Claude had never thought that there would be so many troubles. He originally thought that the Kingdom of Nasseri and the Principality of Karnas would be destroyed, the war would end, and the Kingdom of Ovilas would unify the eastern region of Farea Continent. The next step is to rest and recuperate, and nothing will happen to him. Once the rewards given by the Kingdom to the two legions of the Overseas Dominion Military Region come down, everyone can pack up their luggage and happily return to the Overseas Dominion with their trophies to live their own lives.
As a result, he was now dragged into the Nasseri area and became the temporary acting governor. He was unable to escape for a while. Having to deal with countless official documents and administrative chores all day long was really a painful torture for Claude. If he had known that it would be such a troublesome thing, Claude would have regretted that he should not have destroyed the Kingdom of Nasseri and put himself and the two legions in such an embarrassing situation.
To put it bluntly, Claude, General Buechlin, and General Albert, as well as the Thunder Legion and the Rock Legion are all working in vain for Frederick I. Originally, the two legions from the Overseas Dominion Military District participated in the war, and the agreement was that after the war, the two legions would immediately return to the Overseas Dominion and no longer participate in the affairs of the kingdom.
But now, the Thunder Legion and the Rock Legion have become garrison legions stationed in the Nasseri and Karnas regions to maintain local order and security. There was no name for military control, but the work was that of military control. Even before Wang Ting sent out local administrative officials to take over, Claude and others had to stay here to perform the duties of the temporary acting governor.
This is not a matter of whether the royal court trusts Claude or not. Although Claude is the temporary acting governor, his responsibilities and powers are not that great. He is only an acting governor and is temporary, so he has no power to govern. If you analyze it carefully, he only collects taxes and tributes in these two areas on behalf of the Royal Court and the Sterling royal family, and maintains public security order in these two areas. It is equivalent to a tax collector and a patrol leader combined. Role.
This is actually Wang Ting using the combat power of the Thunder Legion and the Rock Legion to suppress the local areas, and first collect taxes from these two areas for a period of time to replenish the national treasury. Because the military expenses of the two legions of the Overseas Dominion Military Region do not need to be paid by the kingdom, the agreement has already stated that the Overseas Dominion Military Region shall bear the costs themselves. Therefore, Wang Ting's move was equivalent to using two powerful legions for free, which was a huge advantage.
Claude began to wonder if the so-called dispatch of administrative officials to take up posts in the Nasseri region and the Kannas region, and the resistance from the selection officials was an excuse made by the royal court to use the two legions for free. Fortunately, more than two months have passed, and the Nasseri area has basically been taken care of, and the Karnas area has been entrusted to General Albert. All that's left now is to collect taxes and send troops to suppress local riots and rebellions.
General Bolognik arrived at the Royal City of Polyvisia at the end of March after the rainy season. He stayed in Ames City for half a year and finally captured the more than 100,000 Nasseri Guards, grassroots officers, administrative officials and local nobles. They and their more than 200,000 family members were successfully transported to the port of Florik in the Rimodra area and boarded an ocean-going transport ship. From now on, these prisoners and their families will have to settle down in the Rocky Mountain State of the Overseas Dominion and make a living by mining.
After sending away the prisoners, General Bolognik led the first division of the Rock Legion and the legion headquarters to the Royal City of Polyvisia and met with Claude. Claude was very happy and dumped all his official duties on him, preparing to relax for a while. However, General Bolognik grabbed Claude and said that he came here this time to take advantage of the two hundred thousand prisoners in the royal city, and also wanted to transport them to overseas autonomous territories to increase the population.
General Bolognik told Claude that the more than 300,000 prisoners previously transported to the overseas dominions had attracted the attention of many dominion members. For example, the president of the Mining and Commerce Association, Representative Hindman, made a public announcement in the parliament. In his speech, he believed that the prisoners obtained from the ongoing war in the eastern region of Farea Continent were the best opportunity to fill the labor vacancies in the overseas autonomous territories. These more than 300,000 captives just enriched the lack of mining manpower in the Rocky Mountain Continent.
