The rebel nobles after defeating the royal guards entered the palace buildings , looting as they searched for the king. When they arrived at his chambers, they found it shut from the inside.
" Quickly get something to break it down." Someone shouted and the men scrambled around to find something. Someone eventually found a Warhammer which was then used to break the door.
The nobles who were at the scene squirmed uncomfortably as the door being battered was made out of an expensive mapple oak.
Eventually the door was broken down but the scene inside the room froze up their faces as they were greeted with an unexpected sight.
It seems like the king beheaded his wife and two daughters before hanging himself in the middle of the room. His crown was no where to be found and it was presumed that the crown prince and the only son of the king, Vincetus des Fantasia had escaped with it.
The men searched and scoured the palace grounds, tunnels,the city and even the outskirts of the city but they couldn't find him.
Count Eduardo des Guillermo was one of the few nobles that opposed the treacherous actions of the others and for that reason, his territory was being besieged by the other nobles.
Franklin, Count Eduardo's son was having his armor put on by his squires when his father walked in.
" Take off your armor boy, we are abandoning this castle "
" But why father , we have cannons and men. We can fight." Franklin countered.
" If we don't leave now, we would be cut off from supplies , risk sabotage and might even lose our lives in the process, you also forget that those bastards have the same kinds of weapons that we have ."
"But father....." Franklin tried to speak but was interrupted by his father
" You want to know why I would do something so cowardly, but the truth is that I am not the one acting cowardly. The real cowards are those nobles who decided to betray their king for profit and uncertain protection.
Also it would be unwise for us to stay here , our territory is landlocked which means that we cannot escape if we are surrounded which if we are eventually surrounded, they would want to starve us out which could lead to a whole set of problems for us . Now so you realize why we should leave as soon as possible."
" Yes father." Franklin replied.
" Good send word to our vassals who are still loyal to us , tell them that we move out in five days." Count Eduardo said.
" And where are we going father?"
Eduardo took a deep breath before replying
" We are going to Patagonia."
Inside the Patagonia military base, Ceaser was in the firing range with a riffle sending bullets down range, this new riffle was made with lightweight steel alloy, a leap in the metal making technology of the period.
The rifle he was using was custom made to look like the M4 carbine, but to reduce weight, it had a wooden butt stock, wooden grip and a wooden forearm grip . It also had a five inch rim fire suppressor.
The soldiers watched with great attention as Ceaser worked his riffle. The range was an outdoor tactical dynamic range and Ceaser took advantage of that as he moved through obstacles and firing at targets.
This along with his workout was his daily routine for a while now. It has been three years since he arrived in this world and he had prided himself in being in top shape.
As soon as he finished at the range he saw an assistant waiting for him .
" Sir , a carrier pigeon came from our friends in Fantasia, the kingdom has fallen, the nobles betrayed their king and Count Eduardo and his people are enroute to Patagonia."
" Any word about the fate of our weapons?" Ceaser asked .
" No sir " the assistant replied.
" Then we must assume that the nobles have surrendered our weapons to the Blackthorns. Send word to general Alfred tell him that I would like to see him by noon."
By noon , Ceaser met with Alfred in his office, the General was anxious as to the reason for the meeting.
" The Blackthorns have captured some of our cannons from Fantasia. Even though we have an advantage in terms of fire rate and the destruction our explosive shells can cause within their ranks, their possession of the cannons can still cause harm to us and with their enormous wealth, they could reverse engineer the weapon. It would take time but it can surely be done." Ceaser said to the wide eyed general.
" And what are your orders sir?"
" We are going to respond aggressively of course but you'll have to wait till the general meeting tomorrow." Ceaser replied.
The next day in a conference room in the government building, the directors of the various departments sat at the table waiting for Ceaser to speak, it had been a while since he called for a meeting like this.
Ceaser didn't beat around the bush as he came in , he didn't even sit down.
" Gentlemen our weapons have fallen into the hands of the Blackthorn empire, it is a matter of time before they come to attack us with the weapons or worse they could be reverse engineering it . We are not going to wait for them instead we will strike first." Ceaser said as he pointed at the map of Alphonse.
" First of all , we will liberate Alfonse from the tyranny of the Blackthorn empire but for us to be successful, we will all have to work very hard and do our part." He then turned to Alfred and asked .
" General, how many men can we field at the moment?"
" Our combat staff are seventeen thousand strong while the semi combat staff are at four thousand." Alfred replied.
" And how many 105mm cannons do we have?"
" We have two hundred and fifty sir." Alfred replied.
" We have five duchies in Alfonse, each of those duchies have at least thirty castles each , we would need more than two hundred and fifty castles, the department of works should take note of this , electricity is now very sufficient ain't the factories so I expect at least another two hundred cannons with their respective ammunitions within a month, you can halt production of the 75mm cannons. The department of works would also allocate workers to build roads that will connect the conquered territories, you must do it in a way that doesn't affect the construction of our residential buildings. You can work with the administrative officers to recruit people from the conquered regions.
They administrative officers would send teams along with a vetted supervisor that would manage affairs in each region.
The department of homeland security and the police must work together to ensure internal security .
The ministry of agriculture should start preparing enough rations for our soldiers.
Also for the new set of refugees comments, the department of works should make space outside the town for them to camp at least until they are cleared and registered by homeland security.
A week after their arrival, all citizens of Terra should be invited for a parade, there we would announce our declaration of war ."