Extending the grip

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POV of Wilhelm, fourth moon,284 AC

During the last few days I had spent time traveling through the most important areas of our conquered territory, making sure that the administration was functioning well, that justice was being administered correctly and that the goals of advancing the infrastructure were on schedule.

I had traveled to the mouth of the mander to see the progress of the arsenal, so the construction of warships could begin and I had traveled to the border with Dorne to check on the progress of the defenses being built on the torentine river.

I had returned to my fortress under construction and almost everything was perfect, we only had the problem of the bridges, only one bridge allowed to cross the mander from north to south and it was a security problem, since making the fortress an island was a priority to avoid having to lead with spies and assassins, since only Prussians and trusted personnel were allowed access.

Furthermore, I observed the construction progress and the first wall was already raised and the canals to surround the fortification with water were almost finished.

Taking advantage of the fact that my arrival back to the fortress had been in the early hours of the day, I decided to go to work to take advantage of the time doing something productive and to listen to some reports.

Quickly, I entered the bastion and gave orders for my officers to meet me so that they could inform me of what had happened in my absence with greater precision.

I waited patiently for the officers to arrive, as well as the mayors of the nearby towns.

''I believe we are all here my king we can begin'' said Charles in a calm tone.

''Well how are we doing with plantations?'', I asked looking at von Roon

''My king the plantations are a resounding success, we have over sixty thousand workers working continuously in your plantations, our techniques have been applied with such a success and the distribution of the land has begun to start the process of crop rotation.... as you ordered sugar beets have been planted in most of the plantations and we have also planted several fields with our grains and we are seeing the difference in the next month we should already have the results of our efforts and we can already expect a very abundant harvest'' said von Roon smiling while reading from his handbook.

''Excellent... the facilities to process our harvest are ready?'', I asked again.

Roon began to turn the pages of his book and looked at me again.

''The facilities to process the sugar beet into sugar are ready... when the harvest starts we will hire workers, although a small group is already being trained so that the production will start on a good footing and regarding the grains it will not happen again the same as the previous harvest, we have already finished the construction of three hydraulic mill facilities, this time we will be able to process all the grains before the end of the harvest month'' Roon said closing his book.

''Perfect Roon, excellent work as always'' I said turning to the next person I wanted to ask.

''Charles... what about the census I requested did you already have the reports?'', I said looking at the Teutonic knight

"Yes my king... let me get them'' said Charles leaving the room.

A few seconds later Charles came back bringing more than two thousand pages of information.

''Here it is... my brothers worked hard to get the information on the locals, age, relatives, income, height, religion and also the reports that they adopted our religion, that you asked for'' said Charles, sorting through the reports.

''Well I will read them in depth after this meeting, I need the summary Charles'' I said as I started to read some of the Teutons' reports.

''Within the populations within our control we have perceived that within the total number of people my king, twenty percent have voluntarily converted to Protestantism...we have had more success in the small villages where my brothers have had more contact and can know in depth who they must deal with'' Charles said smiling

''Twenty percent...I would have liked it to be more...but if we encourage their conversion by incentives we might have problems with false converts'' I said as I read Charles' report.

One of the mayors raises his hand to ask for the word

''Go ahead... anything to add?'', I asked the Teutonic mayor

''Within my city, one of those newly built by von Roon's efforts, we have petitions... though from the tone of voice I was told it sounded like he was demanding that we erect septs by members of the clergy of the faith of the seven'' the mayor said

''What?, the westerosi dogs are demanding?...they should be grateful we didn't burn all their damn septs after they financed the rebellion in tumbleton'' said one of the officers in charge of the cities watch

''Our deal with the westerosis just says that we are not to chase them ... no septs should be built in the cities or we will be inviting those corrupt and degenerates to attempt to generate local revolts'' said Roon with a tone of displeasure.

''For nothing in the world will we yield anything, let the guards be on the lookout for any attempt to erect a sept, for if they build one we will not be able to destroy it without breaking our agreement with the Baratheons and the Arryns'' I said to the leaders of the guards.

''By the way how is the public order a lot of trouble or can we continue to deal with what we have'' I asked the officers.

''I lost almost half of my men because they retired, we are very short of personnel'' said one of the officers.

''For my part, I'm the same... for the moment I can patrol the whole city, but if it continues to grow I will be overwhelmed without considering that more of my men could request their voluntary retirement'' said another officer grimacing with annoyance.

''Ciderhall military camp... is it ready Roon?'', I said question to the nobleman.

''Fully prepared to turn any weakling into an obedient soldier, we cleared the fields, erected palisades, built barracks, prepared obstacle courses, diverted the rivers to make some pools and thermae and we are waiting for the ashford training equipment to arrive... but we can immediately train more than fifty thousand men without any problem because I have my trusted officers ready to train'' Roon said with a big smile

I handed some important census reports to Roon.

