However, Berklin's, Mormaly's and Dyavid's lines were already in place. They took seven days to get there after receiving Claude's eagle message.
Opposing these three regiments was the allied army formed by the three local garrison regiments of Tyrrsim, Mormaly and Arturas. In terms of numbers, each garrison regiment had around five to six thousand men. Compared to the three Thundercrash regiments that had been reorganised, they had the advantage in numbers.
At the same time, they dug three trenches along the border and set up a simple defensive line with a few small mounds and three forts.
Claude led Thunder 131 into the main camp and raised the flag. The allied forces of the three colonies knew that their commanding general had arrived and immediately sent an envoy to seek an audience.
Berklin, Mormaly and Dyavid, however, were rather confused. They didn't understand why Claude ordered them to bring their troops there.
The envoy was an old man in his fifties or sixties. He had a moustache and a pair of beady eyes that kept darting around. He seemed to be a clever and eloquent man.
As expected, he began his performance the moment he entered the tent. He first praised Claude for his military prowess and his achievements in the third colonial war. Then, he changed the topic and expressed his regret that Claude was stripped of his post as the highest commanding general of the war theatre. Finally, he reminded Claude that the viceroys and generals of the three colonies were willing to work with him.
As long as Claude was willing to pledge allegiance to Prince Hansbach along with the other three viceroys and governors, the three viceroys and governors would be willing to jointly recommend Claude to be appointed as the highest commanding officer of the war theatre and gain control over the military and political affairs of the war theatre.
Claude squinted his eyes and smiled as he listened to the old man's flowery praise of Hansbach's military and strategic advantages. He used all sorts of promises to describe the benefits Claude would get if he joined the prince.
When he finally got tired and wanted to ask for a cup of tea, Claude called Gum over and pointed at the old man. "Keep an eye on him. If he tries to speak, give him a slap.
Remember, one slap for every word. "
"Yes, General."
Big Gum immediately stood in front of the old emissary, staring unblinkingly at the old emissary's mouth, whose expression had changed drastically.
Claude looked at Berklin and the others. "You don't know why I asked you to bring your troops here, right? It's simple. I'll give you half an hour to prepare before launching an attack on the other side.
Those sons of b * tches imprisoned General Bolonik, who was on his way to discuss taxes and military expenditure. They forced us to pledge loyalty to Prince Hansbach.
Now, I order you to clear the trash in front of us in three hours. Monknad Castle is still under construction and the silver mine nearby is in dire need of labor.
So, I'm glad that there are so many idiots who can't wait to start mining. Don't let a free laborer get away. I believe these idiots will make the mining and commerce association more than happy to help us increase our military budget. "
"Yes, General!"
Berklin and the others were delighted and rubbed their palms together as they prepared to leave the tent.
They didn't know why Claude asked them to bring their troops there, but they didn't dare to doubt the urgent order. When they arrived at the border, they were taunted and cursed by the allied forces of the three colonies. They had been holding back their anger for a long time.
Originally, they thought that this was a field military exercise or something. After all, the three local garrison regiments were the local garrison forces of the kingdom and could barely be considered as their allies. Therefore, they only ordered their soldiers to ignore them and wait for the field military exercise to start before teaching them a harsh lesson. After all, they were used to slapping these fools in the face.
After they set up camp, the other side sent an emissary to them to get a better understanding of them. Berklin and the others didn't mind. They thought it was just a friendly contact before the exercise, so they told the emissary that they were here on General Claude's orders. At the same time, they tried to find out why the exercise was being conducted and whether the three colonies' garrison forces were going to be reorganized or something. In the end, they were fooled by the emissary.
When Claude arrived, Berklin and the others felt that something was amiss. What did the old emissary mean? Did he want the war theatre to side with Prince Hansbach?
How was that possible? The war theatre had already rejected the prince's secret order at the start of the year. That was something all the high-ranking officers in the war theatre knew very well. They had truly offended Hansbach and became traitors in the eyes of the prince.
When Claude gave the order, Berklin and the others realized that they were getting serious!
They were on the verge of exploding from anger. They didn't know if the viceroys and commanders of the three colonies were out of their minds. They actually dared to imprison the acting commander-in-chief of the war theatre. Did they think they could stop Thundercrash's attack with just the trash on the other side?
