Chapter 106
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Ben stepped past the Fairies and Half-Giants to stand in front of the palace staff.
"It seems you all are too anxious to head home so I guess I will give everyone something to do for now. I want every palace official and palace assistant to bring everything the former king had them working on to the throne room.
I want the military officers to send out subordinates around the city to find out how many city and palace guards are still alive and have them report to the palace. As for the palace servants I want you to have the largest table in the palace moved to the throne room. That will be all for now, everyone please attend to these orders to the best of your abilities!"
Ben turned away from the scattering crowd of palace staff and went to his generals to speak with them.
"Generals I want the archers to patrol the city walls. Have the infantry guard the city gate and patrol the city in squads of ten. If anyone tries to perform criminal acts or cause trouble then order our soldiers to arrest them. If they attempt to resist arrest then have our men cut them down.
I will not tolerate anyone trying to take advantage of transition of power to cause trouble right now. I want the city to remain sealed to everyone but our people for now. No one is to enter or leave the city unless they are ordered to or given permission. These people who have surrender can be taken back to our camp in the forest. Send enough men to detain them in wooden military camps and keep them under guard so they can't escape.
I left a large amount of food in the camp so they should have plenty of food for our men and the captives for a few days. I will make further arrangements once I'm caught up here."
Once Ben had given his orders to the generals he decided to speak with the Brandomma captives.
"You men have nothing to fear you will be treated fairly as long as you do as you're told. We will soon allow you to return to your homes in Brandomma and for those of you who are former Trareniel subjects, you will also be released to return to where you live. There is just one problem the Brandomma King decided to continue his alliance with the former Trareniel King.
I consider his actions of sending you men here to defend my enemy a declaration of war. Once things are taken care of here I will invade Brandomma just as I have here and depose the current king. Once Brandomma has become absorbed by the Avalon Kingdom you men will be free to return home and reunite with your families. Please do not do anything foolish and attempt to escape or cause trouble until then because my men will show you no mercy and you all should be aware of how well they can fight.
Every one of my men are trained soldiers unlike you who are mostly commoners sent to battle, so follow them to our camp and in a week or so we will take you along with us to Brandomma."
Everyone was sent off as ordered while Ben made sleeping arrangements for Mythia, the female cultivators, and Fairies in the royal quarters. The troops who remained in the city would set up camp on the large palace lawns.
Ben wanted to keep his elites inside the palace to respond to any surprises. He was sure there were still enemies out there waiting for him to show a moment of weakness to cause him troubles.
The large canopy tent Ben used at his party in Goldcrest was lent out to the Half-Giants. They had extra large bedrolls and sleeping bags custom made to their size so that they can camp outside with the other troops in times like this.
Ben had a palace servant show him to the former kings quarters and study. He gathered up every book, document, and report on everything he could find and brought it to the throne room.
There was already a large meeting room style wood table in place just below the dais the throne sat on. Ben grabbed the gallery chairs and placed them around the large table for others to sit down.
For now, he used Photo Reading skill to rapidly read the private writing he had taken from Soren Knotley's study. A steady stream of palace staff continued to stack up piles of parchments on the table near him as he uncovered the extent of the former king's treachery.
He found Soren Knotley had allied with Brandomma to aid one another in conquering the Aregard Kingdom and the Galeran Kingdom. Brandomma had sent troops and their royal cultivator to help conqueror Aregard. Once Aregard was conquered Soren Knotley was going to send troops and his royal cultivator to aid Brandomma in conquering Galeran.
What Brandomma did not know was Soren Knotley planned to continue westward. He was going to continue to create a larger army with each kingdom he conquered. In the end, he even had plans to turn his troops loose on his ally in a three-pronged attack to conquer Galeran and Brandomma together.
It was a solid plan using treacherous tactics and it should have worked from what Ben could make out with his limited military knowledge. If he had never been sent to this world Soren Knotley would possibly have become an emperor who ruled over the eight kingdoms on this continent.
__________________________________
Over the next few days, Ben had reenlisted the surviving city and palace guards to duty. He had found Soren Knotley had increased the taxes to a high rate in an attempt to cover for the loss of income to the royal treasury. The loss of so much manpower had hurt the kingdom's economy to the point it was becoming difficult to pay out wages to the palace staff, guards. There were also other drains on the treasury, for instance, feeding the Brandomma troops and the upkeep of the kingdom.
