Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 349: Eve of the Great War

Merging the four overseas jurisdictions into one theatre and placing the military regime under the responsibility of one person is something that the Kingdom of Ovilas has never done since it was founded. But for the kingdom, this is also a desperate choice. Cromwell, Bering Ghana's two jurisdictions are abandoned, and Robisto, Amphiston's two jurisdictions are the defensive bottom lines of this war. Even if Robisto's administration fails, the Rangers must adhere to Claude's defensive line and keep Amphiston's...

Perhaps from the beginning of this war, the warring parties have been unequal. The Kingdom of Hicks is almost as powerful as a nation, and can, with no hesitation, increase its troops to the Nubian mainland. The Kingdom of Ovilas, on the other hand, can only send a regiment of rangers to recruit and form a regiment of Overseas Territories to carry out this war. The Kingdom of Ovilas is at an extreme disadvantage, both in terms of strength and rear support.

As General Michelch said, the only place the Rangers can prevail over the King Hicks Army, which has not been baptized by war in more than four decades, is with advanced weaponry, new tactics of warfare, and the soldiers' vast field experience. The constant presence of enemy energy and the inability of the Rangers to receive domestic support is not something that the Kingdom of Ovilas does not want to contribute, but is powerless and helpless.

Five years of war in the eastern part of the continent have consumed more than two decades of wealth accumulation in the Kingdom, and the treasury is empty. In spite of the war won, the situation remains critical. The dead enemies, the Kingdom of Nasseri and the Principality of Kanas, are in their hearts and minds and, even if a peace agreement is signed, half of the kingdom's forces are involved in the defense of the dead.

On the other hand, the newly occupied territories of the three principalities were ruined in the war, requiring greater investment by the Kingdom in order to restore the people's lives, and a long period of time to heal the wounds of the war. At the same time, the Kingdom will have to form a new standing army to defend the land, which will increase its military spending and put a heavy financial burden on the Kingdom.

It is still external, the internal situation in the Kingdom is not calm, and Sterling X is ill in bed and unable to deal with the affairs of the State. Emerging commercial aristocracy and old brand aristocracy rivaled each other for the benefit of the newly occupied territories, and both parliaments quarreled over a pot of porridge. During the war, all can also be restrained and united for victory. But at the end of the war, everyone wanted to share the war dividend, and the contradiction emerged. The only gain for the kingdom of Ovieras in this war was the territory of the three principalities, which did not give everyone a satisfactory war dividend.

The colonial war with the Kingdom of Hicks on the continent of Nubian, amidst internal and external distress, was an aggravating circumstance for the Kingdom of Ovilas. The seven Overseas Territories have been providing the Kingdom with revitalizing resources and minerals, which is why the Kingdom is unable to reach a compromise with the Kingdom of Hicks. After all, the Kingdom of Hicks is too ambitious to swallow the Kingdom's three overseas jurisdictions at once, and it has reached its bottom line.

Rather than go to the overseas direct jurisdiction of the mainland of Nubicia to resist the invasion of the colonial garrison of the Hicks, it is those kingdom aristocrats who intend to conspire against the arming of the Sterling royal guard that the kingdom of Ovilas has no choice but to send more troops to the past than the Rangers.

The kingdom's four field-king legions, the Red Dragon, and the Lizard Regiment, are arranged around the dead enemy kingdom of Nasserli, and cannot be easily moved. The Blue Feather Regiment has just been reconstituted and has taken on the heavy responsibility of defending the Duchy of Kanas. As for the Guardian Corps, it is the guarantee of the tranquillity of Wangdu. If the Guardian Corps is sent to the mainland of Nubian, it will only intensify the ambition and greed of the Kingdom of Hicks and turn its attention to the remaining overseas territories of the Kingdom.

The three newly formed Standing Legions need to defend the three newly occupied Principality territories and cannot be redeployed. While the Rangers are not regimented, they do consist of elite strong generals with recognized strength no less than the four Field Ace Legions. Even the military manoeuvres of two battalions against a reinforced battalion of the Rangers' Regiment by the Guardians' Regiment ended early with the total defeat of four field confrontation manoeuvres. At this critical juncture facing the kingdom, how can it be said that the Rangers, who have no place to guard their duties, do not stand up?

In just over half a year's time, the Rangers who arrived on the Nubian mainland did not fail the Kingdom's expectations, simply wiping out the two standing regiments of the Kingdom of Hicks, wiping out the sub-fleet of the King's fleet and recovering all the lost ground. The Kingdom of Ovieras, believing that this had finally made the Kingdom of Hicks aware of the reality, sent a special envoy willing to cede an overseas jurisdiction and reach a peace agreement between the two countries.

