For Claude, the Hicks Kingdom strategy has been completed, and the remaining military affairs are trivial and boring things. General Albert is presiding over the transfer of the ten western counties, which is to transfer the ownership and jurisdiction of the ten western counties to the three surrounding countries. While suppressing the resistance of the local people, the Storm Legion assisted the officers and soldiers of the Hicks Returning Division to find their families and relatives. The other thing was to arrest local officials, territorial nobles and wealthy merchants and gentry, and ransack their homes and rob them of their property... . ...
General Siegfeldt, the head of the logistics department, is responsible for all affairs of the Patkara Port leased from the Kingdom of Breault, and Claude is relieved. At present, General Siegfried is making an ambitious plan to use sufficient human resources to reclaim the wasteland outside Patkara Port and turn it into the future granary, vegetable garden and pasture of Patkara Port. Everything here doesn't require Claude to worry, and Claude is very satisfied.
The only war-related matter was taken over by the Ministry of Military Intelligence. Colonel Boker personally went to the Grand Duke's military camp in Sunset River to serve as hostages to increase mutual trust between the two parties. It's just that the battlefield confrontation will continue for two or three months. During this period, the two sides harass each other's camps, waste a lot of ammunition in petty fights, and the gunfire and shelling are loud but there are few casualties. . However, the Grand Duke of Sunset River preached everywhere that he was resolutely resisting and preventing invading enemies from attacking his legion's defense front...
The Red Dragon Legion has packed up their bags and is preparing to return home. Claude still needs to send a division of the Thunder Legion to escort them in name, but actually to monitor them. Because Claude instructed the Kingdom of Breault to send a note to the Red Dragon Legion, preparing to close the passage from the Kingdom of Menbamark to the Kingdom of Hicks. This notice forced the Red Dragon Legion to end its trip to the Hicks Kingdom and leave as soon as possible. This notice made the officers and soldiers of the Red Dragon Legion very dissatisfied.
A division of the Thunder Legion was sent to escort the Red Dragon Legion out. Claude also wanted to take precautions, lest the Red Dragon Legion, which was unwilling to be forced to evacuate, cause any uncontrollable disputes when passing through the Kingdom of Breault. . Fortunately, the Red Dragon Legion, which conquered the four local counties in the central part of the Hicks Kingdom, also reaped a bountiful harvest. There were more than 600 horse-drawn and ox-carts of various kinds, piled high with the trophies they captured and looted. With these gains, the soldiers of the Red Dragon Legion behaved quite honestly on the way back and did not harass local towns too much...
The Grand Duke of Northland is very trustworthy. Since the Ministry of Military Intelligence sent all the people on the list he requested and their relatives who were arrested to Northland, the eleven counties of Northland have only strengthened their border defenses and sent some western counties to Northland. The refugees who had escaped were taken in, but there was no sign of mobilizing local defense forces or sending troops to the North. The spies' reports made Claude let go of his guard...
This was not because Claude was afraid of facing off against the Duke of the North, but because he felt that the attack on Hicks Kingdom was nearing its end and there was no need for any further setbacks. Fortunately, the Grand Duke of the North is a smart man and does not want to waste his troops on the Dominion Military Region. The two sides maintain a tacit understanding. Claude believed that once the Dominion Military District began to evacuate, the Archduke of the North would immediately launch war mobilization in order to obtain maximum post-war benefits.
However, this has nothing to do with the Dominion Military District. The rest depends on whether the national army can withstand the attack of the Grand Duke of the North. The current commander of the Protectorate Army, Count Murides J. Kleist, has split the Faklin Army and recruited young men from local areas to form the First and Second Legions of the Protectorate Army. With the new soldiers, local social order was maintained for the first time. For more than half a year, it has been enough for the National Defense Army to firmly control its ten local counties.
With the withdrawal of the Red Dragon Legion, the remaining ten local counties in the central region have also handed over local jurisdiction to small teams formed by the leading parties. Even the Hicks Returning Division is facing off against the Sunset River Grand Duke Legion. The same is true for Lupsis County. The battlefield is in the mountains and cannot affect the towns. As for the future development prospects of this organization called the Patriotic Front, it depends on the capabilities of each small group. The Dominion Military Region has provided them with free assistance in terms of funds, food, weapons, and military supplies, and then left them alone.
