"… Currently, four of the five fortresses we originally planned to build have been completed. Wickham Castle in Cromwell's Dominion and Rumbichuk Castle have been completed.
Harod Castle and Baak Hill Castle in Balingana have also been delivered. All that's left is Jassiliya Castle. It's estimated to be completed by June next year.
After the construction of the five fortresses is complete, we still need to build a direct road to Port Vebator in the colonies of Cromwell and Blakenana, as well as defensive outposts along the coast. This will improve our defenses against attacks from the sea.
"We're also considering whether we should build a fixed stone bridge over the Dorinibla River to replace the two smaller pontoon bridges.
"However, it looks like we'll have to postpone these projects. Monknad City in Port Vebator needs to be rebuilt and the silver mine there needs to be excavated.
That's the wealth that belongs to the direct territories of our war zone. Back then, the nikancha rioted and nearly destroyed Monknad City. Now, we have to make the City of Silver work again.
The mining and commercial association has already sent experts to investigate. If we have enough manpower, it will only take two months for the mine to be up and running again. It is estimated that it will be able to produce 150,000 crowns worth of silver every year. It will make up for the lack of funds we are currently facing.
"Also, Monknad City is located in the mountainous eastern region of Port Vebator. It's only a hundred kilometres away from the nikancha nation. If we don't send people to guard this abandoned silver city, the nikancha will be able to take over a third of Port Vebator's eastern region.
My suggestion is that we should make use of the fact that the Nikancha have just established their country and they still need our military assistance. They also need to make all sorts of deals with our theatre to draw a clear border with them. This is to prevent disputes between the two sides in the future due to the ambiguity of the border between their country and our theatre.
That's because there are often groups of nikancha wandering into Port Vebator until they are chased out by our patrols … "
It was the end-of-year meeting of the theatres of war. General Skree, the Grand Seneschal of the theatres of war, gave a summing-up report for the year. Claude, Generals Bolonik, Eiblont, Beechklin, Sir Bennett the One-Handed, and Mr Saljorak, the newly appointed Chief Constable of Cromwell and Balingana.
To put it bluntly, they were still the leaders of the original theater, but General Sevict, who had been assassinated, was missing.
Monknad would have to be rebuilt and built like Wickhamsburg into a fortress. That wasn't only because of the silver mine nearby, but also because it was less than a hundred kilometres away from the nikancha nation.
Back when it was a Shiksan colony, Monknad was surrounded by Shiksan colonies, so it didn't really need to be protected. The nikancha attacked the silver city the moment the riot broke out and rescued the nikancha slaves. They killed almost all the slave masters and overseers and even set the city on fire.
Following that, Claude led Thundercrash and swept through Port Vebator. Shiks was left with only one standing corps in Port Vebator and Monknad was abandoned as a result.
Port Vebator was now the eighth colony of Aueras. According to the original map, Monknad and the silver mine belonged to Port Vebator. General Skri, who was driven mad by money, set his sights on the silver mine.
"Our war theatre has a deficit of 1.45 million crowns this year. Most of the expenses come from the resettlement of the immigrants and the construction of Cromwell and Balingana," General Skri continued.
General Skri continued with his report, "Currently, the two colonies have settled in close to two million people, and 23 new towns have been built.
According to the statistics, on average, a soldier migrates 18 relatives. Among them, the highest number is as high as 67, and the lowest is 6. This is the main reason for the lack of funds in our theater of operations …
Fortunately, most of the officers and soldiers of the two corps had already moved their families to the two territories. The remaining two to three hundred thousand people would arrive one after another next year.
"The problem is that such a large number of civilians have followed suit. To avoid a civil war in the kingdom, they're willing to follow the families of our soldiers to the colonies.
"Whitestag's Storm fleet, on the other hand, only cares about the high transportation costs. They don't care if our war theatre can handle so many immigrants and only know how to transport them.
"The viceroys and governors of Tyrrsim, Mormaly and Aduras don't care about the lives of the immigrants and only send them to the colonies under the war theatre's jurisdiction.
