A/N: Thanks Julie Togepi, the cliffhangers are mostly for excitement.
After giving his announcement, Duke Hamnet returned to camp unharmed.
"So, how'd they take it?" Ash asked.
"I can't be sure yet," Duke Hamnet said. "But they did seem to recognize me. And I don't think they'll want to put up a fight."
"Did you see anyone you recognized?" Ash asked. "And how do they know what you look like?"
"There was a concert several years ago in Linnea's territory which Lady Freyja attended. It was one of the few times in her entire reign that she left her territory, and I went along with her, and so Linnea knows my face, and yours as well. Though of course she wouldn't send sketches of your face since it would contradict the propaganda she's been spreading about you, Milord," Duke Hamnet said. "I did not see Lady Alarice though… which makes me wonder whether she's still in charge."
Ash looked out towards the walls. "What if they send a raiding party towards us?"
Duke Hamnet's face began to resemble that of a Psyduck. "I- I honestly had not thought of that…" he seemed worried but then added, "I do not think that it would be likely however for them to launch a raiding party at us. We do look bigger than we are, and probably not many people have Pokemon in their ranks. I mean, perhaps if they were desperate enough… but I would still deem it unlikely."
Ash nodded. He then signaled to some workers who began assembling siege machines in plain view of the defenders of Aroughs.
Very few of the machines actually worked, and those that did would be of little practical use against a place like Aroughs with its high and thick stone walls, but the main thing was to give the impression that they were doing something and they knew it would scare the defenders.
After all, it was more likely that they would surrender peacefully if they were intimidated. It was for that reason that Duke Hamnet had the idea that everyone should pitch up ten tents, and they occupied the tents closest to Aroughs while the ones further back were scarcely populated or else had straw dummies propped up, thereby giving the appearance that they were far more numerous than they actually were.
In addition to this, Duke Hamnet had been the one to give the message rather than Ash. A ten year old child, no matter what power was available to him with the Badges, was not exactly intimidating.
Not to mention they knew there were stories that were quite strictly untrue regarding Ash were circulating around Aroughs, and though Ash didn't want them, they might have proved useful in this case.
Duke Hamnet retired to take care of the organizational matters of the army while Ash went and found Gulliver who went with him to explore the neighboring areas for Pokémon they might want to capture or battle against.
They had expected for their presence to frighten the people of Aroughs. But they had no idea how severely that was playing out.
Sure, the sounds from the city could be heard even from their camp, but they just thought it barely exceeded the normal sounds heard in a city like Aroughs at night.
Back in Aroughs, the moment that Duke Hamnet's message had reached the vast majority of people, a huge bedlam of activity suddenly exploded across the streets as people began frantically moving here and there and wondering just what was going to happen to their city.
The small population of people outside of the walls had quickly abandoned almost everything they had and had lined up outside the city gates begging to be let in.
"Don't open the gates!" Edmund had said. "It doesn't how much they beg or wail, but don't open the gates!"
"Are you certain sir?" the captain all but protested. "They barbarian has given us time till tomorrow morning, and the gates are of little use against him anyway. Furthermore, they might possess information about the city defenses which can-"
"Silence! Do not question my orders!" Edmund screamed, his face sweating profusely as he did a rather terrific job of completely losing it.
Beneath him, a riot was already breaking out and they seemed to be in little position to try and control it.
Miles away, Linnea, the Fourth Gym Leader, was training with no knowledge of the siege of Aroughs. Telephones were expensive, what with only Selena being able to make them and exploiting her monopoly as much as she could, and so there were only a few telephones in the various regions of Galea and were reserved for the highest officers.
As such there was only one within Aroughs: inside the central citadel, which was also the best place for them to hole up in case of a siege.
Edmund had made his decision. "Towards the citadel! Take me to the citadel! And we have to burn down the grain reserves!"
While the grain reserves were scattered in small depots across Aroughs, the biggest one which housed around eighty percent of the State's grain was located within the vicinity of the citadel. The explosives that Linnnea had sent were quickly found- because it is uncommon for people to forget where a huge stash of explosives are, and they were carted away as rapidly as the soldiers dared towards the silos while Edmund rushed to the confines of the citadel.
Edmund ran to tell his mother everything- she was hardly half-conscious so he assumed most of it was lost on her, and then went to dial the telephone in order to communicate to Lady Linnea what had happened.
He had left the burning of the stores of grain to other people and had assumed it would have gone ahead perfectly fine without his supervision.
How very wrong he was.
See, it was here that the Gym Leader's strategy had begun to backfire against them. They had naturally been afraid the moment that Ash had toppled Marley and knew that the would be coming for them, so of course they wouldn't want a huge rebellion and people leaping to join him when Ash did move against them.
Their solution to the above had been simple propaganda. The image they had painted of Ash Ketchum was of a barbarian who stretched over eight or ten feet tall with muscles that bulged more than that of a Machoke's. He was more cunning that a Mawile and enjoyed feasting on the flesh of his opponent's dead Pokemon, and enjoyed crushing his enemies in the cruelest ways imaginable (the people, of course, were left to imagine their own details on exactly what these ways were).
