On the 28th of the 1st Month, Year 586 of the Sacred Light Era, Prince Hansbach arrived at Tyrrsim.
He was there to inspect the colonies on Nubissia on behalf of the royal family, as well as deliver the long-awaited equipment and supplies to Ranger and the overseas field corps.
There were close to a hundred thousand standard aubass mark 3 muskets, which were to be replaced with the old-fashioned muskets used by the garrison forces in the colonies.
After the inspection and greeting, it was already the end of the 3rd month when the first prince arrived at Anfiston. The rainy season had just passed and Claude led the newly expanded light cavalry of Line 131 to guard the first prince.
After accompanying the first prince on his inspection tour of Anfiston and meeting with the viceroy and admiral, he also had to accompany the first prince to Port Patres, the capital of Robisto, as Ranger's HQ was located there.
On the 18th of the 4th month, the first prince arrived at Port Patres. General Michelc held a grand military parade to welcome him.
The first prince gave a passionate speech after the parade, winning the cheers of tens of thousands of spectators and the soldiers from Ranger as well as the overseas field corps. The atmosphere was extremely warm.
After the speech, the eldest prince held a ceremony for the officers and soldiers who had performed meritorious deeds. Among them, the most eye-catching one was General Michelci's promotion from the rank of Lieutenant General to the rank of General, and his title from Honorary Viscount to Honorary Count.
Claude, on the other hand, was made an honorary baron of the kingdom. The two of them were the only ones in Ranger to receive such promotions.
One more thing to note was that Claude had to go through one more procedure before he was made a baron. He wanted to choose his courtesy name.
Under normal circumstances, Claude could choose 'An', which was the initial character of Anfiston. He could also choose 'Luo' or 'Bai' to represent the contributions he made from Robisto and Balingana. He could even choose 'Ke' to commemorate the recovery of Cromwell.
However, Claude chose 'Hanzi', which puzzled the first prince. He couldn't understand why Claude would choose 'Hanzi' as his courtesy name.
Claude explained that it was Prince Hansbach who had a good eye for talent. He pointed out the insignificance of his military career and earned him a knighthood.
That was why Claude was filled with gratitude. To show that he didn't forget the first prince's kindness, he chose to use the first prince's initials as his courtesy name.
Even though the first prince thought that Claude was trying to suck up to him, he was still delighted. Everyone liked people who knew how to repay kindness. So, with a flick of his pen, Claude's title was given in Chinese.
From that moment on, Claude became Baron Claude Han Ferd.
Even his family members had a Chinese character in their first and last names.
Even though that was how he explained it to the prince, it was the only word he could relate to his past life.
This was because he was a Han in his previous life. This was a character that represented two thousand years of splendid civilization. It was great and glorious.
Despite the hardships and humiliation they had suffered in recent times, the country that used Chinese characters as its main language had risen to the peak of the world after three decades of reform.
After the promotion and conferment ceremony was a grand celebration.
However, Claude noticed that Prince Hansbach didn't seem to be in too much of a mood. Not long after the banquet started, he disappeared with General Michelc.
As expected, when he returned to his residence that night, Claude received a notice to hold a military conference at nine the next morning.
"Shiks has once again ignored the kingdom's wish for peace. They refuse to admit their defeat in Nubissia.
They arrogantly told the royal envoy that the annihilation of Pancry and Krado doesn't mean Shiks is weaker than Aueras.
That's because those two corps were formed from the local garrisons of the colonies and aren't Shiksan's standing corps. "
Prince Hansbach brought bad news to the officers of Ranger that the war would continue. Fortunately, Shiks didn't set their sights on Aueras. They stubbornly picked themselves up from where they fell and announced that they would send five standing corps to Nubissia to fight the Aueran invaders to the death until all invaders were wiped out.
"Wait, how did we become invaders?
We were stationed at the border between the two countries and didn't invade a single inch of Shiksan's territory. "
Quite a few high-ranking officers were puzzled by Shiks calling Ranger invaders from their colonies.
Hansbach smiled bitterly. "Shiks has always been overbearing. They believe that any land they occupy is their territory.
Otherwise, how could they occupy the entire northern part of Freia?
Cromwell had been in the hands of the Shiksan colony for half a year. According to Shiksan law, the land had become their undeniable colony.
In their eyes, we've recovered the Cromwell Colony, which is an invasion … "
"Nonsense!" "Preposterous!"
All the officers were furious. The war hadn't even ended yet, but Shiks already considered the colonies to be their rightful colonies. That was an insult to the kingdom and a blatant disregard for the kingdom's military.
Almost everyone was rubbing their palms, ready to teach the Shiksan army a good lesson in the upcoming war.
One of the prince's aides walked to the wall where the map was hung and introduced the Shiksan army to the officers of Ranger.
Shiks was located in the northern part of Freia and was divided into 13 states and 57 prefectures.
The army was divided into the army and navy. The army had 15 standing corps, one for each state. Each standing corps had a total of 63,000 men.
Its scale was similar to that of Aueras's trump card field corps, with a standing force of nearly a million soldiers.
The Shiksan navy was Seaking's fleet. Their main mission was to prevent the demonic magi and pirates from Higros from attacking the northern archipelago.
However, the rumor of Higros demonic magi invading Freia again spread year after year and no one took it seriously.
Without an opponent, Seaking's fleet began to extend its reach to Nubissia. After obtaining Port Vebator, it couldn't wait to form a sub-fleet. Unfortunately, the sub-fleet fell for a trap and sank in Dorinibla River.
