Claude flipped the invitation around in his hand and found it a little strange.
Wasn't the newly appointed Supreme Commander of the theater of operations, General Aljes Kai Osmolin, the Hereditary Earl of the Kingdom, supposed to be inspecting the First and Second Monolith Division in the next two days? Why did he have the time to invite him to his private dinner at night?
Was he trying to rope me in, or was it because I didn't accompany him for the inspection and he felt like I was going against him on purpose? Was he trying to find a reason to punish me?
No, if that was the case, he wouldn't have sent me an invitation. A private dinner was meant to build a relationship and show friendliness, or perhaps to discuss something in private.
"You said General Aljess returned to HQ this morning?" Claude asked Anders, the aide who delivered the invitation.
Anders nodded. "Yes. According to his schedule, he should be going to Monolith's first folk for an inspection. It'll take him five days to go back and forth.
But for some reason, General Alsace canceled his plan to inspect the troops and returned to the war zone headquarters this morning. He then sent his adjutant to deliver this invitation to you. "
Claude gave it some thought and asked, "Did General Bolonik come back with him?"
"No, General. I've asked around. General Bolonik went back to Monolith's first folk," Anders replied.
"Alright then. Tell the aide who sent the invitation that I'm happy to accept the general's invitation and will attend his private dinner on time," said Claude.
It was already late at night and the carriage rumbled on the cobblestone road.
Claude sat in the carriage with his eyes closed in deep thought. He didn't think that General Aljess would invite him to a private dinner for the grenade blueprints and production authorization.
There were only two people at the dinner. General Aljess booked the most luxurious tavern in Lanu, the most luxurious tavern run by the mining and commerce association in town.
That surprised Claude, who thought there would be a lot of people at the dinner, didn't think that General Aljess would invite him alone.
At first, the atmosphere was a little awkward. However, General Alsace was indeed from an old noble family. He was a master at adjusting the atmosphere.
Even though he was twenty years older than Claude, there wasn't much of a barrier between the two of them when they conversed.
He started off with a few dirty jokes about the royal capital before moving on to the education of his children and the huge ranch he was helping Angelina set up. When it came to the business of the family, Claude felt relaxed and relaxed. He was able to laugh and chat with General Aljess.
After eating and drinking to their heart's content, they removed the plates and bowls and served black tea after dinner. General Algers and Claude began to talk business.
It was only then that Claude understood why General Aljess stopped the inspection tour. He had seen General Sevict's offensive drills in 2nd Monolith and discovered the powerful projectile. Because of that, he was confident in taking Port Kvibator and stopped the inspection tour.
General Aljess said that after seeing the explosive power of the projectile, he finally understood why Claude led Thundercrash to wipe out three Shiksan corps in one fell swoop and won the third colonial war.
After finding out from Sevict and Bolonik that the grenade was Claude's invention, he rushed back to Lanu right away. He had two reasons for inviting Claude to the banquet. The first was to purchase grenades for the royal guard, and the second was to obtain the manufacturing rights for the grenade.
As someone from an old noble family and a representative of the royal army, General Aljess was no ordinary person.
Even though his military career suffered some setbacks due to the heavy casualties suffered by his subordinates, his invincible record and title were undeniable. Otherwise, he wouldn't have become a general of the kingdom.
He knew very well what the effects of the projectile meant in an offensive battle. For the kingdom's army, this was an invincible strategic offensive weapon that could reduce the heavy casualties of the attacking troops.
Had it not been for Claude's identity and status, General Aljess might have been more than willing to use other methods to obtain the production permit for the projectile.
Claude knew that very well. It wasn't hard to replicate a projectile. All he had to do was disassemble a few and he would be able to understand the internal structure of the projectile.
Not to mention, there weren't any patents in this world. The old noble family behind General Aljess had their eyes on Claude's projectile and could easily replicate it. All they had to do was change the cylindrical shape to a circular shape.
The fact that General Aljess was willing to talk to Claude about the production permit for China's projectile was a clear sign of his goodwill.
