"Boss, today was really fun. I had a lot of fun. Too bad we have to start training tomorrow. Otherwise, we could've spent the night in the tavern," said Berklin as he lay down on the single bunk bed beside Claude.
The four nobles had quite a bit of fun in the afternoon. Almost all of them had two maidservants to keep them company. They only went downstairs when it was time for dinner. Claude, on the other hand, spent the entire afternoon in the tavern, flipping through the newspapers he bought from the bookstore a couple of times. He gained a certain understanding of the kingdom's current situation and the countries to the east of Freia.
After dinner, Claude paid the bill and called a carriage back to camp with the four nobles who didn't want to go back so early.
That night, while the four of them were still reminiscing about the afternoon's passion and debauchery, Claude was thinking about the information he got from the newspapers.
It seemed that the situation in the east of the continent was getting more and more chaotic and unpredictable. After the kingdom invested the resources to develop Whitestag and set up Storm, it only took them three months to clear out the pirates along the new sea route to Nubissia. That basically guaranteed the safety of the new route.
On the 25th of the 10th month, a fleet of more than 150 long-distance merchant ships were escorted by a naval squadron to the colonies of Nubissia. The fleet was three times the size of the 'Trail of Blood' fleet from the past few years.
However, that meant that the Alliance, which the five nations had invested so much in, would no longer be able to put their skills to good use.
In the past, the Alliance could still block Aueras's sea route to Nubissia, forcing them to pay a high price to maintain that lifeline and get a share of the profits. Life was pretty good for them.
But now that Aueras had given up on the old sea route to open up a new one, the Alliance could only fish at sea.
Hard times were upon them. Without the tolls from Aueras, Sidins, Askilin, and Rimodra's massive naval fleet became a financial burden for them.
The three duchies didn't have colonies on Nubissia either, so the powerful figures of the three duchies had a heated argument over the future of the Alliance.
If not for Nasri's investment to stabilize their alliance, the Alliance Fleet might have already been disbanded.
At sea, Nasri and the four eastern duchies were the only ones capable of defeating Aueras.
On land, the five countries understood that they were weak. The only thing they could do was to set up defensive checkpoints and fortresses at strategic locations and traffic arteries in order to kill and stall for time.
In the past half a year, the Anti-Austrian Alliance had invaded the eastern seas of the kingdom more than ten times under the pretext of chasing pirates, encountering storms and losing their way. They had even pretended to be pirates to loot several nearby towns in the eastern seas, causing great losses.
Aueras had already issued a stern warning to the anti-Aueras alliance and was on the verge of declaring war.
Claude was rather curious as to why the five anti-Aueras nations would provoke Aueras at sea. However, a newspaper that had been out of date for more than a month had a piece of news that made him understand what it meant to be fearless when one was confident.
According to the newspaper, Shiks and Nasri had come to an agreement to send a 50,000-strong field corps to Nubissia to be escorted by the five anti-Auerian nations. They would be used to quell the rebellion in the colonies.
The Nasri colony on Nubissia wasn't that big. It was about the size of one of Aueras' colonies and most of the land there was barren.
If war were to break out, the colony would be quickly occupied by the Aueran forces.
That was why Nasri had a love-hate relationship with the colony. They needed to profit from it, but they couldn't send a large force to defend it due to the limited environment. So, they only sent two battalions to maintain law and order there.
However, the neighboring Shiks had a much larger colony on Nubissia, second only to Aueras.
However, Shiks' colony was deep inland and didn't have any good ports along the coast. So, Shiks didn't pay much attention to it. Their original goal was mining and they neglected to occupy the coastal areas. In the end, all the minerals they mined had to be transported through the ports of other countries' colonies.
From the news in the newspaper, it could be concluded that Nasri and Shiks had come to a secret military agreement.
If Shiks sent a field corps to Nubissia, they would definitely use Nasri's colony, Port Vebator, to transport supplies.
After all, their colony didn't have a port as good as Vebator's. The few small ports along the coast could only accommodate a few fishing boats, but they wouldn't be able to dock their deep-draining cargo ships.
Apart from that, Shiks sending a field corps to Nubissia also posed a threat to the seven colonies of Aueras.
While the seven colonies of Aueras had more than a hundred thousand soldiers, they lost their advantage in numbers due to the sheer size of the colonies. Not to mention, most of them were second or third line garrisons and couldn't compare to Shiks' field corps in terms of combat prowess.
What worried them the most was whether Nasri would sell the colony on Nubissia to Shiks. The colony was of little value to Nasri and was mostly barren. The only thing it produced was the silver mine in Monknad, which was also known as the City of Silver. There was also the excellent deep-water port city of Vebator.
