Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 559 Strategic Deception

Baron Thompster is a renowned defensive expert in the Hicks kingdom and the backstage of the Association of Architects and Engineers, now forty-one years old. This time, he was sent to the Kingdom of Breot by King Machid III to help the Breots build a strong defensive front in the mountainous border areas against possible attacks by the army of the Overseas Autonomous Territories of the Kingdom of Ovieras.

Baron Thompster's father, a royal court nobleman belonging to the Hicks family, had a kinship with whom the Hicks family had a roundabout. The so-called nobility of the court means nobility dedicated to the royal family, without territory, but holding a position in the court and receiving remuneration, arguably the most trustworthy claw teeth of the royal family.

Baron Thompster's father hopes that his child will grow up to be a brilliant exploration expert, so that perhaps he can find a valuable mineral resource for his family, provide it with a constant wealth and be able to support it in acquiring a patrimonial territory. So when Baron Thompster was an adult, he threw him into the Royal School of Mining Engineering to study exploration and mining.

Only to disappoint Baron Thompster's father was that his child, while studying at the academy, was insanely obsessed with architectural engineering design and lost interest in his main profession. Three years later, when Baron Thompster graduated from the Academy, he became a well-known architect, and his knowledge of exploration and mining could only be described as ordinary or barely qualified.

What made Baron Thompster stand out was a simple set of defensive camp maps he designed for a fellow miner's mining base, which was also purchased by a noble gold mining base and constructed as shown. Four months later, when the gold mining base was attacked by bandits, seventeen miners hid in the warehouse facilities of the defensive camp, repelled the attack by nearly a hundred bandits and held on for half a month, paying only one death and four injuries, pending the arrival of reinforcements.

The incident struck the entire Kingdom of Hicks, and the map of the defensive camp designed by Baron Thompster attracted a lot of attention. A number of mining owners suddenly discovered that building mining bases according to this defensive camp map would increase safety and security performance several times. In the unlikely event of a bandit attack, it would be really difficult to capture all kinds of defensive installations in a defensive camp without powerful artillery. So this defensive camp map designed by Baron Thompster became standard for each mining base...

Baron Thompster is a little angry now, though, because the Breot lazy men who came to build the defensive front are a little lazy. This time Baron Thompster wanted to test the effect of his newly designed anti-artillery trench, so he was tough on the Breott workers who built it. But the labourers did not see him, a well-known defense expert in the Hicks kingdom, digging only one trench and it was done.

Even Baron Thompster's bitter mother told these labourers that construction on his newly designed drawings would guarantee a reduction in guard casualties after the outbreak of the war. But not even the Bréot officer in charge of managing these labors cared much. He told Baron Thompster that a trench would suffice. Brave Bréot soldiers would not shrink in the trenches as turtleheads. They would rather rush out into a physical battle with their enemies than hide in a thick bunker and put a cold gun through a small mouth, which was not the act of a warrior.

Baron Thompster was so annoyed that he couldn't convince these stubborn Breiots. In fact, he wanted to lay a thick clay bunker over the trenches, which would prevent enemy bombs from hurting soldiers in the trenches. But the Breots didn't want to, and they thought that a trench without a roof would make it easier for them to strike and fight back, and the air in the whole trench would be cloudy and breathless after they put the bunker on, while still feeling very depressed...

Baron Thompster's impatient decision to go to the chief engineer's office in the Kingdom of Breot, but halfway through, he was called in by his companions. This companion came with him to the front of the Kingdom of Breot, Captain Richards, and Baron Thompster found Captain Richards in mud all over his face, but he was excited. Baron Thompster was curious to ask what he'd done and how he'd become such a mess.

Captain Raches was very excited to say that he had scouted to the border of the Kingdom of Menbamak, hidden in a mud, stayed for more than two hours, avoided a patrol of the camp of the Kingdom of Auvellas opposite, and finally found that the vast enemy camp at the border between the two countries was an empty camp, and that the enemy garrison at the camp was only a coalition of nobles from those territories, not a Legion of Thunder from the Overseas Autonomous Territories. He found that most of the camps ahead were empty tents and showed no sign of being inhabited.