Ben lowered the taxes to an affordable amount so that the people were not giving up every coin they made.
The royal palace was cleaned of any of the former king's lingering sympathizers. Soren Knotley did not have a wife or any children. There were other branches of the Knotley family but they were mainly suppressed by the former king.
Soren Knotley was so greedy and paranoid he even kept his own relatives on a leash for fear they might make a move against him for his throne. Most of them were glad to see the bastard go and those who still spoke out against Ben or were deemed a threat were placed under house arrest or sent to the royal prison.
Ben would soon have to leave to continue his military campaign so he had to be sure he wasn't leaving behind any ticking timebombs.
______________________________________________
At nighttime he began converting the former kingdom's roads and streets to concrete with Heating Coils under them. There were no longer any wilderness dirt roads or bumpy rock streets in the city or towns.
Ben was now at the point that he did not feel he had to hide his actions anymore. If was a shock that every street and road was suddenly changed to concrete but there wasn't anyone who could question him about it or force him to use his system for their gains.
The following night he built a Servant Guild behind the royal palace and he deconstructed the city walls. The city walls were replaced with five-foot thick by thirty-foot high concrete and rebar walls. There also was a concrete Gatehouse to replace the wooden gate. The Gatehouse had two steel plate portcullis just like those used at his fortress.
Along the outer walls was a new moat surrounding the entire city. He made the moat fifty-feet deep so it would be near impossible to fill in. The outer part of the new Gatehouse was equipped with a steel plate drawbridge that lowered down to allow people to cross the moat.
The capital city of Timbershield might not be as impenetrable as his fortress but it was strong enough to hold back an army until he could arrive with his troops.
From the Servants Guild Ben recruited two thousand level one male servants between the ages of 18-30 years old. He had the palace officials distribute them to the surrounding towns and occupations which are suffering due to the decrease in manpower.
These servants could not fill the roles of skilled trades but they could easily learn how to chop down trees, plant seeds, or haul goods. They were more educated than a commoner so any low-end commoner jobs wasn't a problem for them.
After the recruitment the palace officials needed to make some adjustments in the city so that Ben could build housing for the addition of these single men who would stay in the capital.
Over time he hoped this influx of men would find a female partner to help the population in this region continue to grow. It would be troubling if the women who had lost their husbands remained widowed. Without children, there was no future for the former Trareniel region.
______________________________________________
As new reforms were being applied to the region a small wooden gallows was constructed in the city square. The Messengers Union was hired to send out criers to announce the date of Soren Knotley's execution. Ben had decided he was too devious to be left alive and he could not take the chance of him being somehow broken out of a cell when he wasn't around.
On the fifth day after Ben had invaded Trareniel Soren Knotley was hung by the neck in front of a huge gathering of his former subjects.
Some cheered and some cried it was an emotional event for all who attended.
Even Mythia had shed tears seeing that the man who was responsible for her family's death was finally brought to justice.
Ben was torn, he had a slight twinge of guilt for being the one who had sentenced him to death, but he felt it was a deserved punishment for his long list of heinous crimes.
That night Soren Knotley's body was burned on a large pyre and his ashes were buried in the royal graveyard.
The following day Ben led his troops out of the city to attack the hideout of the Bloody Blades. They had a makeshift fort in the forest beside a large lake near the Aregard border.
At sunrise Ben had his troops surround the fort to prevent any possible escapes. He had Mythia follow him along with the twenty Fairies, the ten female cultivators, and the ten Half-GIants.
The Half-Giants easily smashed down the wooden gate and he led the squad of elites into the rugged compound. The Fairies launched firebolts into the structures to set them alight while the others slaughtered everyone who ran outside to escape the flames.
After the losses the Bloody Blades suffered from sending their men along on the invasion, there were not many of them left. They made quick work of the surviving members as they attempted to run or fight.
After the quick elimination of the bandits Mythia was seen standing on the wooden walls covered in their blood. She stood proud with a smile on her face and tears in her eyes as she looked up to the sky. One could only think she was looking off at her family in heaven and telling them they can finally rest.
