Building a Viking Empire with Modern Industry-Chapter 167: Lightning Merger

The following day Ragnar and his Security Forces packed up their spreadsheets and began to march.

An army of 30,000 contractors, comprised of three divisions of ten thousand men each, was fielded to fight this campaign that Ragnar had decided to name the Blitz-Audit.

The Divisions were split into four brigades in total: two heavy infantry, one cavalry, and one artillery.

The Artillery Brigades contained roughly 3,000 - 4,000 men in total and up to 70 steam-assisted field guns in each.

The amount of thermal firepower that a single Artillery Brigade wielded was in itself enough to bring down any feudal levy that dared to get in its path.

Especially when complemented by the Infantry Brigades.

As for the Infantry Brigades, they held 3,000 - 5,000 men in each brigade, and these units consisted of various specialists, ranging from Crossbowmen, Grenadiers, Sharpshooters, and even "Negotiators" (men with very large hammers).

Obviously, there were other units within, like Combat Medics and Combat Engineers.

It was a well-oiled machine designed with a single purpose: absolute liquidation of the competition.

The Cavalry Brigades, on the other hand, were much smaller in size. They were filled with 2,000 men and their horses per brigade.

As for the units within these Brigades, there were also split into different groups, such as Heavy Lancers, Mounted Crossbowmen, and Scouts.

There were also units of Dragoons (mounted infantry with hand cannons), but they were smaller in number, as their purpose was specialized shock tactics.

The expense that Ragnar had to pay to not only train these troops but maintain their dental benefits was significant.

If one counted the sheer cost he paid to acquire the coal to power the support trains; it was enough to bankrupt most Kingdoms in the European world.

However, Ragnar was very wealthy after the monumental success of his diverse portfolio and could afford to bear such overhead.

This massive force was followed by the ragtag army of Thane Leofric’s defectors, who were all completely shocked by the size of Ragnar’s army and the equipment they used; there was likely no other force in England as standardized as his.

They felt inadequate when they gazed upon the blackened steel breastplates and uniform grey tunics that the Directorate forces wielded.

The plan was for two divisions to follow Ragnar to Nottingham, where he would meet the West Saxons in the field and retake the mines and railheads they had seized.

With such a large force that contained an absurd degree of firepower, Ragnar could easily foreclose on the entire Midlands within a matter of weeks.

The other army would be led by General Bjorn and Thane Leofric and would consist of one of Ragnar’s divisions, supported by the 2,000 men of Leofric’s militia.

They would attack the occupied town of Leicester, where they would secure the southern flank.

They would launch an attack from both sides of the county and meet in the middle after dispelling the West Saxons from the region.

After both regions were secured, Ragnar would march his army on Tamworth, and Bjorn and his allies would march on Derby.

From there, any West Saxons who remained in the other counties would be quickly served with eviction notices, thus restoring Directorate control over the assets.

This was the hostile takeover plan, and Ragnar felt he had enough capital and firepower to complete it.

Thus he met up with Bjorn and Leofric at a rail junction which would take them in a separate direction.

The three men sat on horseback as he said his farewells.

"The next time I see the two of you, I will have the deed to Nottingham! I look forward to the day we can all sign the merger agreement!"

Bjorn nodded at Ragnar before saluting one last time.

"Director, I will execute the strategy to the best of my abilities!"

Ragnar nodded with a corporate smile on his face before responding to Bjorn’s claims.

"I am sure that your quarterly performance will be exemplary. Until we meet again, General Bjorn, Thane Leofric."

After saying such a thing, Ragnar and Bjorn’s forces separated. Where Ragnar slowly made his way to the outskirts of Nottingham.

By the time he arrived in the region, he had noticed that the mining villages that he passed by had all been strip-mined by the West Saxons... many of them were abandoned entirely, the workers fled or conscripted.

The depreciation brought to the Mercian lands was horrifying. Shafts had collapsed due to lack of maintenance, machinery was rusted, and the local workforce appeared to have been thoroughly exploited by the West Saxon overseers.

Ragnar and his army eventually made their way through the slag heaps and towards the first Fortified Mine on their path, which was supposed to protect the anthracite vein; it was currently garrisoned by a unit of Swiss Mercenaries hired by King Aethelwulf, who had not yet noticed Ragnar and his own army’s approach due to the heavy smog.

