Building a Viking Empire with Modern Industry-Chapter 64: Talent Acquisition Strategy

Word eventually reached Ragnar of the Church’s plot to have him liquidated by the Frankish Crusaders and to burn his factories to the ground after the region had been purified. After all, Brother Aethelstan had immediately contacted Leif the Lesser’s burgeoning spy network in Canterbury and had them send a pigeon to York about such a conspiracy. Ragnar knew that letting Bishop Eadred live would come back to bite him in the asset sheet, but for the sake of potential future market stability, he had done so. A decision which he deeply regretted at this point. The Order of the White Cross was no small force, and with his current standing army, he had a statistically low chance of defeating a heavy cavalry charge without significant losses, as such he had no choice but to boost his recruitment efforts for the Industrial Corps. Ultimately he had decided to incorporate the East Anglian survivors and the local Saxon peasantry directly under his corporate umbrella into a united unit, and train them appropriately. As far as the Frankish knights were concerned, Ragnar would prepare a specific counter-measure to liquidate their assets.

Aside from restocking his Torsion Spikes and drilling a new battalion of Pike-men, Ragnar had done little in active recruitment since the merger. However, with access to the 200,000 acres of East Anglia and its large population of underemployed farmers, he now knew that he had to begin using the "Regional Branch" of Thetford to fill his ranks. But first, he had to make one innovation which he had prioritized after analyzing the armor thickness of the Frankish knights.

As such, Ragnar once more visited the Foundry District with a new set of blueprints in hand. When he arrived, Leif the Smith was quick to greet his Director, wiping soot from his brow.

"Director, I was not expecting your visit. Is there a blast furnace malfunction?"

Ragnar did not say a word and merely laid the designs he had drafted on the workbench for Leif to see. It was a new polearm design, based entirely on the 15th-century Lucerne Hammer from his past life. If there was one thing that the intelligence reports regarding the Franks taught him, it is that the simple pikes of the Huscarls were less effective against the heavily armored cataphracts of the continental elite once the distance closed. As such, he had to rethink the melee weapons used by his shock troops, and searching through his memory of medieval warfare, he found this gem.

The shaft of the weapon was 6 feet in length and had a steel reinforcement strip running down the sides to prevent it from being cut by swords. It was a brutal mixture of a spear, a hammer, and a pick, allowing for crushing blows and armor-piercing thrusts and some more obscure uses like hooking a rider off his horse. The head featured a four-pronged hammer face for delivering concussive force to helmets, and a long, curved beak on the reverse side designed specifically to punch through chainmail and plate like a can opener. The weapon was top-heavy enough to deliver kinetic energy capable of stunning a man in full armor, yet balanced enough for formation fighting, making it the superior tool for his anti-cavalry operations. Luckily his "Heavy Assets" division was adaptable, and as such, he had not yet finalized their equipment loadout for the next quarter.

Even Leif was impressed by the brutality of the design and asked about Ragnar’s intentions.

"This is?"

Ragnar grinned with pride as he clasped Leif’s soot-stained shoulder.

"The ’Can-Opener’ for the Frankish Knights!"

Leif could not help but sigh; every time Ragnar visited him, it was either for budget audits or to produce terrifying new instruments of war. Though he had more than enough manpower to do such a thing, especially with the mass implementation of the new blast furnaces and the coal shipments from Gorm’s mine, it just meant more work on his platter. He was already swamped with all of the pipe production for Project Titan. After realizing he was merely adding a side-production line for these hammers alongside the rebar, he felt as if it really was not as big of a logistical hurdle as he feared and thus could not help but accept it.

"Alright, I’ll see it done. It is a nasty piece of iron after all..."

Ragnar slapped Leif on the back before complimenting him.

"You always know how to streamline the supply chain, Leif. How about we go out for ale tonight at The Rusty Anchor? On the company card."

Leif could not help but smile.

"Sure, I’ll be there."

Afterward, Ragnar left him behind and went to the Ministry of Education and Propaganda, where he encountered Brother Osric and his monks hard at work. The head of the department quickly greeted him.

"Director, it is an honor to have you here. Are we printing more tax forms?"

Ragnar was used to the monk’s nervous energy at this point and quickly cut to the chase.

"I need some recruitment posters for the East Anglian expansion made. Here is the basic copy."

As such, Ragnar handed the monk a recruitment poster that he had personally drafted and left the rest up to the press and the woodblock carvers they had trained. The monk quickly responded to Ragnar’s request.

"I will have it done, Director. We shall distribute them via the Raven Flight."

With that, his intelligence network would spread his recruitment posters across Northumbria and East Anglia to act as a means to recruit many volunteers. He would not come to realize how effective his "Corporate Benefits Package" would be until later that month when the number of recruits willing to join the Industrial Corps raised significantly. After all, the people of East Anglia were well aware of how well-fed Ragnar’s troops were, and now that Ragnar managed them through Guthrum, many disillusioned farmers were more than happy to join such a stable employer. Soon enough, his armies would be substantially larger, a force that a mere Viking Jarl would not normally have under his command.

Thus Ragnar’s Industrial Corps would soon drastically increase in size; by the time the Order of the White Cross invaded his domain, they would be met with a rude awakening. As such, Ragnar spent the rest of his day continuing on his daily tasks of overseeing the many aspects in which he was entrusted as Director of Jernheim. He seriously began to wonder if King Horik was still sober. It had been quite some time since the old King went into "strategic planning" regarding the East Anglian tour, and though Ragnar was happy that he was finally able to accomplish so much without interference, he was apprehensive about his father-in-law’s liver. As such, he vowed that he would take some time in the following day to check up on the old man and try to ensure he hadn’t accidentally declared war on Scotland. After all, he had been far too busy to maintain his executive board relations as of late.

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A/N: I tried to improve the prose and pacing in this Chapter. Is this style better for you than the old one? :]