War was actually about logistics. This was something that Marshal Michaelic once said in an advanced seminar.
If it wasn't for Aueras exhausting its treasury and having no choice but to seek a truce, the eastern part of Freia would've long been conquered by the kingdom.
It was precisely because they could no longer persevere that the war in the eastern region had lasted for five years and had to end with both sides suffering heavy losses.
He wasn't surprised when Angelina said the new rifles cost around seven to eight crowns to make.
If he wanted to mass-produce the new standard rifle, he would need to open up a gunsmithing workshop and design a mechanical production line to produce and assemble all the parts of the new rifle.
Madame Sonya said that half the cost of a hundred thousand new rifles would be spent on this machine.
If it wasn't for the Shiksan machinery he received from Port Vebator, which reduced his investment in machinery, the production cost of a new gun might've doubled.
Then, just like the revolver, it became a collector's item for the rich and could not be used on a large scale.
Claude, on the other hand, wanted to equip Thundercrash with the new rifles and turn them into an elite force that surpassed the current era.
However, the Thundercrash Corps had 65,000 people, and if all of them were equipped with the new rifles, they would need 70,000 of them.
Based on the production cost of eight gold crowns for a new rifle, Thundercrash's army would need 560,000 crowns to upgrade their equipment.
This amount was almost two years of military expenditure for the Thunderclap and Monolith Corps.
This was only the price of the new rifle. Don't forget that it still required bullets.
If a new rifle was equipped with a hundred bullets, each bullet would cost three sunars. A hundred bullets would cost three hundred sunars, which was equivalent to thirty riyases, or three thales.
But the problem was that the 100 rounds of bullets for this new rifle was the daily reserve or the amount that every soldier carried on him on the battlefield. The usual consumption of bullets for training was not included.
According to the regulations of the Ministry of the Army, recruits were given a month's worth of marksmanship training during their training.
Live firing thirty times a day, and those who made mistakes during the process would need to practice more. On average, one had to carry out a thousand live firing sessions in a month before one could master the performance of the aubass mark three standard matchlock.
If the new rifles were to be equipped in the army, then the soldiers would also need to undergo live firing training in order to master the performance of the new rifles. However, the training cost would be a huge sum of money.
If a soldier trained a thousand times in a month, he would be reimbursed for a thousand bullets. The cost of each bullet was thirty thales, or six crowns.
In other words, a month of live firing in the war zone would cost each soldier six gold crowns in bullets. A corps of sixty-five thousand people …
This was only the beginning. After a month of live-fire training, the soldiers would no longer need to use bullets.
Every soldier would still have to carry out live firing training every month. Thirty bullets would be fired three times a month. Even if they used up a hundred bullets a month, that would be 1,200 bullets a year. That would be another seven crowns a year.
In other words, if Claude wanted to equip Thundercrash with the new rifles, the entire corps would have to spend close to 1,300,000 crowns a year. That was about five to six years of military expenditure for two corps in the war zone.
So, Angelina told Claude that the only drawback of the new rifles was that they were expensive. It would be extremely difficult to equip an entire corps with such a high cost.
So be it. But Claude believed that Bolonik and the others would understand how much it would increase the two corps' combat power once they saw it.
Compared to a soldier's life, the high cost of the new rifles was worth it. With a corps equipped with the new rifles, Claude was confident that they could defeat an enemy ten times their size.
In the next two months, Claude went to Wickhamsburg in Cromwell to oversee the training of the new recruits and the reorganization of the corps.
Thundercrash was an offensive light cavalry corps. Not only did all the new recruits have to undergo formation training, they also had to complete live firing training with the aubass mark 3 musket.
They also had to undergo horsemanship training and all sorts of tactical drills with their mounts. Finally, they had to participate in the actual combat training Claude planned.
The busy days passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was August.
That day, right after Claude returned from inspecting the various units in the training field, a messenger eagle sent him a message from the war zone command.
It said that a tattered smuggler ship that seemed to have gone through an intense battle had arrived at Port Vebator. The captain was from Nasri.
The smuggler ship had been captured and the captain and surviving crew members were sent to Lanu's HQ in Anfiston. Bolonik asked Claude to come back and listen to the Nasri captain and the other crew members about the situation in Freia and the countries to the east of Freia.