In fact, Pancry and Krado, which Ranger wiped out, were also part of Shiks' standing corps. They were sent to Nubissia to suppress the natives' rebellion.
At the same time, Shiks conscripted the local garrisons in their colonies to form three field corps. After clearing out the natives' rebellion, they turned their attention to Aueras' colonies.
Shiks originally thought that Pancry and Krado would be able to take a few colonies from Aueras, but they didn't think they'd end up losing instead. Two corps were wiped out, the sub-fleet was wiped out and all the territory they conquered was reclaimed. The colonies lost around 240,000 soldiers.
That was an intolerable slap to the face for the arrogant Shiks. They were determined to fight it out with Aueras on Nubissia to determine the victor.
It was just as they said to the Aueran envoy. So what if two corps were wiped out? Shiks had the best of the best. If they sent five corps over and ten more didn't work, they didn't believe that Aueras wouldn't kneel and surrender.
Actually, even before the first prince announced the bad news that the war would continue, Ranger had already made preparations to continue fighting.
Two months ago, spies from Port Vebator reported that Shiks had already sent three corps to Nubissia. Currently, there were two corps stationed at the border to face off against Ranger and Krado. However, both sides were still able to control themselves and didn't engage in any skirmishes.
That was probably because Shiks hadn't fully deployed their forces yet and didn't want to engage Ranger in battle too early.
On the other hand, Ranger was under orders not to cross the border or provoke them, lest it affect the peace negotiations.
But now that it was proven that Shiks wanted to continue the war, one of the officers suggested taking the initiative and annihilating the two enemy corps at the border before they reached Port Vebator.
However, the first prince and General Michelic rejected the suggestion. While taking the initiative was a viable strategy, it didn't fit the kingdom's strategic needs.
What the kingdom needed now wasn't to defeat the invading enemy, but to make Shiks bleed to death on Nubissia until they were no longer a threat to the kingdom on Freia.
"The enemy doesn't care about losing 250,000 soldiers, but if they lose 2.5 million, I believe there will no longer be a hegemon of the north, Shiks," said General Michelic. Everyone was dumbfounded. Was that even possible?
Wiping out 2.5 million Shiksan soldiers wasn't something that could be done.
Forget 2.5 million, even losing half of them, or a million, would be a huge blow to Shiks and they wouldn't be able to maintain their status as the greatest power in the north anymore.
At that time, his lackeys might even have designs on their boss who had lost a lot of blood and were prepared to take a bite out of his fat body …
"I'm not joking," Michelic said seriously.
"We've fought with both the Pancry and Krado armies before, but we don't really see them as our true opponents.
Their soldiers are indeed brave and their officers are well-trained.
But compared to us, their tactics are very old-fashioned. Their firearms and cannons are also far behind us. They're an entire generation behind us.
Don't forget that Shiks hasn't experienced war for more than four decades. While they have a large standing army, none of them have truly experienced war before.
At most, they would only be able to suppress the riots of the natives in the colonies and clean up the bandits in the country. Unlike us, who had just experienced the war in the eastern part of the continent for five years, mastered the latest tactics, equipped with the latest weapons, and had rich battle experience.
They're inflexible and will only follow the old-fashioned way of warfare. That's our chance.
If we strike first, we can be sure that the enemy won't be able to stop us at all. In the end, we'll force them to retreat to Port Vebator, which is well-fortified.
We can't attack Port Vebator because it doesn't fit our strategy. We might even draw Shiks' attention to our homeland.
But if we can't attack Port Vebator, we'll have to fight the enemy and they'll learn the latest tactics and tactics from us.
So, our best strategy isn't to attack the enemy, but to lure them into our colonies.
We'll use time and space to lengthen the enemy's supply lines so that they'll be alone.
That way, we can concentrate our forces to surround them and wipe them out one corps at a time.
We'll be more mobile and have more firepower than the enemy. I believe that no enemy will be a match for us. "
Prince Hansbach gave a few more orders after Michaelci finished explaining his strategy. It could be seen as the Aueran kingdom's strategy for the war in Nubissia.
First, Ranger would be expanded into a corps. All the soldiers would be recruited from the country's youths and transported to Nubissia to join the army.
Second, a second corps would be formed in the seven colonies to act as Ranger's second line of support against the Shiksan colonial army.
The order to form a second overseas legion was a huge burden to the seven colonies.
This was because the seven colonies had a total of 2.3 million citizens in the kingdom.
The two overseas legions, in addition to the local garrisons of the colonies, amounted to nearly 200,000 soldiers. Compared to the total population of the kingdom, it was ten to one. Almost all the young men of the right age in the colony had been drawn out.
The third order was to divide the war zone. The lands of Robisto and Balingana on the other side of the Dorinibla River would be merged into Balingana. Together with Cromwell, they would be used as a battlefield to lure the enemy in. All the citizens of the kingdom in these two colonies would be moved to the colonies at the rear to strengthen the defense and clear out the wilderness.
At the same time, the remaining territories of Robisto and Balingana on the other side of Dorinibla River would be merged to form Robisto.
With that, Robisto would look like a narrow strip of land along Dorinibla River.
On the other side of the river, Balingana seemed to be twice the size of Robisto.
The division of Robisto and Balingana was mainly for the sake of convenience.
The kingdom's bottom line was to give up Balingana and Cromwell on the other side of Dorinibla River and defend Robisto with the river's natural defenses.
Even if Dorinibla River couldn't stop the enemy's advance, the Claude Defence Line in Anfiston would be able to keep the enemy at bay.