"As of now, there are around two hundred thousand registered immigrants who aren't related to our two corps. All of them have been settled in Robisto.
"While our war theatre has a deficit of 1.45 million crowns this year, we don't have to fork out a lot of cash.
"General Claude's suggestion of issuing vouchers has effectively solved our financial predicament, but that doesn't mean our financial problem has been solved.
"We won't be able to collect any taxes from Cromwell and Balingana in the coming year. We'll also have to transport goods from the other colonies to Cromwell and Balingana for sale.
That is to say, the goods we bought with real money and sent to Cromwell and Balingana to be sold are only the vouchers we issued this year. We're just postponing the financial problems we're facing this year to the year after next.
"If it's possible, I really hope our war theatre can issue vouchers every year instead of crowns.
"There are two major problems we face at the moment. One is the lack of funds for construction and development. Even if we divert the military budget, we won't be able to fill the gap.
Cromwell and Balingana will only be able to collect taxes after two years. Only then will our war zone's funds be replenished, but this is a long-term process. It is estimated that it will take us more than ten years to recover the funds we invested in the development and construction.
Another problem was that the kingdom didn't invest that much cash in the colonies. Even if we borrowed from the national banks of the colonies, we wouldn't be able to borrow that much money. They didn't have that many crowns and thales.
This had a very negative impact on the commerce and construction investments of the colonies' people.
"As the workshops have said, there are people who want the goods they produce, but they can't provide cash. They can only barter, which increases the difficulty of trading.
The Mining and Commerce Association's suggestion is for us to coin our own currency in the colonies.
They had privately purchased a few scrap coins from the capital's mint at a high price to be recast. They could be used to make gold crowns, thales, riasos, and fennies. They were only short of sunars and pennies.
"However, the sunars and pence we lack can be shipped in from the kingdom. We have enough gold and copper mines in the colonies to make these coins. They're willing to provide us with 300,000 crowns a year."
Claude was sometimes surprised by the courage of the merchants from the Mining and Commerce Association. It was as if they were willing to take on a losing proposition.
The kingdom's laws stipulated that all coins could only be minted by the state. Those who minted coins privately only had one fate: death!
However, the kingdom's restrictions on the colonies had caused their economic development to stagnate. The Mining and Commerce Association had always been trying to break those restrictions.
Without enough currency, there wouldn't be any large-scale profits. In the past, the kingdom plundered the colonies for resources and the Mining and Commerce Association was the first to bear the brunt of it. The minerals they mined could only be refined into ingots and shipped back to the kingdom for sale.
The price was set by the nobles who monopolized the trade between the two continents. They reaped most of the profits, leaving only scraps for the Mining and Commerce Association.
The gold and silver mines could only be shipped to the royal capital for free. The Mining and Commerce Association didn't earn more than 10% of their profits from that. That was why they colluded with command last year to ask for development funds for the colonies to keep the ingots.
Claude didn't think that they would even have the follow-up arrangements ready. They minted coins privately and even dragged the war theatre into it to make sure nothing went wrong.
Claude knocked on the table. "Tell the Mining and Commerce Association that we can agree to them minting coins privately, but we want 500,000 crowns a year.
We can let them contract the silver mines in Monknad and we'll take care of their safety.
However, they have to keep it a secret when making the coins. Don't let everyone know about it and it'll put us in a difficult position. "
In any case, the two continents were separated by the Silent Ocean, and the kingdom was in the middle of a civil war between the two kings, so they had no time to care about the development of the colonies.
The war theatre, on the other hand, was short on funds. They couldn't afford to go bankrupt.
It didn't matter if it was illegal or not. They had to hold on to whatever they could. Solving the problem was the most important thing.
Bolonik nodded. "I'll go to Tyrrsim, Mormaly and Aduras after the new year. I'll talk to the viceroys about the difficulties we're facing and ask them to help us. Don't deduct the 30% of taxes. That way, the war theatre can get another 100,000 crowns in revenue."