That couldn't be delayed. Claude rushed to Anfiston that very night.
It took them seven to eight days to reach the war zone command center. At this time, the captain and crew of the smuggler ship had already confessed everything they knew twice.
Skri saw Claude rush back covered in dust and handed him a folder. "Their confessions are all recorded in here. It's been sorted out and the information on the war on the kingdom's mainland is at the top.
We can't tell whether the captain is telling the truth or not. He's from Nasri, after all, our mortal enemy. "
Claude nodded and took the folder. He flipped it open. What? The war between the two kings of the kingdom is still ongoing?
Prince Hansbach and Prince Wedrick, Stellin XI, are still locked in a stalemate. How is that possible?
The Nasrian captain said that Prince Wedrick of Aueras led Reddragon and the royal guard to Ibnister Plains in May last year. Prince Hansbach had already set up a strong defensive line around Lake Branopes with a standing corps and two second-line corps.
Before the war started, almost everyone thought that Prince Wedrick would suffer a crushing defeat. Prince Hansbach took over the royal capital by surprise and wiped out the factions and influential figures who opposed him. He was able to mobilize all the manpower and military resources in the royal capital and had the advantage of favorable terrain.
On the other hand, Prince Wedrick's performance after ascending to the throne wasn't that great. His internal coordination wasn't good, with various factions fighting for power and profit. He was caught off guard when the first prince raised his army and reacted a beat too slowly.
He was even more careless when he sealed off Hansbach's troops at Odin Mountain Range. He believed that the first prince was no longer a threat to the royal capital and that a war of attrition would be enough to wipe out the first prince's troops.
Yet, nobody expected Hansbach to form an alliance with Shiks. First, he attacked Dauntless on land and sea, then used Seaking and the Alliance to escort Bluefeather and a standing corps into the kingdom's hinterlands to launch a surprise attack on the royal capital.
Prince Wedrick fled in the middle of the night and left the royal capital to Prince Hansbach.
Prince Wedrick, who had fled to Botarnia, had gained control of the Red Dragon Army, Gryphon Army, and Royal Guard Army with the help of his father-in-law, Marshal Siegfeld. He had also rebuilt the royal court and led the Red Dragon Army and Royal Guard Army to make a comeback.
However, very few people were optimistic about Prince Wedrick's future. After all, his act of abandoning the royal capital without firing a single shot made him look bad in the eyes of the neutral parties.
Not to mention, Prince Wedrick's lack of military leadership skills made him no match for the battle-hardened Hansbach.
So, some newspapers in the royal capital that were biased towards the first prince described Prince Wedrick's decision to attack the royal capital as a gambler's gamble. They believed that Hansbach would win a great victory and completely crush Prince Wedrick's troops to claim the crown of Aueras.
The two armies came into contact in mid-May. On the 24th, Reddragon and the royal guard launched an all-out attack.
The result was out of everyone's expectations. One of Hansbach's standing legions and two second-line legions were defeated almost immediately. They could not withstand the Crimson Dragon Legion and the Praetorian Guard Legion's fierce attacks.
In less than five days, Reddragon and the royal guard arrived at the royal capital.
The result of this battle shocked everyone who had been paying attention to it. It wasn't until the end of the battle in the Ibnister Plains and Prince Wedrick regained control of the capital that the news spread. The reason why the Red Dragon Legion and the Royal Guard were able to take down the enemy's defensive line so quickly was because they had used a new weapon, the explosive grenade.
This kind of projectile would explode after being thrown into the defensive position.
The troops that Prince Hansbach had deployed along the defensive line were almost wiped out, and the fall of the position was inevitable.
It was said that the various kingdoms on Freia had begun to research and replicate the grenade. No one wanted to suffer the same fate.
Claude felt a little dizzy. He didn't think that the grenade bought by the assassinated General Aljess for his noble family would be of such great help to Prince Wedrick. It was no wonder Prince Wedrick had the confidence to face Prince Hansbach in the royal capital. The grenade had given him the courage to do so.
Skri was standing beside Claude. He knew that Claude had sold the grenade manufacturing license to General Aljes. Seeing Claude staring at the document in a daze, he knew what he was thinking.
