266 – Battle of Gryffino (4)
Gryffino Castle, Port.
The salty smell carried by the sea breeze, the seagulls flying indifferently and beautifully, the eye-chilling blue sea water, and numerous ships, large and small, anchored at the dock.
If you look at it from a distance, it is a very beautiful typical port scenery, but if you look closely, the atmosphere is indescribably desolate.
In normal times, it would have been a noisy place filled with the sounds and movements of people, with the sound of cargo being unloaded from merchant ships anchored in the port, fishermen selling freshly caught fish, and tough women preparing them.
This is because the fear of war and lack of food took away their lively daily lives.
Being at war is being at war, and I felt sorry for the people I got to see up close.
As we were walking towards where the fishermen were, Laura asked with a slightly displeased look.
“Why on earth are you going to meet these low-status fishermen in person? If you just issue a convocation order, everyone will come on their own. Like the powerful people of the West Coast.”
If you have a rank of 4 stars or higher, no matter where you go on the continent of Europa, you will send letters to commoners telling them to come to you, and it is extremely rare for you to visit them in person.
Especially when you get to a position that even most nobles with titles like me cannot dare to reach, if you just write an order and tell them to come find you, they obey without a word.
What if the fisherman who was called in said, “What’s the point of coming empty-handed?” And the dried fish he brought was evaluated as delicious, or if he directly praised a civic official or someone else…?
The fisherman’s dried fish is said to be delicious by Captain Peter Yeager, and it will become a trend in a short period of time, resulting in huge sales, and the manager who was praised directly will be subject to a rapid promotion review.
For Laura, a noblewoman from birth who knows such influence well, she wonders why on earth she bothers to visit a lowly fisherman.
“There was no reason to tell local officials in the western coastal region to follow my orders and die. But now I am going to order the fishermen I visit to die for the victory of the Reich Empire. Moreover, these people have been thoroughly plundered by us. Shouldn’t I show them the sincerity of visiting them in person to properly follow our orders?”
“That’s true, but no matter what, there is no need for you to move yourself…”
“One of the key points of this operation is the work that the lowly fishermen over there must take on. “If they don’t fight with desperate determination, our troops have no chance of victory.”
No matter how many times you completely surround the enemy with crane-wing formations and fire siege ballistas, if you cannot ignite the enemy ships, your troops will be defeated.
In order to avoid defeat and achieve victory, the dedication of the fishermen, risking their boats and lives, is needed, so I must go urgently.
No matter how much the fishermen hate me, there is no way they wouldn’t know the meaning of the four stars on my shoulder, so persuasion would work better.
Laura said she understood what I said, but she seemed a little dissatisfied with my departure, so she didn’t say anything and just looked at the ground quietly as she walked.
**
Fishermen’s Guild Office, interior.
Inside the office, dozens of fishermen were standing with a fearsome attitude, as if they had come out to fight for power with the opposing gang.
When I lived in Korea, if there were people who looked at me like that, it would have been so cruel that I would have to quietly pass by without making eye contact.
After cutting down hundreds of enemy soldiers with my own hands on the battlefield, in my opinion, the fishermen’s lives are at a level as cute as a playful child.
Furthermore, there are 20 escorts here, including Laura and Vincent, who were brought in to help them advance their careers.
If they take out their swords, they will be able to kill every single person in an instant.
The representative, standing in the center of the fishermen who were looking at us with scary eyes, fixed his gaze on me and asked in a threatening manner.
“Are you Captain Peter Yeager? “The commander of the damn Reich Empire.”
“That’s right, I am Count Peter Jaeger. He also serves as the leader of the Reich Empire’s Warsaw Expedition.”
“… You must have a lot of guts to burn down someone else’s house and household goods and then come here on your own and have a conversation.”
The representative of the fishermen of a port village, a man who was considered to be a bit of a low-ranking citizen among the empire’s citizens, spoke informally to the commander of the imperial army.
