A week later, Rojan was back in the cavern, standing in front of two dozen knights and fighters. Next to him stood Wren, who had donned his own set of knight’s armor.
“So, that’s the plan. Is everyone clear?”
“Yes, sir!”
“Then, best of luck. Move out!”
The group surged out of the cavern, out of the tavern, and onto the streets of Venite. The location of the cavern beneath the tavern had been chosen quite aptly. The tavern was actually the closest to the governor’s mansion - only a five-minute walk.
At the same time, thousands of seemingly unrelated armored warriors trickled into the streets near the city’s barracks. Of course, these were the five thousand soldiers Rojan’s allies had sourced and trained in the previous months.
As they approached the barracks, they shifted from pretending to be unrelated passerby and formed into orderly phalanxes. Around the barracks, five phalanxes formed, each a battalion strong. Forming a pentagon, the five phalanxes surrounded the barracks of Venite City.
A single man proudly stood in front of the first battalion. That man’s name was Adam Lionheart. The eldest son of one of the Krohan Empire’s most famous generals, he’d met Rojan seven years ago while travelling he Blair Continent to expand his worldview.
Then, Rojan had been serving the Tero Kingdom as one of their strategists, but given that he had still been a student of the Tero Kingdom’s Academy of War, he’d been chaperoned everywhere by one of the academy’s teachers.
One night, Rojan had escaped from the grasp of this teacher and had been walking on the street when he’d bumped into Adam. The two had swiftly identified the other as a worthy opponent and the two had instantly entered combat, fighting for over a hundred bouts. When the two finally stopped, the two addressed the other as their respected rival, and a great friendship was born.
Actually, that was a lie. Rojan had entered a pie-eating competition, and in the aftermath, had run onto the street and puked all over Adam.
After an initial confrontation, Rojan had paid for Adam’s clothes to be replaced, and the two had eaten dinner together.
During the dinner, they’d discovered that the two held similar opinions regarding the state of the Blair Continent, its rulers, and their role as the new generation to change the world.
Adam had stayed at that city for full two weeks, and every night, Rojan had escaped the reaches of his chaperone in order to converse with Adam.
As the son of one of the Krohan Empire’s top generals, Adam had received strict training since birth in the art of swordplay, battle, horseback riding, strategy, leadership, and just about everything else that was expected of a top-tier general.
Unfortunately for his father, Adam had completely fallen for Rojan’s ideals and dreams. Adam had been so entranced, that Adam never formally concluded his tour of the Blair Continent and returned home. Instead, he’d sent his guards and servants home and continued his pilgrimage.
Except, the reason for his pilgrimage had changed. Instead of travelling simply to widen his view of the world, he was now doing so with the purpose of becoming one of the premier generals of the Blair Continent.
All to achieve Rojan’s dreams and ideals.
After standing ahead of his soldiers, Adam broadcast his powerful voice to the Venite City barracks. “Soldiers of Venite City! We have you surrounded, and your governor has been captured! Throw down your arms and surrender!”
Slowly, the city’s soldiers trickled out of the barracks, weaponless, and surrendered.
Adam looked toward the governor’s mansion. How were Rojan and the others faring?
He hadn’t needed to worry. Although the governor’s mansion had nearly a hundred guards, Rojan’s group had made short work of them. After the first few guards had been killed, the rest had surrendered.
The governor and his family, had apparently escaped through a secret passage as soon the Rojan and the rest had forced their way past the front gate.
Well, somehow they’d taken control of the city - in theory, at least.
Although they had control of the governor’s mansion, as well as several thousand soldiers to keep order in the city, the city couldn’t be counted as truly theirs...yet.
...
After taking the governor’s mansion, Rojan and his allies promptly turned the mansion’s grand hall instead a meeting area. Not ideal in terms of privacy, but it was the only place big enough in the mansion to comfortably hold a 50-person meeting.
Without a table to seat all fifty members at, they sat on the ground in a circle.
“So we’ve agreed, yes?” Rojan asked his allies.
By their best estimates, they had three weeks until soldiers of the Peslir Kingdom would come knocking upon the city walls. So, they had three weeks to prepare their soldiers, and win over the cityfolk.
Even if the Peslir Kingdom wouldn’t be able to send their entire army to siege Venite City, this city would be serving as their base of operations for the foreseeable future.
To operate an army required a mind-numbing level of logistics. Even if the ten or so logistics experts in Rojan’s camp had done well so far, as the army expanded, so too would the logistic team. That talent would need to be sourced from the hundred-thousand population of Venite City.
When he thought about this, Rojan smiled.
A common misconception amongst those looking to create the next large power of the Blair Continent was that one only needed soldiers, an army, to wage war. These misguided commanders would spend their time looking for soldiers without understanding the truth behind building a large, powerful army.
But Rojan knew - when it came to building a large army, soldiers were perhaps the last resource to source. Only after provisions have been secured, machines of war created, and the peoples’ hearts pacified, can one sustainably build and develop a large army.
So, in order to secure provisions and acquire a labor force to build machines a war, they would have to work hand in hand with the cityfolk, as well as the surrounding villages.
Well, it was time to try and win over their hearts.