Claude rushed back to Lanhu City in late October, because the Overseas Minsheng Bank, which had been planned for nearly ten months, was finally established and would open for business on October 25th. As one of the five giants in the war zone, Claude
Claude must attend this opening ceremony to show his support for Overseas Minsheng Bank. At the same time, he also needs to sign a loan agreement with Overseas Minsheng Bank. As the first loan from Overseas Minsheng Bank, Claude received interest-free preferential treatment.
take care of......
Of course, all this was already agreed upon. Overseas Minsheng Bank loaned Claude one million gold crowns, but it was the theater command that repaid the debt. The war zone would squeeze out 200,000 gold crowns for military expenses and repay them to overseas countries every year.
Minsheng Bank, and Claude needs to provide 10,000 new rifles and 10 million copper-cased rifle bullets to the war zone every year, and it will take five years to repay the loan.
This is a fight or a fight. Claude can maintain the firearms manufacturing workshop and have enough money for the testing and development of new weapons. In the war zone, new rifles can be obtained, gradually improving the combat effectiveness of the troops.
As for Overseas Minsheng Bank, although it provides interest-free loans, the amount is huge enough to let doubtful people see its strength and close relationship with the war zone. With the war zone endorsing it, the smug Viscount Goodich
It is believed that Overseas Minsheng Bank will soon become the number one bank in the territories directly under the war zone.
But what Claude didn't expect was that less than half an hour after he returned to Veblen Manor, he saw the communications soldiers urgently sent by the theater headquarters and asked Claude to rush to the theater headquarters immediately. Bolonik
The general is going to hold a military meeting. The other generals have already rushed to the theater headquarters, and only Claude is waiting...
There seems to be nothing major happening during this period. Except that the Overseas Minsheng Bank will open for business the day after tomorrow, the War Zone Territory has not received any alerts? Claude was preparing to take a hot bath, took off his clothes, and had to
I put it back on. When I got on the carriage and rushed to the theater headquarters, I thought about it for a long time, but couldn't come up with any clues.
What greeted Claude was the gloomy face of General Bolognik. Claude felt a thump in his heart, but he felt bad. It seemed that something important had really happened, otherwise General Bolognik wouldn't have this expression. He
He hurriedly asked: "What's wrong? What happened?"
General Bolognik did not answer Claude's question, but asked Claude: "If I ask the Overseas Minsheng Bank to provide you with a loan of three million gold crowns, how many new rifles can your firearms manufacturing workshop produce in a year?
"
Claude smiled bitterly, some things cannot be done with more money. However, he has heard Master Bird talk about this question, and he can answer: "If we continue to hire workers for training, we will continue to work overtime in the gun manufacturing workshop day and night.
, can only produce up to 30,000 new rifles per year. This is mainly limited by the scale of the production machinery and equipment, and it also requires half a year of production adjustment. However, in this way, the overtime mode of working day and night is a waste of resources.
Labor costs will inevitably increase production costs..."
"What about bullet production?" General Bolognik asked.
"It's still 10 million rounds. This copper-cased rifle bullet production line is designed and assembled by ourselves. According to the standard of a new rifle equipped with 100 rounds of bullets, even if the annual output of 10 million rounds of bullets is enough for soldiers to complete training and combat readiness
The task. After two years and more new rifles are equipped, we can assemble another production line..." Claude explained.
"Okay, your loan this time is three million gold crowns. When you return, you will immediately let the firearms manufacturing workshop produce new rifles and equip your Thunder Legion." General Bolognik made the decision without hesitation.
"What happened?" Claude was very surprised. At this moment, General Bolognik's attitude was that he was ready to arm the troops in the theater at all costs to increase combat effectiveness. He even had the idea of selling all his belongings to others.
The feeling of not hesitating.
General Bolognik smiled bitterly: "The Kingdom of Hicks is here again, and this time it really prepared ten standing legions..."
"This is impossible!" Claude didn't believe it at all: "This should be a rumor. Even if the Kingdom of Hicks prepares ten standing legions, where can it land? Our theater direct jurisdiction only has three that are suitable for large-scale landings.
seaports, but we have made adequate defense preparations for these three seaports. It is simply impossible for the Hicks Kingdom to capture our seaport cities with its Sea King Fleet and Combined Fleet. Without capturing the seaports first, they
Those ten standing legions want to land directly. That is a delusion. They might as well jump into the sea and feed the fish...
Also, if the Kingdom of Hicks wants to learn how Prince Hansback landed offshore, I will be very happy to welcome these captives on the beach. Prince Hansback took advantage of the lack of people in the hinterland of the kingdom and offshore.
The surprise attack on the royal capital was successful due to negligence. There are many reef areas in our coastal areas, and strict warning lines have been deployed along the coast. Their ocean-going warships cannot approach the beach, and the shallow sea area is more than 1,000 meters to 2,000 meters away.