Claude agreed to General Aljess's request and signed an official authorization document. He drew a diagram of the projectile's internal structure on a piece of paper and made detailed annotations on some of the more technical parts.
General Aljess was pleasantly surprised. He didn't think that Claude would be so tactful. He gave him a national bank draft worth ten thousand crowns as the proceeds of the authorization.
Claude then realized where Aljess's true gratitude lay. He gave the royal guard an order for twenty thousand projectiles, but the price wasn't the one crown per projectile that Claude sold to the five enhanced folk. Instead, it was three crowns per projectile.
General Aljess told Claude that the price of one crown per projectile sold to the war theatre could be labeled as a trial price. In the future, he would have to set the price at three crowns per projectile. Otherwise, he would definitely make a loss.
Make a loss?
How could that be? Claude couldn't think of any reason why he would make a loss.
The production cost of a projectile was around one thale. Including other miscellaneous expenses, it wouldn't exceed two thales. If he sold it for one crown per projectile, he would make a profit of three thales.
Now that the projectiles had proven their power and effectiveness in battle, the royal army would definitely purchase them in bulk. How could they make a loss?
Aljess smiled. He told Claude that he was actually quite envious of the good relationship between the five folk in the war theatre.
There was no scheming or mutual favoritism.
It wasn't like the rivalry between the kingdom's ace corps, where they wouldn't let each other have a good time even if they couldn't have it. What they were most afraid of were the pig-headed teammates who dragged them down.
The price of a grenade was set at three gold crowns. It wasn't because Aljess was greedy, nor was it because the old noble families behind him wanted to make a huge profit.
Of the three crowns, two crowns had to be used as a public relations fee so that everyone involved in the matter would have a share of the profits. Only then could the production of the grenade remain in the hands of his family. That way, no other military factories in the kingdom would be able to produce similar replicas.
He now had two bank drafts on him. One was for ten thousand crowns, which was the license fee for the grenade production. He could put it into his own pocket.
The other one was for 60,000 crowns. General Aljess generously paid for the 20 thousand grenades for the royal guard and told Claude that the money would be used for the royal guard's expenses and not the war theatre's expenses.
For the sake of taking over Port Vebator and gaining enough merit to be promoted to a grand marshal, he brought 300,000 crowns with him and planned to spend it all on the battle.
Claude couldn't help but sigh at the wealth of the old noble families.
Of course, this sum of money was not from General Algers. Most of the noble officers in the Praetorian Guard Regiment who came with him also had their families behind them.
Aljess told Claude not to worry about how long he would stay as the war theatre's highest commanding officer. He came to the colonies to earn some merit.
After taking over Port Vebator, he would return to the kingdom with the royal guard. By then, the war theatre's highest commanding officer would still be Claude's.
But now that he thought about Aljess's promise, he wondered if the kingdom would keep the war theatre after taking over Port Vebator.
Without the threat of Shiks invading the colonies, the kingdom would very likely revert to the system of having a viceroy in charge of the colonies. By then, Thundercrash and the three corps of Monolith wouldn't know what to do. They might even be reduced to a skeleton corps like the second tier corps in the kingdom.
Just as the carriage was about to reach Weyblon Manor, it suddenly came to a halt. Gum's order to stand guard made the atmosphere tense.
Claude looked out the window and saw the guards stationed their mounts at the outer perimeter of the carriage with their muskets lit and ready to be on high alert.
"What's wrong?" Claude asked.
Gum quickly came back to report, "General, there were five or six drunkards. They should be new immigrants. They caused a ruckus on the side of the road.
I've sent some men to chase them far away. It's fine now, we can continue on our way. "
It seemed a little strange. It was just a few drunken immigrants and there wasn't a need to be so nervous.
However, ever since Gum became the jarl of Claude's personal guard, she was very strict with her duties and followed the rules of the guards at all times.
After returning home, Claude paid his respects to Kefnie and fell asleep with her in his arms.
But soon, he was jolted out of his stupor by the crisp sound of gunfire. Sounds of gunfire and candlelight rang out in Weyblon Manor.
