Claude shrugged shamelessly. "General, you're just going back to the royal capital and leaving us behind. None of us is confident about that.
With you around, we were fearless and only knew how to charge and win.
Since you're planning everything from behind the scenes, we don't have to think too much and only have to follow your orders.
Now that you're leaving and you're putting the burden on me, I won't be able to take it!
The high-ranking generals of the kingdom aren't willing to take over your position because they know that it's like sitting on a knife's edge. The slightest carelessness will get them hurt.
General, please show some mercy and let me go. Also, find someone more suitable than me in the corps. "
"You're not the only one bearing the burden. I've also found you two assistants to share some of the burden.
Colonel Boronik and Colonel Sevict were your seniors in the advanced seminar. With their help, I'm sure you'll be able to get used to your new position in no time, "Misierc consoled Claude with a smile.
Claude was overjoyed. "General, you can choose one of them to replace me as the commander-in-chief. Either one of them is more suitable than me, be it in terms of rank or talent."
Michelic, however, shook his head. "I don't think so, Claude.
Why should I choose you over one of them? It's because you have an honorary title more than them.
You're a baron of the kingdom, a noble. As the highest-ranking general of the colony, you'll have to deal with the locals.
To them, an honorary baron of the kingdom is more worthy of their respect and intimacy than a military rank or position.
More importantly, your seniors' forte lies in defense, unlike you, who specialize in offense.
Good defense can increase the number of casualties the enemy has to pay, sapping their troops and morale, prolonging the war and increasing the cost of the enemy's war.
It was like cutting a wound on the enemy's body, causing him to continuously lose blood. In the end, the enemy would not be able to bear the price of the war and walk towards the negotiating table for a truce.
However, defending will also cost us a lot of casualties. After all, we are in a passive situation. The initiative of the battlefield is in the hands of the enemy. We can only act according to the situation to deal with the enemy's attack.
To win the war, we must learn to take the initiative.
Even if the enemy is stronger than us, we still have to rely on attacks to seize the initiative on the battlefield.
Before the battle of Balingana, no one thought highly of us.
We have more than thirty thousand people. Together with a newly formed overseas field army with low combat power, we will be able to deal with the enemy's five standing corps of more than three hundred thousand soldiers.
However, we seized the initiative on the battlefield, cut off the enemy's logistical supply channel, and covered the entire battlefield, making it impossible for the enemy to investigate the real situation of the battle. Thus, they became overly suspicious, and in the end, they were completely wiped out because their logistical supply couldn't keep up.
This was the active offensive defense, grasping the initiative on the battlefield, concealing the enemy's reconnaissance ability, causing the enemy to be led by the nose and follow in our footsteps.
The enemy is like a slow-moving giant. They may look huge, but they pose no threat to us.
It's just a pity that your two seniors have been too deeply influenced by the traditional military education they received since they were young. They can't learn to take the initiative to attack and defend. As soon as they start fighting, it will turn into a traditional battle of positional defense. They are prudent and cautious by nature. They won't take the risk to attack unless they are confident …
You're different from them. Your talent lies in attacking. It's an instinct that's in your blood.
I'm amazed at your ability to grasp opportunities and your sensitivity on the battlefield. You always choose the most advantageous situation for you and launch a fatal attack when the enemy least expects it, swiftly obtaining victory at the highest cost.
Just like when you led Tribe 131 to attack Wickhamsburg, I thought it would be difficult for you to complete the mission of burning all the supply warehouses with just a secret tunnel. That was the key to the outcome of the Balingana Campaign … "" That's right.
The enemy had twice the number of troops you had. The two garrison lines could still rely on the sturdy castle to defend themselves.
In the end, you used the secret tunnels to create chaos among the enemy and seized the castle gates. You commanded Line 131 to swiftly wipe out the enemy command center and force two enemy lines to surrender. You captured the entire castle with minimal casualties and burned down all the warehouses.
The 180,000 enemies who finally reached Wickhamsburg had no choice but to surrender in despair due to the lack of supplies, allowing us to win the entire battle.
