"Is there any news in today's papers?"
He went downstairs to the dining room and found Angelina sitting at the dining table reading the Whitestag Morning Post that was delivered that morning. The newspaper had developed greatly along with Whitestag's upgrade. It was no longer the small town newspaper that was on the verge of closing down a few years ago.
That was especially the case when they cooperated with the administrative center of Whitestag and used the hawks there to send a large amount of information directly from the royal capital. Whitestag Morning Post had already become the fastest newspaper in the three southwestern prefectures.
"There's nothing good. Cromwell has clashed with the Shiksan garrison on Nubissia again. This is the seventh skirmish in the past half a year.
The kingdom is sending an envoy to Shiks to lodge a formal protest and negotiate to prevent such a conflict from happening again.
Vice-chairman Aubinet has proposed another amendment to the labour bill to the parliament, requesting for a large scale importation of young natives from Nubissia to solve the kingdom's lack of manpower.
Some experts commented in the newspaper that if the amendment to the labor bill was passed by the National Assembly, it would greatly shake the foundation of the Kingdom, the Four Strata Bill of Rights.
The kingdom has always viewed the red natives of Nubissia as slaves and isn't willing to give them the status of commoners. "
Angelina handed the newspaper to Claude. "I'll bring you breakfast. Are you going back to camp today?"
Claude nodded. "Yes, I'm going back today. I'll go home next Saturday."
Claude spent the past month very comfortably. He didn't have to personally oversee Tribe 131's training. After the training plan was drawn up, it would be carried out by vice-commander Schnake. There was also Moriad, Dyavid and Berklin to keep an eye on things, so there was no need for him to stay in camp every day.
Coupled with the fact that he had to deal with the high-ranking officials in Whitestag, Claude would often travel back and forth between Stone Outpost and Whitestag before returning home to spend time with his wife and children at night.
However, he would be busy for the next half a month. Tribe 131 would have to undergo extreme wilderness survival training in Egret.
Naturally, it wasn't necessary for the entire battalion to undergo such training, as that wouldn't be practical.
Claude only ordered each brigade to send a small group of their most elite soldiers to Egret to be personally led by him to train them.
"Where are Myjack and Gum?" Claude asked.
"They've already had breakfast. They're going to walk your horses now," said Anna as she placed white bread, black tea, bacon and fried eggs in front of Claude.
Claude nodded. He placed a slice of bacon between two slices of bread and took a big bite before picking up the Whitestag Morning Post on the table to read.
Just as his sister said, the important news was about the conflict between Nubissia's Cromwell colony and the Shiksan garrison. Judging from the date, it happened a week ago.
Aueras had been tricked by Nasri on Nubissia. Aueras had seven colonies in the west of Nubissia and their total area was larger than the kingdom's territory in the east of Freia. It wasn't until the end of the war that Aueras annexed three duchies and gained 29 prefectures did they manage to match the size of the seven colonies on Nubissia.
Nasri was Aueras' arch-enemy. They also had a colony on Nubissia that was about the same size as one of the colonies. There was also a fine port called Port Vebator.
Nasri's colony bordered Aueras' Cromwell colony to the north and Shiks' colony to the south.
Before war broke out between Aueras and the anti-Aueras alliance, the ministry of the army came up with a plan to gather the garrisons of the seven colonies on Nubissia and launch an attack on Nasrin's colony. They would seize Port Vebator and make sure that Nasrin no longer had a foothold on Nubissia.
However, things didn't go according to plan. Before the war broke out, a native riot broke out in the Shiksan colony on Nubissia.
Shiks and Nasri signed an agreement to have the anti-Auerian Alliance escort a Shiksan field corps to Nubissia to quell the natives' rebellion at Port Vebator.
That seemed to be the most logical thing to do. Most of Shiks' colonies on Nubissia were inland and didn't have any port cities near the coast to support large scale disembarkation. It was only natural for them to borrow Nasri's Port Vebator.
But no one expected the Shiksan field corps to not leave after landing at Port Vebator. Instead, they set up camp at the border with Cromwell.
Aueras wasn't expecting that. It was said that Shiks' excuse was to stop the natives from escaping to Aueras' colony.
In fact, Aueras had to thank Shiks for not allowing the natives to invade their colony and affect the stability of the seven colonies.
In the five years that all the countries in eastern Freia were embroiled in the war, Aueras wouldn't be able to wage another war against Shiks on Nubissia.
Fortunately, Shiks and Aueras didn't share a border with each other on Freia.
Shiks was the hegemon of northern Freia. Apart from Nasri, there were two other kingdoms that stood between them and Aueras in the east. There was no possibility of war between the two kingdoms.
Even during the five years of war, Shiks supported the anti-Aueras faction from the shadows. Apart from not being able to declare war directly, they did a lot of lending to the anti-Aueras nations.
Unfortunately, the five nations of the anti-Aueras weren't very effective on the battlefield and three duchies were destroyed by the end of the war. Shiks, who had been sitting on the sidelines and watching the tigers fight, suffered a huge loss.
During the war, while the ministry of the army stuffed the plan to take over Nasri's colony on Nubissia into the fireplace, Aueras didn't give up on the colony and Port Vebator.
During the truce negotiations, Aueras wanted to force Nasri to cede their colony on Nubissia and Port Vebator as a precondition for signing the peace treaty, but they received terrible news.
Due to the huge expenditure from the five years of war, Nasri owed Shiks an astronomical amount of debt and had no choice but to sell the colony and Port Vebator to Shiks to repay the debt.
Half a month before the Aueran envoy requested for the colony and Port Vebator to be ceded, Nasri and Shiks came to an agreement. They would no longer have a foothold on Nubissia.
