Time passed by quickly for Claude. In the blink of an eye, it was year 592 of the Sacred Light Calendar. Half a year had passed just like that.
Claude stayed at Cobicus Port in Tyrrsim and watched as the transport ships filled with nikancha people headed north.
"Zakarason, how many nikancha villages in the three colonies are still unwilling to move?" Claude asked as he looked at the bustling nikancha settlements in the outer city.
Zakarason, who was standing beside Claude, was now dressed like a gentleman. He no longer looked as wretched as before.
He took out a document from the folder and flipped through it before answering, "General, there are about a million nikancha in the three colonies who are not willing to migrate north. They live in the nikancha settlements at the borders of the colonies. The land they occupy is better and the resources are abundant. It's enough for them to live a good life …"
According to my investigations, the main reason they're unwilling to move is because their settlement is the largest here. If they move to the nikancha nation, they'll become vassals of another settlement.
So, the leaders and elders who are unwilling to move are the staunchest opponents. On the other hand, it's the normal nikancha who want to move to their own nation. "
Claude nodded. The fact that two million or so Nikancha were willing to migrate north was already something he didn't expect.
Over the past five months, close to a million nikancha had moved north on transport ships. They were all small settlements that lived near the cities and worked for a living. They were the nikancha who were the most willing to move.
Due to the interruption of trade with the kingdom, the nikancha who lived in the cities and towns had a hard time making a living. So, when the envoys of the nikancha nation encouraged them to move over and promised that they would be given land, they immediately packed their bags and prepared to move north with the envoys.
The second group of people who were willing to move were the nikancha settlements that did not have good territory. They did not mind becoming the vassals of a larger settlement. As long as they could ensure that their territory was not invaded by other settlements, they would be satisfied.
They did not have a good life in the colony. They were often raided by the local garrisons, and there were often conflicts between two nikancha settlements over the distribution of fish or game …
Finally, there were the nikancha settlements that old man Zakarason had mentioned. These settlements were far from the center of the colony, and most of them lived on the border. This border did not refer to the border between two colonies, but the border between the colony and the interior.
For example, Tyrrsim's inland border was the Obumke Mountains, and the nikancha people lived at the foot of the mountains.
In the past, the last thing the three colonies wanted to do was attack the nikancha settlements at the border. It took them three to four days to get there, but by the time they heard the news, the nikancha had already fled into the mountains.
Armed garrisons were a waste of time and energy. Over time, the nikancha settlements began to grow.
The nikancha settlements closer to the center of the colony had no more than five thousand people. The environment and harassment from the local garrisons limited their growth.
But the largest of the nikancha settlements at the border had ten thousand people at most. Four to five vassal settlements added up to thirty to forty thousand people, with about five thousand strong youths.
So, their leaders and elders were very satisfied with their current lives. They weren't willing to move to the nikancha country and become vassals of other larger settlements, losing their authority.
The old man was very capable. Claude told him to take care of the envoys from the nikancha nation, and he was very satisfied with the work he did.
At the same time, he also followed these special envoys to visit all the nikancha settlements in the three territories. He secretly got a clear picture of each settlement's location, number of people, products, and so on.
When the envoys couldn't convince the leaders and elders of the nikancha settlements to move north, he hinted to them that they could use their military power to force the nikancha to move for a small fee.
If it weren't for a few clear-headed envoys who firmly stopped them, perhaps most of the envoys who had been rejected would have agreed to the old man's suggestion …
But even if they didn't come to an agreement, Claude would still use force to drive them away. He didn't want the nikancha settlements to continue existing in the three colonies.
For the theater of operations, these were all unstable factors that had to be completely eliminated.
At the same time, he had to ensure that the nikancha regulations were implemented smoothly in the three colonies. That was the only way the three colonies could truly become territories for the kingdom's immigrants.
However, Claude didn't have enough troops at the moment. He only had one light cavalry regiment assigned to each colony. Apart from the troops stationed in the various towns, most of the troops were used to escort and monitor the nikancha on their way to Tyrrsim's port.
