Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, it had been half a year since Ranger and Field Marshal Michelic returned to Aueras.
It was the 5th month of Year 589 of the Sacred Light Calendar, the 15th year since Claude transmigrated. He was 31 years old and the youngest major-general of Aueras to be born a peasant. He was also the highest-ranking officer of the war theatre in Nubissia, as well as the line commander of Thundercrash.
He was very grateful to Michelic. He was the one who recognized and promoted him, allowing him to take over his position as the highest-ranking officer of the war theatre.
At the same time, Michelic helped him set up the framework for the new war theatre command center and provided him with suitable assistants and subordinates.
That allowed Claude to smoothly assume command after Michelic returned to Aueras and allow the war theatre command center to carry out its plans in an orderly manner.
Currently, 80,000 of the 100 thousand families had been settled and only the last batch of immigrants were left.
The first and second batches of immigrants had already sown the seeds of hope in the fields they were given and were just waiting for the harvest in September.
But at the same time, nobody expected so many problems to arise in the process of settling down the 100 thousand families. Even though most of the problems were solved with the help of Sir Bennett and the civil affairs department, the war theatre command center still took up a lot of Claude's attention.
The Thundercrash Regiment was the first of the five enhanced Regiments to fully replenish their forces, followed by the Monolith First, Second, and Third Regiments. Only the Monolith Fourth Regiment was still a skeleton Regiment. They had to wait for the last batch of immigrants to arrive before they could replenish their forces and complete their mission.
Claude had asked Eiblunk and Birkin about how they were supposed to be the first and second folk, so why did they change their names to Monolith's third and fourth?
The two seniors, who were promoted to major-general at the same time as Claude, said they felt that the name 'reserve' sounded awful and made them look like they were inferior to others. So, they protested to Michelic and after a long argument, the marshal had no choice but to change the name to Monolith.
Fortunately, Claude's lackeys were quite helpful and took over most of the training and discipline of Thundercrash without him having to worry about it. They completed the half-year training mission perfectly.
Led by Moriad and Berklin, they brought most of Thundercrash's men to Cromwell and Balingana for patrols and training to familiarize themselves with the terrain. Only the veteran guerrilla battalion led by Myjack remained in Lanu.
"General, the biggest problem that is bothering us now is the pack horses, healthy horses, and transportation capacity. Most immigrant families need to buy pack horses or farm, and they also need healthy horses as mounts.
But our theatre and the three colonies behind us are unable to provide so many pack horses and healthy horses. In the past three months, the price of pack horses has tripled. It's almost the same price as warhorses … "Sir Bennett was so worried that half of his hair had turned white.
Claude couldn't solve the problem either. The five reinforced folk in the theatre didn't have enough horses to begin with. They had more than thirty thousand warhorses and around ten thousand healthy horses.
Thundercrash alone, on the other hand, had thirty thousand warhorses and close to a thousand pack horses and healthy horses. That was because Thundercrash was meant to be mobile and offensive. Just like Ranger, they had to have that many warhorses to ensure their mobility.
The rest of the pack horses and healthy horses were divided among the four folk, so there wasn't much left.
The logistics department had been complaining about the lack of transportation capacity and requested for more horses, but they couldn't buy them even if they wanted to.
Even if they wanted to, they wouldn't be able to buy them. Even though the price of pack horses had tripled, it was still a loss compared to the long-distance transportation costs.
Nobody could guarantee that there wouldn't be any problems at sea. Transporting pack horses was a risky business.
Three months ago, when Sir Bennett first raised the issue of the shortage of draft horses in the new towns established for the settlers, Claude took nearly a thousand of them from the five divisions and gave them to the Civil Office to be distributed to the new towns to be rented out to the families of the settlers.
Claude was thankful that he had ordered the horses not to be sold and could only be rented out. He had always thought that the settlers wouldn't be able to afford them.
But it turned out that Claude was wrong.
The supply of the pack horses couldn't keep up with the demand, or rather, a drop in the bucket.
The people of this world were familiar with horse farming, not cow farming. Cows were used as meat providers, not as animals for farming and pulling carts.