Ben found a stash of coins adding up to 700g in the bandit leaders house but everything else wasn't worth anything. They burned the camp to the ground and Ben used his Weather Control: Apprentice Level: 3 to make it rain enough around the fort to prevent the fire from spreading into the forest.
He had made good on his promise to Mythia and had brought her along to extract revenge on all those who were responsible for her family's death. Ben had also avenged his fallen soldiers.
Alas, they still were not done with their campaign, it was time to head south and pay a visit to Brandomma.
__________________________________
On the sixth day of the military campaign, the captured Trareniel troops who surrendered were sent home from the forest military camps. The Aregard border was opened up once again and the Messenger Union was hired to send out reports to each kingdom of how the Trareniel Kingdom was no more and Soren Knotley had been sentenced to death.
Ben planned to return to the Trareniel region to tie up some loose ends, but he needed to make an example of Brandomma before then. He worried if he remained in Timbershield too long Brandomma would be secretly sent news of what had transpired here.
Ben gathered up his siege equipment and led his troops south by carriage while the captured Brandomma troops trailed behind them. A group of Avalon troops had been assigned to guard and protect the Brandomma civilian soldiers on their trek home.
The carriage convoy passed through a large town halfway between the Trareniel region border and the capital city of Brandomma without any resistance. There were a few town guards who quickly surrendered when they saw Ben's army of over two thousand troops dismount from the carriages and march through the town on foot.
Ben informed them of his motives to displace their king and if they did not stand in the way he would allow them to keep their jobs and their lives
They mounted back up into the carriages once they left the town and continued southeast toward Baymeadow the capital city of Brandomma.
From what Ben was told by the captured Brandomma troops there were currently only city and palace guards protecting Baymeadow.
Soren Knotley had blackmailed the Brandomma king into sending him military aid. He threatened to expose the fact that Brandomma planned to invade Galeran and that Brandomma had lost their royal cultivator during the Aregard invasion.
Brandomma feared that if Galeran found out they lost their royal cultivator and a part of their military strength they would raise an army and invade them.
Brandomma and Galeran had been at each other's throats for decades and had fought many times. If they found out Brandomma had lost over four hundred troops and their royal cultivator it would be a certain invitation for them to strike back at them.
Now that Ben knew there were no real troops guarding the city he planned to just have the Half-Giants knock down the city gate and send his troops in to secure the city. A few guards might attempt to fight back, but once they saw the overwhelming number of enemy troops they would be throwing their lives away if they attempted to resist.
They camped just over a mile from the Baymeadow City and made plans to move out early before sunrise. Ben wanted to storm the city while most of the defenders were still asleep.
They were far enough from the city where the inhabitants could not see them and they could only see the dim mirage of the city. After dinner everyone went to bed early to have plenty of rest for the attack on the city early the following morning.
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Ben stepped past the Fairies and Half-Giants to stand in front of the palace staff.
"It seems you all are too anxious to head home so I guess I will give everyone something to do for now. I want every palace official and palace assistant to bring everything the former king had them working on to the throne room.
I want the military officers to send out subordinates around the city to find out how many city and palace guards are still alive and have them report to the palace. As for the palace servants I want you to have the largest table in the palace moved to the throne room. That will be all for now, everyone please attend to these orders to the best of your abilities!"
Ben turned away from the scattering crowd of palace staff and went to his generals to speak with them.
"Generals I want the archers to patrol the city walls. Have the infantry guard the city gate and patrol the city in squads of ten. If anyone tries to perform criminal acts or cause trouble then order our soldiers to arrest them. If they attempt to resist arrest then have our men cut them down.
I will not tolerate anyone trying to take advantage of transition of power to cause trouble right now. I want the city to remain sealed to everyone but our people for now. No one is to enter or leave the city unless they are ordered to or given permission. These people who have surrender can be taken back to our camp in the forest. Send enough men to detain them in wooden military camps and keep them under guard so they can't escape.
I left a large amount of food in the camp so they should have plenty of food for our men and the captives for a few days. I will make further arrangements once I'm caught up here."
Once Ben had given his orders to the generals he decided to speak with the Brandomma captives.
