industrial lord

Chapter 669: The Butterfly Wings of Black Pine Town Fluttered

When Frederick received news of the Black Porridge incident, it was already 1038.

The fleet sailed non-stop and made a long circle to the west of the continent, arriving at the city of Lacobriga in the Kingdom of Tarraco.

Today, the city of La Cobriga is the logistics base of the Western Front Corps of the Wesson Army. There are steel mills and machinery factories under construction, as well as repair docks for naval transport ships.

The fleet took a final rest here and made final preparations for heading south to the southern continent.

This was within the established plan, and many representatives from the departments of the Principality of Wessen came here with documents, waiting for Frederick to handle official business.

1938 was the beginning of the third five-year plan of the Principality of Wessen and the first year of the implementation of the Maria Plan. Some documents needed to be signed by Frederick personally.

At the same time, the Western Front Corps, mainly composed of the 3rd Division, has been stationed on the front line for nearly two years, and the advance teams of the rotating 2nd Division and other units have arrived to carry out preliminary work.

The railway from Lacobriga City to Fort St. George is about to open to traffic, which will make it very convenient to transport supplies to the front line, and it will also be more convenient to transport magic crystals back from the magic crystal mine there.

Many nobles from the interior of the Kingdom of Tarrago came to the city of La Cobriga, either openly or secretly, to see what the train looked like, as this was related to the issue of which side they would take in the civil war.

They were very excited about Frederick's arrival. They held so many banquets and dances that Frederick felt a little sore in the waist.

Official business still needs to be attended to.

"What is Rudolph doing, what is Wessen doing!"

Frederick was a little angry after seeing the Black Pine Town incident and subsequent reports.

The commander of the 2nd Division, Bernd, as the representative of the High Command, had a deep understanding of the matter. He said helplessly, "Related intelligence proves that if His Majesty Rudolf had arrived at the forward base that night, he would have seen the fire in Black Pine Town. If the King's Knights attacked, most of the people in Black Pine Town would have survived."

Frederick frowned and asked, "Did he really postpone his action because of a woman?"

Making a mistake is understandable, but the reason for the mistake was a woman, a mistress at that, and he wasted time on the battlefield just to spend the night with his mistress, which led to the massacre and looting of a town. The nature of the mistake is very serious.

Bernd nodded and said, "Yes, many people already know about this."

Frederick sighed.

It is not surprising to be fond of women, and I am the same. However, it is a big problem if I let it lead to mistakes.

The impact of the Black Pine Town incident is not just a problem for one town.

Before this, the northern raiding groups simply surrounded small towns and extorted them. The city walls and castles were too shocking for the people coming out of the northern mountains, and they did not have the courage to fight against them.

But the capture of Heisong Town did not care about the reason why they underestimated the enemy. This broke the psychological shackles of the bandits and set an example for other looting groups.

Not to mention that Heisong Town is more than 200 kilometers away from the coastline and more than 100 kilometers away from the north of the Principality of Wessen. The area east of the Elbe River north of this line will become a hunting ground for looting groups.

As for the fact that the looting group was eventually wiped out, others would just laugh at their bad luck.

The most important point is that the one who made the mistake this time was the king of the Rhine Alliance, which affects how others view the Rhine Alliance.

The top leaders of the Principality of Wessen have long regarded the area east of the Elbe River as their future territory, but they currently do not have the spare energy to take it over. If it were to be destroyed like the Bohemian region, it would take an unknown amount of resources and time to rebuild it.

Frederick pondered for a long time, and finally said: "Let the northern front troops move and take the initiative to deal with the increasing number of looting groups."

The war in the north has not affected the Rhine Confederation for more than a year. The army of the Rhine Confederation has been slacking off. The northern corps was extremely envious when they saw the western corps kill the king as soon as they arrived.

Now that rotation is imminent, if we don't find them something to do and send them back to the Duchy of Wessen, I'm afraid they will have a lot of complaints.

But the Northern Front Legion is the reassurance of the Rhine Alliance coalition forces. If they move, no one knows what the other nobles will think.

This matter gave little Franz a headache, but Frederick had an even bigger headache.

"What's the matter with the expansion of the Elbe coalition?" Frederick asked. "Does everyone else agree?"

After much trouble, the coalition forces of the Elbe Pact Organization were formed with more than 2,000 people, mostly garrison troops, and there were only more than 400 mobile troops.

Now under the chairmanship of Count Weissen, the number of mobile forces has increased to more than 2,000, equivalent to a regiment of Weissen's army.

The cost of the mobile force is not small, and the Principality of Wessen pays the bulk of the coalition costs, which is an additional expense.

Bernd said: "Count Weissen went to Weissenburg to negotiate on this matter."

"The main reason is that the experience of Black Pine Town scared many people, so they agreed to increase military spending." Frederick thought for a while and said, "Since they are willing to pay, let them do it."

Bernd added: "This is actually a business. According to the rules, the things taken back from the robbers can be divided in half."

