Country of Eruchea:-

A few days passed since the unveiling of the cannons.

Harry received 2000 SP, cooking knowledge and 3-days worth of pocket dimension time as a reward from the system.

And now, the military exams were finally over.

The grading of the written test was done by Harry and the other three judges.

Knights were compulsorily educated before their training began.

So, even though his education level wasn’t as high as Harry and the Long siblings, George could manage to grade the answer sheets.

The questions given were pretty open-ended, so most soldiers could write something or the other.

In the end, most soldiers did well exceptionally well in one or two of the tests.

The few who aced all three tests were quickly promoted to the Brigadier General, Major General and Lieutenant General rankings based on their individual scores.

The ones who did well in two of the three tests were assigned Captain, Major, Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel ranks.

And the ones who did well in only one test were given the ranks of Sergeant, Warrant Officer and Lieutenant based on their individual scores.

The last group of soldiers who flunked all three tests were given the rank of privates.

About 100 people were assigned rankings higher than Captain.

The number of Captains remained the same since not many people qualified for higher rankings.

Instead, the size of each company (people under each Captain) was reduced.

By the time the rankings were announced, a lot of the guns were made.

Harry had prioritised the creation of military gear first and things like hunting rifles for later.

Those things could easily be postponed almost indefinitely and it wouldn’t cause any problems.

But making weapons for the Eruchean army to use and practice with was absolutely necessary.

So far about 50 viable pieces of each weapon had been made and they were currently being used by different sets of people.

If Harry had allowed everyone to practice all weapons, by circulating only the 50 or so that were produced, those things wouldn’t last a day before breaking down.

That’s why everyone was to use only one type of weapon until more units could be produced.

With this, the military was taken care of for now.

All those guys needed to do was practice using the weapons and not damage anything in the process.

Today was also the day when Harry received the news of the completion of two of the factories.

One might wonder how construction was going on even in the snow and cold weather.

Most of the labourers came from the two community shelters that Harry had built the previous year.

And some regular houses had been constructed for other people as well.

So, people now found it much easier to work in the cold since they had a warm home to come back to.

This resulted in the construction of the two factory building even in the cold weather.

One of them was supposed to be used for making things for the general public, like cooking utensils and metal cutlery.

The other was going to be used for making weapons and ammunitions for military use.

That’s why these had been built quite far from each other.

One was near the outskirts of the country and the other was near the military barracks.

‘Considering the efficiency of the steam engines, I don’t think that all the things made will be of the same high quality…

Got it!

I’ll just recycle all the failed military items!

And as for the regular goods, the somewhat usable ones can be exported to the Yuzhi Guo while the useless ones can be recycled!’

Harry got this idea after thinking about the issue for a few minutes.

[The system would like to say that the host is trying to conduct bad trading practices.]

‘Come on!

All I’m doing is protecting the country!

If I send out the damaged products instead of the good ones, we get extra income and no one gets too suspicious of our country!

It’s not like I’m selling it to humans in the first place!’

[Fair enough.

The country’s safety comes first.

But the host should keep in mind to not let any of the alloy-made items go out.]

‘Yeah, yeah, I know.

That stuff is too precious to give away in the first place.

If the stuff I send out is made of stainless steel or something, it’d attract a lot of attention even if the quality is bad.

And I’m not dumb enough to make this blunder.’

[So, the host accepts that the host is dumb.]

“Oh, come-!”, Harry almost ended up speaking out loud when he heard the system’s quick burn in his head.

Thankfully no one was nearby to hear him.

‘Dude!

Enough with your insults!’

With this, Harry quickly got back to his work.

He started writing rules and floor designs related to the factories.

The rules were quite simple.

No information about the workings of the factories was to go out.

Any attempts would be declared a crime and the persons involved will be imprisoned for 5 years.

For the military factories, the persons involved in the espionage attempt would be executed immediately on charges of high treason or crimes against the crown.

{A/N: The two things mean the same. “High Treason” is just another way of stating that the crime is against the ruler. Just that the IRL meaning involves more serious issues like murder.}

No exceptions were to be made in both cases.

This should most probably cause the workers to at least be quite hesitant about leaking any sensitive information.

The thing was, most of the sensitive information found in the factories could be weaponised against the country or could attract unwanted attention from very dangerous people.

And Harry wasn’t some masochist that he’d want to watch his country burn down due to such a reason.

Next, Harry made advertisement notices to hire workers for the factory. (This was the only time that those advertisement writings he had done back in school actually paid off.)

The work was kept quite humane.

Harry was overworking himself but that didn’t mean that he’d want his citizens to overwork too.

That’s why everything was well thought out.

Eight hours working days, two holidays a week, paid leaves, workers rights etc. All these were included in the recruitment notice.

And just as Harry was done with the advertisement a system message popped up.

“What now?”, said Harry in response to the sudden message.

[The system would like to inform the host that an attack has been planned on the host’s kingdom.

The enemy will take a few months to arrive.

It is recommended that the host starts preparing now only.]

“Attack in a few months?

Who’s it going to be? That meatball?

Well, I suppose that I’ll have to think up some excuses to make the army guys train faster…”

***

Kingdom of Showa:-

A man was seen sitting on a large bed.

It would be quite wrong to call him obese.

But mainly because calling him obese would be an understatement.

The correct term might be a sphere or, as mentioned earlier in the story, a meatball.

Yes, this was the previous king of the Kingdom of Nobunaga. (Now known as the Country of Eruchea)

And his name was Wang Tian, not “Meatball”.

He had moved out a little less than a year back and ran to the Kingdom of Showa, where he was currently residing.

