266 – Side Story – The Conquest of Brittany (1)
When I and William arrived at the port town near York in Brittany, I suddenly thought of what my father had said about governing. It happened
My father said this is the most basic principle of government.
If you are a monarch, you must do your best to protect these three things: food, trust from the people, and army.
But if the worst should happen and you must give up one of these, he said, give up a strong army first.
Because even without a strong army, if the people trust me and don’t starve, even if an invasion by a foreign enemy occurs, the people voluntarily step forward to stop the invasion.
But if you go through a crisis that leads to a situation where you have to give up one more of the remaining food or the trust of the people…
My father said this.
‘An old sage called Young master who said this said that it was okay to be short on food, but that is bullsh*t. So, prepare to give up your position as emperor to save at least one more people, or to save the lives of your family.’
When I asked about the reason, you told me.
‘Because you never know when the people will stab you in the back of the head and kill you if they don’t believe you, and the grassroots who value food more than Deus will revolt against the idea of living if they hear the enemy give them food. So, no matter what happens, we must protect the trust and food of the empire until the very end.’
And now, coming to Brittanya, which has been ruined by an eight-year civil war, I feel that these words are true to the bone.
After sailing for about 3 days from Elliot Harbor in the Croytel Empire to a port near York in Brittany, we did not receive any restrictions as we anchored the ship near the coastline.
This is because the King of Brittany, who suffered eight years of civil war and lost the trust of the military, food, and people, gave up York and left the front after hearing the news that we were going to invade with 200,000 troops.
The majesty of the fleet of more than 1,000 ships, large and small, carried by Creutel’s 200,000-strong army, was more than enough to fill the sea in front of York Harbor.
Now, there are no soldiers around York, and there are only powerless old people, women, and children who have lost trust in the king and have no food.
“This is all because of the f*cking King of Brittanya! Edward bastard!”
“I don’t even want wheat porridge! Please, let’s eat barley porridge to our heart’s content and die!”
“What is a king after starting a civil war because he couldn’t even trust his own subjects?”
In a normally functioning country, even if commoners gather and curse the emperor, the king, or at least the aristocracy, most of them are immediately taken to the death penalty.
Therefore, if one’s status is low, even if one has dissatisfaction with one’s father or nobles, the limit is to keep it in one’s mind.
Edward, the monarch of Brittany who has run out of food and has lost trust, is condemned by the citizens as if he were a drummer.
No one was able to disperse the clamoring citizens, and the demonstrators were gradually increasing in number and shouting for the overthrow of the king.
Seeing that, I sighed and said.
“What a mess. Adjutant, how long do you think it will take to distribute food here?”
“If you supply only biscuits and salt, it will take about an hour. But shouldn’t we get some firewood and make porridge right away? If you eat something like biscuits in such a haggard state, you could die.”
“Then let the soldiers down first, then the pot, grain, and salt. In addition, call together those who are causing a stir around York Harbor and tell them that if you bring them firewood, they will give you food.”
Hearing that, the adjutant looked at me and tried to raise an objection with the feeling of ‘then what would you do if the enemy’s citizens attacked us…?’
Pointing at the protesters cursing King Edward in front of the manor house near York Harbor, he bowed his head and accepted the order.
From Noble mtl dot com
Then he gave orders to the soldiers nearby.
“This is an order from His Highness the Crown Prince. The soldiers must immediately get off the boat and take out a pot for 100 people for common cooking, flour, barley flour, and salt. As long as we are here, we must not let the innocent starve to death here in York!”
My father said that one of the important skills required of adjutants is to convey my orders in an easy-to-understand way for the soldiers to understand.
I think I understand now why you said that.
I don’t have a problem right now, but if the adjutant said it was a large pot, some of the soldiers would have been busy bringing out pots for 10 or 50 people.
Now the soldiers, equipped with armor and weapons, got off the boat, secured space for them to land after holding back the refugees gathered around them.
“His Highness William von Creutel, the Crown Prince of the Creutel Empire, has come personally with a large army to liberate you who are suffering from hunger and war!”