Frederick knew this rule, and he also knew that if the owner of the goods was easy to bully, it would be that the robber had hidden all the goods and was very stubborn, and would not say anything even if he was beaten to death.

Being scared is just a superficial excuse, but in reality, they are trying to do black-eating-black business.

In the traditional distribution of spoils of war, they are generally divided into three parts. The leading noble takes one part for himself, one part is given to the feudal lord, and one part is rewarded to the vassal soldiers. In theory, the three parts are divided equally, but in reality, there are all kinds of deceptions.

The rules for distributing spoils of Wessen's army were different. There were special laws and spoils courts in the army. After all the spoils were returned to the public, the spoils court would evaluate them and distribute them in the form of bonuses after deducting meritorious service bonuses. Frederick took 2 shares, the headquarters shared 2 shares, the front-line commanders took 1 share, senior officers on the front line shared 1 share, junior officers and non-commissioned officers shared 1.75 shares, ordinary soldiers shared 1.75 shares, and the logistics department shared 0.5 shares.

After the bonus is distributed, officers and soldiers can purchase the spoils. The captors have the priority to purchase, and then they sit in order of their military rank from high to low and choose.

The Duchy of Wessen now has three sets of armor and other equipment captured from the emperor or king on the battlefield. There is one set in Frederick's castle and two sets in Metzger's home.

According to this method of distributing the spoils, Frederick's share would be confiscated, and the front-line commanders would get the most, so their enthusiasm was extremely high.

Frederick thought for a long time, and after balancing the morale and the interests of the locals, he said: "If the owner of the goods is still there, then give them half of it."

There must be something fishy going on here, but it's better than the robber being stubborn and not telling where he's hiding.

Frederick reminded him: "The area east of the Elbe is the meat in our pot, but it is not yet cooked. The work there must be carried out under the guidance of this principle."

Bernd took notes carefully.

There are not many senior talents in Frederick's army. The current four division commanders will have to take charge in the future. If they are to think about issues not limited to military ones, they must consider the political and military aspects as a whole.

Bernd seemed to be reminded by this incident and remembered something. He said uncertainly: "I heard about something some time ago. Several members of the Elbe Pact Organization sought to join the Principality of Wessen."

Frederick frowned and said, "So soon?"

Those places must be swallowed up. War is the least cost-effective method. Only strengthening economic ties and cultural penetration and then peaceful evolution are the best options.

Frederick's plan was to spend about ten to twenty years influencing his younger generation. However, only two and a half years have passed, the road has just been built, and now some people are calling for joining?

"There is something fishy behind this." Frederick said in a deep voice, "Do you remember that someone spread rumors that I was going to build a railway in the Forest and Ocean region, which directly led to the establishment of the Elbe Treaty Organization?"

Bernd nodded slightly and said, "I remember that someone at the border came to me to verify this."

"After investigation, it was found that there was a group of fake messengers active at the time, but they disappeared very quickly afterwards."

"I think this may be related to Black Pine Town. Some small lords intend to gain the protection of the army by pledging allegiance to you."

Frederick nodded and said, "Let the relevant departments investigate this matter, and tell them that the political system of the principality is different."

He didn't expect that the incident in Heisong Town would trigger such a chain reaction, but he was not prepared at all.

The struggle for power between feudal lords and vassals lasted for thousands of years, and the standards were different when it came to their own interests.

Frederick naturally wanted to concentrate the power of the Duchy of Wessen in his own hands, but if the Rhine Confederation wanted to centralize power, he would certainly not hand it over to Rudolf.

Thanks to the tradition of strongman politics, Frederick gained great prestige by moving from one victory to another. At the same time, the Duchy of Wessen was a blank slate at the beginning, and its expansion relied on wars to break the original political structure, which allowed him to hold power in his hands.

Bernd now holds the title of baron. The fiefdom passed down by his father was originally a village, which has now developed into a small town. Later, he was granted some unconnected manors, but the administrative personnel in the town were incorporated into the administrative system of the Principality of Wessen. He himself has no personnel power, and more importantly, he has no army of his own. If it were a baron from other places, he would have rebelled long ago.

He and Frederick had grown up together, and both had maintained their status quo through personal affection, huge industrial profits, and status in the army.

The nobles among the civil servants of the Duchy of Wessen followed Frederick from making money to making more money, and developed a blind admiration for him, so in principle they would not object to anything he said.

But the nobles in the treaty organization had no such bond with Frederick. Naturally, they had to bargain over power when joining the Duchy of Wessen. If they favored the newcomers, the old ones would suffer, but if they treated the same as the old ones, the newcomers might not be happy.

Apart from the minor nobles, if everyone feels that the weather is cold in the future and is afraid that he will catch a cold, so they put a purple robe on him, then what should the great nobles do?

This is also an important reason why Frederick slowed down his expansion.

Frederick thought it was time to think about this issue carefully.

(End of this chapter)