Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 401: Thinking and Self Help

General Bolognick followed Claude's advice and left Langhu town silently with a regiment of guards, embarking on a journey to capture the port of Vibato. This is also a way of self-help, General Skerry is right. In this dilemma, one more credit is better than waiting to be killed. At the very least, it is better than the end of DDR.

Claude's analysis gave General Bolognick the ultimate determination that, in some ways, the commanders of the theatre were all disciples of Marshal Michel, following Marshal Michel in his loyalty to Prince Hansburg. But the problem is that Grand Prince Hansburg values Marshal Michel and does not care about these generals, who are far from the overseas territorial battlefield of the Nubian mainland.

This can be seen from the fact that after the assassination of Marshal Michel and his departure from the King's quarters, the Grand Prince never asked or cared about the colonial war zone. Otherwise, it would not have been possible for the Royal Army Ministry to send General Algers to assume the post of Commander-in-Chief of the theatre in order to win the battle to capture the port of Vibato. If Marshal Michel were still in the Royal Army Department, he would have ordered the troops of the theatre to take over Port Vibato without delay for six months as soon as he received information of civil unrest in the Kingdom of Hicks.

To make a bad point, Claude, General Scully and other kingdoms leaders in the Overseas Territories said they were loyal to Prince Hansburg, but they were actually shaving their heads hot. The Grand Prince could hardly see the last few shrimp rices in his camp, perhaps in the eyes of the Grand Prince, the disciples of Marshal Michel were far from the Nubian mainland, which did nothing to help him in his contentious cause and were not worth taking care of at all.

Another point is Claude's constant suspicion that General Algers came to the mainland of Nubian to take over the port of Vibator to gain the success of his promotion to the Kingdom's marshal is the compromise made by the Grand Prince to the old noble families. Because the foundations of the Grand Prince are in the Royal Army, and the roots of the old noble family are in the Royal Army, the two sides were originally competitive, just as the Grand Prince formed a Ranger Corps to vigorously promote the exclusion of noble officers from civilian origins.

But now General Algers is well on his way to leading the guard regiment to the Overseas Territories war zone, without any movement or objection from the Grand Prince. Claude led the Thunder Division to destroy the three main regiments of the Hicks kingdom and win the Third Colonial War. The unjust prince did not utter a single word when he took great credit for the kingdom by removing it from the post of commander-in-chief of the theatre and promoting it only to the first rank of the army and the first title of honor. Apparently, he gave up the war zones, the generals who did little to help him compete for the reserve, and of course, the Great Prince considered the war zones generals to be his own hearts and minds, believing that it didn't matter...

That is also the main reason Claude decided to cooperate fully with General Algers, thinking repeatedly after receiving information from Mr. Viberon about Wang Du. Though General Algers is the leader of the kingdom's old-fashioned aristocracy, Claude is of civilian origin and neither side is a class camp. But that doesn't mean that Claude has to die with General Algers, and that Claude is now a general of the kingdom, qualified to be pulled together, and the Grand Prince doesn't take Claude's generals seriously, but that doesn't mean that no one else has an eye.

So General Argers looked at Claude's inventive projectile and wanted to get an exclusive production license in the kingdom, and Claude immediately promised, not to look unhappy. General Argers looked at him very well, and after the banquet, the two spoke speculatively and talked for almost two hours or more. General Algers also revealed more insights from the King to Claude, giving Claude a clearer picture of the respective serious situations currently confronting the two princes of the Kingdom.

Claude still remembers General Algers' remarks about Grand Prince Hansburg, who believed that although he had a reputation for intellectual talent, his level of knowledge was concentrated only at the middle and lower ranks of officers in the Royal Army. He was able to promote the good soldiers to the ranks of officers, which was indeed the strength of the great prince, and was unparalleled in the Royal Army.

But unfortunately, these good soldiers, thanks to the wisdom of the Great Prince, became officers at the grassroots level and were promoted on their own merits. When they were promoted to the rank of Colonel, the Grand Prince did not use the officers he promoted himself, or pay any attention to them. This is because the Grand Prince still treats the senior officers of these kingdoms as small soldiers at the time of his promotion. He should curse the punishment and not leave anyone with a face.