It follows that the enemy will not attack the Kingdom of Breot at all, it is simply a tactic to strike back and forth. The Legion of Thunder attacked the Kingdom of Menbamak, most likely in an attempt to redeploy the strength of the Kingdom of Hicks in the coastal zone to the Kingdom of Breot, relieving them of the pressure and resistance to landing. In fact, it would be easier to capture a seaport and land a battle than to open the road to the Kingdom of the Hicks...

Baron Thompster was somewhat disappointed that if Captain Raches' reconnaissance was real, then it would be futile and useless for him to design and build that defensive front. Perhaps the Breiots have detected the same situation as Captain Reichs, so they feel a little relaxed these days and unwilling to bother building that defensive front again. It's easy to understand just because they're hiding it is likely that this is the opportunity to get a lot of free arms assistance from the Kingdom of Hicks...

In fact, the Army Department of the Kingdom of Hicks is also very concerned about the Overseas Autonomous Territory. After learning that the Legion of Thunder swept through the Kingdom of Bamak and united the coalition of nobles to annihilate the Nasserly Kingdom and the Duchy of Kanas' Republican Army, which the Kingdom of Hicks supported behind it, the King of Hicks rang the alarm bell and raised their readiness. After all, they were still in a state of war with the Kingdom of Auvellas. Whenever they were attacked by the Legion of Thunder, it was no accident.

That is also why Machid III received a letter of request from King Avitre I of the Kingdom of Breot for assistance in armaments from a large number of parties. Normally, the Kingdom of Hicks has always been wary of the disloyalty of these proxy states, especially the Breot kingdom, which is the most powerful of all proxy states. And the Kingdom of Hicks has never truly conquered this country, and it has been with great strength that it has been able to subdue this untamed little brother and make him obey.

But the Kingdom of Breot is less threatened than the Legion of Thunder of the Overseas Autonomous Territories. Now that Avettelli I has volunteered to resist the invasion of the Overseas Autonomous Territories, it is natural for the Kingdom of Hicks to encourage and support them. In fact, Machid III had lost both the Kingdom of Baghdad and the Overseas Autonomous Military Region, which would have truly solved the two major problems of the Hicks kingdom.

Senior officers of the Royal Hicks Army Department are not all buckets of food either, and the Second Eastern War has made senior officers of the Hicks aware of the power of the Thunder Corps. They believe that even in the frontal field, a division of the Thunder Corps is enough to defeat one of their standing legions. It would be preferable for the Kingdom of Hicks to conclude a truce peace agreement with the Kingdom of Ovilas to put an end to the war. This will enable us to concentrate our human and material resources, develop the latest weapons and equipment, and await future opportunities to seek revenge and hatred from the Kingdom of Ovilas and the Overseas Autonomous Territories.

Unfortunately, this wise proposal was opposed by the paranoid King McGidd III, who believed that the Kingdom of Hicks and the Kingdom of Orvilas could be transported only one or two corps at a time by sea, two countries apart by land. As long as the Autonomous Territory dares to disembark the Legion of Thunder, he dares to concentrate his entire army against the enemies disembarking.

Machid III did not believe that the eight standing regiments of the Kingdom were no match for the Legion of Thunder and the Legion of Rock, which had been sent ashore by the Autonomous Territorial Regiment, and that only the piles could have killed them. As long as the enemy lands, the Eight Standing Legions of the Kingdom of Hicks will be able to recruit recruits to form ten or twenty reserves immediately if they are not enough to kill them...

Hopefully, the senior officers of the Royal Knavy are helpless, and meeting such a king can only be blamed for their bad luck. His Majesty, however, insisted that they should not disobey the wishes of Machid III and had to fill the gap by building defensive installations at five coastal seaports in an effort to build a copper wall of iron to face the threat at sea.

