Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 573: Two Letters and the Front of Defense

“... I don't know what to say, but I'm sure the gods of war are blessing our autonomous military region. Claude, you know why the Grand Duke of the North Pilag... Has the Duke of Hi-Friot been quiet? Just got word from the North, that Pilag. The Duke of Hi-Friot has been in his family estate for the past six months with injuries..." Colonel Boquer said.

“Injury control?” Claude looked at his teenager friend with confusion, maybe this is the Grand Duke of the North, Pilag. The Duke of Hi-Friot sits by the true cause of the fall of the Kingdom of Hicks.

“Yes." Colonel Bockard nodded, knowing perfectly well that Claude had a problem with this Pilag. The taboo of the Duke of Hi-Feliot, after all, the Grand Duke of the North, who served as the supreme commander of the Allied army, saw through Claude's plot later in the Battle of Polovicia. Early evacuation cost Claude a fortune. In Claude's heart, this Grand Duke of the North of Hicks, with such a keen battlefield intuition, is his true opponent for this attack on the Kingdom of Hicks.

Just what Claude didn't expect was that the Thunder Corps and the Storm Corps ravaged the Kingdom of Hicks, overthrowing the city of St. Hiplian in Wangjing, sweeping eight counties in the south and nine counties in the east, and provoking the obsession of the surrounding client nations with the Kingdom of Hicks. Half a year has passed, but the Grand Duke of Hicks is like a shrugged turtle, and there has been little movement in the North. The Autonomous Territory, which was not staffed in the northern highlands of the Kingdom of Hicks, had to be temporarily dispatched until now, when verifiable news had returned.

“This is Pilag. The news of the injuries sustained by Duke Feliot, believed to be unknown even to the vast majority of the nobility of the Kingdom of Hicks, was said to have been sealed off by the Feliot family from the very first moment in order to prevent its discovery by that Machid III. Because this Machid III once dealt with an old nobleman who had a problem with him, summoned him to Wang Kyung during his illness, and ran back and forth eventually killed him...

Now this Grand Duke of the North has almost recovered from his wounds for six months, so their family members relaxed a little, and the Kingdom of Hicks has been attacked by our autonomous military region. It is hard to say that there is no future. The lower mouth of the manor of the estate has been much loose, inadvertently revealing the secret that this Grand Duke of the North has been wounded for more than six months. Our agent hooked up with a waitress in the Ferriot family estate who told him the secret when they were in love.

The maid said that the Grand Duke of the North had been deprived of the Royal Army post by the insane Machid III since his last withdrawal, and had lost his rank as a marshal, so that the Grand Duke of the North could go home and close his door. Just before our Autonomous Territory was ready to attack the Kingdom of Hicks, a civil unrest erupted in a barbarian country around the North. The Grand Duke of the North led the family border regiment in chaos and bad luck. He was shot in the right chest by a hidden barbarian before the end of the war...

Because the bullets used by the barbarian gunmen were all soaked in venom and manure, the wound of the shot Grand Duke of the North soon became inflamed and almost never recovered. Later, a mysterious doctor came and swallowed up all the rotting meat on the side of the wound with a strange meat bug. The bug spit out water to form a mucous membrane to seal the bleeding wound, which saved the Grand Duke of the North. It took more than six months to recover the injuries due to suffering too much... "

No wonder the Grand Duke of the North hasn't moved much. The two Hicks kingdoms are just stuck in the North, and what's his name? The Grand Duke of the Sunset River was able to assemble more than 100,000 civilian armed men claiming 300,000 were transferred to the ten western counties to fight for the land and fly flags as kings. If the Grand Duke of the North were all right, maybe he would have suppressed the Grand Duke of the Sunset River long ago and wouldn't have let him leave the eleven northern counties...

This, of course, may be the result of the deliberate letting go of the Grand Duke of the North, who sent the Grand Duke of the Sunset River out to the ten western counties in an attempt to see if that was the end of the offensive line in the autonomous military region or to sweep the entire Hicks kingdom. After six months of recovery, he should also think about the current situation. After all, this is about the future of the Grand Duke of the North...

