Beneath the Red Dragon

Chapter 466 - 21: Devotion

The new year had just arrived not long ago, and the regular army established by the Golden Empire was rapidly expanding in scale as various affairs unfolded.

The newly joined territory’s Fog Dragon Deniro was recommended to Karon by White Dragon Gomot, and was entrusted with the responsibilities of the Golden Empire’s national defense department by the King of the Golden.

The responsibilities of Fog Dragon Deniro were quite significant. Although he did not have the authority to command legions, he was responsible for the cultivation and supply of legion warrior talents, liaising for legion logistical support, construction of empire defense infrastructures, and management of recruitment and retirement in the empire’s national defense sector.

Although by regulation, Fog Dragon Deniro’s duties were supposed to be supervised by the military and the Imperial Central Council, in practice, a large part of his decisions could be made single-handedly.

However, as Fog Dragon Deniro was new here, he was not very familiar with the situation within the empire, so this somewhat special dragon was not doing much better than the former Blue Dragon Doss.

Every day, he had to fly from his temporary den built by the seaside to various parts of the empire to get a practical understanding of the local situations and, based on the suggestions provided by relevant local empire department officials, formulate recruitment policies and related measures tailored to different regions.

This was also a habit formed among the dragons in the Dragon Group under the strong guidance of Karon, not to implement policies governing the empire based solely on their simple impressions, but to combine them with the local realities.

Once this principle was violated, leading to some omissions, during the annual dividend day, dragons would find that their treasure chests would contain many fewer gold coins and wealth.

Although Fog Dragon Deniro initially joined the Dragon Group not because of this ’Dragon’s Covenant’ but simply out of a love for the order and civilization of the Dragon Group Territory, no dragon could resist the allure of treasure.

In fact, during these years of war, various battle groups of the empire had already gone through numerous expansions and restructurings, and the number of legion warriors had already exceeded the normal population-to-military conversion ratio of human states.

In most kingdoms and organizations, this is an extremely abnormal and unhealthy conversion mobilization ratio, which could adversely affect normal agricultural production and social development.

But the situation within the empire was different from normal civilized countries, with a significant proportion of warriors composed of the monster beloved races of those dragons.

Aside from those elite soldiers, other creatures like goblins and kobolds, like wild weeds in the fields, could grow frenziedly every few years, so the pressure they were under was not very great.

However, now that the empire was formally established, it needed to begin optimizing the army’s structural scale.

In such a wilderness, even where there were no large-scale wars, there were constant various small conflicts, everyone understood the dangers they would face by joining the legion.

But the generous treatment and promotion system provided by the Golden Empire to the regular legion warriors, along with the logistical support system, still attracted many people.

Even soldiers discharged due to injuries were, under the management regulations of the retirement department, assigned to security posts in towns according to their wishes, becoming patrol staff or clerical staff in other departments.

If they were seriously injured and unable to care for themselves, the empire would ensure their daily life, give preferential treatment to their families, and the military honors they had achieved could serve as a qualification to allow their family members to receive generous treatment.

This also led many residents with ten years of exempts from conscription to choose to join the legion actively, and because of the large number, the empire’s military department held discussions and issued a specific policy.

If there is only one adult male in a family, he is not allowed to join the Imperial Legion. In families with two adults, one is allowed to join the legion selection, but without achieving military honors or promotion arrangements, he must retire after a year.

If war broke out, these retired soldiers would be the primary candidates for conscription.

However, due to the efficiency brought by magic production and the development of the industrialization base throughout the empire, a significant amount of the labor involved in production was liberated, coupled with a continuous population supply and growth.

This is what allowed the Golden Empire to maintain a vast number of legion warriors without affecting the development and operation of various industries within the territory.

Every giant dragon within the Gogomola Dragon Group supported the cause of vigorously building the imperial legion.

These dragons, unlike some proud dragons blinded by their strength, had experienced war and no longer considered mortal legions as mere crawling insects in front of dragons.

Some solitary dragons, even ancient dragons, before dying under a massive legion siege, still saw mortal armies as nothing but dispensable toys.

Mortals couldn’t resist the power and breath of dragons, and dragons could come and go as they pleased.

But the dragons of the Golden Empire placed great importance on the construction and structural optimization of the legion, even if it required consuming a vast amount of wealth that the dragon group could share, they were unwavering.

They effectively ruled these legions, so every dragon in the Gogomola Dragon Group knew that maybe a legion of hundreds or thousands in front of the mighty giant dragon didn’t count as strong, but if it was a legion of ten thousand, it would be extremely terrifying.