"You men have nothing to fear you will be treated fairly as long as you do as you're told. We will soon allow you to return to your homes in Brandomma and for those of you who are former Trareniel subjects, you will also be released to return to where you live. There is just one problem the Brandomma King decided to continue his alliance with the former Trareniel King.
I consider his actions of sending you men here to defend my enemy a declaration of war. Once things are taken care of here I will invade Brandomma just as I have here and depose the current king. Once Brandomma has become absorbed by the Avalon Kingdom you men will be free to return home and reunite with your families. Please do not do anything foolish and attempt to escape or cause trouble until then because my men will show you no mercy and you all should be aware of how well they can fight.
Every one of my men are trained soldiers unlike you who are mostly commoners sent to battle, so follow them to our camp and in a week or so we will take you along with us to Brandomma."
Everyone was sent off as ordered while Ben made sleeping arrangements for Mythia, the female cultivators, and Fairies in the royal quarters. The troops who remained in the city would set up camp on the large palace lawns.
Ben wanted to keep his elites inside the palace to respond to any surprises. He was sure there were still enemies out there waiting for him to show a moment of weakness to cause him troubles.
The large canopy tent Ben used at his party in Goldcrest was lent out to the Half-Giants. They had extra large bedrolls and sleeping bags custom made to their size so that they can camp outside with the other troops in times like this.
Ben had a palace servant show him to the former kings quarters and study. He gathered up every book, document, and report on everything he could find and brought it to the throne room.
There was already a large meeting room style wood table in place just below the dais the throne sat on. Ben grabbed the gallery chairs and placed them around the large table for others to sit down.
For now, he used Photo Reading skill to rapidly read the private writing he had taken from Soren Knotley's study. A steady stream of palace staff continued to stack up piles of parchments on the table near him as he uncovered the extent of the former king's treachery.
He found Soren Knotley had allied with Brandomma to aid one another in conquering the Aregard Kingdom and the Galeran Kingdom. Brandomma had sent troops and their royal cultivator to help conqueror Aregard. Once Aregard was conquered Soren Knotley was going to send troops and his royal cultivator to aid Brandomma in conquering Galeran.
What Brandomma did not know was Soren Knotley planned to continue westward. He was going to continue to create a larger army with each kingdom he conquered. In the end, he even had plans to turn his troops loose on his ally in a three-pronged attack to conquer Galeran and Brandomma together.
It was a solid plan using treacherous tactics and it should have worked from what Ben could make out with his limited military knowledge. If he had never been sent to this world Soren Knotley would possibly have become an emperor who ruled over the eight kingdoms on this continent.
__________________________________
Over the next few days, Ben had reenlisted the surviving city and palace guards to duty. He had found Soren Knotley had increased the taxes to a high rate in an attempt to cover for the loss of income to the royal treasury. The loss of so much manpower had hurt the kingdom's economy to the point it was becoming difficult to pay out wages to the palace staff, guards. There were also other drains on the treasury, for instance, feeding the Brandomma troops and the upkeep of the kingdom.
Ben lowered the taxes to an affordable amount so that the people were not giving up every coin they made.
The royal palace was cleaned of any of the former king's lingering sympathizers. Soren Knotley did not have a wife or any children. There were other branches of the Knotley family but they were mainly suppressed by the former king.
Soren Knotley was so greedy and paranoid he even kept his own relatives on a leash for fear they might make a move against him for his throne. Most of them were glad to see the bastard go and those who still spoke out against Ben or were deemed a threat were placed under house arrest or sent to the royal prison.
Ben would soon have to leave to continue his military campaign so he had to be sure he wasn't leaving behind any ticking timebombs.
______________________________________________
At nighttime he began converting the former kingdom's roads and streets to concrete with Heating Coils under them. There were no longer any wilderness dirt roads or bumpy rock streets in the city or towns.
Ben was now at the point that he did not feel he had to hide his actions anymore. If was a shock that every street and road was suddenly changed to concrete but there wasn't anyone who could question him about it or force him to use his system for their gains.
The following night he built a Servant Guild behind the royal palace and he deconstructed the city walls. The city walls were replaced with five-foot thick by thirty-foot high concrete and rebar walls. There also was a concrete Gatehouse to replace the wooden gate. The Gatehouse had two steel plate portcullis just like those used at his fortress.
