12 Chapter 12: A few More Reforms And Spark of Conflict.

"Good morning, sir." Josiah said, in his tradicional black suit and tie.

"Yaun… Good morning, Josiah." Isaac responded. He was still in his night-suit, a rather simple one at that, and he looked sleepy.

"Are you alright, sir?"

"Just a little sleepy. I haven't slept well like that in ages. Anyway. Let's get back to work. How are the reforms progressing?" 15 days have passed since the hostile takeover of the duchy. Since then, both Isaac and the androids have been working almost nonstop.

"The National Bank has been formed, and will start operating in a few days. The infrastructure act has allowed for large scale connections between all cities, and it is only 50% concluded, yet, Has caused an massive commercial flow. Only the railroad, for example, operating at only 10% of it's size, has doubled the previous flow of goods. the Public Education Reform can enter structural phase, since only the teacher are needed to start education on the major population centers. Of course, all education will be based upon that of the 21st century."

"Excellent." Isaac said with a satisfied smile. "And the border control?"

"About 30% of the perimeter has been concluded. However, it is expected to near 70% by the end of the week. Still, thanks to the merchants the flow of goods from and into Judea has started to increased. On that note, people too. Apparently, thanks to the open doors initiative and a rather severe famine in the Duchy of Karllo, allowed us to have a decent influx of immigrants."

"Can we actually feed them all?"

"Sir, About 70% of the land of the principality is arable. Of that, about half was property of the crown, and the other half was property of the nobility. Since you removed the feudal rights of the nobility, we were able to rent the land at a very affordable price, and, thanks to our industrial capability, we were able to create enormous quantities of fertilizers and agricultural equipment. A decent part of the market is searching for our equipment, and the Tax incentives really helped make the demand grow. The easy explanation on how use the machines also helped. As of now, about half of the farmers use these technologies, outside of ourselves."

"Hmmmmm…" Isaac said with and understanding tone. "I see… Speaking of the nobility, how were they contained? I don't expect them to not try rebelling."

"Sheer brute force. The androids knocked down everyone that needed to be knocked down. While on the matter, the nationalization of private capital has been occurring almost non-impeded. Almost 80% of the private capital has already been nationalized."

"How are the other social reforms going?"

"We ended feudalism, and now almost all slaves and peasants had their status changed to free citizens."

"And how about the military reforms?"

"The 3 branches started recruiting, with decent results. The Air Force and the Navy attracted the most, with each having up to a thousand recruits. The Army did a little worse, with 800 recruits."

"Well, we need to start somewhere."

After going into power, Isaac decided to start forming a biological armed forces. While the bulk of his forces would be composed by androids and other automated equipment, he would have a biological force to work as an occupation army, and emergency police. Nevertheless, they would still work with the automated army.

"How far has the new currency been accepted?"

"Since the previous monetary unit could be easily faked, it's value was close to none. Now, since the Shekel can't be faked with this world's technology, it was easily embraced by businessman and civilians. Only a few holdouts still used the previous unit. Thanks to the distribution and incentives, like the 10% discount over the taxes if they were paid with the shekel, really helped."

"Good." Isaac then stood up and looked outside the window. "Has the previous ducal family vacated the property?"

"Everyone, except one. Eleonora de Swor hasn't vacated the property. We also have reasons to think that she may try to do a coup d'etat. She isn't wasn't a native to Swor. We have noticed that she sent a letter to her homeland, Ker. A few days after they received the letter, military mobilizations could be seen across the Duchy, with the focal point being the Tessnah city, the biggest city and the capital of Ker, with it being about 250 km away from the frontier with us. All of this was channeled to us by the infiltrated troops, so it's trustworthy."

"Mobilize the troops. I want tanks, ground troops, artillery, airplanes and helicopters. I want the airplanes filled with conventional explosives, and some chemical weapons. They have a Navy?"

"Yes, sir."

"Is it being mobilized."

"Yes, at the port city of South Desser. About a third of their fleet is being channeled there. Of course, they don't have a large navy. At most, 210 vessels, but only about half of that are actual battle-oriented ships."

"Deploy 5 destroyers." Isaac ordered. "Should we prepare for magical warfare?"

"The whole country has about 130 mages. 5 third ring, 50 second ring, and 75 first ring. We expect only 1st ring mages to be deployed, so, minimal worries."

"Excellent." Isaac smiled and then said "I want it to be a preemptive strike. If they show that they are going for the frontier, I want hell to break loose. If that is all, I will go take breakfast downstairs. The chefs here are really good."

After taking power, Isaac employed some chefs and reached them some plates. They learned really fast and really enjoyed cooking. Of course, a high salary really helped them liking to make those plates.

——

Castor de Ker was the current duke of Ker. He was the brother of Eleonor, but wasn't really fond of her. He always thought of her as a little too intense.

When he received her letter saying that she and her son would be in danger, while also explaining the situation in the duchy of Swor, he completely forgot about his previous problems with her and called upon all the military might his duchy could take to invade and protect his sister and nephew.

However, as a few days went on, he started receiving word about how powerful this invading force was, and started to grow weary. Of course, he didn't cancel the invasion, but he called a few more troops.

If his gamble would work, only time could tell. Anyway, tomorrow would be the day his troops would march upon the frontier, and "save" the "miserable Duchy" from the hands of a "heartless monster."

With that, a second war of expansion would start, and this one would attract the attention of some big players to the small Principality of Judea. It would be with this war that Isaac would really mark his name in history of this planet, and would complete one if his objectives: start evolution. The evolution of weaponry, and warfare.