The World Dragon's Heir

Chapter 583: From A Military Standpoint

The King turned to his daughter. “What do you think of this situation?”

Alexis shrugged. “They’re all Wistover residents once they arrive. The Barons need people, it’s not an option. They will either find a way to recruit farmers and tradesmen or they will starve and go broke.

So, while the pure volume might be an origin, I see it more as fixing the imbalance in the region that occurred when Dagos came.

There used to be fully populated Baronies here.

Now, there is nothing, and we’re seeing the people slowly sort the issue out on their own without any work from our end. It might hurt the old order, the one that Dagos put in place a decade ago, but it’s not bad for Stansia Province as a whole.”

“What about from a military standpoint?”

He was clearly testing the Paladin Princess on her tactical acumen. But she had been preparing for this exact conversation since she first got news of refugees coming to Wistover just for the name Wavemates.

Not because she expected her father to suspect her of something nefarious, but because so many people rallying to any cause was something that a King would watch.

Even the most loyal of Dukes could become a problem when the people were more loyal to him than the throne.

If the Duke was a Prince of Cygnia, it could be mitigated by letting him try for Crown Prince. The title didn’t have to go to the Eldest, it simply started there by defualt, and Prince Claudius had managed to handily hold on to his position through skill and determination.

“Alexis took out a set of documents, and placed them on the table. “These are our current plans for maintaining order with an influx of new arrivals.

There are some recent additions, given the particular loyalties of the Trollish race for the Dragonkin.

We have seen in the past that when Dominic leads trolls against a target, any Trolls that were summoned or recruited for their side will turn on them to join what they see who they are facing.

So, while they are recently arrived, it is my military estimation that they can be counted upon to defend that side of the city from invasion.

Here are our current deployment patterns, and troop strength.

Now, here are the plans for rapid response to unrest or invasion of the Baronies that are occupied. We don’t expect that all the refugees will be arriving with good intentions, so I have prepared a plan to quell and eliminate problematic elements.

This set of documents are mostly made by Dominic and his advisors. They are the economic development plan for the city itself, including applications for commoner owned factory space, Noble owned businesses, and Duchy owned industries.

Our primary sources of revenue are the magitech fireplace factories and the airship factory.

The vehicle repair facilities in the magitech factory belong to us, but there is a commoner owned carriage and tractor maker that can also do repairs.

They have branched out to make the new light transit vehicles as well.

The plan for the routes is here, along with the road development plans, as we are allowing them to find the most efficient route between Duchies, and then we will improve those routes first.

Having the improved roads will allow us to respond to threats more quickly but it will also allow us to settle newcomers more easily.

The faster they are settled into new homes, the faster the military threat is dispersed. Small, contained groups are minimal threat, and our settlement plan spreads every group over the whole Duchy.

That makes it harder to organize, and reduced the likelihood of developing a strong extremist group within one of the Baronies.

That dispersion, along with the plans here to train additional guards for all the Baronies, so that they keep up to standard, are intended to be enough to quell any sort of insurgency by bad actors among the refugee groups.

As you know, most of the Barons are from the Natural Sons’ Regiment, so they’re all trained soldiers.

As such, we are making rifles and pistols for the guards.

A fully magitech force.

If we can manage it, I would like to get a mechanical cavalry factory added to the region, so we are fully self sufficient with our military supplies. Stansia Province is in dire need of military supplies for the new Nobles assigned to the region.

We will have military airships, I believe.

Dominic has submitted plans to accept older model airships on trade for the new models, and to retrofit them as gunships to defend the Duchy.

They might be slower and lower on capacity, but against a ground force, they are still devastating.”

Even the two Princes couldn’t help but be silenced by her comprehensive documentation the military aspects of Duchy governance.

Beyond her speech, there were maps, detailed numbers and charts, threat analysis documents, cost estimates, and even manpower requirements and training times for new guards.

“It appears that you have fully prepared for another invasion. Wise, given the circumstances. We are expecting that there will be more fighting in the near future, depending on how the situation with the other Kings goes in Dagos.

It may not spill over, but you might get an influx of Dagos loyalists into Wistover, escaping the fighting.

Your reputation precedes you, and it’s not all about the Butcher of Wistover. Many hear that it’s a landlocked free city. A place where anyone can make a new start for themselves.”

Now Dominic understood how that could concern the King. Free Cities were lawless places. But that wasn’t quite what Wistover was. They had their strict rules, but they had a much less rigid feudal structure than most nations.

Yes, the commoners paid taxes to their Barons, and the Barons would pay Dominic when the exemption period was over. But they didn’t keep a head tax, they didn’t restrict movement, and they didn’t keep to any of the more abusive traditions that many of the Nobles were known to in the past.

In Dagos, it was fairly common for Nobles to claim “Pima Nocta”, the right to a bride’s first night. Most who practiced it used it as a punishment, but Cygnia had outlawed it decades ago.

That alone would be enough to convince many to leave once they heard that Wistover was taking everyone. And that might lead to conflict if someone recognized them or their accent as being from Dagos.

The Commoners didn’t hold as much of a grudge against the nation, but many of the Adventurers Guild members, military veterans, and Nobles did.