Volume 4 Chapter 1: Forced Recruitment for War

  "What's your name?"

  "Thomas Duke."

  "Race?"

  "Human."

  "How old?"

  "Nineteen years old."

  "What is the reason for applying for exemption from military service?"

  Ferry put down the pen and paper in his hand, looked up at the guy opposite him. It was obvious that this young man named Thomas Duke had applied too much white powder on his face to fake a pale complexion, making him look like a clown in a circus. With his bright red nose and dark eye circles, he looked even more vivid.

  "Officer," the young man, who looked like a clown, stood up excitedly, with white powder falling from his face, "I have severe hypotension and anemia, I'll faint after walking just a few steps, and also have anorexia, congenital heart muscle underdevelopment..."

  "Don't worry, kid. The Giant Bear Corps has plenty of beauties to get your blood pumping at top speed! It's also great exercise for your heart function. Trust me, the treatment methods in the barracks are far superior to any temple or hospital! Guaranteed you'll be strutting confidently onto the front lines in no time."

  Fili patted Thomas on the shoulder, stopping him mid-sentence, then turned around and shouted loudly, "Guards! Guards! Take this young man who needs exercise to the medical team, where Pastor Elise is short of a few helpers to deal with the corpses!"

  "Your future main job is to sew up the corpses of soldiers and bury them, and by the way, make some human organ specimens for the novice pastor... Alas. How dizzy. The psychological quality of young people these days is really getting worse and worse." Fili shook his head in disappointment, gesturing to the guards to drag out Thomas, who was foaming at the mouth, and stuff him into a horse-drawn carriage headed for the military camp. Then he walked back to his seat and began to review the next application for exemption from military service.

  "Next, Nan Na! Mr. Tie Hammers! Come in quickly!"

  This time, it wasn't just one person who came in, but a group of people. A sturdy dwarf wrapped in a tattered bed sheet, with five pipes stuffed into his mouth, was carried in on a stretcher by several other dwarves. The guy seemed to have not taken a bath for months, and his hair and beard were full of sticky stuff, giving off a pungent sour smell that could be smelled from afar. Phil couldn't help but wrinkle her brow, but still maintained her composure without showing any disgusted emotions.

  "How did so many people come, who is Nana Teppang?"

  "Officer, I am Seri Ironfist's father, Thoren Ironfist." A stout old dwarf with a white beard and hair put down the stretcher and rushed to Phil's side, wiping his nose and tears on his sleeve. "Waaah, officer, my son has been mentally unstable since he was young, even we as parents can hardly recognize him, and recently it's gotten worse! Look at what he's become!"

  Ferris pulled back his sleeve with a look of distaste and then took out a handkerchief to wipe it clean, but unfortunately his efforts soon became futile.

  "Is there wine? I'm about to die of thirst! Give me a large mug of beer quickly!"

  Nan Na? Iron hammer lifted the stinky and tattered bed sheet. Jumped down from the stretcher, loudly shouting about thirst. Before everyone reacted, he rushed to Fei Li's desk. Drank a whole bottle of ink in one gulp, and finally wiped his mouth with Fei Li's sleeve, still unsatisfied, grabbed a yellowed book and devoured it wildly, as if it was the most delicious dish to go with wine.

  Feili scrunched up her face and looked at her sleeves, which were emitting a foul odor, deciding to burn the clothes as soon as she got back.

  "Sir. My son has become like this, don't you think...?" The old dwarf said tentatively to Phil, his eyes full of hope.

  "This. Well, we need to study it carefully." Fili spoke in an official tone to Seri? Ironfist, "I'm not unsympathetic, I can understand your practical difficulties, but exempting you from military service is a fairly complicated matter, involving several departments, and I alone cannot make the decision. How about this!"

  He pulled up the old dwarf's hand with a sincere face, looked into his eyes and said, "Let your son stay first, I'll call a few people in charge to come and take a look. If they all confirm that your son has mental problems, I can exempt him from military service and send him back to your house. Where is your home address?"

  "Oh, that's too much trouble for you, thank you so much. Here is my business card, I live at 145 Walnut Street, and this useless son of mine will be in your care..."

  The old dwarf handed a business card to Fili and then happily followed the others. As soon as they disappeared from the door, Fili quickly pulled over a guard and whispered in his ear, "Take this guy who's pretending to be crazy away and send him to Mr. Vini's melee combat team!" He pointed at Nana Ironfist, who was tearing down the map on the wall and stuffing it into her mouth, and added, "Tell Mr. Vini that a wooden stick is enough, no need to prepare other weapons."

  "Why?"

  "This guy eats everything, and he's also pretending to be crazy." Feili pointed at him again and started gnawing on the leg of a chair, looking silly.