All these matters were taken over by the Ministry of Military Intelligence. Claude only presided over the overall strategic layout. Claude didn't pay much attention to the implementation process and steps. He only needed to achieve the goal. From a big perspective, Claude is currently very light-hearted, as all matters have been delegated to various departments and are responsible for completion. But from a small perspective, Claude has become busier. Countless documents that require his signature are pouring in, and he has been fighting these trivial and boring official duties all day long...
After once again sending away the ocean-going transport fleet full of immigrants and supplies, Claude returned to the royal city of Saint-Cyprian and received an official document from the Kingdom's Ministry of War and a personal letter from Prime Minister Blancart. The official document from the Kingdom's Army Ministry stated that the Dominion Military Region needs to report the list of personnel who have made meritorious service in the attack on the Kingdom of Hicks so that the Kingdom's Army Ministry can verify the merits and issue promotions and rewards as soon as possible. The officers were disappointed.
Claude knew very well the meaning of the official letter sent by the Kingdom's Army Ministry. In fact, the plan to conquer the Kingdom of Hicks was entirely planned and implemented by the Dominion Military Region, completely ignoring the Kingdom of Ovelas. of involvement. It can be said that it was a war fought by the Dominion Military Region alone. After the Kingdom learned that the plan was successful, it shamelessly sent the Red Dragon Legion to take a share of the war, and showed that the Kingdom also wanted to participate in the war...
Now the Kingdom's Army Ministry is doing this again, just to take back the initiative to conquer the Hicks Kingdom. This means that the Dominion Military District carried out the Hicks Kingdom strategy plan under the guidance of the Kingdom's Army Ministry. This is another shame for them. Apply gold. After all, nominally, the Dominion Military Region is a subordinate unit of the Kingdom's Army Department. Now the Dominion Military District has independently launched a war against another kingdom, leaving the Kingdom's Army Ministry alone, which makes the Kingdom's Army Ministry look very bad.
You deserve it, Claude wanted to laugh. Before the original plan was implemented, he reminded Prime Minister Blancart that the Dominion Military Region was going to attack the Kingdom of Hicks. But the idiots at the Kingdom's Army Department did not believe this fact. They also conducted sand table drills and believed that it was impossible for the Dominion Military Region to attack the Kingdom of Hicks. They believed that the Dominion Military Region would definitely suffer a bloody blow, so they gloated about the misfortune. I prepared to watch, but was slapped in the face by the Dominion Military District...
So now that the Dominion Military District has not even evacuated from the Hicks Kingdom, the Kingdom's Army Ministry has jumped out and said that it wants to reward and promote meritorious soldiers. This is just to show its presence and make a special appearance. Claude believed that after he reported the list of meritorious soldiers, the Kingdom's Army Department would hold a celebration meeting with great fanfare to show the importance of the Kingdom's Army Department in the Hicks Kingdom strategy.
Let them dry out first and wait until the dust settles. At the very least, we have to wait until the entire army of the Dominion Military District has evacuated to Patkara Port before we can decide and implement the merits of the entire army. In fact, regardless of the fact that the Dominion Military District wiped out the Hicks Kingdom, the overlord of the North, the actual merits of the entire army's officers and soldiers were not great. Because they conquered the Kingdom of Hicks, they did not experience any battles with heavy casualties related to the overall strategic situation.
There were two somewhat decent raids, one was to annihilate the Iron Guards Corps, and the other was to annihilate the two standing legions of that prince, and they were both easily won. Even when they conquered the city of Saint Hyprian in Wangjing, they did not encounter very fierce resistance. On the contrary, it was after the occupation of Wangjing that the endless stream of spontaneous resisters became a big trouble for the autonomous military region...
Even if they raided the local counties of the Hicks Kingdom, the troops of the Dominion Military Region actually fought a security war, wiping out the defense forces in various places. In terms of military merit evaluation, the merit criteria for annihilating local garrison forces and annihilating enemy standing legions are different. The merits of public security warfare, field warfare, and siege warfare are incomparable. For example, General Albert led the Storm Legion to sweep six local counties in the west. The sum of these achievements was not as good as the fact that he wiped out a regular enemy army.