As such, Ragnar instantly gave an order to his army via semaphore flags.

"Get into formation, and ready the steam cannons to fire! Crossbowmen, check your tension! Grenadiers, prime your fuses!"

Ragnar had two divisions under his command; he currently had 140 Steam-Assisted Field Guns in his ranks which were rapidly put into position and pressurized.

Before long, tens of thousands of infantry loaded their repeating crossbows and formed ranks.

By the time they were entirely in formation, the Swiss had just noticed their approach and began to form their famous pike square; such a large army had emerged from the smog like a ghost train.

It was as if they had come across a dragon while counting coins.

They had no idea how to react to the situation before them.

Still, seeing the army hundreds of meters away, with over a hundred cannons hissing steam, many of the mercenaries instantly began calculating their odds of survival.

These calculations were cut short as the thundering echo of 140 cannons firing at once filled the air while the high-explosive shells fell from the sky and pounded the fortified mine.

The massive ranks of crossbowmen and grenadiers advanced towards their effective range so that they too could batter the enemy, while the sharpshooters fired from a distance of roughly four hundred meters.

Hundreds of defending Swiss were shredded by the explosive blasts and shrapnel of the cannon fire, only for the survivors to be mercilessly pinned down at a distance by the bolts.

This garrison was not large and held only about 1,000 men in total; it did not take more than a few cannon and crossbow volleys to mercilessly tear the defensive square and its forces apart instantly.

Pikes were shattered, and colorful slashed silk was stained red as the survivors of the garrison gazed on with horror at the scene that had just transpired.

Such overwhelming power was inconceivable, and Ragnar did not even need to unleash his Heavy Lancers.

The West Saxon overseer sat atop the mine’s office looking at the simple yet terrifying banners of the Iron Gear and cursed his King for not paying him enough; he was in a crisis having no idea how he would be able to defend his asset against the auditors effectively.

Yet, in his hour of need, the Directorate finally arrived from the fog and liberated the mine from his mismanagement.

There were still plenty of mines within Nottinghamshire that were holding out, hoping for reinforcements; the same could be said across all of the Midlands.

Though it had been months since the West Saxons invaded, they could not extract the coal as efficiently as Ragnar could. Thus they were forced to occupy every pit and quarry slowly.

The West Saxon occupation of the Midlands was a prolonged process that was intended to take months to turn a profit.

Now that Ragnar had arrived with 140 cannons, he would be able to breach a fortification’s walls within an hour.

It was an army the likes the world had never seen before, and Ragnar had deliberately waited until he had three divisions before marching to war because he wanted his campaign to be another overwhelming market correction.

With the power in his hands, a mere King would not be capable of defeating him in battle.

To counteract Ragnar’s hundreds of cannons and thousands of infantry equipped with repeating crossbows, there would need to be an army 2-3 times the size of his own, and only a unified Empire could muster such a force.

After defeating the garrison of 1,000 mercenaries as easily as filing a tax return, Ragnar did not bother approaching the mine’s entrance; many more battles like this needed to be fought, and as such, he quickly gave another order to his troops.

"Regroup, and prepare to march! We have a schedule to keep!"

After spending a considerable amount of time getting back into marching formation, the army once more began to set out on its destination; they intended to fight their way until they had liberated the Guildhall of Nottingham, which was currently under martial law.

As such, Ragnar would encounter many minor skirmishes like this on his way to liberate the capital. They all ended just as quickly and in just as brutal of a fashion.

Wherever his army marched, they reaped the contracts of the West Saxons.

Any fool who placed themselves in between him and the main coal vein in the County of Nottingham would be rapidly liquidated by Ragnar’s troops.

This Lightning Merger was highly influential in cutting off the enemy’s cash flow; not only did Ragnar practice this tactic in Nottingham, but General Bjorn also similarly commanded his armies in Leicester.

Ragnar was not exaggerating in the slightest when he stated in his speech that he and his men would be home before the fiscal year ended.

Though it was a reference to a corporate promise from his previous life, he entirely meant those words and knew he was fully capable of making them a reality.

As such, the war waged on, and Ragnar would soon be the Chairman of the Board.