He said, "I didn't think your grenade would make such a huge contribution. If Prince Hansbach had won, we would've been declared traitors.
But now, all the kingdoms on Freia are developing grenades. This smuggler ship from Nasri is carrying one of them. They used it to fight their way out of the pirate ambush and arrived at Port Vebator. "
Claude murmured, "Are their grenades the same as ours?"
General Skri shook his head. "It's completely different. Their projectile is like a jar with a fuse attached to it. After it is ignited, it is thrown out with a distance of more than a hundred meters.
Also, their grenade is mounted on the ship. It's like a catapult, but it's too big to be moved.
Also, they call the grenade a flower grenade. The captain said that some countries call it a bomb. They have different names, but the effect is basically the same. After it's thrown, it'll explode. "
"Huh?" Claude found it strange. "Do they use a fuse to ignite their grenades?
Don't you have the kind of projectile that ignites inside the wire? "
"No. The captain said that the grenades from Aueras are ignited with a fuse.
Basically, the length of the fuse determines how far it can be thrown and it'll explode when it hits its target.
But because it needs to be ignited with a fuse, it can't be used on rainy days. Occasionally, the fuse will go out for some reason, causing the grenade to be unable to explode. "
Skri didn't understand why the kingdom's military industry would use a fuse to ignite their grenades. Just a rainy day would be enough to limit their usage.
He pointed at the document in Claude's hand. "You'll understand if you keep reading. Prince Hansbach has also learned how to use a grenade. He's managed to turn the tables on him."
As the captain of the smuggler ship was from Nasri and was a mortal enemy of Aueras, Nasri was happy to see a civil war break out between the two kings.
They would often publish detailed reports on the war in the newspapers. Even though most of them were gloating, it was also because of that that the captain knew a lot about what happened in Aueras.
When Reddragon and the royal guard approached the royal capital, Prince Hansbach had no choice but to hold a simple coronation ceremony in the palace.
As Stellin XI was already on Wedrick's head, Hansbach called himself Hansbach the First.
After ascending to the throne, Hansbach announced that he would be patrolling the southwestern provinces of the kingdom and hurriedly led Bluefeather out of the royal capital.
Less than half a day after he left, the Imperial Guard Corps entered the Imperial City and regained control of the Imperial City.
Three days later, Prince Wedrick proudly held a triumphant parade in the royal capital to announce that the royal capital had been restored and he was once again on the throne.
After that, he conducted a series of arrests in the royal capital. All the nobles and officials who had sided with Hansbach during the fall of the royal capital were arrested and imprisoned. They had to pay a large sum of money to be released.
After spending more than a month in the royal capital, Prince Wedrick finally ordered Reddragon to chase after Hansbach's retreating army. At the same time, he issued an order for all regions to form a second line of corps to participate in the campaign against Hansbach's rebel army.
However, Prince Wedrick's reaction was a little too slow. He gave Hansbach more than a month to gain a foothold in the southwestern prefectures of the kingdom.
The Nasrian captain said that after Prince Hansbach led his troops away from the royal capital, he sent his troops to sweep through the ten prefectures in the southwest of the kingdom in the following month. He wiped out all the local forces and armed forces loyal to Prince Wedrick, buying himself time and the support of the local forces.
When Reddragon came to chase after Hansbach's rebel army a month later, Hansbach purposely ordered his troops to retreat as they fought, luring them into continuing their pursuit.
In the end, they surrounded Reddragon in the prefecture of Tamorus.
The Red Dragon Army, which was in a desperate situation, used the grenades to fight their way out. However, after this battle, the Red Dragon Army had been badly beaten.
That was the great victory in Tamorus. Hansbach used that victory to turn the situation around once more.
Prince Wedrick was worried about another surprise attack in the royal capital, so he refused to let the royal guard attack. He only ordered for Reddragon and a dozen second line corps to be formed. It wouldn't be too late to attack after they were formed.
Hansbach also gathered the resources and military power of the ten or so prefectures in the southwest. He also obtained the grenades from the battle against Reddragon and replicated them for his troops.
From October last year to May this year, the two princes gathered troops at the borders of their respective territories. The dark clouds of war hung over the skies of Aueras once more.
However, no one knew which prince would emerge victorious in the upcoming battle.