[interlude]The strong grip

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On thursday I will be busy I will give you the chapter in advance

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POV of Karlon

The company representative took advantage of the fact that we were all gathered to give some news.

''From now on, your contract of servitude belongs to the company; from now on, your new master is the company; from now on, your tax payment will be made to the company; we will only accept payment in service; for two months, you will have to work for the company without any kind of remuneration; in addition, your schedules and tasks will be determined by the company. This new measure is part of an internal restructuring that seeks to maximize efficiency and reduce costs,'' said the company's soldier.

The inhabitants listened with surprise to the company soldier's words. The atmosphere became tense, and people's eyes turned to each other for answers. The news that their bond now belonged to the company and that they became the company's property was something they had not expected.

The soldier waited for the people to stop murmuring before continuing to speak.

''The company had brought good job offers, hoping to find people in good working conditions, but it seems that the information they gave us was not correct. I only see women and old people, but well, the company offers twenty silver stags plus a meal every working day to anyone who wants to give their work voluntarily to the company'' said the soldier, placing his hands on his waist while he looked at us.

Again, the soldier gave time for people to stop muttering.

''But considering that most will not meet our labor needs, the women and elderly will only be paid half wages and the children only a quarter of the conventional wage. We are not here to waste resources on people who do not contribute enough to our company'' the soldier added firmly. Those words caused a stir among the crowd, who began to discuss and question the job proposal.

''You have until the next day to decide whether to accept or refuse; if you accept the job, you will not have to pay the tax... I would prefer to omit this part, but I am obliged to do it. Whoever tries to escape from these lands, I am personally charged to hang him and leave his remains exhibited to the rest of what will happen if they try to escape from their obligations of serfdom. Go back to your homes now,'' said the soldier.

The people began to disperse to their homes, and I was about to do the same to rest on this strange day.

''Boy, come here,'' said the soldier calling out to me.

I approached the soldier and kept my head down.

''The company is looking for guards, a much nobler job than working the land, and we only recruit veterans of the war. We had some knowledge that the stark and the other lords let hundreds of veterans go free on their lands, and now we are looking for them. My question is, are you interested?'' said the soldier, offering me something from his canteen.

''Well yes, but it depends...ahhh...shit...this burns'' I said after taking a sip of the liquid from the canteen.

''Ha, ha, ha, yes, a bit strong, but it helps with the cold'' said the soldier, laughing.

''It depends on the payment, since I have an income from farming'' I said, handing back the canteen.

''twenty-five silver stags every month or moon, three meals a day, suitable clothes for the cold every six months, you will perform guards, we use prisoners as labor for our constructions, which soon this place will become a hotspot where many people will arrive, it is better to be on the good side of the company'' said the soldier, smiling.

''Well, that...is a good offer'' I said while covering my arms from the strong winds.

''Well, here, it will help you with the cold. What's your name?'' said the soldier, handing me his heavy fur cloak and the canteen with that strong alcoholic drink.

''Karlon'' I answered as I put on the cloak.

''Karlon, normally, the company follows Prussian training standards. I would not let you go out to the battlefield or do your job before the six months of training, but conditions force us to deploy as many men as possible to protect our interests in the north. But for now, you will have an easier job; do you know how to read and write?'', asked the soldier.

''no,'' I answered dryly.

''Never mind, I will teach you the basics. We expect this town to fill up with small folks from all parts of the north, at least further north than Winterfell. This will generate a lot of problems with the lords, but the northern lords are desperate to get gold to pay for the Prussian wheat that will be arriving soon from the south, so we must locate where the people arriving are coming from to pay compensation to those lords. They seem to think that the good deal their lord managed to get will only be a one-time deal, which has made them look to fill their coffers to buy a lot of grain and store it for a future winter'' said the soldier, scratching his beard.

''I understand. I appreciate the opportunity'' I said with a slight smile.

''We'll see what we do with you later; try to sleep; we'll make a lot of noise in the night'' said the soldier leaving.

