As soon as we seized the capital, the first thing we set to work on was the creation of a new power structure for governance.
[From now on, we will invite key figures from our revolutionary army, along with experts from each field, to form a council that will assist His Majesty in overseeing national affairs.]
In reality, the “experts” from each field were essentially the soldiers who cooperated with us during the coup process.
But for external purposes, that was the official announcement.
We had to present some form of diversity on the surface to reduce criticism that all the positions were being monopolized by military men.
Thus, within a week, the hastily formed council was named the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction.
For those who know, this is inspired by the one from the era of Park X-hee.
Since the nature of what we intended to do was similar, we just took the name as is.
At least the name itself sounds plausible, right?
“Do we really need to create an organization like this just to cover up our actions? We’ve already taken the capital and hold military power.”
“There are problems in this world that can’t be solved just by force. Besides, our situation isn’t exactly stable either.”
If it were up to me, I would just declare military rule and do whatever I wanted.
But we’re not strong enough to do that just yet.
The revolutionary army, while undoubtedly elite with superior combat capabilities, was simply too small in number…
With only around 50,000 soldiers, we could control the capital, but taking control of the entire nation was impossible.
If we let things continue like this, it was certain that uprisings would break out across the country, or worse, a new revolutionary army would emerge, and the possibility of disobedience to orders would rise.
Honestly, we were power-hungry bastards, so there was no way to refute the insults we received.
That’s why we created the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction as a justification.
We had risen up to stop the tyrannical rule of the monarch, so we now needed to give the impression that we were stepping down and handing over power to the civilians.
Though the essence remained the same, there was a significant difference in public perception between soldiers forcing the monarch to submit and controlling the nation’s affairs, and influencing policy through an official institution.
At least with the latter, we were clearly following legal procedures and respecting the existing political culture.
While we might still face criticism for our actions, the mere existence of the institution would attract less direct criticism.
“Then from now on, we’ll be helping His Majesty with governance.”
“Yeah. Well, we’ll never actually give that pig bastard any real authority.”
Ah, of course, even though we’re assisting with governance, I’ll make King Carl VII a mere figurehead. If we don’t do that, the meaning of our revolt would be lost.
Those who don’t understand the respect due to military dedication or the priorities for the future of the nation should never be allowed to regain power.
Not unless they want to ruin the country.
And there was another advantage to doing this.
“Soon, those who try to conspire with us and share power will appear. To manage and use them, we’ll need to set up this kind of council.”
Local nobles who’ve been pushed aside in central politics and dream of revenge. Anti-royalists who simply despise the Riodolph dynasty.
Philosophers who oppose feudalism.
Ambitious individuals dreaming of success.
Anyone, regardless of who they are, will always try to seize the opportunity when they notice the power shift in the political center.
These were the people who had been oppressed by the old regime, pushed aside by the entrenched powers and unable to gather any strength. Or those desperate to exact revenge and become the victors.
Our revolutionary army had to recruit these individuals.
Though we had seized control of the kingdom of Rahator, there were potential opposing factions everywhere, and to make matters worse, a powerful foreign enemy was also lurking.
Instead of sitting idly and enjoying indulgence, we must act decisively to solidify our base if we want to secure a future.
Building alliances with smaller factions will be a key means to ensure that foundation. Individually, they may be weak, but if they unite, they could potentially seize political control.
The Supreme Council for National Reconstruction was an incredibly useful tool for such efforts.
It was a mechanism we could manipulate as we wished, making communication with allied factions more convenient, and it also allowed us to create positions and offer “respectable” titles to those we wanted to bring on board.
‘That said, we need to filter out those who try to exploit us.’
We’ll identify who the enemies are and gradually add more allies.
Once our power is consolidated, we’ll use political manoeuvring to crush the opposition.
It wasn’t much different from battle. The only difference was that the means had shifted from force to words, logic, and justification.
However, there was no need to create eternal allies. After all, politics is just a struggle for limited power.
For now, we might share the same goals, but there’s no guarantee that will be the case in the future.
We use them, and they use us. As long as they’re useful, we make good use of them until their value runs out.
When they’re no longer needed, we either purge them or quietly push them out and return them to their original positions.
“Have the other committee members already arrived?”
“They should be waiting in the meeting room. Please, let’s go, General, or should I say, Commander?”
“I’m going to be late on the first day. I should’ve gone to bed earlier last night.”
In any case, the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction was formed with a total of 17 members.
The chairperson was General Alfred von Albrecht, who had cooperated with us. The vice-chair was me, Carolus von Roytel, who had promoted myself to the rank of general.
The committee members included Major General Vaden of the revolutionary army, Colonel Elan, Major General Mauer, Colonel Kys (I promoted them all by one rank) and Major General Holtman of the Central High Command, among others.