As they created a threatening atmosphere that they would blow their heads off if the move was wrong, some of the guards made a threatening gesture by placing their hands on the handles of their swords in response.
They threatened me first, so as a guard it was natural, but I stopped their actions with a wave of my hand.
Instead, we decided to correct the fishermen’s misconceptions.
“Why should I, the captain of the Reich Empire, the highest noble, the princess as my wife, and also her sire, be afraid of you guys? “If even a single hair touches me, I will kill you and all the fishermen here, and among your wives and children, I will sell the women to the fishing industry and the men to be slaves who row boats.”
Those words made the atmosphere even more hostile, but since they dared to fight with me, it was necessary to suppress their momentum by instilling fear in them before the conversation.
That way they will be more inclined to follow my orders.
First, you will persuade them with words, but if you want them to absolutely follow your instructions, it will be more effective if you show them fear and then motivate them.
“No, you have already committed the crime of lese majeste by insulting and threatening me, the representative of His Majesty the Emperor of the Empire. Honestly, there is no harm in doing that right now. So, change your tone. “Unless you want to experience such despair and pain that you would rather ask to be killed.”
Hearing a guy who can’t kill me threaten to kill me is bullsh*t, but hearing a guy who really has the ability to kill me declare that he ‘will really kill me’ is really scary.
To the point where the fishermen, who had shown their fierce anger in front of me just now, became obedient like gentle sheep.
“I came here today to give you a choice. Will I starve to death here or live as a slave in Warsaw? “Or the right to choose whether to risk one’s life to achieve freedom and a life that cannot be compared to what one has now.”
The fishermen’s representative was frightened by my threat and became a completely different person than before, and obediently asked again.
“…… We are originally citizens of Warsaw. But why are you saying that you will live as a slave in Warsaw?”
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I don’t know how they feel because they showed interest in my story, but it’s like I’m already halfway there.
Because all successful persuasion begins with the other person listening to what you have to say.
“I don’t know if you already know, but His Majesty the Archduke of Warsaw has lost his mind. How dare you tell Mayor Spiegelmann and you to defend the castle until the end, when we had no intention of sending reinforcements as soon as we landed? There’s no way that a man like the Grand Duke wouldn’t know that if reinforcements don’t come, you’ll all starve to death here or be cut to death by our spear knives.”
“……”
“Huh, and now that you’ve been defeated through your own fault, you’re afraid that we’ll take over all the castles on the western coast near Gryffino Castle, so we’ve scraped up all the food you managed to save. To put it bluntly, if everyone in this city, including you, stops receiving food aid from the Reich Empire, aren’t they all going to starve to death?”
At those words, the fishermen nodded, reluctantly acknowledging that their country had abandoned them.
“I’ll tell you something even more terrible. Now your Grand Duke is planning to completely blockade all ports, including Gryfino. Then the Reich Empire would not be able to transport food from the sea. Our army will somehow receive food through the land route, eat well and live well without being hindered. “You and your wife and children have no choice but to starve to death.”
If we lose control of the sea and supply is cut off, I plan to just take 90,000 troops and run away in only my underpants like Spiegelman did. There’s no need to tell me that.
“To tell you an even more terrible truth, it was good that we were able to avoid starvation by distributing porridge. If the Grand Duchy of Warsaw’s army occupies this city and the western coast, you may become slaves. Anyway, you ate the porridge we gave you to avoid starving to death. But to cover up his defeat, the archduke will accuse you of being traitors. After that…”
“No way, His Majesty the Archduke…”
“Ha, your Highness the Archduke is the one who distrusted the bailiff, the inspector, the mayor, and the officers even before the start of the war, so he overthrew them all. Didn’t you also see that the high-ranking people who were there before we came disappeared? You guys are like that too. The difference is that, as former nobles, they received at least the slightest respect and their wives and children were not sold into slavery. You will see with your eyes open your wife and daughter being sold to the coffin, and you and your sons will become rowing slaves. “If I didn’t mean to do that, I wouldn’t have taken all the food to starve in the castle.”
