Chương 126: Stabilizing the Populace

Four days had lapsed since the utter routing of the Tiger Beastmen, and Count Fischer's forces had yet to launch another offensive campaign. Having received word from the recruitment camp that the third batch of greenhorns had completed their structural training, Li Qinwu found a pocket of spare time to personally inspect the new recruits. This third cohort comprised 2, 000 goblin recruits fully outfitted with long spears, arming doublets, leather armor, and a minor allocation of chainmail vests.

Standing upon the primary proving grounds, they were cleanly divided into twenty distinct tactical phalanxes. The columns were perfectly straight, the rows flawlessly square, exhibiting an immense level of rigorous discipline. Li Qinwu nodded in absolute satisfaction. This wave of fresh recruits was thoroughly seasoned; they could now be safely dragged onto the live theater of war.

He immediately reassigned 200 elite Great Goblins from the active frontlines to serve as officers, establishing twenty newly designated recruit companies, and positioned these fresh elements near the city gates to function as the operational reserve. When the time came, they would be rotated onto the fortress walls in waves to experience the visceral atmosphere of a live battlefield. After a handful of such exposures, greenhorns would invariably transform into battle-hardened veterans.

The exact moment the recruits vacated the premises, the newly emptied barracks were immediately occupied by a fresh wave of goblin whelps numbering roughly 1, 500. Furthermore, production operations over at the breeding pens were still progressing at full throttle; it wouldn't be long before another 1, 000-plus goblin whelps would be spawned into existence. Li Qinwu couldn't help but sigh with immense emotion inwardly.

Though creatures like goblins were inherently weak and minuscule by nature, once they could be effectively organized under a centralized structure, their fundamental wartime potential was absolutely staggering! Who could even remember that when he, Li Qinwu, first arrived in this world, he commanded a mere 1, 000-odd souls? Now, his active military strength had multiplied nearly tenfold, growing exponentially larger the more he fought!

If this campaign could successfully drag on for another six months to a year, he might genuinely be capable of training a grand army of 100, 000 men! Just as Li Qinwu was indulging in his grand reflections, Knight Leo walked up to his side, his complexion exceptionally grim.

"Your Majesty, I have an urgent matter to report." The moment he heard someone address him as "Your Majesty," Li Qinwu's eye twitched violently. Possessing a modern soul after all, this precise honorific always left him feeling incredibly bizarre. Back when he claimed the kingship, it was purely a pragmatic move to exploit the system's army-wide attribute buffs—a mere procedural formality.

He had explicitly instructed his subordinates never to address him as "Your Majesty," given that the Alliance was fundamentally not an imperial autocracy. The goblins had dutifully adhered to this, consistently calling him "Boss." Yet, the humans remained stubbornly determined to address him as "Your Majesty"; no matter how many times he corrected them, the habit simply could not be broken.

Later on, he came to understand the psychological reality: these individuals used the title "Your Majesty" primarily as a form of personal emotional coping. Compared to collaborating with a mere magical beast warlord, serving under a legitimate magical beast monarch carried a vastly superior level of prestige and social justification. Consequently, they locked Li Qinwu's status as a king into absolute stone, and not even Li Qinwu's own words could alter their conviction.

"Mm. What is it you wish to say?" Li Qinwu replied flatly.

"Your Majesty, I have discovered that the Civil Security Army has become exceptionally restive over the past few days. It is highly suspected that certain factions are plotting an open rebellion!" Li Qinwu's eyes narrowed into slivers, an immensely dangerous aura radiating outward from his physical frame.

"Elaborate." Knight Leo slowly and methodically recounted the progression of events. Ever since the siege lines had closed around the municipality, the residual civilian population remaining inside the city had been plunged into severe panic. A clandestine special faction had seized upon this widespread terror, actively attempting to instigate a civilian uprising, and this shifting wind had successfully blown straight into the ranks of the Civil Security Army.

The primary narrative being circulated was roughly as follows: The Demon Army will invariably be crushed by the primary royal vanguard of the Kingdom of Sassos sooner or later. The exact moment the fortress wall is breached, every single auxiliary collaborator serving in these traitorous security forces will be completely liquidated in a bloody purge. If you wish to redeem your sins and preserve your lives, there is still time to act.

