"General, you might not know this, but the prefectures of the kingdom are in a mess right now," Weyblon said as he handed over the report he just received.
That was probably the last piece of information the mining and merchant association received from the kingdom. It wasn't that something had happened to the association's branch in the royal capital, but that the two continents had been cut off from all shipping.
Tempest in Whitestag rebelled and betrayed Prince Wedrick, swearing allegiance to the eldest prince.
The eldest prince then ordered Tempest to move to the eastern seas of the kingdom to replace the destroyed Dreadnaught.
Perhaps it was because the eldest prince himself had led his army into the kingdom's heartland and launched a surprise attack on the royal capital, which was why he was so concerned about the eastern seas.
But after Tempest moved east, Whitestag was no longer able to form a fleet to protect the merchant ships between the two continents.
A small portion of Stormrage's navy that didn't want to join Hansbach's side took a dozen or so warships to Cobicus Port in Tyrrsim. From a certain perspective, the colonies and Whitestag were now enemies.
There were many towns in the kingdom that had declared their allegiance to the eldest prince like Whitestag, and the first prince's supporters played a big role in that.
Sometimes, two towns in the same county would declare their allegiance to two princes. Sometimes, the two princes wouldn't even know of their allegiance, and the local garrisons of the two towns would start fighting each other like two chickens pecking at each other, declaring each other to be traitors to the kingdom.
After Prince Hansbach took over the royal capital in May, he started recruiting soldiers to form a new corps.
He also sent the standing corps that came with Bluefeather to set up a defensive line around Lake Branopes to block the royal guard's way back to the royal capital.
Following that, he arrested the officials and members of various factions in the royal capital who opposed the eldest prince and conducted a cruel purge.
It was said that close to twenty thousand of those who opposed the eldest prince's ascension were arrested and three thousand were executed or executed.
According to the report, Hansbach had even ordered the execution of a few elders who were related to the royal family. The reason was simple: they had always supported Prince Wedrick's ascension to the throne.
Secondly, after the eldest prince took over the capital, these elders relied on their bloodline relationship with the Stellin royal family to take advantage of their seniority. After falling into the hands of the eldest prince, they refused to pay for their crimes and ended up being beheaded and exterminated.
The reason Prince Hansbach had carried out such a massive purge in the capital was because he needed a large amount of wealth for this civil war.
Although he had occupied the capital, the kingdom's treasury and the royal family's treasury did not have much surplus money. Although there was no shortage of food, ammunition, and armaments, the eldest prince needed money to reward the troops under his command. At the same time, he also needed to raise military funds to form more armies.
Therefore, he had no choice but to turn his attention to the officials, nobles, and various forces who opposed him in the royal capital. He ordered the Bluefeather Legion to lock down the royal capital and arrest them according to the list.
While carrying out the purge, Prince Hansbach sent out a notice to all the neighboring prefectures of the kingdom, requesting for the military and political officials to restore order and accept him as the rightful heir to the throne. He also announced that he would ascend to the throne on the tenth of the seventh month.
After the notice was sent out, the neighboring prefectures of the kingdom descended into chaos. Those who supported Prince Hansbach and those who supported Prince Wedrick formed their own armed forces and started a war in the kingdom.
Most of the Tempest navy stationed in Whitestag were supporters of Prince Hansbach. Furthermore, Viscount Felidos was also from Bluefeather, so it was only natural that Whitestag would change sides.
After receiving the notice, Whitestag responded immediately and declared its loyalty to Prince Hansbach. Those who didn't want to betray Wedrick sailed their warships to Nubissia.
They had nowhere else to go in the kingdom. All the port cities along the coast were under Hansbach's control.
Prince Wedrick, who had fled to the Red Dragon Legion, hadn't been idle in the past two months. With the help of his father-in-law, Marshal Siegfeld, he had gathered some of the kingdom's influential figures and noble officials who had escaped from the capital. He had reorganized the royal court in Botarnia, and had the royal guard and the Gryphon Legion accept the new royal court's command.
He then announced in the name of Stellin XI that he would return to the royal capital in a few days to suppress the rebellious Prince Hansbach and Bluefeather.
This was the current situation of the kingdom. Every place was in a mess of fighting.
