Chapter 186: Chapter 88: Merlin Unemployed! The Kent kingdom was destroyed within half a month.
The Seven Kingdoms Era of Great Britain is still in its infancy, essentially a loose tribal informal alliance. In fact, Duncan didn’t just destroy one country; he also incidentally wiped out what would become the future West Saxon kingdom.
In this era of England, just a few thousand people would dare call themselves a kingdom, with territories possibly the size of just one or two counties.
East Anglia is one of the future formal Seven Kingdoms, but its territory only includes Norfolk and Suffolk, which is smaller than a large prefecture-level city. Duncan was caught off guard when, a few days later, Kvito gleefully reported that he had destroyed a small kingdom established by the Anglo people.
Very well.
This act of annihilation is enough to elevate him to nobility, considering he was one of the earliest commanders to follow Duncan. Among the exiles, some should be ennobled.
Duncan finally set up a defensive line at Oxford and Cambridge.
Because his territory was already contiguous with King Uther’s, he had nearly taken all the land south of Great Britain. Pushing further north would lead to Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, eventually advancing to the vicinity of Hadrian’s Wall.
But taking over the land is easy; defending it is quite vexing, especially in the absence of a strong navy in Great Britain.
Duncan’s next plan is to consolidate his territory.
With his current strength, reaching the vicinity of Hadrian’s Wall is no difficulty at all. The challenge lies in how to guard against the raids and harassment from the Scottish barbarians.
"Great Britain’s dog-bitten coastline needs defense everywhere."
Duncan spread open the map before him, which he drew based on his memory, ensuring no major errors. He glanced at places like Kent, South Saxe, Hampshire, Dorset, and East Saxons, and thought to himself, "These areas can only be fully fortified with coastal guards."
"Deploy British Coastal Guard militia in these places, allowing them to farm while defending, reviving local productivity."
"Elite troops stationed around the London area."
"Send part of the British Legion to guard places like London Port, Kent Port, and Southampton Port."
"Recruit security personnel separately."
"Initially, military soldiers are responsible, later training a dedicated police force to maintain law and order."
Duncan planned to strengthen Great Britain directly; the tribal infighting of the Barbarians from before must be suppressed, strengthening the role of law. Setting up courts and judges to replace the original tribal clans system, and concentrating populations around urban areas, focusing on developing regions with advantageous terrain.
Currently holding the fertile plains near London, Duncan obviously aims to develop London first, then support the surrounding barren lands.
"Territory: London (medium-sized port city) (expandable)."
"Roads: paved stone roads (good road conditions, can build Four Directions Avenue)."
"Agricultural level: upper-middle (irrigational ditches, manor construction, plain advantages, river advantages, belonging to the upper-middle level in the current era.)"[Thanks to the River Thames, the land around London easily yields abundant harvests.]
"Commercial level: moderate (has river ports and sea ports, thriving fisheries, convenient transportation, geographically superior, but not fully developed yet.)"[Relevant personnel Anya is restoring commercial economic activities.]
"Technological level: lower-middle (lagging forging techniques, but has a forge factory.)"[Relevant talents are rebuilding the library.]
"Environment: poor (open channels not cleaned, Barbarians abandoned the city’s sewage system)."
"Temple architecture: small Viking Holy Sanctuary (dedicated to Odin), Arian Church, small Hermitage (abandoned), Avalon sacrificial stone."
London, what can we say about it?
Other occupied areas might yield only hundreds of gold coins in taxes a year, but London alone can reach five or six thousand gold coins annually, equivalent to the economic scale of about ten county towns. (Commercial aspect)
This is when Duncan hasn’t heavily developed it yet, its strategic position is equivalent to important coastal port cities like the Pearl River Delta.
"Although the Governor of the Province of Britannia."
"The system still follows the imperial monarchy, taking big steps can lead to setbacks, and I also need centralized power."
"Directly use British noble ranks."
Duncan is planning the future of Great Britain; only he can do this. Strictly speaking, he’s not particularly skilled in this area; if the future really leads back to Europe, he’ll most likely adopt part of the Holy Roman Empire’s system.
No empire can rise uninterrupted; the cycle of history is unavoidable.
The great trend of the world: long division must unite, long unity must divide.
Duncan’s ideal plan is to conquer a vast empire spanning across Europe, Asia, and Africa, ideally replacing Charlemagne’s title with that of a great conqueror and ultimately creating a super-edition of the ’Holy Roman Empire.’
As for the future historical direction, it has to wait for the era’s technological tree to climb up, because the territory is too large to manage it all, eventual division is inevitable.
"My primary goal is the Legendary Level."
Duncan sorted his thoughts and picked up a list, which contains the names of those to be ennobled, divided according to ranks: duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron. Below these, he would set up the lowest levels of knights and sirs. Knights generally follow the warrior’s promotion path, while sirs are specifically prepared for civil official routes; under specific circumstances, they can also be bought, such as when Duncan’s military budget is tight.
Noble titles are merely symbols of status, not representatives of power; Duncan wants centralized power and hence cannot create small feudal kingdoms of varying sizes.
"For other matters, study while advancing them."
"Great Britain is small enough to manage for now."
Duncan is open-minded in this area; if one day the empire he establishes collapses, it wouldn’t surprise him. Because the birth of an empire is already a blessing for countless people in this chaotic era, at least they can still embrace centuries-long periods of peace.
After the Kent kingdom’s fall.
Most people around Duncan were overwhelmingly busy, Severus was even busier, barely visible throughout the day.
In contrast, Duncan himself was quite leisurely.
Everyone seemed accustomed to Duncan setting a grand direction, with the details handled by professionals. In this era, there weren’t too many major events; the most important things were ’farming and fighting,’ with fighting done, the next focus was farming, restoring production after decades of turmoil on Great Britain.
In a word, it’s all for ’money and food.’
Anya was figuring out ways to gather funds, while Severus was trying to gather food supplies, aiming to sow another wave of crops this year, so that next year the large-scale migrating exiles wouldn’t worry about food shortages.