POV

The emperor of the Rostok empire.

"Your majesty, we have withdrawed from the Miklagrad and are starting the second battle of Bulgaria." said the minister of army looking nervous

"What the hell is your army doing, you are losing in the southern continent and are withdrawing from Miklagrad. You have nothing to show for except for heavy losses and our economy can't sustain it it it not for the loans of Mainz." I said angrily.

The cabinet started getting nervous due to my rage. I might look like I am trying to assimilate into central continents way of being more tolerant in case of mistakes but I am still very much a feudal emperor who will kill and they know that. The foreign ministry couldn't stop the Lombardians from intervening in the war and made it a full blown conflict with 2 of the great powers. The finance minister couldn't fund the army for a long time and we had to take loans from Mainz. The army is loosing many of it's battles and is retreating. Head will fall, wheter it be bureaucrats or the enemy to appease the domestic population

"What is happening in the southern front, why are we losing so badly even though we are defending and it is our territory. Are you all idiots losing against an enemy that is outnumbered. The first battle of bulgaria was extremely costly, we lost thousands of men and now you are saying we have to fight another battle like that due to your incompetence."

I don't care about the amount of soldiers that will be lost. At the end of the day, we have many more that can replace them. The problem is the costs and the pensions that need to be paid after them dying. That accounts for the majority of cost for this war as we don't really pay the soldiers and they get their money by plunduring conquered territories. The weapons cost some money but most of the money is being spent on pensions for the soldiers.

"Your majesty, this isn't the time to look for accountability. We have to focus on what we have to do after this. We will definetly win the battle of Bulgaria as Mainz has signaled that it is inclined to help us more in winning the war. The casualties in the south are due to attrition and medical problems and the enemy soldiers are also suffering from it. We will organize a counterattack in the south and they definetly be pushed out. The main problem in the south is corruption and we will conduct a cleansing after the war." said the prime minister.

After I calm down, I started finding sense in the prime minister's words. The problem is even after the war, we can't conduct a major cleansing. At most, we can kill a few scapegoats as most of the bureaucrats have intrest groups behind them and I can't afford to provoke them.

Sometimes I really envy young countries like Mainz. They don't have many intrest groups and due to that, corruption is in an all time low.

"Start taking more loans from Mainz, we will orgainze a major counterattack and take Miklagrad. If we don't conquer it, you know what happens right." I said to them.

If they can't conqer Miklagrad, they will have to resign and take responsibility for this war as they are the cabinet. I don't need to abdicat but my power will weaken quite a bit.