Prince Hansbach was preparing for the coronation ceremony while preparing for war. Prince Wedrick had also sorted out his plans and ordered the royal guard and Reddragon to march towards the royal capital.
Everyone in the kingdom knew that the upcoming battle on Ibnister Plains would decide which prince would become the new king of Aueras. Only one of them could emerge victorious.
Judging from the current situation, Prince Hansbach had the home field advantage in terms of combat prowess.
Ever since Prince Hansbach circled Odin Mountain Range and launched a surprise attack on the royal capital, Prince Wedrick fled in panic. The scales of war were tipped in the first prince's favor.
In terms of military affairs, none of Prince Wedrick's subordinates could compare to Prince Hansbach. Not even Marshal Siegfried could.
It was common knowledge that Marshal Siegfeld didn't earn his rank from battle. Instead, it was his 40 years of loyalty that earned him the praise of the late king, Stellin X. That was how he was promoted to the position of field marshal.
To put it bluntly, his rank was earned through years of hard work. He couldn't compare to a commander like Hansbach who had plenty of battle experience.
Hansbach, who occupied the royal capital, had a slight advantage in terms of resources and soldiers. The royal guard, on the other hand, was like a stray dog.
The kingdom's four strongest field armies were known as the royal guards. If they were locked in a stalemate with the enemy in the Ibnister Plains, the morale of the royal guards would drop very quickly if the battle dragged on.
Hansbach, on the other hand, was already prepared for this. He had set up a defensive line on Ibnister Plains in order to delay the battle and buy himself more time to organize his forces in the royal capital.
It was just like how the Gryphon Legion had kept Prince Hansbach's troops away from the Odin Mountain Range. At that time, everyone had looked favorably upon Prince Wedrick, believing that the capital would quickly quell Prince Hansbach's rebellion.
Now, it was the exact opposite. Everyone thought highly of Prince Hansbach and saw Prince Wedrick commanding the Red Dragon Army and royal guards to march towards the capital as a final act of madness, or a final struggle before death.
That was what the viceroys and governors of Tyrrsim, Mormaly and Arturas thought. When Stormfleet, who refused to side with Prince Hansbach, arrived at Port Cobicus with news of Stormfleet's rebellion, the viceroys and governors of the three colonies panicked.
The viceroys and governors of Tyrrsim were no longer Viscount Jerryhausen van Cruz. That old man had completed his term two years ago and returned to the kingdom to enjoy the riches he had plundered from the colonies.
The newly arrived Viceroy and Admiral were unlucky. When they took up their posts in the colonies, the capital had allocated the taxes of the three colonies to the war zone for military expenditure. As a result, they didn't have the chance to make a profit by fiddling with the taxes.
But since they were viceroys and governors, they could always find a way to make money as long as they were clever enough.
Soon, they set their sights on the trade between the two continents. Nubissia's specialties and mineral resources were monopolized by the nobles' merchant guilds, so they couldn't do anything about it. However, they could still plunder the goods that passed through their territory.
In some places, the governors and commanders of the three colonies could even force the kingdoms to give them a share of the profits. Just this trans-oceanic trade alone was enough to make the governors and commanders of the three colonies very fat.
But the navy that fled to Port Cobicus brought them bad news. Stormfleet of Whitestag had rebelled and pledged allegiance to Prince Hansbach, turning their backs on Stellin XI, Prince Wedrick.
That meant that the two continents were no longer connected to each other. There would no longer be hundreds of ocean-going ships. Perhaps they would have to rely on a few smuggling ships to travel between the two continents.
The viceroys and governors of the three colonies didn't care which prince they pledged allegiance to.
As for the civil war between the two kings that broke out in the kingdom, these viceroys and admirals only wanted to be bystanders, cheering a few times. No one wanted to get involved in these trivial matters.
They were far away on Nubissia anyway, so they could only pledge their allegiance to the final victor after the two princes were decided.
Many of the officials in the kingdom had the same thought, but unfortunately, they had already been sucked into the vortex.
Before the final victor appeared, they were already forced to pick a side. The officials and local forces of various cities were already fighting over which prince they would be loyal to. Many local officials and representatives of forces who wanted to be spectators were forced to announce which prince they would be loyal to in advance for the sake of their family's lives …
The viceroys and governors of Tyrrsim, Mormaly and Arturas took the initiative to throw themselves into the vortex.
