So the Medieval Age Has a Split Inheritance System…
Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Ai
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 76 – Invasion
The pope’s army had completely withdrawn, and the nations that had participated in the great crusade were beginning to have internal conflicts one after another. It also happened in the Deal Kingdom because a faction that wanted to lower the power of the king was formed. Well, the faction leader was a former vassal of Wagner’s, so when I pressed the leader to either die or transfer away, it was settled without any problem.
The act of raising an army consumed a large amount of money, and if it didn’t yield any results, it would cause unrest. In the previous war, they weren’t able to plunder at all, and since even Deal Kingdom — who earned a little benefit known as slave soldiers from the war — experienced unrest, it meant that the defeated Holy Lenart Empire and Masia Kingdom would almost certainly have a civil war occur. King Masia even KIA-ed in that war, so a civil war would happen alongside a war of succession making things even messier.
Of course, under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t be a major problem for the nation… but it seemed that things were turning out very terribly in the Estoani Kingdom in particular, and with the Palpal fanatics working behind the scenes in their royal courts, there were constant reports of assassination. Then they realized our army was advancing there, so they agreed on a temporary truce… but now it has become like that, there might be a faction becoming an insider.
Since the Carling Kingdom no longer had enough military power to resist decently against Duchess Jeremias, they couldn’t resist much when I sent an army to invade Carling duchy and their fortress fell. The duchy was the core of the Carling Kingdom and it seemed like there was a considerable amount of militia gathered, but their defense crumbled upon the slightest touch. Because we invaded using guns, cannons, and suicide bombers from the upper-ranking slaves, it ended up as a complete slaughter.
With the fall of the royal capital, the Carling Kingdom was forced to choose to either resist till the bitter end or surrender—but the 9-year-old king declared a surrender. I assumed he never appeared until now because he was being suppressed by the nobles? Anyway, I accepted his choice to surrender and proceeded to dismantle the Carling Kingdom.
First, I ordered to have the counts and dukes who didn’t respond to the internal correspondence, and those who had already rebelled to have their territories confiscated. Those who did respond were ordered to suppress any rebels. After successfully suppressing the rebels and giving half of the Carling Kingdom’s soon-to-be-confiscated territory to my subordinate, I confiscated the territory of those who responded. If I made a mistake in doing the order of things, the former Carling Kingdom would become greatly impoverished by being caught up in the whirlpool of war again.
Obviously, many of those who responded to the internal correspondence were angry and raised the flag of rebellion themselves, but they were already surrounded by my former slave vassals, so they got suppressed immediately. On the other hand, those who readily handed over their territories were granted another territory of the same scale. This kind of carrot-and-stick approach was important. In the first place, there was no way I could entrust a large territory to someone who would immediately choose to betray their lord when they were in danger.
As for the 9-year-old king of the Carling Kingdom, he seemed to be quite useful when I talked to him, so I sent him to the Upper Terrence duchy, which wasn’t completely under my control. The defensive line against the Borghardt Kingdom was currently under construction there, and since there was a port town there, it would grow a lot in the future.
Among those territories, I sent him to be a count of one of the counties bordering the Borghardt Kingdom. I wasn’t sure if he would retaliate against me in the future, but considering the current situation where there wasn’t much benefit in becoming an insider for the Borghardt Kingdom, I think he would concentrate on territory reconstruction instead. I gave Cornelia the title of Duchess of Dismore duchy, which lies between Borghardt Kingdom and Deal duchy, so I don’t think the Borghardt Kingdom’s army would be able to reach Deal duchy.
…I considered making her the duke of Klaus duchy, but I planned to develop that territory and leave it to Linde-san in the future. It was still a territory that included my family name after all, so it would be better to have it entrusted to the legal wife instead of the concubine.
Lastly, Linde-san’s family’s home, the Schult principality, would be subordinated and I had them concentrate their forces on Estoani duchy, which resisted fiercely. I thought they would break down easily like the Carling Kingdom since the pope sold their nation to me, but they continue to resist stubbornly so it troubled me. I guess this was the difference in their patriotism.
Even though I only sent a single division there, the reason the dying nation didn’t fall even after being attacked by an army of close to 7,000 soldiers was due to forced conscription from all regions of Estoani Kingdom. Also, during the period I slowed down the attack in an attempt to contact them internally, it seemed they proceeded to concentrate their soldiers there, so I couldn’t help but think I might have been too hasty in invading Estoani Kingdom. I should have let them screw themselves over with internal conflict a little longer.
At the very least, the fact that they didn’t surrender despite being bombarded with hundreds of thousands of cannonballs during the dismantling and restructuring of the Carling Kingdom, or during the negotiations with Schult Principality, was rather impressive. That entire period was close to half a year, so I guess that was how much they didn’t want to lose their core duchy.
The number of citizens gathered and forced to be conscripted was about 100,000 people. Many of them had already become piles of corpses and were being used to reinforce the castle walls everywhere. There weren’t enough soldiers in the first division to completely surround the fortress, so maybe that’s why they could last so long.
Well, as the army used to quash the former Carling Kingdom joined, our numbers grew to 14,000 soldiers, and the siege began. Also, as the recently developed poison gas bullets were used, the resistance weakened day by day, so the army was sent into the collapsed fortress afterward.
After that, when I entered the fortress, I could hear sobbing voices everywhere and saw the appearances of ordinary women fighting our soldiers. Even commoners who had never trained in combat took up bows and drew their arrows, so I guess that was how much they didn’t wish to lose their nation. The Estoani Kingdom was quite steeped in history after all.
As a result of being exposed to a rain of shells for half a year, out of 400,000 people within the fortress, including the civilians, 110,000 of them died and 140,000 of them were seriously injured. Those who remained were emaciated, suffering from poison gas and starvation. Aah, it seemed like the poison gas served as the final nail to the coffin. The conscripts lost their will to fight all at once, and it seemed like the poison gas that was designed not to kill but to make people suffer was working effectively.
There was a soldier who fired off at a woman who went crazy and swung her kitchen knife dangerously. This kind of thing was common in war, so the upper-ranking slaves and middle-ranking slaves didn’t even get that upset. Eventually, the turmoil that could be heard from within the fortress subsided, and in the end, it was as if everyone fell asleep. No, I didn’t put them into eternal sleep, but quite a few people resisted, and maybe this kind of thing would persist in the future when I come to destroy a nation.
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