Man is a sophisticated advanced animal with a unique psychological activity. Being dragged from the ranks of the great prince as a grassroots officer is the main reason why the soldiers are grateful to the great prince for his loyalty to the great prince. But their promotion later took more than a decade and their own efforts, some of which were cared for by the Great Prince or not. When they become senior officers of the kingdom, they also have their own claims, whether in terms of political rights or family property, which need to be matched to their identities.

And the great prince would not take that into account, and still think of these high-ranking officers as small soldiers, shouting and drinking and joking. Perhaps the Grand Prince thought it was an expression of intimacy, but it was an insult to a number of high-ranking officers, as the Grand Prince did not leave them any face in front of his ministry. Besides, no one who can be promoted to the rank of senior officer in the kingdom is simple or even human. Even if they were of civilian origin, they would not be so radical as to reach the stage of senior officers in the kingdom, sometimes willing to live amicably with noble officers.

It was only in the eyes of the great prince that he betrayed him. Instead of considering the difficulties of these senior officers, he denounced the accusations made against them. In the end, most of these senior officers and the great prince were centrifuged. Thus, General Algers commented on the Grand Prince that he was able to gain the prestige that was in the minds of a large number of middle- and lower-level officers and soldiers in the Royal Army, but that few high-ranking officers had fallen to his death.

Prince Hansburg is a commander who can and will not be a general. This remark by General Algers was indeed somewhat shocking at Claude's time, but it made sense to think about it afterwards. When the Rangers were stationed near Wangdu, the Grand Prince ran to the Rangers for three days, and Claude and others joked. And now the five reinforced divisions are in the overseas direct jurisdiction war zone, but the great prince ignores it, as if he didn't know that the officers and soldiers here were actually the backbone of the Rangers.

Claude didn't want to worry about what kind of agreement had been reached between the Grand Prince and the old-fashioned aristocratic family forces, he just wanted to get this thing done safely and quietly, so that all the elders in Wangdu would be happy. The colonial war ended when General Algers led his regiment to capture Port Vibator and earned the honor of promoting the Kingdom's Marshal. At that time, Claude sent back these lords from Wangdu, so he could rest assured that he and the other generals in the war zone would receive a result.

In Claude's mind, the Royal Army would have given itself and several generals in the war zone a standing order to prevent the Hicks dog from jumping back into the wall. The task is simple, and in the future it will only be necessary to guard the deep-water harbours along the coastline against attacks and landings by the Navy of the Kingdom of Hicks. Then it is to develop the right to life money collusion to get more capital for the future of themselves and their families, stay in the mainland of Nubian to watch the clouds rise, the two princes have nothing to do with themselves.

That's Claude's plan, and the problem is that General Argers was stabbed to death, and all the plans were messed up. The awakening of Claude and his encouragement of General Bolognick to lead a corps of restraining guards into the port of Vibato is indeed a way of self-help. Now that it is clear that Prince Hansburg's business is personal, Claude did not expect the Grand Prince to speak for himself and others in the face of Marshal Michel. Perhaps more likely, the Grand Prince will double the penalty for General Claude, General Bolognick, General Scully, the responsible generals of the original battlefield, to quell the anger of the old noble family over the loss of the leader, General Algers...

If, according to General Bolognick, the sitting king handled the assassination, the lightest result would be the demotion of these generals from the war zone. Is Claude a lieutenant general or a junior general in the kingdom? And General Bolonik, General Skerry, seriously wounded General Bitchcline and General Albert, far from Wickham Castle, were miserable. They were once Major Generals of the Kingdom, and the rank of Colonel would be lowered again, and it would be very difficult to promote them to the rank of General again in the future. As for General Shazorak, his dismissal was minor, most fearful of finding him guilty of malfeasance and serving more than a decade of hard labour.

So the capture of Port Vibato became the life-saving straw of several surviving generals in the war zone. Claude made it clear that General Bolognick led the Forbidden Regiment in this march, not only to capture Port Vibato as soon as possible, but also to ensure the low casualty rate of the Forbidden Regiment in the battle, at least to ensure that noble officers of the Forbidden Regiment did not crash on the battlefield. This will not only give them an additional battle merit, but will also allow the families behind them to say a few good words for the generals in the theatre, and all who have been able to compete will be delighted.