The selection was made from those we trusted, regardless of their branch of service.
“What was the agenda we were supposed to discuss today?”
“Please wait a moment. The documents are… Ah, found it. It’s the analysis of the current war situation with the Empire and the reorganization of the frontlines.”
Our meeting’s glorious first task was to discuss countermeasures regarding the never-ending war with the Empire.
“Now that it seems everyone is here, let’s get straight to the point.”
The meeting room, temporarily converted from a part of the palace once used for the royal family and nobility’s tea parties.
Located near the High Command, this room gave us the opportunity to discuss the information we had previously been unable to obtain.
To be more precise, we were receiving a detailed report on the situation we had been controlled from.
On the frontlines, we could only receive documents that had been censored by the command to maintain troop morale. It was a rare opportunity to properly investigate the actual situation.
After reviewing the report, the results were shocking.
“The East seems to be pretty much as we expected…”
“But what’s this about the West? The frontlines are in this state, and they’ve been hiding the truth all this time?!”
“What on earth was the royal family and the command thinking? The troops sent there were the kingdom’s main forces! How could they have been destroyed so utterly?!”
The reality was truly shocking.
The East wasn’t much different from what we had been told, as the terrain was rough, and both our forces and the Empire had only sent enough troops to prevent the frontlines from being breached. They were basically just skirmishing.
As for the North where we were, it was still fine, so we could skip over that.
But the West…
The frontlines there were almost on the verge of collapse.
A staggering 150,000 troops had been sent to hold the hills and ridges.
But this massive force had disappeared without a trace.
After several battles where they were defeated and battered, the Western army had long since retreated to the old fortresses.
However, even those fortresses, neglected for a long time, were now becoming unstable in real-time, as the situation at the frontlines was rapidly worsening.
They collected exorbitant taxes in the name of wartime, but did they spend all that money just to be wiped out like this? How the hell did these idiots command their forces??
“Chairman, why has this fact been concealed? How could even I, the former deputy commander of the Northern Army, not have known about this?”
At my reprimand, General Albrecht von Albrecht let out a weary sigh.
“What can we do? It’s not like I wanted to hide it. His Majesty personally ordered the cover-up.”
“His Majesty?”
I can understand hiding the defeat from the public, but why conceal it from the senior generals?
“Until a year and a half ago, the Western front was still in decent shape. We even managed to occupy some of the Empire’s territory. But then the new commander was appointed, and everything fell apart.”
“Who is this commander? If someone who’s supposed to oversee the frontlines performed like this…”
“Sigmund von Liebert. The eldest son of the Liebert family.”
“Ah.”
Damn it, of all people, it had to be that guy.
When I was at the military academy, he was the idiot who got first in class just because of his family’s connections, acting like it was all his own talent.
“It seems he was envious of you, rising to the rank of Major General at such a young age and making a name for yourself. So, he forcibly took the position and ordered an offensive, which ended in disaster…”
“That’s enough explanation. I get the gist of it.”
No skill, no experience, just overreaching for glory and messing everything up… I didn’t need to hear more to know that.
The Liebert family is also the family of the current crown princess.
They must have tried to cover up the defeat for the sake of the royal family’s dignity.
“Damn it. It’s these idiotic nobles and royals that are going to ruin the country.”
“Didn’t your name also have ‘von’ in it?”
“That’s why I added ‘idiotic’ in front of it. No skill, yet they take high-ranking positions and have no idea what they’re doing.”
Hearing this, I can’t help but feel a strange sense of admiration for King Carl VII.
With one of the frontlines collapsed and our territory invaded, who would have thought that the king would reduce forces on other fronts just to buy jewelry? How far can our king’s incompetence go?
It’s a ridiculous situation, but it needs to be dealt with.
We’ve likely lost a significant amount of troops, so reinforcements need to be sent.
“Do we have any reserve troops available?”
“If we gather them from here and there, we can scrape together about 50,000.”
“The units that blocked the roads when I arrived…”
“That includes the new recruits in training. It’s difficult to send them all to the West. Some of the new recruits need to be sent to the South, East, and North for defense.”
50,000. And that’s only part of it.
It’s nowhere near enough. To recover the lost territory, we’ll need at least 70,000.
Only then can we stabilize the front-lines and start aiming for a counterattack.
Where can we find additional troops… Ah!
“Then let’s do this.”
“What do you mean?”
“The responsibility for this situation lies with the nobility and the royal family that turned a blind eye. So, shouldn’t we have them fix it with their own power?”
Let’s weaken the power of those who are in the way and collect the price for letting them sit idle all this time.
“We’ll conscript the private soldiers of the nobility. At most…”