But anyway, the Grand Duke of the North has lost his lead, and he is now in a situation where he has no choice but to make progress. Claude didn't want to provoke the Grand Duke of the North, he had to part ways with him. In his view, the final attack on the remaining six counties in the west and the reunification of the last members of the Hicks Return Corps to emigrate to the overseas autonomous territories would bring the perfect exit to an end, without the need to sacrifice the precious lives of the soldiers to make hard contact with the Grand Duke of the North and avoid them.

“So, I write two letters, and you find two reliable people to be messengers and send them to the Grand Duke of the North and the Grand Duke of the Sunset River, who occupies the West.” Claude said to Colonel Boquer. If he could, he wouldn't even attack the remaining six counties in the west. Anyway, the Grand Duke of Sunset River also has more than 100,000 men and horses, plus six local county guard armies, there are still more than 300,000 troops, and the storm army will have to pay a lot of casualties to attack...

Colonel Boquer nodded and waited for Claude to finish his two letters as he slowly sipped the fruit wine in the glass. Claude, give it to this Pilag. The letter written by the Duke of Hi-Friot was nothing more than a long time ago, and then spoke of his own bitterness in attacking the Kingdom of Hicks, meaning that a paranoid king like McGidd III had to do something about it. Otherwise, neither the Kingdom of Auveras nor the Overseas Autonomous Territories would be at peace in the decades to come, and peace could be achieved only if this Machid III was resolved.

Just now Colonel Bockard said that all news of the injury to the Grand Duke of the North had to be kept secret from MacGruber III, so Claude believed that the Grand Duke of the North would not be loyal to the Hicks royal family, and it was clear whether Claude was telling the truth or not. It is true that such a paranoid king would have a headache for the next prince, and it should be said that this Machid III took his own toll. If he had admitted earlier that he had failed to sign a truce peace agreement, then Claude would not have fought for the Kingdom of the Hicks, then this flight would have been avoided.

In his letter, Claude stated that he would not contribute to the eleven northern counties because the Hicks Return Regiment officers and soldiers who wanted to emigrate to the overseas autonomous territories were not from the northern region. Many of those rebel lords were in the western, central, eastern and southern regions, and after their defeat, Machid III punitively recruited young men from their territory to form the Expeditionary Army of the Nubian Continent to wage that colonial war with the autonomous military region.

If the Kingdom of Hicks had allowed those Hicks prisoners released by the autonomous military region a few years ago to return home to visit their families, then perhaps the war would not have taken place. However, McKeed III declared that the prisoners who returned to visit their families were rebels in the kingdom and hung them, eventually provoking the anger of more than half a million Hicks prisoners living in the overseas autonomous territories.

Yet the previous year, McKeed III had witnessed the extraordinary performance of the Hicks Volunteer Corps formed by the Autonomous Territory in the war on the West Coast and had taken ill intentions to use the two Hicks Volunteer Corps for colonization of the Hicks Kingdom on the West Coast, sending envoys to lobby them against the Gods, which had forced Claude to decide to implement the Hicks Kingdom's offensive plan and put an end to that distress.

Claude was blunt in his letter as to why the Autonomous Territory had attacked the Kingdom of Hicks, and he promised that the Autonomous Territory would not occupy an inch of the territory of the Kingdom of Hicks and would withdraw after completing the mission of the Hicks Return Division to join the reunified immigrant overseas autonomous territories, so he hoped that there would be no misunderstanding with the Ferriots. The Autonomous Territory will not attack the eleven counties in the North, and hope that the Grand Duke of the North will not leave the eleven counties in the North, otherwise there will be a misunderstanding of the conflict and all that you don't want to see...

The envelope was sealed and stamped with a wax lid, and the letter was finished. Then there was another letter to the Grand Duke of the Sunset River, which Claude had nothing to say. He offered only one bargain, stating that the remaining six local counties in the west were the target of the next strategy of the Autonomous Territory. If the Grand Duke of the Sunset River did not resist surrender, Claude could hand over Wang Jing San Xiprian City and Wang Jing District to him before he left...

