Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 299: Dust Settling

In the week that followed, much had changed on the front line, as Captain Duriolo had anticipated, and Prince Hansburg had indeed carried out a major cleansing of the Front Line Command and dismantled the Front Line Operations Staff in the name of the end of the war. Nearly one third of the noble officers were reportedly ordered out of service, and five or six other commanders of second-line regiments, who tended to be members of the old-fashioned noble family, were dismissed from military service.

Captain Duriolo said that Prince Hansburg was a brilliant commander, although he was arbitrary and not a qualified heir to the king. That is true, after discovering that the events on the front had exceeded his expectations, lost control and posed a great threat to the prestige of the kingdom and the royal family. He was able to change the strings of Lima, return to the front without moving a sound, and take control of the front command. Meetings were convened with all heads of corps, at which those who had been implicated in the ranks of noble officers were dismissed directly.

At the same time, the Grand Prince replaced the guard force of the original Front Line Command by sending troops from the Jail Guard Corps and carried out a major cleansing of the noble army officers who controlled the Front Line Command. Dozens of aristocratic officers have been punished under military law for offences such as embezzlement, and dozens of aristocratic officers have been ordered out of service, permanently losing their prospects for development in the regular army of the Kingdom.

Civilian officers, who had been suppressed, had been vigorously promoted by the Grand Prince to become the backbone of the Front Line Command. Captain Duriolo received information from his friends that Grand Prince Hansburg had reportedly handed over military authority to Front Line Command to his Special Envoy, General Bodekamp, sent by King Sterling X. For the next period, General Bodekamp will preside over the withdrawal and integration plan of nearly one million troops on the front line. It is estimated that in a few months you will be able to withdraw your troops home...

Another good news is that Major Skerry has been rescued by the Great Prince. Captain Duriolo received inside information from his friends at the Front Line Command that Grand Prince Hansburg had used Major Skerry's so-called iron case to cure a large number of noble officers.

When the Grand Prince had just regained control of the Front Line Command, it was said that the noble officers had also jointly written to the Grand Prince to prove their merit in the iron case of Major Skerry. As a result, the Grand Prince backhandedly slapped them in the face, not only reversing the whole case, but also placing the blame for the loss on the noble officers.

Captain Duriolo's friend described in a confidential letter that the Grand Prince asked the noble officers what rescue plan had been arranged by the Front Line Operations Staff when a Ranger Battalion was surrounded by enemies at the Castle of Count Clerus? Noble officers were mute, only a noble officer from the Front Line Command Communications Office said they had sent five falconry eagles and did not return...

And then you just leave it? The Great Prince was furious and questioned Front Line Operations Staff and Front Line Command. A battalion of guerrillas was besieged and lost contact, but the squadron they guarded the entrance to the hillside had returned the war report saying that they had been attacked by the enemy and had lost contact with the battalion headquarters. At the same time, a secret message was sent from the local guard battalion guarding the crossroads, stating that the enemy had besieged the entrance to the hills, unable to supply and reinforce the first battalion of soldiers and required the Front Line Command to dispatch troops to rescue the first battalion of besieged soldiers.

And the result is that you ignored it and sent only five hawks to convey the message, and when you found that no hawk had returned, you concluded that the first battalion of the Rangers had been destroyed. So sit and watch the Ranger Battalion be besieged for three months, and when they come back with their food, you will blame them for the loss of soil! Damn it!

Grand Prince Hansburg was very angry, and the table in the conference room was thumped by him, and there was no reason for anyone present to justify the accusations of the Grand Prince. Indeed, that would have put an end to the fighting elsewhere on the front line, with the exception of the Castle of Count Clolaus, where the first Battalion of Rangers is located, and nearly a million Royal Army troops would have done nothing to await orders from the rear. The Front Line Command and Front Line Operations Staff should have invested their energies in the planning of the first battalion to rescue the Rangers, or in preparing troops to attack the enemy.

Although narrow traffic on the mountain highway is inconvenient, sending a regiment of troops is enough to repel the enemy's offensive and free the besieged Ranger Battalion. Even more troops could be deployed to temporarily erect wider roads on the Vietnam Trail to facilitate subsequent reinforcements. However, noble officers of Front Line Command and Front Line Operations Staff did not pay attention to the plight of the 1st Battalion of Rangers, who were busy crowding out civilian officers of Front Line Command and taking overhead to replace Grand Prince Michelchi of Front Line Command. General K. Priest.

The Grand Prince tore apart the case file on Major Scully's responsibility for the loss of land on the spot and left the application for merit alone for persons who had merit in handling the case. He took the file and said, "I will examine these successful people..."

Most noble officers were said to have turned pale on the spot...

Major Skerry, the battalion commander of the first Battalion of Rangers, although released by the Grand Prince and reinstated as an officer, is not in good health because he was severely tortured after his arrest and is now being placed in a treatment camp under the Front Line Command. Meanwhile, Captain Heikem, formerly commander of the third battalion, has been rehabilitated back to battalion headquarters, temporarily with Captain Codwalker, commander of the fourth battalion.

Major Skrey, Captain Tohakem, sent Claude a letter stating that he was doing well and that he was expected to return to battalion after half a month of treatment. Meanwhile, Major Kriskry asked Claude to draw up a list of five persons indicating additional appointments. It is noteworthy that Claude's own name is also included in the list of five individuals.

When Captain Duriolo saw the request in the letter, he congratulated Claude on his promotion. Claude doesn't understand. How does he know he's getting promoted from this letter?

Simply put, Captain Duriolo said that Major Scully's request that you draw up a list of five, including yourself, meant that the five of you would be collectively transferred to a new unit. The other four were given to you by Major Skerry to get you to the new unit so no one would be available.