That was one of Bolonik's bad points. He always thought too highly of others. He was a believer in the theory of kindness.
Would the viceroys and generals of the three colonies be willing to spit out the meat they already had?
It was better to let Bolonik try his luck.
Sir Bennett said, "Cromwell, Balingana and Robisto have a large number of immigrants migrating, so the workshops and workshops in Anfiston have received a large number of orders. It is expected that there will be a large increase in tax revenue next year, and it is likely that there will be an extra hundred thousand crowns in business tax. This should ease some of the financial burden on the theatres."
"If we can get an extra 700,000 crowns next year, I believe we'll have an easier time," Skri said.
General Skree replied, "There's no shortage of food in our theatre. The winter wheat planted in Cromwell and Balingana this November can be harvested in April next year, followed by summer wheat. After the harvest in September, we can also plant a crop of potatoes. The land in these two colonies is fertile and suitable for farming and grazing.
In addition, the five fortress-like castles and the twenty-three newly built towns have all been developed according to the distribution of half public farmland and half private property. All the public farmland has been cultivated and planted by the relatives of the soldiers who migrated here. By next year's harvest, the two million immigrants will be completely self-sufficient in food ….
"That's the biggest investment we've made this year. The 200,000 Shiksan captives are the laborers for the construction of the five fortresses. All we need to do is provide them with food and clothing, as well as provide them with some medical treatment. We only spent 100,000 crowns on the construction of the fortresses.
"However, hiring the families of the two corps to cultivate the public lands, build the irrigation works and 23 new towns, as well as the roads leading to them, cost us a million crowns. Fortunately, General Claude suggested issuing vouchers to alleviate our financial problems. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to sustain it.
However, next year, our theater of operations will continue to invest in the public facilities of these two colonies. Additionally, we will build small-scale shipbuilding workshops along the coast and small-scale fishing boats to fish in the offshore waters. This will also bring a certain income to our theater of operations.
Most importantly, we can't let the families of the officers and soldiers of the two corps stay in the colonies and do nothing. That will have a very bad impact on the security of the two colonies … "
Claude could only smile bitterly. They would have to continue investing in the two colonies' public facilities next year. For example, they would have to set up a police force in each town, set up a national primary and secondary school, and set up a town hall to manage the new towns effectively. That would require a large amount of investment. It seemed they would have to issue another voucher next year.
General Bolonik rubbed his brows. As the acting supreme commander of the theater of operations, the difficulties faced by the theater of operations put pressure on him. In just half a year, almost half of his hair had turned white, and the wrinkles on his forehead had deepened.
"Let's leave it at that for now. Everyone is aware of the current situation," Bolonik said.
General Bolonik said, "A civil war has broken out in the kingdom. We don't know which prince will emerge victorious and become the new king of our kingdom.
To us, doing our job well is the most important. It's our duty to take care of the colonies under our jurisdiction. "
"I've discussed it with General Claude. We'll have to reorganize the two corps next year. After the civil war broke out, we no longer receive any news from Shiks.
"Last month, we heard from the captain of a smuggling ship that docked at Port Vebator to buy supplies that Shiks has quelled the civil war.
Of course, we don't know if that's true or not, but even if it's fake, we have to treat it as if it's true.
Given Majid III's temperament, he would never admit that he had lost the war.
Perhaps as we speak, he has already formed a new legion and is preparing to attack our colonies.
"I plan to move HQ to Wickhamsburg next spring. Cromwell and Balingana have already become our base. Even if Shiks suddenly attacks Port Vebator, we won't be able to retreat from those two colonies. We'll have to fight the enemy to the bitter end.
"General Eiblont, you'll be stationed at Monknad with a folk of Thundercrash next year. Try to draw a clear line between us and the nikancha.
"General Birkin, you'll be in charge of Port Vebator, Port Patres and the coastal zone. You'll be in charge of deploying a folk of Monolith.
"As for General Claude and I, we'll be in charge of the defense and patrols of the colonies. If war breaks out, General Claude will provide reinforcements."