Split Into Two

The Ministry of Truth was not as adept as ninjas when it came to spying, but it excelled at spreading rumors and false news. Regarding suppressing the truth and spreading fake news and falsehoods, the Ministry of Truth was matchless.

In just a few days, rumors spread that the treaties with the kingdom and the republic were part of a much larger plan. "Kampaku must have calculated it all." many thought.

These rumors were laughed at and mocked by people living in rural areas, who hated Kampaku and were on the hero's side, but many in royal cities believed them.

Kampaku's royal guards and imperial army were predominantly recruited from royal cities and subjected to years of propaganda, leading most to believe the rumors. Initially, doubts about Kampaku's suitability lingered among some in the royal forces, but these doubts were set aside after the rumors spread. After all, Kampaku had a grand plan to conquer the entire world, making the Empire massive and powerful. So, who cared about the current losses? Despite the treaties with the kingdom and republic appearing as losses on the surface, many were successfully convinced that they were part of Kampaku's masterful plan.

What these masterful plans entailed was beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. If even ordinary folks could grasp them, how could they deceive entire foreign countries? It was completely normal for them not to understand.

This way, most people in royal cities were convinced of the existence of some amazing plan, but nobody knew what it was.

However, not all citizens bought into the rumors.

While the population of royal cities believed them due to years of propaganda and strict 'education,' those in rural areas, border cities, and cities under the rule of hostile nobles remained skeptical. This created a stark divide: Kampaku had supporters in royal cities but was despised in other parts of the country.

Notably, most casualties came from troops sent by nobles, with only a small percentage from royal cities. Thus, the impact of losing so many young men was lighter in royal cities.

The loss of millions of people, many of whom were forcibly conscripted soldiers, affected families across the empire. When a soldier dies, it affects not only their immediate family but also their extended relatives and community.

In many cases, the deaths of soldiers translated into widespread hatred for Kampaku. This was due to a combination of factors: the populace felt angry at Kampaku for initiating the war and believed the conflict could have been avoided under a different leader, such as Jack. Many viewed the war as illegitimate, a result of Kampaku's selfish ambitions rather than a necessity.

If a 20-year-old boy gets conscripted by Kampaku's order and dies in the war as a meat shield, it makes both parents, siblings, neighbors, etc., all hate Kampaku.

Technically, there are situations in which the death of a soldier doesn't translate into hatred for leadership. For example, if people feel they are defending themselves and are fighting for righteous causes; in that case, they will be devastated by the loss of their child but won't blame the leadership.

For Kampaku, however, it was different. He was not popular among ordinary people, so many people felt angry at him when the war started. Instead of getting angry at the kingdom, they blamed him for the war. Second, when the war ended, it was an absolute defeat, which made the death of their children pointless.

The key factor was that they felt they had an alternative: Jack.

Jack was popular among the ordinary people, not counting the royal cities; nearly everyone felt nothing bad would have happened if Jack had been the Kampaku.

It can be said that their hatred toward Kampaku was translated to their hatred toward the country, so the war, in their view, was illegitimate, a game performed by Kampaku only to harm them.

These people were not informed; they didn't know that Kampaku wasn't responsible for war. Still, Kampaku lied to them so many times, so these people didn't trust anything he said.

Jack was also not just watching; he spread the news that Kampaku had started the war; many didn't know that the Kingdom had attacked first.

That aside, even though ordinary people hated Kampaku, in the empire, the people's voices were not heard; unless the nobles or Jack organized them and gave them weapons, no matter how many ordinary people hated Kampaku, nothing would change.

...

The wide divide between royal cities and other areas started to really affect things.

After a few months, a rebellion appeared in Fireflower City in the north. The kingdom conquered Fireflower City and was taken back when the empire counterattacked.

Under the kingdom's rule, the city was used as a military base and severely damaged when the empire attacked it to take it back.

After the empire won, it didn't receive any war reparation, so the poor people who lost their everything just got poorer, many dying from hunger.

Nobody was there to help them; the samurais abandoned the city, the Kampaku promised help, but never delivered, and the local noble increased taxes to rebuild his destroyed mansion.

Still, with nobody to lead, the people probably wouldn't have rebelled; without leadership, it's very difficult to do things that require the participation of many people.

People have different opinions and want things to go their way; the role of the leader is to harmonize different views and choose the best way forward; once the leader decides, everyone else obeys and leaves aside their own views. They had no one inside the city to lead, but they had the hero.

Seeing the situation with the city, Jack went there and, with only a few words, gathered everyone, armed them, and arrested the local noble.

After taking control of the city, He threw the local nobel he arrested in front of hungry commoners.

The local Nobel increased taxes on them despite their dire situation; many people died of starvation because of those taxes; it can be imagined what those poor people, whose relatives starved to death, did to the local Nobel. Long story short, after half an hour, there was not even a corpse left of him.

...

Using his secret organization, providing weapons and food was easy for Jack. He bought weapons from the empire and food from the people in rural areas, who were his followers.