Therefore, the members of the Aturas State also hoped to obtain more than 100,000 prisoners from the two legions participating in the war as the scarce labor force. Due to the huge sales of tobacco companies' cigarettes, the wild tobacco in Atlas State, the main source of tobacco, is no longer in supply. Many wealthy people in the Dominion began to invest in the construction of tobacco planting estates in Aturas State and cultivate tobacco on a large scale. It's just that Aturas State is one of the autonomous regions with a small population, and plantations require a large number of manpower, so they also focused on prisoners...
Although neither the Kingdom of Overas nor the Overseas Dominion practiced slavery, captives were much cheaper than labor hired from outside. This time, General Bolognik brought entrustments from several state legislators and local people in the Dominion. They were willing to compensate the Dominion Military District, bear the cost of the prisoners, provide food, clothing, housing and transportation, and accept the supervision of the Military District.
Claude smiled bitterly. The taste of a good war seems to have completely changed now. The two legions of the Overseas Dominion Military District are participating in the war not for the rise and fall of the Kingdom of Overas, but to increase labor and immigrants for the Overseas Dominion.
I just received a letter from Mike Jack some time ago. He said in the letter that the officers and soldiers of the regiment that he had taken under his wing and originally belonged to the great prince's influence had been asking to immigrate to overseas autonomous territories with their families. Because they were worried that the old aristocratic families in the Kingdom of Overas would settle the score in the future. By then it would be too late for them to regret it, so they might as well immigrate to overseas autonomous territories to feel more at ease.
At the same time, McJack asked Claude in the letter whether to recruit these officers and soldiers into the Dominion Military District, for example, to build another Thunder Fourth Division. Currently, McJack is hosting nearly 80,000 officers and soldiers from several regiments originally belonging to Prince Hansback's forces scattered in the mountains and local areas in the three southern counties and the Eskiline region. Among them, 50,000 to 60,000 are rescued prisoners, and the rest are They were all small groups that fled into the mountains.
When the Eskiline region became the eastern enclave of the Hicks Kingdom, these small groups of troops who fled into the mountains have been fighting guerrillas and carrying out resistance activities with the Hicks army. The leader of the unit with the largest number of people was Claude's old boss, Major Ledfunk, the battalion commander of the 1st Ranger Battalion whom he hadn't seen in nearly ten years.
McJack believed that although these officers and soldiers were the old prince's subordinates, the prince was gone now, and they had all become bereaved dogs. The Thunder Legion swept through the newly occupied territories, destroyed the Principality of Sidings and the Principality of Rimodra, and recovered the Eskiline area, the enclave of the Kingdom of Hicks. Now this newly occupied territory has returned to the Kingdom of Ovelas, which has brought great uneasiness to these officers and soldiers.
Although they are also soldiers of the Kingdom of Overas, as the old subordinates of Prince Hansback, they still wear rebel hats on their heads. During the kingdom's civil war, he fought in the kingdom's mainland and fought to the death with the forces of the established noble families. The two sides had already formed a blood feud. Even though it was Frederick I who was sitting on the throne now, not Sterling XI, these officers and soldiers were still worried about the retaliation from the forces of the established aristocratic families in the future.
During the civil war in the kingdom, Prince Hansback had already moved the families of his officers and soldiers from the kingdom to the newly occupied territories, so now these officers and soldiers are not opposed to immigrating their families to overseas autonomous territories. However, Mike felt that it was a pity to let them go to overseas autonomous territories to farm. They were all strong soldiers with battlefield experience. It would be best to re-recruit into the army.
Originally, McJack wanted to organize these officers and soldiers into local garrison forces to assist the Third Thunder Division in maintaining local order and security, but in the end he only organized two garrison regiments with more than 10,000 people. The reason is not that these officers and soldiers look down upon the status of the local garrison, but that they are worried that after becoming members of the local garrison, they will have to stay in the region and will be liquidated by the kingdom in the future, which will affect their families. That's why McJack wanted to organize them into the Fourth Thunder Division, so as to calm their minds. In addition, these officers and soldiers are also envious of the military treatment and benefits of the overseas autonomous military regions, and are happy to become a member of the Thunder Legion.
