Building a Viking Empire with Modern Industry-Chapter 154: Coal Guild

The silence permeated throughout the stale air of the Guildhall’s executive office for some time before Ragnar finally voiced his projections over the upcoming fiscal year with an impassioned speech.

"Gentlemen, we are at the dawn of a new market cycle! The invasion from the West Saxons has brought us an unforeseen opportunity. Nottingham is under siege.

If we take advantage of this upheaval to rescue the youngest member of the Coal Guild from the predicament he finds himself in; we will be able to benefit from this crisis and establish a Subsidiary, with our Directorate at the center of the supply chain! Imagine a new England with City Titan at the core of its industrial power! For this vision of the future to become a reality, I need every one of you to seize this opportunity that lies before us! For a Greater Directorate!"

Every man within the War Room of the Department of Security was an ambitious man... or at least, a man who understood the value of stock options.

Not a single one of them was displeased with this plan that would allow their Director to effectively privatize the Midlands in the future.

As such, when Ragnar finished his speech, it was met with the corporate motto of the Iron Empire from all of the officers present.

"Efficiency is Victory!"

Seeing the officers pound their chests in a unified salute and scream the motto of his company, Ragnar was pleased; it would appear that the core of his middle management had aligned with his vision in the upcoming hostile takeover.

Though Ragnar did not doubt their loyalty, he was an exceptionally cautious man and had to prepare for the event that he would be subjected to industrial espionage.

As such, he was closely examining every member of his staff through his monocle before nodding his head in approval.

After witnessing the scene of his officers come to terms with his business plan, Ragnar pointed towards Nottingham on the map before sharing his and Elfwynn’s strategy with the high-ranking officers who made up the core of his military hierarchy.

"Our ’Consultants’ have long since infiltrated the mining guilds of Nottingham. When the city falls and the Guildhall with it, we predict that King Aethelwulf of Wessex will try to nationalize the mines.

As such, we will... ’acquire’ the Guildmasters and bring them to City Titan, where we will coerce them into granting me exclusive mining rights.

In name only, of course; the real power behind the pickaxe will be me as Director, and by extension, all of you as Regional Managers.

You all do not need to worry about this operation’s success as it is left to the Department of Human Resources.

"As for your jobs, it will be to ensure that our Security Forces are prepared and amassed at our Southern border for the three-prong audit through Derby, Leicester, and Lincoln!

After we have seized those assets, we will rally with the forces of Unit Alpha and march on the West Saxons in Tamworth, which will allow us to seize the capital of Mercia, and declare our merger complete."

Hearing Ragnar’s plan for invading the Midlands and restructuring it, the Officers were all impressed. By the time they were able to invade West Saxon-occupied Mercia, they would have roughly 15,000 "Security Contractors."

They would be able to split their force into three Divisions of 5,000 men each to advance on the three locations; each Division would have enough firepower to successfully liquidate any feudal army they might come across.

The strategy itself was planned by Ragnar, considering General Bjorn was currently overseeing the forces stationed in the Humanitarian Aid Train, the young Director had to design the operation entirely by himself.

As an avid fan of RTS games from his past life, he was more than capable of devising a Zerg Rush such as this.

The officers comprised of the core of his military hierarchy all agreed with the strategy, and though a few of them added some minor inputs regarding supply chain optimization, the invasion plan was mainly complete.

As such, after a thorough discussion, the Officers were eventually dismissed, and Ragnar found himself alone in the War Room staring at the map.

One day soon, the Midlands would be his, and his plans for unifying England into a United Kingdom of Industry would be one step closer to reality.

After looking over his battle plans one more time, Ragnar rolled up the map and stashed it away in a fireproof safe.

He then left the headquarters of the Department of Security and returned to the Governor’s Mansion, where Gyda and Magnus were waiting patiently for him to attend dinner.

The moment Ragnar sat down at the head of the table, he overheard Gyda’s voice call out to him.

"So, how did the Board Meeting go?"

Upon hearing these words, Ragnar smirked before tussling Magnus’s blonde hair. Afterward, he took a sip out of the black coffee filled in his skull chalice before responding.

"You do not need to worry so much; everything is going according to the projections. Soon enough, we will corner the market."

Elfwynn, of course, had no idea what the young couple was conspiring about this time... she was too busy calculating the coal yield of the new Scottish mines. Instead, she spoke up voluntarily for the first time in a while with a broad smile on her face.

"I made a breakthrough today!"

Hearing Elfwynn openly declare such a thing brought a great sense of surprise to both Ragnar and Gyda, who had not expected her to solve the ventilation issue so quickly after they had given her the blueprints.

They thought it would take a while before Elfwynn would leave her comfort zone and modify the steam pumps. As such, Ragnar immediately took a sip from his chalice before replying to Elfwynn.

"I am glad to hear it. So what is this little breakthrough of yours?"

Elfwynn was all too eager to announce her discovery and how she achieved it; as such, she quickly began to spit out the events of what happened as rapidly as a telegraph machine.

"It’s the Airflow Valve! I was talking to one of the miners, and he mentioned how the canaries always faint near the lower shafts.

So I realized... we don’t need more pumps; we need Exhaust Vents! If we drill a secondary shaft at a 45-degree angle, the heat from the steam engine will create a natural updraft, pulling the bad air out! I tested it on a small scale model, and the smoke cleared in seconds!"

Ragnar nearly choked on his coffee when he heard Elfwynn explaining the principles of thermodynamics with such excitement.

Gyda, on the other hand, was smirking at Ragnar’s surprise and began to encourage Elfwynn to continue with her report.

"That’s good, Elfwynn; I remember when I first heard of your engineering skills years ago, the rumors that were flowing about then was that you couldn’t tell a hammer from a horseshoe, and you spent most of your days embroidering handkerchiefs..."

Ragnar glared at Gyda when she reminded him of Elfwynn’s original skillset; every time he looked back on those days, he began to cringe at the wasted potential.

If he had not audited her education, that talent would have ended up marrying some dull Ealdorman, and the Directorate would never be able to achieve anything significant in mining. Luckily for him, he was able to reinvent her career path through many performance reviews.

After listening to the two women criticize the feudal education system, Ragnar coughed a little before addressing Elfwynn’s innovation.

"Elfwynn, my dear Chief Engineer..."

Elfwynn perked up her head like a meerkat when she heard Ragnar address her in such a manner.

"Yes, Director?"

Ragnar took another sip from his coffee before finishing his train of thought; the whole scenario impressed him.

"If you value your stock options, you will do best to patent that design immediately..."

Gyda chuckled as she witnessed Ragnar’s greedy expression; as for Elfwynn, she was confused; after all, Ragnar was the one who encouraged her to share information freely with the team.

However, she quickly realized she might have accidentally invented something valuable and began to smile before nodding her head in agreement.

"Okay, I will file the paperwork with the Patent Office tomorrow!"

Seeing that Elfwynn had agreed to his request, Ragnar smiled gratefully before reaching across the table and patting Elfwynn’s shoulder while praising her.

"Good asset!"

This action, of course, brought a proud smile to Elfwynn’s face as she basked in the validation of her mentor.

Gyda, of course, would not miss the opportunity to make fun of Ragnar and quickly muttered under her breath.

"Capitalist..."

This statement instantly disrupted Ragnar’s actions and brought a frown to his face.

As such, he withdrew his hand from Elfwynn’s shoulder before awkwardly digging into his meal of roasted pork and potatoes.

After which Elfwynn began to pout at Gyda for disrupting her moment, the meal continued in awkward silence as the trio enjoyed the gourmet cuisine made for them by the talented chefs of the Directorate’s cafeteria.