Chapter 442 -442-Reforming the System
Hilt smiled when she heard this.
"I suggest we reform the kingdom around a military merit system," she said. "Everything should serve the needs of war."
John nodded.
"That’s a good idea."
"The battle for the royal capital taught me a great deal. Once we’ve had some time to digest that experience and make the proper preparations, the next time we attack another Maritime Kingdom, we definitely won’t suffer casualties on such a horrifying scale again."
John had marched on the royal capital with an army of two million.
In the end, more than 1.3 million had become casualties.
That was an unimaginably heavy price.
After all, every Maritime Kingdom had a royal capital with defenses of a similar scale.
Were they supposed to sacrifice another 1.3 million soldiers every single time they conquered one?
At that rate, after two more wars, John might not have any army left at all.
He would become a commander without soldiers.
Hilt, however, was confident.
Given enough time, she believed they would definitely develop methods and siege weapons specifically designed to deal with fortifications like the royal capital.
...
As news spread that the King’s Edge Pirates had conquered the entire Lather Kingdom, shock swept through the various Maritime Kingdoms.
Since the establishment of the Maritime Kingdoms, this was the first time in history that pirates had successfully conquered an entire kingdom.
And the King’s Edge Pirates were the first to accomplish it.
Naturally, interest in them skyrocketed overnight.
Everyone wanted to know—
How exactly had the King’s Edge Pirates managed to do all of this?
From their mysterious rise onward, they had absorbed several major Pirate Crews one after another.
Their power expanded like a snowball rolling downhill, growing larger and larger at an astonishing speed.
They even challenged the two strongest Pirate Crews in the Lather Kingdom and defeated them with ease, laying an incredibly solid foundation for their later rise.
After that, the name King’s Edge Pirates became famous across the seas, formally entering the sight of all the Maritime Kingdoms.
Then came the decisive battle against the Grand Pirate Alliance.
Strangely enough...
that supposedly decisive battle ended without any real bloodshed.
The King’s Edge Pirates took over the Pirate Alliance’s entire force without firing a single shot.
And after that...
it was the Lather Kingdom’s turn to suffer.
The King’s Edge Pirates first captured Cloudspire Harbor.
Then they seized another major city without shedding blood.
Afterward, they used their overwhelming manpower to expand their campaign across the kingdom...
and their main fleet began attacking one Lather city after another.
In an astonishingly short period of time, almost every city in the Lather Kingdom fell into the hands of the King’s Edge Pirates.
And compared with all the previous examples of cities surrendering without a fight, Esca City’s sudden submission hardly seemed remarkable anymore.
But the final battle for the royal capital...
shocked every Maritime Kingdom to its core.
Throughout the history of the Lather Kingdom, the royal capital had been attacked by foreign Maritime Kingdoms more than once.
And yet...
it had never once been breached from the outside.
The royal capital was known as the strongest fortress in the entire Lather Kingdom.
But that legend...
was ruthlessly shattered by John.
According to the reports, the King’s Edge Pirates suffered catastrophic losses during the assault.
Although they ultimately won, the price they paid was enormous.
But no matter how heavy the losses were...
the King’s Edge Pirates had still become the only force in history to breach the Lather royal capital from the outside.
The great figures of the various Maritime Kingdoms began studying the rise of the King’s Edge Pirates obsessively.
But the more they studied...
the stranger everything seemed.
There were simply too many things that defied common sense.
For example...
their leader had supposedly begun as nothing more than an insignificant pirate.
Yet the first warship he used to build his fortune...
was a battleship.
Where had it come from?
It couldn’t possibly have fallen out of the sky.
Then came the second mystery.
How had John defeated the Grand Pirate Alliance of the Lather Kingdom?
Judging purely by their strength on paper, even ten Johns should not have been enough to defeat that Pirate Alliance.
Even the greatest military commanders in history might not have performed better than John.
They might not even have achieved results comparable to his.
So how had John done it?
Then came the third mystery.
Why had the Pirate Alliance of the Leiper Kingdom surrendered without a fight?
Eventually, people learned the reason.
The Alliance Leader herself had actually been one of John’s people.
That only made things even more absurd.
How could John have been certain that his own person would become Alliance Leader?
And even if she did...
how could he be certain she wouldn’t betray him once she gained that much power?
Then there was Esca City’s surrender.
According to the rumors, Esca City had not surrendered because John’s forces were overwhelmingly powerful.
Instead...
it was because John had an extremely close relationship with the daughter of the city’s ruling family.
But how could an insignificant pirate possibly have become acquainted with the daughter of a great noble family?
And why would such a noble young lady favor a pirate in the first place?
After that came one brilliant maneuver after another.
The King’s Edge Pirates used deception and psychological warfare to force cities into surrender...
then displayed astonishing determination by sacrificing more than a million lives to take the royal capital by force.
The rise of the King’s Edge Pirates looked simple when written down.
Yet almost every step contained something incomprehensible.
No matter how much those researchers racked their brains...
they still could not explain it.
Of course, John couldn’t care less whether they drove themselves mad trying.
He simply continued following his own plan.
...
"Next, it’s time to go pick up Odelle."
John knew that Odelle was currently in the Qinka Kingdom.
She had chosen the Naval Corps route.
That meant Qinka would become his next major objective.
"The national strength of the Qinka Kingdom is roughly comparable to that of the Lather Kingdom."
John studied the intelligence gathered over the past few days.
"If we want to conquer Qinka, it can actually be very simple..."
"If we’re willing to sacrifice enough soldiers, we can just push straight through."
But John quickly shook his head.
"If all we do is burn through manpower, then even if we conquer Qinka, defending it afterward will become difficult."
"If the other Maritime Kingdoms attack us at that point, we’ll only have enough strength left to defend."
"We won’t have enough to counterattack."
Only taking blows without being able to hit back...
was obviously not John’s style.
"So this still isn’t the right time to attack the Qinka Kingdom."
"At the very least..."
"we need to train a large number of qualified soldiers first."
"And we need cannons with longer range and greater destructive power."
John had already issued the necessary orders.
By now, every city in the Lather Kingdom had established naval warfare academies at different levels.
Students of different ages entered different programs.
Those aged twelve to seventeen entered the secondary program, which lasted six months.
Those aged eighteen to fifty entered the advanced program, which lasted three months.
Participation in academy education was mandatory.
Refusing to participate was treated as a violation of the law.
However, anyone who entered the academy system would receive weekly compensation.
The amount varied according to their performance.
And every student who successfully graduated...
would receive an additional graduation payment.
If they chose to join the Naval Corps afterward, even better benefits would be waiting for them.
These academy graduates...
would become John’s highest-quality source of recruits.
But establishing academies was only part of the reform.
John also strongly encouraged research into cannons, artillery shells, and military equipment.
Any research that produced meaningful results would receive enormous rewards.
At minimum...
one million gold coins.
Exceptional achievements could earn tens of millions of gold coins, along with noble titles.
And if someone produced a truly major technological breakthrough...
the rewards would be even greater.
These were the two systems John focused most heavily on implementing and supervising.
The establishment of the academies ensured that a continuous stream of young, able-bodied recruits...
would keep flowing into his military.