Nevertheless, it was unexpected that the desire for peace brought about by the Special Envoys sent had been ignored by the Kingdom of Hicks, whose military had been provoked by the heavy casualties of the colonial garrison. At that time, the request from the Kingdom of Ovilas to cede a direct overseas jurisdiction to reach a peace agreement seemed to them to be an insult to the Kingdom of Hicks, and they arrogantly called for the loss on the battlefield to be taken back on the battlefield and decided to send five standing regiments to the continent of Nubia to continue this colonial war...

No one in the kingdom of Auvellas sees the prospect of this war, even if the Rangers are brave enough to fight again, but more than 30,000 people against more than 300,000 enemy troops, a one-to-ten force gap, is an insurmountable divide. As for ordering the seven overseas territories to guard the two overseas field corps formed by armed conscription, that was nothing but cannon ash, plenty, and little power. The final outcome of this colonial war will be nothing but failure.

The unprecedented devolution of four overseas jurisdictions into one battle zone, entrusted to General Michelchi of the Rangers' regiment for all military affairs in the theatre, effectively demonstrates that the Kingdom of Ovilas has relinquished the three overseas jurisdictions of Cromwell, Bering Ghana and Robisto, and that he only needs the Rangers to guard the Amphiston administration, which is the bottom line of the kingdom.

In a private meeting with General Michelchi, Grand Prince Hansburg had demonstrated the Kingdom's attitude towards the colonial war. Don't look at the merger of the four Overseas Administrations into one theatre, where General Michelchi is in power, but in fact the two Administrations of Cromwell and Beringana need to relocate all the inhabitants of the kingdom, clear their walls and become battlefields, and there is no civil affairs at all.

The same is true of the direct administration of Robisto, which relies on the great danger of the Dolinibara River to deter the enemy from attacking and to inflict as much casualties on the enemy as possible. Retreat to the direct authority of Amphiston when it cannot be sustained, and use the dangerous layers of the terrain and mountains to lay defences and bring the war stalemate to a standstill.

Maintaining the operational supply and reinforcement of a regiment of rangers in the overseas direct jurisdiction of the mainland of Nubian is already a barely easy task for the Kingdom of Orvilas, with distant distances adding significant transportation costs to all logistics deliveries. It is certain that the Kingdom of Hicks will have to pay a greater price to sustain the operations of the five Standing Legions on the Nubian continent. The Kingdom of Ovilas now hopes that this colonial war will be prolonged and that the Kingdom of Hicks will continue to lose blood on the Nubian continent until they are unable to sustain it.

Upon his departure, Grand Prince Hansburg announced the establishment of a firearms repair workshop under the direct authority of Amphiston to repair and modify antique firearms to compensate for equipment losses on the battlefield. This is the first finished factory set up by the Kingdom of Ovieras in overseas jurisdictions. It was also set up because of logistical supply. It takes about six months for a shipment of firearms from the Kingdom to the front line, and the shortest estimate...

In the decades since the kingdom of Auvellas had pioneered the colonies of the continent of Nurbisia, it had essentially adopted overseas territories as the kingdom's resource mineral origin, and the establishment of finished factories for the livelihoods of the peoples concerned in overseas territories had been strictly prohibited. All mineral resources and materials are transported back from overseas jurisdictions, and processed finished products are resold back to overseas jurisdictions. Firearms factories such as the Firearms Workshop are not allowed to operate in overseas jurisdictions, each time thousands of miles away, transporting from the mainland of the Kingdom the firearms needed to guard the armed forces in overseas jurisdictions.

The Kingdom's decision to establish a firearms repair workshop in the direct administration of Amphiston was also impossible, and the 100,000 Obash 3 type firerope guns brought by the Grand Prince this time remained few after the expansion of the Rangers into the Corps and the formation of a second overseas field corps in the overseas territories. With the replacement of new equipment for local guards in the respective jurisdictions, combined with battlefield losses, at least 100,000 more accurate firing rifles of the latest type would be required.

For the Kingdom, this cannot be done in the short term, nor can it be transported to the continent of Nubian before the Great War. Finally, it could only be decided to temporarily open a firearms repair workshop in Amphiston, first to repair firearms lost on the battlefield, and secondly to modify the old firerope guns equipped in the former overseas territories to meet the needs of the battlefield at the outset.