Although the nikancha people had been migrating to the north non-stop for the past three to four months, the nikancha settlements in the three colonies that were willing to migrate were still continuously gathering at Port Cobicus, which put a lot of pressure on Claude and Skri.
Claude's only concern was maintaining law and order. He had to ensure that the million nikancha gathered outside Port Cobicus wouldn't cause any trouble and wait for the transport ships to return.
Skri, on the other hand, was in charge of providing the basic necessities of the nikancha people. That was the agreement he had with the nikancha country's envoys. After all, they had paid millions worth of mineral resources and gold and silver reserves to the theatre for the migration of the three million nikancha people to the north.
In the second month of year 592 of the Sacred Light Calendar, General Beechlin finally arrived at the port of Cobicus with six local garrison regiments and the main force of the Monolith Corps. The reason why it took so long was that after General Bolonik and General Beechlin returned to Lanu, they first transferred the veterans of the Monolith Corps into the establishment of the local garrison armed forces and trained 12 local garrison regiments.
After that, he recruited more than 50,000 new recruits from Cromwell and Balingana to complete the Monolith Corps' recruit training. Now that they had a certain level of combat power, they rushed to Tyrrsim.
The six local garrison regiments were all veterans of the Monolith Army. A colony could deploy two regiments of troops.
One of the local garrison regiments would be stationed in the capital, while the other would be split up into a battalion to guard a town in the colony. That way, with the regimental troops, they could be stationed in five important towns, basically maintaining the safety and order of a colony.
Tyrrsim, on the other hand, required two regiments of troops to be stationed there. One local garrison regiment would be responsible for guarding the inner and outer city.
The newly formed field force of Monolith, on the other hand, would be stationed at the docks to deal with threats from the sea.
But now that Claude had so many troops, he wasn't in a hurry to send the garrison regiments to their respective colonies. Instead, he prepared to forcefully relocate the nikancha settlements inland. He called it Operation Cleansing.
There wasn't much to praise about the entire operation. It was nothing more than Thundercrash's three light cavalry regiments rushing in and setting up a defensive perimeter in the Ob Mk Mountains while the nikancha were unprepared, blocking the nikancha's escape route into the mountains.
After that, Claude and Birkin led the three garrison regiments and Monolith's field force to attack from the north to the east, wiping out all the nikancha settlements in the three colonies.
The 'cleansing operation' inevitably resulted in bloody violence. A dozen or so nikancha villages rose up to resist, but in the face of guns, their youths were like turkeys on a shooting range. Although they caused a lot of chaos, they could only cause minimal casualties to the attackers. These brave nikancha youths brandished spears, daggers, and hunting bows as they were shot down in rows on the battlefield defending their homes …
There were also nikancha settlements that retreated to the Obamke Mountains, but all of them fell into Thundercrash's ambush.
Perhaps a few of the strong could escape the encirclement and escape into the mountains, but their families and relatives couldn't. Most of the nikancha people were obediently escorted back when they discovered that the road was blocked. The few who wanted to resist were quickly suppressed by Thundercrash.
All the leaders and elders of the nikancha who resisted were hanged under trees. Their settlements were burned to ashes on Claude's orders after their supplies were cleared.
Almost all the nikancha were weeping as they carried their simple and sparse belongings on their backs, carrying their children on their journey to Port Cobicus ….
"I think you're going too far with your treatment of the nikancha. This is their home, after all," Birkin said as he looked at the forced migration.
"If they don't want to move, it's not a big deal to let them stay here. The colony is big enough to accommodate these nikancha. I think it doesn't matter as long as they abide by our laws and policies."
Claude sighed and shook his head. "I don't see it that way. I don't want to give such an order either. But to avoid trouble for our descendants, I can only do this. I don't care if my hands are stained with blood.
Do you know why I call this forced migration Operation Cleansing?
Because I want to leave a clean colony for the settlers of our kingdom.
Times are progressing and society is becoming more and more civilized. We're still in a time of great conflict. Guns and cannons represent our truth.
