Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 356: Military Expenses Wind Wave

The news that the Kingdom of Hicks was forming ten new standing legions to carry out this colonial war in the Nubian continent and that the Kingdom of Ovilas had died did not bother General Michel much. He was well aware that the 10 Standing Regiments did not come out with the touch of the upper lip and the lower lip. Even the Kingdom of Hicks, as the dominant power in the northern part of the Farea continent, will take at least two to three years to complete the formation of the 10 Standing Legions.

General Michelch ordered the intelligence staff officers to intensify their efforts to collect information on the armaments situation in the Colonial County of Vibato in the Kingdom of Hicks, while writing to the Royal Ministry of the Army to follow the formation and progress of the 10 standing regiments in the Kingdom of Hicks. A geographic expedition to Cromwell and Bering Ghana was also carried out in person in preparation for the creation of an unprecedented defensive front to deal with the massive offenders of the 10 Standing Regiments of the Kingdom of the Hicks two or three years later.

It was not until December 587 that the prize for the victory of the Battle of Bering Ghana arrived late to the Rangers. However, the reward appeared modest, allegedly because the Kingdom was in a difficult economic situation and because the colonial war had cost more than its budget. As a result, all Rangers who participated in the battle were less than satisfied with the rewards they received.

Except for General Michelch, who was promoted to the rank of Royal Army Marshal for planning this battle to defeat the five standing legions of the Hicks kingdom with weakness and strength, and for defeating the battle that has devastated the King's fleet, becoming the seventeenth Royal Army soldier to pick up a marshal's scepter since the founding of the kingdom of Ovilas in the three hundred and eighty-three years. At the same time, his honorary Earl title was declared Count III by the Kingdom Register, and he could inherit more than three generations of his descendants, and bestowed a royal estate on General Michel near Wangdu.

Compared to the royal grace received by General Michelchi, the rewards received by the Rangers by the officers and soldiers involved in the battle were somewhat gruesome, with the average soldier receiving only one gold crown, two officers, five lieutenant officers and ten gold crowns for school officers. Only those officers and soldiers who have killed or injured their enemies will be awarded the credit they need to be promoted by registering for battle...

With regard to the rewards received by the officers and soldiers, as stated above, the victory of Bering Ghana's battle relied largely on the strategic planning of General Michel, placing the enemy in a dilemma. Apart from the pre-emptive extermination of Tanya, the two Corps of Cudzoa required the cooperation of the Ranger Corps and the First Overseas Field Corps to fight each other, and the three Corps of Vikron, Seiburg and Fabert had little intense fighting with the Ranger Corps. That is, annihilating one of the divisions sent by the three regiments to escort logistics, sweeping away the scouting scouts, and the enemy won't be able to come out of the barracks for a few moves.

Later, the only real fierce battle associated with the Rangers was the artillery battle that crippled the kingdom of Hicks' Neptune fleet, but involved three artillery regiments of the Rangers and most of the light infantry field artillery squads. The enemy's Neptune fleet was falling into the trap that General Michelchi had set on the Dolinibara River and was the target of three heavy field artillery positions hidden on the banks of the river. As in training, in this seemingly intense artillery battle, the casualties of the three artillery battalions involved were not significant, and the main credit was also to General Michelchi for his pre-war planning and layout...

In fact, in this miraculous Battle of Bering Ghana, the worst casualties were an artillery police regiment that guarded the First Overseas Field Regiment in Port Patres, the direct capital of Robisto. The port of Patres was almost destroyed by the Neptune fleet, and the artillery police corps of more than 4,000 survived by less than 600 people, which is already more than 80% of casualties.

But the surviving officers and soldiers still did not give up their resistance, and with the remaining eight heavy-duty artillery that could still be used, they continued to fight hard against enemy warships coming from the sea, forcing the Neptune fleet to abandon its plans to capture the port of Patres, directly up the river from the Dolinibara, and to trap and perish.

Therefore, according to the appraisers of the Royal Army Ministry, the victory of this battle has little to do with the officers and soldiers of the vast Ranger Corps, and the minimal casualties is a good proof. Most Ranger Corps officers and soldiers were soy sauce players at a later stage, except for those squadron horses who cleared the enemy of the scouts. They followed General Michelchi's orders, followed surveillance and marched with the three standing regiments of the enemy, then waited for the desperate enemy to surrender and retrieve the enemy's captives before completing their task and winning the entire battle.

