Effective immediately, Rojan and his allies announced tax cuts, the hiring of several thousand workers, logistics experts, and most importantly, soldiers.
Thankfully, when they’d raided the city treasury, they found that in spite of the lavish parties the previous had thrown, he’d still managed to build himself quite a nest of treasure - which was just as well. Until they were able to hire managers and logistic experts, they would have to do all the work themselves. Although the previous city governor had several hundred people working under him, Rojan and his allies knew not just how deep the previous government’s corruption had spread.
So, all those who’d worked in the previous city government had been removed from their posts until further notice.
Thankfully, Rojan’s friends could handle all of these issues - instead of putting his time and effort toward any of these tasks, Rojan was instead standing on the northern ramparts, staring out toward the Northern Ocean.
More precisely, he was staring at a small fleet of boats tied to a series of abandoned, half-decayed docks.
The ships were what remained of Venite City’s portion of the Peslir Grand Fleet. As the power that controlled the northern and northeastern edges of the continent, the Peslir Kingdom possessed a huge number of warships. Each coastal city was responsible for the development and upkeep of several hundred ships as well as several thousand sailors.
At Venite, however, one could see quite easily that the responsibility of upkeeping the ships and docks had clearly been ignored. Even the sailors were poorly equipped and trained.
Still, though… unless the ships had been damaged beyond repair, repairing ships was far easier a task than building new ones. The only problem was that in order to properly repair ships, one needed skilled shipwrights, as well as time.
Given the condition the ships were in, they may have been left at the docks without care for years, perhaps even decades. Any skilled shipwrights and sailors Venite might have had, would have left long ago.
Without a navy, they would be at a distinct disadvantage against the other powers in the future, unable to defend their cities against naval attacks or respond in kind.
Thinking of this, Rojan frowned. This sort of glaring error was simply unacceptable. But, what could he do?
…
A few hundred miles away.
“What? Venite City has been taken by insurgents?” A regal man sat upon a golden throne slammed his fist down, then rose to his feet, pointing at the unfortunate messenger.
“What the hell was Arlan thinking, letting his city be taken over so easily? And now, of all times? The Krohan Empire just attacked our southern forts two days ago… was this planned?”
To this, various theories began to flow into the King’s brain. Yes, the regal man was the King of the Peslir Kingdom.
If the Krohan Empire had planned so far as to place insurgents into one of his most northern cities at the same time they attacked his kingdom from the south…
Was the Krohan Empire trying to eat his kingdom alive? His best generals were busy defending the kingdoms’ souther border, so who could he send to take back Venite?
Hmph.
He glared at the messenger. “Did the report speak of how many soldiers the insurgents had?”
“Your highness, the governor says his mansion was attacked by about fifty people, but they were able to take out his guards with ease. Furthermore, none of his city’s soldiers responded, so they must have had enough people to block the city’s soldiers from assisting him.”
“Did he mention how many soldiers he had?”
“...No, sir.”
“...” The king couldn’t help but scowl. If that Arlan hadn’t been a family friend…
“Tell Commander Fahler to take twenty-thousand soldiers to Venite City and destroy the insurgents. He will work with the 2nd fleet to force the insurgents into submission. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir!”
With the messenger gone, the King slowly sat back down upon his throne. It would take at least a week for the twenty-thousand soldiers to reach Venite City, and another week to return. How long would the insurgents last in a siege?
Moving twenty-thousand soldiers away from the front lines was no small matter, but he couldn’t just ignore a threat that’d surfaced in his territory. If he ignored these insurgents, what was to say that they wouldn’t be able to take over additional cities and grow into a real threat?
He would just have to hope that the Krohan Empire wouldn’t press their offensive until the 20,000 soldiers had returned.
Or not at all. He would be fine with that, as well.
…
Back in Venite City, Rojan was busy patrolling the city walls with Wren and Adam.
“The walls are thick and tall, but our soldiers don’t exactly have siege training. The routines and focuses are completely different.”
“I know, I know.” Despite Adam’s misgivings, Rojan didn’t look to be worried.
“Adam, if you were the enemy, where would you have your soldiers set up camp?”
“Hmm… I would set them up in a semicircle approximately a mile away. At that distance, the camp would be far enough that it wouldn't be surprised by attacks from the city, and their soldiers will still be full of energy after reaching the walls, even after marching in full armor.”
“Good thinking. Now, where would you keep your supplies?”
“Hmm… it would have to be an easily defensible position, preferably one that provides natural cover from the us, so the north.”
Rojan nodded. “From my estimates, the Peslir Kingdom should be able to spare about fifteen to thirty thousand soldiers to attack us, as well as a naval fleet. There are three ways for us to win.
“The first is to hide a few squads of soldiers where we believe they’ll set up camp, and destroy their provisions. Or poison their water and food, either or. The second is to ambush them as they approach the city, and hope for the best. The third is… well… is a little more complicated.”
“So which plan are we going to go with?”
“Well then, why not all three?”