episode_0025

As Ismael had predicted.

The spread of nationalism and the subsequent introduction of nationwide conscription systems were a meta widely spreading among the participating countries.

‘Oh ho. If we do this, we don’t have to waste money hiring mercenaries anymore?’

‘Yes. It is necessary to first stimulate the people to voluntarily participate in the war.’

‘That’s not difficult. I’ll allocate a budget, so gather experts and prepare for it.’

The heads of state are not fools.

An era where the trends of war are constantly changing.

They also knew that building an army with veteran professional soldiers was no longer the answer.

What’s the point of relying only on expensive, skilled soldiers when even a killing machine that has fought for 10 years can be taken down with a single bullet?

However, changing the system right now was difficult due to the lack of alternatives, and they were thinking of slowly improving it…

Just in time, the neighboring country found a very good model answer?

‘The population of the Helvetian Republic is only one-sixth of ours. Nevertheless, the reason they have been able to endure until now is thanks to supplying soldiers through continuous conscription.’

‘Since we blocked the routes for importing mercenaries, they had no choice but to secure troops internally.’

‘Judging from them, conscripts might be more useful than we thought.’

They didn’t even need to go through the process of verification or research.

The enemies were already proving the effect in real-time on the battlefield, so why wouldn’t they believe it?

War is the fastest route for the introduction of new technologies.

The participating countries did not refuse good options that seemed to increase their chances of winning.

Ah, except for the Artium Empire, which has not yet learned any war lessons because they have not sent troops in earnest.

‘First, let’s read these. On War and The Social Contract?’

‘This pamphlet also seems to be of high value for reference.’

‘We need to carefully choose what to include to adapt it to our country’s situation…’

Important reference materials and textbooks were already available on the market.

The heads of state purchased them or confiscated them from merchants, and examined them word by word.

It was by no means an easy task for them.

It was overflowing with content that completely overturned existing common sense and notions.

The status of kings and nobles is established through social contracts, or the more cruel and despicable the monarch, the better.

Frankly, it’s content that’s hard to come up with on your own unless you hear it from someone.

Normally, they would have designated such bizarre content as forbidden books and been done with it.

But now it’s wartime.

The special condition of the crisis of the nation’s survival induced extreme ideological flexibility and high receptivity.

Designate forbidden books? Why would they do that? They would even release existing forbidden books if they thought they were useful for propaganda.

‘To inspire fighting spirit nationwide, we need content that is as stimulating as possible.’

‘We should write it in a way that all non-citizens are enemies that must be defeated.’

‘If we do that, there will be diplomatic repercussions later…’

‘Isn’t it better than losing the war and the country being destroyed?’

They soon realized.

That inducing nationalism requires a somewhat distorted view of the nation and exclusive patriotism.

That we must distinguish between us and the outside, and accept the concept of superiority and inferiority between races.

That the values of philanthropy and inclusion pursued by past universal empires and religious circles must be thrown into the bottom of the sewer.

‘But how?’

‘That is…..’

‘No, in the first place, our country is a multi-ethnic empire. Can we even use the term “one nation”?’

Execution was as difficult as understanding.

Due to the circumstances of their own country, or empirical limitations.

Since they were trying to do something they had never thought of in their lives, no one had any idea what would be effective.

But humans are creatures that find answers when they are blocked.

Even though they faced difficulties, they quickly came up with a solution.

‘Demons! Let’s make demons scapegoats first!’

‘If you don’t understand, just copy the phrases in this pamphlet!! I don’t know who wrote it, but the writing style is unconventional, so it will definitely be effective!’

‘What? Complex explanations are difficult? Then just praise His Majesty the Emperor! If you write diligently about how great and wonderful our imperial family is, the people will see it and cheer!’

If creation is difficult, imitate it.

If independent ideas are difficult, adapt existing ones.

Propaganda created in each country with roughly that mindset had surprisingly good effects.

It was thanks to the fact that the masses were not very smart in this era, and they certainly captured the intensity of expression and the message.

Even though the quality was somewhat poor, it worked fairly well because the level of the people being incited was also low.

‘Long live the great Nabr! Long live!!!’

‘Let’s all go submit enlistment applications! Let’s protect our hometowns with our own hands!’

‘Kill all the dirty horned bastards!! Let’s purify those descendants of Satan with holy fire!’

Demonstrations and applications to join the war by bloodthirsty guys lined up in various places. Minor(?) incidents such as crimes and massacres were a bonus.