How do they allow the soldiers to wade ashore, how do they transport artillery to land, there is no logistical equipment, they eat whatever they want, how do they rest at night, if they don’t treat them as prisoners if they just bring a matchlock gun ashore, who does?”
"Can you let me finish my words first?" General Bolognik was spat on by Claude, and he shook his head helplessly: "I know these truths better than you! The problem is that these ten members of the Hicks Kingdom
The standing corps are not planning to storm our seaports, nor are they planning to land in the territories directly under our theater. They are planning to gather all their forces on the west coast and then go all the way south..."
"What did you say?" Claude was stunned: "Where did this news come from?"
"Colonel Bock'al sent an adjutant back and brought many newspapers from the colonies on the west coast. Although many of them were news two or three months ago, the Kingdom of Hicks is preparing to lease the colony of the United Kingdom of Fox Islands on the mainland of Nubisia.
, news of gathering troops to prepare to go south has been flying all over the colonies of various countries on the west coast. The latest news is that the Kingdom of Hicks is likely to have reached a lease agreement with the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands, and will transport two standing legions to the Fox Islands in the first half of next year at the latest.
Colonies of the United Kingdom of the Islands..."
The United Kingdom of the Fox Islands is a kingdom composed of six large islands and dozens of small islands located in the southwest of the Farea continent. The closest place between it and the Farea continent is only separated by the Gillis Strait. Claude remembered that the Kingdom
The United Kingdom of the Fox Islands is mentioned in the history books in China. Thousands of years ago, it was the birthplace of the Kramer pirates. They often rowed small wooden boats to the coastal areas of the Falea continent to rob and plunder...
After the Holy Light Calendar was implemented on the Farea continent, the six archdukes on the Fox Islands held a joint meeting and elected one of them as king, establishing the United Kingdom. The only difference between them and other kingdoms is that the king's term of office is limited to
There is a term of twenty years. After the term is up, he will step down. The Grand Dukes of the six islands will re-elect one of them to be the king.
The United Kingdom of the Fox Islands has always been known for its navy. It can be said to be the most powerful navy on the Farea continent. There are four fleets in total, named after the gods worshiped by the ancient Kramer people. They were also the first to launch an attack on the Nubisia continent.
The country that explores and colonizes has occupied four colonies on the west coast, but they are not connected together. It is said that on the east coast of the Nubisia continent, the United Kingdom of Fox Islands also occupies six colonies. It can be said that it is the entire Nubisia.
The mainland has the largest number of colonies and the largest area.
General Bolognik pointed to the conference room: "Let's go in and talk. Anyway, so many newspapers can't all be spreading rumors. Many of them are newspapers from colonies of other countries, and they also contain a lot of news about the kingdom itself. Alas.
....."
It seems that the news about the kingdom's mainland is not good news, so General Bolognik sighed. Claude opened the door and saw General Beachlin and General Albert standing in front of the map on the wall arguing about something.
, General Skerry was classifying the newspapers on the table and marking the important news reports one by one. Seeing Claude come in, he nodded, pointed to a folder on the table, and signaled Claude to go ahead.
Look at this.
The folder contains Colonel Boker's trip summary report. He took three staff officers from the intelligence office of the theater command, as well as his adjutant and guards, a total of eleven people, to board the light ship Triumph on August 27.
The fast cruising battleship, escorted by two battleships of the same level, the Flying Fish and the Gale, set out from Vibato Port to form a cruise team and headed north.
After seven days of sailing, the cruise team circumnavigated Cape Morox and arrived on the west coast. It was considered to have left the waters of the Nikancha people's country in the coastal mountainous area in the northern part of the territory. The colony adjacent to the Nikancha people's country is Fox.
The country's fourth colony on the west coast of the Nubisian continent is also the smallest colony in area, only one-third of the area of the Tiersim Direct Territory.
To be precise, the southern and eastern borders of this colony, known as Rodex Bay, are surrounded by mountains. It is now the territory of the independent Nikancha people. The west is the sea, and the north is another continent of Pharea.
The colony of the southern country, the Kingdom of Resnia. The fourth colony of the United Kingdom of Fox Islands is thus restricted to the small valley plain in the bay, with no way to expand.
It is said that this is a very famous location mistake made by Rodriguez, the most famous explorer of the United Kingdom of Fox Islands. Since the United Kingdom is mainly composed of six large islands, the people of the United Kingdom are not like other people.
Like the people in the kingdom, they will be united because they belong to the same kingdom. They are more accustomed to competing and quarreling and insulting each other. Just like their ancestors, the Kramer pirates, the fighting between the islands lasted for nearly two hundred years.
for many years.
Generally speaking, the colonies of the countries along the coast of Farea Continent in Nubisia Continent first occupy a piece of land, and then expand to the surrounding areas until they occupy all the unclaimed land and are adjacent to other countries' colonies. That is, the Fox Islands
The United Kingdom is a weird thing. For example, if the people on the first largest island occupy a piece of territory, then the people on the second largest island will look for another unclaimed land, and the people on the third largest island will never be in these two
Instead of staying in the colony, they would look for another colony and not want to be adjacent to those two colonies.
