Chapter XXIII

Kontia

Tanya, Queen of the Tanaoi

"Many of the students have fled with their masters but it appears little was destroyed." I followed behind Cato as the man led me though a scribes college. The place of learning was dedicated to the many literate slaves of the Empire necessary for the bureaucracy generated by a continent spanning Imperium. Cato had informed me that these colleges were a common sight in any fair sized city and were the only places of learning available to the lower classes of Saderan society.

Specifically, slaves and demihumans.

It was curious that Kontia had a school for slaves and demihumans to learn basic writing and mathematics but there was no dedicated institution for the upper classes here. They were expected to hire tutors and scholars for their children. Or travel to Sadera or perhaps Rondel if any were possessed of magical potential.

These institutions existing at all would only serve to undermine the uneven structure of Saderan society as evidenced by people like Cato who were created in slave scribe colleges and were radicalised against the system. As short sighted as the establishment of these schools was for Sadera, it offered me infrastructure to use in order to establish more general education programs.

I would not have slaves being educated while I had to tolerate that disgusting practice. It was remarkable that Sadera could function at all when it was practically begging for uprisings.

"How soon can we begin lessons?" I inquired, Cato hummed as he hobbled through the halls passing by several lecture halls bare of any adornments.

"I will need time to determine the capabilities of scribes left in the city as well as judge their character, but I am confident that we can begin holding lessons in just a few days." He explained and I did not feel any need to accelerate that timeline. Not with the bridge destroyed, there were materials to be moved and sorted, latrines to be dug and tens of thousands of people to be settled. The cadets would not run out of things to do while Cato prepared lesson plans.

One of Cato's most important roles besides advising me was teaching young Lepus how to read, write and engage in rhetoric. Otherwise known as the Trivium. One of the factors limiting how many students he could process was pure manpower with only half a dozen slaves capable of meeting Cato's standards for educating the Tanaoi youth. With the children recovered from Kontia and the Cavalry camp to the north we were responsible for raising and educating many thousands of children.

We had been forced by necessity to select the fast learners from each squad and train them and have them attempt to educate their peers in turn to mixed results. With more literate slaves that I could free in return for their service and actual facilities to teach the children I hoped to accelerate the education of the next generation of Lepus as much as possible for as long as we resided in Kontia.

If things went well we could have the best students move onto a more advanced Saderan curriculum known as the Quadrivium. Arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy, the subjects that were typical in higher Saderan education. If I had time I would also seek out prospective mages for training. Now that I considered it I should also spend some time on older Lepus too.

"I will require one of the halls for at least several hours a week." I informed him, causing him to turn around with interest.

"You are hosting lectures?" He inquired and I nodded with a smile at his eagerness.

"Military science, engineering, perhaps some basic magical theory." The greatest weakness of my people was how concentrated knowledge was. While I was eager to educate the younger generation I needed competent adult officers in the here and now. Whenever I had the chance to do so I had to expand the knowledge base of my people.

My years of schooling and college in my first life, as well as the time I spent in the Imperial War College could be drawn upon for the education of my people but academia was alien to the Lepus who relied far more upon a sort of apprenticeship and saw little value in general education for the young.

I had to change that.

"I would be quite interested in partaking in your lectures." The man admitted, a yearning for knowledge clear in his eyes.

"I would not be opposed to your presence, but your focus should be upon the literacy rate of the cadets." I reminded him.

"I must reiterate that I believe your ideas for... mass literacy to be rather over ambitious. Even in the Empire while most can read some common words, to be truly literate is rare. There are only so many students we could possibly teach. I fear you have given me an impossible task." He seemed contemplative as he spoke.

"I do not command the impossible." I said plainly, I knew how education systems were largely effective. While I would be using Saderan methods in the short term I intended to use my Germanian and Japanese experiences to modernise the standards. Eventually I would have Lepus who were competent enough to serve as teachers and the system would become exponentially more effective.

"I do commend your commitment to enlightenment." Cato said. "There are many who consider the liberal arts to be beneath them. As if brute violence and farming can sustain a people alone." He lamented.

"It can." I pointed out, much to his chagrin, before refocusing the conversation. "But you are correct that this is a difficult task, one of our main limitations is a lack of material and personnel. Both issues that cannot merely be resolved by structural reforms. I have a plan to address shortcomings in our supply of papyrus and vellum." I reached for a bag that hung from my hip and produced a sizable strip of vellum.

"I am unsure if it is possible to secure more writing materials." Cato said as he took the strip and began to read. Frowning after a moment as he considered the instructions.

"I know you like to be kept busy so while you are preparing the lesson plans if you could commission some of that equipment and begin experimenting with that process I would be most grateful." I smiled as he looked over the vellum at me before he shook his head.

