Chapter 36
The fight against the natives was already decided.
Because the natives, whose basic tactic was to charge in barehanded with spears and swords, wouldn't be a match for our army.
So I thought the real point of this western native suppression campaign wasn't occupation.
Whether we could supply the enormous amount of ammunition consumed by firearms at the right place and the right time.
Whether our supply units could keep up with our advance. Whether we could keep enough bullets on hand against those natives who only died after taking several shots.
So I emphasized that point in the meeting with the staff, too.
"This battle is not a battle against the natives. It's a battle against our army's logistics capability."
In fact, until now the Southern Army had not had a proper supply corps. It was an improvised army, and the conflict itself hadn't lasted all that long.
The Sarsen Territory fortress had been blown away by battleships, and Sarsen Fortress itself wasn't that far away.
The western capital, Porvin, was only about 400 kilometers from Albion as well.
The firearms didn't consume much, and since the conquest took only about a week, the importance of a supply corps didn't stand out all that much.
But the battlefield we'd face from here on would be different.
The imperial center was far from the South, and because it was blocked by the Arbel Mountains and the sea, supplying it overland would be difficult.
If we tried to live off the land like some Japanese general from my previous life, or packed too little food because "Southerners are herbivores!" we'd be annihilated.
To move a huge army numbering from hundreds of thousands to a million in a fight against the Central Army, we needed to build up at least a basic foundation from now on.
"So everyone, focus on expanding the supply corps. For the time being, we won't increase the army's size any further."
"Yes, Your Excellency."
Of course, growing the supply corps would also cost money.
We would have to build massive transport ships for logistics, and make trucks and all kinds of equipment as well.
No matter how much the existence of magic made manufacturing and production processes easier than on Earth, we still couldn't fully escape budget pressure.
Besides, we were already carrying out a new submarine construction project, and we were also trying to expand the fleet.
If it had been any other region, we might already have gone bankrupt. It was only because this was the South that we could endure this much.
'No, actually, I'm not even sure we can call this "enduring."'
Right now, the South was forcing its way into military expansion with money we had saved up and money shaken loose from corrupt western nobles. We were even taking on debt.
Naturally, the money we'd saved wasn't infinite, and the wealth plundered from the western nobles wouldn't keep flowing forever.
At this rate, I thought the collapse of the southern economy was a certainty within a few years.
A wartime economy is, in the end, an act of gnawing away at the flesh of the companies that form the backbone of the nation.
Run the country like this and it'll go under, you say?
I know.
If you produce weapons instead of goods, the companies that are supposed to drive the economy through exports get wrecked.
Once the money runs out and the companies lose their momentum for growth, the southern economy will take an irreparable, fatal blow.
The way to avoid economic collapse was simple.
Win the war.
If we crushed the Eastern Navy and dismantled the Eastern Archduchy, leaving it as prey for the vast Southern region, we could hold out.
So the East keeping us in check might actually be a good thing.
Since a war was eventually going to happen anyway, it'd be better if they made the first move and we at least got the justification.
'Maybe I've got one more thing on my plate now.'
After everything was over. Making sure the South, the war machine, landed safely with as little damage as possible.
What I wanted wasn't world conquest, but the survival of the South, so I couldn't end up like the war-mad dictators in history.
So I thought this would be the last task left for me.
***
While the military focused on modernizing the Western Army and civilians poured energy into weapons development, the Intelligence Department wasn't idle either.
The Intelligence Department was investigating everyone indiscriminately—civilians, nobles, even people from barbarian stock—and looking into the hierarchy among the western barbarian tribes.
And then, after almost three months had passed.
By the time the damage left by the war between the West and the South had been more or less patched up, the Intelligence Department had also completely figured out how the West was functioning.
"Basically, the western barbarians' governing system revolves around the three strongest tribes."
"Around three tribes? Nomads?"
If you think about why nomads are called nomads, that's actually pretty unusual.
People who wander the steppe without settling in one place.
Tribes that make a living hunting along the Arbel Mountains, all the way past the western border.
And tribes that, over a thousand years, had gradually assimilated into the West, settled down, and begun to take on more of an imperial flavor.
'At first, acting independently would be a trait of barbarians.'
"Recently, a strong centralization movement seems to have begun around those three tribes. I suspect it's because the barbarians haven't been touched for the past 50 years."
"Well, that's about when the western army really started to crumble."
For a nation with an agricultural society, the existence of unified nomads is almost a disaster.
Even nomads split into tribes can inflict enormous damage on a border; what happens when they come together as one?
You could tell by looking at the Asian and European empires that were swept away by Genghis Khan.
The West would be devastated.
Even the imperial leaders of the past, who didn't know Earth's history, understood that well.
