Conscription of soldiers has always been a part and parcel of ancient life. In times of warfare, the state could very legally expect to call upon every man available to defend the country
Galea was no stranger to this tradition. While the Gym Leaders were notorious for conscripting large masses of peasants to either raid other territories or defend their own, it was also common for famines to follow as there were too few people to work the fields following such wars.
Take for instance, the time when the Empress of Galea had deemed it necessary to attack Kalos. She forcibly drafted two hundred and fifty thousand in addition to volunteers. All of them were defeated soundly by the king of Kalos. Again another army which had two hundred thousand conscripts was formed some decades later, only to be defeated by a more formidable foe- Mother Nature herself in the form of a freak typhoon. Less than three percent survived.
Such things however, had grown out of place with the signing of the Accord by the eight Gym Leaders with no need for such kinds of war.
It was assumed though, among the families of Galea, that with the coming of this foreigner named Ash to their country, that a mass conscription would soon rear its head for one reason or the other.
Their fears, for this time though, proved unfounded. While it was true that Ash needed soldiers to lay siege to Aroughs, it was also true that they didn't need that much, and also, surprisingly, they got a large group of volunteers.
Now, why people wanted to join them was a sort of mystery with various answers.
For one, the whole thing was presented, and was widely assumed to be rather safe as they would try to avoid fighting, and so some of the more adventurous people of Galea might have opted as an opportunity to see some of the rest of the world.
There may have also been those who had simply been moved by Ash's recent actions and thought that it was their own moral duty to help in the fight to overthrow the accursed Gym Leaders. (Sadly, to Ash's dismay, these people were very few. It turned out that, despite what Mr. Jennings and Duke Hamnet seemed to tell him, a large portion of the people of Galea, though by far no big fans of the Gym Leaders, seemed to prefer to be left alone rather than get tangled in another war.)
Then of course, there were those whose blood ran hot with adrenaline who may have wanted to be part of some sort of conflict, of any kind, regardless of who they were up against.
And of course, considering the fact that Duke Hamnet had said that the grain that they got would go preferentially to the soldier's own families as part of an incentive to get people to join would have prompted a large amount of people to volunteer. (He had assumed, wrongly, that it would be difficult to find a large number of volunteers.)
Then again, overall, they were only recruiting about eight hundred people, and so with so small a number, it wasn't a huge miracle that they got more than enough people, about five thousand, to come and volunteer for the task.
This did however increase Mr. Jenning's burden in trying to organize the whole thing. While both of Ash's chief administrators, Mr. Jennings and Duke Hamnet were usually very busy anyway, both were now working nearly non-stop as the preparations for the siege went underway. Ash tried taking off time from training as he thought he should pitch in somehow only to be greeted with huge stacks of documents detailing things which were so minor and yet so vital as how much rope they would need, or how many screws needed to be ordered.
Ash left the governing to those two after that. However, he did decide that one area that he could help was in deciding who to take along.
Gulliver pitched in too.
"So, the first thing that we should do is get people who are experienced with Pokemon," Ash said. "They should be preferred, and of course, preferably people again who have used them to battle."
"Right," Gulliver said. "But besides that, we'll also need people to run the siege machines, a few doctors, some blokes to run the ships if we get 'em…"
And so, they divided the volunteers into two groups: one in which there were those with special skills like carpenters or cooks, and the others whose main skill was battling.
Gulliver mainly went around to the first group, asking people what experience they had and preparing a list.
Ash on the other hand, went to the second, much larger group to try and gauge which one of them were really skilled enough to take along.
As he started, Ash couldn't help but laugh at the irony. He, Ash Ketchum, a Trainer who relied more on instinct instead of any kind of experience or intelligence, was going around testing other Trainers on their ability. He could think of several people back home who would've gotten a good giggle at hearing about that.
All of the people whom Ash met immediately began kneeling and kowtowing to him the moment they saw him. Ash found that he couldn't really stop them after a few attempts of trying and so tried not to get too used to it.
At that point, Ash realized that this was one of the first times that he was going to meet up with a large number of his well, they were technically his subjects but he didn't really think of him as a king or anything, and then realized that this meant that however he interacted with them would probably result in stories that would be taken by them to their homes and to the other people of his realm.
Since most families of Galea didn't have things like radios or televisions, that meant that this was probably the best way to get word out to the rest of his people.
And, thanks to propaganda, Ash mainly assumed that most people thought he was some sort of seven-foot tall barbarian wearing Pokemon skins who enjoyed collecting people's heads, this was a good chance to get some nice publicity out.
And so, Ash tried to be as nice as possible, going out of his way to complement the people he met, to shake their hands, and to ask them their names and such. There were far too many for him to remember, but he could tell that even such small actions seemed to have a profound effect on them.
It also allowed him to glean a lot of information about the normal people of Galea. Ash had spent most of his time training, or with people like Mr. Jennings, Duke Hamnet, or Celera, none of whom really represented the majority of Galea, except for maybe Gulliver who really didn't talk much about his earlier life. But, this gave him an insight into the lives of lots of people.
The majority of the volunteers that Ash met had never battled and were mainly Breeders like Brock, or had done things like milk Milktanks or breed Combees. Ash was about to write all of them off when he realized that the campaign would be using a lot of Pokemon not just to fight, but also to move around, so having some of them around would also be quite fine.
As for those who were currently or had been Trainers, none of them were particularly powerful. Ash had to really try to stop from sounding condescending when he examined all of them.
Then again, it all did make sense. If the place were littered with powerful Trainers, the Gym Leaders would have used them as Gym Trainers.
By the evening, Gulliver and Ash had managed to short list about a thousand people. Duke Hamnet and Mr. Jennings would make their final selections.