There wasn't much else to speak of. They didn't even have enough land to grow crops. Every year, they had to transport food from Nasri or send caravans to purchase large amounts of food from other colonies.
If Shiks bought Nasri's colony, the seven colonies of Shiks and Aueras would be linked together.
If war broke out in the east and Shiks joined the anti-Auerian alliance, Freia wouldn't have to worry about them sending troops to war on Freia. But on Nubissia, Shiks' field corps could easily launch an attack on the seven colonies of Aueria.
When that happened, the kingdom would have to deal with the war in the east and on Nubissia. It was very likely that they would lose sight of the other and fall into a situation where they did not have enough manpower. This was a dilemma for the higher-ups of the kingdom.
Unless the enemy's army and military strength were not fully deployed, they would launch a war first and strive to defeat one enemy as quickly as possible, freeing up their hands to deal with the enemy on the other side.
Claude naturally couldn't see the bigger picture. He only came to one conclusion from the newspapers: war was inevitable and he would have to step onto the battlefield sooner or later.
Claude was in a terrible mood after coming to that conclusion. He put his hands behind his head and spaced out on his bed.
Aboyev couldn't sleep either. He asked, "Boss, what do you think we'll be doing in the officer training tomorrow?
We just finished the recruit training and now we have to go through officer training. Just thinking about it feels so troublesome. It's not as good as the regular soldiers in camp who get to take one day off every ten days to go out and play. "
"What training? We'll be training you on how to manage the new recruits.
Didn't you hear what Perunt said this morning? Bluefeather has officially started recruiting and it'll be done in four batches. Five to six thousand people will be recruited every month. When we're done with the training, we'll be taking in the last batch.
What we need to train next is how to teach the new recruits, just like the instructors who were responsible for teaching us during the recruit training.
If you don't go through training, do you have the confidence to take care of a squad of new recruits? "Claude snapped." That's not what I'm talking about.
"Is that so? I never thought I'd be able to lead a group of new recruits."
Aboyev clicked his tongue and suddenly thought of a problem. "But Boss, won't we have to split up?
I want to stay by your side all the time. "
"Of course we have to. Not just you, Boss. We'll be separated from you as well. You'll be the boss of the new recruits in the future.
If we're lucky, we might end up in the same camp. If we're unlucky, we might end up in different camps. "
Berklin chimed in, "Perhaps in a few years, we won't be in Bluefeather anymore and we'll be strangers in different parts of the world.
When we meet again, you might even have to salute me and call me General. "
Berklin's words caused a burst of low laughter in the tent. Aboyev flew into a rage out of humiliation. He grabbed a pillow and threw it at Berklin. "Get lost! You think you'll become a general? Keep dreaming!
If they were all like you, the kingdom's generals would be able to form a field corps. "
Claude shook his head. It was a beautiful thought, but it was difficult to make it into reality. Every general in the kingdom had tens of thousands of bones beneath their feet.
Before entering the battlefield, one could hope to earn glory and merit. But on the cruel battlefield, all one could do was pray for one's own survival. That was especially true for the cannon fodder recruits.
"By the way, Boss, I heard something."
Berklin ended the fight with Aboyev, returned the pillow he had snatched, and said after returning to the bed.
"What is it?"
"Hasn't the veteran officers' training ended?
I heard that the instructors picked out the top 50 outstanding veterans and prepared to let them be the chief sergeants of the new recruits. They will set an example for us and let us understand how they lead the new recruits. "
"Where did you hear that?" Claude asked.
"Most was talking to someone. I happened to pass by and overheard it," Berklin replied.
"That should be true. We'll know tomorrow morning.
You should learn from the veterans. We've only been in the army for three months. If we don't receive proper training, it'll be troublesome to lead the new recruits. We'll be a laughing stock if we can't keep them under control.
Alright, stop talking and go to sleep. We still have to wake up early tomorrow! "
The night passed uneventfully.
After breakfast the next day, the muster horn was blown and all the new recruits gathered in the field.
As expected, a group of 50 veterans stood there in an orderly fashion, waiting for the instructors to arrive.
The chief instructor of the training was no longer Second Lieutenant Most. Instead, it was a Captain called Max. He was likely from Bluefeather's main camp. Claude saw Lieutenant Sideri of the military law office following behind him respectfully with a faint smile on his cold face.
Captain Max seemed to be tired from lack of sleep. He stood in front of the recruits and spoke for a few minutes. Then he announced that every recruit would accept a veteran sergeant as their squad leader. He also encouraged all the recruits to learn from their squad leader and strive to become a qualified sergeant as soon as possible.
Claude watched in boredom as the veterans went to the new recruits and took on the role of a temporary sergeant major.
Soon, a veteran came before him and smiled, revealing his pearly white teeth. "I told you, Claude. We'll meet again soon."