Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 537 Wildfire Program

More than two years later, Claude finally returned to Lake Lang. It was just dark not far from town, and Colonel Mason Hughes asked Claude to go back to his house. Claude thought about deciding whether to go first to Corvin Bellene Estate in the western suburbs, his love nest with Sheila. Hillah's real name is Hillary Ratty. Colvin Beren, Claude built the estate under Sheila's name, which also means the estate is Sheila's private property.

In the first half of last year, he commissioned Sheila to escort back to the Overseas Autonomous Territories what had been recovered in the Kingdom of Nasri, after which Sheila did not return to the Farea mainland, but stayed in the estate to study the magic books and scrolls of the royal collection obtained from the Nasri royal family. She was more casual, followed Claude to the eastern part of the Farea continent for almost a year, and wanted to go back to her estate. Claude had to return to the Overseas Autonomous Territories in the name of escorting her belongings.

When she arrived at the estate, Sheila was surprised and busy arranging Claude's trip to eat, drink and wash, accompanying Claude for a cozy evening, relieving Claude of the fatigue and fatigue of the long haul. But Claude got up early the next morning, and he was going to the military headquarters today, and Colonel Boquer had been waiting for him for three days.

Remaining officers of the headquarters of the Autonomous Leadership Region found Claude excited. After all, the five giants of the Autonomous Leadership Region went to the mainland of the Kingdom, and no one dared to take the lead on some matters. Like this expulsion of merchants and traders from the overseas autonomous territories by the colonies of the eight countries of the West Coast, the remaining officers of the autonomous territories did not know how to respond. Now that Claude is back, almost everyone feels like they've got the heart bone, and the mind is calming down.

Claude returned to his office after smiling and nodding to greet the remaining officers who greeted him salutely. This place has been cleaned and is very clean and free of dust. Rubbing over the desktop and back of the chair with white gloves, Claude nodded satisfactorily, removing the outer cape and handing it to Mason Hughes, briefly saying: "Send Colonel Bockard of the MI..."

Upon his return to Patres military port, Claude sent a hawk message to the military headquarters asking them to notify Colonel Bockard of the Military Intelligence Department to wait for him at the military headquarters, while also asking the Military Intelligence Department and Colonel Bockard to prepare all the information on the eight West Coast colonies for his enquiry. Clearly, Claude was prepared to respond to the ban imposed by the eight West Coast colonies on overseas self-governing territories.

Claude just didn't expect to spend another four days in Port Patres and didn't get back to Lake Lang City the first time. For a simple reason, he and General Muried, the governor of the Ironclad fleet, found Master Byrd to discuss the provision of sixteen Ironclad warships to the Kingdom. Though there are plans to renovate the first generation of Ironclad warships and deliver them to the Kingdom, this will require a field trip to explore what should be dismantled and how to renovate them into new warships. This alone will take three days and then be dragged by Master Byrd to discuss the technical issues of the day...

Though Claude's current level is far less than that of a master of technology, the message of previous generations is quite remarkable. Sometimes an inadvertent phrase can provoke deep thoughts and enlightenment from Master Byrd and the rest of the technicians, so much so that Claude was enthralled by Master Byrd and others for another day before he finally came back sweating.

Only after such a delay, Colonel Boquer waited for him for three days at the military headquarters. So Claude sneezed constantly for three days, and apparently Colonel Bockard, who had not arrived for three days, must have been deeply resentful and muttered behind his back...

In less than two minutes, Lieutenant Colonel Mason Hughes broke into Claude's office with a ton of information. That is, Colonel Bockard, who is Claude's teenager friend, will be so natural in front of Claude that, in general, Claude is now a royal marshal, and other officers have no need to be respectful and stand tall when they see Claude. And just because Colonel Bockard doesn't care about Claude's rank, he can do whatever he wants...

Looking at Colonel Boquer's files on his desk, he turned to the wine cabinet for a tasting. Claude could only shake his head and have nothing to do with Bok Al's deranged scoundrel. Knocking on the glass in front of him with a dip pen in his hand, Claude said: "Unfortunately, Boa, you have not returned with me to the kingdom this time, or you will not be able to escape the rank of a general and the title of the traditional baron of the kingdom. ”

Instead of following the expedition, the two regiments left the Overseas Autonomous Territories in charge of smuggling operations in the eight colonies of the West Coast, as well as underground transactions with the Buffalo Company, and commercial trade with the Nikanca Nation was also under his control. Anyway, Colonel Bockard said he liked doing business and didn't like going to war, so the military headquarters gave him everything he could not publicly advertise about the business trade...

