Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 564: Prime Minister Blankett's Proposal

“Reporting, Marshal, this is a message from General Berklin, just received from Hawk.” A captain officer of the Communications Office handed Claude the gray note in his hand.

When Claude took the note, he saw eight words written on it: draining and decaying. Guan Er couldn't help but smile and the Thunder Legion seemed to be progressing smoothly, otherwise Berklin wouldn't be so bragging in front of himself.

Claude was on his way to Skovia County with three mountain regiments led by King Avettelli I of the Kingdom of Breot, along with troops from the headquarters of the Legion of Thunder. I have to say, getting used to the rapid manoeuvre of the Light Rider Corps and marching with the Pure Infantry Corps feels like a snail crawling slowly.

The four main riders of the Legion of Thunder have already launched a fiery offensive against the enemy's defensive front, but the three mountain regiments are slowly moving forward in the back. It is a very good process that 170,000 people and horses can catch 30 miles a day. The first two days can only travel more than 20 miles a day. It seems that the city of Hidepath cannot be reached for ten and a half days.

Not surprisingly, Avettelli I was ashamed to explain to Claude that officers and soldiers of these regiments in the mountains were able to make at least forty or fifty miles a day, but marching on the flat felt very strange and that there was always all sorts of trouble that delayed the journey. Most of the troops were in flatbuses, so they were able to reach Wangjing in more than a decade. Now those carts are used to load seized grass and other supplies, and everyone walks on two legs, slowing down all at once.

“No organization, no discipline!” This is what Colonel Boquer gave to the three mountain regiments of the Kingdom of Breot, pointing out the bloody problems of the army of the Kingdom of Breot.

The Rock Regiment of Overseas Autonomous Territories is also an infantry regiment, but a long march can take you 50 or 60 miles a day, and an emergency march can even reach more than 80 miles. The Rock Corps, however, is a professional professional army whose level of training and technical tactics exceeds that of the armies of the Farea continent. And now the three mountain regiments of the Breot kingdom, in the course of their march, are the normal appearance of the armies of nations.

Around six or seven o'clock in the morning, cook breakfast slowly, nothing more than a large bowl of porridge or soup with two slices of black bread. Pack up the camp books and everything. It's almost 9: 00 and 10: 00. Then start off in the shouting of the lead officers. It didn't keep much of a queue, a large group of people gathered to move forward, so excited that they could sing a few small folk notes. If they were in a bad mood, they would scold and walk for a while, and a few people would find a place to sit down and make up for themselves. This is a very common scenario.

Such scenarios can be seen everywhere, and ordinary officers do not care about them, as long as they are able to drive back to their own troops at night. Colonel Boquer told Claude that in the three mountain regiments of the Kingdom of Breot, it was common for fathers and sons, brothers and sisters to be in one regiment, often combining relatives, friends, homeland and so on into one unit to ensure combat power, so soldiers lacked discipline because a violation of the law was often a group of people, blaming them would also provoke a whole army of protests...

The case of the three mountain regiments, like the Kingdom of Breot, cannot be said to be defenceless. Armies and generals like this, they're going crazy or they're going to have a lot of fighting power. But for a highly specialized, organized professional army like the Thunder Legion or the Rock Legion, that's what happens when you get crushed. This is also why the Kingdom of Breot is powerless to resist the Kingdom of Hicks. Even though the army of the Kingdom of Hicks does not have the strength of an autonomous military region, it can still be done by rubbing the Kingdom several times on the ground...

Avettelli I and Prince Eksdore, who followed Claude as his deputy, were very jealous of the ban on the orders of the Legion of Thunder, hoping that the military reform would follow the example of the Overseas Autonomous Territories in its entirety. Claude then decided to do them a big favor, staying a few days at the Skovia County border and regrouping the three mountain regiments of the Breot kingdom.

