Building a Viking Empire with Modern Industry-Chapter 109: The Age of Kings

At the moment, Ragnar was standing in the middle of the Great Hall of Leicester; after a well-calculated siege, the enemy had conceded and was kneeling before him.

With the collapse in the market confidence of the city the night prior, it did not take long for the pragmatic Mayor within to surrender the Guild Hall and the City to Ragnar. A few whistle blasts from the locomotive, and he quickly waved the white flag, scurrying for Ragnar’s investment.

With Leicester and Northampton audited, all that remained in Project: Iron Horse was the integration of the Thames Valley, and news of the successful "Lunch Break Maneuver" in that area would soon follow.

As such, Ragnar was smiling at the defeated Mayor, who happened to be one of the cousins of the Earl who ruled over this area.

Though the man was trusted with the region’s fiscal policy by his elder cousin, he had utterly failed to diversify his portfolio.

The resistance in the Midlands had come crashing down around the thermodynamics of Ragnar’s army, and few places still harbored ill sentiments towards Ragnar’s campaign.

At the moment, Ragnar was speaking with the Mayor, who was kneeling before him like a junior partner.

"I will not terminate your contract for your cousin’s inefficiency. Since you have surrendered willingly, you will be afforded the same benefits I treat all of my Regional Managers. However, Leicester is under my direct supervision until the Grand Trunk Line is fully operational."

The Mayor was sweating buckets as he kneeled before Ragnar, not willing to look into the young Director’s calculating blue eyes.

He had never seen a hostile takeover executed so quickly before, nor had he witnessed such a blatant disregard for feudal tradition.

The rapid speed in which Ragnar seized control of Leicester was unprecedented—well, unless you count his other acquisitions.

Truly the business models of English warfare would change when the Ealdormen of the island eventually came to know the effectiveness of his supply chain.

As such, the man kept his head bent low as he thanked Ragnar for his severance package.

"Director, I thank you on behalf of myself and the Guilds for sparing our warehouses!"

The Church had taken advantage of Ragnar’s expansion to spread rumors about alleged wicked acts of his army and himself.

Despite conducting themselves with a degree of professionalism not commonly found in this dark age, his army was branded as "soul-stealing mechanics" by the Bishop of Winchester. As such, the fear in the Mayor’s eyes was understandable; he was clearly a man who believed everything the priests told him about steam engines eating babies. Ragnar had no use for such superstition in his boardroom.

That’s right, his Boardroom. As far as Ragnar was concerned, there was only one way for this merger to end up: with him being recognized as the Director of Infrastructure for all of England.

Though at the moment he was unaware of Queen Eadburh’s decision to aid him in this regard, Ragnar was still confident he would get the monopoly he wanted.

Thus he looked at the Mayor in front of him with a mixture of pity and ambition as the man was led away to the re-education seminar.

Afterward, Ragnar sat down on the high seat of Leicester and gave his orders to General Bjorn.

"Prepare the rolling stock. Leave a Franchise Garrison of 500 men. We will prepare our workforce for a push into the Thames Valley when we have refueled the locomotive. For now, enjoy the local ale, but make sure to follow the Employee Handbook I have set forth; if I find anyone who dares to loot, pillage, burn assets, or cause unnecessary downtime to the civilians, I will have them placed before a Torsion Spike squad. Do I make myself clear?"

With that said, the voices of the soldiers under Ragnar’s command who had gathered in the Great Hall of Leicester voiced their support in unison, slamming their fists on their breastplates. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Efficiency is Victory!"

Afterward, his forces dispersed to secure the alehouses, and Ragnar was given a reprieve from the endless digging and whistling that had been going on since the beginning of his audit.

He initially planned to march on Winchester in another month; this would give him time to lay more track and solidify his logistics.

With many armed "Franchise Garrisons" stationed throughout the Midlands enforcing his zoning laws upon the local Thanes.

After all, for the many changes he had planned to the structure of society the luddite rebellion was inevitable.

He wanted his troops in place to counteract any union strikes that might arise from the noblemen who were disgruntled by his changes to their serfdom.

