Ben walked to the Cruiser's briefing room with his spies and sat down with them to continue hearing everything they had found out in the past two weeks.
Apparently, the Caegon Dynasty was once a part of the Rodara Kingdom. Just over two hundred years ago a civil war had erupted in the Rodara Kingdom.
The towns on the Caegon Dynasty peninsula were smaller in size back then. Most of the towns in the Caegon Dynasty are coastal towns which were once fishing towns.
The royal family at the time looked at these towns out on the peninsula as nothing more than tax revenue providers. They were populated by uneducated smelly fishermen who lived in dirty towns that stunk of fish.
The subjects of these towns over the years began to grow irate with their kings. The northern towns were frequently improved and modernized but their towns on the peninsula were thoroughly ignored.
They grew tired of paying high taxes to the kingdom and not seeing the money used to improve their towns. These people wanted their children to have choices for their futures besides being fishermen or a fisherman's wife. This could never happen if the town was not improved to attract merchants, tradesmen, or other businessmen to the region.
The hard-working fishermen stashed away money and used their fishing vessels to secretly buy weapons from the other kingdoms in small amounts so as not to draw attention. They even had hired retired veteran mercenaries to train them how to fight.
After a couple years of preparing and training, they created a large army and declared war against the Rodara Kingdom. They had fought all the way to the Rodara capital.
The king was forced to allow them to secede from the kingdom or they would have stormed the capital and deposed the king.
From that day forward the peninsula was named the Caegon Dynasty after the man who had led their army to victory. Edric Caegon who was once a mayor of a simple fishing town had led his makeshift army to victory. After the war he was unanimously chosen as the new leader of the Caegon Dynasty.
Now two hundred years later a new king has taken the throne of the Rodara Kingdom and built up an impressive army to invade the Caegon Dynasty. His dream is to reunite the split kingdom by force.
For years most kings did not think it was worth the effort to invade the Caegon Dynasty which was made up of rundown fishing towns but over the years with proper guidance from the Caegon family, they had built a capital city and improved their outlying towns.
They were no longer just simple fishing towns. They had expanded and drew in commerce, agriculture, and industry. These towns and their capital were just as prosperous as of those in the Rodara Kingdom.
This drew the eye of the current king who desired the wealth of the Caegon Dynasty.
Ben began to have flashbacks of the Trareniel invasion of Aregard. At this moment Rodara troops were stationed on the Caegon borders and it would only be a matter of time before they charged across that border to invade Caegon.
'You have got to be kidding me?! As soon as I find new land and build a new store, I have to worry about an enemy force sweeping in and causing me more troubles!' Ben thought as he shook his head in disbelief.
He had already dumped a considerable amount of money into his new store so he would need to somehow protect it or abandon it. Ben did not want to abandon it after putting all that time and money into it.
This Caegon Dynasty was a nice place and he liked the people. If he were to establish a store in each of its towns, he could almost double the amount of money he is currently making.
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For now, he chose to have the Cruiser return to Dragonshome. The Naval crew was sent back out in the Cruiser to travel south down the eastern coastline to search for new landmasses to the south. Ben had seen the snow on the upper part of the new continent and thought it might be due to the elevation and them being in the upper hemisphere of the planet.
Ben hoped because it was already late in the summer that the Rodara Kingdom would hold off on their invasion. If the new continent was further north it would snow sooner and longer there. This could mean that they would have snow in the next three to four months.
If Ben were the King of Rodara and he was dealing with regular troops he would choose to attack in the spring or early summer. If regular troops fought regular troops it would be a long drawn out war that could go on for a close to a year. It would be better to set out in the spring when your troops could march easier and not freeze huddled in the snow.
With this in mind, he began to dedicate his money toward recruiting a larger army. He had not even made it out of one region yet and was faced with the possibility of war.
It was obvious this new continent was no stranger to war and there is a hell of a lot more people living there to use toward levying an army. It could be possible that he would see armies anywhere from twenty thousand to a hundred thousand troops depending on the kingdom.
He still believed his troops would be superior to these armies but it would be insane to have his two thousand troops fight against one hundred thousand troops. It would not matter if they were untrained soldiers they would win with sheer numbers by overwhelming and encircling his army.
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During this time he also had to put money toward the people who came to Dragonshome to join his sect. Those who made it through the initial training phase were provided with cultivation techniques.
The sect numbers were swelling with promising young men and women who came to dedicate themselves to becoming cultivators. Many of them were orphans or came from poor or broken homes. Instead of begging or stealing on the streets they decided to join the sect with dreams of being cultivators and becoming the future nobles of the powerful Avalon Kingdom.
As Ben was busy increasing the size of his army he also recruited Engineers. The Engineers were split into three-man teams and assigned to operate fifty 12 pound breech-loading rifled cannons.
These new field rifled cannons had a design similar to the breech loading guns on the Cruiser. They were designed with a rifled bore to provide them with increased range and accuracy.
The reason Ben took a liking to these rifled breech loading cannons was they would shoot different type of shells through them. Ben had begun production on two different types of shells to use with these new rifled cannons..
