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Vol 03 Chapter 80-1: Flood Control I

「t might be time to reform the military a little…」

「Is there something that needs to be changed?」

Julia asked me, looking puzzled.

「Well, I’m not planning on making any major changes. I’m thinking of establishing a dual system, partly a professional standing army partly conscription. I would like to have at least a standing army of about a thousand professional soldiers: four hundred as heavy infantry, four hundred as cavalry, and two hundred as archers. It costs money to maintain a standing army, but it’s a necessary expense.」

Especially cavalry, which is impossible to gather through conscription. They need advanced and continuous training.

Moreover, it is more convenient to have a standing army that can move quickly on my command. I plan to have Ron, Roswald, and Gram lead the standing army.

「As for the rest, we’ll gather them through conscription. It’s impossible to make the entire army a standing army, we don’t have the money for it, and even if we were able to afford it, it would be nearly impossible to gather enough numbers.」

In war, numbers are paramount. Of course, the quality of soldiers and commanders is important too, but as long as we maintain a certain level of quality, numbers will have the final say. Situations where a small army won against a big one are exceptions, not the norm.

「Next, we’ll put the blacksmiths we obtained from King Domorgal’s Country to work and produce iron armaments.」

By the way, the tatara iron-smelting method1 is the mainstream in the Adernian peninsula.

Our priority right now is the army’s weapons, so I’ll have them focus all the iron production on them. Once all the army’s weapons are replaced with iron ones, we’ll shift the production priority to agricultural tools.

However, this shouldn’t take much time, as the transition to iron weapons is almost complete. Why, do you ask?

This is because the Domorgal army ‘gifted’ them to us. When they retreated after their defeat, the routing Domorgal army abandoned their weapons and ran, so now, nearly our entire army is equipped with iron weapons.

Well, that should be enough about the army. Changing too much can lead to confusion.

「What I need to focus on first is…」

The construction of a new capital.

◇

The first thing I did was gather the main members of the Rosais Family, centered around Raymond. As I’m not blood-related to them and was welcomed from outside the Family, I need to show respect to them when making certain policies.

Well, I’m somewhat inexperienced, and they actually help me govern the country, for which I’m grateful, so I have no complaints.

「I’m thinking of relocating the capital. What do you think?」

I asked them directly, going for the heart of the matter. The members of the Rosais Family were briefly unsettled, but Raymond stepped forward and spoke.

「What is the reason for the relocation? Is there any deficiency in the current palace?」

「There are several issues,」

I said that and began to point out the problems with the current capital.

「First, the current capital is too close to the Romalia Forest. Until now, it was believed that no enemies would dare to come through Griffon-sama’s territory, so the forest provided protection from the rear. However, the example of King Ferme showed that it’s not impossible to cross the forest, and in the last war, I made extensive use of the forest for the sneak attack on Domorgal’s army rear. If an army dares to march through the forest, it would be impossible to see them until they are at the gates. That’s a problem.」

It’s partly my fault, I guess. Not that I regret it.

「Onto the next issues. These ones are not apparent yet, but they might become a problem in the future.」

First, the city walls are starting to deteriorate. The current capital was built during the era of Father-in-Law’s grandfather… in other words, three generations ago from me, under King Rosais, Julia’s great-grandfather.

The purpose of the city construction was to reorganize the defensive battle lines against King Domorgal’s Country. The position of the city allowed for quicker deployment of the army in case of an invasion and quicker relay of the king’s commands. Those were its main advantages.

Here arises a question: Why didn’t they relocate the capital when King Ferme revolted? The distance from King Ferme’s capital (the capital of Aris territory) to King Rosais’ Country capital is almost negligible, making this location very dangerous. Moreover, the previous king was ill and hardly able to give any orders on the battlefield.

At that moment, the capital should have been moved to the rear if you considered the issue from a purely military. However, as always, politics were also involved.

If they moved the capital in response to King Ferme’s rebellion, it could be interpreted as a sign of weakness, which could lead to the loss of support from the patrician families. Additionally, they didn’t have much economic leeway.

That’s why the capital is still located here.

Let’s return to the discussion. The second issue is the capital’s size.

The capital isn’t particularly large. While it’s of standard size by the standards of the Adernian peninsula, it’s not satisfactory to me.

「To centralize power, we need to establish some sort of bureaucracy and a standing army. There is also the need to concentrate key industries like paper and iron in our hands. You understand all of this, right?」

「Yes, we understand these needs and will fully support you. But what does that have to do with moving the capital?」

「With a standing army of a thousand. Assuming one wife and four children per soldier, that’s an influx of six thousand people into the capital. Similarly, the families of the bureaucrats, papermakers, and blacksmiths will also gather in the capital, right? As wealth accumulates in the capital, more people will come seeking that wealth. They’ll have children, and those children will have more children… as this circle continues, it’s only a matter of time before the population overflows.」

If my calculations are correct, in about thirty years, the capital will run out of land. Crowding will cause congestion, impacting the economy.

「Additionally, the sanitation of the city will worsen. It’s clear that waste management won’t keep up. Even now, the river is barely sufficient for drinking water. As the population grows, the river won’t be able to keep up with the demand. And if houses are packed closely together, the risk of a fire and its consequences would grow exponentially.」

「I see… That makes sense. So, where should the capital be moved to?」

I spread a map in front of them and pointed to where three rivers converged. One flowed from Romalia Forest, another flowed from the former Aris territory, and the last one flowed from the former Dibel territory.

This location and the three rivers have great advantages.

Building materials can be transported from the Romalia Forest and the former Dibel territory using the rivers. Food consumed in the city can also be transported from the former Aris and Dibel territories.

Drinking water can be sourced from the rivers, and waste water can also be discharged into them.

If we are going to build a capital, this is the ideal place.

「My king! This place is…」

「Flood-prone, right?」

I interrupted Raymond’s words. Raymond, bewildered, nodded at my statement.

Indeed, the location I had selected was historically prone to severe flooding.

The rivers in King Rosais’ Country are not adequately managed for flood control. Therefore, when it rains, the water overflows quickly, and during heavy rains, it’s not unusual for the river flow to change its course by dozens of meters.

In winter, there is rain, and in spring, the melting snow from the mountains always floods this area. It’s where three rivers converge, after all.

Therefore…

「I’m thinking of implementing flood control on these three rivers; the capital will be built after that.」

「Fl-flood control for three rivers?! We don’t have the funds for… No wait, we do.」

Yes, we have enough funds available. First, we have the rock salt mines.

King Rosais’ Country has three rock salt mines. One is owned privately by Raymond. Another is near the current capital. And the last one is the one found recently in the territory of Aris.

That means I own two of the mines, and the one in Aris territory is significantly larger than the other two.

Next is paper. With my ascension to the throne, the production of paper began on a national scale. Now, we’re not just gathering people temporarily but recruiting craftsmen, training them, and expanding the production.

And then there’s the revenue from the last war, which is now colloquially known as The Seven Day War, and the city of Blouse.

The funds we obtained through plunder and the reparations. And the immense profits from garnets.

We have more than enough funds to undertake flood control.

1TN: The tatara method is a traditional Japanese method of smelting iron, it’s the method that is used to produce ‘tamahagane’ the steel used in the making of most of the different Japanese swords, including the katana. For this process a large clay furnace called ‘tatara’ is used, hence the name.