Berserk, Total War: Second Son of Nobles

Summer 1445 East Balden

At night, a figure took advantage of the cover of darkness to evade East Balden's patrol team and entered a village. After searching for a while, he found a house with a scarecrow at the door. He then hurriedly knocked on the top of the door three times and then knocked on the bottom of the door three times.

"Who?" Soon, a voice came from inside.

“The woodcutter in the neighboring village has firewood for sale,” the man said.

Soon the door opened, and the person inside pulled the person outside in, looked around, and quickly closed the door.

Led by the people in the house, the woodcutter entered a cellar. The cellar was not big, but there were many people inside, and some of them were pointing at the table in the middle of the cellar.

When they saw the woodcutter coming, one of them asked, "What's going on in your village?"

"It's not good," the woodcutter said after taking off his hood and taking a sip of water.

"I just heard that the Mitlans and the Yodas will go to war in five days. The entire East Balden is recruiting soldiers. It is estimated that all adult men and even underage boys will be conscripted to fight in the war."

"What? Why are they fighting with the Yodas and the Mitlans? We the Bardens have provoked them!"

“Don’t you know that the Third Prince is a puppet of the Yoda people? As long as he can please his master, he can give away the entire East Balden.”

"Yes, after all, if a dog wants to please its owner, the owner will definitely give it a bone."

"Don't interrupt me. The question now is what should we do? We are going to revolt, but if we are all conscripted, how should we revolt?"

While everyone was arguing, the person directing the meeting at the table took a look at the number of people, cleared his throat and said, "Since everyone is here, let's hold a meeting to discuss everyone's situation."

"Let me speak first," someone said first.

"My village and the nearby villages are basically conscripting men to serve in the army because they are close to the battlefield. The third prince gave benefits to the gentry and village chiefs. An adult male will receive 6 silver coins, and underage men who can hold weapons will receive 3 silver coins. The people in the village next to me didn't come to the meeting because they were conscripted by the militia who broke into their homes."

"Then I'll tell you something too," said another person holding a big fan.

"Because we are in the city, we can't just arrest people whenever we want like in the countryside. There's no lottery, and if you win, you can go to the army. But if you don't want to serve, you have to pay a support fee of 100 gold coins. But whether it's 100 gold coins or 100 million gold coins, we low-level citizens can't afford it. Some businessmen do business with prisons to avoid military service. They buy a prisoner from the prison, and after paying the prison agency fee and the prisoner's benefits, they can let the prisoner serve as a soldier for them."

"Let me tell you about our Beggar Gang. It's really outrageous." said a man wearing patched clothes and holding a stick.

"As soon as we, the beggars, go out to beg for food, we will be conscripted by the soldiers for disrupting the city's security. More than half of my brothers have been arrested, and the rest are all old, weak, sick and disabled people who are not even worth recruiting."

"What you are doing is nothing. What we have here is even more outrageous," said another man holding a violin.

"For us bards, they usually lie to us and tell us that we have to pay to perform in the military camp. Then once we get there, they lock us up in a small house and make us practice the prince's marching song every day. I only come out when those transporting supplies go in to deliver the supplies, and then I change into their clothes." The bard was very nervous when he said this, and it was obvious that he had sequelae from being scared.

"Everyone," said the man who was previously in charge at the table.

"Our main enemies at the moment are the Third Prince's Balden army and the Yoda invasion force, so I think we need to unite with the people of Mitlan and work with them to drive the Yoda out."

"What? Cooperating with the Mitra people. If my information is accurate, the entire West Balden region is in the hands of the Mitra people." said one person.

"Well, but according to my information, after they occupied the village, they didn't collect taxes from the local people, not even the tithe," said another person.

"If the Midlanders didn't occupy West Balden, why did they build a fortress there? There is a fortress outside almost every village, and there are Midlanders stationed on it. Doesn't this mean they are treating West Balden as their own territory?" said another.

"Okay, okay, stop arguing. If we want to deal with the Yodas, we can't find anyone to help us except the Midlan people. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Let's cooperate with them first. After we defeat the Yodas and their power grows, it won't be too late to talk to the Midlan people." The commander said at this time. Fortunately, the commander was very popular, and everyone agreed although they were a little reluctant.

Seeing how depressed everyone was, the commander quickly said, "Don't worry, I've already talked to Midland, they will help us when the war comes."

After hearing why the Midlans helped them, everyone was confused. Someone asked:

"The Mitlan people just agreed to this. Don't they have any conditions?"

The commander smiled and said, "Have you forgotten that the Midlanders just lost a battle and are now in a desperate situation. In order to end the war as soon as possible, they can only talk to us."

Everyone suddenly realized.

"That means that now both Yoda and Midlan are suffering losses, so we can go up and reap the benefits, right?" said a man wearing Balden armor.

"Yes and no. Although Midland lost some soldiers, they still have a reserve army with about 20,000 people, led by a governor named John. But this governor also hopes to win this war with the smallest number of representatives."

"That would be easy, but there is still a problem. Our people have been conscripted, so how could anyone be involved in the uprising?" someone asked.

"We will start the uprising wherever there are more of us," said the commander.

"Let's do this... and then this..."

……

Balden Capital

"Are you saying you want to cooperate with us, Midland?" John took a look at the letter.

"Well, that's a good idea. Okay, I'll do it your way when the time comes." John finished reading the letter and then wrote a letter to the person who delivered it.

"After the mission is accomplished, I will give you some weapons and equipment for you to attack from the rear."

"Thank you very much for your generous help. I wish the friendship between Midland and Balden will last forever." The messenger said and left.

"Okay, let's see what the situation is like in five days. But at this time, I still need to use the system to recruit more soldiers," John thought as he opened the system and began to select soldiers.