You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 284 The Second Conqueror

The Vatican's first attempt to assassinate Roman ended in failure.

From now on, they will not have a second chance.

Some witches are well-suited to be part of the royal guard.

Shasta and Margaret are among the best witches.

Pure combat witches like Lucia, Mabel, Brena, Zelda, Martina, and Sanna will train alongside the army in the field to develop teamwork.

Witches like Edith, Gweil, Lysa, and Charlo also have other uses, and if used properly, they can have amazing effects.

Shasta and Margaret are a bit special.

The former is an assassin unit with extremely strong individual combat capabilities. Making her cooperate with the army would limit her effectiveness.

The latter is the Seat Witch, which itself represents one of the cards in the Witch Forest.

Some things are impossible to guard against. Only when the defense forces are sufficient can he unleash his great talents and strategies without any scruples.

Roman readjusted the working hours of seven thousand farmers.

They had lived in Origin City for a long time, so Roman trusted them.

He ordered that these men only need to work half a day each day, and spend the other half of their time practicing with crossbows at the shooting range.

They used to practice with crossbows and exchanged tips on how to use them.

However, they only tried it briefly because the workload was too heavy.

However, time can be squeezed out, so they manage to find time every day.

Now, being ordered to slack off is...

After all, what Origin City lacks right now is food and military strength, not labor.

To be precise, the population of Origin City had long exceeded Roman's direct control.

The sanitation conditions in Origin City, which had been clean for two years, have now become somewhat terrible.

Roman assigns daily work tasks based on headcount and job position.

It's impossible to tell who's who.

Everything was in chaos, but Roman was used to it.

The City of Origin is like a glass of muddy water; once it's left to stand, the muddy water will eventually separate and the water will become clear.

……

It was also on the day Roman was assassinated.

Commander Matthew arranged for the Jihad Army to set up camp in the territory of Kande.
This is an ideal location for encampment, situated in the upper reaches of the basin.

If we want to attack Origin City, it's better to go downstream than upstream.

They were all exhausted.

The members of the Holy War Army are all Sinnoh nobles or Sinnoh farmers. They traveled thousands of miles from the Sinnoh Peninsula and took more than a month to arrive here.

He had been studying the valley terrain on the way, but still had no clue how to attack.

This is such a headache!

If Origin City were a city on a plain with strong and tall walls, Matthew believed he could still organize manpower to build catapults and siege equipment to launch a strong attack.

But what lay before him was not a city wall.

If you don't take the waterway through Silver Dragon Canyon, you'll have to traverse mountains and valleys, and you might not be able to find the right path in the mountains; in fact, the chances of getting lost are extremely high.

If 20,000 people went in, without even engaging in battle, it would be good if 10,000 came back alive.

Since things have come to this, let's settle down first.

Matthew led a group of Sinnoh nobles to take over the abandoned castle.

The place was overgrown with weeds and wormwood; all the valuables had been taken away, and even the main gate had been removed.

I heard that six nobles discussed an attack plan here last year, and now it has a new owner.

“Lord Matthew, His Holiness the Holy See says that if we do not see a chance of victory in the short term, we will have to maintain a long-term blockade,” Elva said.

He was thin, about forty years old, and a bishop of the Papacy.

“What chance of victory?” Matthew asked. “I have no idea. His Majesty said that if there is no chance of victory, then we will have to stay here indefinitely…” the bishop said. “We all have to stay here and block the blasphemers’ path, otherwise… the second conqueror will reign over this land.”

Matthew's expression was grave; he knew this statement was not an exaggeration.

The rise of the King of the Valley is too rapid. If this continues, the Papacy may return to the darkest period of a century ago.

Pirates, barbarians, chaotic times...

At this moment, just as at that moment.

Although times have changed, the Vatican has undergone tremendous development in the past century, far surpassing what it was a hundred years ago.

But they still had extremely complex feelings toward the man wearing the black iron crown.