Thus he intended to begin the construction of small "Station Depots" in the conquered regions and house them with garrisons of local interns until the day where he incorporated the entirety of Mercia into his political, economic, industrial, and railway reforms.

After a few days of rest, a messenger came to Ragnar and handed him a series of invoices, which different people wrote, but each contained important data for his war efforts.

The first came from Gyda in City Titan. It claimed to have convinced Queen Eadburh to support him in his bid for the Midlands; in fact, the former Queen openly denounced her late husband’s poor fiscal policies and praised the "Canning Technology" of the North.

The next two letters were from General Bjorn and Leif the Elder, informing Ragnar that they had secured their targets.. Northampton was pacified, and the bridge at the Thames was fully operational.

Project: Iron Horse had become an enormous success. Ragnar now held the key logistical bottlenecks of the island; with it, the remaining Saxon regions would fall into Ragnar’s hands in weeks due to sheer economic pressure.

The next letter was the most important report he had received, and it was written by Princess Judith, informing him that King Aethelred had returned to Winchester, humiliated but alive.

However, the letter contained a warning: The Church, furious at the King’s capitulation at the bridge, was rallying a "Crusade against the Machine." The Bishop of Winchester was calling for every pious man in Wessex to march on the railway and tear up the tracks.

When Ragnar read this news, he realized he would have to push forward his timetables.

If he could not secure Winchester before the fanatics mobilized, then the King would surely be overthrown by the Church, and a new, more irrational leader would rise.

At the moment, that justification was the fact that the Church had openly declared war on "Science." Realizing that Ragnar no longer had the luxury to wait for more coal shipments, he quickly wrote a pair of memos and sent them with a rider off to Bjorn and Leif.

The memos contained their further orders: Bjorn would leave a skeleton crew behind and march on the town of Reading, securing the flank.

As for Ragnar and the "Screaming Kettle," they would roll directly to Winchester. They simply did not have the time to wait for the track to cure properly.

After sending the memos, Ragnar quickly gathered his officers where they were confused by the unscheduled meeting but were eager to listen to Ragnar’s quarterly projection.

As such, Ragnar cut to the chase and informed his troops of his monumental decision.

"The fanatical Bishop is rallying a mob to destroy our assets. It is a matter of days before they start ripping up the rails..."

With this said, the room murmured with anger.

This meant that their hard work might be undone by luddites.

However, Ragnar shocked them by raising his hand and silencing the room; he pointed in the direction of the map in front of them, which landed directly on the capital of Wessex. Ragnar had a fierce and determined gaze in his eyes as he gave his decree.

"Because of this, we will have to act quickly if we wish to save the Market in its entirety; as you all know, the Church has been spreading libel about our steam engine. If we do not confront them now, we will allow the priests to dictate the future of technology. As such, I hereby declare that tomorrow morning, our forces.. aside from a small garrison of 250 men designed to maintain the station.. will board the train and the wagons. We march upon Winchester, where we will acquire the capital within the next week and incorporate it into the Common Market!"

The Officers were shocked at first by this news; however, when thinking of the potential bonuses they could gain by seizing the wealthy capital of Wessex, their eyes glistened with greed.

With the new territory under his control, Ragnar would need to appoint Site Managers of higher regard to run it for him.

Since positions in his corporate structure were based largely upon merit, the more capable one proved themselves as a leader in the upcoming conflict, the better their chances to become a Regional VP.

Thus the passion for this hostile takeover was far greater than that of the audit of the Midlands, and every man desired to do their part to gain a prestigious position and untold wealth from the annexation of the South.

As for Ragnar, he was excited by the fact that he could finally deal a great blow to the Luddites who had made him their enemy.

If they thought a mob with pitchforks would be enough to stop a locomotive in a few months, they were sadly mistaken.

With his orders being given, the Officers quickly relayed them to their troops.

Ragnar took a sip of his "Black Broth" as he gazed at the map of this island. Further strengthening the resolve he had to become an unrivaled Industrialist, the acquisition of Leicester and the Thames was only the beginning!

"Leif!" Ragnar shouted down the hall.

The soot-stained engineer appeared. "Director?"

"Overload the safety valve," Ragnar ordered, his eyes gleaming. "We are going to Winchester at full steam.."