The same is true for the explorer Rodriguez. They went south from the west coast. When they came here, they saw Cape Morox. They thought they had reached the end of the Nubisian continent, so they landed here. They found that the bay here was calm and the sea was rich in fish.
, there was a plain area with dense vegetation on the shore, so they decided to occupy this land as a colony. It was only when they explored south and east that they discovered that these two directions were surrounded by mountains, and to the north were the remote Gobi Desert and desert, so
This colony was restricted to a valley and plain area semi-surrounded by bays and mountains, and could not expand around.
The cruise team of Bockal and others docked in search of supplies in the name of chasing pirates who had lost their way. The officials of the Fox Kingdom Colony did not give them any trouble. It was just that they looked a little strange when they heard that they were the cruise fleet of the Overseas Direct Territory of the Kingdom of Ovilas, but they still
The officers and soldiers on board were allowed to go ashore to rest.
Just when they arrived at the tavern in the dock area, Bockal and the others were surrounded by onlookers, and even two reporters from local newspapers came to interview them and ask them about the Hicks Kingdom's preparations for the future.
The views of the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands on leasing the Rodex Bay Colony, and the prediction of who will win in the end in the colonial war between the Kingdom of Overas and the Kingdom of Hicks...
Bok Al and the others were confused at the time, and finally understood the truth through the explanations of the enthusiastic onlookers. In mid-November of last year, the Kingdom of Hicks sent a special envoy to the United Kingdom of Fox Islands, requesting to rent this Rodex
The reason for the Gulf Colony is to use this colony to gather troops, prepare to use ten standing legions to defeat the independent Nikancha country in one fell swoop, and compete with the Overseas Territory War Zone of the Overas Kingdom...
.
This news reached the west coast in the first half of the year, and there was a lot of discussion among the colonies of various countries. Some of them were firmly opposed, such as the colony of the Kingdom of Resnia adjacent to the Rodex Bay Colony. They were worried that the Kingdom of Hicks would be in Rodex Bay.
The colony assembled ten standing legions and marched north instead of south. Then the first to be unlucky was the colony of the Kingdom of Resnia.
There are also people watching the excitement, and newspapers in distant colonies are discussing whether it is necessary to formulate a colonial mutual assistance ordinance. When a colony of a certain country breaks out in riots or is invaded, the colonies of other nearby countries have the obligation to send troops to help.
....However, it is obvious that this order cannot be signed, because sometimes two neighboring colonies have wars over water, minerals and other resources...
The United Kingdom of the Fox Islands is very interesting. They don’t want to rent it, but want to sell the Rodex Bay Colony to the Hicks Kingdom. Anyway, they have many colonies. In addition to the beautiful scenery of the Rodex Bay Colony,
It couldn't create much economic value for the United Kingdom. So they offered a sky-high price for it. And this sky-high price was something the Hicks Kingdom couldn't afford.
The current development is that the Kingdom of Hicks has increased the lease funds and requested a five-year lease, and the United Kingdom of the Fox Islands is considering it. Some newspapers predict that the Kingdom of Hicks will send an inspection team to inspect Rhodes in the first half of this year.
Based on the situation of the Hicks Bay Colony, they believe that this lease agreement is likely to be concluded in the second half of this year, and then in the first half of next year the Kingdom of Hicks will continuously transport its ten standing legions...
"The Rodex Bay Colony is adjacent to the northern coastal mountainous area, which is rich in mineral resources. Why don't the people of the Fox Islands United Kingdom expand their colonies to the mountainous areas?" Claude felt very strange and asked General Skerry.
General Skerry knew this question very well. He replied: "The Kramer people of the United Kingdom of Fox Islands claim to be a sea people. What they hate most is climbing mountains. If it is hills, maybe they are still interested in exploring, but like the northern
The continuous high mountain cliffs in the coastal mountainous areas will be intimidating to the Kramer people. They will automatically stop at the boundaries of the mountainous areas and are unwilling to go deeper into the mountainous areas..."
Perhaps this is also a national characteristic, although it is a bit weird. Claude continued to read the report on the folder. Colonel Bockard said that after learning the news, he immediately collected newspapers from various countries' ships anchored in the bay.
Whether they were from a few days ago or a few months ago, buy them all at a high price and send your adjutant to carry these newspapers back to the overseas territories.
And he was going to take the three intelligence staff and escorts disguised as agents of the Buffalo Trading Company on the west coast to inspect the economic conditions of the territories directly under the jurisdiction of various countries, and contact the large trading firms that traveled between the Nubisian continent and the Farea continent, etc.
In the first half of next year, two more intelligence staff will be appointed to join the large merchant fleet and return to the kingdom's mainland...