Here, he wasn’t the ruler or anything.

That title belonged to his old companion Qin Tao, the king of Showa.

But that didn’t mean that Wang Tian was powerless.

In fact, he enjoyed almost the same amount of authority and power as the king!

Returning to the present, Wang Tian seemed to be in deep thought.

“I shouldn’t have left that place!

I didn’t like that place one bit but that was still my kingdom!

I was the king, not anyone else!”, said Wang Tian to no one.

It looked like he was tired of his life in Showa and wanted to go back to being king.

There was no way that he would be any better than what he was earlier, but it was difficult to argue with a person who looked like the personification of either greed or a meatball.

“If I was back there, I could openly do what the heck ever I wanted and no one could stop me!

I wouldn’t have to put any effort to ‘maintain my appearance’ like I need to do in this useless place!”

Even though Wang Tian enjoyed powers similar to the king, they were only similar to the king. 

He was only a medium levelled noble in reality.

That’s why he couldn’t exactly go around doing whatever he wanted all the time.

If he didn’t maintain a minimal public image, the king would be forced to put him down for good.

And neither party wanted that.

The only difference was that Qin Tao cared for his friend and also for his reputation as the king while Wang Tian cared only for himself.

It was due to Qin Tao’s kindness that Wang Tian had been able to get the power he possessed.

The guy did a bit of drama in front of Qin Tao and was granted authority much higher than his real position.

Why was this done?

One should know that Wang Tian’s acting skills were bad enough that only very dumb people would believe him.

But Qin Tao was pretty smart and yet he believed Wang Tian.

The reason was simple.

The cliché drugging of the king scenario.

Wang Tian simply brought along a spiked cup of tea for his friend before they went to grant him a title as a noble.

And once Qin Tao drank it, he proceeded to agree with whatever BS that Wang Tian fed him.

For once, it seemed that the chuuni herbal medicine thing shown in all those wuxia series on Earth actually worked.

And so, Wang Tian got his current powers, albeit with many restrictions.

But it was these restrictions only that annoyed him.

“Hey, buddy!

What did you call me here for?

Everything alright?”

Qin Tao walked into the room.

“Oh, hi!

You came.

Tao Tao, the thing is that I need one last favour from you…”, said Wang Tian as he pretended to be a very dear friend of Qin Tao.

Their friendship was more of a one-sided thing.

Qin Tao believed that Wang Tian was his friend but Wang Tian only kept him close to get benefits and favours from him.

“One last favour?

What happened?”, asked Qin Tao, genuinely worried about his friend.

“You see, my friend, I’m regretting my past actions.

I feel that I shouldn’t have been so greedy back then that I literally sold my kingdom for a few bags of gems!

How shameful of a king I was!

Recently, I even found out that that new guy who’s now the king of Nobunaga had kicked out all the remaining nobles!

I’m feeling really worried about my old kingdom and my citizens!

Please I need help!”

Wang Tian uses Emotional melodrama!

“Oh my!

Kicked out the nobles!?

Is that guy insane!?

Tell me, how can I help?”

Emotional melodrama was very effective!

Wang Tian’s improved acting skill allowed him to easily fool his already naive friend.

“Oh, no!

I can’t take so much help from you!

You have already done so much for me in this past year!”

“No, there must be something that I can do for my friend.

I insist on helping you!”

‘And the guy is completely caught!

I’ll just use him and throw him away later!

We go fight for the kingdom together.

If we survive, I get a kingdom.

If he dies, I get at least one kingdom!’, thought Wang Tian.

All he had to do was to look out for himself.

And this dear friend of his would do the job for him.

“I already have the majority of my army with me.

I can always use them to take care of my own issues.

But if you really do want to help, you can send like 1000 of your men with me…”

Wang Tian pretended to try to refuse any help.

 “Oh, no!

How can I just give you a thousand men!?

I’ll give at least 3 thousand!”, Qin Tao replied.

‘How is this dumb man even king!?

Well, who am I to complain?’

“What!?

There’s no need for you to waste so much on me!”, said Wang Tian as he again pretended to refuse Qin Tao.

“Oh…

Knowing you, I don’t think you’ll budge.

But you must accept one condition.

I will be accompanying you on your journey.

After hearing about what that new guy seems to have done with your kingdom, I cannot sit back.

I need to defeat that crazy man at any cost!”

Qin Tao seemed to have added reasons of his own to follow Wang Tian.

“In that case, have it your way…

But you aren’t allowed to add more of your knights!”

“All right, fine!

But we can only leave after about a month.

There’s too much snow everywhere.

There’s no way for any human to even step outside for long.

We need to wait for February’s end when the snow starts melting.”

Wang Tian happily nodded at this.

All he needed was his kingdom before it collapsed.

And considering the rumours he heard about those nobles, it seemed that the kingdom might end up dragging through till the time Wang Tian came back around.

So, far, only a few of the nobles who left near the end of the year had managed to arrive and their news had spread like wildfire.

Not many people really travelled between kingdoms and the remaining nobles were either stuck in the snow or going to other kingdoms.

After hearing about their situation, Wang Tian had decided to play the hero.

He would march to Nobunaga with his army of about 10,000 soldiers, try and fail at negotiations and then forcefully take back his collapsing kingdom.

That other guy, whose name Wang Tian couldn’t even remember, only had the most useless of his 5000 knights. 

So, there was no way for him to win!

This way, all the people would take him as the person who saved a kingdom from collapsing.

The nobles would come to his side and do all government work for him while he enjoyed his life with women.

And if he was really lucky, he would get two kingdoms at once!

There was nothing that could possibly stop him!

{A/N: The famous last words…}