After the high-level meeting ended, Hudson immediately took the kingdom's resolution and began promoting military budget reforms within the army.
At this point, the kingdom's forces had yet to be fully mobilized. Only the Standing Army needed to be dealt with, making this the time when resistance to reform would be at its lowest.
The first measure was to audit the accounts. Old debts would not be investigated; they would only examine everyone's recent accounts and how well they had carried out the task of "fattening up" the soldiers.
Lord Hudson had warned them before: anyone foolish enough to walk into the line of fire lacked all sense and deserved to be sacrificed for the reform.
But just because these people lacked sense did not mean the people behind them did as well. Everyone knew perfectly well that this reform was a joint decision made by the bigwigs at the royal council. No one was allowed to sabotage it.
Smart people knew how to handle things. Hudson had barely gone out to make arrests when they sent over the "stolen goods," along with written confessions.
Their cooperation was so efficient that it was faster than a confiscation squad, leaving Hudson too embarrassed to keep pressing them.
Turning themselves in spared them the investigative process and saved a great deal of social resources, so lenient punishment was only natural.
Besides, slaughtering nobles on a large scale could easily provoke the ruling class's resentment. Hudson naturally had no intention of deliberately making his reforms harder.
Everyone's dignity had to be respected, but examples still had to be made. Thus, the principle of punishment became: death might be spared, but living punishment would not.
Those with minor offenses would be given the chance to redeem themselves through merit. Those seriously implicated would be