I am sure that the Grand Duke of the Sunset River will reconsider that the city of St. Hiplian in Wangjing and the district of Wangjing have always been the essence of the Kingdom of Hicks, not as remote as the ten western counties. And this Grand Duke of the Sunset River, who is also a member of the Hicks Royal Family, can call himself Orthodox and rebuild the Kingdom of the Hicks after occupying the city of San Hiplian in Wangjing. Of course, other forces are willing not to obey him.

Claude had no choice but to offer such conditions, as he had intended to transfer the remaining 10 local counties in the centre to a separatist force, along with the city of San Hiplian in Wangjing and the district of Wangjing. The problem, however, is that the local armed wing, FNI, chosen by the Military Intelligence Department, is somewhat untouchable. This organization called the Front de défense nationale (FNI), which, to put it bluntly, is a pseudo-army organization that relies on autonomous territorial military districts, has also been established to maintain public order in local towns and cities.

The Front de défense nationale was headed by a Territorial Baron, who had been the first to join the Autonomous Territory. Although he is a member of the nobility of the territory of the Kingdom of Hicks, their family belongs to the aristocracy of the territory, the poor family has no new clothes, they wear patches, and they have to lay down their own fields. The soldiers who went to capture the nobility of the local territory went to his house, looking left to right can't really see that he is like a nobleman of the territory, looks poorer than the average urban inhabitant...

But this Baron Rooks was a wise man, and the first time he went to the Autonomous Territory, he became a leading party. Starting with Westmen County, the first central county along the way, he carried the Thunder Corps officers and soldiers to knock out all the land nobility and local officials along the way, as well as the wealthy merchants and the indigenous gentlemen, all without a leak in the net, even knowing how much property there was in these captured homes.

One of the leading major officers was curious to ask how he knew so well the details of these rich men that the baron of the Territory spoke of tears. Starting with his father, he drowned and ventured out looking for a dream to make a fortune in the mine, then mortgaged everything at home and borrowed a debt. As a result, they were fooled. The mountain they bought was a white egg, had no mineral resources, and put a heavy debt on their family...

When his father was angry before his death, their three brothers, for the humility of the title, did not want to be the baron of the territory, the territory had been mortgaged, who inherited the title who was responsible for the family debt, and as a result, he was unluckily signed, and thus became a baron of the skinhead territory, besides this title, there was the outstanding debt. The reason why he borrowed money from the wealthy people in towns and cities along the way was clear.

Speaking of which, he was also smart, it was clear that the debt owed by the family was too large and that interest was the biggest expense for him every year. So he managed to borrow money from these wealthy people and pay off that huge debt, so that he could pay off some other people's debts every year and have a chance to pay off his debts. For example, the original debt of 10,000, he divided it into twenty five hundred, so that he could repay one a year, reduce interest, and repay these arrears...

Now that the Autonomous Leadership Region has arrived, he has become the Leadership Party, sweeping away the creditors, and he has no debt. And when Thundering copped the house, he could still beat his hand, and throw things that didn't look good to him, he also became rich. Because of the good work done, he was appointed as the head of the local armed guards, assembled some of the leading parties who had also joined the autonomous leadership districts and formed a National Front dedicated to running errands for the autonomous territory.

Claude really doesn't understand how Colonel Boquer chose the members of the National Defense Front to support them as a separatist force, which is supposed to be a scapegoat, loyalty to the Autonomous Territory, but too weak. Claude was very dissatisfied with this, but the MI screamed unjustly. They said that in such a short time it would be impossible to find a hero. It would be better to cheapen these seemingly honest and obedient leading parties...