''I am thinking of creating a new branch of administration, that will take care of public order and help the courts investigations to solve crimes... for the moment we have used the soldiers, but we can't keep having them diverted in doing other services, like the city guards, but all on territory which will allow us to expand the influence of our control, since in the more distant villages our control is feeble due to the little presence we have'' I said looking at everyone present

''So I don't want you to train them as soldiers, we need those men to be able to maintain law and order and support the judicial system and we will leave the soldiers free to defend the borders... so we won't have veteran soldiers worrying because someone stole their sweet bun'' I said looking at Roon

''Well, I guess I might as well train them... how many do you need me to recruit, my king'' said Roon after reading the reports

''Two thousand men for each of the governors, that way we can, start to be able to control more of the camps to the north, where our control is weaker.

Roon went back to review the reports

''I doubt... I doubt I will be able to do so my king.... within the Protestant converts, I have almost two hundred thousand eligible young men, but about thirty thousand would meet our recruitment standards, height over 1.75 m, if you want me to meet the sixty thousand men we will have to lower the recruitment standards which could affect the quality of the troop..... besides we don't know how their teeth are... if many have rotten or bad teeth I doubt we can recruit ten thousand men... besides we don't know if they will accept the recruitment''said Roon carefully reviewing the reports.

''Well do what you can Roon, we will have to change the equipment they use, we can't change the ashford production too much or we would affect our construction plans, so they won't use full gothic armor, we must think of something else'' I said looking at Roon,

''We have plenty of surplus chain mail and leather doublets that were overproduced, we could equip them with that and order some steel breastplates, full helmet... and padded clothing... considering they should not face heavily armed enemies it should be enough for them to defend themselves'' said Charles.

''I would recommend that they better not wear the full helmet...their job will be to be in contact with people every day, their face must be able to be seen, they must look human or people will have the predisposition of fear towards them and we would start badly if the population must trust them''said Antti behind me

''Yeah right... good idea Antti... we can make open helmets that will protect the head, the chain mail will protect the neck and cheeks and show their face... well, we will do that...no need for such a long training we only need two months and we will launch them to the streets from there they will continue their training''I said while looking at some blueprints

''Well... I think I can work with that...the training curriculum...they will have to march...work as a team...spears and shields...axes?'' said Roon looking at me.

''Yes axes too, they will be useful if they face enemies with shields'', I said approving the training plan.

''Antti... rebellions''I said without looking back

''We have crushed twenty cells of rebels in quite remote areas and managed to completely destroy a large knight group that had quite a few soldiers who survived our trap in the Stormlands... a shipment of swords and armors was about to arrive which was intercepted... further investigation pointed to the septon of lannisport.... a formal complaint was sent to Lord Tywin and the High Septon.... no answers yet'' Antti said in his serious tone.

''Well... we're done, you may leave, go back to your work'' I said after giving a sigh

most of them left the room, but Roon stayed, waiting for me.

''What's going on, Friedrich?'', I asked the officer.

''I wanted to consult first-hand information about the Siegfried line against Dorne'' said Roon genuinely interested.

''The construction is progressing very fast, the materials to build are abundant, as the mountains are next door, by the end of this year the seven fortresses should be ready and no one could pass the river without us knowing it, besides the Dayne refused to try to rebuild the destroyed bridge, the little trade in the area is no incentive for them to take the risk that we could use it as a platform to attack Dorne'' I said providing him the information I got from my visit

''My other query my king.... do we have enough funds to pay the recruits?, I was thinking about thirty-five silver stags to incentivize them and put Prussian officers in charge... although we will have to promote many locals to pad numbers... considering the plan to build the canal linking the mander to the honeywine it won't be cheap'' said Roon a little worried.

''Don't worry about the gold Roon, we have enough for the next two years, even with extra expenses or incidentals... not considering that soon we will have considerable increases in our income... the spirits are already selling well and soon we will have sugar and other cash crops to fill our treasuries and in the worst-case scenario we can always self borrow money from the bank at four percent interest so as not to affect Maximilian's plans... much... but don't waste funds either... I will review our expenses to see if I can reduce them...''' I said as I started to look for my accounting books

''Ha, ha, ha, I'll be relieved, then my king.... with your permission I shall leave''said Roon as he chuckled.

''News from Aleksanteri?'', I asked the Finn who had my back.

''Nothing for the moment... it's only a matter of time... he has never failed'' Antti said confidently.

''Good, that puts my mind at ease... let's hope they can recruit a lot because I plan to put some of your brothers in this new police force so they can lead it and teach them how to interrogate and search for traitors'' I said stretching out my arms.

''With a little luck my father will get the tribute we owe you my king, we won't fail our ancestral agreement again'' said Antti changing to his serious tone

''Well, let's keep working'' I said while taking the reports.

''By the way my king... your mother-in-law is here and wished you to fulfill your ''duty'' with your betrothed and get to know her a little more'' Antti said with a cheerful tone

''Is it urgent or important?'', I asked the Finn.

''She said yes'', Antti answered.

''Ahh... we'll schedule it for tomorrow'' I said as I started to work.

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