interested in buying, the main source of money that would later be used to fuel the entire pyramid scheme would dry up, quickly leading to the several problems like bankruptcy, civil wars and total breakdown of the society. While one could say that it wasn't anything one couldn't handle with enough preparations, I wasn't willing to be the one responsible for bringing the future's doom's clock to just a minute before the twelve. 

"What's going through your mind?"

Breaking my train of thoughts, Elia lightly pulled on my hair to make sure her voice would reach my clouded mind. 

"I solemnly swear that I'm planning something devious."

Answering with a single sentence out of a below of an average series of novels that literally all the teenagers in my original timeline were forced to read as it was popularised as the trending novel, I couldn't help but smirk at the memory of how bad that series of novels were. 

Promoted as a book for young adults, marketed as a book for kids, written as a book for teens, it failed to actually hit any of those markets, with plotholes and idiocy making it unfitting for the young adult market, dark themes of death and sins making it unsuitable for kids and being generally uninteresting and poorly written making it a failure in terms of teen novels. If not for the immense wealth poured into marketing it as the new legendary series that would change the literate world, I would most likely never heard about it, too busy reading really good novels instead.

"What do you mean with that?"

Smiling lightly as she continued to caress my hair, Elia stretched her back by leaning with her head behind, accenting the supple bosom of hers, hanging directly above my head placed on her lap.

"Nothing much to be honest."

Smirking in response to Elia's joyous expression, I slapped my hands against my face, before finishing up my sentence in the proper way.

"I'm just looking for ways to conquer the world without wasting all that much effort."

This statement... Was an obvious lie. Or rather, it was a half-truth. Many hours in games and in history books already taught me that creating a military power capable of conquering the world was fairly easy. The problem was to actually hold on to the land and the people that constituted said world!

"So, where our new capital will be? Tarnow? Or are you finally do something about developing Pilzno just like you promised ever before we got married, my dearest?"