Finnish recruitment crisis
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I passed the exam on Monday, I only have to take the exam on Friday, and I will have 3 weeks off, where I will offer you daily chapters and with the possibility of extra chapters up to three of them a day.
later I will upload a NOTICE chapter where I will submit to popular vote how we decide the extra chapters (stones, comments, reviews).
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-Third person
Tumbleton had become the example of a perfect city, crime did not exist, since the arrival of the Finns crime had become a thing of the past.
The merchants had begun to leave their goods in the open air unattended in confidence that nothing would happen, for in recent days all criminals had been subjected to horrible punishments or taken to forced labor in one of the coal mines that were found in the area and the Prussians demanded huge amounts of the material that was extracted in exchange for the tax that the Finns happened to pay.
For the thieves and criminals it was not easy to make a living when they faced enemies who knew almost everything that happened in their territories, the few who stayed only to go to another city or just hid like rats before the constant patrols of the Finns who controlled the city with an iron fist.
The citizens of tumbleton understood after several weeks of getting used to their new rulers, that if they behaved in certain ways, the Finns would stop meddling in their affairs, in time they began to get used to the grim looks of the Finns when they passed by their houses.
Furthermore, that the Finns were among the first who began to marry local women en masse, for unlike the Prussians it was a duty and a responsibility to have children not just out of a desire
Since their ancestral deal was simple, land for services.
The Prussians gave land to the Finns, almost total autonomy, religious freedom and tax exemption, in return they had to give their sons to the armies of the Prussian kings, the Prussian nobles offered their first born son or the strongest one to the Teutonic order, the Finns offered them all
The Finns had already passed the first period where they had to deliver the spears for the Prussian army, but the Finns had no way to deliver what now seemed a huge tribute, one hundred thousand spears was what they had to deliver every year, but this was the first year that the quota had not been fulfilled and it was driving the Finnish leaders crazy everywhere.
Such was the desperation that the Prussian orphanages in the area had only girls, as the Finns adopted all the boys in the hope of educating them in their culture and toughening them up enough to meet the huge quota.
They had opened their nuclear families and took all the war orphans into their family, treating them as if they were their own children, educating, training and protecting them until they were ready to be handed over to the army, the problem was time.
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''We have to do something!, we can't abuse the generosity of our king'' said the Finnish governor as he growled.
''We can't do anything, it will take a long time before we can reestablish the chain of recruits, we have no one to train, there are very few who can even be trained among our sons'' replied a Finnish captain as he put his pen in the inkwell
''What if we train the locals?, we can get some recruits if we train the ones who are willing'' said a Finnish sergeant
''We can't, they might have hidden loyalties, we already took too many risks by mass adopting our children, we can't take another risk, if loyalty is still with the faith of the seven, they are a danger we will have to watch out for always'' replied the Finnish governor
''We can always go back to kidnapping, we can travel into the small Westerosian villages and kidnap the younger children so that we can train them and raise them as one of our own'' said another Finnish captain.
''Difficult, this is not kidnapping nobles from other nations we are enemies with, if we get caught we will make life very difficult for our king, if we do it must be with great caution, which will make it costly and will require many hands for each kidnapping'' replied a Finnish sergeant with a worried tone.
''We have the gold we can pay, some westeroses would be happy to give us their children, one less mouth to feed, we only have to offer them the gold, in the northern lands they let children die because they don't have the food to survive, their families will receive us very happily if we give them gold for them'' said a Finnish nobleman
''But wouldn't that be slavery?'', said the Finnish sergeant a bit nervous
''We would take care of them as our children, no difference between our own blood, but I prefer to bear the stain of being a slaver or a kidnapper, before they condemn all of us as oath breakers, if it is the only way to pay our debt to the Hohenzollern it must be done'' said the governor with a cold tone
''My family was among the first to receive the deal, the Prussians welcomed us with open arms giving us the most fertile land in the Baltic, again the Hohenzollern gave us even more fertile land, even without the need or obligation to do so, but we failed this year and we will not fail on our debt ever again, we will do whatever it takes to fulfill it, so set the plans in motion, we will do whatever it takes, but we will fulfill our deal, no matter what, no matter what, no matter what, I will not be the one to fail our king,'' said the Finnish governor as his hands trembled.
The Finns had already started to get up from their chairs to begin to deploy, but the door of the hall where the officials were gathered burst open.
''The person you've been crying for has arrived,'' said Aleksanteri without his mask.
''Aleksanteri, excuse me, but we should have started the meeting without you, we couldn't keep waiting for an answer, we can't keep idle while our ancestral debt to the Hohenzollern is piling up'' said the governor with his head lowered.
''Easy, I was a bit late...lothar is a tough nut to crack and his training is not to be taken lightly, about the debt to the Prussians I pulled some strings with our king and got the debt lowered and readjusted to something possible'' said Aleksanteri smiling showing off his perfect teeth
''That's great Aleksanteri, what did you get?'', asked the governor excitedly.
''Well, I got them to reduce the number of men we must contribute to the Prussian army every year, you know the king, not someone who demands the impossible, he only asks us for three thousand spears every year and it will increase with time until one day we can offer again what we used to'' said Aleksanteri.