Along the outer walls was a new moat surrounding the entire city. He made the moat fifty-feet deep so it would be near impossible to fill in. The outer part of the new Gatehouse was equipped with a steel plate drawbridge that lowered down to allow people to cross the moat.
The capital city of Timbershield might not be as impenetrable as his fortress but it was strong enough to hold back an army until he could arrive with his troops.
From the Servants Guild Ben recruited two thousand level one male servants between the ages of 18-30 years old. He had the palace officials distribute them to the surrounding towns and occupations which are suffering due to the decrease in manpower.
These servants could not fill the roles of skilled trades but they could easily learn how to chop down trees, plant seeds, or haul goods. They were more educated than a commoner so any low-end commoner jobs wasn't a problem for them.
After the recruitment the palace officials needed to make some adjustments in the city so that Ben could build housing for the addition of these single men who would stay in the capital.
Over time he hoped this influx of men would find a female partner to help the population in this region continue to grow. It would be troubling if the women who had lost their husbands remained widowed. Without children, there was no future for the former Trareniel region.
______________________________________________
As new reforms were being applied to the region a small wooden gallows was constructed in the city square. The Messengers Union was hired to send out criers to announce the date of Soren Knotley's execution. Ben had decided he was too devious to be left alive and he could not take the chance of him being somehow broken out of a cell when he wasn't around.
On the fifth day after Ben had invaded Trareniel Soren Knotley was hung by the neck in front of a huge gathering of his former subjects.
Some cheered and some cried it was an emotional event for all who attended.
Even Mythia had shed tears seeing that the man who was responsible for her family's death was finally brought to justice.
Ben was torn, he had a slight twinge of guilt for being the one who had sentenced him to death, but he felt it was a deserved punishment for his long list of heinous crimes.
That night Soren Knotley's body was burned on a large pyre and his ashes were buried in the royal graveyard.
The following day Ben led his troops out of the city to attack the hideout of the Bloody Blades. They had a makeshift fort in the forest beside a large lake near the Aregard border.
At sunrise Ben had his troops surround the fort to prevent any possible escapes. He had Mythia follow him along with the twenty Fairies, the ten female cultivators, and the ten Half-GIants.
The Half-Giants easily smashed down the wooden gate and he led the squad of elites into the rugged compound. The Fairies launched firebolts into the structures to set them alight while the others slaughtered everyone who ran outside to escape the flames.
After the losses the Bloody Blades suffered from sending their men along on the invasion, there were not many of them left. They made quick work of the surviving members as they attempted to run or fight.
After the quick elimination of the bandits Mythia was seen standing on the wooden walls covered in their blood. She stood proud with a smile on her face and tears in her eyes as she looked up to the sky. One could only think she was looking off at her family in heaven and telling them they can finally rest.
Ben found a stash of coins adding up to 700g in the bandit leaders house but everything else wasn't worth anything. They burned the camp to the ground and Ben used his Weather Control: Apprentice Level: 3 to make it rain enough around the fort to prevent the fire from spreading into the forest.
He had made good on his promise to Mythia and had brought her along to extract revenge on all those who were responsible for her family's death. Ben had also avenged his fallen soldiers.
Alas, they still were not done with their campaign, it was time to head south and pay a visit to Brandomma.
__________________________________
On the sixth day of the military campaign, the captured Trareniel troops who surrendered were sent home from the forest military camps. The Aregard border was opened up once again and the Messenger Union was hired to send out reports to each kingdom of how the Trareniel Kingdom was no more and Soren Knotley had been sentenced to death.
Ben planned to return to the Trareniel region to tie up some loose ends, but he needed to make an example of Brandomma before then. He worried if he remained in Timbershield too long Brandomma would be secretly sent news of what had transpired here.
Ben gathered up his siege equipment and led his troops south by carriage while the captured Brandomma troops trailed behind them. A group of Avalon troops had been assigned to guard and protect the Brandomma civilian soldiers on their trek home.