If one seriously evaluates the merits, most of the senior officers in the Dominion Military Region will not be able to be promoted in the military ranks during the Hicks Kingdom strategy, and the merits will be counted once at most. After all, Claude's plan was too sophisticated. No one could have imagined that the Breault Kingdom would collude with the Dominion Military Region to betray them and open the country wide to allow troops from the Dominion Military Region to enter the Hicks Kingdom. It was equivalent to being stabbed at the key point behind the Hicks Kingdom by the Breault Kingdom, and then the Dominion Military District used a beheading tactic.
The city of Saint Hyprian in Wangjing suddenly fell into the hands of the Dominion Military District. Even King Melchid III and the Hicks royal family, as well as the ministers of the kingdom, became prisoners. As a result, the entire kingdom lost the ability to command and coordinate to resist the invaders. The various local counties could not recommend any convincing leader. In the end, they still fought on their own, and then were wiped out by the troops of the autonomous military region...
Originally, the Grand Duke of the North was a good candidate and had great prestige. But the problem is that King Melchid III didn't like it, so many local county officials and territorial nobles lost their determination when they thought of electing the Grand Duke of Northland as their leader and had to consider how to deal with the aftermath. In addition, their luck was not very good. The Grand Duke of the North needed time to recover from his injuries, and he was unable to send troops to the North to fight against the attacks of the troops in the Dominion Military Region. Therefore, in the end, the Kingdom of Hicks was still in disarray.
This is one of the reasons why the soldiers of the two legions under the Dominion Military Region's attack on the Kingdom of Hicks could not gain much merit. As for the eight Hicks Homecoming Divisions, their purpose was to reunite with their families and go to overseas autonomous territories as immigrants. After this war is over, the eight Hicks Returning Divisions will most likely be disbanded and cease to exist when they return to the overseas Dominions. The officers of the Dominion Military Region who serve in these eight Hicks Returning Divisions will receive It is also the merit of management, not the great military exploits...
Contrary to the military achievements, the gains gained from conquering the Kingdom of Hicks this time are the most generous, but this has nothing to do with the Kingdom's Army Department. The so-called promotions and rewards of the Kingdom's Ministry of War refer to the promotion of military ranks and the conferment of lordships on soldiers who have made meritorious service in battles, while the bonuses are symbolic. However, the Dominion Military Region has prepared cash rewards for all soldiers in the army. This time, even an ordinary soldier of the Hicks Returning Division will receive a bonus of ten gold crowns.
I have to admit that the Hicks Kingdom is worthy of being the overlord of the Northland. Even though it fought four colonial wars with the Dominion Military Region and failed miserably, the Hicks Kingdom's treasury still has a variety of military supplies and food and sufficient funds. In the Wangjing Saint-Hyprian City and Wangjing area alone, the gold, silver and cash seized by the Dominion Military Region is no less than 50 million gold crowns. If you add in various materials and private property confiscated, it will not exceed 100 million gold crowns. Next words.
Claude allocated 10 million gold crowns in cash to General Skerry, who was responsible for the construction of the territory in the Beibu Gulf, and prepared 20 million gold crowns for the Dominion Council for immigration funds, and then added 30 million gold crowns to the Dominion Military Region. Fund reserves. He planned to use the remaining nearly 30 million gold and silver reserves and property to reward the soldiers below. This time, each of the two legions and eight Hicks Homecoming Divisions with 400,000 soldiers will receive generous cash rewards.
In addition, there are nearly ten million worth of antiques, jewelry, magic items, etc. that will be divided among the senior figures in the Dominion Military District and Parliament. Claude himself can obtain hundreds of thousands of property from it, which can also be regarded as war dividends. As he said, there is no business that is more profitable than robbing a kingdom. Of course, the premise is that the kingdom must be relatively wealthy, otherwise a poor country like Menbamac will not get much profit from its destruction. .. ...