As for you using the supplies transported from Wickhamsburg to build the camp and solving the problem of the 200,000 captives being starved of food and clothing, I won't mention that. Even though the higher-ups refused to give you any credit, I do remember that you did me a great favor.
Based on those factors, I believe you're the most suitable person to take over my position if we want to win the war against Shiks.
Only by attacking can we win! "
Claude grinned. No matter who it was, he would be delighted to hear the praise of the kingdom's god of war, Marshal Michelic.
Now that he heard Michelic's analysis, he too felt that he was the most suitable candidate to take over Ranger.
"Most of the soldiers transferred from Ranger this time will be the backbone of the three enhanced folk."
Marshal Michelic continued, "I've chosen your two seniors to be your assistants because I'm prepared to hand over the responsibility of defense to them.
Colonel Bolonik will be the jarl of Monolith 1st Folk, while Colonel Sevict will be the jarl of Monolith 2nd Folk.
The two folk named after Monolith will be in charge of the Dorinibla River defence line in Robisto and the Claude defence line in Anfiston.
"With the two of them as your support, you won't have to worry about defending the rear. You'll be able to seize opportunities in the vast battlefield of Cromwell and Balingana and use your attacks to deal fatal damage to the enemy.
"So, the folk you lead will be named Thunderbolt. It'll be the same as Ranger, a mobile offensive force.
Do you understand why I named it Thunderbolt? "
Claude nodded and straightened his back. "General, I guarantee that no enemy will be able to stop the attacks of Thunderbolt. We'll move like lightning and strike with the force of thunder. When we attack, no enemy will be able to stop our thunderous attacks. We'll strike fear into the hearts of our enemies and crush them."
"Move like lightning and strike with the force of thunder. Well said.
Claude, I hope you'll be able to do as you say. "
Michelic thought back to Claude's words with approval. "You don't have to worry about me transferring most of Ranger's men to the local garrison and leaving all the equipment and warhorses here for you.
In fact, the royal family will be happier with me doing that.
Firstly, they'll have the chance to plant their own subordinates in Ranger.
Secondly, there were enough vacancies for the high-ranking officers who were related to the royal family to earn some free pay from their subordinates.
Thirdly, without any equipment, the royal family can use the excuse of reorganizing their forces to make a killing.
The ministry of the army will be more than happy to see that happen. Since it's all the royal family's money, they won't have to pay a single copper from the army's budget. Instead, they'll be able to work with the royal family to get a share of the profits. "
The secrets he heard about the ministry of the army and the royal family had refreshed his horizons time and time again.
In his impression, the Kingdom's Army was an efficient, well-organized, disciplined, and violent organization with strong combat power.
He had fully experienced and seen this during the war, and he himself was one of them.
Yet, he didn't think that the upper echelons would also be plotting against each other for their own interests.
"You don't have to think the decisions of the upper echelons are so wise. Sometimes, the policies and policies they pass down are more like compromises in order to take care of the interests of all parties," Michelic said as if he had seen through everything.
"Just like the fact that you've taken over my position as the highest commanding officer of the war theatre. It might seem like you have a lot of power, but you're in charge of the four colonies and have five enhanced folks under you, a total of 150-160,000-strong troops.
But if the upper echelons didn't believe that Shiks' plan to form ten standing corps for the colonial war was real and not just a bluff, you wouldn't be the highest commanding officer of the theatre at all.
Even my recommendation wouldn't work. There'll be plenty of people who'll fight for the position.
It's precisely because the position is like a pit of fire. Like you said, it's like sitting on the tip of a knife. That's why it fell to you.
However, I believe that as long as you can defeat the standing corps Shiks sent to Nubissia again, no one will be able to kick you out of this position.
Of course, if you win again, I believe Shiks won't be able to hold on any longer. When peace comes, the kingdom will disband the theatre.
At that time, you'll become a symbol of the royal army and a legendary hero of the kingdom. "
After giving Claude some encouragement, Misik went back to business. "I've already helped you solve the problem of troop replenishment.
I've made a deal with the kingdom's up-and-coming merchant nobles, which has the support of the kingdom's higher-ups.