The carriage convoy passed through a large town halfway between the Trareniel region border and the capital city of Brandomma without any resistance. There were a few town guards who quickly surrendered when they saw Ben's army of over two thousand troops dismount from the carriages and march through the town on foot.
Ben informed them of his motives to displace their king and if they did not stand in the way he would allow them to keep their jobs and their lives
They mounted back up into the carriages once they left the town and continued southeast toward Baymeadow the capital city of Brandomma.
From what Ben was told by the captured Brandomma troops there were currently only city and palace guards protecting Baymeadow.
Soren Knotley had blackmailed the Brandomma king into sending him military aid. He threatened to expose the fact that Brandomma planned to invade Galeran and that Brandomma had lost their royal cultivator during the Aregard invasion.
Brandomma feared that if Galeran found out they lost their royal cultivator and a part of their military strength they would raise an army and invade them.
Brandomma and Galeran had been at each other's throats for decades and had fought many times. If they found out Brandomma had lost over four hundred troops and their royal cultivator it would be a certain invitation for them to strike back at them.
Now that Ben knew there were no real troops guarding the city he planned to just have the Half-Giants knock down the city gate and send his troops in to secure the city. A few guards might attempt to fight back, but once they saw the overwhelming number of enemy troops they would be throwing their lives away if they attempted to resist.
They camped just over a mile from the Baymeadow City and made plans to move out early before sunrise. Ben wanted to storm the city while most of the defenders were still asleep.
They were far enough from the city where the inhabitants could not see them and they could only see the dim mirage of the city. After dinner everyone went to bed early to have plenty of rest for the attack on the city early the following morning.
Ben stepped past the Fairies and Half-Giants to stand in front of the palace staff."It seems you all are too anxious to head home so I guess I will give everyone something to do for now. I want every palace official and palace assistant to bring everything the former king had them working on to the throne room.I want the military officers to send out subordinates around the city to find out how many city and palace guards are still alive and have them report to the palace. As for the palace servants I want you to have the largest table in the palace moved to the throne room. That will be all for now, everyone please attend to these orders to the best of your abilities!"Ben turned away from the scattering crowd of palace staff and went to his generals to speak with them."Generals I want the archers to patrol the city walls. Have the infantry guard the city gate and patrol the city in squads of ten. If anyone tries to perform criminal acts or cause trouble then order our soldiers to arrest them. If they attempt to resist arrest then have our men cut them down.I will not tolerate anyone trying to take advantage of transition of power to cause trouble right now. I want the city to remain sealed to everyone but our people for now. No one is to enter or leave the city unless they are ordered to or given permission. These people who have surrender can be taken back to our camp in the forest. Send enough men to detain them in wooden military camps and keep them under guard so they can't escape.I left a large amount of food in the camp so they should have plenty of food for our men and the captives for a few days. I will make further arrangements once I'm caught up here."Once Ben had given his orders to the generals he decided to speak with the Brandomma captives."You men have nothing to fear you will be treated fairly as long as you do as you're told. We will soon allow you to return to your homes in Brandomma and for those of you who are former Trareniel subjects, you will also be released to return to where you live. There is just one problem the Brandomma King decided to continue his alliance with the former Trareniel King.I consider his actions of sending you men here to defend my enemy a declaration of war. Once things are taken care of here I will invade Brandomma just as I have here and depose the current king. Once Brandomma has become absorbed by the Avalon Kingdom you men will be free to return home and reunite with your families. Please do not do anything foolish and attempt to escape or cause trouble until then because my men will show you no mercy and you all should be aware of how well they can fight.Every one of my men are trained soldiers unlike you who are mostly commoners sent to battle, so follow them to our camp and in a week or so we will take you along with us to Brandomma."Everyone was sent off as ordered while Ben made sleeping arrangements for Mythia, the female cultivators, and Fairies in the royal quarters. The troops who remained in the city would set up camp on the large palace lawns.Ben wanted to keep his elites inside the palace to respond to any surprises. He was sure there were still enemies out there waiting for him to show a moment of weakness to cause him troubles.The large canopy tent Ben used at his party in Goldcrest was lent out to the Half-Giants. They had