Putting aside the official documents from the Kingdom's Army Department, Claude opened Prime Minister Blancart's personal letters, and was surprised to find something embarrassing for him, or a scandal about him being circulated in the royal capital.
Prime Minister Blancart told Claude in the letter that his mother actually sued Claude, his sister Anna, and his brother Blovik to the Kingdom's noble court for unfilial piety because they were unwilling to bear the responsibility. The Field family paid debts for promotion fees and land selection fees to obtain the territory. They failed to fulfill their responsibilities to their own family and failed to live up to her mother's love for the birth of their three brothers and sisters...
The Kingdom's Noble Court immediately dismissed the mother's lawsuit, believing that the mother's lawsuit was unreasonable. Although the three Claude brothers and sisters are their mother's children, they have not inherited the name and property of the Thornfield family, and have no reason to bear this debt. If they agree to hear this case, it will cause an uproar among the nobles of the kingdom. This is equivalent to distributing the debt owed by the noble heirs to the children who are not heirs, which is unfair.
But the mother did not give up, and soon she submitted a second lawsuit. This lawsuit asked the Kingdom's Noble Court to recognize that the Thornfield family was the head of the Han Field family. Now that the head family is in trouble, the division must provide for the family. Support and help the master family repay the huge debt of one million gold crowns owed by the family territory.
However, the Kingdom's Noble Court once again dismissed this second lawsuit, because Claude's Han Field family was established before the Thorn Field family. Logically speaking, the Han Field family should be the Thorn Field family. The head of the family. However, the legal advisor hired by the mother submitted that the title holder of the Thornfield family was the deceased father of Claude's three siblings. This was a posthumous title granted by His Majesty the King. There is no reason for children to become the head of their parents' house. The mother is currently involved in this case. The case against the children is still entangled in the Kingdom’s noble court...
It is said that His Majesty the King deeply regretted what he had done and believed that he should not posthumously consecrate Claude's late father. He never thought that Marshal Claude's mother would be such a common woman, and that she would cause such a fuss. The big dispute made Marshal Claude a joke among the aristocratic class of the kingdom. According to Prime Minister Blancart's investigation, the reason why the mother took the three Claude brothers and sisters to court was because she had no other choice but to preserve the family territory.
This is mainly because she owed the Queen a loan of one million gold crowns in order to obtain the family territory. The annual interest on this one million gold crown loan is 5%, which means that she has to repay 50,000 gold crowns every year. Interest. But although the viscount fiefdom obtained by mother and Albert included a town and two villages, the combined annual income was less than ten thousand gold crowns.
Her Majesty the Queen was very considerate and gave her a three-year interest-free period to allow her mother and Albert to develop the territory. However, after this year, there was no progress in the people's livelihood in the territory. No matter how much they plundered, the profit was only a few hundred and eighty gold crowns. On the contrary, due to their harshness, many people in the territory fled, and the territory became even more desolate.
If this continues, the income of the past three years may not even be able to repay one year's debt interest. Once the three-year interest-free period is up, the only outcome waiting for mother and Albert is to be deprived of their title and territory...
So the mother could only put her idea on the three Claude brothers and sisters. The last time Albert went to see Claude, Claude only gave him more than 10,000 gold crowns, which was far from what the mother expected. Far from it, she was so angry that she scolded Claude for being unfilial at home. In the end, I don’t know whose idea I listened to, but I actually wrote a lawsuit and went to the Kingdom’s Noble Court to accuse the three Claude brothers and sisters of being unfilial and refusing to bear family debts...
Prime Minister Blancart reminded Claude tactfully in the letter to settle the matter with his mother as soon as possible and not to let this incident get bigger and bigger. It is now a joke in the royal capital and will even spread to the entire Farea continent in the future, becoming a A joke from other countries, which had a great impact on Claude's reputation. As for how to settle the matter with his mother, it's just Claude paying for it.
Claude sneered. He had had enough. Since his mother wanted to fight a lawsuit, he would accompany her to fight. If he wanted to make a fuss, he would make a bigger fuss, letting everyone know what kind of mother he, the marshal of the kingdom, had. Anyway, Embarrass everyone together, but you want to see who will laugh at you in front of you...