Both of them were talking about latrine ditches when Ash gave in his report, which didn't so much as garner a chuckle from Ash as make him realize that that many people, did, as a matter of fact, have to go somewhere.
Within two weeks their preparations were complete. The people for the trip had been chosen, the rest had gone home, and their supplies seemed to be ready but every now and then Duke Hamnet or Mr. Jennings would suddenly jump up and realize that they had forgotten something like shovels for the campaign.
And of course, with everything that they needed, they needed people to make the stuff. As such, artisans all over Ash's realm were suddenly busy and merchants had flocked to the site of their preparations, which was now the most crowded and populous place within Freyja's territory. There were also those who had come for no reason other than to watch things. Whenever anyone would get too close to the site of where military work was being conducted, they would be shooed away, first by the Pokemon, then by the workmen, and then finally by Duke Hamnet himself.
With so many people gathered in one area, there were also entertainers there now. Ash could see jugglers, conjurers, and even clowns (although they terrified him personally) with stalls being set up.
All in all, the whole mood was very festive, though marked with an air of utmost agency. Ash thought he might have even enjoyed it a lot if it wasn't for the fact that this was all being done so that they could go to war.
The overarching plan was clear: Mr. Jennings would remain behind to oversee things, while Ash would nominally be the head of the expedition. Duke Hamnet would be leaving in order to do most of the work for the campaign.
Celera said that she would be sitting everything out. It turned out that being on the run for so many years had affected her health so she was going to visit a doctor and try to get some much-needed rest. Ash agreed and even set aside some funds for building Sheldon some sort of memorial.
What did make him confused though was that Gulliver of all people had decided to stay back in Duke Hamnet's place. That was very odd as Gulliver had looked happier than a Hoppip at the chance of going along with Ash. Which was why he visited him the day before their departure.
Gulliver was busy looking over some forms- which was a problem, since as far as Ash could tell, Gulliver couldn't really read. Sure, he could make out words fine but his job under Marley didn't involve much reading and so getting through anything longer than a few paragraphs was a struggle for him.
Note exactly the kind of skills you wanted in someone who was staying behind to take an administrative task, but Gulliver at least seemed to be trying.
"What're are you reading?" Ash asked.
"Oh, uh, I think it's got somethin' to do with baggage trains," Gulliver said.
"Okay, but I heard that you weren't going out with us on the campaign," Ash said. "And that you're gonna stay here in Hamnet's place. Why though? I mean, I thought that you were really excited to go."
"Yeah," Gulliver said. "I was rarin' to go, but thing is, I reckoned we never really were all that useful, my gang and me, and someone does need to stay behind to handle what Duke Hamnet does."
"Not to be very rude- but management and administration really doesn't seem something you'd be really interested in," Ash said.
"Yeah- well, that's why I thought I should get started as soon as possible," Gulliver said with a smile that Ash could tell was clearly fake.
"Is something wrong?" Ash asked.
"Well- just that mainly Mr. Jennings had a talk with me and said how I should be more concerned with bureaucratic stuff instead of running around fightin', and I guess I can't really blame him. I mean, my team and me didn't help squat against Thomdolt and Freyja, so…" he trailed off.
"But that's no reason to stop trying!" Ash said. "And leave what Mr. Jennings says! C'mon, I do want you to be fighting with us when we go to Aroughs- you're one of the few real friends I have in this place-" Gulliver smiled, "-and as for managing stuff, I don't think we need to do very much. Most of the work was related to the siege and anyway Duke Hamnet'll be handling that."
"So, you're saying I should go?"
"I'm saying I want you to go."
Gulliver smiled. "Thanks Ash! I won't let ya down!"
When all was said and done, and every last Pokemon fed for the journey, every last tent and supply bag loaded on the baggage trains consisting of a variety of Pokemon known for bearing large weights like Numel, and the people embarking for the siege giving a last, teary farewell to their friends and families who had come to see them off, they set off for the border with Linnea's territory.
Usually the borders between territories were well-marked with a river or some other change, and in this specific part it was a change in the soil. While the soil was dry and sparse with vegetation on what was now Ash's side, it abruptly changed into dark, loamy soil, and with large grass that stretched over three feet high in a straight line that extended on both sides for miles. Ash scratched his head, much like with the soil change between Freyja's and Thomdolt's domains, it seemed far too prominent and the lines drawn far too straight, as if the whole thing was man-made. But there were certainly no huge armies of workers near the border separating the soil and ensuring the grasses were different on both sides… so that could only mean that it was somehow natural.
Ash still didn't really understand how the eight territories of Galea had developed, and from the way the Badges had reacted when Ash took them out of where he had gotten them, it made it seem like the eight territories somehow hated each other or something. Was it possible that each of them was actually just a huge, living organism, and the Badges just a concentration of their power?
Ash was snapped out of these thoughts as he noticed the barrier that Linnea had erected to keep others out of her domain. Thomdolt had tried something similar, and they had circumvented that by using an alternate route through the Gliscor's Nest.
However, that was back when Ash only had one Badge. He now wielded three of them directly, and made a hole about fifty feet wide in the barrier about as easily as he would have ripped through a paper bag with their combined power.
"I highly doubted that Lady Linnea would have expected something like that to keep us out for long," Duke Hamnet said. "Hopefully though, she wouldn't have posted too many scouts near the border and word hasn't reached her yet about our plans. We should be quick though, Selena knows what we're doing if she was listening in on us which I do not doubt for a second and she will have informed Linnea. The citizens of Aroughs may have just burned their stock of grain and moved on for all we know."
Ash nodded. "We'll move quickly then."
A/N: Thanks for reading everyone. Julie Togepi, thanks for your review, and I hope the exposition wasn't too heavy in this chapter. Do please review if you liked!