But the problem is, these honest and obedient leading parties can't help you, Duh! Even if Colonel Boquer says they have a lot of potential, they will grow as long as they are given the opportunity and time to develop. But there's no time for them to slow down. For example, it's like the Red Dragon Corps, because Claude refused their request for reinforcements, so he let go of those three occupied counties, gathered horses and attacked another unswept central county, and was ready to retrieve a large sum and evacuate...

The Front Line Command of the Autonomous Leadership Region then sent the Waffen Front, formed by the Road Party, to receive the three central counties abandoned by the Red Dragon Regiment. As a result, the Road Party was beaten back by local guards formed by the gentlemen who had joined the Red Dragon Corps. Eventually, the Storm Regiment sent a lightweight field regiment to sweep away the mess again and armed the mess, accompanied by a small fortune to stabilize the party.

With so much capacity from the National Front of Defense, how is it possible to achieve the three-pronged situation of the Hicks kingdom after the planned withdrawal of the entire army from the autonomous military region? One side is the Grand Duke of the North, with basic territory and family force. On one side is the Protector Force, the former leader of the Hicks Facklin Legion, Muriels. Count Jack Christer is not a simple figure either. He has a lineage. The Front de défense nationale's leading party is nothing compared to the two parties' horses.

Hard to hear, the 10 counties in the centre let the Waffen party lead one county at a time, and Claude believed that once the troops of the autonomous military region were withdrawn, they would fight each other to the death, let alone resist the forces of the Grand Duke of the North and the Guardian Army. Even if they were given the city of San Hiplian and the Wangjing area, they might die faster. That's why Claude chose someone else, and he saw the Grand Duke of the Sunset River.

Handing over Wangjing San Xiprian City and Wangjing District to this Grand Duke of the Sunset River will make it a nail in the eyes of the Guardian Army, which will have to deal with this Grand Duke of the Sunset River first. But the guardian army forces also have hidden dangers. Behind him is the tiger-sighted Grand Duke of the North, so that the guardian army forces throw rat taboos and can't defeat this Grand Duke of the Sunset River, can only unite against the Grand Duke of the North.

The Grand Duke of the Sunset River, who masters the city of San Hiplian in Wangjing and the Wangjing region, is less powerful than the National Guardian Army, so he must turn his annexation target to the 10 central counties under the control of the National Guardian Front. If the NDF's leading parties do not want to be annexed by the Grand Duke of the Sunset River, they will have to cooperate in good faith to resist the Grand Duke of the Sunset River, so that a delicate balance can be struck in the situation of the entire Kingdom of Hicks, which can only be sustained if no one swallows the target.

Claude handed the two letters he had written to Colonel Boquer and asked him to find two reliable messengers to deliver them to Grand Duke of the North and Grand Duke of the Sunset River, respectively. He believed that the Grand Duke of the North would not move lightly when he read his letter. He wanted to fight with the Autonomous Leadership Region. Everyone was a wise man, and unnecessary battles could be avoided. As for how Claude was chosen by the Grand Duke of the Sunset River, it really doesn't matter if he doesn't say yes. Under the strength of the Storm Regiment, he only gets trampled...

Fifty-three counties of the Hicks kingdom and the Wang Jing district are now gone, four of the Breot kingdoms have been annexed, and the remaining five counties have been swallowed by the former proxy brothers of the Hicks kingdom, the Duchy of Santa Cruz and the Kingdom of Castro. Only five counties remain in the eight southern coastal counties, and the three counties of the Manoli Plains have returned to the Kingdom of Breot.

When the ten western counties are swept away by the Storm Regiment and swallowed up by the three surrounding countries, the Kingdom of Monadillo, the Principality of Tumako and the Kingdom of Isabella, the rest of the territory of the Kingdom of the Hicks will remain in the eleven northern and five southern counties, plus the fifteen central counties and a kingdom area.

With such a large territory divided and occupied by four separatist forces, the strength of those four forces is no more than that of an ordinary principality, and no wave can ever rise again to trouble the Kingdom of Ovilas and the Overseas Autonomous Territories. Now Claude just wants these four forces to fight for as long as possible, preferably in the wilderness...