I returned home and used the fur cloak as a sheet, as it was very good for protection from the cold, and took a few more gulps of that Prussian drink that burned the throat but really helped with the cold.

The night was very noisy, as that soldier had said.

You could hear hundreds of boots marching and arriving with animals and lots of materials that they began to unload and work with all night long. The noise was deafening, and I could not sleep. The soldiers were building a makeshift camp near my house. It was evident that they were preparing for a long stay. The sound of tools and voices echoed throughout the area.

I got out of bed and looked out the window to see what was going on. The darkness of the night and the intense cold did not allow a clear view, but I could make out the silhouettes of men hard at work. They seemed to be erecting tents and setting up makeshift structures. I wondered what was going on and why they had chosen this particular spot.

The next day I got up and went to the camp and was given everything I needed to carry out my work: heavy fur clothing that practically insulated you from the cold of the area, a steel breastplate, and several forearm and leg protectors also made of steel.

Apparently, the Prussians don't have the same problem with the steel supply as we have here; they have a city that produces tons of steel, which makes it cheaper and more common for the Prussians.

After eating a hot meal of boiled eggs, bread, and ham and cheese, I had time to meet the Prussian soldier who had given me the job.

Gustav was a company captain, a retired war veteran who belonged to the Totenkopf Hussars, a light cavalry that is in charge of pursuing fleeing enemies and attacking lightly armored forces.

Apparently he accepted his retirement and his king showered him with gold for his services, but he was so disillusioned with his life as a civilian that he did not ask to return to the army as they were not recruiting, and as soon as he found an opportunity to return to serve in a military unit, he accepted immediately, giving him back the rank he had left behind.

I was shown a little of the Prussian language and learned what I had to do during the morning. I had to write down where the small folks I decided to work for the company came from to have control over how many arrived each day and to be able to compensate the northern lords for their loss and not cause problems to the company, since avoiding those fights was vital.

Only efficiency and generating profits to send to the south mattered, and they had to avoid having meaningless fights.

Luckily, I didn't have to show what I learned right away because no one came to town looking for work.

Then I had to guard the work zone near the river. I felt a mixture of shame when, after seeing the faces of some of the prisoners, I realized that they were former comrades with whom I fought in the south. Apparently,  they dedicated themselves to banditry, and the Prussians caught and defeated them. Apparently,  they gave them the option of forced labor for five years for their crime, and then they would be released.

But the Prussians do not seem to treat the prisoners badly because they treat the workers even worse than the criminals, as they feel some respect due to their former trade of being soldiers. The Prussians feel respect for what they served by treating them with respect and kindness, something they do not do with other people who only receive a cold look and distrust.

Although the thieves who did not have that background as soldiers were treated like garbage,

After my guard duty, we ate again, this time sausages with something they call mashed potatoes that came from a plant that was recently planted in the south, accompanied by some soup. They even let me eat another portion.

In the afternoon, I had my training, and it was completely different from anything that had happened before. The Prussians taught based on their experiences and based on books that said how to fight, and then to a training camp where you had to do friendly combat with a veteran.

To say that I took a beating was not enough, since I was not used to carrying so much weight while fighting, but I was very grateful for this armor and the blows that would have left me a cut. Now I only felt the blow and nothing else.

A technique the Prussians use when fighting with their sabers is to use their cloak as a weapon to trap their opponent's sword or simply cover him with it and stab him. This is something they learned from their battles against another culture and is now something that is passed on from soldier to soldier.

After eating a beef stew, we gathered in the center of the camp, where they started handing out beer and began to tell their stories of fights. They liked the ones where one was close to death because they always left a lesson of what not to do or what to do to survive.

The days following my work as an assistant in administering began work that was given to the new guards to force us to learn the Prussian language.

Every day people arrived from all over the north, some looking for work, others for the security offered by the company since the frequent patrols of cavalrymen that roamed the area had made it a very safe place, only to find that more prisons were arriving every day for the work they were doing on the White Knife River.