"As my Queen commands." He acquiesced.

While some buildings inside Kontia had been abandoned and were thus occupied by my officers and their personal enterages, the bulk of the migration remained housed in a tent city outside of the walls. I had placed them in fallow fields to the south between the bridge and the city with some camps located to the east. Unlike in the vast rolling steppe it was impossible to neatly deploy the encampment due to the need to avoid muddy fields, roads, paths, farmhouses and other infrastructure that surrounded a city of this size.

The compartmentalisation of the migration did aid in overseeing the occupied Saderan population but offered a security concern. A lot of people and material were not located behind a city wall. The solution to that issue was quite simple, I merely had to extend the defensive perimeter several miles to the west, north and east of the city walls. This would encompass a fair amount of farmland but not nearly enough to make the migration and city population self-sufficient.

We had brought enough supplies and animals to maintain generous rations for just over a year. The city itself had a fair amount of supplies but with the subjugated people of Kontia it had not massively improved our situation. I could stretch our supplies to two years at most. That gave me time but inaction at this stage would cripple the war effort later on.

So while I dedicated most of my forces to the construction of a series of wooden forts surrounded by trenches I also had several companies use the fishing boats to create a forward operating base in an abandoned village on the other side of the river. The 22nd and 25th companies were in a very isolated position but they would be used to scout the area on the side of the bridge I did not control and raid settlements to bring back war materials.

This would also serve to make a Saderan attempt to establish their own base on that side of the river more difficult. This meant that the fishing boats would be the only means the companies to the south would have to withdraw back to Kontia so some of them had to be reserved for that purpose rather than being used for fishing.

At least until I had dedicated river transports, I had already directed several cadet companies to begin learning how to build small boats. I had no experience in the boat making process so I could not say when that investment would start paying dividends.

With little else to do with my subordinates dedicated to my southern interests I spent a day literally running from one prospective fortification to the next from the westernmost worksite to the location selected to the east. Thousands of people needed to be directed for the fort line project to be effective and I did not have nearly enough runners to handle the flurry of activity arrayed before me.

There was some complaint that just a day after we had arrived in the city I had ordered the construction of a defensive work that stretched almost twelve miles long but with our inability to move south it was vital that we began preparations for the coming battle now rather than later.

So I tolerated grumbling but so long as trenches were dug, earth moved and trees cut down for lumber. With the Legion no doubt marching upon us from the north I had deployed Lepus Cavalry back north to scout the area. While Saderan maps were excellent they often neglected smaller geographic features that were vital for any campaign. I needed my most mobile force to be familiar with the area around our stronghold and I ordered them to pay particular attention to locations that the Ninth Legion would likely use to camp.

On our way south I had taken care to sabotage campsites we had previously used as they were very often the best locations for a large number of people to reside on the way south. Dumping refuse into rivers and ponds. Digging small holes and covering them with loose earth as well as thousands of other ways to weaken an enemy army on approach.

This was in addition to how any group of tens of thousands would strip the environment of resources as they passed though. The Saderans would find little of use as they chased us, but that was a double edged sword, if we tried to march north it would be nearly impossible to do so in our previous numbers.

By the time I returned to Kontia the sun was setting and I felt like I had barely gotten anything done at all. Every time I considered our situation a new task came to mind, there was too much to do and not enough people to do it.

The warehouse district had been largely destroyed during the siege and both Kontian citizens and my own people had stripped the area of any supplies or food they could. But there were still tons of useful materials in the dozens of structures still standing.

Just under a day since I had arrived the rubble had been largely sorted into various piles and in the ashes of the district a dozens of tents and small impromptu wooden structures hugged the few remaining buildings. Here trusted Tanaoi companies watched over Goblin and Centaur workers, the more loyal slaves I had at my disposal, as well as a fair number of human slaves.

With the sky turning a rich orange activity had begun to slow down and most of the slaves were storing things for tomorrow and taking breaks. They jumped up as I made my way through the district and bowed, calling out to me and taking care to reaffirm their loyalty to me as their Queen.

When I had arrived at Kontia I had taken the slaves aside and offered them freedom, every slave who wished would be granted an acre of land and a breeding pair of cattle as well as being free of any tax for a period of ten years. Out of thousands of slaves we brought to Kontia just a few hundred took the offer.

It had not occurred to me then that the planting season was largely over and winter was approaching. I would have to attempt another wave of emancipation in the summer. Without regular shipments of grain the City was simply not self sufficient. Not due to a lack of farmland of course, that was practically infinite.

I needed settlers, anyone I could get to begin producing food. I would have to discuss with Furea and Cato ways of drawing people into land I had secured.

