People's gaze towards Ryou grew increasingly reverent, while their affection for Jeanne deepened. This stark contrast was deliberately arranged by him.
He positioned himself as a dictatorial ruler. In peaceful times, even if he possessed extraordinary power, he would potentially be overthrown. But the apocalypse was different.
In a world where survival was uncertain, people needed a leader who was strong, ruthless, and reliable. Thus, Ryou became the Sword of God, the lord of the angelic army, the bravest warrior, and the most merciless destroyer—Michael.
Jeanne, on the other hand, was cast as Raphael, the guardian angel of love and healing. Of course, a certain event was still needed to truly elevate Jeanne to divine status.
As for Ais, her role was simply to be beautiful. After all, she was naturally poor at communication, and forcing her to lead or inspire others would be counterproductive. Without any intervention from him, Ais' popularity soared, thanks to her goddess-like beauty, powerful combat abilities, and her endearing, slightly aloof demeanor, rivaling that of Jeanne.
Rumors began to spread without his prompting. Some said she was Gabriel, the angel of purity, while others, noting her proficiency with wind magic, claimed she was Uriel, the angel of wind.
As long as the rumors were positive, Ryou let them be.
Having resolved the housing issue, the next concern was food. Currently, the grain reserves in Yokosuka were enough to feed the population of 300,000 for about two years. However, he was determined not to rely on those reserves alone—cultivating farmland was essential.
Fortunately, the country was still an agrarian society, with plenty of skilled farmers. Yokosuka's unique geography, with its rich ocean sediments, made the land highly fertile. Coastal areas could also be developed for salt production. With proper labor allocation, self-sufficiency was within reach.
This potential was why he had risked conflict with the nation to secure Yokosuka, this natural treasure.
With basic needs secured, ideological education couldn't be neglected. Like prisoners, the people were regularly subjected to Christian teachings. Particularly for the youth, Ryou ordered the construction of church schools where children of appropriate age could attend for free, with theology courses being mandatory.
In essence, he intertwined every aspect of Yokosuka with Christianity to promote the faith.
Ryou was indifferent to whether this semi-compulsory indoctrination violated human rights. This was the apocalypse—nothing came without a price. If people wanted a stable life, they had to give something in return.
The populace would offer their faith, and in exchange, he would grant them security. Fair trade.
While his forces entered a period of rapid growth, the shogun was in turmoil due to a devastating defeat. The failure of the Southern and Northern armies was secondary; the shogunate's feudal structure meant that the shogun was merely the most powerful lord among many.
The real problem lay with the loss of the Combined Fleet. Although it answered the shogun, the fleet was technically an asset of the emperor, belonging to Japan. This was evident in the naval ranking system, which differed from the army's.
In this context, Japan was akin to a multinational corporation, with the shogun as the largest shareholder and chairman. But now, having caused a massive loss to the company, the chairman's authority was in shambles, and the other shareholders (feudal lords) were unlikely to let him off easily.
Especially given the ambitious Emperor, who seized the opportunity to harshly reprimand Okimasa Amatori under the emperor's name, avenging years of being a figurehead.
Thus, the shogun was left to fend off the lords' criticisms while also dealing with the emperor's schemes. On top of that, his son, in the throes of adolescence, was publicly demanding his abdication.
Okimasa Amatori felt utterly exhausted, even noticing a few strands of gray hair.
His authority shattered, and he desperately sought to crush Ryou, to both eliminate the rebels and restore his prestige.
But before he could gather his forces, bad news came pouring in.
His son, Biba Amatori, had rallied many of the exiled hardliners, occupying the western part of Okayama and standing in opposition to him.
At the same time, the Kabane horde was spreading at an alarming rate. Shimonoseki, across the sea from Kyushu, had been overrun, turning into a wasteland and adding tens of thousands of new Kabane to the horde.
The Kabane tide was now like a flood, sweeping from south to north. The first to face its wrath was Hiroshima, an industrial hub now under Biba Amatori's control.
Biba Amatori skillfully used Hiroshima's industrial power to produce heavy weapons and fast transport, launching a counter-offensive while gradually retreating, diverting the horde away from his territory.
He guided the tens of thousands of Kabane like water, steering them past his domain and towards Kongoukaku, Kyoto, and other areas.
This spelled disaster for places like Tottori on the other side of Honshu. Unprepared stations were overrun, and the Kabane tide grew like a snowball.
Luckily, the Kabane lacked intelligence, acting purely on instinct, which bought the Station time to reinforce their defenses.
Caught between his rebellious son and the advancing Kabane, Okimasa Amatori, once a man of great ambition, now feared for his life and clung to power.
The shogun, who had once vowed to crush the Yomogawa family, now withdrew his forces, focusing on fortifying Kongoukaku against the Kabane.
To ensure the stronghold's defense, he ordered the construction of tall walls linking Kongoukaku to a nearby station, forming the first line of defense. He also had seawater diverted around Kongoukaku, creating a wide moat as a second line of defense, with railways on bridges being the only connection to the outside world.
Kongoukaku became an isolated, man-made paradise. In terms of defense, Okimasa Amatori had done his utmost.
Unfortunately, these formidable defenses were only effective against the mindless Kabane. In the original story, Biba Amatori easily breached Kongoukaku's defenses with an inside-outside strategy.
As a result, all of Japan's major factions fell silent, focusing on development to prepare for the looming Kabane tide.
...
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, six months had passed.
During these six months, many significant events took place.
