The crowd praised him like a flock of screaming ducks, but Aegon did not take it to heart.
What he wanted was never flattery, but the solid combat effectiveness of this troop, yet the current situation could only be ironed out slowly.
Just at this moment, feeling something in his heart, he opened the light curtain with his mind, clicked on the exclamation mark in the upper right corner, and a prompt came into view:
[Congratulations on obtaining the title — Cavalry Commander]
[Dominion + 1]
[Reward obtained: character submission card * 3]
[Reward obtained: C-rank Charm Fragment * 2 (2 / 5)]
Looking at the string of rewards, Aegon felt a sense of realization.
Sure enough, after the game system merged with the real world, some changes had still taken place.
‘Although I have bought the position of Cavalry Commander, the soldiers did not recognize me at first.’
‘As a leader or chieftain, if one cannot bring benefits to followers, one will slowly lose popular support; at the very least, one must not harm their interests, otherwise they will be overthrown sooner or later.’
‘A king must make his citizens prosperous and well, generals must lead their soldiers to victory, and merchants must give workers good pay—it is actually all the same principle.’
Aegon thought to himself, a flash of comprehension dawning in his heart.
He began to look at the other rewards.
Dominion + 1 went without saying; he would at least have to wait until his dominion reached 10 before he could claim the first reward.
‘Character submission card’ had some talking points.
Aegon opened the introduction regarding this reward, and saw it said:
[As a king, it is impossible to govern the kingdom by fighting alone under any circumstances; knowing people and using them well is the core.
Whether a minister shares the same philosophy as you or simply follows the king personally, they can become your assistance.]
[Note: After harvesting a follower, you can acquire one of the other party’s skills.]
In other words, this character submission card was meant for building a reliable team for oneself or recruiting underlings.
Aegon looked at the soldiers carefully putting away their debt contracts…
Well, never mind; perhaps when conscripting again later, there would be the talents he wanted.
Finally, there were the charm upgrade card fragments.
As a king or leader, looking upright and proper was an important factor affecting charm; after all, no one was willing to follow a wretched-looking person.
Temperament and bearing, character and capability were also very important.
As a Targaryen, Aegon’s looks were beyond reproach, but those solid and genuine skills were the biggest factor restricting charm.
After charm was enhanced, there would also be a considerable boost to the consolidation of one’s own power, and it would be much easier to encounter talents one wanted to recruit.
Currently, three more charm fragments were needed for Aegon’s charm to reach C-rank.
This inevitably gave rise to his desire for ‘promotion’.
Furthermore, perhaps because Aegon helped them solve a part of their debt problem, these ‘wage-earner soldiers’ developed a slight sense of cohesion.
The task progress of the quest ‘Army Building’ also increased by five percentage points.
‘Don’t rush, take it slow.’ Aegon calmed himself down, then took a deep breath and commanded the soldiers in a deep voice:
“Everyone gather and form up!
Begin training!”
…
…
On the docks, the towlines were gnawing at the shoulders of the trackers, and the salt crystals left behind after the sweat evaporated penetrated deep into the wounds, feeling like needle pricks.
Yet the cargo at the port was still piling up bit by bit.
“Where have the grooms gone?
Why are they so slow today!” spoke a man wearing rings and holding an account book.
He stood under a sun umbrella to supervise the work, but the sweat on his forehead kept seeping out in layers, which made his temper increasingly irritable.
The grooms in the mouth of this supervisor-cum-steward were precisely the cavalry of Pentos.
Although they were no good at fighting, they were familiar with horses’ tempers, and acting as coachmen or grooms was a breeze.
Those cavalrymen were also glad to earn some pocket money, and as time went on, no one treated them as soldiers anymore, viewing them only as grooms with slightly better skills.
“I’ve looked for them, and they said they have to train.”
“Train?
Train for what?
With that look of theirs, what is there to train?” The speaker let out a snort of derision, as if hearing some joke.
“It is said that the new boss requested it.”
“New?
Who?”
“It seems to be Illyrio’s son.”
The subordinate’s words left this steward man somewhat puzzled.
The army of Pentos now was merely a shell, having long been hollowed out by the magisters.
Every magister who bought a position in the army only thought about how to rake in money.
But this greenhorn actually wanted to lead them in training?
Could it be that he still wanted to train them into a real army?
“Training?
Don’t those soldiers need to work to pay off their debts?”
“That’s still unclear.
If you are interested, I can go ask.”
No one ever expected the cavalry corps to charge forward; past officers only knew how to order them to work, always treating these cavalrymen as grooms.
“I heard that Illyrio spoiled this son a long time ago.
Back then, in order to marry his mother, Illyrio even rejected a marriage alliance with the Prince.”
“Haha, the Prince?” The steward shook his head.
“Rejecting it was the right choice.
Who would want to deal with a Prince who doesn’t know when he’ll die.”
In Pentos, the title of Prince merely sounded intimidating.
Although Princes were all chosen from noble-blooded families, in reality, if natural disasters or droughts occurred, the magisters would kill the Prince to appease the wrath of the gods—to put it bluntly, he was just a tool to pacify the discontent of the commoners.
Not only natural disasters, but if a war failed, they would also pin this account on the Prince and kill him as a sacrifice.
Among the various mercenary companies active in the Free Cities, there was one called ‘The Windblown’, and their mercenary commander was known as the ‘Tattered Prince’.
Because this Prince was afraid of being sacrificed, he fled overnight after being selected as Prince, and established a mercenary company several years later.
It was said that his goal was to one day seize Pentos and become a true Prince with real power.
Only it was said that he was now nearly seventy years old; let alone seizing Pentos, even returning to Pentos was a long shot.
“I don’t care whether they train or not, our goods must be transported to the warehouse in time.
Do not let this happen again next time!”
The steward’s face was cold, carrying a trace of sinister gloom.
That chilling tone seemed to make the heat of the sun fail for a few seconds.
“As you command, my lord.”
…
…
The difficult problem of training was temporarily resolved, but the problems of equipment and soldiers remained unresolved, and solving these problems required a large amount of money.
The full establishment of the cavalry was three hundred men, and now it was still short of more than two hundred men, while horses were likewise missing more than two hundred.
Procuring equipment and recruiting hands simply could not be accomplished by him alone.
The military pay of the Pentos army was squeezed layer by layer.
Even if he, as the commanding officer, did not profit from it, relying on the normal quota could at most expand by twenty or thirty more men; this scale was merely a drop in the bucket.
The swarm of magister’s sons profiting from the army had long formed a huge network of interests.
Take the commander-in-chief of the army for example; he was the person who pocketed pay for ghost soldiers most severely.
As likely as not, out of the ghost pay for over ten thousand men, he alone could swallow two or three thousand.
Aegon understood in his heart that if he rashly started a rectification from the military pay, he would immediately suffer joint suppression from everyone.
He would not recklessly butt heads head-on; doing so would not only fail to achieve his goal, but would also completely drag himself into it.
Persimmons should be picked when soft; the current solution was to go find Illyrio and squeeze some money out of him.