“You know, Claude, I'm not interested in those.” Boquer finally found a bottle of fruit to his satisfaction, took a cup and opened the lid and poured it himself: “In fact, our family was very happy with the living conditions in the Overseas Autonomous Territories and did not want to go back to the kingdom itself. When my father left, he was filled with sadness, and now, with energy, he is trying to open up connections and doors to family businesses in the overseas autonomous territories. ”

Claude didn't mind his teenager friend calling his name directly, and he took a look at this information: "By the way, it's been about four months since the eight West Coast colonies imposed a ban on our overseas autonomous territories, and what's going on there? ”

Boquer filled the cup with fruit wine, placed it on the coffee table, looked neat, and walked towards the desk. He knew exactly what Claude was going to discuss with himself.

“I don't know, very strict, very strict. Around 20,000 people have been punished for carrying prohibited items alone. Most of them were small dealers in street streets, not smugglers, but smugglers who took the goods for sale and were caught by the patrols, which was bad luck. Let's just put it this way, pedestrians carrying goods from our autonomous territories will be arrested as long as they are found.

For local officials in the eight West Coast colonies, this ban against our autonomous territories is actually a great opportunity to make money. They imposed fines on arrested prisoners, followed by prison sentences. The more money they have, the lighter they are given, the more they can be released if they are fed, even if they have to stay in the patrol cells overnight. ”Bok Al sat in the chair in front of the desk.

Claude pointed to the fruit wine and cup on the coffee table: “You can bring it here, we'll have a drink and talk, and then we'll go get another bottle. ”

Bok Al shook his head: "We're talking business today, we'll drink later. ”

“It's okay.” Claude nodded: “So tell me, what happened to the restraining order, which country started it? ”

Bork Al found a folder of blue leather covers from a large stack of materials on his desk and handed it to Claude: "In fact, as we have analyzed, the eight colonies on the West Coast have become dumping grounds for commodities originating in our autonomous territories and for the smuggling of goods of all kinds.

Just as our self-governing comptoirs run branches of the eight colonies on the West Coast, even if they are law-abiding and pay their taxes on time, they have actually touched the gains of the eight colonies in the southern part of the Farea continent. Autonomous traders buy more property there than traders in their kingdom, we sell cheaper goods and better quality than traders in their kingdom, and we are free to exchange banknotes...

Because our Overseas Autonomous Territories prevailed over the Kingdom of Hicks in the last colonial war and destroyed the strength of more than a dozen of its standing armies, these eight colonies on the West Coast, while dissatisfied with our dumping of goods at them, are merely protesting their mouths and are afraid to use force or threaten war against our Autonomous Territories. They can only increase the type of prohibited transactions and customs clearance of goods exported by our autonomous territories.

On the other hand, none of the goods that our Autonomous Lords really sell to them through normal channels are prohibited goods that they prohibit from entering customs, so there is no excuse for them to cut off their business dealings with us, and branches of our Autonomous Lords and Commercial Companies operating in the eight colonies of the West Coast pay their taxes according to regulations when buying local property or selling their own goods, so that these colonial governorates do not catch the grip of our businesses.

Smugglers, mainly from various colonies, are more aggressive, as long as everything from our autonomous territories is smuggled into the past. Commodities from our autonomous territories are more competitive in price and quality, as well as in style, than goods shipped from the distant oceans of their respective countries by the colonies of the eight countries, which eventually prevented the West Coast colonies from selling their respective home countries and whose warehouses were packed with retail goods.

A businessman from the United Kingdom in the Fox Islands broke the estate for that reason, and he threw himself into the sea. After the incident broke out, the merchants of the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands complained to their own king and then sent envoys to the remaining seven countries in the south to unify their positions, which led to the decision to impose a ban on commerce against our overseas autonomous territories in the eight colonies of the West Coast, strictly prohibiting smuggling transactions and no longer making their colonies a dumping ground for our overseas autonomous territories... "

Claude flipped through the blue-covered folder, which contained a thicker personnel file, each page containing a personal profile of the colony from which the person came, name and age, family members, personal assets, channels of delivery and sales performance. Claude looked at it for a while, turned a few pages and put this blue leather folder on his desk: "Are these the smugglers you chose? They are all Nikantha..."

“No, they're not from Nikanca.” Bok Al shook his head: “If they hear you call them Nikanchas, they will call you a duel for life and death. To them, the Nikanchas are an insult to their name, they call themselves Pamigals..."

“The Pamigals? What difference does it make, they're all mixed...” Claude doesn't think so.

“Although they are all mixed, they are lighter in colour than the Nikancas.” Boquer said so much and began to feel thirsty, so he got up on the coffee table and brought back his bottle of fruit wine and glasses: “Unlike our overseas autonomous territories, where the colonies are more than 200 years old, it is normal for the Nikancas to be mixed many times and their skin tones to fade. Many lazy habits have also been changed after a long period of tutoring.

