On the other side, Jefferson cooperated very well and handed over all control of Fasen Town, obediently lying down.
“Graywhite Territory’s people, I believe many of you already know that the prince who has been helping us develop and funding us, Duke Lars, was killed by the son of those who sold their souls to the Demon Clan!”
Lind stood on the high platform and continued with the final mobilization of the operation.
“I believe many of you also know our reason for coming here.”
“That’s right, after that greedy group killed our Northern Border prince, they even attempted to encroach on our territory, invading our homes like the wicked Demon Clan, destroying our land. They want us to continue bearing debts, to keep living a life of servitude to them.”
“Do you want to go back to that kind of life?”
“No!”
Both the regular army and the militia below roared with all their might.
“So what should we do?”
“Defend our homeland!”
“Exactly, all invaders will be defeated, and we will ultimately achieve final victory!”
“Victory! Victory!”
The First Army Group of Graywhite Territory has already been reorganized, consisting of three hundred members, with former professional soldiers classified as officers at various levels.
In fact, even the training intensity of Graywhite Territory’s reserve militia far exceeds that of ordinary soldiers in this era; after all, during this time, no one would train ordinary soldiers.
As long as Lind is willing, aside from the old and young, the entire Graywhite Territory’s thousands of people can be mobilized.
However, there is one military experience that still applies in this era: without equipped ordinary people, it is very difficult to fight against professionals on the battlefield.
Three hundred people are not the limit of Graywhite Territory, but rather the current limit for fully equipped individual soldiers, as time is too tight. Without industrial machine tools, Graywhite Territory relies entirely on manual labor to produce three hundred sets of gear, and the craftsmen’s hands are already worn down to the point of sparks flying.
These three hundred individuals are also from Graywhite Territory’s landowners, and no one wants to return to that kind of life.
Those who did not receive equipment underwent intensive training to transition from militia to artillery; although there aren’t many individual equipment like heat guns and backpacks, there are plenty of experimental cannons available. Thanks to the standardization proposed by Lind, these cannons all operate on a unified set of protocols and can be used quickly.
In addition, under Flora’s strong request, the assembly of Sisters has also been prepared for battle.
This does not even include logistics and the militia at the positions, which together add up to more than a thousand people.
Oh, and there are the knight orders of Fasen Town, but to be honest, Lind does not expect these old noble knights to be of much use. The loyalty of this knight order is unexpectedly high, as they are willing to follow Jefferson’s command to do some dirty and hard work.
According to the calculation method of the opposing coalition, rounding up a bit, even though Lind’s side does not have ten thousand troops, they still have thousands.
All weapons in the laboratory were pulled out, including many cannons still in experimental stages, which will be transported to designated locations by logistics and militia labor.
The administrative department of Graywhite Territory has almost been pushed to its limits, with all factories and craftsmen repurposed for weapon production; potions and holy water have not stopped either.
Jefferson watched as one ship after another unloaded weapons and potions he had never seen before onto his territory. Not just Graywhite Territory, the entire Fasen Town was mobilized as well, assigned to the most basic tasks, with almost no one idle.
“Is this really war?”
A series of mobilization orders completely overturned Jefferson’s traditional aristocratic view of war, which was not simply about recruiting young men for brawls in the territory but about throwing the entire territory into the war.
In a corner of Fasen Town.
“Brother, don’t we really look for sister?”
Colin asked Sean, who was stirring the sandy soil next to him while grinding cement.
This once-most-hopeful heir to Duke Lars was now hiding in Fasen Town, making cement for Lind.
“I’ll go after I figure out this material,” Sean replied, enthusiastically grinding cement. After receiving intelligence reports from the guards scattered in different positions, Sean felt he was close to mastering the cement-making process, becoming increasingly obsessed with it.
“You can just go ask brother-in-law about this,” Colin said, clearly dissatisfied with his brother dragging him into this heavy work.
“Discovering it on your own feels different from being told by someone else,” Sean replied, diligently grinding the cement.
“Moreover, it helps more to stay hidden from sister rather than revealing our identities.”
Sean glanced over at the army that had already left the city.
Although it was hard to believe that sister Lena and that Graywhite Territory’s lord could win, Sean bringing Colin would add variables to sister Lena’s situation. After all, who knows if his uncles might ignore a rebellion in the territory when they learned that their nephews and nieces were in one place and might come to eliminate them?
Better to let his uncles keep searching.
“Hey, you lot!”
The secretary responsible for this area walked over, and people busy with work quickly gathered around.
“This is today’s allowance,” he said, distributing allowances to each person. Those from Fasen Town were extremely grateful. They felt like war was imminent, but since they couldn’t escape, with the arrival of the higher-ups, they received more allowances and work, which was settled on the same day. Furthermore, the security in Fasen Town had become unprecedentedly good, and everyone thus stayed.
After all, where could they escape to anyway?
With the allowance in hand, Colin couldn’t help but sigh, “After a hard day’s work, we only get this little money, not even enough for my meals earlier.”
Sean frowned.
“This is way better than before, at least more than what you had in your territory. I’ve already told you many times to treat your subjects better, but you still continue to exploit them. In the end, your territory welcomed our uncles with open arms. If you had distributed even a third of the allowances you received to those laborers, it wouldn’t have come to this.”
Colin scoffed, “Brother, here you go again. You’ve said so much, but your territory was also captured, right? What’s the difference?”
Of course, there is a difference. Sean’s territory is still resisting, while Colin has no news at all.
But Sean simply helplessly rubbed his forehead. Colin was overly spoiled and really had become unbearable.
Meanwhile, the secretary continued to say, “We still need people to transport the shells, the allowance is approximately three times that here. Is anyone interested?”
Sean’s eyes lit up, and he immediately pulled Colin to raise his hand.
The secretary looked them over; although they seemed young and tender, they were strong enough. He then pointed out several others and led these people to prepare to carry shells out of the city.
“Brother, are you crazy? There are guards in the city who can protect us. What will we do once we’re out?”
But Sean, unconcerned, said, “Don’t you want to see how the lord of Graywhite Territory plans to fight?”
“How to fight? It doesn’t matter how they fight; they’re going to lose anyway. We might as well find a good escape route early and flee to the elves. Why bother watching this joke? If we get captured, it’s over for us.”
Sean shook his head, “But I feel they can win.”
Colin wanted to stop Sean, to tell him that was unrealistic, and that it would be more practical to find a chance to escape, but when he grabbed Sean, he found his brother was trembling with excitement. He was serious.