The settlers didn't know how to use oxen to farm or pull carts either.
The plains of Anfiston were vast and sparsely populated. There were no transportation facilities or roads. The immigrant families were placed here to work as farmers. What they needed the most were healthy horses for transportation and draft horses for farming.
Since they received the settlement allowance from the new merchant nobles when they moved to the war theatre, buying a camel wasn't much of a burden for them.
The problem was that the war theatre couldn't provide every household with a pack horse or a healthy horse. Not even the colonies of Nubissia could do that.
"Maybe we can buy some donkeys from the Nikancha to replace the pack horses to pull the carts," Major General Skri, the head of the logistics department, suggested.
The nikancha people of Nubissia liked to breed donkeys for riding and carrying. Sometimes, a nikancha family's wealth was described by how many donkeys they owned.
Perhaps buying some from the nikancha to pull carts wouldn't be a bad idea.
However, Claude was worried that the settlers would prefer to butcher the donkeys for meat. Donkey meat had always been a nourishing delicacy in Aueras.
"It's said that some of the farms in the three colonies are preparing to breed horses on a large scale. Looks like the rise in the price of pack horses has given the ranchers hope of getting rich," Bolonik said.
Major General Bolonik said, "A few of my friends have been asked by someone. Those ranchers hope to get some warhorses from our war zone as breeding stallions to improve the quality of the crossbred pack horses."
That was indeed a solution, but the only problem was that it would take a long time. It would take at least two to three years for the horses to mature.
However, the war theatre was facing a shortage of pack horses. Even if a third of a hundred thousand settlers wanted to buy a single pack horse, they would need thirty thousand of them.
It wasn't a small number, but a difficult problem to solve.
In the end, they did not come up with a solution. They only accepted Major General Skri's suggestion to purchase some donkeys from the nikancha to act as the animal power to pull the carts. This would temporarily solve the problem of transportation and travel for the immigrant families.
When he returned home, he found Weyblon and his wife there. This time, the couple brought a large amount of baby products under the guise of visiting a newborn.
About a month ago, Kefnie gave birth to another son named Baer Gassi.
In ancient Hez, it meant blue lake, and it was named after the beautiful Lan Lake next to the villa.
Now, Claude was the father of two children.
After dinner, Claude brought Weyblon to the study.
Weyblon took out a few documents from his briefcase and handed them to Claude. "General, the association has agreed to grant you the rights to the iron mine in the East Mosiraga Mountains. You may start a mine there and build a workshop.
At the same time, the mining and commerce association will also accept you as a member. You will have all the privileges and benefits a member has.
This is your mining permit, certificate of ownership, and the title deed to the mountain where the mine is located. "
Claude was delighted. "Thank you, my friend. You've been a great help."
However, Weyblon didn't quite understand. "General, may I ask why?
As we all know, iron ore is a type of mineral with the least return on investment.
The kingdom's own territory produces the most iron ore, while the overseas colonies have the least mining and investment value. Our association only has one mine, but the farming tools and daily necessities we produce are enough to satisfy the needs of the overseas colonies. Our annual return is the lowest among all the mines.
"Last year, when the first and second batch of immigrants arrived, the farm tools and daily necessities they needed improved the report a little.
But now, the Civil Affairs Department of the war zone has handed over the orders for the immigrants to the association's iron mine. General, even if you develop the iron mine and build a workshop, you won't be able to earn more money from the immigrant families, right?
After all, every family doesn't need a lot of metal. "
Claude laughed heartily. "Don't worry, my friend. Please tell the owners of the mine that I don't want it to be their competitor.
I want it to produce military supplies, not daily necessities or farming tools. Instead, it's a type of weapon.
That's why I rejected your offer of help and asked the association's mines to provide me with products for free.
That's why I insisted on owning the mine. That's because I need to keep it a secret. "
Weyblon heaved a sigh of relief, but his curiosity was piqued. "General, as far as I know, the kingdom has strict requirements and restrictions on the production of military supplies. The weapons and armaments needed by the colonies on Nubissia are all shipped from the kingdom itself.