The deal is simple. We'll hand over the 500,000 Shiksan captives we captured in the two colonial wars to them, and they'll be responsible for helping us relocate 100,000 families to the theatre.
The most important condition of the deal is that each family must have at least one young man who retired from the war five years ago.
All the relocation fees will be paid by the new business nobles, and all we need to do is to arrange an estate for these 100,000 immigrant families.
In addition, in order to support our theater of operations in preparing for the next colonial war, the Ministry of the Army promised to transfer 20 local guard battalions with battlefield experience from the five-year war in the eastern region to us even though they couldn't send a corps over.
See, we don't have to worry about troop replenishment anymore. A hundred thousand families means a hundred thousand soldiers.
Together with the 20 garrison clans, you'll have 20,000 veterans.
There are already 120,000 eligible conscripts here, as well as most of Ranger's personnel transferred over and the two overseas corps. That's enough for you to form five strengthened folk, not to mention that you'll have more than enough reserves. "
Claude's eyes widened in shock. "General, have those up-and-coming merchant nobles gone mad? They're actually using a hundred thousand families in exchange for 500,000 captives?
We're in a war theatre right now. Aren't they worried about the safety of the families? "
Misik smiled playfully. "Claude, you don't understand. The higher-ups aren't concerned about the safety of the families. They're more concerned about the 500,000 captives. They don't need to spend any money, they just need to feed them and they'll be able to use them as they please.
"The new merchant nobles' territory is in the newly conquered territories, the 29 prefectures of the three duchies. Due to the five years of war, there's a huge shortage of young men there.
You may have heard that a few years ago, they were trying to bring in mixed-blood natives from the seven colonies. That is to say, nearly a million young and strong Kancha to fill the labor gap in the newly conquered territories.
However, this matter was messed up by the Temple. Deputy Chairman Obinit, who proposed this immigration plan in the parliament, had his mansion in the Royal Capital smashed by the protestors.
That's why this immigration plan ended in failure, which led to those upstart business nobles to set their sights on our 500,000 captives.
The hundred thousand families might seem like a lot, but there are only about three thousand families in each of the 32 prefectures of the kingdom.
To the prefectures, moving the families to the colonies is actually saving them a lot of trouble. They'll even thank us for it.
Do you know why?
The reason is simple. The families have young men who were conscripted for the five years of war. After the war ended, they were forced to retire and go home.
Since they didn't have enough merits and their term of service wasn't up, they weren't able to get citizenship.
But because they had participated in the war, they were more knowledgeable than the local civilians, so these retired soldiers could easily become an unstable factor in the local area.
As commoners, most of them came from poor families. Given how strict the kingdom's laws were, they couldn't move their families to the newly conquered territories.
However, the new merchant nobles found a loophole in the kingdom's laws. The migration of commoners between prefectures was very strict as it affected the number of soldiers conscripted in each prefecture during the war.
However, the kingdom had always encouraged commoners to migrate to the colonies. Not only that, the new merchant nobles were also very lenient on commoners. They could have the rights of a citizen there and it would be easier for them to start a family business.
In fact, that was how nearly a million people from the seven colonies came to the colonies. Every time a war ended, there would be a wave of migration.
Had it not been for the colonial war with Shiks, there might've been a lot more immigrants in the colonies.
To the local prefectures, moving the families of these retired soldiers to the colonies would stabilize the local peace and harmony and also support the kingdom's immigration policy. It could be said that it was a political achievement for them.
As for the migrating commoners, the new merchant nobles paid for their travel and settlement fees, lightening their financial burden.
"We've also given them a piece of property here. The retired soldiers can continue to serve in the army and get citizenship. It's a happy ending and everyone is satisfied.
As for the risk of losing their loved ones to war, that's unavoidable. They have to pay the price for agreeing to migrate.
"As for the 20 garrison camps, they're the base of the new merchant nobles. They have the ability to coordinate everything. All we have to do is to take over and prepare for war.
You see, the most important issue of troop replenishment has been solved by me, the former commanding officer who is about to step down. Next is what you all need to be responsible for. Reorganize and reorganize the five divisions, step up preparations for war, and strengthen and perfect the defensive line.
Remember, you only have two to three years at most … "