But isn't the war over? How is it possible that there are new troops on the front line to take me home? Claude still doesn't feel very credible.

I have inside information… Captain Duriolo looked around and found no one, which is why he whispered to Claude: “It has been decided that, in addition to the four Ace Field Legions, four Standing Legions will be integrated again, three Standing Legions will be deployed on the territory of the three newly occupied principalities, and a Standing Legion is said to be deployed in Wangdu as a mobile arm of the Kingdom. All equipment entitlements for these four Standing Regiments are aligned with the four Ace Field Regiments...”

“You mean I might be transferred to the four standing legions?” Claude asked.

“It's not possible, it should be 100% certain.” Captain Duriolo said, "Actually, it's not just the five people on your list, like your Rangers Battalion 1 to Battalion 4, who should all be transferred to the four standing legions. It means that the elite units of those 20 second-line regiments will be drawn out and reconstituted into four standing regiments, and Prince Hansburg is determined to exclude those noble officers from the four standing regiments in order to avoid having their hands inserted into the four new standing regiments by the old-fashioned aristocratic forces…”

Claude understood that the Kingdom of Ovilas had occupied the territories of the Principality of Siddins, the Principality of Rimodra and the Principality of Eskilin, and that it needed to deploy a robust armed force to suppress local resistance in those three countries, which was why it was preparing to form four new standing regiments. The Grand Prince, however, decided to exclude all noble officers from the four newly formed Standing Regiments because of the fact that they held the Front Line Command at the hands of the noble officers this time, making the four Standing Regiments a credible force for the Crown.

Fortunately, noble officers in charge of the front-line command did not have the authority to redeploy, otherwise the Grand Prince would never have regained power so smoothly. This also sounded the alarm bell to the Sterling royal family. If those noble officers had the power to redeploy, it is likely that this Grand Prince's dive back to the Front Command will turn into a tragedy. It is alright to be trapped in a tragedy. The most fearful thing is that the noble officers will stand as puppets and turn into a civil unrest in the Kingdom...

There was no credible force, so the noble officers themselves became cups. They had no threat of sudden return to the front-line command. They had to be caught and punished and cleansed by the great prince. The situation in the newly occupied territories had been completely reversed overnight, and the wanton behaviour of those noble officers over the previous period was an iron testament to their crimes. It was no wonder that Captain Duriolo was in such a good mood during that period that the forces of the old aristocratic family had been beaten back into the newly occupied territories.

Nothing to say, in the first battalion, Claude's four most trusted men were Muriel, Diaved, Mikey and Big Grimes. As for the veteran oil Marquette, although he did well, he was still available and untrustworthy in Claude's mind. The remaining Squadron Leaders and Squadron Leaders obeyed Claude's orders because of their rank. Some of them may be loyal to Claude, but they don't usually act like the others, and Claude can only say he's sorry.

Though McJackie and Big Grimes are not back yet, Claude put their names on the list. If, as Captain Doriolo said, the five men were to be transferred to the new army, there would be no way for Mike and Big Grimes to follow Claude without putting their names on the list. Because their nationality is registered in the Rangers' Battalion, the new forces will assign additional military personnel and guards to Claude.

In addition to this list, Claude has other concerns and troubles. It's about my little lover magician Sheila. The situation on the front line has now returned to normal, with all second-line regiments integrating and withdrawing in an orderly manner from the areas where they are stationed. As soon as Major Scully returned to the battalion, Claude believed he would soon be ordered to leave Squirrel Village, so he wanted little lover Sheila to leave with him, take her back to White Deer Town after she took the day off, and marry her with the blessing of her loved ones.

Unfortunately, this request was rejected by Sheila, who did not want to leave the Witch Forest, but rather waited here for her mother's return. Even if Claude offered to take her home for marriage, Sheila wouldn't like it. She told Claude that we were all magicians, not worldly mortals, and that there was no need to rely on marriage as much as mortals to preserve each other's relationship. Together, they go far away if they don't fit. That's how her mother left her father, and took her hiding here...

It was the first time Sheila talked to Claude about her father, and Claude was amazed: "Is your father a magician too? ”

“Mmm.” Sheila nodded: “He's on Higros Island. ”

“Higros Island? The magician's kingdom? Where did you and your mother come from?” Claude asked.

“Yes, I lived on Higros before I was six. My father was a fanatical vengeful man who wanted only to attack the continent and recreate the glory of an era of magical civilization. And my mother, a naturalist, didn't want to start another war, worried that the outcome of the war would go to the worst, and that the magician would lose Higros Island, the last survival and development base. They always had fierce fights, and eventually my mother left Higros Island with me and some of the magicians from the Faculty of Nature, and came to the mainland, where she took me into hiding. ”

“Claude...” Sheila sat next to Claude and held his arm: “I know you really love me, but you don't have to marry me. As magicians, we are guided by the principle of freedom and there is no need to bind the two of us with a family. We needed time to explore the mysteries of magic, and after getting my mother's stone room book collection, I now regret wasting so much time playing on it. I don't want to leave here, and there's no place outside where I can learn magic freely...

So I'm not going with you, I'm going to continue learning magic here. Don't worry about me. I'm used to living alone. Besides, there's a black wind here with me. There will be no safety issues, you know I now have several offensive spells, and the four guns you hung on my wall, I practiced very well, and the shooting was very accurate. The day before yesterday I shot a fat chicken 100 meters away...

If you want me, you can come here whenever you want. I've been here. If you write a letter, you can send it to the village chief. I'll have the black wind bring it back to me when I exchange treatment ointments with him... ”