A sudden surge in patriotism and military service resources.

It was more than enough to change the military system to conscription.

With understanding and consensus on conscription nationwide, each country soon began to fill its armies with conscripts.

Somewhat coercive measures were sometimes used depending on the region, but in any case, it became much easier to replenish troops than before.

‘Huh, 30,000 people will be replenished by next month. It used to take half a year to get that many.’

‘They’re dragging in men from anywhere. It’s become so easy to create an army.’

‘Why haven’t we thought of such a good system until now?’

As a result, the advantage of mobilization enjoyed by the Helvetian Republic army was offset.

For them, who had barely managed to fight a balanced battle, this situation was like a bolt from the blue.

How will they cope with this?

* * * * *

Duce’s answer to the challenge thrown by the enemies was simple.

“Increase the prisoner units and further expand the conscription target.”

“Duce, if we do that, the manpower to farm and produce supplies in the rear will disappear!”

“We have compatriots. If we gather soldiers mainly in the Seonghwang region, the damage to our mainland will be less.”

This is not an era like the 19th or 20th century, where complex tactical maneuvers and technologies are fully introduced.

It is now a time when it is common to hire captured enemy soldiers and use them as one’s own army.

Of course, they don’t pay them properly and treat them like half-slaves, but anyway, hiring is hiring, right?

Fortunately, Helvetia had many prisoners of war and citizens of enemy countries captured in the early stages.

Duce responded by organizing them into soldiers and assigning them to the most attrition-prone and dangerous operations/missions.

“Send envoys to the peninsula countries that have not yet participated in the war and appeal to them. Please allow volunteer soldiers to be dispatched or citizens to voluntarily participate in the war.”

“They have refused until now, will their attitude suddenly change now?”

“It won’t hurt to try. It’s better than not doing it.”

However, these measures were not enough to close the gap.

Enrico Dandolo resorted to extreme measures.

He scraped together soldiers in their 50s and 60s, an age group that would not normally go to the battlefield unless they had occupational diseases.

Even if wielding a spear and swinging a sword on the front lines is too much due to aging, they should be able to serve as riflemen.

That was the calculation that they would do their part on the battlefield.

“…If we lose, the safety of our nation will be in jeopardy. Even if we win, I don’t think we’ll be safe.”

“That’s what we were prepared for from the start of the war. It was a fight that would either be won or destroyed anyway.”

Objectively speaking, it’s crazy.

No, regardless of whether it’s objective or not, it’s just insane to anyone who looks at it.

They’ve already scraped up all the young people who are the pillars of the country.

If they consume even the middle-aged and elderly in the war, who will lead the country after the war?

But it didn’t matter.

Because it was a fight started with the fate of the nation at stake.

Whatever the cost, we must win first.

“If you understand, prepare to implement it. We need supplies urgently to carry out the war.”

“…I understand, Your Excellency.”

“Ah, and by the way. We should give the newly recruited soldiers a cool name, shouldn’t we?”

However, since the citizens who will be suddenly dragged into the army will be confused, he decided to give them a cool title to boost morale.

“It’s the people’s army, and it means they’re charging towards the battlefield… Yes. People’s Assault Force is appropriate.”

Thus, the world’s first old man army, the People’s Assault Force, was born.

* * * * *

“I don’t know whether to call this desperate or madness.”

Humans are truly a terrifying race.

No matter how much I provided various ideas, created the ideological foundation, presented strategies and future plans, and even incited them, they are resorting to such measures.

Was victory that desperate?

“That’s really desirable.”

I’m very satisfied.

I hope they continue to fight this hard in the future.

Ideally, until other countries also plan to create People’s Assault Forces.

“We should tell the Helvetia branch to dispatch mainly elderly people for the time being. If we send young people, they’ll be dragged into the army.”

“They’re already doing that. It would be a problem if our precious organization members went to the battlefield. We already have a lot of work to do, how can we handle filling vacancies?”

Kalia shrugged and replied.

Indeed, I heard that our organization has been suffering in many ways these days due to the escalation of the war.

Recruiting refugees created during the war as organization members.

Maintaining communication networks across the front lines.

Sharing information regularly through codes.

It’s not usually an easy task in this primitive era.

Even with the help of magic, wouldn’t the person in charge feel like their head is breaking?

“Besides… we have to solve this too.”

With those words, Kalia took out a stack of documents for me.

The title was written at the very top.

[On the Current Status of the Construction of Labor Camps for Demons]