“By Your Highness’ command, porridge will soon be served to you who are hungry! Everyone should bring drinkable water and firewood.”
“If we follow the Creutel Empire, everyone will be able to live without starving. If you still serve Edward of the United Kingdom of Brittany, you will not be able to avoid going hungry.”
As soon as I said that, a man who looked a little older came out of the crowd of Britannians and asked my soldiers.
“Did the Kreutel Empire really bring food for us? Then, will my wife and children no longer have to suffer from the fear of starvation?”
To those words, I answered as if shouting in a loud voice that could be heard by the people demonstrating on the boat.
“I promise in the name of William von Kreuttel, Crown Prince of the Creutel Empire! As long as I and the soldiers of the Empire stay here in Britannia, as long as you want to live as people of the Kreutel Empire. Our empire will not let even one of you go hungry!”
After I declared this, the people of Brittany, hearing that even though an invader had entered their country, the invader did not put weapons first and provided food first, let their guard down to some extent and wanted to fill their stomachs first.
As the soldiers had instructed, everyone spread out in twos and threes and began to bring wood and water for cooking porridge.
“Adjutant.”
“Yes, Your Majesty the Crown Prince.”
“I will disembark, too. Tell the nobles to disembark as well. Except for Viscount Frost, the deputy commander of the expeditionary force, and the minimum necessary commanders, the rest of the nobles, like me, participate in making porridge for the people of Brittany.”
Hearing that, the adjutant looked at me with an expression as if I was crazy, but he had no intention of pointing it out.
Because in this world, some prince would come to the battlefield and risk being killed to help make porridge among the soldiers.
If you think about it, it’s a real big problem if you’re a subordinate who shows an immediate reaction.
But the other day, when Ella’s mother went to donate food to a village hit by a typhoon ahead of the harvest season due to a famine.
As soon as he revealed his identity, the public sentiment of the village, which had been shocked by the severe famine, was restored in an instant.
If you plant the idea that I, the crown prince of the Creutel Empire, am helping you by doing these chores myself, it will be of great help in calming the public.
In addition, there are over 200,000 soldiers who came here with me, so no one will dare to threaten me.
Having judged that, I started lighting a fire and carrying bags of salt and flour to help cook the porridge as the crown prince, ignoring the attention of the people around me.
And not long after, I heard the sound of our soldiers shouting loudly.
“There is enough dead! So everyone line up in front of several pots! If you get caught while cutting in line, I will send you to the back.”
“We must eat with gratitude for the grace of His Majesty the Emperor Creutel!”
“Keep order!”
At the same time, thousands of people began to line up with small bowls and cutlery each brought.
I spoke as I spread porridge with a ladle in order to capture the hearts of them, or even the Britannians.
“Sorry for coming late. First of all, I hope you eat at least this and overcome the pain in the future.”
No matter how much we are doing a good job to be appreciated by providing food to people who are dying of hunger.
Since the Creutel Empire and the Britannia Kingdom were originally enemies, it would not be possible to give an impression enough to turn the hearts of all the people to us at once.
I wonder if it was a little touching that even in an enemy country, a high-ranking person like a crown prince comforted the lowly while working on porridge.
The man in his 40s in front of me said with tears in his eyes.
“Thank you, Your Highness. Thanks to you, even if I couldn’t save my wife, I can feed her daughter…”
As the man who triggered this civil war, when I listened to him, I learned that this man had lost his wife because of the strategy I had chosen, and although I felt a little guilty.
In the continent of Europe, killing and killing each other was a daily routine, and the ruler of the United Kingdom of Brittanya was the one who sold the sailors aboard our merchant ships into slavery and drove them to death.
I have no choice but to pay for it.
“I see, I’m sorry I couldn’t come sooner.”
Anyway, I was able to secure the hearts of the people around York as quickly as possible.
With the help of numerous serfs, the invasion of Britannia began to accelerate day by day.
And the next day, we took over the York area without any loss of troops.