Building a Viking Empire with Modern Industry-Chapter 69: Fortress Gambit

Leif the Lesser sat in his temporary office within the Governor’s Palace of York; the room was cluttered with cipher wheels and stacks of parchment.

He received a small, tightly rolled scroll which was carried by a pigeon from the south; in this scroll, it described the scene in which his brother Erik had witnessed the transaction between the Frankish Envoy and the Church’s messenger.

Leif tapped a charcoal pencil against his desk as he decoded the simple substitution cipher. He suspected sooner or later the Church would try to secure a beachhead; it was only a matter of time before the Bishop offered the Franks a port they could not refuse.

After reading the words the message contained, Leif burned it in a small brass bowl before leaving his room, seeking out Ragnar to inform him of the crucial issue at hand. Before long, he found Ragnar in the War Room reviewing the blueprints for the new sewage treatment plant of City Titan.

When Leif arrived in the study with a grim expression, Ragnar could guess that the "Raven Flight" had reported some troublesome market fluctuations, and as such, he immediately inquired about the details.

"Well, don’t keep the Board waiting..."

Leif immediately shut the heavy oak door behind him and informed Ragnar of the matters reported to him. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

"The Bishop’s messenger has promised the Franks the keys to Scarborough Fortress. They plan to open the sea gates on the night of the new moon. The Franks have accepted these terms, and thus in doing so, the Church has officially betrayed the neutrality of the North."

Ragnar contemplated what this meant for a few moments; the Order of the White Cross was sure to send their heavy cataphracts to secure the fortress, but the local Saxon garrison, on the other hand, would likely be massacred in their sleep.

He had greater ambitions than to simply defend the beaches of York, and by the time the Franks realized Scarborough was a trap, the Industrial Corps would have the "Welcome Committee" prepared.

This truly did not change Ragnar’s plans all that much. In fact, this could be considered a blessing in disguise; by handing over a strategic fortress to a foreign invader, the Church was giving him a justifiable reason to seize all ecclesiastical property in Northumbria. As such, Ragnar decided at that moment on his plans to acquire Scarborough from the Franks after they had done the hard work of taking it.

A cold, corporate grin spread across his face as he thought of such things, confusing Leif as that was not the reaction he was anticipating, forcing him to ask why the Director was behaving so oddly.

"Why are you smiling? Isn’t a fortress falling to the enemy a liability?"

Ragnar could not help but further smile at Leif’s response, but ultimately he decided to inform him of the changes to his business strategy.

"Actually quite the contrary, Leif. This is excellent market positioning!"

Leif looked at his Director as if he were suffering from heavy metal poisoning before expressing his doubts.

"How could a hostile landing be considered excellent positioning?"

Ragnar got up from his seat and walked over to the large map of England pinned to the wall, where he began to trace the coastline with his finger as he explained the depths of his plots.

"If the Franks land on the open beaches, they can spread out. Their cavalry can maneuver. They can raid the countryside and burn our supply lines. But Scarborough?"

Ragnar tapped the location of the fortress.

"Scarborough is a bottle. It has high walls and narrow streets. If they land there, they bottle themselves up. We don’t have to chase them across England. We just have to march to Scarborough and seal the lid!"

Leif’s gaze shifted from one of looking at a madman to looking at a logistician.

He struggled to believe Ragnar came up with such a counter-intuitive scheme directly after hearing about the news he thought was catastrophic. This was why he was the man Leif followed, calculating but fair to his employees while being utterly ruthless to his competitors as a true CEO should be!

At this point, Ragnar viewed the Franks not as soldiers, but as a delivery service bringing high-quality plate armor right to his doorstep.

If the Emperor of Frankia realized that his "Crusade" was essentially a donation of steel assets to Jernheim, he would do his damnedest to personally fire the Bishop for leaking the intel. Ragnar no longer questioned the outcome; the physics of the battlefield favored the defender; as such, he merely poured two cups of ale and handed one to his Spymaster.

However, it was not long before he heard a heavy knock on the door interrupting his strategizing, as such Ragnar ceased his gloating and answered the door where he saw the massive figure of General Bjorn; the man immediately realized he was interrupting a high-level meeting by the intense atmosphere in the room.

However, since he was already here, he decided to attempt to give his report.

"Director, may I have a minute?"

Ragnar nodded and allowed Bjorn into the room, where he proceeded to sit down before the desk and look at the map.

After taking a swig from the ale Ragnar offered, Bjorn motioned for permission to speak.

"Go on..."

As such, Bjorn stood at attention with a look of professional satisfaction on his face.

"Director, the recruitment drive in East Anglia exceeded projections. We have so many volunteers joining our forces from the refugee populations that we have completely filled the ranks of the ’Heavy Assets’ division. As such, I require a directive on where I should focus the specialized training?"

Ragnar thought about it for a moment before he issued his decree.

"We should focus on establishing two full battalions of ’Can-Openers’ the Lucerne Hammer squads. A minimum of 1,000 men. They need to drill the anti-cavalry formation until they can do it in their sleep. Any additional men should be assigned to the ’Range Department’ to operate the new Torsion Spikes. Send the expense report to Gyda when it is drafted, and I will approve the overtime pay."

After hearing his Director’s orders, Bjorn pounded his chest in a salute and marched off after accepting the terms.

"It will be done, Director!"

Leif looked in shock as he realized that Ragnar’s military might would be greatly expanding soon; 1,000 specialized shock troops was no small amount, even by the standards of a King, luckily his acquisition of Guthrum’s treasury allowed him to afford to outfit so many men with high-quality steel.

Knowing the technological edge in which his forces had, Leif could not help but think that Ragnar’s army would soon be the most efficient liquidation team in Europe.

Ragnar, on the other hand, was satisfied with the results of his recruitment drive.

He was certain that before the Order of the White Cross arrived, he would have 3 full battalions of pike-and-hammer infantry, roughly 3,000 men in total, a mobile cavalry wing numbering 500 men equipped with repeating crossbows, and a siege engineer corps capable of turning Scarborough into a flaming tomb. All in all, his army would be capable of defeating whatever force the Franks brought across the channel, so long as they were foolish enough to stay inside the fortress walls.

Just like this, a counter-conspiracy to the Church’s plots was put in place to acquire the assets of the invaders utterly, and by extension, expand the Empire’s real estate portfolio.