"For violating the laws of morality and honor, for breaking an oath, for desecrating a noble title, for treason against the king, you are sentenced..." I read out the sentence on the square, in front of the townspeople.
However, the execution was suddenly stopped by the Camelot troops that entered the city. This was not a surprise to me: everything had been planned in advance with Arthur. A kind of game of good cop and bad cop. I played the role of a cruel radical who was going to execute the nobles who refused to answer the call. Yes, they were not traitors, in fact, most of the guilty were just fools and cowards. This was also punishable by law.
But in such dark times, unity was needed. I did not want to execute them, but I could not show weakness either. Therefore, it was decided to use the appearance of Arthur, who decided to give this whole rabble a second chance right there on the square. Although they were cowards, their intelligence was questionable. But still, every nobleman, one way or another, had experience in managing people. They would be useful in factories and plants, and all those of a lower rank... strong hands are the basis of any economy.
Well, of course, all their possessions, wealth and resources would now pass into the hands of the army, which would also allow them to do a lot. Frankly, I would really like another twenty percent of the local nobles to chicken out or do something stupid. After all, a stupid or cowardly ally is much more terrible than the most experienced enemy. But in any case, we will have to somehow come to an agreement with the rest.
- So be it. Our fiefs will always be loyal to Camelot and their liege. Your word is law, - I answered, demonstrating the fact of my loyalty: completely cutting off all the lies about the fact that the greedy Mordred simply decided to usurp power and therefore was the first to appear here at the time of unrest.
However, there was still a huge amount of work to be done. The world was rapidly falling into chaos, and even planetary communications were failing due to the storm that had broken out, which made us blind. We did not know how many feudal lords remained loyal, but we had already encountered the first traitors who saw the turmoil as an opportunity to rise and resolve blood disputes. Some of Camelot's vassals entered into border battles with long-standing rivals. And the Knights, among others, took part in the battles.
So, after pardoning traitors and cowards from death, and choosing an alternative punishment for them, Arthur and I entered the town hall and sat down at a round table. While Galahad was solving the issues of the entire region, we had to sort out the problems of our town and the fiefs adjacent to it. There were plenty of these problems, too. But first, we needed to get answers to the questions that were troubling everyone.
"How bad is it?" I asked bluntly, and the gaze of everyone gathered fell heavily on Arthur.
— The capital is engulfed in psychic fire: there are battles going on there. The knights loyal to the king are fighting their last battle. We have sent aircraft to help them, but they have already captured the planetary defense systems. The air and orbit are under their control. We will have to conduct a siege, and it will take many more lives. Tens of millions will die in the battles for it alone, and for all of Alba... The Dark Age has returned, discord has befallen us again, forcing brother to go against brother.
Arthur was covered in darkness, and his hands trembled treacherously. He had not said a third of what he had heard at his father's meetings, and how much worse it had been. Besides, he himself was only a little older than me - a child, in fact, although raised in harsh noble conditions: where even smiling was limited in number of times a day. I understood him, because I had been like that myself, before my previous life, when in Lex's body I had to take off another pair of rose-colored glasses.
The world was full of shit, and only after drinking it could one prepare for a second helping. Arthur would have to learn this lesson very soon, when hungry marauders would come out onto the streets he knew, ready to break into the palaces of the nobles, rape all the women, and then eat them if it turned out that there was not enough food in the cellars for everyone. Hunger was one of the first problems that needed to be solved.
"All food must be taken under control - absolutely all of it. And it must be given out in portions," I said calmly, sobering up the assembled nobles with my composure, many of whom had never killed a person, let alone seen blood, living only by squandering family money.
No one argued with me, although Arthur gave me a disapproving look. In any case, all the security forces and military were on my side. In a martial law situation, their power was absolute. Even if everyone else started to contradict me now…
"It will be done," the military police commander nodded and began to pass on instructions to his assistant.
The military police will still enter every house, every castle, every mansion. All food will be under the control of the state, and soldiers will have priority in distributing it. The people will have nothing left, which will significantly reduce the number of thieves and looters. Those who manage to take away food while a citizen is walking home from the distribution point... well, a plan has already been developed for this.
And the essence of this plan was simple and black, just like my name. If you can't win, lead. It is impossible to kill all the marauders and thieves. They will appear, because this is only a consequence. The cause will be the war. The only way to get rid of the war is by victory or defeat. And while everything is moving towards victory, Boris and other bandits will take control of every dark alley. They will slit the throat of anyone who wants to commit a crime.