The Archduke of Warsaw is not a fool either, so once the city is freed from the siege, he will apologize profusely and punish only a few traitors among them who actively cooperated with the Reich Empire and put an end to it.
However, since I absolutely need their cooperation, there is no need to tell them that.
The fishermen who heard what I said probably thought it was persuasive, but their faces were filled with shock and fear, and they started whispering with their colleagues.
“f*ck, don’t you think what that guy over there, Jaeger, is saying is true? The imperial army could set fire to our village or kill us, but instead they gave us food to survive. But His Majesty the Grand Duke of Warsaw, knowing that we would starve to death, raked up every single grain of wheat, didn’t he?”
“If we hadn’t received porridge from the Reich Imperial Army, we would all be starving to death right now.”
“If the Reich Army is the bad guys, the Grand Duchy of Warsaw’s army is a bunch of bastards who even kill us, their allies, and try to blame their own mistakes.”
…… In other words, if you are in danger of death, you will hold on to the oar and struggle to survive, like a bastard who is the enemy of your parents.
In addition to the fact that the Grand Duke of Warsaw had taken all of their food and brought them to the brink of starvation, he made them feel the same sense of crisis as we do by releasing the fear that they and their wives and children could be branded as traitors to the Grand Duchy.
As a result, a consensus was formed that the Warsaw bastards were more scum than the Reich army that burned down the village, so they should fight against them.
“If you don’t want to live like a slave, cooperate with us. Under my orders, you will load the fishing boat with oil, oil-soaked straw, leaves, and firewood, and participate in an operation to set fire to the Warsaw ship. “Then, as Commander-in-Chief on behalf of His Majesty the Great Emperor Michael von Reich, I swear to you that I will give you a chance to change your life.”
People in despair opened their eyes when they heard that it was an opportunity to change their lives.
“If we defeat the Archduke of Warsaw, we will give you two options. “The opportunity to serve as a noncommissioned officer or higher in the Imperial Navy or a large reward in return for risking your life to help the Reich Imperial Army.”
The lifestyle of fishermen in the city was as bad as that of serfs in the countryside, and they were by no means wealthy.
For those people, the opportunity to become a non-commissioned officer would be so coveted that their eyes would pop out.
Because just by becoming a sergeant in the Imperial Army, you can earn about 8 times the annual income of a serf family, and if you are promoted to sergeant, you can earn close to 15 times more.
When you are on the verge of falling to the bottom, or hell, of life, the rope of reversal has come down, and you will be excited to catch it.
And it is also for the sake of the Imperial Army to accept these guys as non-commissioned officers in the Imperial Army, or as high-ranking officers if they are exceptionally capable.
To put it bluntly, it is difficult for us to run the navy because we do not know the currents, topography, and location of the reefs in Warsaw, but if these guys join, all of those problems will be solved.
Furthermore, the fishermen of this era are also excellent future marines. If you train them for about half a year and give them to you, it will be enough to cover the cost of food.
The CEO, who had just come in and told me to f*ck off in a brusque voice, looked at me and asked if my proposal was a dream or reality.
“Is that really true? Are you really giving us a chance to change our lives?”
Instead of answering that question, I made a signal with my hand to the escorts.
The soldiers under my command put down a box containing over a thousand gold coins on the desk with a bang, then opened it and showed me the inside.
The fishermen were distracted by the brilliant light of the gold coins, which were difficult to see even once in a lifetime.
“I thought you wouldn’t trust me, so I brought some down payment. Gather all the fishermen in this city. “I will give each person 1 gold as an advance payment.”
And on this day, I visited several more ports, including Gryfino Castle, and persuaded and proposed to the fishermen there in the same way.
As a result… We were able to gather applicants for 100 fishing boats and 1,200 fishermen.
I have exercised the limits of my authority for the victory of the empire, but if I lose like this, no matter how much I lose, my head may be blown off.
He ordered more thorough preparations.
Now that I feel like I’ve done everything humanly possible, I just pray that heaven will help me.