At the same time, these Pamigals have better qualities than the Nikanchas, at least they learn, they work hard to make money, and, like us, they have a sense of responsibility to their families. If you have any contact with them, you will find that they are not of the same race as the Nikancas. Just as they call themselves Pamigals in their native language, the Pamigals mean civilized, honest, credible and hard-won people. ”

“Are they all Pamigals?” Claude refers to the folder in blue leather.

Boquer drank a few drinks of fruit wine and shook his head: “No, the Pamigals are just what they call themselves, and more than two hundred years of colonial history have allowed them to recognize themselves as colonial nations, while inheriting historical contradictions and disputes among nations.

For example, these hybrids from several colonies in the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands call themselves Langstopks, meaning sea spoilers and warriors in the wind, who specialize in fishing and diving in the sea.

Mixed people from the colonies of the Kingdom of Riznia call themselves Russmans, meaning herders, or cattle herders. The hybrids of the Principality of Leriolo call themselves Gibugots, meaning the runners, the chasing of the bright ones, who worship the fire gods. Only the mixed race of the Kingdom of Morosik and the Principality of Federo claim to be Pamigals.

In addition, the mixed names of the Principality of Vassilico, the Kingdom of Cameron and the State Union of the City of Opsaro have several names, unlike those of the mixed ethnic groups in the colonies of those five countries.

It is interesting to note that, like the Duchy of Reliolo and the Union of the States of the City of Opsaro, there have been seven wars in the history of two countries, known in history as the Centennial Seventh World War. The two peoples were hostile to each other, and the colonial hybrids inherited this grudge. Both sides looked down on each other...

In contrast, the Kingdom of Riznia and the Kingdom of Cameron had three territorial conflicts in the colonies, which had resulted in a great deal of hatred among the Ruthmans in the colonies of the Kingdom of Riznia for the Doramanas and Marcharines in the colonies of the Kingdom of Cameron.

The Marcharines of the Kingdom of Cameron Lane are said to have stormed the colonies of the Kingdom of Riznia, killing and looting, causing massacres of tens of thousands of Russmans killed and injured. Then the Russmans in the colony of the Kingdom of Riznia retaliated, but they found the wrong person and rubbed the Doramanas to the ground, so the three peoples took their dead revenge... "

“It's complicated...” Claude exclaimed.

“That's true.” Bok Al nodded in favour and poured himself another glass of fruit wine: “In fact, I personally think that many of the disputes between peoples were deliberately provoked by the colonizers, and seriously speaking, they were all of the same race, just as the colonizers called them all Nikancas.

The smugglers in this blue folder belong in the eight West Coast colonies to the headstrong, well-respected guys, rich and powerful, with a high local reputation. Except for the fact that they are not the same colour as us, the rest are no different. Most importantly, they are all more ambitious, hoping to liberate their nation's independent statehood...

In the eight colonies of the West Coast, the attitude towards these mixed ethnic groups is rather discriminatory. Like Tezzy Singer on the first page. Nora Taganem, who had been sent back to school by his own father in the Kingdom of Morosik as a young man, eventually dropped out of school because of discrimination in colour. His father was a small nobleman, and after his death he inherited all his possessions and titles.

He was also considered a local celebrity in the colonies of the Kingdom of Morosik, but was crowded with a nickname Baron Mixed, sometimes known as Baron Bastard. That is why he wanted to build an independent Pamigali State, which is why smuggling money is rampant, with the intention of organizing private armaments. Asked me if the Autonomous Leader could support his nation-building plan, hoping that we would provide him with weapons and send military instructors to form an armed force sufficient to eliminate the colonial garrison... "

“Are all the smugglers in this folder ambitious?” Claude asked.

“Some are, some are not.” Bolognick thought about it and said, "Tezzy Singh. Nora Taganem was the only smuggler who questioned me about independent statehood, and I didn't really know him at the time, but I could only politely refuse to do so, but then I sent someone to investigate his fate and personal experiences secretly and found him to be the most suitable candidate, which is why I ranked him on the first page.

The latter candidates were some for personal vendettas, some for family feuds and some for ambitious adventurers. I'm not sure where they're going to end up. But it can be ascertained that they are all mixed races, deeply repugnant to the colonial status quo and with dreams of changing the world.

That's why I chose them all to be the target of this wildfire program. I believe that, with their assistance in the military field of arms, they have the capacity to launch a wave of national liberation and independent statehood in the eight colonies of the West Coast. Those eight countries, which can be tortured even if they fail to succeed, can no longer afford to impose prohibitions on our autonomous territories. ”

Claude stood up, walked around the office, and looked down for a moment, and said to Bok Al, "You're in charge of this wildfire project, and I'm sending you Blovik's Wolftooth Squad to work with you and keep you safe.

I can accommodate you with all the armaments and funding you need, but I don't want this wildfire program to shine for a moment. I hope to see these colonies on the West Coast truly liberated and independently founded, which would be in our self-governing best interest... "