Of course, it will be very difficult to convince Galahad of this approach. However, when the absolute ass begins and one army after another starts to fall into cauldrons, being cut down to zero... many law enforcement officers will find a use in the war. Therefore, it is necessary to relieve the burden from them already now, albeit in such a cynical way.
People's militia units will also contribute to this. It is impossible to take everyone to war: weapons will be given out as a priority to those who can cope with the task best. As a rule, these are guys from eighteen to twenty-five years old. Young, full of strength, ideas and desires to prove something to someone. They make the best stormtroopers. Those who are not yet old enough or are too old for conscription - we will start training in the people's militia.
Divide and rule is the second principle known to everyone. If you give power over the streets only to bandits, they will become greedy and get out of control. The people's militia will keep them in check. Also, the remaining law enforcement officers will be the third force. Let's add here the allocation of resources of the nobility to protect the order... we get a composite system, where even if one link fails, the overall structure will remain stable.
How did I know all this? From books: I was constantly surrounded by them and looked for answers to questions from those who wrote them. Most of the authors were nobles themselves and had seen a lot of shit. Their experience helped me, and analyzing mistakes saved us from disaster. It's just a shame I didn't have time to read half the library. If only we had a little more time: at least another year. I would have managed to do so much, so much... But why complain about fate if what happened can't be changed?
And since I couldn't change my fate, and life's blows still made me fall, the only thing I could do was adapt and learn to get up as quickly as possible. My plans changed every time, because only the Architect of Fates could calculate everything perfectly the first time. All I could do was quickly adapt to the situation and always prepare a plan "B". That's what I was going to do.
Camelot was the second largest city, and after the fall of the capital it became the first. And although the ruling family was weaker than the royal family and had less military power than the Duke of Alba, Galahad had dozens of Knights under his command. The backbone of the army was made up of veterans of ancient wars, or those who personally heard stories of ancient times from the lips of departed heroes.
All thanks to the extremely careful selection of Galahad: because of which the pilots changed very rarely. This was the main reason why not one of the pilots of the Knights of Camelot even thought about going over to the enemy's side. Although there was an opinion that the Throne of the Mechanicum, an invention of the creators of the Knights, influenced the consciousness of the pilots, in every way cutting off any paths that could lead to betrayal of the human race.
Whether this was true or only partly true is question number ten. The important fact is that the center of the future confrontation with traitors and sorcerers will be Camelot. Residents have already evacuated there to stand at the machines producing ammunition and weapons. Men trained both inside Camelot and around it, in fiefdoms like ours. The fiefdoms themselves were fortified and prepared for defense.
War has always loved speed and space, so it was impossible to hide behind walls. They would surround us, cut off our supply routes, and then start cutting us into pieces. Therefore, it was necessary to remain mobile, to be able to counterattack in areas that were inconvenient for the enemy, and therefore to hold our own front line. To go into deep defense meant to hand over all the initiative to the enemy and lose.
I was not a military man, and neither was the commander of the military police, nor the acting general of the army raised at the expense of our fiefs, who also did not participate in any real battle. Alba had threats in the past, but centuries of peace had passed. Xenos did not bother us, sorcerers were cut out at birth, and soulless machines, it seems, had long been killed by the heroes of past millennia. This made us weak - it is true.
But as soon as the threat appeared before us in all its unimaginable abomination, old volumes were brought from the libraries of Camelot. Also, specialists from the Inquisition were soon to arrive to personally oversee all preparations for war with the enemy who had revealed himself.
Tens of kilometers of trenches were already being dug around the city. Redoubts and embankments tens of meters thick, embrasures and dugouts, pillboxes and even bunkers were being erected around the clock. Everything was put to use, and I had already given the order to de-mothball old equipment in order to hand it over to the army and militia. Some models were so old that they resembled equipment from my world. However, everything that could shoot could also kill the enemy. If necessary, we will even begin to forge swords in order to throw the remaining forces into the last battle.
And nothing could shake the general determination. I was motivated by hatred and purely personal motives, but the rest... they absorbed stories of evil fairies and sorcerers with their mothers' milk. Their entire culture was built around simple and archaic vows. This conservatism and archaism became the core that did not allow Alba to completely surrender to chaos. And the reluctance to use AI and robots saved us from being infected by machine demons, as had already happened in other worlds.
Yes, due to the virtual halt of progress, the methods of producing Knights and many other important technologies were lost, but it was the march of progress that played on both sides at once. It is better to fight with swords than to create a weapon that the enemy will be able to seize with a snap of his fingers and turn it against us.
