Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 535 Analysis and Response

“... in the light of the current situation, the Kingdom of Hicks has helped the so-called kingdoms of Nasseri and Kanas in exile to form what is not a threat to us for the time being. The only thing that can be done is to send a team into the country, spy on intelligence, contact the rebels, incite civil unrest or something, and not affect the peace and stability of the entire eastern region..."

General Skerry, with a wooden stick in his hand pointing to a map hung on the wall, spoke, and the conference room was filled with parliamentarians and senior officers of two regiments, another general meeting of parliamentarians and officers of the overseas autonomous territories in Wangdu, on the subject of two bad news that had just been received the previous two days. As the representative of the Autonomous Territories, General Skerry provided participants with a detailed analysis and explanation of the crisis facing the Overseas Territories in the General Assembly.

“The kingdom of Hicks' naval fleet has been wiped out by our autonomous Ironclad fleet, and it is therefore unable to mobilize large forces for landing operations in the eastern coastal zone by sea. Also in times of war, the Kingdom of Hicks could lease a land route to the kingdoms of Breot and Menbamak as a logistically heavy supply route for the delivery of armaments to troops on the front line. Their defeat could also lead to their repatriation along this land corridor.

But now that the war is over, it is no longer possible for the Kingdom of Hicks to mobilize large forces to lease a land corridor from the Kingdom of Breot and the Kingdom of Menbamak as a way into the Nasri region. Because that means that the kingdoms of Breot and Menbamak have also joined the array of Hicks kingdoms, declaring war on us and becoming invaders. And the kingdoms of Breot and Menbamak will never go to such an unrelated war...

Since the territory of our kingdom is separated from the Kingdom of Hicks by two States, with no adjacent land borders, and because the Kingdom of Hicks has lost its only naval fleet at sea, we need not fear that it will start another war in the eastern region. No matter how much it supports the kingdom of Nasserli and the exiled royal court of the Principality of Kanas, that is, the merchants call for sale, earn a drink, show a sense of presence, and show that it is still the boss of the Eastern League of Nations.

As for what the Kingdom of Hicks helped the two exiled kingdoms, the Kingdom of Nasri and the Principality of Kanas, to form the Resistance Army, even if they sent small squadrons to disrupt it, it could only be in the Nasri region. It is well known that the Nasseri region has been granted by His Majesty the King to the nobles of the kingdom as a hereditary family territory, and so consideration needs to be given to how to deal with these rebels, who are also the nobles of those territories, who are more than enough armed against the rebels of these small units.

And the enclosed territory that we, the Overseas Autonomous Territories, received from His Majesty the King, is the coastal area of the northern bay of the Kanas Prairie, which became another part of our Overseas Autonomous Territories on the Farea continent when the ceremony ended. The Autonomous Territorial Military Region has decided to send an Ironclad sub-fleet to the northern Gulf to protect the territorial waters. Thus, for our Autonomous Lords, the Kingdom of Hicks is nothing more than a barking dog in a cage, barking no more than a threat. ”

After talking about the Kingdom of Hicks, General Skerry greeted his deputies and guards to replace the map on the wall with the map of the Nubian continent, followed by the impact and negative consequences for the Overseas Autonomous Territories of the prohibitions issued by the colonies of the West Coast countries.

General Skerry used the little wooden stick in his hand to point out the colonies of the West Coast countries on the map and only opened his mouth after the noisy conversations in the conference room had stopped: “In contrast to the information that the Kingdom of Hicks helped the Kingdom of Nasserley and the Principality of Kanas to form the Royal Court of Exile and the Fugitive Army, we believe that the joint statement issued by the colonies of the western coast countries of the continent of Nubian is the biggest bad news for our overseas autonomous territories, and they imposed a ban on us! ”

The noisy discussion in the conference room rang again, and a voice shouted loudly: “Declare war! We declare war on them! They dare to expel the merchants and traders of our Autonomous Territories, which is discrimination against our Autonomous Territories! We can defeat them by force and ask them to sign an agreement that will allow us to trade freely on the West Coast! ”

General Skerry laughed bitterly, and the voice's owner was presumably superstitious about the invincible power of the Overseas Autonomous Territories. The first thing that came to mind was war, which was used to open the way for the businesses of the Overseas Autonomous Territories. There's a lot of people in the conference room with his opinions, cheering loudly for war, war...

General Skerry shook his head when he slapped the wooden stick in his hand twice against the wall, pressed down the discussion in the conference room and calmed down his mood: "Yesterday the Executive Committee of Autonomous Territories and the military region explored the subject and concluded that we could not declare war on the colonies of the countries of the West Coast.

This incident cannot be solved by a war, because our autonomous military regions simply do not have the time or the capacity to win this war in a short period of time, and the longer it takes, the more detrimental it will be to our overseas autonomous territories. ”

“Why?” a member of parliament stood up and asked aloud, listening to the voice. He should have been the one who had just advocated war on the colonies of the West Coast countries.