In fact, this is another issue for Kampaku. Rural people, who produce most of the food, don't sell it to royal forces, so he was forced to import them.

As for sending troops to steal the food forcefully, that doesn't work either, as the villagers would rather die than give their food to him. He had already tried and failed.

The rebels of Fireflower City organized into a rebel army of 150,000 people, none of whom were skilled soldiers, but all of whom were angry and armed.

Fireflower was only the beginning.

Red Flower City remained mostly okay throughout the war, but the city's leader, Akai Hana, was persuaded to join the rebel army. This way, Jack got another 100,000 rebel troops, many of whom were trained soldiers.

That wasn't all; Jack went to many cities, either convincing local nobles to join the rebellion or killing the local nobles and directly taking control of the people to join the rebel army.

Kampaku had no way to stop it; he had to protect the capital and royal cities.

This way, only after a few months, the empire was de facto split into two parts. One was the royal cities and loyal nobles, and the other was the rest of the country.

For now, both sides recognized the emperor as the true owner and ruler of the country; their difference was how they viewed Kampaku. Royal cities and loyal nobles obeyed Kampaku and considered him legitimate; the other cities considered Kampaku illegitimate; they said Kampaku jailed the emperor, and the royal orders were not from the emperor but from Kampaku, only rubber-stamped by the emperor.

Therefore, the areas controlled by rebels stopped complying with royal orders. Instead, they recognized Jack, the hero, as the true Kampaku, and started obeying his orders.

Like this, 80% of the land area of the empire came under Jack's rule. It was mainly because of rural areas; when it came to population, it was closer to 50-50.

...

Kampaku was sitting on his usual chair at night, reading letters.

"White Flower City's local nobility sided with Jack and announced they would no longer recognize Your Majesty as the legitimate Kampaku."

Tearing the letter, Kampaku closed his eyes; he could barely keep calm these days. Technically, he can activate royal troops and crush all the rebel forces; he is better armed, and his reserves are much better trained.

But, it is not that simple; if he loses too many soldiers, it's possible that after Jack's defeat, the republic or some other country may fish out of muddy water. This is why he hesitated.

He had the urge to call all his reserves and kill Jack, but he didn't because he was afraid of foreign forces.

"That crazy man, president of the republic, will definitely attack again if I try to kill Jack." He thought.

Even if all other factions, Nobles, ninjas, samurais, and criminal gangs fight against Kampaku, they will lose, but if another strong foreign country, like the republic, helps them, then his win is no longer certain.

"Any response from the Samurai Association?" asked Kampaku from one of his subordinates.

"None yet, master!" the subordinate answered.

Kampaku sighed with sadness; the samurais' higher-ups were with him, but low-grade samurais were against him; this means that even though samurai leaders could keep low-grade samurais from actually joining Jack, it would be extremely difficult for the samurai leaders to help Kampaku. The best they can do is to remain neutral.

So, Kampaku started directly communicating with the Samurai Association, trying to win back their favor, but they didn't answer his letters.

The same applies to criminal gangs; they won't reply to his letters.

As for ninjas, they are outright assisting Jack.

The nobles are split; some are helping Jack, while others are helping him; most big nobles closer to royal cities help him, while smaller and faraway nobles help Jack.

He heard news that the republic was supplying Jack with weapons, but he could not stop it. He cannot fight with the republic when the country is so divided, and because he doesn't have control of border cities, he cannot disrupt weapons flow into the hands of rebels.

"The republic is using this crisis! If this continues, they may swallow the entire country!" Kampaku was genuinely worried that the empire may really be lost. If rebels and Kampaku's forces fight, no matter who wins, the republic is the true winner. If rebels win, they would be a puppet state of the republic. If Kampaku wins, the republic could use the weakened state of the empire and conquer large parts of it.

...

Jack read a letter from the president of the republic: "The weapons include musketeers; I will send a few trainers to help you familiarize yourselves with those new weapons."

He smiled; he knew that as it was going, the republic would be the winner, but Jack didn't care; as long as Kampaku died, the first task would be completed. Even if he became only a puppet emperor, it doesn't matter; that issue is for the future, only after he defeats Kampaku.

Honestly, Jack prefers the republic and empire to join together as one big country; that way, if he manages to win the election in the republic, he can become the leader of these two big countries, which would be a great help for the next stage, which is taking over the world.

The republic is a democracy, which means people can vote to select their leader; the president, Kashu, hasn't changed it and probably won't change it; at most, he might extend the president's term from one term to two terms.

As long as elections remain free and without cheating, there is hope for Jack to win based on popularity. With so many people in the empire regarding him as a hero, he would have a huge advantage in any election.

Jack can also extend the vote to include younger people and women; based on the limited polls he conducted, he realized that he is more popular among women than men so that it would be advantageous for him.

Still, those are for later.

Taking a pen and paper, he sent a letter and thanked Kashu.

Then, he called Michael. Michael is good at bow and arrow, so Jack is curious whether his talent translates into shooting with a musket.