Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 429 Lease

Claude rushed back to Langhu City in late October, as the Overseas Minsheng Bank, which had been in place for nearly a decade, was finally established and was due to open on October 25. As one of the five giants of the war zone, Claude must attend this opening ceremony to demonstrate support for the Overseas Minsheng Bank. At the same time, he also needed to sign a loan agreement with the Overseas Minsheng Bank, as the first loan from the Overseas Minsheng Bank, Claude received interest-free preferential care...

Of course, all of this has long been agreed, with a loan from the Overseas Minsheng Bank to Claude in the amount of one million gold kroner, repayable by theatre headquarters. The war zone reimburses the Overseas Minsheng Bank with 200,000 gold kroner each year, while Claude needs to provide 10,000 new rifles and 10 million rounds of copper shell rifle ammunition to the war zone each year before the loan can be repaid for five years.

It is a willingness to fight, Claude to sustain the firearms manufacturing workshop and to have enough money to test and develop new types of weapons. The theatre, on the other hand, can acquire new rifles that will gradually increase the combat power of the troops. As for the Overseas Minsheng Bank, although it offered interest-free loans, the amount was large enough to show sceptics his strength and close ties to working with theatres. With the war zone endorsing it, the hesitant Viscount Gudich believed that the Overseas Minsheng Bank would soon become the first bank in the war zone's direct jurisdiction.

What Claude did not expect was that, less than half an hour after returning to the Viberon estate, he had met with an emergency correspondent from theatre headquarters, demanding that Claude rush to theatre headquarters immediately and that General Bolognick convene a military conference. The other generals have arrived in theatre command, waiting for Claude alone...

There seems to be nothing significant at this time. Except for the opening of the Overseas Minsheng Bank the morning after tomorrow, the war zone has not received any alerts? Claude was getting ready to take a hot bath, undressed and had to put it back on. I thought about it for half a day when I got in the wagon and drove off to Warzone Command, and I didn't get a clue.

Claude was greeted by General Bolognick's gloomy face. Claude's heart snapped and felt bad. It seemed like something really important had happened. Otherwise, General Bolognick would not have had that look. And he said, "What's going on? What's going on? ”

Instead of answering Claude's question, General Bolognick asked Claude, "How many new rifles can your firearm factory produce in a year if I ask the Overseas Minsheng Bank to lend you three million gold kroner? ”

Claude laughed so hard, some things can't be done without money. But he heard Master Byrd say, "If you continue to hire workers for training, you can only produce up to 30,000 new rifles a year in the overtime model of the firearms factory, day and night. This is mainly limited to the size of the machinery and equipment produced, and requires production adjustments over a six-month period. However, the overtime mode of day and night rushing inevitably increases production costs, whether it is a waste of resources or labor costs..."

“What about bullet production?” General Bolognick asked.

“Still 10 million rounds, this copper shell rifle bullet production line was designed and assembled by ourselves, and according to the standard of a new rifle with a hundred rounds of ammunition, even a 10 million rounds a year would be enough for soldiers to complete their training and operational tasks. After two years of running out of new rifle equipment, we can assemble another production line…" Claude explained.

“Well, this time, your loan is three million gold kroner, and as soon as you get back, you let the gun factory produce a new rifle and grab your Thunder Legion.” General Bolognick did not hesitate to make a decision.

“What the hell happened?” Claude was surprised that General Bolognick's attitude would be to prepare the troops of the armed theatre at all costs in order to increase their combat power and even to give the impression that they were willing to sell their homes entirely.

General Bolonik smiled bitterly: "The Kingdom of Hicks is here again, this time it has really prepared ten standing legions..."

“It's impossible!” Claude doesn't believe it at all: “This is supposed to be a rumor. If the Kingdom of Hicks had ten standing legions, where would it land? There are only three seaports in our war zone that are suitable for large-scale landings, but we are fully prepared for defense, and it is simply impossible for the Kingdom of Hicks to take over our seaport cities with his King and United Fleets. Instead of taking over the harbor first, their ten standing regiments want to land directly. That's a delusion. It's better to jump into the sea and feed the fish automatically...