“Look at the map, this is the West Coast...” General Scully lit a map of the West Coast with a wooden stick: “From the map, you can see that the entire West Coast colony is about four times larger than our overseas autonomous territories, and their colonies have been inland and developed nearly a hundred years before our overseas colonies. The colonial population, property and scale of development are better than ours. ”

General Scully was quite honest in saying that the first colony of the Nubian continent was on the west coast, known as the land of nectar flowing in the sun, with its flat terrain and wealth. On the other hand, the southern continent, where the Overseas Autonomous Territories were located, was a desolate barbaric place. Sterling X of the Kingdom of Ovieras sent colonial troops to the southern continent because of his inability to penetrate the West Coast, and after more than six decades of constant development became the current Overseas Autonomous Territory.

“Over the past two centuries, the colonies of the countries of the West Coast have been annexed to each other after several wars, culminating in the present pattern. This is a colony of eight countries in the southern part of the Farea continent, formerly excluded from the western coast by the northern coastal States, which can only find a few barren places to build their colonies from the eastern coast and the northern snow fields. That is also why the Kingdom of Hicks provoked a colonial war against us in the hope of acquiring its own colonies from our southern continent.

Today, the West Coast is already an exclusive colony of eight countries in the southern part of the Farea continent, and forty or fifty years of peace have led to significant economic and social development on the West Coast. Fortunately, however, the economic policy of the eight countries of the South towards their colonies on the West Coast continues to be that of transfusion, repressing the economic and industrial development of the colonies as resource exporters and dumping sites for their own goods, as was the case in our previous kingdoms.

Why are goods produced by our overseas autonomous territories dumped throughout the colonies of the West Coast countries? Simple reason, good price, quality assurance. Instead of dumping their own low-quality commodities into their colonies at high prices, as in the case of the eight southern countries. As a result of the trade monopoly policies of the eight countries, the people of their colonies had no choice but to choose these high-quality commodities and endure the treatment of being exploited and squeezed by businessmen in their own countries because they had no choice.

But all of that changed after the commodities produced by our Overseas Autonomous Territories were smuggled into the colonies of the countries of the West Coast. Even though the local authorities of the colonies of the countries of the West Coast forbade smuggling, the people of the colonies would still choose to buy commodities produced by our Autonomous Territories. As a result, goods shipped to their colonies in the eight countries of the South became delinquent and could not be sold. That is, we moved their cheese.

Thanks to the victory of our Overseas Autonomous Commander over the colonial war in the Kingdom of Hicks, the colonial governments of the eight West Coast countries dared not to use force against our Overseas Autonomous Leaders, but to protest strongly and demand that we put an end to the smuggling of colonies across the West Coast. We refused their request, and we told them at the time that we believed in the freedom of commercial trade, that other people came to buy, that we could not afford not to do this business, and that we had no control over where the goods were shipped.

Two thirds of the commodities produced by our overseas autonomous territories were smuggled to the eight colonies of the West Coast the previous year. As a result of the Kingdom's war on the mainland, sales decreased somewhat last year, although half of the production was shipped to the West Coast by smugglers. It is noteworthy that the low denomination banknotes issued by our autonomous overseas Minsheng Bank also have an amount of nearly 10 million gold kroner in circulation in the eight West Coast colonies...

The people of the eight West Coast colonies used our banknotes and avoided the commercial taxes that would have to be paid to the colonial governments. Because the colonial Governments do not recognize our banknotes, but the people of these colonies are free to exchange them with the banknotes that our self-governing traders open in the colonies of the eight countries on the West Coast. I think this may be why the colonial government of the Eight countries expelled the legitimate businesses of our self-governing traders... "

The Congressman who questioned why not declare war interrupted General Skerry's statement: "We know these circumstances, but this should not be a pretext for our autonomous leaders not to declare war on them! If we launch the Thunder Corps and the Rock Corps, as well as our Ironclad fleet, then the maritime smuggling blockade of the eight West Coast colonies will be a shadow, and their colonial garrisons will be crushed, eventually only opening the door to free commercial trade with them! ”

“You think about everything too easily!” General Scully is helpless: “Our declaration of war on the eight colonies of the West Coast does not mean only on the eight colonies of the West Coast, but also on the eight countries of the southern coast of the Farea continent, you understand? Just as the Hicks kingdom provoked this colonial war, the kingdom itself sent our Rangers to reinforce us and eventually turned us into Legion of Thunder and Rock.

The total size of the eight colonies on the West Coast is four times that of our Overseas Autonomous Territories, with a total population of more than 60 million, and although the majority are mixed indigenous, nearly two hundred years of colonization in the eight southern countries have allowed these mixed indigenous peoples to recognize their colonial Power as their homeland, which is many times stronger than the Nikancas here. If we declare war on them, they will be regarded as aggressors, and they will similarly take up arms against our attacks.