  "With a face full of sympathy and pity, 'I strongly suspect that he has severe mental problems to prevent him from playing with swords in the army, stabbing himself to death while wasting our equipment. It's more convenient to just give him a wooden stick.'"

  He threw up his hands in a gesture of helplessness, "Or maybe just don't send anything at all and let him go to the battlefield to gnaw on the enemy with his teeth! That would be enough for him to get a Medal of Valor plus a certificate of commendation for thriftiness, who knows, maybe even a personal thank-you letter from Chairman Zena!"

  Wait until Nana, who is completely unaware of the miserable treatment she will soon receive. The iron hammer was driven out of the office by the guards, and Feili picked up the old dwarf's business card, tore it into pieces and threw it into the trash can, then cursed viciously, "It's not just rubbing sour cream in your hair, rolling around in a dung pit, eating some random things. You think you can pretend to be crazy and fool people with these? You're far from it! I can tell by looking at your eyes. Want to play with me? Play yourself to death!"

  He yawned and began rummaging through the messy pile of files on his desk for the next form, but before he could find it, the door opened.

  "Who told you to come in? I haven't spoken yet...... It's you, Charlotte." Phil stopped working and asked somewhat strangely, "How did you get here? Has the recruitment work of the Tanuki Corps ended?"

  "That's naturally left to the people below. As the head officer, if I still have to do such trivial matters, wouldn't that be too humiliating?" Charlotte's expression became even stranger, he pulled over a chair and sat down, then poured himself a cup of hot tea from Phil's teapot. "On the other hand, why are you staying here and competing with your subordinates for work? I just heard that when you personally oversaw the recruitment, you scared them half to death!" He asked while holding his tea cup.

  "If it were a normal recruitment, there would be no problem. But...” Phil's hand was clutching a large stack of exemption from military service application forms. His expression twisted in pain as he shook his head vigorously, "So many, so many scoundrels are coming to fake illness and escape military service! Do you know how many people came to our military unit to report this week? Only five! Out of over 4,000 people who should have come to sign up, only five didn't apply for exemption from military service!"

  "Is it that many?" Charlotte was also startled, and didn't even notice the hot tea splashing onto her fingers. "Although I haven't recruited enough people on my side either, but it shouldn't be exaggerated to this extent, right? I remember Rick telling me yesterday that the Raccoon Squad only had less than 500 vacancies left. How can your side be so severe?"

  "That's for sure, your raccoon troops are staying local. How can my giant panda troops going north to battle be the same? This news has already spread throughout the thirteen states of New Netherland!" Phil said gruffly, he had been worried about this for two days and couldn't eat or sleep well. Fortunately, he was already bald, so no matter how anxious he was, he didn't have any hair to lose.

  After Zena became the President of the Continental Congress, the Great Bear Army and the Raccoon Army, which was still under preparation, moved to Emmon Port. The permanent residence of the Continental Congress was also determined here in order to "commemorate the great contributions made by the citizens of Emmon in this great anti-invasion war". The original Governor's Mansion had not been burned down during the occupation of the Elf Army and now it can be used as the venue for the Continental Congress after some minor renovations. Fili also moved back to the officer dormitory of the Garrison Command, everything seemed to have returned to its original track.

  Although the city's reconstruction work is progressing smoothly with the support of huge funds, the rebuilding of the legion is still far away. Under the pressure of public opinion and the supervision of the Continental Congress, various states have finally sent a large number of weapons, food, and money, but the key issue of personnel has not been resolved. Not only can the forced conscription bill not be passed, but even the militia who escaped from Emon Port are being tightly controlled by local governments, refusing to let them go again. Due to the actual power being greatly reduced compared to what was expected, Zena is also at a loss and can only continue to drag out the issue of conscription in the Continental Congress.

  It wasn't until Chancellor Ludwig abandoned the entire Northern State in desperation and retreated to New Morsborough with a group of defeated soldiers that the central government finally issued an urgent decree, forcing the Continental Congress to pass the Conscription Act. By this time, nearly two months had passed since Philip's annihilation of Sofia's landing force.

  So much time has been wasted in endless bickering. The inefficiency of the democratic system is particularly hateful during wartime, but there is no help for it.

  Even if the conscription bill is passed, it does not mean that a large number of new recruits will immediately flood into the military camp. Although local governments can no longer use the names of dead people on the flower register to make up numbers, there are still countless tricks to resist conscription. The Wolfsbane Legion guards New Mazosabra State, and there are more people who are willing to join. Although these guys are mostly thinking of getting some weapons in the military camp, they can escape with their arms when they encounter danger and go home to protect their families. However, no matter what, the Wolfsbane Legion has already set up a framework, and it depends on how Rick Torini trains these cowards into warriors.

