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Chapter 416: Incorporated into war zone jurisdiction
Claude soon met General Bolognik, but General Bolognik didn't look very good. No matter who was shot in the right rib, he would feel very uncomfortable. Moreover, the governors and admirals of the three directly-administered territories did not provide General Bolognik with the best treatment drugs and medical environment. As a result, more than half a month later, General Bolognik's injuries had not fully recovered.
There was nothing to say about the process of capturing Corbichus Port. When the Thunder 131 Regiment entered the outer city of Corbichus Harbor, the enemy was not aware of it. Only when they reached the inner city, the gate guards hurriedly closed the door. Immediately afterwards, the governors and admirals of the three direct territories hurriedly rushed to the city wall with their guards, only to find that they had become caged birds.
Originally, the governors and admirals of these three direct territories wanted to threaten Claude with the life and safety of General Bolognik and ask him to withdraw his troops. However, Claude called the old messenger over and wrote a letter on the spot asking him to take it into the city and give it to the governor and admirals. After the old messenger was hung up on the city wall, the governor and admirals were all dumbfounded when they saw the letter written by Claude.
Claude wrote a few words in the letter, which meant just as he said to General Skerry before sending out the troops. If anything happens to General Bolognik, it would be very simple. All governors and admirals should report to the kingdom of the God of War. Claude swore that once something happened to General Bolognik, Claude would definitely order these governors and admirals, as well as their families and relatives, to be hung on the trees on the roadside, and he would do what he said... .
Only then did the governors and admirals on the city wall realize that the reality was completely different from what they had imagined. Even the imprisoned General Bolognik had become a hot potato. This is the so-called fear of those who are stunned, and those who are stunned are afraid of losing their lives. General Bolognik's life safety has become Claude's reliance to threaten them.
While the governors and admirals on the city wall were still arguing about what to do, Claude had ordered the 131st Battalion of Thunder to throw grenades on the city wall. As a result, when the grenade exploded, few people were left standing on the city wall. Immediately afterwards, the city gate was blown open, and the soldiers of the Thunder Legion rushed into the city. The governors and admirals of the three direct territories were all taken prisoner.
Claude's side went smoothly, but there were some setbacks in the attack on the harbor dock by Muriel's side. As a military port, a small fortress was built in the dock area, and the Storm Fleet dispatched a battalion of naval stormtroopers to guard it to prevent the military port from being attacked by pirates. Originally, the Marine Stormtroopers of this battalion were not under the jurisdiction of the Governor and Admiral, but the Governor of the Tiersim Territory convinced the battalion commander of the Marine Stormtroopers to swear allegiance to Prince Hansback.
Therefore, when Murray Ed led the troops into the dock area, they were blocked by the naval stormtroopers. However, the artillery on the fortress at the dock was aimed at the sea and not the land. The 1302nd Thunder Regiment immediately launched an attack. After three rounds of throwing grenades, the defenders of the fortress raised the white flag and surrendered.
The Direct Territory of Tiersim fell into Claude's hands, and General Bolognik was unable to stop Claude's misbehavior. Because Claude said that this was a crusade against rebellion, and then began to carry out a large-scale purge of these three jurisdictions. Anyway, all the military and political officials and local families in the three jurisdictions who signed the oath of allegiance to Prince Hansback were Within the scope of Claude's capture, what awaits them is ten years of hard labor.
Different from the direct jurisdictions under the jurisdiction of war zones, the local forces of these three direct jurisdictions are intertwined. The governors and admirals can only effectively manage the territorial capital and a few large towns. Other local towns are managed by powerful people. and controlled by local forces. Claude heard this matter from the two generals Albert Lund and Beech Kerin. Now that these three direct territories will be brought under the jurisdiction of the war zone, Claude simply cuts through the mess quickly and takes advantage of this rebellion. The incident wiped out all the local forces in these three jurisdictions, so that the orders in the war zone can be fully implemented in the future.
It took twenty days for Generals Skerry and General Beachlin to arrive at the Tiersim Direct Territory with their troops. By this time, General Bolonik's injuries had almost recovered and he could get up from the hospital bed and move around. General Albert didn't come, he still needs to stay at Vibato Port. There is no way, the territory of the eight overseas territories is too big. Starting from the Arturas territory, even if you ride to the Vibato Port territory on horseback, the normal journey will take a month.
General Bolognik, Claude, General Skree and General Biechlin held a discussion meeting in the Tiersim Direct Territory regarding the future of the eight overseas territories. At the meeting, it was decided to transfer Tiersim, A. The three direct territories of Turas and Mormali were brought under the jurisdiction of the war zone. At the same time, it was decided to cancel the disarmament order, maintain the total strength of the Thunder Legion and the Rock Legion of 130,000, and establish 18 local garrison regiments with a full strength of 5,600 people in eight overseas territories directly under the Central Government to serve as local guards in each territory. Reserve replenishment of troops and theaters.