Of course, Claude had to stop the march, and in addition to the integration of the three mountain regiments of the Kingdom of Breot, one reason was that Prime Minister Blancat had finally arrived to discuss with Claude the participation of the Royal Army in the war. Over the past 20 days and nights, he was exhausted, and when he saw Claude's face and greeted him, he fell asleep snoring on the ground and made Claude cry.

Prime Minister Blanchard slept for about 14 hours and woke up the next night. He first asked to see Claude and then had a big meal and drink in Claude's big book, which was why he told Claude what he wanted. What Prime Minister Blancat meant was that the Royal Army would also be involved in this war against the Kingdom of the Hicks, and at the very least, the Kingdom's army would have to show up inside the Kingdom of the Hicks...

The Red Dragon Corps, stationed in the Royal City of Polyvisia in the Nasseri region, is ready to be assembled and ready to appear in the Kingdom of Hicks in only half a month. Likewise, the Red Dragon Corps can follow Claude's command, but Prime Minister Blancat hopes that the Red Dragon Corps will be stationed in the city of St. Hiplian, King of the Hicks. Only in this way will it be possible to demonstrate that the Kingdom of Orvillas is not a soy sauce player in this war...

Claude welcomed the idea that the Royal Army wanted to get involved in this war. Because now he has the Legion of Thunder and the Legion of Storm as the main force of battle, with a half legion of aristocratic coalitions and three mountain legions of the Kingdom of Breot. Without commenting on the strength of the coalition of nobles, it is difficult to say whether the three Mountain Legions of the Kingdom of Breot are able to sustain themselves at a critical juncture.

As for the eight Hicks Return Regiments, maintaining local order was a good idea, but the problem was that the eight Hicks Return Regiments had the primary task of migrating their families and relatives to overseas self-government. Let them be the mainstay of the battle, and Claude doubts whether these Hicks prisoners will retain their strength and determination to make progress in their homeland.

After all, now that the Overseas Autonomous Territories are invaders, the eight Hicks Return Regiments say the worst part is the Fake Army, and Claude naturally knows how powerful the Fake Army can be. Even though all eight Hicks Return Corps officers and soldiers have been given a way back to emigrate their families to overseas autonomous territories, Claude is still very suspicious and worried that they will touch the fish and fool around with the past...

The Kingdom of Hicks is large, with fifty-three local counties and the Wangjing region, and is still the dominant power of the North. This time, the Overseas Autonomous Territory carefully set up a trap that lured McKidd III of the Kingdom of Hicks and the Minister of the Kingdom to hook him up, and then the Thunder Corps and Storm Corps of the Autonomous Territory beat Wang Jing straight to the ground and took out their old nest.

Just because the city of St. Hiplian in Wangjing fell so fast, the situation in the Kingdom of Hicks is now dragonless and most local counties have not responded. And the reason Claude ordered Commander Albert's Storm Regiment and the four Hicks Return Regiments to immediately conduct a mapping operation in the city of San Hiplian in Wangjing, and to lead the Thunder Regiment against the Hicks Army assembled along the southern coast was to take advantage of the enemy's failure to react, so as to eliminate the other party's vitality and reduce the threat to the other side.

Resistance armies and organizations in the city of San Hiprian in Wangjing must be eliminated at the outset in order not to evacuate Wangjing to launch a popular resistance to the invasion of the overseas autonomous military region. Eliminating the large army build-up of the Standing Army of the Kingdom of Hicks in the southern coastal zone will, in turn, have a deterrent effect on those local counties and deter them from resisting.

Seriously, the four local counties where the Breot kingdom goes to Wang Jing are controlled by the four Hicks Return Division. Next, Wang Jing District and Wang Jing San Xiprian City fell into the hands of the Storm Regiment, and were conducting an inventory of Wang Jing with the four subsequent Hicks Return Regiments.

In addition, there is Dartmouth County, which was looted and looted by the Legion of Thunder, and Skovia County, where the Legion of Thunder is launching an offensive. Thirty-three counties in the Hicks kingdom and the Wang Jing district, Claude was able to say that he had control of six counties and one Wang Jing district. It's just that Dartmouth County in these six local counties has been scratched clean, the oil water has been abandoned, and the other county is in battle, and when this battle is over, it's impossible for anyone to tell what will happen to Skovia County...