Well, almost secured.

I just had to defeat the Ninth Legion.

"Your majesty." Yannit bowed his head as I entered a warehouse that had been quickly adapted into a laboratory for the Goblin. He was shorter than most of his kind with a stocky build that made him look rather square. I had freed him and his brother when their talents had become clear. However after an accident that had cost the life of his brother Yannit had demanded I enslave him again.

Since that point the Goblins had become convinced that accepting freedom from me was bad luck. A ridiculous superstition that I had no way to stamp out. I would have to make sure that such ideas did not propagate to the other slaves.

"How is the Mark Four coming along?" I prompted, earning a sigh from the green skinned man as he pulled forwards a dirty lump of bronze in the vague shape of a cannon, one of the casts that had not yet been fully cut and polished up to standard.

"Worked out the problem with your grapeshot ammunition." He sniffed and pulled on the unfinished cannon for a bit before frowning, getting to his feet and pointing at it. "If you would, your majesty."

"Of course." I acquiesced, bending down to pick up the cannon, lifting it up so the barrel was pointed up.

"As you can see we still have the problem of the hole in the middle causing the mould to shift during pouring making the cannons inconsistent. Had to recast more than a few of them."

"The bore." I said. "Seems to be a recurring problem. But what was causing the failures?"

"Stick ye hand in." He directed me and after a moment to steady the gun I stuck my arm into the cannon. "Feel around the walls, right down in it."

At his insistence I did and eventually, I felt what he was talking about.

"Cavities." I bemoaned.

"Aye, it's the mould shifting as we cast it, or perhaps when the bronze is cooling. We can try experimenting with different materials, perhaps getting a mould cut out of stone? If not, well, the Mark Four is a better bronze ratio." He offered with a shrug.

"You tested it already? How?" I had not heard the sound of a cannon going off.

"Well I was thinking of a way to not go deaf, not all of us have your devil ears that let you go back to hearing normal after a big boom. So, I put together, The Sock!" He grinned and hurried over to a cannon on a wooden carriage wrapped in what looked like bundled rags with what looked like a cone on the front. "Come on, come on!" The Goblin forgetting proprietary when it came to showing off something new.

"How does this prevent you from going deaf?" I asked, inspecting the cannon. Yannit, rather than answer the question, took a fuse, lit it on a nearby candle and jammed the fuse into the top of the cannon.

I quickly darted back when I worked out what he was going to do but there was a thud and scraping sound as the carriage rolled back followed by another loud thud as the cannon impacted a pile of earth and rubble at the other end of the warehouse.

"You made a... suppressed cannon." I said slowly as the possibilities threatened to overwhelm me.

"Yeah, got Gorri to help with the enchantment, had to source a few gemstones to power the thing and a broken muffletent for materials obviously. Easy enough to do when I throw your name around your majesty." He chuckled. "Now we can test the things as much as we want." Since the boom of the cannon was suppressed once leaving the cannon, mostly I could still hear a slight noise, that meant the muzzle velocity was still subsonic but that might have been merely a case of Yannit not looking to test hotter charges.

"Does this cannon have the cavity problem?" I inquired.

"Aye, not as bad as most however. But as you can see she can still fire the roundshot just fine." He explained.

"How many... 'socks', can you make?" I asked, making him frown.

"I could get Gorri and some of the men to make a few of them so long as he gets the materials, I don't know how he does the enchantin' so you would have to ask him about that."

"Very good, I will get on that. Begin mass production of the Mark Four." I ordered.

"But what about the cavity issue?" Yannit asked as he shuffled onto the socked cannon to dangle his feet in the air.

"I will establish a different team who will attempt a process I believe will resolve that issue. For now I need as many cannons as possible made as quickly as possible." I explained.

"The cannon is my project." He protested and I cut him off with a wave of my hand.

"It is too important, you have experience in casting and readying the guns, you need to begin preparing as many as possible. These are your orders." I stood firm as he huffed but eventually he nodded.

"How many do we need?"

"As many as possible, but at least twenty cast and polished in the next two weeks. I will be bringing you as much bronze for the guns and lead for the shot as I can. You have my leave to conscript whoever you need for the task."

"That's just not possible, do you know how long it takes-"

"Find a way." I ordered.

He looked at me for a while, keeping eye contact as he chewed on the inside of his cheek. "As you command my Queen." He sighed. "Every time we speak you ask me to do something impossible." He bemoaned with a chuckle.

"If it was impossible. I would not command it." I assured the Goblin earning an incredulous scoff as I turned on my heels and marched away from the weapons development team.

"Twenty bloody cannons, how many Wyverns does she need to kill?" Was the last question I heard as I left the warehouse.