"He's not His Majesty the Conqueror. His Majesty the Conqueror can strangle a demon with one hand and tame a witch's demonic nature. The Blasphemer is just a bandit. No one here is afraid of him! Look at how pathetic they are." The young Sinnoh nobleman pointed indignantly at the local farmers they had grabbed.

"Gentlemen, this has nothing to do with me." The ragged farmer immediately knelt down and begged for mercy when he saw the young nobleman pointing at him.

“Sir Angus, you’ve frightened him.” Matthew waved the farmer over.

He asked, "How many of you are left now?"

"There used to be so many people, but they were all caught and ran away!" the farmer said fearfully.

"Blasphemers...Why is Roman arresting you?"

“Those people said there would be three meals a day, but they must be talking nonsense. I only ate two meals! They said the three meals would be wheat bread, soybeans, and meat. But nobody believed them, and I didn’t believe them either. Once you go there, you never come back. Nobody ever manages to run back! So everyone avoided them. Later, our king’s minister came and warned him, and only then did he stop and let us go.”

"Everyone! Listen to this brutal act!"

Angus slammed his fist on the table in anger.

The dusty stone table was covered in wisps of smoke, but the autumn sun illuminated every detail.

The nuns and priests went to check on the situation, while the swordsman marshal Archil silently found a three-legged chair and sat down without saying a word.

“A perfectly good piece of land! He has ruined it like this! Gods above! Is there any justice left here?! I must judge him with my sword! Make him repent!” Angus shouted righteously.

“No matter how loudly you shout here, he won’t hear you,” the bishop said.

These young nobles joined the Holy War Army with sincere hearts. Although they were prone to impulsive actions, they joined at their own expense and with their own men, making them quite formidable in combat. Some even sold their property to support one-third of the Holy War Army's logistical needs.

“Ah, we are warriors of the gods, here to help you fight the blasphemer Roman. But even warriors of the gods need to eat,” Matthew said to the farmer.

"Sir, I understand! A gentleman said the same thing last year, but they were all defeated. Later, Lord Kangde also passed away. We don't know who to pay taxes on this year's wheat. We've been hoarding it at home for you gentlemen. It's so good that you've come. I'll bring you the wheat from home right away. The beans will be harvested soon, and I'll bring them to you too... But I just don't know how much to pay."

Time and the years have etched humble wrinkles on the farmer's face, each wrinkle dark and deep, as if the same deep wrinkles were engraved on his facial bones.

“Seventy percent, only seventy percent! The other thirty percent is yours!” Matthew said.

The farmer was overjoyed; last year, the nobles had collected 90% of the taxes.

The wrinkles on his face seemed to have smoothed out, or perhaps they had become deeper.

"Only 70%?! I'll pass this on right away. The Papacy will only collect 70% tax. We're saved! You're such a merciful sir!"

Angus declared eloquently, “Of course! We are warriors of the gods, here to confront the blasphemer and his clutches. We are doing this to protect you; how could we possibly take all your food? The glory of the gods will one day illuminate the entire earth!”

He said some nice things.

The farmer was filled with gratitude and reverence, repeatedly saying "Gods above" to him.

This is truly a gentleman with a conscience.

However, the reality is that no one expects this land to provide logistical support for more than 20,000 jihadists.

Sinnoh conquered large swathes of land in Crimson Moon, the source of the Bro River.

The King of Sinnoh has begun establishing a reliable ferry crossing on the banks of the Bro River to transport supplies.

Soon, the Jihad Army will be able to receive a steady stream of logistical supplies via water transport.

In fact, once war breaks out, the only way to transport supplies on a large scale is by water.

Because the losses and difficulties of land transportation are too high to be acceptable.

Water transport is different; a few boats can transport tens of thousands of kilograms of goods.

This is also the source of the Jihad Army's confidence to maintain a long-term presence here.

Let alone next year, it won't be a problem even in ten years.

(End of this chapter)