"Claude …" The moment the old emissary saw Claude's order to attack, he hurriedly came out to stop him.
Slap!
That was the slap Gemi gave him. He only remembered Claude's order: one slap for every word.
"Ah …" the old emissary cried out. He didn't think that Gemi's slap would be so forceful. His left cheek swelled up and his mouth was filled with blood. He didn't know if he bit his tongue, but he did lose one of his teeth and he fell to the ground.
Gemi didn't let him go. He picked him up and gave him another two slaps. "You said two words and cried out. That's three slaps."
The old emissary covered his face tightly, afraid that he would be slapped again if he cried out in pain.
Claude glared at the old emissary coldly, not minding Gemi's slaps at all. "You three, wait. Don't rush into battle. I'm not done yet.
After wiping out those idiots, Dyavid left a unit to watch over the captives while the rest swept through Mormaly. Capture everyone related to the governor, their families included.
Berklin, lead your Thunderclap Regiment 301 straight to Aduras. Your mission is the same as Dyavid's.
As for Moriad's troops, go with Myjack to Tyrrsim and rescue General Bolonik. At the same time, take control of the port of Cobicus. There's a temporary prison there, and it's said to be holding nearly a thousand of Storm's sailors who refused to join Prince Hansbach's side. Rescue them. "
"Yes, General."
Berklin and the other two saluted and walked out of the tent. Soon, sharp whistles could be heard everywhere outside, and the bugle horn sounded in the camp, signaling the departure of the troops.
"Let's go take a look at the strength of those three's troops. I hope they don't disappoint me. They've paid quite a bit of a price to deal with those trash," said Claude and Myjack before they left the tent and mounted their mounts to watch the battle.
Berklin and the others didn't disappoint Claude. When the first grenade exploded on the defensive line of the allied forces, Thundercrash charged into the enemy lines without suffering any casualties.
The only reason it couldn't be counted as zero was because when two unlucky fellows rushed up to the battlefield, one soldier's mount tripped and he fell off his horse, spraining his ankle. The other soldier's mount got stuck in a trench, and he fell into the trench dug by the allied forces, scraping his forehead ….
Claude realized that he had overestimated the allied forces by calling them idiots. That kind of performance could only be categorized as dogsh * t.
When Thundercrash sent out the first three battalions to attack the defensive line, the allied forces fired like firecrackers. Unfortunately, not a single one of them managed to land a hit.
The garrison lines of the three colonies weren't under the war theatre's jurisdiction. Back when Michaelci led Ranger to the colonies, he ordered Eiblont and Birkin to form two corps with the garrison forces to supplement Ranger. However, Eiblont and Birkin were soon disappointed by the garrison forces.
How should they put it? The garrison forces of the three colonies were good at stealing, bullying the innocent, and robbing them of their wealth. All they could do was rely on their firearms to deal with the nikancha.
The two generals believed that even the strictest military training wouldn't be able to turn them into proper soldiers, so they quickly gave up on trying to save them. The three colonies weren't under the war theatre's jurisdiction anyway, so there was no need to waste any effort on them.
Claude really couldn't imagine where the viceroys and commanders of the three colonies got their confidence from. Who gave them that kind of courage?
Now, the contrast between the two was very clear. The armed guards in these places had pulled the trigger and opened fire as soon as they saw Thundercrash attacking soldiers. They didn't aim or check the range. It was a very lively fight, but they still had to injure the attacking side …
On the other hand, after Thundercrash's snipers opened fire from a hundred meters away, the allied army's soldiers seemed to have completely buried themselves in the trenches they dug out, only extending their muskets and firing randomly.
This time, the grenade thrower team following behind the sniper didn't even bother to dig a hidden pit. They directly rushed to a distance of sixty to seventy meters in front of the defensive line and began to place the grenades and throwers.
After the first grenade exploded, the allied army froze for a moment before the first batch of grenades exploded across the entire defensive line. The defensive line looked like a hornet's nest that had been poked full of holes. Almost all the local garrisons who could still move jumped out of the trenches and ran. They threw their weapons around as they ran, as if they didn't want the weapons to slow them down.
Only a few grenades from the second batch landed on the empty defence line and exploded. Most of the grenade throwers didn't even have time to throw a second grenade because there were no longer any enemies left. All of them were running for their lives.
