“. . . And we didn’t stop you militarily. We just gave you a chance to disappear as soldiers and retire as citizens of Possiltum. You and your boys were never beaten in a fight.”
“We were the best,” Big Julie confirmed proudly. “Anybody messed with us, they pulled back a bloody stump with no body attached, know what I mean?”
“Then why are you all so afraid of the Mob? If they try anything, why don’t you and your boys just hook up with General Badaxe’s army and teach ’em a lesson in maneuvers?”
The ex-commander heaved a deep sigh.
“It don’t work that way,” he said. “If they was to march in here like an army, sure, we could send ’em packing. But they won’t. They move in a few musclemen at a time, all acting just as polite as you please so there’s nothing you can arrest ’em for. When enough of ’em get here, though, they start leaning on your citizens. Little stuff, but nasty. If somebody complains to you, that somebody turns up dead along with most of their family. Pretty soon, all your citizens are more afraid of the Mob than they are of you. Nobody complains, nobody testifies in court. When that happens, you got no more kingdom. The Mob runs everything while you starve. You can’t fight an invasion like that with an army. You can’t fight it at all!”
We all sat in uncomfortable silence for a while, each avoiding the other’s gaze while we racked our brains for a solution.
“What I don’t understand,” Badaxe said at last, “is if the system you describe is so effective and so un stoppable, why did they bother having an army at all?”