The colony is our colony, not our kingdom. The land here was taken from the nikancha and Etate natives of Nubissia with our guns and cannons.
In another hundred years, the nikancha in the colony would have developed to the same level of civilization as the immigrants in our kingdom. We would have put down our guns and cannons and tried to use the law to resolve the dispute between us and the nikancha.
But if we let the nikancha stay in the colony now, we'll be bringing trouble to our descendants a hundred years from now.
The descendants of the nikancha would use the excuse that this land was passed down from their ancestors to demand that the descendants of the kingdom's immigrants either return the land to them or provide them with more aid and subsidies. From then on, they could enjoy the life of a landlord with a clear conscience.
There might be a few million nikancha left now, but a hundred years from now, there might be a few million left.
I don't want the descendants of the settlers to have to support these few million landlords. It's best if we expel them all. "
Birkin's eyes widened in shock. He really wanted to touch Claude's forehead to see if he had a fever and why he was spouting nonsense.
"I don't believe your bullsh * t. What you said won't happen in a hundred years. The colonies will always be our warzone, the kingdom's colonies. I don't believe these stupid and lazy nikancha will develop like the immigrants of the kingdom. If they want to take back their land, they'll have to ask if the guns in the hands of the descendants of the immigrants will allow it."
Birkin retorted, "Of course, no matter what, forcibly moving the nikancha out is a good thing for the colony. At the very least, the townspeople will be safer in the wilderness.
Perhaps we can even migrate some more immigrants from the kingdom. These three colonies still have a lot of land to accommodate more immigrants from the kingdom. "
Claude could only grimace and not say another word. He knew that given Birkin's knowledge, he couldn't imagine how far human civilization would develop in a hundred or even a few centuries.
The world was just like the modern history of his past life, but due to certain knowledge being monopolized by the higher-ups, the development of human civilization stopped in the age of firearms.
But no matter what, the wheels of history were always moving forward. No matter how slow it was, it was still moving.
Just like how the Western colonists of the Age of Discovery in his previous life would never have imagined that their descendants would evolve into Virgin Mary bitches, the targets of their burning and pillaging would actually become the targets that their descendants would willingly kneel down and lick. In the name of atonement for the crimes committed by their ancestors, those who were discriminated against would even turn around and discriminate against other races.
Claude wasn't a racist, nor was he an opponent of humanitarianism. He was just knowledgeable and would rather have more trouble now than leave more trouble for the future generations.
No matter what, it was more merciful for him to move the nikancha out than to use force to eliminate them.
Without the nikancha, the three colonies would truly become the land of the descendants of the Kingdom's immigrants after a hundred years.
"By the way, are we going to implement the nikancha regulation in these three colonies?" General Birkin asked as he turned his head on his mount, as if he had thought of something.
The nikancha regulations would no longer allow the nikancha to live in settlements in the colonies. Additionally, the natives who hired them would have to vouch for the nikancha they hired and pay a poll tax of one riyas per person, which was ten times higher than the natives'.
Additionally, the contract between the natives and the nikancha would have to be supervised by the administrative department and a deposit would have to be paid to the department in charge. After the work was completed, the natives would have to pay for it and wouldn't be allowed to withhold or reduce it for any reason.
All in all, it was to cause trouble for the natives who hired the nikancha so that they would give up on the idea of hiring them. It was to reduce the number of nikancha in the colonies.
After all, the natives in the three colonies were rather strange. They were treated like lords and even though they were commoners, they hired nikancha to work for them.
They forced the nikancha to work like cattle and horses. The farmers, for example, would hire a large number of nikancha to work in the fields during the busy season and bring their relatives to work as supervisors.
After the work was done, they often tore up the labor agreement and paid the Nikancha half or less of their wages on the grounds that the Nikancha did not do well or damaged farm tools. This was also the main reason why the Nikancha often rioted.
Claude nodded. Birkin smiled. "I can guarantee that the nikancha regulations will be implemented smoothly in the three colonies. But for Anfiston, you'll have to discuss it with the people from the mining and commerce association. They're adamantly against it."