Release that Witch

Hearing that the other side was such a miser, Roland had to laugh “These are necessary expenses, go and do it.”

In his own treasury were more than 300 gold royals which were mainly used to pay for the construction of walls. The required steam engine materials and components ordered from the blacksmith shop were also paid for from his own pockets. For the first steam engine, he had to spend almost twenty gold royals, and he would need at least three engines.

The invention of the steam engine was a key component of the industrial revolution, this was true, but it didn’t mean that the steam engine was equivalent to the industrial revolution. In history, the United Kingdom was looking for a possibility to replace the people and livestock involved in order to increase the productivity in mining operations. When Watt improved the steam engine, he immediately received a huge amount of orders. This new power was also spread to various industries in a very short period of time.

At this point of time, there was no basis for the industrial revolution in a small Border Town. It could even be said that industry did not exist. So Roland did not expect to make a pot of gold by selling the steam engine, he just wanted to put this machine in the northern mining area to pull ore and gravel. And when the mining production was increased, he would expand the scale of use of the steam engines. It would be the equivalent of the promotion of the industrial development from top to bottom.

Chapter 25 Militia

“These are the people you selected?” when Roland looked at the group of civilians dressed in shabby clothes, all his courage flew away immediately.

“Your Highness, these are the people who fulfilled your requirements,” said Carter. He began to count them with his fingers, “male, no criminal records, between 18–40 years of age, no disabilities… I carefully inspected all of them.”

Well, he knew he shouldn’t have expected too much. After all, this world’s productivity was much too low. Having enough to eat was already a difficult task, so wearing shabby clothes was just normal. As a prince he had ignored such things. Just leaving his castle he could see many people who only wore clothes that did not cover the whole body, begging for something to eat. In fact, in the capital of the Kingdom of Graycastle there existed a job as a corpse carrier — the only thing they would do was to collect the people who starved to death and then burn their bodies every day.

So what was the general fighting power in this world? Roland closed his eyes and reviewed his plan carefully again, ‘Ah… probably a little stronger than a high-level street fighter’. Generally, when the Lords decided to wage war (or more precisely fight — Roland thought naming their little fights as war would be overstating it), they would summon all the aristocracy placed under their jurisdiction in their territory. A Lord would always split his territory into many smaller territories and select lower ranks of nobility to govern them, like a Duke would select Earls, the Earls would select Viscounts, and they again would select Barons, and so on.

These nobles usually had a group of knights and mercenaries as their personal army. They were the main force in combats, equipped with a complete suit of armor and sophisticated weapons. At the same time, they would recruit civilians and farmers who worked on their territory to help out during combat — in fact, they were used to deliver food supplies to the troops and when needed they would even fill up the holes in the front lines as cannon fodder. The most people who died on the battlefield were the people used as cannon fodder. Fighting between nobles would rarely result in someone’s death; they generally would be caught and later exchanged for ransom.

Roland did not expect help from the several other nobles in Border Town to fight against the demonic beasts. In fact, they had no relationship with Border Town. Most of the local Barons were living in Longsong Stronghold. The stronghold was also under the jurisdiction of the regional aristocracy.

An all-civilian force was in this day and age a very imaginative thing. After all, they were stupid and ignorant, failed to understand strategies, nor could they understand the commanding structure, and they also hadn’t received professional combat training. How could they compare to a knight who was trained in the art of the sword from when he was ten years old?

Carter who stood near Roland whispered some advice to him, “Your Highness, this project is not feasible. You look at them and tell me, which of them can hold and balance a sword? I’m afraid that when they encounter the demonic beasts, many of them will desert us, and at that time it will affect the stability of our defense. I suggest that we hire professional mercenaries from Willow Town or elsewhere to guard the walls and let these people do their normal chores. “