He wore the skin of a Pyroar. He stank so badly people would faint in his presence. His eyes were as red as a demon's, and he had over eight hundred assorted concubines to sate his depraved lusts, which were usually not enough and he and his commanders would willingly tear young girls from their parent's arms. He possessed the most terrifying Pokemon imaginable, hordes of Gyarados- each capable of razing a city, legions of Salamence- each capable of burning a village to the ground, and an army of Tyranitar, each capable of generating earthquakes that could collapse a skyscraper.
An that was just Ash, and not anything about his soldiers. His soldiers were more numerous than all the Tentacool in the ocean, more numerous than the Zubats in the uncountable caves of Galea, more numerous than the drops of rain that fell during the Monsoon, and more numerous than the grains of sand in the desert. They were not stopped nor deterred by wind, rain, sun, snow, or even the prospect of death. They would slaughter all living things inside a city that refused to obey and leave the carcasses around while the stench spread for miles. And of course, all of them were unclean and smelled like a herd of Muk.
This overblown picture was painted by the Gym Leaders so that no sane person who had been presented with this view would ever side with Ash Ketchum. And they were really good with painting the picture and selling it.
Now, this huge lie was about to explode right in Linnea's fat, lying face.
The propaganda program had worked so well and terrified so many people that when the citizens of Aroughs learned that Ash was at their doorstep that the idea of resistance completely vanished from their minds.
Nope. There was no way that they were going to fight. Even though the reality was that Duke Hamnet's threat had no actual weight behind it.
"Surrender! Surrendering is our best option!" one of them said in the market square. "If we resist, we'll be destroyed!"
"They say he only has around eight thousand soldiers though…" one of the muttered. "We have over eight hundred thousand people in this city. What could they do?"
"What could they do?" one hysterical lady practically sobbed out. "What can we do? We have no Pokemon! And those people are bloodthirsty soldiers! And we only see eight thousand, what if he has a huge reserve with him? Hmm, what then?" She then grabbed her daughter, only ten years old. "And what would they do to her, huh? I would sooner see her killed than fall into the hands of those ruffians. Or what happens to us if any of us if we resist?"
This sentiment was widely echoed and so any hope of resistance was quickly quashed.
And this was before the sentries had begun to get all jumpy too.
"Siege engines!" one of them suddenly screamed. "Sir, they're building siege weaponry!"
The captain of the watch stretched his legs to find to his dismay that the sentry was right. They were building some things that looked huge and seemed capable of doing, well, some things.
Once the young lad who had first seen them was off-duty, he proceeded to a nearby tavern where, after being urged on after several drinks, he began describing what he had seen to a growing crowd, his story getting wilder with each retelling.
"I saw them, and there were at least two dozen of 'em! Siege machines, capable of tearing down the walls a dozen times over, and throwing boulders as large and as heavy as a Golemn!"
In truth of course, the siege machines could hardly do anything, but as the boy had never seen a siege machine in action, perhaps his hyperbole could be forgiven in this case.
"Have they started firing yet?" the barman asked.
"Nah, they're just standing there and fixin' them up," he replied. "But they'll start soon, I'm sure."
"What about our counter-artillery?" someone asked.
"Haven't been used in several decades," the boy said. "It'll take several hours to get 'em running up again, or even more. Who knows what they can do at that time?"
With all of this, it was not long before pure hysteria gripped the city.
Most, if not all of them, had reached the exact same conclusion. They were not going to fight for Linnea and be slaughtered for her.
The explosives were difficult to carry, with various measures being taken to prevent them from exploding in the middle of the street or being stolen by potential arsonists. As such, they made their way towards the main storage area only slightly faster than a Slakoth, and were easier to spot than a Snorlax bumbling through the streets.
As you can imagine, the people of Aroughs were certainly not stupid, and when they say this thing moving towards the area where most of the grain was held they very easily put two and two together.
A huge mob soon engulfed the people transporting the explosives.
"Stand aside! By Sir Edmund's and Lady Linnea's orders, we have to burn the grain reserves! We cannot let them fall into the barbarian's hands!" one of the soldiers barked at the crowd.
"And then what? You people will just disappear and Lady Linnea will be safe in her luxurious castle while we either starve to death, or worse, fall into the hands of that barbarian!" someone shouted back.
The officials may have been trained soldiers, but they were hugely outnumbered and soon lost control over the explosives.
"If we're going to surrender, we're going to need to get rid of these explosives," someone said.
"Yeah, we should burn them!" someone else added.
"Shut up Steve!" several people shouted at once.
The explosives were taken away and dumped into a nearby unused well. Most of the soldiers managed to escape in the resulting confusing.
The city fell into complete anarchy now as any symbol or office of the government was attacked.
It wasn't only the civilians, however. Over half of the city's officials and soldiers had decided it was better to give up.
The rest of them managed to work their way towards the citadel, whose walls were quickly locked and completely barricaded. This wouldn't be much of a defense from a Gym Badge, but it would protect those inside from the mob's wrath outside.
At least it would, temporarily.