According to spying returns to Port Vibato, it will take at least three or four months for the Kingdom of Hicks to transport five standing regiments to the Nubian mainland to continue the war. The reason is very simple: the material consumption of more than 300,000 troops in the five Standing Legions is not a small amount, and the colonies of the Kingdom of Hicks on the Nubian continent, though large, have not been exploited, mostly for predatory resource extraction.

Needless to say, colonial food consumption alone had previously required purchasing from the Overseas Territories of the Kingdom of Ovieras, which was why the Kingdom of Hicks had taken over the three Overseas Territories of Ovieras, Cromwell, Bering Ghana and Robisto. Food and meat consumption in the Six Kingdoms colony is perfectly self-sufficient as long as these three places are obtained.

After transporting three standing legions in one breath to the Colonial County of Vibator, the military of the Kingdom of Hicks began to be foolish, and people sent supplies without catching up, let alone waging war, it was also difficult to hold on, no food, no ammunition, then what war? But that's how much logistics the Neptune fleet delivers each time. Nearly two months back and forth, when the second supply arrives, it is often discovered that the first supply is almost consumed...

That was the weakness of the staff officers of the Hicks Kingdom, who had not experienced war for more than four decades, and who had never had the experience of organizing a colonial war on another continent a thousand miles away. Nothing is lacking in the colonies of the Nubian continent, and any war materiel needs to be transported from the mainland. Moreover, maritime transport is unsafe, maritime storms, pirate attacks, havoc and other maritime catastrophes are endless, and even the exchange of information between the two places takes a month to arrive.

Almost all members of the Hicks Military Logistics Department lost all their hair for more than six months, and eventually no other option was found, employing the combined fleet of the Kingdom of Nasri and the Principality of Kanas and expropriating most of the ocean-going sea-going vessels of the Kingdom of Hicks, which maintained the maritime corridor for the delivery of logistical supplies to the Nubian continent.

Agents diving into the port of Vibato reported that the military base in the port of Vibato was heavily stockpiled and it was estimated that two more trips by the Kingdom of Hicks would be sufficient to complete the logistical heavy materiel needed to sustain the war. Together with the two standing regiments that have not yet arrived, it is likely that war preparations will be completed in four months' time to launch an offensive against the Cromwell Overseas Territories of the Kingdom.

In the report, the agents asked whether there was a need to send skilled personnel to infiltrate the military base in Port Vibato in an attempt to burn down some armaments in order to delay the war.

But General Michelch refused the agent's request, and for him, four months was enough to allow the Rangers to complete all their war preparations. There is no need to procrastinate the war by infiltrating enemy bases and burning armaments. What the Rangers need is to lure the enemy deep, divide the siege and destroy the enemy's legions one by one. This is the only way to truly hurt and regret the Kingdom of Hicks. Perhaps the loss of the five Standing Legions will make it clear to the Kingdom of Hicks that the Overseas Departments of the Kingdom of Orvillas are not the goals for which they can claim.

The relocation of residents of the Cromwell and Bering Canadian territories has proceeded in an orderly fashion, with seven Overseas Territories, young men of appropriate age, receiving conscription orders to form a second Overseas Field Corps in the Amphiston Territories. General Michelch was not prepared to push the youth of these direct jurisdictions to the battlefield as artillery ashes, but only needed a brief military training from the Second Overseas Field Corps before he could take over the Claude Defense Line and the Dolinibara River Defense Line.

“Colonel Claude, how's your 131 expansion coming along?” General Michelch once again urgently summoned Claude.

“Reporting General, we have completed the expansion of our Range One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, Three, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, Three, One, One, One, One, One, Three, One, One, One, One, One, Three, One, One, One, One, One, Three, One, One, One, One, One, One, Three, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, Three, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One, One They are now familiarizing themselves with the precision firing training of the newly equipped Obash 3 type firerope guns, as well as training in the new tactics of the Rangers…" Claudelais replied.

“Is there a problem?” General Michelch asked.

“General, there is insufficient supply of war horses, and we need more than 2,000 more now. But the Logistics Department says the next batch of horses will be replenished, perhaps six months later, and they suggest that we replace the horses with the requisitioned ones temporarily...”

General Michelch pondered the decision: "I will order you to draw enough horses from the four mobile field regiments directly under the division to supplement you. Colonel Claude, you have only three months to complete your group training. Because three months from now, the enemy is likely to attack us. I need you to ride one, three, one regiment after the enemy enters the direct control of Bering Ghana, transfer to the direct control of Cromwell, cut off the enemy's logistical supply and transport corridors, and create the conditions for our rangers to surround the enemy's five regiments..."

Claude stood up again: "I see, General, we will accomplish our mission. ”