Chapter 455: The Great Migration
Under the barrels of the Border City Alliance army, all adult males in the occupied territories were forcibly conscripted. It didn’t matter if they were lowly commoners or high-ranking nobles before; now they were all insignificant members of the draft. The only difference was whether they would expend one or two bullets of the enemy in the future, or choose to disobey orders and stain the bayonets of the Border City Alliance soldiers with their own blood.
Human life was so cheap, let alone anything else.
Whether rich or poor, everything they once owned now belonged to the Border City Alliance. This made many nobles who had written to pledge their allegiance to the Border City Alliance regret their decision. They thought if they had known this earlier, they should have directly surrendered to the Glory Alliance. At least the Glory Alliance recognized the titles of the Northern nobles and allowed them to keep their wealth.
But now it was too late for regrets. They had lost their alliance army, lost their leading council members, and had not resisted when they were forcibly conscripted. What could they do now, locked up in the barracks? If they really dared to do anything, the surrounding Border City Alliance soldiers would definitely show them what it meant to kill without blinking.
Resistance was impossible. They didn’t even have weapons, only rudimentary tools. So they were soon pointed at with guns by the Border City Alliance soldiers and forced to dig trenches and build fortifications. Their days were miserable.
Even more tragic, their families did not escape the calamity. All their food and wealth were systematically plundered by the Border City Alliance soldiers. Not even a single piece of bread or an iron nail was left behind. Even their houses were requisitioned, leaving them with only the clothes on their backs. This showed how ruthless the plunder was.
Because they had lost everything, they had to work according to the orders of the Border City Alliance if they wanted to survive. Only in this way could they obtain the bare minimum of food to fill their stomachs.
Therefore, even if you were a nobleman who gave eloquent speeches the day before, or a noblewoman at a banquet, you now had to sell your labor to get food to survive. You might even be beaten because you couldn’t work as well as a commoner. Life was simply worse than death.
The Border City Alliance’s blatant actions and cruel, immoral methods immediately caused panic among the members of the half of the Noble Alliance that belonged to the Glory Alliance.
This kind of large-scale migration should have encountered tremendous resistance, but everything was relative. Looking at the miserable situation in the areas occupied by the Border City Alliance, even the destitute commoners were unwilling to stay. After all, the Glory Alliance not only provided the food needed for migration but also promised to allocate land. As long as they were willing to leave, they would have land. Therefore, the vast majority of people were willing to leave their homes, which were about to become a gruesome battlefield.
This was also related to the fact that the residents of the Northland were all migrants. Although they were reluctant to leave their homeland, they were not overly resistant to the idea. After all, their ancestors had come this way, and now they were just doing it again.
Even so, the planning still gave the grassroots administrators who were responsible for implementing it a big headache.
Even so, the entire territory’s administrative staff were going crazy. After all, this was a migration of over a million people, which required them to take every aspect into account. The workload was simply overwhelming.
At this time, the second batch of 100,000 reserve troops had completed their reorganization. They escorted a large number of supplies, and protected the territory’s grassroots administrators and monks as they traveled to Mara City.
Fortunately, the Glory Alliance did not enforce conscription. Apart from reorganizing the surrendered Alliance army, they hired a large number of laborers to cooperate with the reserve troops in building fortifications on the border. This gave the nobles a sigh of relief, and they became more cooperative, for fear that the Glory Alliance would find an excuse to confiscate their property and exterminate their families.
If it weren’t for the fact that 100,000 of the migrants were from Ferrier City and Solari City, belonging to the system-converted population and able to play a leading role, the grassroots administrators would have had an even bigger headache.
In an era of widespread lack of education, the actions of the nobles were more like a weather vane. So once they left, those who were still hesitant immediately abandoned their houses and fields and chose to migrate together.
It was like a snowball effect. At first, only the destitute commoners chose to migrate, and the number was not very large.
Later, commoners and nobles joined in, and the scale grew larger and larger, from a few thousand, tens of thousands to millions. The increase was so great that even the territory’s administrative staff felt immense pressure.
Without water, it would be a wasteland. Without arable land, it would not last long. Moreover, the water and soil of a place could only support a limited population. It was necessary to consider the issue of population growth and plan for at least a hundred years of development, which made things even more complicated.
Thinking about the life their counterparts were living in the areas occupied by the Border City Alliance, exchanging their territories for new ones was not unacceptable. Not to mention safety, at least their titles would be recognized, and they would still receive territories of the same size. As for the population, as long as they had money, they could just hire people. It was better than staying and waiting to die.
Resettlement of the population was not something that could be done casually. Even in modern times, it was impossible to ignore the two conditions of water and soil.
Here, they would register and allocate land for the millions of migrants. They would also become the administrators and preachers of future towns, completely branded with the mark of the territory.
It wasn’t long before even the nobles of the original Noble Alliance couldn’t hold on any longer.
Fortunately, the territory had been prepared for this. Tens of thousands of reserve troops had built good roads and a large number of relay stations between the Glory Alliance and the Noble Alliance in advance, providing the necessary food, water, and medical care to ensure that the migration would not become a road to death.
If it weren’t for the fact that Flame Empress’ crystal ball extensions were already in widespread use in the territory, making data statistics and scheduling incredibly fast, coupled with the obedience of the territory’s population, it would be difficult to say what would have happened.
In contrast, the Glory Alliance was much slower. They only recruited some able-bodied young men to work and then continuously migrated people to the territory to fill the vast uninhabited area between North City and Mara City, expanding the territory’s development area.
If it weren’t for Flame Empress and the One-Eyed Giant Eagle acting as a satellite, the manpower, material resources, and time required to complete the planning would have been enough to drive anyone crazy.
Soon, a large number of trenches and fortifications appeared on the border where the two armies were facing off. However, the Border City Alliance was faster and more efficient. Even the cities near the border were built into war fortresses, and the materials used were the houses of the people living in the cities. It could be said that everything in the areas occupied by the Border City Alliance was for war. Therefore, even though they only occupied 40% of the population and territory, they still held their ground.
More and more people chose to migrate. Losing so much of the population, even if they had land, it would be useless. What’s more, the outcome of this battle was unknown. If the Glory Alliance was defeated, they would fall into the hands of the Border City Alliance.
To reduce the risk and strengthen management, after settling the first batch of migrants, the territory began to hire laborers on a large scale, preparing to improve the long-planned transportation network.
The territory liked to build roads, but they couldn’t build them into uninhabited areas. Therefore, after settling the migrants, convenient and fast roads were necessary for future management. So, with the main road between North City and Mara City as the core, branch roads extended in all directions. To increase efficiency, the territory even planned to build a railway. After all, after the war was won, the land of the Noble Alliance would also belong to the territory. By then, it would be impossible to transport goods and people over such a long distance by carriage or by vehicles that were not yet fully mature.
Once the transportation network plan was completed, the entire territory would be completely connected. Even if there was a large unconverted population, after learning that the territory’s army could reach any place within a day, they would all choose to keep their little schemes to themselves.