All they cared about was their own wallets. Without the trade, their personal income would be greatly reduced. For the sake of that income, they believed that as long as they declared their loyalty to Prince Hansbach, they would be able to stay in the same camp as Whitestag and the trade between the two continents would continue as usual.
The viceroys and admirals of the three colonies had no idea about the conflict between the war zone and the eldest prince. They only knew that in March, the Ministry of the Army had issued an order to reprimand the war zone and ordered them to disarm. So they turned their attention to General Bolonik, who had come to negotiate the distribution of taxes.
They thought that they could convince the theatre to side with Prince Hansbach. That way, the colonies would be united and they would be able to gain more merit in front of the first prince.
In the end, they ran into a snag with General Bolonik. Both sides were talking like chickens talking to ducks and there was no way for them to come to an agreement.
No matter how the viceroys and governors of the three colonies tried to convince Bolonik of the strategic advantage Hansbach had and how they were certain that he would soon become the new king of Aueras, Bolonik refused to join them in declaring his loyalty to the prince.
Enraged, the governors of the three colonies sent their private guards to raid General Bolonik's residence. After a fierce exchange of fire, they managed to injure General Bolonik and wipe out his guards. They then imprisoned General Bolonik, intending to present him to Prince Hansbach as proof of their loyalty and contribution to the kingdom.
In the eyes of the viceroys and governors, since General Bolonik was a stubborn man, there would surely be other generals in the theatre who could adapt to the situation. As long as they could imprison General Bolonik, who was nominally the highest commander of the theatre, there would naturally be other generals who would want to take his place.
When that happened, they could use General Bolonik to threaten the other generals in the theatre to side with Prince Hansbach.
It was simple. If they weren't willing, they could just let General Bolonik go. That way, the other generals who wanted to take over wouldn't have a good ending.
Having been in the bureaucracy for so long, the viceroys and governors thought of the other generals in the theatre as just like them. They imprisoned General Bolonik because they thought they could use him against the theatre.
First, the theatre would be leaderless and fall into infighting.
Second, there would always be other generals who wanted to work with them and side with Prince Hansbach.
Third, they could use General Bolonik's life to threaten the theatre so that they wouldn't dare to send troops to attack the three colonies. Otherwise, the general who did so would be the one who killed General Bolonik.
Having imprisoned Bolonik, the governors and admirals of the three colonies went on to deal with the naval officers and men who refused to go to Prince Hansbach's side and went to Cobicus.
They held a grand banquet to welcome these naval officers and soldiers. After these thousands of naval officers and soldiers were drunk, the local garrison forces were dispatched to disarm these naval officers and detain them in makeshift prison cells ….
Then, the governors and commanders of the three colonies stationed three local garrison squads at the border of Mormaly and Anfiston, sealing off all communication between the two colonies. This was to prevent the theatre of war from sending troops to rescue General Bolonik after he was imprisoned.
They believed that as long as they sent out troops and General Bolonik, the theatre wouldn't dare to act rashly. They could only negotiate.
As long as the two sides came into contact, they could convince the other generals in the theatre to side with Prince Hansbach. They could even start a fight between the generals in the theatre.
In this way, they would be able to solve the threat of the two corps to the three territories. Most importantly, as long as the war zone fell into chaos and strife, they could fish in troubled waters. Putting everything else aside, they could swallow the taxes that served as the military expenditure of the war zone and use them as the compensation for their hard work.
Without military funds, the two corps in the war zone might even mutiny, and no one would care about the three colonies then.
However, the viceroys and governors underestimated the intelligence gathering capabilities of the mining and commerce association. They thought they could stall for at least half a month, but they didn't think that the association's communications center in Cobicus would have already recorded everything that happened in Tyrrsim and sent it to the theatre along with the last batch of intelligence from Storm. Weyblon then sent it to HQ and presented it to Claude and the others.
Claude raised his whip and ordered, "Line 1301, 1302, and 1303, prepare to move out immediately. We'll reach the border of Mormaly in seven days.
Myjack, bring your reinforced battalion and follow me. "
Skri panicked. "General Bolonik is still in their hands …"
"If anything happens to General Bolonik, I'll hang all the family members of the viceroy and commander on trees by the roadside, be they old men in their seventies or eighties, or two or three years old kids …"