Also, if the Kingdom of Hicks wanted to learn about Prince Hansburg's offshore landings, I would be very happy to greet these door-to-door prisoners on the beach. Prince Hansburg took advantage of the unnoticed negligence in the hinterland of the kingdom to surprise the King. There's a lot of reefs on our side, and there's a tight line of siege along the coast, and their ocean warships can't get near the beach, over 1,000 to 2,000 meters of shallow sea, and how do they get soldiers ashore, how do they transport artillery, how do they land, how do they eat, how do they rest at night, how do they just bring a gun ashore, and they're not prisoners? ”

“Can you let me finish this first?” General Bolognick was sprayed in the face by Claude, shaking his head helplessly: “I know that better than you! The problem is that these 10 standing legions of the Kingdom of Hicks are not prepared to forcibly attack our seaport, nor to land in the direct jurisdiction of our war zone. They are prepared to assemble all their troops on the West Coast and then head south..."

“What did you say?” Claude stunned: “Where did this come from? ”

“Colonel Boquer sent a deputy back to bring newspapers from many West Coast colonies, many of which were two or three months old, but the Kingdom of Hicks was prepared to lease the Fox Islands, a British colony in the Nubian mainland, to gather troops to prepare for the news that the south had flown across the colonies of the West Coast countries. The latest news is that the Kingdom of Hicks is likely to have entered into a lease agreement with the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands to transport two standing legions to the United Kingdom colony in the first half of next year at the latest..."

The United Kingdom of the Fox Islands, a kingdom in the south-western part of the Farea continent comprising six large seas and dozens of small islands, is located only one Gillis Strait away from the nearest part of the Farea continent. Claude remembers the history books in the country mentioning the Fox Islands, the United Kingdom, where the Kramer pirates originated a thousand years ago, who often rode small wooden boats to loot and plunder the coastal areas of the Farea continent...

Following the introduction of the Holy Chronicle on the continent of Farea, the six Grand Dukes of the Fox Islands held joint meetings to elect one of them as King and to establish the United Kingdom. The only difference between them and the other kingdoms is that the term of office of the King, which is limited to 20 years, will come to an end and the Grand Duke of the Six Islands will re-elect one of them as King.

The United Kingdom of the Fox Islands, known as the Navy, is arguably the most powerful navy in the Farea continent, with four fleets named after the gods of ancient Kramer. They were also the first countries to explore and colonize the Nubian continent, occupying four colonies on the West Coast, but not connected. On the eastern coast of the continent, the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands is said to occupy six colonies as well, arguably the largest number and size of colonies in the entire continent.

General Bolognick pointed to the conference room: “Let's go inside and talk about it. It's not possible that so many newspapers are all fabricating rumors, many of them newspapers from colonies of other countries, and there's a lot of news about the kingdom itself. Alas..."

It seems that the news about the kingdom itself is not good news, which is why General Bolonik sighs. Claude pushed open the door and saw General Bitchklin and General Albert standing in front of the map beside the wall arguing over what General Scully was classifying the newspapers on the table and labeling them all as important news stories. When Claude came in, he nodded, pointing to a folder on the finger table, indicating that Claude would look at this first.

In the folder is the itinerary summary report of Colonel Boquer, who brought with him three staff officers of the Intelligence Service of the theatre headquarters, as well as his own deputies, guards and 11 others, aboard the Triumph Light Cruise Rapid Battleship on 27 August, from Port Vibato, escorted by two battleships of the same class, the Fish, the Storm, to the north.

After seven days of navigation, the cruise team bypassed the Cape of Moroxia and arrived on the west coast, sort of out of the waters of the Nykancha States in the northern coastal mountainous areas of the territorial jurisdiction, and the colony adjacent to the Nykancha States was the fourth and smallest colony of the Fox States on the west coast of the continent of Nubia, with only one third of the area under the direct jurisdiction of Tyrsim.

Quite rightly, the southern and eastern borders of the colony, known as the Gulf of Rodex, are surrounded by mountains and are now part of the territory of an independent Nikanca State. To the west is the sea, and to the north is another colony of the Kingdom of Riznia, a southern country of the Farea continent. The fourth colony of the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands was thus confined to this tiny valley plain of the Gulf and could not be expanded.

It is said that this was a very famous site selection error made by Rodriguez, the most famous explorer in the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands. Since the United Kingdom has six major islands as its main component, people in the United Kingdom are not united by belonging to the same kingdom as people in other kingdoms. They are more accustomed to competition and quarreling with each other. Like their ancestral Kramer pirates, the fighting between the island and the island lasted for almost two hundred years.

