Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 460: Chatter and Coming

Time soon passed and it turned to mid-April.

Claude has now set up and patrolled defensive positions in the northern coastal mountainous areas, and since he offered three Nikanca envoys the conditions for paying for the land cuts more than a month ago, those Nikanca envoys said they had returned to negotiate and had no further news.

Claude was less anxious, however, and the first thing to do back on the front and back was to withdraw the three local guard corps that had originally been deployed in key positions in the eastern frontier mountains, so that the eastern mountain border could be unimpeded all the way to the national territory of the Nikancas.

In addition, Claude ordered General Bitchklin to continue building three defensive fronts inland along the defensive fronts in the centre of the northern mountains, with three withdrawn local guard regiments and a division of rock regiments, almost separating large areas of the eastern mountains into the Nikanca national hinterland and setting up a strong defensive line like a copper wall in the immediate vicinity of the port of Vibato.

During this period, it was not that no neighbouring Nikans had gathered to protest against the cheap or anything, but that General Bichklin, in opposition to his friendly and tolerant attitude towards the Nikans in the last war, ordered the expulsion of all Nikans close to the Front de défense (FDN), without any Nikans staying within 200 metres of the perimeter.

The first warning was fired, the second was fired at the ground and the third was fired directly. A nearby Nikancha settlement, which had probably attracted a lot of cheap goods in the past, this time was no exception, trying to assemble more than a hundred young men and women to come to the defensive positions in the name of protest, either by playing through customs or by gambling against General Bitchclin's real orders to shoot.

Boy, this is our colony land. You can't build anything here! The woman scratched her head and seduced the wary soldiers in the trenches. Only after the first two shots were fired, no one was injured, so the Nikancha men and women mistakenly thought it was just a scare and more arrogant. And then, and then they can't really go back...

... we are going to declare war... we are going to avenge... we are going to hand over the murderer... the Nikancas are really going to explode, they have assembled thousands of Nikancas from a nice colony, they have stayed very well 200 meters away, and they have even drawn a line with lime powder in case they accidentally cross the border when they are emotionally agitated. Then they stood outside the white line shouting out loud slogans in protest at the massacre of their brothers and sisters by guards in defensive positions.

And the leaders and elders of the colonies, in order to avoid further clashes with the forces in the war zone, even forbid these protesters to carry any weapons, whether guns, their original archery spears, or short knife hand axes, causing the angry, bare-handed Nikantha protesters to throw only a few stone branches from the ground...

“General, our Nikantha nation protests to you in the strongest possible terms! Not only did you forcibly seize our territory, but you also shot and killed our innocent people! You must make the most sincere apologies to us Nikancas, make amends, and punish the murderers! Otherwise, we Nikancas will retain the right to retaliate and terminate our alliance with your immediate battlefield! ”

Two Nikantha elders rushed to Claude for the tragedy, waving their arms in anger and exasperating their indignation.

“Wait, are you guys making a mistake?” Claude is surprised: "When do we still have alliances between the immediate war zone and you Nikanchas? I don't know. Wasn't it lifted after the last war? It is true that we deliberately seized your territory to build a defensive front, but we are a proactive defense to resist the upcoming Hicks and have nothing to do with you Nikancas.

If you're here to declare war, I'm glad you don't have to reserve the right to retaliate. You can directly organize tens of thousands of people to attack our defensive front to see if there are any shortcomings. I promise not to react proactively, not to occupy more territory, and I am sure you are also aware that occupying more of yours is not going to work now. All we need is a small area of the defensive front, and you will be fine just stay away from it. ”

“That's our land, and you let your soldiers kill hundreds of us!” Claude's attitude of understatement completely provoked two Nikan elders, the shorter Nikan elder, to roar loudly.

“Boom!” Claude slapped furiously on the table: “Bullshit! There are only 84 of them! Is that how you Nikantha count? Next time, I'll kill tens of thousands of you Nikans. Either we didn't warn them, but they didn't listen. They deserved to be shot!

I know it's your Nikancha land, but the war zone under our direct jurisdiction is just a temporary borrowing, and two or three months from now will be of little use to you Nikanchas. There is no one in the eastern frontier mountainous area. If you abandon the land there, why compare this small area that we have seized?