In addition, McJack also reported to Claude that the task originally assigned to him, which was to reintegrate the military industries in the three southern counties, and to first establish a new rifle bullet production line, has been completed. The employees recruited are family members of officers and soldiers who are preparing to immigrate to overseas autonomous territories. Currently, this production line can produce 500,000 rounds of new rifle bullets per month. The only problem is that there is often a shortage of production materials, such as brass-skin pressed cartridge cases and primers, making stable production impossible.
As for the production of shells for new artillery, the current production conditions are not complete and there is a lack of some large-scale press and forging manufacturing machinery. The reason is that during the occupation of the Kingdom of Hicks, some large-scale forging parts machinery was transported back to the country, which caused the military manufacturing level in the three southern counties to drop a lot, making it impossible to forge some special large-scale parts. Just like the shells of cannonballs, three large-scale forging machines are needed to make them...
In fact, Claude did not want to expand the Thunder Legion's establishment. The Thunder Legion of three divisions had already reached 120,000 people, while the establishment of one division was only 35,000 people. There were originally two divisions in one legion, plus the independent regiment and four logistics battalions directly under the legion headquarters, the total strength was nearly 82,000 people. Before entering the war, a division was expanded, bringing the total number of soldiers to more than 125,000. Claude always felt that it was a little too bloated.
Either an increase in military strength is a good thing, or correspondingly, military spending exceeds the budget. This is not just about increasing the military expenditure of a division, but adding a division also requires expanding the base of civilian officers and auxiliary personnel such as logistics and administration at the corps headquarters. In the past, there was an era of queuing up with matchlocks to kill. The purpose of adopting legion organization was to use the strength of troops on the battlefield to offset the adverse effects of too many casualties and maintain lasting combat effectiveness.
It is said that in the past, when the two sides fought, they basically concentrated their forces and found an open terrain to set up their positions. The commanders of both sides directed their troops to close in and fire, and engage in hand-to-hand combat. The casualties were very high. The strength of one legion and two divisions went up in a morning. It’s all over. A battle can be won or lost in three or four days, and hundreds of thousands of casualties are common. Therefore, the more troops a legion has, the better. This has led most countries to adopt an organization of about 60,000 people per legion and two divisions.
In the first war in the eastern region, the anti-Austrian alliance clearly realized that such a field battle was no match for the four major field armies of the Kingdom of Overas. Therefore, they adopted the mode of positional offensive and defensive warfare, digging trenches and building defensive facilities to wait for the army of the Kingdom of Olvilas to attack, which offset the Kingdom of Olvilas' invincible advantage in the field. In the end, the war was dragged out to the point where both sides were exhausted and unable to continue, and they successfully negotiated and signed an armistice and peace agreement.
To a certain extent, the First Eastern Region War has changed the traditional field battle pattern in the nearly thousand years of war in the Farea continent. Even a small and weak country knows which strategy to use when its military strength is not dominant. Later, the colonial war between the Kingdom of Overas and the Kingdom of Hicks on the Nubisian continent broke through the bottom line of traditional field battles.
First, the weak Ranger Division used various strategies to deceive the enemy and won two colonial wars. The five divisions of the Overseas Directly-administered Territory Theater that were later formed swept across the four legions of the Kingdom of Hicks, and also forcibly occupied the Vibato Port Colony of the Kingdom of Hicks, turning it into the third division of the Overseas Territory. Eight demesne.
These three colonial wars were an eye-opener for all the countries in Farea Continent, so much so that when the Kingdom of Hicks came back two years later and rented the Rodex Bay Colony of the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands at a high price to continue this colonial war, it almost attracted attracted the attention of all countries in Farea continent. At that time, the Kingdom of Overas was engaged in a civil war between its two kings. There were only two legions in the Overseas Territory War Zone, but the Hicks Kingdom invested ten standing legions. Basically, no one was optimistic that the Overseas Territory War Zone would win. .
For the first time, the Thunder Legion sneak attacked the base camp of the Hicks Kingdom Expeditionary Force and won by luck. However, the Hicks Kingdom Expeditionary Force only lost two and a half legions, which showed its strength. The Second Hicks Kingdom Expeditionary Force retaliates in kind by landing in the Fishing Port Town of the overseas direct-administered territory, approaching Lanhu City, where the direct-administered territory's war zone is located, and turning it into ruins.