This was a situation that they had never expected during the grenade throwing drill. They were stunned for a moment, not knowing if they should continue to throw the next few rounds of grenades according to the army's regulations.
Fortunately, the sound of a whistle from behind dispelled their confusion. That was the signal for the light cavalry to move out.
Claude could only shake his head and pity the allied forces. Did they think they could outrun the light cavalry with their two legs? No matter how far they ran, they had to walk back obediently after being captured. They might as well just surrender the moment they got out of the defence line.
Berklin rode over and bragged about his troops. Claude had given the three light cavalry regiments three hours, but they spent less than an hour clearing the rubbish in front of them.
After exchanging a few words, Berklin hurriedly led the soldiers of Thundercrash to the Aduras colony.
Aduras was the northernmost colony and the furthest away, so Berklin's troops didn't participate in the pursuit.
Two hours later, the pursuit ended and most of the allied forces were captured.
Claude couldn't help but admire the rubbish of those places. Despite being so weak, they had their own ways of escaping.
If it wasn't for the fact that he didn't want to spend too much time on the trash, he believed that his men would be able to find the deserters.
But that didn't matter. The three regiments would soon take control of the three colonies and the deserters would still be captured. Otherwise, they would have to spend the rest of their lives in the wilderness.
Claude led Thundercrash's 131 and Line 1302 to Tyrrsim. Dyavid and Line 1303 were in charge of Mormaly.
Moriad rode to Claude's side and hesitated to say something.
Claude glanced at him. "If you have something to say, just say it. What's the point of hesitating?
Do you think it's inappropriate for me to attack the three colonies?
Don't worry, it'll be fine. They're loyal to Prince Hansbach and are considered traitors. It's only right for us to attack them. "
Moriad spat on the ground. "I don't care if they die. As long as it's on Boss's orders, I'll even attack the palace.
What I want to say is that there's a problem with the reorganization that we can't solve. "
"There's a problem with the reorganization?"
Claude was taken aback. "Didn't HQ give us a list? You just have to follow it. What's the problem?"
Moriad whined, "Boss, that's not right. We can't do it. No one dares to raise it in fear of embarrassing the generals."
"Tell me what's going on." Claude's curiosity was piqued.
It was all because of the battalion system. During the reorganization meeting, Claude suggested a small regiment. In the end, Bolonik decided to have a regiment of 3,600 men and a battalion of 800 men.
The problem was that a platoon had 12 men and a platoon had 53 men. A brigade of four platoons already had 212 men. Coupled with the brigade headquarters and a subordinate platoon, the brigade would have 240 men.
If four brigades were to form a battalion, they would have 960 men. HQ's request for a battalion of 800 men was simply impossible.
Claude sweated profusely. They hadn't even considered the problem when they made the decision.
Normally, a battalion would have around 1,200 men. Apart from the four brigades as the main fighting force, there would be a garrison platoon, a logistics platoon, a cannon platoon, a guard platoon, and a gendarmerie platoon. Coupled with the personnel from the battalion headquarters and a medical squad, a battalion would sometimes have more than 1,200 men.
If a battalion had 1,200 soldiers, then four battalions would form a regiment, and the regiment would have 4,800 soldiers. Including the regiment headquarters and the direct subordinate troops, the total number of soldiers would be around 5,600.
That meant that a division with four regiments and the subordinate platoon would have 25,000 men.
Two divisions would form a corps. Coupled with the brigade headquarters and the subordinate platoon, it would be 60,000 men.
To Claude's dismay, he realized that this was still how the kingdom's second-line corps should be. All they did was change the enhanced folk to the standard second-line corps.
Thundercrash and Monolith had a total of 130,000 men. No matter how much they changed, they would only be able to reduce their numbers by 10,000. That was just removing the enhanced folk.
Screw the disarmament order! I'm not doing it anymore, alright?!
In any case, the kingdom had been beaten to a pulp and no one knew if Prince Wedrick could still be Stellin XI.
With Tyrrsim, Mormaly and Aduras under their control, the other eight colonies on Nubissia were already under the theatre's control. They still had to deal with Shiks' invasion of the colonies, so why bother with reducing their armies?
Claude said coldly, "Forget it. Let's keep the troops as they are for now. I'll discuss this with the generals in HQ and correct this mistake.
The most important thing for us now is to take the port of Cobicus and rescue General Bolonik. "