In almost record time, the Prussians had put into operation a sawmill where they processed many trees from the nearby forests, which generated a lot of employment for the people who came looking for work. The growth of the company and the safety of the area became magnets for those seeking a better life opportunity. The White Knife River became the heart of the labor activity.

Since many of the Prussian shipments came down the river, the river became the heart of the labor activity.

The problem was the shortage of housing. Since every day hundreds of people arrived looking for work, some houses were quickly remodeled by the Prussians; the ones that were empty were given to the most important Prussian officers; and the rest had to sleep in tents.

Another work center was the quarrying of a stone that the Prussians were very happy to hear about. This limestone was important for the Prussians.

More and more days passed, and the settlement began to grow, but above all, it was the fortress in the middle of the river beds that grew every day.

As the settlement began to flourish, more Prussians arrived, but this time they were not soldiers but civilians who came looking for business. These Prussians were much nicer in general compared to the company, which was looking for profit at all costs.

These traders offered jobs in other areas, as women and the elderly were made to work in the kitchens and carry light loads. One fairly wealthy merchant set up a brick kiln mainly by hiring those groups who worked for less for more pay but not with food every day, which kept many on the job because the rations were not poor at all; they were quite generous.

The company bought those bricks and started building houses in the surrounding area when they built a large bath near the river, where they heat water and move it through pipes to the houses, copying the system used by the northern lords using hot springs from the area to heat their homes. Although for the moment this is only available to important members of the company, it is expected that in the near future they will extend access to all workers at some point in the future.

As this settlement continued to grow receiving hundreds of people every day the company began to sell products, tools made of steel, boots, fur clothing, furniture, liquor and various other products as so far I had only observed how the company spent and spent gold.

The routine continued the same and little changed the paronama every day I became more skilled using the sword and from time to time I had to go out to patrol the roads that were being paved to facilitate the transport of raw materials.

But every day I always ended up at the camp, the most important place for a Prussian.

The war may change but the war camp is eternal, is the Prussian saying, a way of conducting military camaderie, something that had never happened in our camps in the south where each was on his own, the Prussians seek to generate a unity of brotherhood among all its members.

After a few months due to my basic knowledge of German and learning to read I was given a promotion over other local guards and my new place of work became a coal mine that was west of the town, only a couple of hours travel away.

It was rare for a mine to receive so much security. This mine alone had over four hundred guards and wooden walls to protect it, it was too heavily guarded for the amount of workers who only numbered over two hundred men.

And there were a lot of high ranking company people, a group called engineers who were working on something but rarely left their work.

The mine was strange. There were no miners in this mine, only those engineers and many blacksmiths working on various things made of steel that was produced in a local steel mill.

For days my co-workers and I wondered what they were doing, until one of the many days of work we found that these steel things began to release steam in large quantities.

Then we had to install one of those things around the mine, whatever that thing was it had the strength of ten men because the Prussians were using it to lift things up and down the mine without much effort.

The second steel thing the Prussians had made was a machine that ran on that steam and pulled the water out of the mine.

The Prussian engineers and blacksmiths congratulated each other proudly on their creation, not caring that they were blackened by their constant work with the coal.

Workers arrived the following week. The mine had a productivity that surpassed any other mine in the region. The Prussians felt triumphant at how their ingenuity and effort had transformed the way the ore was extracted.

I was constantly reassigned to follow the group of men who were building the steel equipment in all the mines in the area.

Little did I complain, well paid work and with a promise of early promotion for protecting them from anything, the Prussians had seen to it that anyone who might be a nuisance was eliminated.

At the end of the month gustav was promoted to garrison commander of the company in the area and the more the armed wing of the company expanded the more promotions were given to locals who showed loyalty and honor. 

We celebrated gustav's promotion in a tavern that had recently been built, where there were Northmen and Prussians, soldiers, baptism of fire brothers, battle buddies, trusted friends, my new family.

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