One projectile is the Explosive Shell which would explode on impact. This shell will create a large blast while throwing chunks of shrapnel. It is great ammunition to use against largely sized troops at long distances.
The second shell he began producing is called a Canister Shot. This shell is packed with golf ball sized solid metal balls. A Canister Shot will turn the field gun into a large shotgun by shooting an expanding pattern of these metal balls across the battlefield. The only drawback to Canister Shot is it has a max range is approximately four hundred and fifty yards.
With these two shells, Ben's field guns could shoot the Explosive Shells accurately up to a mile.
Once the enemy troops crossed the five hundred yard range his gun teams would switch over to shooting the Canister Shot.
By combining his Elven archers with these field guns they would cut down large portions of approaching enemy armies before they could even get close enough to engage his troops.
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Ben had overthrown three kingdoms and created a mini-empire known as the Avalon Kingdom. His subjects in those regions told stories of the unstoppable Avalon troops who defeated their armies and captured their cities before anyone realized they were under attack.
The rumors of Avalon's military strength, the spirit food, and products they created spread across the continent. A tiny powerhouse kingdom was established in only a few months. Its population was low but its borders stretched for hundreds of miles in every direction.
In the beginning, only the poor and oppressed came to Dragonshome looking to make a fresh start. Now it was midway through the season of Fall and Ben began allowing merchants, traders, and various businessmen from the surrounding kingdoms become subjects of his Avalon Kingdom.
Dragonshome was no longer a place where the Market was the sole provider for clothing, food, and products. Ben had built a large business district on the east side of the fortress.
Anyone who had the money could rent out luxurious storefronts he had designed himself. There is a mix of shops, restaurants, taverns, inns, and craftsmen workshops in the new district.
Access to the Market was now locked. Only his original subjects who were unemployed had their names added to the security list and they were monitored on what they removed and how much was taken.
With the addition of so many new establishments, he did not want to let these new owners use his resources to make a living and he had to scrutinize his unemployed subjects who still have access to the Market. He had to be sure they weren't making shady deals to sell them the resources and products they could acquire for free to the new establishment proprietors.
The Restaurant had to be set to lock out those who were not on the security list. His troops, staff, and unemployed subjects could still eat there. Two Dismounted Knights were assigned to guard the door and check identifications provided by the royal offices.
Of course, these new businesses opened up employment opportunities for his subjects. This gave the population of Dragonshome a chance to further improve their lives.
They still were provided with free housing and the entertainment and public facilities were all still free of charge. This helped provide them with a means to make money and actually save money.
People of this era were used to living from day to day on what little money they had. Those working in Dragonshome found they had more money than they needed and could save their money to possibly open their own establishment one day.
Ben received reports about how his people were stashing their savings away in their homes and began to have ideas about building a bank. There aren't any banks in any of the other kingdoms so it would be a new concept for everyone. He would need to sit down with his staff sometime and discuss if it would be worth making one.
The population of Dranshome growing to the point it could be considered a small city. Along with the citizen population, the military population had tripled in size. Ben had continued to put as much money into his military since he had returned from the new lands.
Ben opened a virtual text doc of his military information while wondering how many more he should continue to recruit.
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Current Ground Troops
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1000: Elven Archers- General Victor
1000: Human Mounted Knights- General Justinus
1000: Human Heavy Infantry Spearmen- General Kaeso
2000: Human Male Dismounted Knights- General Decius
1000: Human Male Javelin Cavalry- General Cassius
1000: Human Male Infantry Phalanx- General Quintus
50 Half-GIant Male Heavy Armored Swordsmen/Heavy Armored Axemen
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20: Human Male Cultivator/Magi
20: Human Female Cultivator/Magi
20: Fairy Female Magi/Cultivators
150: Human Male Engineers: 3 man teams [fifty 12 pound breech-loading rifle]
Fifty Ammunition limbers holding [Canister Shot] and [Explosive Shells]
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100: Human Male Engineers to maintain and operate siege machines
20 Siege Towers
20 Trebuchets
10 Ballista
10 Battering Rams
500 Siege ladders
500 Wooden Mantlets
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There were now over seven thousand troops and supporting divisions of field guns and war machines. He wasn't confident yet of stacking them up against an empire army which could be made up of one hundred thousand troops but if he were to fight against a kingdom it might work out.
His best bet would to actually stick to his recent tactics. Most of his battles had used the philosophy of "the best offense is a good defense". Ben had always kept his troops in a defensible position and forced the enemy to come to him.
This allowed him to make use of his long reaching accurate archers and impenetrable front line shield walls while his magi supported from the rear or flanks.
If he were to build a conqueror's Castle and once again force the enemy to siege him, Ben's army could defeat or drive off a much larger enemy army.
All he could do is keep working at building his military strength. He made tentative plans to bring the majority of these troops to the new lands either in late fall or early spring.
If things looked bad for the Caegon Dynasty he could bring his hidden troops in to drive off the invaders before they captured the towns he would build his new stores.