Claude therefore welcomed Prime Minister Blanchard's rush to say that the kingdom was joining the war. In particular, the Red Dragon Corps has replaced the new type of rifle manufactured by the Autonomous Leadership Region, and the combat power can be said to be stronger. Claude was certainly pleased that he was also willing to take command of Claude. His men are now lacking the armed forces that can stand in the way of one side, allowing the Red Dragon Legion to help defend itself on one side.

But Prime Minister Blancat's insignificant offer to have the Red Dragon Corps stationed in the city of San Hiplian in Wangjing was immediately rejected by Claude. Are you kidding me? It's really hard for him to think of putting the city of San Xiprian in Wangjing at the Red Dragon Army. Claude despised Prime Minister Blanchard and said that we were only conducting a checklist until the end of this checklist before paying off the royal city's belongings. How can such fat make you share...

After the Storm Regiment seized the city of San Hiplian in Wang Jing, the reserves collected in the Royal Hicks Inner Treasury alone amounted to 17 million gold kroner, not counting the huge amount of goods collected by the treasury. No wonder that Machid III, after the repeated tragic defeats of the Kingdom of Hicks in the Autonomous Territory, continued to face endless hostilities with the Overseas Autonomous Territories. As you can imagine, the wealth of the Hicks kingdom, Claude's idea of plotting a fortune to kill him was the right one.

Prime Minister Blancat was also anxious to be rejected by Claude, who asked where Claude was planning to place the Red Dragon Corps. Claude spread out the map of the Kingdom of Hicks and gave Prime Minister Blancat an analysis of the current situation. At present, the noble coalition of the Dukes of Red Dragon and the Marquis of the Lions has three divisions of nearly 100,000 troops, covering the ten empty western counties of the Kingdom of Hicks. The remaining eleven northern counties, the remaining nine eastern counties, eight southern counties, and fifteen central counties require a large number of local counties to sweep, and the Red Dragon Corps can choose its own targets.

Claude's Thunder Regiment and the three Mountain Regiments of the Kingdom of Bourgeoisie will then deal with several standing regiments of the Kingdom of Hicks assembled along the coast of the eight southern counties, on the one hand to remove the active armed forces of the Kingdom of Hicks and, on the other, to seize several seaport cities. Families and relatives of eight Hicks Return Corps officers and soldiers are moving to overseas autonomous territories to dock transport fleets in safer seaport cities...

Now that the Allied aristocracy has chosen the ten western counties, let the Red Dragon Corps choose the eleven northern counties… Prime Minister Blancat stared at the map for half a day and made his decision. Nine counties in the east and fifteen counties in the centre have been captured by Claude's Hicks Return Division in two local counties, followed by eight counties in the south. So Prime Minister Blancat thought that if the Red Dragon Regiment wanted to be alone, it would be the same as the coalition of nobles, choosing an autonomous military region would not take care of the eleven northern counties.

Claude hesitated for a moment or shook his head and told Prime Minister Blanchard that it would be better not to choose the eleven northern counties, where there were too many variables and, if possible, the Autonomous Territory would even abandon the eleven northern counties. Because there's a Grand Duke of the North in 11 counties. The Duke of Hi-Friot sits in the town, while two Hicks Standing Army regiments are on their way to the North to join him.

“It's said that this Pilag... The Grand Duke of North Feriot also has a 50,000-strong Border Guard Corps, a private armed corps belonging to the Feriot family, which guards four counties in the North against the highland barbarians and is very powerful.” Claude pointed to the eleven northern counties on the map and told Prime Minister Blanchard.