However, the Thunder Legion rushed thousands of miles to help, and the directly-administered theater survived the disaster, and the three Hicks Legions who landed were surrounded and annihilated by the entire army. Afterwards, the Thunder Legion successfully attacked the base camp of the Hicks Kingdom Expeditionary Force again, and worked together with the Rock Legion to annihilate all the Hicks Kingdom Expeditionary Force, and finally won the colonial war.
In the final battle of the colonial war, the new rifles equipped by the two legions in the overseas territorial theater began to attract the attention of various countries in Farea. The power of this new rifle far exceeded the matchlocks installed by various countries. guns, but due to the tight security in overseas directly-administered territorial war zones, little information about the new rifles has been leaked.
It was not until later that the Kingdom of Ovilas experienced too many changes. Overseas territories became autonomous territories, and war zones turned into military zones. In the name of helping Archduke Sidins and Archduke Rimodra to restore their kingdom, the Kingdom of Hicks raided and occupied the newly occupied territories of the Kingdom of Ovelas. The kings of Ovelas mutinied, Frederic I came to power, and the Kingdom of Chicos led the formation of the Eastern Territory League of Nations. A debt war broke out between the Kingdom of Nasseri and the Kingdom of Ovilas. The Eastern Regional National Alliance intervened and formed a coalition to invade the Kingdom of Ovilas.
Then the two legions from the overseas autonomous territories returned to the kingdom for reinforcements. The result was that the alliance of countries in the eastern region was destroyed. The alliance army had only 700,000 troops left. Four countries were destroyed, and the Kingdom of Ovelas unified the entire eastern region of Farea continent. The emergence of new rifles, new artillery, and armored fleets in this second war in the eastern region has caused earth-shaking changes in the mode of war. The victory of the war no longer depends on the number of troops on both sides, but on the power of the new weapons.
The Elephant Thunder Legion used only one division to resist the attack of the four armies of the Alliance Army. It inflicted a large number of casualties on the enemy while retreating while fighting, luring the Alliance Army under the Royal City of Polyvisia, laying the foundation for the victory of the battle. foundation. That's why Claude believes that in the future, divisions can be used to replace legions. The troops should be elite but not numerous. There is no need to accumulate troops and expand them into a large army.
However, General Bolognik did not think so. He told Claude an inside message. The Prime Minister of the Kingdom, Marquis Blancart, wrote privately to tell him that in the next three years, the Kingdom would not be able to govern and govern Nasseri, Kanner There is no financial resources to invest in these areas such as Si, Esquiline, Rimodra and Sidings. Therefore, two legions from the Overseas Autonomous Territory Military Region are needed to guard these areas for three years, first accumulate some tax wealth to support the restoration of the kingdom, and then return the jurisdiction of these areas to the royal court...
This is a very surprising news, which is equivalent to the royal court entrusting overseas autonomous territories to take over the jurisdiction of these areas for three years on behalf of the kingdom. However, the formal commission has not been announced, and the matter has only been discussed in private. General Bolognik said that this was a reward given by the royal court to the overseas autonomous territories and military regions. The kingdom did not have the financial resources to fulfill the merits of the Thunder Legion and the Rock Legion for the kingdom, so it used this method to compensate them in disguise.
Administering these areas for three years means that in addition to the taxes and tributes paid to the royal court, all the commercial profits in these areas will be in the hands of the overseas autonomous military regions, which will be a very huge fortune. At the same time, it is entirely possible to immigrate from these areas to overseas autonomous territories within three years, and Wang Ting pretends not to see it. After all, they were all enemy countries in the past, and more immigrants would alleviate the kingdom's trouble in managing these areas in the future.
"Well, the Thunder Legion will expand by one more division, and select suitable soldiers from the old prince's troops to fill the vacancies left by the martyrs of the two legions this time. Let General Beach Kerin go and take charge of this. For the first time to expand and replenish troops, Mike will be his deputy." Claude made the decision, just as General Bolognik said, the Thunder Legion really needs to expand to guard so many places.
"As for the prisoners you want, you can take away the nearly 100,000 former Nasseri Kingdom soldiers here along with their families and send them to Arturas State. But the remaining 100,000 Hicks Kingdom soldiers Prisoners, I am not going to let them go to overseas autonomous territories, so let them build roads here first..." Claude continued.