Generally speaking, the colonies of the coastal States of the Farea continent in the Nubian continent occupied a plot of land before expanding around it until the occupation of all the deserted lands was adjacent to the colonies of other countries. And just as the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands is strange, for example, when the people of the first major island occupy a plot of land, the people of the second largest island will look for another deserted land, and the people of the third largest island will never stay in those two colonies, but will look for another colony, unwilling to live next to them.

The same goes for explorer Rodriguez, who came down south from the west coast and saw the Cape of Morox here, thinking that it was at the end of the Nubian continent, and landed there. The discovery of calm bay winds, abundant catches, plains on shore and dense vegetation led to the decision to occupy the area as a colony. It was only when they explored south and east that they discovered that the two directions were surrounded by mountains, to the north by remote Gobi beaches and deserts, that the colony was confined to the Gulf and the valley plains, which were half surrounded by mountains, and could not be extended.

Officials from the colonies of the Fox kingdom had no difficulty finding supplies for Bok Al's cruise party, which docked on the shore in the name of pursuing the lost direction of pirates. It's just strange to hear that they're the cruise fleet of the Overseas Territories of the Kingdom of Orvillas, but they still allow officers and soldiers on board to go ashore to rest.

Just to get to the pub in the docks, Bok Al, they were surrounded by people watching the bustle, and even came to two local newspaper reporters to interview them and ask them what they thought of the Hicks Kingdom's intention to rent this Rodeks Bay colony from the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands, as well as predictions of who would eventually win this colonial war between the kingdoms of Ovieras and Hicks...

Bok 'er and the others were disoriented, and finally the truth came to light with the explanation of the enthusiastic crowd. In the second half of November of last year, the Kingdom of Hicks dispatched a special envoy to the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands to request a lease of the Rodex Bay colony on the grounds that it was prepared to assemble its forces in the colony, to flatten out an independent Nikanca nation with ten standing regiments and to take a showdown against the Overseas Territories battlefield of the Kingdom of Orvilas...

This information was transmitted to the West Coast in the first half of the year, and colonial discourse among nations was resolutely opposed, such as the colony of the Kingdom of Riznia adjacent to the colony of the Gulf of Rhodes. They feared that the Kingdom of Hicks would assemble 10 standing legions in the colony of the Gulf of Rhodes, not south, but north, so the first bad thing would be the colony of the Kingdom of Riznia.

There are also lively, distant colonies and newspapers discussing the need for a mutual colonial aid ordinance. When a colony in a country is rioted and invaded, other colonies in the vicinity are obliged to help... but it is obvious that this ordinance is unlikely to be signed because sometimes two neighbouring colonies are at war because of resources such as water minerals...

The United Kingdom of the Fox Islands, on the other hand, was very interesting, not to rent, but to sell the Rodex Bay colony to the Kingdom of the Hicks, many of whom were colonies anyway. The Rodex Bay colony, apart from its beautiful landscape, did not create much economic value for the United Kingdom. So they offered a heavenly price for it. And this heavenly price is unaffordable to the Kingdom of Hicks.

The current progress is that the Kingdom of Hicks has increased its lending requirements by five years, while the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands is considering doing so. Newspapers predict that the Kingdom of the Hicks will send an expedition in the first half of this year to look at the situation in the Rodex Bay colony, and they believe that the lease agreement will most likely be agreed later this year, so that the Kingdom of the Hicks will continue to bring his ten standing legions in the first half of next year...

“Why do the people of the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands not extend their colonies to mountainous areas in the northern coastal mountainous areas adjacent to the Rodex Bay colony, which is rich in mineral resources?” Claude felt strange and asked General Scully.

The question was clear to General Skrey, who replied: "The Klemmers of the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands claim to be a nation of the sea, and what they hate most is climbing mountains. If it's a hill, maybe they're still interested in exploring it, but like those mountain cliffs in the northern coastal mountains, the Kramers will be daunted, they'll automatically stop at the mountain border, they won't go deeper into the mountains..."

Perhaps it is also a national identity, though a bit odd. Claude continues to look at the reports on the folder. As soon as Colonel Boquer learned of the news, he gathered newspapers from various seaships docked in the Gulf, both a few days earlier and a few months earlier, all at a high price, and sent his deputy to bring them back to the direct overseas jurisdiction.

On the other hand, he intends to take those three intelligence staff officers and escorts, dressed as agents of the bison business, on the west coast to examine the economic situation of the national jurisdictions and liaise with the major trading houses between the continents of Nubia and Farea, pending the return of two more intelligence staff officers to the mainland of the Kingdom in the first half of next year...