With regard to the burning of the enemy's Ranger 131 regiment at the logistics warehouse at Castle Wickham, the capitol of Cromwell, a good performance was made in the previous period, when the enemy's logistics corridor was successfully cut off and the enemy's convoy was raided and seized. In the middle of the battle, however, there was little to show, as the enemy could not retreat and no longer send convoys of goods to the three Standing Regiments on the front line, so that there was nowhere to go to make a move on the horseback.

As for the credit for burning down Wickham Castle at a later stage, it was also based on General Michelchi's prior planning. If General Michelchi hadn't instructed him to go on a cruise and dig up that secret passage outside the city when the walls were cleared, it would never have been easy for the crusaders to mix in the castle or to take over the castle gate from the outside...

Also, General Michelch thanked Claude for pre-empting a battalion of grass seized by Claude from Wickham Castle, avoiding leaving nearly 200,000 captives of surrendered enemies without food and clothing, with no cure but to wait to die, and sparing the Rangers and kingdoms the reproach of States for the massive casualties they had captured. Instead of being rejected by the Royal Army, Claude was in trouble for the logistics of more than 800 four-wheel wagons seized from Castle Wickham.

Claude was remembered once as the commanding officer of the Rangers, and he needed two more achievements to become the youngest Major General in the history of the kingdom of Ovilas. Because Claude was only 29 years old at that time, he became a legend in the Royal Army as long as he became Major General of the Kingdom by the age of 35. From civilians to generals, Claude spent more than a decade...

Instead, Claude's brother, Corporal, who followed Claude into Wickham Castle, performed prominently and was promoted to the third level, has become a sergeant and is currently undergoing training for Rangers. And with his deputy, Claude's cheap brother-in-law, Mike, did well. Once again, he has accumulated two first-degree awards, and once more he can be promoted to Major.

Claude's troubles are the unknown location of military expenditures worth more than half a million gold kroner, not the Kingdom's military expenditures, but the military expenditures that the Kingdom of Hicks reserves at Castle Wickham to cover the salaries of officers and soldiers of the five Standing Legions, as well as wartime welfare subsidies. According to the confession of the captive enemy logistics officer, this military expenditure, valued at 500,000 gold kroner, is essentially in the Kingshield, Silver Keller and Copperfeni currencies of the Kingdom of Hicks, but is currently unaccounted for.

Castle Wickham has become a great rubble because of the explosion of the powder depot, especially where the ammunition depots are located, and a great pit has been formed. And the logistics officer in charge of the captured Kingdom of Hicks said that the warehouse where the gold and silver coins were stored was in the middle of the warehouse where the ammunition and guns and armaments were stored, because the warehouse was the most secure...

The strongest and safest warehouses are also unable to withstand the explosions of those ammunition warehouses around them, which have become huge pits where to find these military expenditures. General Fansnik, the logistics chief of the undead Rangers, mobilized many soldiers to search the ruins for a few days, but found a number of deformed copper finnies. Yet no trace of gold or silver coins, Golden Shield and Silver Keller, was found.

Thus, the General Fansnik began to suspect that Claude's Rangers had secretly swallowed up the military expenditures of the Kingdom of Hicks, and he summoned and questioned Claude three times in a row, demanding that Claude surrender the enormous military expenditures.

Claude, of course, shouted that he had never seen the so-called military expenditure worth half a million gold kroner. It was not until morning that the castle of Wickham was completely occupied, immediately followed by the surveillance and management of more than 7,000 prisoners to move their goods onto the wagon, choosing grass and logistical security supplies, without any concern for the enemy's ammunition stockpile.

The reason is simple: the enemy's ammunition, guns and ordnance are simply not compatible with the Kingdom's manufactured equipment, and they are not light in weight, occupy a lot of carriage space and traffic, and eat and panic to move those wastes.

Claude asked General Fansnik to ask the soldiers who were stationed at the station and the officers in charge of the patrols to know that they had not entered the ammunition gun storage area at all. Knowing that it was a warehouse area where ammunition and guns were placed, Claude also ordered a squadron of soldiers to guard all access roads and entrances, preventing soldiers from wasting their time...

From the night of the battle to the morning occupation of the castle, the prisoners were gathered and escorted to carry their goods, and by around 4 p.m. they were all evacuated from the Castle of Wickham by a group of one hundred and thirteen. By then, almost most of the warehouses had been set on fire.

