HCB Chapter 293: Uniting the Majority
Chapter 293: Uniting the Majority
After discussing the prisoner exchange, John returned to the fortress in the mountains to discuss the next military deployment with the officers.
"The only knight group on the other side has been crippled. With our counterattack this time, the other side should focus on defense."
After John finished speaking, he pointed his baton towards the middle of the mountain range nearest to the Lana camp.
"This place will become a power vacuum for a certain period of time. Your next task is to occupy this area and foster forces that lean towards us. When the Lanas attack again, this place will become the first line of defense against them."
At this time an officer asked:
"Sir, occupying this place is not a problem, but how can we make the people here willing to fight for us?"
"Good question, Wesker. Please tell the officers about the situation on the southern slope of the Border Mountains."
After receiving John's order, Wesker immediately took over and said:
"The Rana Kingdom is a multi-ethnic country. In addition to the majority of the Rana people, there are other local minority residents and foreigners."
"In the southern foothills of the mountain range, the main population is not the Lana people, but the Midlan people. Most of them are descendants of Midlan merchants who traveled back and forth between Midlan and Lana. After generations of reproduction, they have reached half of the local population."
"These Mitlan people living in the Lana Kingdom not only work for the local Lana nobles, but also develop in business, politics and military. Some of them are even high-ranking military officers who originally guarded the border mountains."
"But as the plague in recent years has weakened Midland's national strength, the Lana people wanted to take advantage of the situation and seize the border mountains and surrounding territories. Since the Midland people living in Lana have close ties with the Midland Kingdom, they became the first targets to be liquidated."
"Before the Rana's large-scale attack, these Mitrans who had served in the Rana army were expelled from the army. After losing their positions, these people immediately lost their source of income and began to resent the injustice of the Rana people."
"We want to recruit this group of people and let them command other local Midlanders to attack the Rana army, thereby reducing our losses."
After Wesker finished speaking, John continued to add:
"These people alone are not enough. In addition to the Mitlan people, we can also try to recruit some Lana people."
"Since the nearby Lana nobles have already fled south, the only ones left in their territories are the peasants who were exploited by the nobles. Whether they are free peasants or serfs, they basically live under the layers of exploitation of the Lana nobles."
"At this time, as long as we do a little favor and distribute the land of those nobles to serfs and some free farmers with less land, and reduce their taxes, they will not only thank us, but when the Lana army arrives, they will fight for their land."
After listening to John's explanation, the officers discussed and believed that this plan was feasible and quickly passed it unanimously.
"Since everything has been passed, let's start assigning tasks."
John cleared his throat and continued:
"First, send the cavalry to quickly occupy the village and clear out those who are trying to resist. After the cavalry has finished clearing out the village, the infantry will immediately enter the village. While gathering the villagers to introduce our policy of equally dividing the land and reducing rent and interest, we will transform the village into a camp and set up trenches and chevaux de frise outside to prevent sudden attacks from the Lana army on the opposite side."
At this point, John suddenly realized that he didn't seem to see Hoss in the fortress, so he asked:
"Where's Hoss?"
"Lord Hoss led a group of troops out of the valley and headed west. It seems that he was going to occupy the port city on the other side."
"Good fellow, you are starting to show Minister Midland's unique talent for infighting, right?"
John immediately understood what Hoss was going to do based on his usual behavior. He probably thought that Hoss didn't want to work with him, so he took his men and ran away, and at the same time found a base for his own forces.
But since he ran away, John had some peace of mind. In John's plan, it was definitely not enough to just drive the Lana army out of the border mountains, but it was not realistic to occupy the entire territory of the Lana Kingdom. It would be better to establish a force under his control on the south side of the border mountains to manage the buffer zone after crippling the opponent's main army. In this way, even if the Lana people recovered, they would still lose some troops on the way if they wanted to attack the border mountains.
Soon it was the next day, and the armies under John's command left the mountains and rushed towards the villages.
Soon John received news from the front, but it was a little different from what John had guessed. Although the cavalry entered the village, there was no one inside the village. At the same time, there were signs of burning in the village, and the things in the room were also emptied.
"Could it be that these villagers also headed south?" Although John had this guess, he still felt a little confused, because it was less than a week since he entered the territory of the Kingdom of Lana. Even if these people ran south without taking anything, they would not run so fast.
John continued to order his cavalry to search everywhere. One day later, a messenger came back and reported:
"Sir, we have found those villagers. They are all gathered in a forest. There are about a thousand of them?"
"More than a thousand people? What are they doing hiding in the woods?"
After the messenger's subsequent report, John understood the general situation.
Perhaps they predicted that their territory would soon be occupied by the Midlan army, so before leaving, these Lana nobles ordered their servants to burn down their village and disperse the panicked villagers, and then left with the wealth they had accumulated over the years.
The villagers who stayed behind were caught between the Rana army and the Midlan army, so they had to find a secluded place to hide. During this period, due to the famine caused by lack of food, the villagers had to live like savages, making a living by picking wild fruits and hunting.
The White Wolf Knights quickly found these people. After listening to the various policies formulated by John, these villagers quickly chose to return to the village to work. Now they are building houses and doing spring plowing.
"As expected, no matter which country it is, they all treat civilians the same way at this time."
John strongly disapproved of this way of wasting labor. In his opinion, as long as they were loyal to him and useful to him, he would employ them regardless of whether they were nobles or commoners.
"Yes, sir."
The messenger then took out another letter and said:
"A man who claims to be a general of the former Rana Army stationed in the border mountains is also in that forest. He said he wants to join your army and wrote this letter for me to pass on to you."