The governor and some nobles showed faces of happiness only to show anxious and desperate faces again
''How many spears can we bring next year?'', said Aleksanteri without smiling.
''Six maybe ten, if we are lucky and they would not be of the same quality as always, they would be from the children we adopted, they would not have the same training, they would not have earned their helmet, I could not even guarantee their blind loyalty to the king'' said the governor trying to hide his face with his hands.
''Wow, terrible news, well and what are the plans... bring me up to date'' Aleksanteri said as he sat in a chair and looked intently at governor and his advisors.
''We would kidnap again, children between the ages of three and ten, malleable minds that would allow us to educate them and raise them in a couple of years into respectable members of our society, in six years we could generate a steady recruitment, my wife is already pregnant as are those of many more in nine years for nobles and fifteen for commoners we could have Finnish recruits, the problem is that the reach is too soft a climate, they will lack the toughness to survive and here there are almost no wolves to make the hunting test to earn their helmet''said the governor with a serious tone.
''We also plan to buy the children that families seek to get rid of, with the famine plaguing some lands we may be able to get some children, depending on the age we may have recruits in a decade, those are our plans Aleksanteri'' said the governor keeping the seriousness in his tone of voice
''Wow, we are more screwed than I thought, well, we must continue with the coal mining, the Prussians want it and we have it we can pay this year's tribute in coal, so keep getting the prisoners sent to us by the cities, so the mine will produce as much as it can'' said Aleksanteri while trying to think
''Next year will be the problem, the king may lose patience and take away our freedoms if we don't comply, so we must work on getting recruits, preferably, from hard places... the map of the seven kingdoms... fast'' Aleksanteri said clapping his hands together.
The Finns began to pull out their maps, as they had spent the last few months sending their best cartographers around the seven kingdoms to get the most accurate map possible of the realm and to get a better understanding of the geography where they were sending their men.
''First place where we can appropriate children, the wild clans of the vale, there are several clans, we can attack them and kill them, keep their children, the children should be pretty tough, they lead a wild life... who will be willing to adopt them into their family
''Me, I have already adopted six, 6 westerosis children, I don't mind adopting another six if necessary'' said a captain.
''I don't have a problem either, I will adopt as many as I can afford on my salary'' said the governor.
Several Finns started to say that they wouldn't have any problems either
''Great, lord Arryn will be pleased when he finds out we pacified his lands, maybe we can get some gold out of the old lord, ha, h, ha, ha'' said Aleksanteri
''The north, cold land with many wild animals, children with resistance to cold and raised as hard as us, difficult, difficult, we could only take advantage of their culture, to abandon children in case of famine, little to do, I am interested in the Crannogmen, they are said to be good hunters and fight with guerrilla tactics, but they are very reclusive, we may not be able to get volunteer recruits'' Aleksanteri continued speaking while touching the part of the neck on the map.
''Skagos, we could go all out, they have little communication with the north, as they rarely answer the call to arms and could serve as a base, for our main recruiting core, the north beyond the wall, the lands where summer never comes, eternal winter, horse sized wolves, whoever survived in those lands must be truly tough, a worthy warrior and their children must be just as strong for us to train them, then Skagos will be our training ground, the attack must be swift, they cannot call for help and we will pretend nothing has happened'' Aleksanteri said with a laugh.
''Aleksanteri, with all due respect, we can't cover all those campaigns alone, we only have eleven thousand men and it's not like we can spare so many at the same time, the kingdom's defense against espionage will fall too far if we divert so many of our brothers on those missions'' said the governor as he looked at the map
''I will take two thousand men and march to the vale and take the monster of lothar with me, to have fun killing savages, I will enjoy it, to see their faces of terror when they face lothar, to see how their weapons cut and lothar's flesh regenerate almost instantly it must be as if the devil himself ascended from hell to take them, he, he, he, he'' Aleksanteri said laughing
''For the north, a caravan led by one of Helmuth's distant cousins will leave to prospect for minerals in the area and negotiate with the North men lords accompanying him, he is used to dealing with us and respects us so he will make things easy, a hundred of our own with someone we trust to ensure our interests are secured, they must be vigilant to recruit, but who do we send?'', Aleksanteri said thinking
''My son Antti is trusted by you Aleksanteri'' said the governor.
''Antti is protecting the king's fiancée, besides I like someone I trust to be close to the king, Antti will act against spies and assassins, if necessary, another candidate?'', said Aleksanteri sticking his dagger into the island of Skagos on the map.
''Heikki, he is a distant relative, he is not as bright as Antti, but he is trustworthy, I can assure you, my family didn't train any coward or idiot'' said the governor.
''Well, he will keep an eye on Helmuth's men and we will take advantage if we can recruit some, we have to gather three thousand spears before the year is out, even if they are not well-trained getting them is more important, Skagos will be my next stop when I finish with the mountain clans and I will probably go beyond the wall, we'll get moving, there is work to do'' said Aleksanteri pulling out his dagger
''Yes Aleksanteri''replied all the others.
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