As long as you launch a sudden assault against the city gates, shattering the entryways from the interior to allow Count Fischer's primary vanguard to stream inside, you will have secured an immense military merit. Your past transgressions will be wiped clean without exception, and you will even receive a vast sum of bountiful rewards. This narrative had exerted an incredibly profound impact.

The core issue lay in the fact that the personnel of the Civil Security Army were fully aware that if the city fell, a brutal liquidation was an absolute certainty. Their current actions were fundamentally indistinguishable from those of traitors, and the Kingdom of Sassos systematically executed all traitors by burning them alive at the stake. Furthermore, to look at it from another perspective—even if the Demon Army successfully drove off Count Fischer's primary forces, what then?

They were humans, while the goblins were magical beasts. Could humans genuinely possess a viable future by following a horde of monsters? They felt an immense, paralyzing blindness regarding their long-term survival.

Had it not been for the fact that the vast majority of the city's populace were destitute, impoverished wretches who could only secure stable silver coins by joining the Civil Security Army, coupled with the immense amount of civilian goodwill Li Qinwu had painstakingly cultivated beforehand, a full-scale riot would have detonated long ago. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Having processed the entirety of the situation, Li Qinwu locked his gaze directly into Knight Leo's eyes.

"Tell me, Knight Leo—do you still possess the functional capacity to restrain the Civil Security Army at this very moment?" Sweat poured down Knight Leo's back like torrential rain. He knew with absolute certainty that if he failed to restrain the security forces, a bloody butcher's blade would instantly descend upon the populace. Knight Leo hesitated intensely, yet he chose to speak with absolute honesty: "Your Majesty...

if we do not initiate immediate, decisive measures to suppress this narrative, a full-scale mutiny within the Civil Security Army is merely a matter of time." The moment the words left his mouth, his heart began to thud violently against his ribs. As a human, he fundamentally did not wish to witness his own kinsmen being slaughtered in a mass execution. Yet, having effectively transformed into Li Qinwu's loyal hound, he chose to present the unvarnished truth.

Li Qinwu narrowed his eyes in deep, calculated reflection before slowly opening his mouth to speak.

"Knight Leo, go and assemble every single individual within the Civil Security Army who carries sufficient influence and vocal authority. Bring them here; I shall have a word with them." Knight Leo voiced his compliance and prepared to depart, but before he could take more than a few steps, Li Qinwu called out to arrest his movement.

"Knight Leo, you have served by my side for a considerable duration now. You understand my character well; I am not a being who delights in senseless slaughter. However, if the situation deteriorates past the point of absolute salvation... will you be capable of maintaining perfect clarity regarding where your true allegiance lies?" Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, Knight Leo instantly dropped to his knees.

"Your Majesty! My allegiance exists solely to preserve and defend your absolute interests." Li Qinwu tilted his chin up slightly.

"Very well. Possessing deep affection for your own kind and wishing to preserve them is a perfectly natural psychological trait common to all intelligent life; I hold no opposition toward it. However, you must remember one fundamental truth—at this current moment, you are an officer of the Alliance." Hearing these words, the suffocating tension gripping Knight Leo's chest dissipated significantly.

He thought to himself that the King was truly enlightened and wise, whereupon he executed a firm kowtow against the earth.

"Your Majesty! I understand perfectly. If the situation truly reaches a point of absolute, irreversible collapse, my blade shall be the very first to strike." Having delivered his oath, he immediately sprinted off to gather the personnel. Knight Leo rode his mount at a furious gallop straight to the Civil Security Army's primary encampment—which was situated directly within the slums—and rounded up all forty regular and deputy company commanders, escorting them to meet Li Qinwu.

Along the entirety of the trek, Knight Leo maintained an unceasing stream of verbal counseling, forcing them to align their attitudes correctly and commanding them to confess every single hidden issue clearly the moment they laid eyes upon His Majesty. Otherwise, far more than just their lives would be forfeit; the interior city would likely be transformed into a boundless field of corpses.

However, because these forty individuals were so thoroughly blinded by anxiety regarding their long-term survival, Knight Leo's words completely entered one ear and exited the other. Their faces were entirely masked by deep, heavy dread. Furthermore, they were gripped by an intense primal terror: This time, we are going to face the supreme chieftain of the magical beasts. Will we even be permitted to return alive? Deep within the recruitment camp, Li Qinwu sat leisurely beneath the shade of a massive banyan tree.