extra large bedrolls and sleeping bags custom made to their size so that they can camp outside with the other troops in times like this.Ben had a palace servant show him to the former kings quarters and study. He gathered up every book, document, and report on everything he could find and brought it to the throne room.There was already a large meeting room style wood table in place just below the dais the throne sat on. Ben grabbed the gallery chairs and placed them around the large table for others to sit down.For now, he used Photo Reading skill to rapidly read the private writing he had taken from Soren Knotley's study. A steady stream of palace staff continued to stack up piles of parchments on the table near him as he uncovered the extent of the former king's treachery.He found Soren Knotley had allied with Brandomma to aid one another in conquering the Aregard Kingdom and the Galeran Kingdom. Brandomma had sent troops and their royal cultivator to help conqueror Aregard. Once Aregard was conquered Soren Knotley was going to send troops and his royal cultivator to aid Brandomma in conquering Galeran.What Brandomma did not know was Soren Knotley planned to continue westward. He was going to continue to create a larger army with each kingdom he conquered. In the end, he even had plans to turn his troops loose on his ally in a three-pronged attack to conquer Galeran and Brandomma together.It was a solid plan using treacherous tactics and it should have worked from what Ben could make out with his limited military knowledge. If he had never been sent to this world Soren Knotley would possibly have become an emperor who ruled over the eight kingdoms on this continent.__________________________________Over the next few days, Ben had reenlisted the surviving city and palace guards to duty. He had found Soren Knotley had increased the taxes to a high rate in an attempt to cover for the loss of income to the royal treasury. The loss of so much manpower had hurt the kingdom's economy to the point it was becoming difficult to pay out wages to the palace staff, guards. There were also other drains on the treasury, for instance, feeding the Brandomma troops and the upkeep of the kingdom.Ben lowered the taxes to an affordable amount so that the people were not giving up every coin they made.The royal palace was cleaned of any of the former king's lingering sympathizers. Soren Knotley did not have a wife or any children. There were other branches of the Knotley family but they were mainly suppressed by the former king.Soren Knotley was so greedy and paranoid he even kept his own relatives on a leash for fear they might make a move against him for his throne. Most of them were glad to see the bastard go and those who still spoke out against Ben or were deemed a threat were placed under house arrest or sent to the royal prison.Ben would soon have to leave to continue his military campaign so he had to be sure he wasn't leaving behind any ticking timebombs.______________________________________________At nighttime he began converting the former kingdom's roads and streets to concrete with Heating Coils under them. There were no longer any wilderness dirt roads or bumpy rock streets in the city or towns.Ben was now at the point that he did not feel he had to hide his actions anymore. If was a shock that every street and road was suddenly changed to concrete but there wasn't anyone who could question him about it or force him to use his system for their gains.The following night he built a Servant Guild behind the royal palace and he deconstructed the city walls. The city walls were replaced with five-foot thick by thirty-foot high concrete and rebar walls. There also was a concrete Gatehouse to replace the wooden gate. The Gatehouse had two steel plate portcullis just like those used at his fortress.Along the outer walls was a new moat surrounding the entire city. He made the moat fifty-feet deep so it would be near impossible to fill in. The outer part of the new Gatehouse was equipped with a steel plate drawbridge that lowered down to allow people to cross the moat.The capital city of Timbershield might not be as impenetrable as his fortress but it was strong enough to hold back an army until he could arrive with his troops.From the Servants Guild Ben recruited two thousand level one male servants between the ages of 18-30 years old. He had the palace officials distribute them to the surrounding towns and occupations which are suffering due to the decrease in manpower.These servants could not fill the roles of skilled trades but they could easily learn how to chop down trees, plant seeds, or haul goods. They were more educated than a commoner so any low-end commoner jobs wasn't a problem for them.After the recruitment the palace officials needed to make some adjustments in the city so that Ben could build housing for the addition of these single men who would stay in the capital.Over time he hoped this influx of men would find a female partner to help the population in this region continue to grow. It would be troubling if the women who had lost their husbands remained widowed. Without children, there was no future for the former Trareniel region.