Why would they agree to set up a workshop here? "
Claude shook his head. "They didn't allow me to set up a workshop in the war theatre. Only the gunsmiths and ammunition workshops are allowed to be set up in the war theatre. They're still under the strict surveillance of the royal army.
I don't need the kingdom's approval because the weapons I want to produce are my own inventions and not the standard equipment of the kingdom.
That's why I need a mine and my own workshop. I'll first produce a batch for the troops to test. If it can increase the troops' combat power, the theatre will purchase it on a large scale. "
Weyblon suddenly realized something and looked at Claude with admiration. He felt that Claude was quite smart to have found such an unquestionable way to earn money.
It was simple. Even if Claude opened up the mine and used the workshop to make pig iron eggs, the theatre would have to admit that he was doing well if he killed even one enemy on the frontlines.
As the commander-in-chief of the theatre, Claude could order the logistics department to purchase large amounts of pig iron eggs from his workshop and earn a huge sum of money.
Claude didn't know how dark Weyblon's thoughts were. He asked the mining association to give him the mine that had been discovered for more than 60 years because he wanted to find a secret place to produce hand grenades. He also wanted to see if he could produce mines or something else. Those would be his best weapons for the next colonial war.
However, the safety explosives he asked his sister to experiment with failed. Or rather, it wasn't a complete failure.
The reason was simple. She managed to successfully synthesize the safety explosives in her alchemical formation. She used a red clay from Nubissia to stabilize and passivate nitroglycerin, turning it into a safety explosive.
But the problem was that the nitroglycerin that could be synthesized in the alchemical formation couldn't be mass-produced because it needed to be cooled down.
Angelina could control the temperature in the alchemical formation and use freezing spells to cool it down.
But in the real world, she didn't know how to design the cooling system at all. She was helpless and Claude couldn't do anything about it.
The amount of nitroglycerin that could be produced in the alchemical formation was very small and the safety explosives could only fill up to three hand grenades at most. Not only that, it took a long time to produce them, at least four to five hours.
Claude couldn't let his sister stand in front of the alchemical formation every day to produce safety explosives. That wasn't worth it at all.
Since mass production of safety explosives wasn't going to happen, he didn't mind using gunpowder for the bigger hand grenades. At most, he would just have to rely on manpower to throw them.
More importantly, the hand grenades would explode when they hit the ground. That would be a huge surprise to the enemy.
In this era, cannons only fired solid projectiles apart from canister shells.
Claude had already decided that after the mine design was done, he would let his sister see if she could design an explosive shell.
It was easy to change the way grenades were used. Most soldiers could only throw a grenade twenty to thirty meters away with all their might. So, Claude designed a simple throwing mechanism. He used a spring board used for carriages and a metal plate to form a simple throwing mechanism. He would place the metal plate on the ground, remove the spring board, and place the grenade into the slot. After pulling the string, he would release the spring board and the grenade would fly fifty to sixty meters away.
After a few tests, he felt that they could be used on the battlefield. That was why he asked the mining association for the mine that had been abandoned for more than 60 years and decided to open his own workshop to manufacture grenades and landmines.
Mr Weyblon helped him with his request to the Mining and Commerce Association and all the paperwork.
"My friend, I still need your help. If it's possible, I hope you can invest in this workshop and help me manage it. I lack a reliable manager," Claude said honestly.
Weyblon, however, thought that Claude was thanking him for his help. After all, a workshop that could make money just by making pig iron didn't need any strict management.
He humbly said that he was helping Claude out of friendship and that he didn't need any reward for it.
But under Claude's insistence, he paid 2,000 crowns for 20% of the shares and signed a non-disclosure agreement.
However, Weyblon didn't know what 20% of the shares meant. He believed that since Claude was willing to give him a share, he shouldn't be stingy.
The way he saw it, the 2,000 crowns were more than enough to hire people to develop the mine and build a workshop. Claude didn't need to fork out much money. All he had to do was deal with the logistics department and he'd be able to earn money without doing anything.