As soon as it became known that the Thunder Regiment of the Overseas Autonomous Territory had swept the Kingdom of Bamak, the Ministry of the Army of the Kingdom of Hicks organized a sandbox deduction, hoping to conclude that it was a sign that the Autonomous Territory was going to attack the Kingdom of Hicks in large numbers, or that the Furious Army had gone too far to extinguish the Thunder Regiment.

And for the first time, a letter of request from King Avettelli I of the Kingdom of Breot brought into dispute the Ministry of the Army of the Kingdom of Hicks. A number of high-ranking Hicks officers believe that the autonomous military region is likely to launch an attack on the Kingdom of Breot and that it will not be until this neighbouring country has been occupied that they will launch an attack and raid against the Kingdom of Hicks.

The evidence of these high-ranking officers of the Hicks Kingdom is that the Thunder Corps is a light cavalry corps, a good long mobile raid, and that only land combat can fully unleash the strength of the light cavalry corps. In the case of maritime transport, it is not possible, on the basis of transport capacity, for the autonomous territorial military region to transport soldiers while also placing equipped horses on board, with a maximum of a small number of horses. Then the Legion of Thunder undoubtedly gave up its strengths to fight off positions, which was the most unwise option.

In addition, after sweeping across the Kingdom of Bamak, the Legion of Thunder set up a large camp on the border adjacent to the Kingdom of Breot to accommodate four or five regiments. Combined with intelligence from latent operatives in the Gulf of the North, two or three regiments of overseas autonomous cruise convoys were transported during this time under the escort of the Ironclad fleet, indicating that the next target of their attack was the Kingdom of Breot.

But insisting that the Overseas Autonomous Territory employ maritime raids, convoys landing from a seaport city, and then higher-ranking officers of the Hicks Kingdom sniffing at the so-called Autonomous Territory plot to attack the Hicks Kingdom by land. They considered that the land faction had ignored the most important point, that the border between the Kingdom of Breot and the Kingdom of Menbamak was entirely mountainous and that light cavalry was equally difficult to use and did not play a significant role.

As for the road between the mountains, it can easily be blocked and destroyed, together with the defensive position of the mountains, the Legion of Thunder will also have to step down and take over a hill before repairing the road in the middle of the mountains. The Breots, on the other hand, are courageous mountain fighters who do not allow the enemy to pass easily through their land. To attack the Kingdom of Hicks. If the Legion of Thunder is to protect its logistical supply corridors, it must first occupy the Kingdom of Breot and eliminate the threat of the Breots in the mountains...

In contrast to the Bréote's endless entanglement in the mountains, it is more convenient and quicker to capture a seaport city along the coast of the Kingdom of Hicks, without at least adding an enemy to itself. So these high-ranking maritime Hicks officers have determined that the battalion on the border of the Kingdom of Breot is likely to be the enemy's plan. The aim is nothing more than to break up the Hicks kingdom or cause domestic panic or something...

For these high-ranking officers of the Hicks Army, the most painful thing is that the initiative of war is not in their own hands, but in the hands of the enemy. Now the Legion of Thunder only occupies the kingdom of Menbamak, setting up a large camp on the border adjacent to the kingdom of Breot to allow the kingdom of Breot and the kingdom of Hicks chicken dogs to jump without peace.

The Kingdom of Breot has entered a state of readiness to defend itself against surprise attacks by the enemy. The Kingdom of Hicks similarly sounded the alarm bell, and the troops were cautious, and the officers strangled their brains to envisage the manner and location of the enemy's attack. Machid III also wanted to recruit new recruits to form a few reserves immediately, so that the King's ministers were still sober and stopped his impulse.