______________________________________________As new reforms were being applied to the region a small wooden gallows was constructed in the city square. The Messengers Union was hired to send out criers to announce the date of Soren Knotley's execution. Ben had decided he was too devious to be left alive and he could not take the chance of him being somehow broken out of a cell when he wasn't around.On the fifth day after Ben had invaded Trareniel Soren Knotley was hung by the neck in front of a huge gathering of his former subjects.Some cheered and some cried it was an emotional event for all who attended.Even Mythia had shed tears seeing that the man who was responsible for her family's death was finally brought to justice.Ben was torn, he had a slight twinge of guilt for being the one who had sentenced him to death, but he felt it was a deserved punishment for his long list of heinous crimes.That night Soren Knotley's body was burned on a large pyre and his ashes were buried in the royal graveyard.The following day Ben led his troops out of the city to attack the hideout of the Bloody Blades. They had a makeshift fort in the forest beside a large lake near the Aregard border.At sunrise Ben had his troops surround the fort to prevent any possible escapes. He had Mythia follow him along with the twenty Fairies, the ten female cultivators, and the ten Half-GIants.The Half-Giants easily smashed down the wooden gate and he led the squad of elites into the rugged compound. The Fairies launched firebolts into the structures to set them alight while the others slaughtered everyone who ran outside to escape the flames.After the losses the Bloody Blades suffered from sending their men along on the invasion, there were not many of them left. They made quick work of the surviving members as they attempted to run or fight.After the quick elimination of the bandits Mythia was seen standing on the wooden walls covered in their blood. She stood proud with a smile on her face and tears in her eyes as she looked up to the sky. One could only think she was looking off at her family in heaven and telling them they can finally rest.Ben found a stash of coins adding up to 700g in the bandit leaders house but everything else wasn't worth anything. They burned the camp to the ground and Ben used his Weather Control: Apprentice Level: 3 to make it rain enough around the fort to prevent the fire from spreading into the forest.He had made good on his promise to Mythia and had brought her along to extract revenge on all those who were responsible for her family's death. Ben had also avenged his fallen soldiers.Alas, they still were not done with their campaign, it was time to head south and pay a visit to Brandomma.__________________________________On the sixth day of the military campaign, the captured Trareniel troops who surrendered were sent home from the forest military camps. The Aregard border was opened up once again and the Messenger Union was hired to send out reports to each kingdom of how the Trareniel Kingdom was no more and Soren Knotley had been sentenced to death.Ben planned to return to the Trareniel region to tie up some loose ends, but he needed to make an example of Brandomma before then. He worried if he remained in Timbershield too long Brandomma would be secretly sent news of what had transpired here.Ben gathered up his siege equipment and led his troops south by carriage while the captured Brandomma troops trailed behind them. A group of Avalon troops had been assigned to guard and protect the Brandomma civilian soldiers on their trek home.The carriage convoy passed through a large town halfway between the Trareniel region border and the capital city of Brandomma without any resistance. There were a few town guards who quickly surrendered when they saw Ben's army of over two thousand troops dismount from the carriages and march through the town on foot.Ben informed them of his motives to displace their king and if they did not stand in the way he would allow them to keep their jobs and their livesThey mounted back up into the carriages once they left the town and continued southeast toward Baymeadow the capital city of Brandomma.From what Ben was told by the captured Brandomma troops there were currently only city and palace guards protecting Baymeadow.Soren Knotley had blackmailed the Brandomma king into sending him military aid. He threatened to expose the fact that Brandomma planned to invade Galeran and that Brandomma had lost their royal cultivator during the Aregard invasion.Brandomma feared that if Galeran found out they lost their royal cultivator and a part of their military strength they would raise an army and invade them.Brandomma and Galeran had been at each other's throats for decades and had fought many times. If they found out Brandomma had lost over four hundred troops and their royal cultivator it would be a certain invitation for them to strike back at them.Now that Ben knew there were no real troops guarding the city he planned to just have the Half-Giants knock down the city gate and send his troops in to secure the city. A few guards might attempt to fight back, but once they saw the overwhelming number of enemy troops they would be throwing their lives away if they attempted to resist.They camped just over a mile from the Baymeadow City and made plans to move out early before sunrise. Ben wanted to storm the city while most of the defenders were still asleep.They were far enough from the city where the inhabitants could not see them and they could only see the dim mirage of the city. After dinner everyone went to bed early to have plenty of rest for the attack on the city early the following morning.
