Chapter 298
(Kyle Calendar Year 514: Age 21)
New City Construction Plan
Translator : PolterGlast
After the New Year's
banquet and the meeting held the following day ended, I gathered my direct
companions and convened a meeting to respond to future tasks.
Gathered were the
military and civil officials originally appointed to various positions in the Demon
Territory Count's domain, and Mages appointed to positions of Knight
or higher, a total of 50 people.
"I believe
everyone had an extremely busy year-end and New Year period since late last
year, with information gathering, formulating various plans, and on-site
investigations. But from this spring, it is decided that we will officially
enter enemy territory, and we have no time to spare. I am very sorry as always,
but finally from here, I want to move the preparations everyone has made to the
implementation stage."
Saying so at the
beginning, I looked over everyone. Everyone was calm with a feeling of 'It's
the usual thing.'
Right... I'm sorry for the black-company labor as always...
"I believe I
have already conveyed it to
you individually, but as a major premise, one thing. Regarding the new
territory and the territory on the Kyle Kingdom side, we will separate the internal
affairs. Starting from Teigoon, we plan to continue boosting the
industries supporting us, agriculture, industry, mine development, and commerce
here. On the other hand, regarding the territory on the Empire side, for the time being, we will
proceed centering on agriculture, livestock farming, and the construction of
defense bases."
Yes, the
headache-inducing problem for me is that the territory became too vast all at
once.
In terms of
population, the Demon Territory Count's domain was just under 20,000
right before the war started, but now, even excluding the new territory on the Empire
side, adding the former Margrave Hastburg territory, the former Viscount
Kyrias territory, and the former Viscount Cornell territory, it's
nearly 90,000. This number is even excluding the major northern area of the
former Margrave territory, such as the city of Burg partitioned into the
Count Cornell territory.
And the problem here
was the immigrants (prisoners) of the Imperial Kingdom soldiers and Empire soldiers. At this point, not everyone is guaranteed to
become a soldier, but currently totaling 10,000 people, including those
scheduled to migrate following them, it will be a total of 20,000 to 30,000
people.
If so, the
population easily exceeds 100,000, and will become a maximum of about 120,000.
Moreover, the population of the territory on the Empire side is not included in
this number. The operation of these lands and the management of population and
soldiers is a major task for the time being.
"Regarding the
former Kingdom territory, I want to entrust the integration of the chain of
command to Miseri, centering on the remaining officials and the
officials of the former Demon Territory Count's domain. Will it
work?"
"Let me see.
Since the governance framework of the former Margrave territory and former
Viscount territories has been properly established since before, I think there
probably won't be major confusion. Rather, I think the task lies in improving
the processing capacity and efficiency of our central part."
"I leave the
authority to increase government office personnel and appoint general managers
as needed entirely to you; can I leave it to you?"
"Yes, Takuhir-sama,
please concentrate on greater concerns than that."
"Then Minister
of Internal Affairs Raymond, report the situation regarding the new
territory."
"Yes, regarding
the new territory, we have proceeded with investigations from four perspectives
since last year. The unit centered on Masrur on the movements of local Empire citizens including
prisoners. The unit centered on Raphael on the local public order and
the Empire side's espionage network. Bart and Kaul's disguised
merchant caravan on local logistics, prices, and the possibility of future
commercial transactions. Elan, Mary, and Sasha on the
topography and candidate sites for our new base. First, I ask each of them to
present their findings."
"Then, I will
report on the local movements. First, regarding the newly incorporated Empire territory, we are
waiting for a report from the Empire side for the population, but it is
inferred to be around 200,000 to 300,000. Regarding public sentiment,
especially the former Margrave Goth territory, can be said to be at two extremes. Those who
sent out family members as soldiers still harbor strong hostility towards us.
However, regarding the general residents, antipathy towards the First Prince's
camp which laid oppressive rule seems deep-rooted, and there is a favorable
part towards us who defeated them."
"Masrur-san,
how about in other lands?"