Simply put, if the Legion of Thunder in the Autonomous Territory has no intention of launching an offensive, what use would it be for the Kingdom of Hicks to recruit new recruits to form these reserves, just a blank waste of military spending? Now the Hicks kingdom says the bad news is that it's like a rat stuck in a windbox, and there's no way out. There is no need to mention it at sea. Without the Neptune fleet, troops cannot be transported out and sea routes have been sealed off, unless the Kingdom of Hicks can build an Ironclad fleet that rivals the Autonomous Territory.

The neighborhood is also the brother-in-law, and there is no rival in trying to wage war. Unless the Kingdom of Breot agrees to let go of the Avenue so that the troops of the Kingdom of Hicks can attack the Legion of Thunder that occupies the Kingdom of Menbamak. But Machid III did not have the guts to do so, and his generals did not approve of doing so. With the strength of weapons and equipment to fight and the generation of enemies, he took the initiative to launch an attack. That was not bravery, but death, and it was a tribute to the enemy.

At that point, the Hicks Army Department finally received a report from Captain Reichs on the front lines of the Kingdom of Breot, which was not the result of an individual's reconnaissance, but a joint report from more than a dozen Hicks officers assigned to the Kingdom of Breot.

The Hicks officers, led by Captain Reichs, repeatedly reconnoitred enemy battalions on the border over the next half month and captured several isolated enemy soldiers, and learned from their statements that the Legion of Thunder had long returned to the northern Gulf region. And the barracks on the border are indeed empty camps designed to deter the troops of the Kingdom of Breot from intervening in the fact that the kingdom of Menbamak is occupied by a coalition of nobles...

It was a false alarm, and the Shipping Pie won it all. In disgrace and anger, the Lutherans put forward a proposal to allow the Royal Army, through the Kingdom of Breot, to take the initiative to attack the Alliance of Noble Lords of the Kingdom of Ovillas in the Kingdom of Bamak, after winning, to attack the Nasseri region and help Nasseri to return to the kingdom in exile...

But this proposal was soon rejected by Machid III, who knew whether their return to the North Bay was true or false, as these land factions had said, the Legion of Thunder was a light rider, and the intelligence agents there had not sent any definitive information. If this is a plot to lure a snake out of a hole, then the proactive Hicks army is likely to fall into a trap laid by the enemy and face a perishing crisis.

Instead, the officers and engineering and architectural specialists sent to the Breot kingdom could return. It is also distressing to recall the large quantities of arms and ammunition and other assistance delivered to the Kingdom of Breot. He had no intention of bringing back aid, but that did not prevent him from trying to use the Kingdom of Breot as cannon ash.

Machid III then wrote to Avettelli I requesting that the Kingdom of Breot send troops to help defend itself against enemy attacks when the Hicks coast was attacked by autonomous military districts. Machid III was satisfied that Avettelli I had responded to his request and promised to send at least two corps to assist in the battle.

On 23 July, Hicksmen lurking in the North Bay sent a succession of intelligence reports that the Overseas Autonomous Military Regions had assembled more than 300 sailboats in the North Bay, along with nearly 100 sailboats and a fleet of 28 Ironclad warships. The Thunder Corps, the newly formed Storm Corps, as well as the flag of the Rock Corps and a Reserve Corps, appeared in the Northern Bay Battalion, with an estimated total strength of more than 400,000 horses.

Due to the heightened security of the camp and the inaccessibility of the idle crowd, the agents could not get close to the spy. In the pub in the capital city of Campaster, there are always grassroots officers from drunken autonomous military districts who can tell from their leaked gossip that the autonomous military districts have decided to launch a landing battle against the Kingdom of Hicks, but it is not clear which harbour city they are after...

On 11 August, the Ironclad fleet of the Overseas Autonomous Territories appeared in the waters of the Kingdom of Six, sinking all Six fishing vessels, seizing merchant and cargo vessels and shelling the islands of Minsk and Chimbak in the Six Seas, leaving for three days.

On August 23, the overseas self-governing Ironclad fleet reappeared in the waters of the Kingdom of Hicks, this time marching to occupy Minsk and Kimbak.