So whenever a nomadic people showed signs of unification, they'd launch large-scale offensives under the pretext of suppressing barbarians and the like.
Of course, all the territory they'd gained that way was taken back again, and in the end it was just a waste of budget and manpower.
But because the gathered barbarians got smashed from time to time, the western border had been maintained until now.
"However, since fifty years ago, when the corruption that had piled up throughout the empire finally burst, we could no longer spare any attention for the western frontier."
"And the barbarians used that time to finish sorting out their own hierarchy?"
"Yes. It appears the tribes are on the verge of unifying around the three powerful tribes."
"Wasn't Charles Raymonds, the former Western Archduke, supposed to have done some of that sorting out?"
"Charles Raymonds only attacked the barbarians near the border. It has been confirmed that many of them were tribes that had already been somewhat culturally assimilated into the West over the past thousand years."
So basically he wiped out the barbarians who had already been somewhat assimilated over the past thousand years and left the unified tribes that actually needed to be suppressed alone.
"That bastard went and did something stupid to the very end."
By this point, it was at a fairly dangerous level.
The reason nomads are nomads is that they can't settle down in one place.
But what if their numbers grow, and they come to need a place to settle?
From then on, they'd try to secure their own territory even if they had to invade a neighboring country.
"How far has the unification progressed?"
"They've begun holding regular meetings, planning policies, and even moving toward electing a new leader."
A meeting to devise policy and choose a leader?
That's basically the kurultai of the Mongol Empire.
If they took just one more step from there, they might end up with an enemy who really was something like Genghis Khan.
Was this, too, one of the devices prepared in the 'original work' to bring down the empire?
To finish off an empire already battered by civil war, the Republican invasion, and the attacks of the demonic beasts?
It didn't matter.
Once I'd decided to intervene, there would be no future like that to see.
"It was getting dangerous. I'm glad I decided to intervene."
"The modernization of the western army is also progressing to some extent. In a few weeks, full-scale operations should be possible."
The operational plan, including the supply strategy, was also starting to take shape. This meeting was to add detail to that plan as well.
And the most important issue was how to deal with the barbarians.
"First, the barbarians who have been somewhat assimilated into the West over the past thousand years will be brought under western rule."
"Understood, Your Excellency."
That far proceeded without any disagreement.
Not all barbarians are the same, and if we could sweep them aside without force whenever possible, that would be best.
The problem was what came next.
The three tribes, and the ones following them as they showed signs of unification.
"The tribes currently occupying the western great steppe are divided into three groups: the Borkan, Aikamad, and Serelkas tribes. They've been a thorn in the West's side for centuries."
For hundreds of years, the West had tried various ways to quiet them down.
They had tried cultural assimilation, they had tried negotiation, and there was no method they hadn't tried, right down to resolving the issue through armed conflict.
Yet even so, they still hadn't been able to stop these three tribes.
"Do the staff think these three tribes can never be assimilated?"
"It's too early to say for sure, but... that's our current estimate."
"Then we needn't show them any mercy either."
There's a line from a movie, spoken by an American officer who entered Afghanistan.
If you kill two of the twenty terrorists in Afghanistan, how many remain?
The answer is not eighteen, but twenty-six.
Because the acquaintances of terrorists who lost family, friends, or parents to the Americans join terrorist organizations.
When two terrorists die like that, eight new terrorists are born.
That's how the chain of hatred works.
If you kill the enemy, the enemy's parents, siblings, children, and friends will bear hatred and raise knives of revenge against us.
So there was only one answer I could give.
Sweep them away so thoroughly that they wouldn't dare challenge us.
"Borkan, Aikamad, Serelkas. Let's erase those three tribes from the steppe completely."
Human Kyle might not have been able to say, "Let's settle it nicely with words," a promise with no basis.
To resolve the chain of hatred peacefully, one side had to endure.
Would the three tribes that had never been subordinate to the empire for hundreds of years endure?
I thought absolutely not.
Then should the West be the one to endure?
If we did that, my approval ratings would be ruined. The western annexation would go up in smoke, and the wartime economy we'd failed to secure would collapse.
Then we'd be unable to escape the ending where the empire falls.
In the end, it was a problem that could only be solved if one side physically disappeared.
"For the last hundred years, the natives have been living as if they'd forgotten how severe the empire's order is."
Though I wasn't in a position to speak for the entire empire, this much I could say with confidence.
"Let's teach the natives, who rejected the empire's mercy and lived in decadence, just how terrifying and cruel the empire can be."
Borkan, Aikamad, Serelkas.
The moment the fate of the three giant tribes dreaming of unifying the steppe and conquering the empire was decided.
There was exactly one month left until the western expedition began.