Discussions about defense and attack were ongoing, but nothing was required of us yet. If an attack were to be made, only Camelot had sufficient forces. We were expected to hold our positions and form additional units. That was what I thought at first, but soon the order came from Galahad.
We had prepared the fastest and therefore held the initiative. Galahad wanted us to call to account the rebellious Knight, who was probably not a traitor, but dared to break his vow and, taking advantage of the unrest, seized a piece of his neighbor's land. He immediately apologized and promised to provide Camelot with twice as many troops as expected. However, creating such a precedent was a mistake. All the nobles expected a just punishment, not a reward.
Galahad, of course, could not allow the nobles to fear each other during the war and the danger that while some were at the front, others would take over their lands in the confusion. We were entrusted with carrying out the operation of retaliation, because everything was already ready for this.
And to help us, Dominus was sent - a Knight of heavy fire support with a double plasma core. This gave him the ability to bring down a deadly rain on enemy positions and at the same time maintain ion shields and even cover allies with them. Two guns in the hands capable of crushing the strongest fortifications, four melta guns on the shell from the heat of which tanks will melt. And also missiles and additional guns are also placed on the shell.
With this machine it would be easy to attack the enemy, but he also had a Knight. Therefore, all the skill of the pilots and the tactical genius of the commanders, whose soldiers and equipment would support and complement the monstrous machine, which was the apotheosis of war, would decide.
- How formidable... and two more squires... - the commander of the military police said impressedly when we went out into the street together to look at the faces of the soldiers lined up in the square. - That's Gareth! Yes, there are the banners of the Nordan family! Of course, it was him that Galahad should have sent with us!
The Gareth combat vehicle was extremely tall. And because of its heavy armament, it seemed even more menacing. However, it was not intended for close combat, acting as a support. Therefore, it was covered by the smallest Knights, called squires. Of course, they were also formidable machines in themselves, but they could not compete with larger models. As a rule, in battle, they supported their Knight and covered the flanks.
— How many units of heavy equipment do we have?
— Fifty tanks, one hundred and seventy tracked armored personnel carriers reinforced with laser installations. Also attached to them is towed artillery of two hundred and twenty-five caliber in the amount of forty guns and five "Grails" of four hundred caliber. We will bring all our might to the enemy with the help of artillery and Gareth, and then the assault wedges of tank formations supported by the brave soldiers of the king will break the traitor's back. Victory will be ours, and it will inspire us, becoming fuel for the next battles.
The military police commander spoke the truth and was going to go into battle with his companies along with the troops to support their advance. After all, war is a hard thing and it breaks many soldiers. Therefore, the military police are always needed to maintain discipline at the proper level and not allow weak-willed soldiers to slip into desertion, looting or outright self-mutilation.
However, I had serious doubts about the success of our operation. Yes, our army looked formidable, and we outnumbered the enemy. But… I looked at the recruited soldiers and saw fear in them. They had not yet been fired upon. And although their faith in the king was strong and no one was dragged into the first formations by force… there was still a high risk of unforeseen circumstances.
"You stay, I'll go instead of you," I said after a pause.
- What? With all due respect, Mr. Mordred, you haven't even served in the army. You shouldn't get involved. I have much more experience in this regard.
- I have no doubt about that. And that is why you will stay here and train new units, keep order among the population and prepare us for defense. Your deputy will go instead, and it is time for him to gain experience in real battles. We have a shortage of real officers. We need to raise new personnel as quickly as possible, those who will personally go through hell and will be able to pass on all this experience to others.
- Why should you go there?
— Because if these men run, only I can stop them and force them to rush into battle. Because who will they be if the vile Mordred rushes into the attack while they are flashing their heels? And my reputation will also help. In the end, I can't do anything more. As you said, I don't have an officer's education, I don't know what war is, and how to prepare for defense… There are people in the town hall who are much more knowledgeable in the military craft. Just as I don't understand anything about reorganizing industry and the economy for war, because all my life I've only drunk and partied. Therefore, inspiring soldiers on the battlefield is the best way to prove yourself and bring our victory closer.
We spoke quietly, but the soldiers in the front rows heard our entire conversation. They would then spread all of this to other units. Also, at that moment, Arthur was looking at us from the window, who was also not particularly useful and mostly played the role of a go-between: give, bring and pass. And he heard us, but still decided to stay.
It made sense, he was the first choice to pilot Galahad and his father's future replacement. He couldn't take any risks, and I... I had nothing to lose, and so did Mordred.
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