Sometimes I really don't understand what you Nikankas think. Honestly, in a few days, the three standing legions of the Hicks will be here. How can you have the heart to compare this with us? If I were you, I would send those energetic protesters to the eastern frontier mountains to prepare for the Hicks' attack, perhaps for an extra ten and a half days.

Let's go, we did occupy your territory, but it's to protect the direct authority behind us from the Hicks, so we don't care if it's a mistake or an aggression, if we're going to be your enemies. If you are going to declare war, declare it. For the sake of your past friendship, I shall take you for revenge. ”

Two Nikantha elders slipped away, did not declare war, and did not speak of any more revenge. They also know very well that the territory behind this defensive front, which is occupied by the war zone, will never be regained. Claude does not care if there is one more enemy, while the Nikantha know that if war is declared with the war zone, they will not have an ally...

“Your conditions for the Nikanchas are too harsh.” Adjacent General Bitchklin said with some emotion: "Not only have they been asked to cede such a large plot of land, but they have also been asked to pay two million gold kroner. If I were their leader, I'd rather die with the Hicks than accept your request. There are five million Nikanths, even ten to one, who can kill the Hicks..."

“They don't have the courage.” General Albert, sitting on the chair, made a bloody comment: "Otherwise, they wouldn't have made a proposal to hand over the northern coastal mountainous zone and the eastern frontier mountainous zone to our theatre, just to get our theatre to defend them against the Hicks attack. Don't pretend to be a big tail wolf in front of us if you don't have the courage to fight the enemy.

In fact, I'm asking the Nikantha not to agree to Claude's terms, and if they don't do it at the last minute, it's in the best interest of the war zone. As Claude put it, the Hicks drove straight from the mountain mayor in the east to the Nikanca hinterland, burned down the robbery, did nothing wrong, and finally let the Hicks destroy the Nikanca nation, and we march again to destroy the Hicks from occupying the Nikanca land, and that's what we call a real dispatch... "

Claude grinned, "I was bluffing the Nikantha people. If such a battle were to be more detrimental to us, cutting off the food supply or something was just our delusions. Five million Nikanths, the Hicks, if they break through the Nikanths' colonies, will reap enough military food, even if they eat potatoes, to feed the Hicks, without the need for rear transport.

The other is that the territory occupied by the Nikans is too large, and once the Hicks enter, we lose the initiative to fight the battlefield. The advantages of the Hicks lie in the fact that they are several times larger than us, coupled with such a large territory, that they are strategically positioned and adjusted to respond to the surprise night raids that we send troops deep inside.

The size of the site is both a strength and a disadvantage for us, as our infiltration forces have plenty of room to move around and are not easily surrounded by enemies. The downside is that we cannot occupy enemy bases for recreation. This vast area is truly counted as wilderness and mountains. We need clean and hygienic drinking water, we need to give soldiers a relaxing camp, and we need to secure supplies of logistics and armaments...

If I were a Hicks, it would be enough to defend those Nikanca colonies and the former Hicks mineral development base against the troops we dived into. Because the more troops we go in, the more difficulties we encounter. With few troops unable to capture enemy camps, more problems are posed by the presence of additional troops. Such a natural environment can drag down our morale and the physical health of our soldiers, adding a great deal of trouble to us. ”

General Albert and General Beachcline fully understand what Claude is saying, and no army can fight against the harsh natural environment while still winning against the enemies of Islay. Of course, Claude's legendary army of 25,000 miles in the history of his past life cannot be counted. It is an army that has never appeared in human history, the greatest army, and cannot be exaggerated.

Of course, the two generals do not know what Claude is thinking at this moment, and what they are lamenting is that the interior territory of the Nikancha nation is too big and too remote. The Hicks possess sufficient strength to occupy vital water resources with heavy troops at those critical points. And infiltrating the troops that carry out raids at night without having clean water will cause unknown sickness damage to the troops, while searching for usable water in the wild will reduce the energy of soldiers, increase fatigue and affect battle efficiency...

So don't look at Claude like he doesn't care in front of the Nikans, but when the Hicks get here, there's really no need for the Nikans to cut the place down and pay off, and Claude will still command the troops to stick to the northern coastal and eastern mountains. The reason is simple, the terrain in these two places is no longer better suited to thwart, and Claude's main reason for opening the lion's mouth is to frighten the Nikancas to see if there's anything to be gained.