Claude sent McJackie to accompany the march, even with a bomb drop and enough certainty to take down Port Vibator. Let him lead the two Light Mounted Field Battalions of Battalion 131 with General Bolognick, which is a guarantee of General Bolognick's safety on his way out so that he may not be assassinated again by the escaped Grey Robe Mages.

The Viberon estate is now heavily guarded, and the two large groups left behind by Battalion Thunder One and Battalion can't even fly the entire estate, which adds a lot of inconvenience to the lives of mothers and Caffrey and their children. Finally, Claude thought about sending a squad to Anna Ranch as a guard, leaving only one squad at the Viberon Estate, finally not looking like a military dignitary.

Claude's body is still immobile when awake and needs a long bed rest. Dr. Perente said that Claude's legs were all broken and that healing those legs alone would take him about six months to lie in bed. There are also severe burns to the back and internal shock wounds, which are estimated to take three months to recover. As for the knife wound on the left arm and the piercing wound on the right abdomen, it is the simplest, and it can be healed for ten and a half days.

General Shazorak came to Viberon Manor again, and for more than half a month he had been one of the hardest, not knowing how many nights he had endured. His eyes were red silk and he was very tired. Even though it is impossible to know what happened to him because of the assassination, General Shazorak prepared himself to draw a conclusion to the assassination, based on Claude's speculation, and to find evidence that King Machid III of the Kingdom of Hicks had instructed the Grey Tower Mage to come.

At present, only two pieces of evidence are more reliable: General Shazorak, commanding the Rock III Division, overthrew the entire town of Langhu and captured two agents of the Hicks Kingdom. According to the designations of the two agents' neighbors, several more relatives were present in the homes of the agents a few days before the assassination, and then two of them were identified as relatives of the so-called agents among the bodies of the grey robe magicians killed.

This is one of the evidence that the grey robe magician killers gathered in Lake Lan town at the home of agents of the Hicks Kingdom. The second evidence is that the two assassinations did not take place at the same time, but first Claude was assassinated, making too much noise, forcing the grey robe magician killer in the square to rush to assassinate General Algers and others. This suggests that the main target of the assassination was not one General Argers, but two General Claude and General Argers, indirectly proving that the assassination was not the result of General Argers' personal grudges.

Compared to General Algers, Claude's military career and personal experience were simple and straightforward, with no personal grievances to use seven magicians to assassinate him. The only culprit was the Kingdom of Hicks, where Claude led the Thunder Division to victory in the Third Colonial War, annihilating three major regiments. The strategic situation facing the two kingdoms has been altered almost as much as it has done, indirectly plunging the Kingdom of Hicks into civil strife. It can be said that the people who hate Claude the most, there is no one else but King of the Kingdom of Hicks, McKid III.

The purpose of General Shazorak's visit was to make a statement to Claude. After all, seven magicians went to kill Claude, and Claude gave him a counterkill, which was almost more shocking than the assassination itself. Though Claude can't hurt himself, that doesn't mean he can stay out of it, and he needs to be clear on how to counterkill the seven Grey Robe Mage assassins.

Fortunately, Claude did not use any other spell than an energy shield in the process of counterkilling, which could replace the past with magic scrolls and talismans. So he told the whole story with pleasure, while presenting his brother Browick with two items, one broken silver necklace and the other revolver.

“I bought this silver necklace on the black market when I was on my way home to visit my family after the Eastern War, and it cost me twelve gold kroner. The dealer selling the necklace said to me that the silver necklace was made by the former Grand Duke of Siddins' companion magician to his lover's brother and contained a magic shield that would be activated when attacking the spell and the body, so that the person wearing the silver necklace would not be harmed by the attack spell. ”

Claude was a little emotional when he said this: “Now I realize that I've just fallen for it, and this silver necklace does have a magic shield, but it only resists three attacks, and it turns out like this. If I hadn't had this recurring revolver around me, I'd have died in the hands of those gray magicians..."

General Shazorak pulled out other documents from the folder, all testimonies of the people who saw Claude kill the seven Grey Robe Wizards in the distance, confirming that the confessions of both sides could be matched, he relieved himself and took the revolver and played with it: “Claude, I'm sure you'll have a terrible headache after this assassination, because there will be many dignitaries who want to get more than one revolver from you as their own defensive weapon..."