Claude questioned General Van Snick where he had time to check out the stores filled with ammunition and firearms. Even the captured enemy logistics officers were disregarded for interrogation, as can be seen from the statements of the enemy logistics officers captured at Castle Wickham. That is why he and all the officers and soldiers of the Rangers did not know that there was also a warehouse of materials in the ammunition and firearms armaments warehouse with a value of nearly 500,000 gold kroner.

But General Van Snick still doubted Claude because he had two pieces of evidence that Claude could not escape. First, Claude was the last to leave with his close relatives and guard unit when he left Wickham Castle, accompanied by five fully loaded four-wheeled wagons.

A number of officers and captives of the Rangers saw the five wagons on the march, indicating that the wagon was carrying very heavy loads. It is very likely that Claude and others secretly smuggled the military expenditures of the Kingdom of Hicks out of the carriage.

The second evidence is that Claude came out with an honorary knife from the Hicks kingdom loaded with a carriage and distributed it as a Bering Ghanaian treasure trophy in the Rangers, almost every Rangers officer being a handful of honorary knives.

And the Knife of Honor is a knife of honor that the Kingdom of Hicks can earn in the army by rewarding those officers who fought bravely and built merit on the battlefield. The gorgeous and sharp gold-plated silver trim is a trophy that the enemies of the Kingdom of Hicks can pass on to their children to boast of their ancestors' bravery.

The problem is that the warehouse containing these honorary knives is in that ammunition, firearms and materiel area, and Claude was able to get a wagon of honorary knives, which means he was lying about not entering that ammunition, firearms and materiel warehouse area. So General Van Snick has always suspected that Claude and others secretly hid the Hicks Kingdom's military expenditures for some reason.

But Claude didn't admit it, and he thought General Van Snick's suspicions were nothing. Though he was the last to evacuate Wickham Castle, it was because he was the leader of the Ranger Triads, sir. Leading troops was supposed to be the first to strike and retreat from the last squadron, so that the entire regiment could be sincerely obedient and obey its own orders, which was the cornerstone of the constant victory of the Rangers from battalion to regiment.

As for those five four-wheeled wagons filled with a very impressive track record, the items on them are high-end luxury items reserved by the Kingdom of Hicks at the castle of Wickham, such as the prestigious wines offered to senior officers of the five Standing Regiments, golden and silver tableware and many gorgeous and rich decorative artwork, as well as pure white cashmere blankets.

In fact, all of this can be said to be loot of the Rangers, and according to the rules of the battlefield, they do not have to be surrendered. But Claude gave Division Command four four-wheeled wagons filled with these luxury items so that every officer in the entire regiment could share a trophy.

Claude points out that the total value of these five four-wheeled wagons filled with luxury goods exceeds 56,000 gold kroner. If you are as corrupt as General Van Snick has accused you of and hide that huge military expense, you will not have to surrender these luxury goods at all. This is a well-known loot seizure...

It's understandable how much a wagon loaded with dozens of boxes of expensive wine weighs. And that would be just after the February ice age, the roads under Cromwell were not very good. It could not be said that they were muddy, but not very solid. It was normal for a four-wheeled wagon loaded with a full wagon to ride past and leave a deep track mark. It was not normal for a deep track mark to be present.

And that car of honor knife, Claude, had General Van Snick ask the captive enemy logistics officer himself, see how he answered. Because that warehouse of goods with the Honor Knife is at the very front of the ammunition, firearms, armaments and materials area, the most luxurious decoration, even the soldiers who guard the road entrance and exit posts in this area know that the items inside are the Honor Knife.

So after Claude got the following yes report, that is to tell the soldiers who were guarding the ammunition, firearms, armaments and materials warehouse area to empty the honor knife in the warehouse in front before evacuating, he had not entered the ammunition, firearms, armaments and materials warehouse area himself...

Even if everything Claude says has witness evidence, even the loot distributed by the Rangers is in the books. All seizures are on the bright side, and the light is on the lookout, but Claude still can't get out of this trouble.

General Fansnik, who has been assigned to the Royal family of Sterling in order to recover this large sum of military money, or, considering Claude to be the most important suspect, ordered Claude's officers to go to his office for questioning and censorship. In the end, Claude couldn't stand it and had a big fight with him in the office. He almost beat up General Van Snick. The lawsuit ended up in front of General Michel.