The forty representatives of the Civil Security Army stood before him, casting exceptionally cautious, trembling glances in his direction. Li Qinwu spoke with absolute tranquility.

"I am well aware that you are all intensely blind regarding your future. You are thinking that if Count Fischer's vanguard shatters the masonry, a brutal liquidation will invariably descend upon your heads. And even if I emerge victorious, what kind of future can a magical beast like myself genuinely provide to you humans?" The forty regular and deputy company commanders lowered their heads in unison, not daring to utter a single syllable.

Li Qinwu casually crossed his legs, drew a small utility knife, and began meticulously trimming his fingernails. A goblin's nails grew with remarkable velocity and required constant upkeep.

"Let me tell you plain: your long-term survival is an asset I have thoroughly calculated from the very beginning. The exact moment I drive off Count Fischer's primary forces, I shall personally escort every single individual willing to follow my banner back to the sovereign territories of the Alliance."

"Once we arrive, I shall allocate precisely fifty acres of arable land to every single household. Furthermore, the Alliance will actively assist you in constructing your residential housing, and your lands will be fully outfitted with public water conservancy infrastructure."

"I formally promise that you shall be entirely exempt from all taxation for a duration of three full years. Once those three years conclude, the state will collect a flat tax of a mere thirty percent, and this rate shall never be increased under any circumstances." The moment these terms were articulated, the expressions across the forty faces shifted through a wild spectrum of complex emotions, their internal thoughts varying wildly. Some felt that this so-called future was an absolute joke.

To march deep into the Magical Beast Forest and enter the absolute heart of the monster headquarters? Is that not fundamentally delivering our lives into the jaws of monsters? When the time comes and they chop us up into mincemeat for food, who the hell are we supposed to argue our case to? Yet, a significant portion of the commanders felt their hearts throb with intense longing.

They were all originally individuals poised on the absolute threshold of becoming slaves within the slums; their living conditions had been marginally superior to standard chattel slavery, but not by any visible margin. The thing they yearned for above all else was a stable, permanent livelihood, and among their desires, the outright ownership of land functioned as their ultimate, beautiful utopia.

If the supreme chieftain of the magical beasts was telling the absolute truth, they were genuinely willing to gamble their lives for it! Observing the diverse array of expressions painting their faces, Li Qinwu delivered his final strategic counter. If these individuals still refused to align their hearts with his cause after this, he would have no choice but to initiate a relentless campaign of slaughter, slaughter, and more slaughter.

"I swear upon the collective pantheon of the gods: every single word I have spoken is absolute truth."

"For those among you who are unwilling to follow my banner, the exact moment this campaign concludes, I shall personally distribute a severance package of precisely ten silver coins to each individual. You may discard your blades, strip off your armor, and depart to seek out your own livelihoods."

"The territory of Halyin is currently flooded with boundless refugees; not a soul will ever notice your identities. You can freely migrate to alternate municipalities and begin your lives anew." This final declaration completely shattered the remaining hesitation within every single heart present. One by one, they dropped to their knees, vociferously projecting their absolute submission to Li Qinwu. Even those who still harbored internal dissatisfaction did not dare to utter a single word of dissent.

The diplomatic bridge Li Qinwu had constructed for them was so exceptionally generous that if they chose not to walk down it, they would invariably be shoved off the precipice into execution. Following the audience, these regular and deputy company commanders returned to their respective units with absolute fury, binding several hundred individuals in thick cords and dragging them straight before Li Qinwu's presence.

These bound instigators unleashed a torrent of frantic, venomous curses toward Li Qinwu, their eyes completely consumed by raw, unadulterated hatred. Knight Leo stepped forward, explaining to Li Qinwu in a low voice: "Your Majesty, these are precisely the entities who have been circulating the fabrications across the interior quadrants of the city. Every single one of them is a fanatical zealot of the Goddess of Life.

Because you detonated the primary cathedral of the Goddess of Life, they spontaneously organized themselves to resist your rule!" Li Qinwu let out a flat, indifferent "Oh." With a casual wave of his hand, the surrounding goblin recruits stepped forward with leveled spears, instantly granting the zealots an expedited ascension straight into the embrace of the Goddess of Life.