“It would have been nice to occupy the territory of the Nikancas, enough to give us four additional direct jurisdictions in our theatre, and so many gold and silver mines. Such a resource-rich place has been occupied by these Nikanths, it's a shame to produce a gold and silver mine worth 78 million a year!” General Albert mumbled a little unwillingly.

This is just General Albert's opinion, and Claude doesn't think so, that he drank lipstick tea: “It would be very bad for our war zone if we really occupied the Nikancha territory. There are indeed many gold and silver mines there, but what we are really lacking in the war zone is not gold and silver, but human resources.

Even if we relocate the families and relatives of more than two million legions of soldiers in both Cromwell and Bering Ghana, the nine overseas jurisdictions together account for more than 4.8 million people. With the exception of Amphiston, there are over 340,000 people in the other seven jurisdictions, most of which are undeveloped except in the towns where they live.

The war zone is now experiencing rapid economic growth, but is very understaffed. And we are faced with war, and with the formation of a reserve corps in the theatre, over a third of the battlefield's age-appropriate youth have been conscripted, which is already a dangerous critical figure and is likely to affect the steady development of the theatre's economy.

Everyone has a luxury overnight, and if we occupy the Nikantha land, then those who want to dig gold and silver for riches will flock, and no one will grow food in the war zone to graze cattle and sheep, no one will run a workshop, and maybe we will, like the previous Hicks inland colonies, rely on the outside for all our supplies and supplies.

After that, there will be no such tranquillity in the war zone. What can we do if we have more gold and silver? We can't eat or use it. Taking it to buy supplies will only cause prices to skyrocket, and the relationship between our war zone and the kingdom itself has not been clarified, which is another major problem. These pieces of gold and silver will only cause us evil and even prove us guilty.

With this resourceful territory of the Nikancas, we will only attract more jackals, and our Legion of Thunder and the Legion of Rocks will even be nailed to the eyes of those in power in Wangdu, who will try to do everything in their power to control them and protect their fortunes. Ultimately, the ultimate victor will also force us, like the nobles of the Hicks kingdom, to capture slaves and dig mines in order to reduce costs and bring greater benefits.

So I'd rather this place be in the hands of the Nikans, and if we needed gold and silver, we could trade it for the Nikans from our battlefield jurisdictions, which would be disguised as letting the Nikans dig gold and silver for us. If the Nikanchas agreed to the terms I set out, then this Nikancha nation will only be bordered by our theatre.

Whatever deal the Nikantha want to make can only be made with our battlefield, we can totally reap stable and profitable gains from them, which is a little less cumbersome than we take over their territory and organize our own people or leave it to those who dream of getting rich to dig gold and silver... "

That's what Claude really thinks. Occupying the Nikantha land is harmful to the war zone. It's already short of manpower. If this land attracts people from the direct administration to dig gold and silver, then who's going to do it? If no one is allowed to dig, then why should they eat enough to occupy the land? Keeping these Nikanths, instead, makes the output of all the territories under the jurisdiction of the war zone a place of dumping, where the war zone can be bought and sold, profitable, fully able to pay all military expenses, why not...

General Albert and General Bitchcline sighed in unison as Claude spoke of the relationship between the direct territorial war zone and the kingdom itself. Calculate the itinerary, if you have a safe journey, Colonel Bockard, which would have taken a squadron of guards to escort the battlefield with a gift dedicated to the king to arrive in the capital, or Prince Widreck, oh no, what kind of statement Sterling XI would give the battlefield.

On April 19, 593, Holy Lights, the three-day delay in the King's fleet of the Kingdom of Six, the United Fleet, and the two prestigious fleets of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which promised to deliver goods to the Kingdom of Six once a year free of charge for a five-year lease period, escorted countless ocean shipping vessels to finally reach the colony of the Gulf of Rhodes.

The arrival of the last three Standing Legions of the Kingdom of Hicks was also the biggest war test for officers and soldiers and Claude in all areas of direct jurisdiction. Because what they are facing is more than 400,000 troops in the Seven Standing Legions of the Kingdom of Hicks, the most powerful enemy they have ever encountered...