“Now, with those two Legions of Clyde and Jessica, and the armed guards of the counties everywhere, it's easy to pull out 450,000 men and women. In addition, eight counties in the eleventh county of the North are situated in the highlands and the terrain is not good for us, so we hope that the Grand Duke of the North will defend himself without actively participating in the dramatic changes in the Kingdom of Hicks. ”

After listening to Claude, Chancellor Blanchard, that explains why Claude was worried. The Grand Duke of the North, Hi-Feliot, is extraordinary and immeasurable. Nor did Claude hide it, telling Prime Minister Blancat clearly that the Grand Duke of the North was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Army during the Second Eastern War.

In other words, he saw a bad situation in the latter part of the battle in Polovicia, taking more than 100,000 Hicks wounded and mutilated and fleeing the pursuit of the Legion of Thunder and fleeing back to the Kingdom of Hicks, to the detriment of Claude's success. To be honest, Claude wasn't afraid to compete again with the Grand Duke of the North, but now he doesn't have time and energy to get involved with the Grand Duke of the North. It is imperative that the victorious fruit be included in the bag as soon as possible, when all the dust is settled, and perhaps the Grand Duke of the North will be there for a while.

“My suggestion is for the Red Dragon Corps to come and sweep away the remaining dozen counties in the centre. The Storm Corps will suppress the city of San Hiplian and the Wangjing area in Wangjing. The situation in Wangjing will not be stable for three months. The Red Dragon Regiment swept through the central counties that we couldn't take care of, in case anything tricky happened, we could still take care of each other with the Storm Regiment..." Claude said.

Prime Minister Blanchard thought about it and nodded to Claude's offer. But then he asked, "With Machid III dead, what do the Autonomous Regions think of the future of the Kingdom of Hicks? ”

Claude shook his head and now all he wanted to do was calm the situation down, let the eight Hicks Return Division officers and soldiers take their families and relatives to the Overseas Autonomous Territories, and then take all the money and supplies looted by the Kingdom of Hicks back to the North Bay, leaving a mess for whoever came out to clean it up. In any case, the Kingdom of Hicks has been so connected that it will not be able to regain its vitality for twenty or thirty years and will no longer be able to pose a threat to the Kingdom of Orvilas and the Overseas Autonomous Territories.

Instead, Prime Minister Blanchard laughed, militarily he was not Claude's opponent, but politically he had more experience than Claude. In his view, Claude's disposition was a little too childish, as if the kid was playing house wine and messing everything up and leaving without packing his ass and finally getting beaten up by his parents before he learned his lesson.

“Why not consider dismantling the Kingdom of Hicks?” Prime Minister Blanchard laughed, “Like the Grand Duke of the North you just mentioned, you can totally entice him to establish the Kingdom of the Principality of the North independently or something. And the proxy countries around the Hicks kingdom, since you can get Breott to reclaim the lost land and give it four more counties in the east, it's perfectly possible for another proxy country to reclaim the occupied frontier counties from the Hicks kingdom...

That way, the Hicks Kingdom's layout can be a big circle short, and then the counties in the south-central region, you can raise up a few Hicks nobles who are counting on you, and let them take over a few counties and build their own spheres of influence, independence or coalition statehood, whatever. Even if the troops of your autonomous military region were to withdraw in the future, there would still be no tranquillity in the territory of the Kingdom of Hicks.

As long as the forces of the future on this land are disputed, the less likely they will be to threaten our kingdom and your overseas autonomous territories, and even rely on the armed deterrence of your autonomous military region to sustain their forces. That's a lot better than your idea of just taking a handful. Doing what you do will only make the Overseas Autonomous Territories the object of hatred for all Hicks, like I said, the people of Hicks will only hate those separatists... "

Claude slapped himself on the forehead with some shame. For two generations, he spent too long in the army forgetting the wisdom of his ancestors of previous generations. There are too many examples to cope with the current situation: proximity, differentiation hitting, annexation erosion, grandson warfare, thirty-six schemes, etc. But in my head, I simply thought of getting one and walked away, which also required Prime Minister Blanchard to remind me to wake up...