"It seems there
is no particularly strong hostility, but since we who conducted the
investigation are former Empire
people ourselves, that reason cannot be denied either. Until accompanied by
flagship measures, lenient governance—putting the Imperial citizens who
switched to our camp at the forefront and formally adopting a form of indirect
rule—would be the safest approach."
"Then, how
about the Empire citizens who switched to our side?"
"Right. There are no worries
if it's the soldiers who migrated previously and served in this war too, or
those belonging to the Empire Immigrant
Liaison Council. The soldiers who surrendered this time will also summon their
families with more peace of mind if it's land within the former Empire territory than living
on the Kingdom side. Because we have basically encouraged their defection along
those lines as well."
"How about
those who seem trustworthy?"
"We consider
about 500 people, centered on the Iron Cavalry who surrendered of their own
will, as trustworthy ones. Even without peerage, they originally have status
and pride as knights to some extent, and we think placing them at the core to
command the soldiers is the best. Also, many of the infantry wishing to remain
are wounded soldiers rescued by Lord Erol, and many feel a debt of gratitude to us, so
this should be fine too."
"Takuhir-sama,
I believe this is an opinion worth adopting. How about newly appointing a total
of 12 people to Knighthood, 6 from the soldier-settlers and 6 from those 500,
and newly appointing the remaining ones in a form leading platoons and
companies respectively, having them oversee things?"
"Yeah, I
approve of the Minister of Internal Affairs' opinion. Making Masrur the
responsible person, I want to entrust the respective personnel selection to the
Empire Immigrant
Liaison Council. Can I ask you?"
"Similarly,
regarding the Imperial Kingdom soldiers, I want you to appoint commander
classes for the newly joined 4,000, centering on Glenn. They are veterans and there are
several Knights too, so setting an upper limit of 10 people and have them
oversee things centered around those individuals should be good."
"Sir!"
"Understood."
"Then next, Raphael,
please report."
"Sir. Regarding public order,
perhaps because Viscount Kampfer held the reins firmly over these past
few years, it is calm. Conversely speaking, the influential people of each land
are incorporated into that side. It would be reasonable to think so. I think we
need to approach it assuming all territory residents are spies, to put it
extremely."
"Right... That's
going to be difficult to work with."
"Takuhir-sama,
I believe we also need to be practical about this. For the time being, as Takuhir-sama
said at the beginning, I think it
would be best to concentrate solely on agriculture, livestock farming,
and constructing defense bases for the time being. By the way, Bart, how
about the trading aspect?"
"The merchants
are the same. They are also completely on the other side. However, regarding
business, they will probably respond purely pursuing profit, but receiving the Empire
side's intention, there is a possibility they will hike up the price to the
very limit of our acceptable range. Because using common sense, no matter how
you look at it, procurement from the Empire has prices we cannot compete
with."
"Fufufu, if you
use common sense, that is.."
Of course, common
sense doesn't apply to Bart and me. Knowing that, we spoke with
underlying meaning.
"Then Bart,
shall we try that for procurement from them, being prepared to go with
our own route at worst."
"Understood."
"Then leaving
this concern to Takuhir-sama
and Bart, regarding the final task, the construction of the defense base, Elan, please."
"Yes. Regarding
the defense base, we investigated based on three premises. First, to be in a
position that can cover the border. Second, to be a place where sufficient
water sources can be secured. Finally, to be able to secure vast land."
Yes, for the time
being, in an emergency, leaving a part of the territory on the Empire side, we
retreat and return to the territory on the Kingdom side. At that time, to
support the retreat of each area and keep the Empire side in check until the
end, a thrust-out dagger—this is the intention of the new defense base.
·
To make it a solid defense base supporting the
battle line for a long period.
·
To have a certain degree of production capacity
within the defense base.
·
To make it a scale capable of accommodating a
military force of 20,000 and an equal number of territory residents.
I had given these
three points as propositions to Elan, Mary, and Sasha in
advance. Elan spread out a large map of the Empire side drawn in the
meeting room and continued explaining.