Do you think we can wipe out the entire West Coast Eight colony in a short period of time with more than 200,000 troops from our two regiments in the Overseas Autonomous Territory? It is simply not possible to do so without more than five years. And even if we defeat the colonial garrisons of these eight countries, we do not have that much force to maintain local order in the occupied territories. This will only be possible if our overseas autonomous territories mobilize more than one million troops.

And what a million dollars of conscription means, you know? It will be a supermassive regional war. Can our overseas self-governments afford the cost of a regional war? Unfortunately, we can't afford it, and we don't have that capital either. Because the enemy we are facing is not a colony of eight countries on the west coast, but also eight countries on the southern coast of the Farea continent, who will constantly reinforce their colonies and may even send troops to attack our overseas autonomous territories.

By then, our autonomous leaders will be left alone. The situation in the Kingdom itself, as you know, not only does it not support us, but it also has a great potential to sever relations with our overseas autonomous territories. Because it cannot afford the diplomatic pressure of the eight southern countries, and what it needs most now is a period of rest and recovery. That is why we cannot risk declaring war on the eight West Coast colonies because of the ban. ”

This time, General Skrin was blunt, saying that the Overseas Autonomous Territories could not fight this war, nor did they have the financial and material resources to fight it. The questioning congressman stood there thinking for half a day, and he was a little uncomfortable, trying to say something else, but was immediately pulled down by the people around him.

“Who is he?” Claude asked around Mr. Viberon.

“Old Berman's son, Andros. Joyster. Lucky for him, he replaced Old Berman as a congressman last year, mixing up a hereditary baron of the kingdom this year. However, their families run seventeen daily stores in Robisto and Amphiston, and most of the goods produced are smuggled to the eight West Coast colonies, and this ban on the eight West Coast colonies has the greatest impact on their families..." Mr. Viberon is well aware of the details of these senators.

Claude laughed: “No wonder he was so excited, yelling to declare war...”

General Skerry also spoke earlier: "Although the eight colonies of the West Coast have imposed a ban on our overseas autonomous territories, smuggling cannot be prohibited as long as profits exist. Our Executive Committee of Autonomous Territories responded with two measures: armed cargo shipments to smugglers, opening up new smugglers' corridors to ensure that they would not be easily captured by the garrisons of colonies, at least with the ability to escape and resist...

Secondly, in the next three years, our overseas autonomous leaders will vigorously develop the northern bay of the Kanas Prairie, a hereditary territory belonging to our autonomous territory, which will become our new commercial trading centre on the mainland of Farea. Specialty and commodity goods from both continents will converge here to become the largest free trade market for commerce, where merchants from all countries will come to buy goods of their choice and return them for sale in their respective regions.

The Executive Committee believes that this will soon become a new economic growth point for the Overseas Autonomous Territories, and that even the economic losses caused by the eight West Coast colonies to our ban will soon be compensated from the commercial free trade market here, so we need a little patience and time to develop this self-governing territory while sending personnel to the West Coast colonies to negotiate for the early lifting of the ban. ”

“Are you going back to the Home Rule this time?” Mr. Viberon asked.

“Yes.” Claude nodded: "The Legion of Thunder and the Legion of Rock cannot be moved back here now, and the ban on business in our autonomous territories on the West Coast must be lifted as soon as possible, otherwise it will have a very negative impact on the economy of the autonomous territories. What we're saying now is to divert investment and develop the Northern Bay, but implicitly we have to teach a profound lesson to the eight West Coast colonies...

They chose a very good time to wreak havoc on us this time, with the troops of both regiments of our Autonomous Territories dragged to the eastern region and the Ironclad fleet splitting up the seaports where they were stationed in order to maintain maritime security. So the joint issue of a ban on smuggling by the eight West Coast colonies strengthens the ban on deporting our comptoirs because that's when we can't afford them. But the colonies of the eight countries of the West Coast have become the largest selling place for goods from our autonomous territories and must not be abandoned. ”

“The autonomous territory now has only one division of the Rock Legion and 12 local guard regiments, with meagre troops. Is it possible to draw one or two divisions back from here?” Mr. Viberon asked with some concern.

Claude laughed: "I'm not going back to war this time, but to see if there's a way to settle this restraining order. The Autonomous Territories have been fighting on the mainland of the Kingdom for two years and should rest, and I am prepared to reduce some of their military expenditures. And not all problems depend on force, and trust me, the eight West Coast colonies do not want war with our overseas autonomous territories. ”

“I hope so...” Mr. Viberon asked, “Is Marshal Bolognick returning to the Home Rule this time? ”

“Yes, he will return to civil service to represent the administration of Parliament in the absence of Chief Bennett. As for the development of the Northern Bay Territories, the Autonomous Territory will leave General Skerry and General Bitchcline, as well as General Albert, here, confident that they will maintain security and order in the Kanas Prairie.” Claude replied.