General Bolognik decided to expand Lanhu Town and upgrade it to a city, making Lanhu City the seat of the theater headquarters. The original plan to move to Wickham Castle was scrapped. This was because after the war zone was included in the three direct jurisdictions of Tilsim, Mormaley and Arturas, Lanhu City was in the center of eight overseas direct jurisdictions. It just so happens that you can take care of both sides.
Claude proposed to establish a garrison fleet for the overseas territories, and the personnel were the more than a thousand naval officers and soldiers who ran back from White Deer City and were unwilling to be loyal to Prince Hansback. Although most of the warships they drove back were light ocean cruising warships and transport ships, they also managed to make up six light fast cruising warships, plus two medium-sized warships and one large warship, as well as four ships anchored in Vibato Port. The light cruise warship seized from the Kingdom of Hicks is enough to form a cruise garrison fleet to maintain the offshore security of overseas jurisdictions and protect the safety of offshore transportation between jurisdictions.
However, General Bolognik and General Skerry seemed hesitant, because although the formation of a cruise fleet could bring more security to overseas territories, it also meant that the theater would bear an additional military expenditure. And a naval fleet costs more than an army. Don't look at it as just a fleet of more than ten light fast cruise warships, their expenses are already comparable to that of a second-tier army.
Claude laughed, and then showed the Thunder Legion's harvest from the three direct territories in the past half month, property worth 12.3 million gold crowns, including the governors and admirals of the three direct territories. , contributed more than 400,000 gold crowns. Claude believed that the annual cost of setting up a cruise fleet would only be around 300,000 gold crowns. Now that the three directly-governed territories are under the jurisdiction of the war zone, official administration can be purged. Without all kinds of exploitation, the tax revenue of the three directly-governed territories will naturally increase significantly. By then, the military expenditure of an additional cruise fleet will not be a big deal... . ...
As the director of logistics in the war zone, General Skerry was satisfied that Claude had collected so much property from the three direct territories to fill the military deficit in the war zone, but he did not agree with Claude's idea. He told Claude very bluntly that the fiscal and tax situation of these three direct territories in the next few years is unlikely to increase, but will instead decrease. The reason is very simple. The tax revenue of these three jurisdictions is based on ocean trade. The annual cross-ocean trade with the kingdom makes the business of these three jurisdictions prosperous and the tax revenue is guaranteed.
Now the kingdom has cut off trade with its overseas territories. This is the main reason why the governors and admirals of the three territories have sworn allegiance to Prince Hansback. Their purpose is to restore cross-ocean trade with the kingdom and earn money from it. Huge profits. Now that Claude has captured these six governors and admirals in the name of fighting against rebellion, there is no longer any hope of conducting ocean-going trade with the kingdom.
Without cross-ocean trade, the commerce of the three jurisdictions of Tilsim, Mormali, and Arturas will be severely affected. In the future, they can only turn to commercial trade within the overseas jurisdictions, so In the future, the war zone will probably not be able to collect as much tax revenue from the three direct territories as military expenditures. For this reason, General Skerry does not advocate the establishment of a cruise fleet.
Another issue is that 18 local garrison regiments will be formed in the war zone to reduce the original local garrison forces. The soldiers of these eighteen local garrison regiments are all composed of older soldiers from the Thunder Legion and the Rock Legion. Each local garrison regiment has a full strength of 5,600 people. The eighteen local garrison regiments require a total of about 100,000 troops. This means that in addition to retaining 30,000 grassroots officers and elite veterans, the Thunder and Rock Legions also need to recruit 100,000 young men of suitable age to enlist in the army.
This is indeed what General Claude and Bolognik meant. The main purpose is to reduce the life pressure of the relatives of the officers and soldiers in the two direct territories of Cromwell and Beringana. As long as one hundred thousand recruits are recruited, the immediate family members of these one hundred thousand recruits will be able to obtain thirty acres of fertile land or three hundred acres of pasture. It is estimated that six to seven million relatives of officers and soldiers without property will no longer have to let the war zone bear the burden of their lives. and jobs, which will reduce the financial pressure on investment in public facilities and infrastructure in war zones.
The second reason is that Claude believes that most of the officers and soldiers of the two legions are too old, which is not conducive to the construction of the legions and the enhancement of combat effectiveness. Just like the Thunder Legion, the average age of the officers and soldiers is around thirty-one years old. Although they still maintain strong combat effectiveness, Claude feels a little tired and has become a little stuck in the development and application of tactics.
So Claude decided to simply demolish them all and rebuild them, and start forming a young legion while the older officers and soldiers were transferred to the local garrison and still maintained their combat effectiveness. In this way, after the veterans of the local garrison have retired in a few years, the two re-grown legions will take over. Otherwise, if the veterans retire in a few years and the two legions recruit new recruits, they will not be able to have the same strong combat effectiveness. It is very detrimental to maintaining the security of overseas directly-administered territorial war zones.