"The Empire
side's front line is the city of Gort. This is one day's distance from
the border through the highway by horseback. This city is the Empire side's
dagger thrust into our new territory. To counter this, we construct a fortress
city in a position advanced 20 km
southwest from the border, and starting from there, construct a
semicircular dike to blockade the border zone."
Saying so, Elan
pasted another sheet of paper overlapping the map.
There, several
rivers originating from the great mountain range towering continuously along
the border, meandering greatly, were drawn, joining a particularly large river
extending from west to east. And making the basin of that large river the
boundary line, a semicircle was drawn inside it.
"As you can
see, near the border exiting from Kingdom territory to the Empire side, barren
grassland spreads, and most of it is empty land or vast pastures. Because there
are no water sources. But within the semicircle I enclosed, several large and
small rivers exist, and they all merge into this outer rim river. Utilizing these, utilizing
elevation differences and water-lifting waterwheels, we will construct
large-scale irrigation canals throughout the entire semicircle."
"I see!
Interesting. If it's barren land or pastures, the number of original residents
is small too. Therefore, friction from eviction and such can be suppressed as
much as possible, right?"
"Yes, as Raymond-sama
says, from the Empire side's perspective, there was probably no value in going
out of the way to reclaim such a far frontier land. Much less, constructing
such a large-scale irrigation canal network requires enormous time.
Normally..."
"Certainly,
normally, that is."
At Raymond's
words, everyone present laughed. Yes, we are not normal. If we have Earth
Mages, Water Mages, and tens of thousands of laborers (workers), a
massive project that would take decades could probably be possible in just a
few years.
A semicircular
cultivated land with a radius of 20 km... (20km × 20km × Ï€) / 2 = 628 km² In the Teigoon area,
the area of cultivated land per household including fallow land is 4ha; if
so... Simply converting, it's for 15,700 households?
Of course, it's
nothing more than playing with numbers, but... It would be possible to produce
a reasonable amount of farmland.
"I see... Takuhir-sama,
looking long-term, it seems possible to construct a solid production base. The
rest is the construction of the defense base placed at its apex, but does Elan
have thoughts on that point too?"
"Yes, regarding
this, incorporating Mary and Sasha's opinions too, it deviates a
little from due south of the border, but slightly to the west, there is a
plateau jutting out into the river flowing on the outer extension of the
semicircle. If it's on this plateau, there's sufficient area, and I propose
constructing the fortress city here."
"Everyone, Elan
and the others are experts who received specialized education and learned in
the Royal Capital. I want to trust those eyes, and trust the ingenuity that fully
demonstrated its results in the Ishtar defense battle. I think that's fine as the basic
policy."
"Then, as Takuhir-sama
says. By the way, the name of the new city... what shall it be?"
"Yeah, I want
to name it 'Kusanagi'. This is a legend from a distant foreign land;
when a hero defeated a great serpent that tormented people for many years, it's
the name of the divine sword that came out of its tail. And, naming it after
that region, I think I'll call the reclaimed land within this semicircle 'Izumo'."
"Oh, the hero (Takuhir)
who defeated the great serpent (Empire) that tormented us (Kyle Kingdom)
for many years took out a divine sword (impregnable defense base) from its tail
(Empire territory) to
sweep away the formidable enemy (Third Prince camp), huh. Splendid, I think it's a truly
splendid name."
"I AM NOT A
GREAT PERSON LIKE A HERO... YOU KNOW..."
Thus, the
development plan for the new fortress city Kusanagi and the development
district Izumo in the border area got on track. But we'll probably only be
able to start moving actually after returning the First Prince's person and
receiving the cession of territory from the Empire.
"Everyone,
there are still many things left to do until then. First, until then, the
redevelopment of the Teigoon area and the maintenance of the
distribution network, especially that construction, I want you to
proceed with top priority. And when spring comes, it'll be the development of
the new territories all at once. We have to fully utilize the labor force,
including the prisoners we'll be returning."
"Yes, sir!"
We started moving all at once from here. To carve out a new future.
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