  But for the giant bear legion that is about to head north to battle, this problem is huge.

  "I've been busy for the past two days"

  More than 30 were diagnosed with anemia, more than 50 had heart disease, and over a hundred had several died. This is only limited to the local area of Novosibirsk Oblast, and the recruitment situation in other regions has not been reported yet, but basically no one volunteered to sign up. No one wants to go all the way to the distant north to risk their lives!

  Ferli downed a large cup of tea with a gulp, let out a long sigh, and then told Charlotte his troubles. "Reni's too soft-hearted to handle this sort of thing. The others are either being bribed by the draft dodgers or I've sent them off to recruit in other states. That big Druid, Vini, is not easily bought, but unfortunately he only knows how to hunt bears, not men! And Feddon doesn't even speak Norsiriel well enough to be of much use." He sighed again, clearly frustrated with the ineptitude of his subordinates. "So I'm stuck doing it all myself, dealing with these draft dodgers nonstop for four or five days straight. It's exhausting!"

  "That's quite a lot of trouble for you, but since you've taken this position, being busy and tired is inevitable." Charlotte said with some schadenfreude, although he had previously said he didn't mind. However, regarding Fili taking the position of commander of the Giant Bear Army, he still had some resentment in his heart, and seeing Fili's misfortune naturally made him somewhat happy. "However, I can imagine how to deal with those who pretend to be ill, but it seems you haven't thought about how to deal with those who pretend to be dead? You can't just dig up their corpses from the ground, and even if you did, they might still secretly buy corpses to fake it."

  "It's simple, wherever there is a shortage, make up for it." Fei Li snapped his fingers with a relaxed expression. With a flourish, he began to describe his own clever plan, "For those who are supposed to enlist but have died, the local government will be held responsible for making up the shortfall. If the local officials shirk and prevaricate, then I'll just go and grab some able-bodied men myself! I've given the recruitment teams heading south a large quantity of stink bombs, letting them do whatever it takes - kidnapping, robbery, or even finding human traffickers - as long as they can make up the numbers for me!"

  "What's there to worry about if you've already done it this way?"

  "No matter what kind of recruitment method, it can't beat human relationships and face! Fili's eyes suddenly dimmed, full of helplessness. "In the past two days, more than 100 members of parliament and local officials, as well as big businessmen, have come to me to ask for favors for their relatives and friends. If I still want to mix in New Zealand, I can't not give them face! The recruitment team going south is probably in a similar situation, it's really hard to say how many soldiers they can recruit. This is the result of me personally presiding over the recruitment review office, if I hand over the power to exempt people from military service to subordinates, I'm afraid there will be even more relatives and friends asking for favors! So I'm really in a difficult situation!"

  "Really!" Charlotte nodded, then pulled out a thick envelope from her pocket and solemnly handed it to Feri, before beginning to explain under Feri's astonished gaze.

  "As a matter of fact, I've come to ask for your help this time too." He blushed slightly, seemingly not having much experience with such things. "I have an uncle whose only son just so happens to be assigned to your legion. My uncle is getting on in years and doesn't want his son to suffer in the icy lands of the north, so he asked me to come find you and see what can be done. This is a small token, not worth much, please accept it. If you're willing to help out, he's also willing to offer more money as thanks for your kindness..."

  ……

  "This is the last one for today, so that means work has ended? Guard! Let the gentleman outside go back, his exemption from military service application has been approved!"

  He reluctantly stamped "approved" on the last draft deferment application and stuffed it into a drawer. He flipped through the statistics book and found that even though he had used almost all inhumane means, among the more than 900 young people who should have joined the Giant Bear Legion in this state, less than 400 were sent to the military camp. The rest either pulled strings or escaped into the mountains, and it was unknown how long it would take to capture these draft dodgers. He himself would soon be departing for the front lines. Although the Continental Congress repeatedly shirked conscription, they were very enthusiastic about sending troops to battle. Those congressmen were all eloquent in their speeches, declaring war on the enemy, but if they had to shoulder a rifle themselves, they would probably change their tune the next day and advocate caution.

  However... at least in terms of increasing personal income, these few days of forced recruitment work were still very successful. Fili smiled as he cut open the envelope given by Charlotte and took out the check inside. It seemed that Charlotte's uncle was indeed very wealthy, and had actually given a high price of 600 gold coins for the first time. Fili couldn't help but look forward to the formal "thank you" to come.

  "That's not bad either, if all else fails, let the great Druid summon more bears." Fili muttered irresponsibly as he put the check in his pocket, "Anyway, the new recruits of Norsel are no better than bear dogs, even if they become a real army of bear dogs, it's fine, and we don't even need to pay compensation." He rubbed his empty stomach and started thinking about what to eat for dinner.