This is what General Skerry wants to remind Claude. Recruiting 100,000 new soldiers, retraining and re-arming, and forming eighteen local garrison regiments will require a large amount of military expenditure. Even though the nearly 1.3 million gold crowns collected by the Thunder Legion in the three direct-administered territories was a huge amount of wealth, it could only be spent on military expenses for two or three years.
General Bolognik felt a little embarrassed. What Claude and General Skerry said made sense. After cutting off trans-oceanic trade with the Kingdom, the business of overseas territories could only turn to the model of self-production and sales. However, the eight overseas territories directly under the Central Government have a large area and the cost of land transportation is very high, so the development of short-sea transportation has become the first choice. However, although offshore transportation is close to the coastline, it does not mean that it will not be attacked by pirates. It is indeed necessary to have a cruise fleet composed of light fast cruising warships to bring security to offshore transportation.
General Stirling's concerns are also reasonable. Military expenditures in the theater have indeed become a huge financial burden. After the disarmament order is cancelled, he will recruit 100,000 new soldiers, form 18 local garrison regiments, and improve the three seaports. The defense of the war zone, as well as the construction of infrastructure in strategic locations in the war zones, all mean that the war zone needs to invest a large amount of money, and the war zone's finances are very tight.
After much deliberation, General Bolognik decided to form a cruise fleet of six light fast cruising warships. The remaining warships were mothballed first and expanded when the theater funds were sufficient. In this way, the navy's military expenditure can be kept at about 150,000 gold crowns per year, and the war zone can still squeeze out this military expenditure.
After discussing the cruise fleet, General Bolognik discussed with Claude and others the personnel arrangements for the administrative officials of the three newly-administered territories under the jurisdiction of the theater. It must be said that Claude did a great job in cleaning up this time. It has become a bit cleaner. Almost all the local administrative officials of the three directly governed territories have been arrested and imprisoned in the name of rebellion. Currently, the three directly governed territories are under military control. Otherwise, local administrative affairs would have been paralyzed.
General Skerry suggested that suitable personnel should be selected from the grassroots officers of the two legions who are preparing to retire to serve as officials in charge of the local administrative departments of the three directly governed territories. At the same time, administrative officials should be openly recruited in the three directly governed territories and be appointed after assessment. This suggestion was unanimously endorsed by Generals Bolognik, Claude and Buechlin.
General Bolonik decided to return to Lanhu Town with General Bichklin in two days and sit at the theater headquarters. They first formed six local garrison regiments and deployed them in the three directly-governed territories to strengthen local control. Generals Claude and Skerry are temporarily stationed in the Tiersim Direct Territory to rectify the order and local security here. When the six local garrison regiments arrive, Claude can lead the Thunder Legion troops back to the theater headquarters.
Two days later, General Bolognik and General Beachlin left with the guards, while General Claude and General Skerry stayed in the port of Corpicius to continue their busy work. The three direct territories were brought under the jurisdiction of the war zone, and their affairs were complicated. Not to mention other things, just checking the families of the three territories made Claude and General Skree so busy that they even had to grab something to eat. Fill your stomach.
Otherwise, the Port of Corbichus under the direct jurisdiction of Tiersim serves as a seaport with the kingdom's mainland and has built a vast warehouse area. The specialty resources and commercial materials shipped to White Deer City from the three direct jurisdictions are concentrated in this warehouse. area. Now that cross-oceanic trade is cut off from Bailu City, the commodities and various resources in the warehouse area must be processed as soon as possible. After all, many agricultural products cannot be stored for a long time.
"Mineral resources and other materials can be stored here. It is useless to transport these things back from the war zone. Overseas territories do not have large-scale alchemy and foundry workshops, so these mineral resources cannot be utilized." General Skerry said regretfully.
In Claude's view, the so-called alchemy and foundry workshops are large steel alloy manufacturing plants. The kingdom strictly prohibits the establishment of such large-scale industries in overseas jurisdictions. It would rather transport these ore resources back to the kingdom, refine and cast them, and then transport them back. Even if it increases a lot of costs, we will not hesitate to do so. Perhaps this is also a means to limit the economic development of overseas territories directly under the Central Government.
"These tobaccos are a specialty of the Arturas Direct Territory. It is said that they are found all over the mountains and plains there, but they have become expensive luxuries in the Kingdom." General Sterry felt it was a pity: "There is no local distribution in the Kingdom. In the land, tobacco cannot be sold at a high price in overseas direct-administered territories. Perhaps it can be sold to the Kingdom through smuggling in the future. The bison jerky and cod jerky accumulated here need to be transported back to the war zone and distributed to the troops as military rations, because the shelf life of this stuff is only It takes about three months to half a year. The same goes for those cowhide. If it is not treated, it will easily rot... "