As the Kabane horde spread near Kongoukaku, the ambitious Emperor made an unexpected escape during the intense battle between Kongoukaku and the Kabane. It was clear that this had been premeditated. To prevent any leaks, he only took a few of his most favored concubines, leaving behind all the court officials, and fled to Hokkaido on a prepared ship.
This caused an uproar in Kyoto. The court officials, who prided themselves on their noble bloodlines, were left in complete disarray. Meanwhile, Shogun Okimasa Amatori was furious at these incompetent fools for failing to send even a single soldier to defend Kyoto from the Kabane horde.
Within just one day, the Kabane swarm overran the ancient city, engulfing it in blood and carnage. The bloodthirsty Kabane hunted down every last survivor hiding in the corners, tearing them apart. Over 500,000 people in Kyoto were turned into Kabane, with fewer than one in ten thousand surviving.
The power struggle between these two leaders resulted in the deaths of 500,000 innocent civilians, revealing the cold-hearted nature of old rulers.
On the other side, under Ryou's meticulous planning, Yokosuka developed rapidly and grew stronger. After six months of theological education, he had amassed an elite force of 10,000 naval soldiers and 5,000 coastal troops.
With this formidable navy, he became a major power in Japan, second only to Okimasa Amatori. He had designed a massive wall, which was finally completed just before the Kabane horde arrived, thanks to the hard work of heavy machinery and prisoners in Yokosuka harbor.
The wall, about 15 kilometers long, stretches from Enoshima in the south to Sugada in the north, completely isolating Yokosuka from Honshu Island. It stands 10 meters high, equivalent to a four-story building, and is wide enough for ten people to walk side by side. Large watchtowers, each capable of housing 200 soldiers, are placed every kilometer along the wall.
A permanent garrison of 3,000 soldiers mans the wall. Most importantly, a second wall of the same scale is being built behind it. The two walls are 30 meters apart, connected only by drawbridges at the watchtowers. The drawbridges are controlled by a hydraulic system that can be quickly raised by pulling a lever.
If the first wall is breached, the soldiers can quickly retreat across the drawbridge to the second wall, pull up the bridge, and continue the fight.
Having played They Are Billions, a strategy game involving massive zombie hordes, Ryou knew that a single wall would never hold back a horde. If it were up to him, he would have built four or five layers of walls. Unfortunately, the cost of each wall was staggering. Even with the free labor of prisoners, he had to hire a large number of civilians to complete the first wall just in time before the Kabane arrived.
With the defensive structures mostly complete, the next focus was on weapons and equipment. Fortunately, Yokosuka, being a large military port, had no shortage of artillery and ammunition.
Ryou obsessively installed a 120mm cannon every 100 meters. Additionally, all standard lead bullets for steam guns were recalled. Lead bullets were effective against humans due to their softness, which caused them to tumble inside the body, break apart, and leave fragments, potentially causing lead poisoning. However, this was useless against the Kabane. Except for their hearts, even headshots wouldn't kill them. The Kabane's only weak point, the heart, was protected by a tough layer of steel-like tissue, which lead bullets could not penetrate without multiple hits.
Thus, it was necessary to upgrade the bullets and steam guns. The craftsmen that he had gathered were immediately put to work. Through collective brainstorming and with the help of existing technology, they quickly developed a new armor-piercing bullet.
These new steam gun bullets were made of steel, offering greater penetration power. Combined with the steam gun's high energy, it was easy to pierce the Kabane's heart and its steel-like protective layer.
However, steel was scarce and had to be imported. With the global economy in ruins, there was no more trade. This might explain why in the original story, they continued using lead bullets. The limited steel available was all used to build the ironclad train Hayajiro, leaving no surplus for making bullets.
Ryou had stockpiled a large amount of steel, and Yokosuka had two large shipyards providing ample raw materials. However, it was still not enough to meet the demand. Despite their small size, bullets were one of the most consumed resources in warfare. Once steel-core bullets were in use, Yokosuka's stockpile would only last a year.
Another scarce resource was oil. Fortunately, with the McRucky Engine, fuel consumption wasn't too high. Yokosuka's reserves could last five years under normal patrol conditions. However, if the fleet were to be used as a standing military force, fuel would become a critical issue.
If Ryou wanted to use Yokosuka as a base to conquer the entire Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress world, securing oil and iron ore resources would be essential.
Military preparations were indeed a resource-devouring beast, causing him endless headaches. On the other hand, civilian life was gradually getting back on track.
Yokosuka had opened up a large area of farmland, renting it out to farmers and collecting 40% of the harvest as rent and tax. To him, this 40% rate seemed a bit steep by modern standards, but to the farmers, he was a saint, and their faith in him soared.
Ryou felt quite awkward when he realized that the country was still in a backward feudal era where heavy taxes were the norm, crushing the farmers. Even those who owned land had to pay over 50% in taxes, let alone those who only rented farmland. The burden of these taxes was unimaginable.
In terms of education, besides church schools, Ryou also established vocational schools to train skilled workers and military academies to train soldiers.
Yokosuka had become like a state within a state in Japan, self-sufficient, with a complete system for civilian life, education, military, and governance.
However, with the Kabane threat, this world could never be a true paradise. After six months, the Kabane horde was closing in. Despite all the preparations, Ryou still felt uneasy.
When a war reaches a scale of 100,000 or more, C-rank powers can no longer be decisive, especially when facing a mindless horde of beasts where decapitation tactics won't create chaos.
As Ryou anxiously waited, scouts stationed at the Aragane Station suddenly brought alarming news.