Kefnie, on the other hand, was sound asleep. Claude slowly moved his wife's hand away from his body and got out of bed, put on his pajamas and walked out of the bedroom. Soon, Gum appeared before him with a lit gun in her hand, her clothes disheveled.
"General, are you alright?" Gum looked around warily.
"I'm fine. Who shot me?"
Claude lit the candles on the lampstand in the living room. The soft light from the candles illuminated the room, and the big man sighed in relief.
"It was the sniper on the roof. He said he saw three black figures crawling over the walls of the manor. He fired a shot and seemed to have hit one of them. We don't know if the three black figures escaped or snuck into the manor. We need to search the entire manor immediately …" Gum reported.
"Maybe it's a thief," Claude said nonchalantly, "I heard that Lanu's security hasn't been good lately. General Hazorak has complained about it quite a few times.
He needs to set up a garrison force for Lanu and not rely on a patrol company of fifty or so officers to maintain the security of a town with a population of a hundred thousand.
But the theatre didn't give him the funds to set up a garrison force. Perhaps I should remind General Aljis tomorrow. "
Lanu could have been upgraded to a city long ago. After the hundred thousand families of immigrants arrived in Anfiston, many of them with skills didn't want to become farmers. Instead, they took a loan to set up their own workshops and shops in Lanu. Lanu expanded three to four times its original size in an instant.
Along with the expansion of manpower and land, there was also a huge threat to public security. Petty thefts, drunkenness, brawls and other such incidents kept popping up one after another. The patrol company that used to have a single company was exhausted and couldn't deal with the security of the entire town.
General Hazorak, who was in charge of the local garrison force, security and anti-espionage, was planning to set up a garrison force in Lanu to help maintain order. However, he was limited by the number of soldiers and the lack of funds.
This was the theatre, after all, so the formation of a garrison force would have to wait for General Birkin's 4th, or rather, 3rd, folk to complete.
But after General Birkin's folk was formed, the good news of Thundercrash's victory in the third colonial war came.
At the same time, due to the heavy casualties suffered by Thundercrash, the recruits that were selected to form the garrison force were given to Thundercrash as replacements, which infuriated General Hazorak.
But there was nothing he could do about it. He was in charge of the garrison force and the frontline troops took precedence.
General Hazorak had already submitted his third report to set up a garrison force in Lanu. But due to the change in duties, Claude wasn't in the mood to care about such trivial matters.
The newly appointed commander-in-chief of the theatre, Aljis, didn't care about such local matters either. What he cared about was the combat prowess of Monolith's three folk and the recovery of his royal guard. He couldn't wait to take over Port Vebator.
It wasn't until his manor was robbed in the middle of the night that Claude realized that the security in Lanu had reached a point where he couldn't delay any longer.
If even the manor of Thundercrash's general was targeted, one could only imagine how serious the security in Lanu was.
Gum had arranged for two snipers to be hidden on the rooftop of the manor every night as backup for the night patrols. He didn't expect them to be so useful that night.
The sniper who fired the shot was brought to Claude. He said that the three silhouettes waited for the patrols to pass before climbing over the wall.
Coincidentally, the clouds in the sky parted and he saw the three silhouettes climb over the wall under the moonlight, so he fired a warning shot.
Then, the clouds blocked the moonlight, so he didn't know if the three silhouettes escaped or snuck into the manor.
But he was sure that the shot he fired hit one of the silhouettes.
There was indeed a small puddle of blood by the wall. Based on the traces of blood, the three silhouettes must have climbed over the wall to escape.
However, Claude still led a team to search the entire manor and caused quite a ruckus for the entire night.
The next morning, General Hazorak came to Claude's headquarters after hearing the news. When Aljis heard about it, he gave Hazorak 20,000 crowns to set up the garrison force in Lanu and told him to fix the security problems in the town as soon as possible.
When Claude returned to the manor, he saw that Weyblon had come over with three black cratters. That way, they wouldn't have to worry about thieves sneaking into the manor at night.