The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

On the other hand, Jefferson readily surrendered all control of Fassen Town and obediently gave up.

"People of the gray and white collars, I believe many of you already know that Grand Duke Lars, who has been helping us develop and funding us, was killed by his sons who sold their souls to the demons!"

Linde stood on the high platform, giving his final battle mobilization speech.

"I believe many of you already know why we are here."

“That’s right. After those greedy guys killed our Northern Grand Duke, they still tried to seize our territory. Like the demons of the past, they invaded our homes and destroyed our land. They wanted us to continue to be burdened with debt and continue to live as their slaves.”

Do you want to go back to the way things were in the past?

"In no mood!"

Both regular soldiers and militiamen below the stage were shouting at the top of their lungs.

"Then what should we do?"

"Defend our homeland!"

"That's right, all invaders will be defeated, and we will ultimately achieve victory!"

"Wan Sheng! Wan Sheng!"

The First Army Group of Gray and White Collars has been reorganized, comprising three hundred men, while the former professional soldiers have been reassigned as officers of various ranks.

In fact, even the training intensity of the reserve militia members who were white-collar workers far exceeded that of ordinary soldiers in this era, since no one in this era would put in the effort to train ordinary soldiers.

If Linde wanted to, he could bring up thousands of gray and white-collar workers, excluding the elderly and children.

However, one military lesson from this era still applies: unequipped ordinary people have a hard time fighting against professionals on the battlefield.

Three hundred people is not the limit for gray-collar workers, but the current limit for fully equipped individual soldiers. Because time is too tight, gray-collar workers without industrial machine tools can only make three hundred sets of equipment by hand. The craftsmen's hands are already sparking from the process.

These three hundred people are all people who own land and property in the gray and white classes, and none of them want to go back to that kind of life.

Those who did not receive equipment underwent intensive training and were converted from militiamen into artillerymen. Although there were not enough individual hot air guns and equipment backpacks, there were many artillery pieces available for testing. Thanks to the standardization proposed by Linde, these artillery pieces all used the same operating system and could be quickly mastered.

In addition, at Flora's insistence, the nun squadron is also ready to go to the battlefield.

This does not include logistics and the militia who set up positions; all of them add up to over a thousand people.

Oh, and the Knights of Fassen, but to be honest, Lind didn't expect these old noble knights to be of any use. Fortunately, this knightly order was unexpectedly loyal and was actually willing to follow Jefferson's orders to do some dirty work.

If we calculate it according to the opposing coalition's method and round it up, Lind's army must have numbered at least several thousand, if not tens of thousands.

All the weapons in the laboratory were pulled out, including many artillery pieces that were still being tested, and would be transported to their designated locations by logistics and militia labor.

The administrative departments of the gray-collar workers have almost reached their limits, and all factories and craftsmen have switched to producing weapons, medicines, and holy water without stopping.

Jefferson watched as ship after ship of weapons and potions he had never seen before were transported to his territory. Not only the Grey and White Collar, but the entire town of Farson was mobilized to do the most basic tasks, and almost no one was idle.

Is this really war?

The mobilization orders, one after another, completely overturned Jefferson's traditional aristocratic concept of war as a game. This was not simply conscripting able-bodied men from the territory to fight each other, but rather throwing the entire territory into the war.

In a corner of Fassen town.

"Brother, are we really not going to go find my sister?"

Colin, who was stirring the mud and sand, asked Sean, who was grinding cement beside him.

This son, once considered the most promising successor to Grand Duke Lars, is now hiding in the town of Fassen, making cement for Lind.

"I'll go after I figure out this material."

Sean was grinding cement with great interest. After receiving information from guards who were scattered in different locations and had different jobs, Sean felt that he was about to figure out how to make cement and was becoming so engrossed in grinding it that he couldn't extricate himself.

"Why don't you just ask your brother-in-law about this?"

Clearly, Colin was very unhappy that his brother was making him do manual labor.

"What you figure out on your own is different from what someone else tells you."

Sean carefully ground the cement.

"Moreover, it would be more helpful for my sister to stay hidden than to reveal our identities."

Sean looked at the army that had already left the city.

Although it's hard to believe that Lena and the gray-collar lord can win, Sean's appearance with Colin will actually add uncertainty to Lena's situation. After all, who knows if her uncles, knowing that their nephew and niece are in the same place, will ignore the rebellion in their territory and march straight here?

Let my uncles look for it again.

"Hey, you guys!"

The clerk in charge of this area came over, and the workers who were working nearby immediately surrounded him.

“This is today’s salary.”

The clerk paid wages to every worker, and the workers of Fasen Town were extremely grateful. They sensed that war was coming, but there was no way to escape. However, the bigwigs from upstream came and gave them plenty of work and wages, paid on the same day. Moreover, the security in Fasen Town became better than ever before, so everyone stayed.

After all, where could they possibly escape to?

Colin sighed as he received his wages, "This is all I get after a hard day's work. It's not even enough for my daily meals."

Sean frowned.

“This is already a lot, much more than your previous territory. I’ve told you many times to treat your people better, but you still continue to levy exorbitant taxes. In the end, your territory actually opened its gates to welcome our uncle. If you had paid those laborers a third of this, they wouldn’t be in this state.”

Colin scoffed, "Hey bro, here we go again. After all that talk, your territory was conquered too, wasn't it? What's the difference between you and me?"

Of course there are differences. Sean's territory is still in rebellion, while there's been no news from Colin's territory.

But Sean just sighed and rubbed his forehead. Colin was spoiled too much and was really too unruly.

The clerk continued, "We need people to transport artillery shells. The pay is about three times what we get here. Anyone interested?"

Sean's eyes lit up, and he immediately pulled Colin up to raise his hand.

The clerk looked the two brothers up and down. Although they were fair-skinned and tender, they were strong enough. Then he selected a few workers and took them to prepare to move the cannonballs out of the city.

"Brother, are you crazy? There are hidden guards in the city to protect us, but what will we do once we leave the city?"

But Sean said nonchalantly, "Don't you want to see how the lord of the gray-collar workers plans to fight this war?"

"How can we fight? We're going to lose no matter what we do. We might as well find a way out and surrender to the Pokémon. Why are we just watching this spectacle? If we get caught, we're doomed."

Sean shook his head: "But I think we can win."

Colin was about to stop Sean and tell him that it was unrealistic and that it would be more practical to leave the city and find a chance to escape, but when he grabbed Sean, Colin found that his older brother was trembling with excitement, and he was serious.