No matter how exasperated the envoy was, he couldn't do anything about it. Nasri no longer had any overseas territories.
If he could make the decision, he would rather the war, which had already been going on for five years, continue until this hateful enemy country was destroyed.
However, Aueras wasn't in a good state either. After asking Nasri to make a few promises, they hurriedly came to an agreement.
The change of ownership of Nasri's colony and Port Vebator didn't just mean that the seven colonies of Aueras had changed neighbours. It also meant that Shiks, the hegemon of Northern Freia, had gained a firm foothold in Nubissia. With a good port like Port Vebator, the Shiksan fleet could roam the western coast of Nubissia without fear and threaten the coastlines of the seven colonies of Aueras.
In the two years since the end of the war, Shiks and Aueras had clashed nearly a hundred times on Nubissia.
They were either hunting pirate ships at sea, where the Seaking fleet intruded into Aueras' territorial waters, or hunting fugitives or rebellious natives on land. The Shiksan border guards swaggered deep into Cromwell's territory.
Even during the summer when the bison herds migrated from Nubissia's Albatol plains, the Shiksan garrison would often ignore the warnings of the local guards and follow the herds into Nubissia to hunt for their hides. Both sides would often exchange fire because of that.
While Aueras had a large territory on Nubissia, they didn't have enough garrisons and garrisons. Most of them were garrisoned in the cities of the seven colonies.
After Shiks acquired Nasri's colony and Port Vebator, they garrisoned two field corps, numbering more than a hundred thousand men. They also set up a naval squadron at Port Vebator to greatly strengthen their military.
As the hegemon of the northern part of Freia, Shiks was surrounded by either its allies or its lackeys. That was why it had the capital to invest heavily in Nubissia and colonize it.
Aueras, on the other hand, had just finished a five-year war and their treasury was empty. They only wanted to replenish the kingdom's resources from the seven colonies to make up for the lack of funds. They couldn't afford to strengthen the colonies' defences at all.
When the Shiksan garrison on Nubissia repeatedly invaded the sovereignty of the seven colonies, the powerless Aueras could only protest vehemently again and again and swallow the insult, turning the matter into a small one and turning it into nothing.
Claude flipped to the second page and couldn't be bothered to read the reporters and experts' complaints about the Shiksan garrison's outrageous actions. No matter how loud their words were, they wouldn't be able to hurt Shiks in the slightest. As long as the higher-ups didn't decide to fall out with Shiks, such incidents would happen again and again in the coming days.
The second page of the newspaper was the full text of the amendment to the labor bill that Orbinit had submitted to the parliament. It was just a change in form but not in substance. It would require the kingdom to import native red slaves from the seven colonies of Nubissia to make up for the kingdom's shortage of young and strong men.
That was another piece of news that caught everyone's attention. It was common knowledge that the natives of Nubissia had dark red skin, which was a taboo on Freia.
According to folklore from the magic-era, dwarves were the color of grey and brown, the color of stone, the descendants of the mountains.
Elves were said to have light green and lake blue skin, the children of the forest.
The humans of Freia had white skin, a blessing from the Silvermoon Goddess and a symbol of purity and light.
However, the natives of Nubissia had dark red skin. According to folklore, this was the skin color of demons from hell. Even in the magic books passed down, almost all demons were painted red to show their greed and thirst for blood and slaughter.
That was why the natives of Nubissia were seen as the descendants of demons. Coupled with the fact that they believed in primordial deities and witchcraft, they were persecuted and massacred by the Freian colonists. Their tribes were wiped out one after another and their lands were forcefully taken away.
However, the colonists who thought they brought the light of civilization to Nubissia had an awkward historical record. They left millions of mixed-bloods on Nubissia during the three centuries of colonization.
In the seven colonies of Aueras, there were more than a million mixed-blooded youths registered on the register.
Everyone knew that white couldn't be made white by adding any other color to it. Out of fear of the reddish skin of the natives of Nubissia, the countries of Freia rarely allowed them to live on the continent. Apart from a few countries that allowed slavery and some red slaves, the other countries didn't allow red people to live there. It was a form of racial discrimination that existed in reality.
Most of the people living in the seven colonies of Aueras were these mixed-bloods. On the contrary, there were very few naturalized natives.
They were seen as natives of the colonies and not true citizens of the kingdom.
While they were oppressed and taxed, they didn't have the right to serve in the army, nor could they become part of the kingdom's commoners.
By the end of the five-year war, Aueras had destroyed three duchies and occupied another twenty-nine prefectures. However, those three duchies were reduced to rubble and suffered heavy casualties.
If the kingdom's own casualties were taken into account, there was a gap of 1.5 million young men waiting to be filled.
However, the kingdom implemented a local conscription system, so the various prefectures had strict control over the young and strong commoners within their jurisdiction, forbidding the loss of refugees and young and strong laborers.
Under such circumstances, the up-and-coming merchant nobles who had seized the business development rights in the newly conquered 29 commanderies turned their attention to the mixed-blood aboriginals in the seven colonies, hoping to migrate a million aboriginals to the newly conquered 29 commanderies to fill the labor gap.
The deputy speaker of the national parliament, Aubinet, should be the representative of those new business nobles. He strongly advocated for the migration of the natives. He suggested that the young and strong natives serve for ten years as slaves, and they would be able to obtain the status of citizens of the kingdom. They would then be able to freely settle down in the twenty-nine counties of the newly occupied territory. This would effectively make up for the lack of young and strong labor in the newly occupied territory, and it would be easier for the kingdom to control the newly occupied territory.