Some time ago, something happened at Blackstone Gunsmith Workshop and Claude had to go there to make the decision.
Additionally, Angelina and Sonia had made great progress in developing the grenade launchers, so he had to rush over to make up for any deficiencies. So, he left GHQ for half a month and only returned today.
Eiblont had been on duty at GHQ during that time to deal with any emergencies.
He shook his head. "There aren't any major movements. Things are the same as before. Most of the three corps are in Cape Loducus for their daily drills and pre-war training.
At the same time, they've also sent troops to set up a simple defensive perimeter at the northern and eastern mountain areas, each with a line of men guarding it.
Apart from that, the scouts sent us eagle messages saying that their ale business is doing well and is very popular among the Shiksan veterans.
"The second batch of fifty thousand barrels has already been finished. They're going to provide the Shiksans with another hundred thousand barrels of ale in the name of Wild Bull for the next half a year. They're all big barrels of a hundred kilograms, worth more than forty thousand crowns.
We'll earn ten thousand crowns from the Shiksans with this ale business alone. "
Ale was a type of alcohol with low alcohol content, similar to the beer of Claude's previous world.
In the taverns of the colonies, a mug of ale was around half a kilogram and sold for five fennies a mug.
A small barrel of ale weighed 50 kilograms, while a large barrel of ale weighed 50 kilograms. A large barrel of ale cost five riyases, which was half a thale.
However, Wild Bull's ale was sold to the Shiksans at double the market price, selling a barrel for two thales, or 20 riyases. With the shipping costs included, the theatre would earn ten thousand crowns from the deal. It was no wonder Eiblont was shocked by the Shiksans' generosity and wealth.
As long as the raw materials were supplied, a brewery with a hundred men could produce twenty to thirty thousand kilograms of ale a day. A few breweries would be able to complete the deal within three months.
The two colonies, Cromwell and Balingana, had become the two major food-producing provinces under the warzone's jurisdiction. Over the past two years, the hard work of the two million Ten Thousand King's Army settlers had yielded great harvests. The amount of food they had harvested was enough to cause worry.
He didn't think the Shiksans' ale order would provide a new source for the colony's surplus rations. The first three corps to arrive already used up that much ale, so it wasn't hard to imagine how much it would cost when the other seven arrived.
Nobody in the theatre would agree to selling food to the enemy, but selling ale at a high price to the enemy was something they didn't have to worry about.
Still, it felt a little weird to earn money from the enemy like that.
Claude couldn't help but laugh. Earning money from the enemy before the war even started was rather laughable.
He took the stack of messenger falcons from Eiblont and read through them carefully.
The first was a report from the spies in Cape Loducus. Actually, they recorded the daily activities of the three Shiksan corps. Just as Eiblont said, the enemy was behaving normally and nothing out of the ordinary happened.
Next was a report from Beechlin. He was in charge of surveying the eastern and northern mountains of the nikancha nation and supervising the nikancha's decision to fortify their defenses and clear their fields.
The messenger stated that the eastern mountains had been surveyed and they were in the process of setting up a defensive line.
One of the main divisions of the Monolith Corps that he had brought with him was also training the nikancha's armed forces and supervising the construction of defensive positions by the nikancha's young and strong men.
Next was a messenger from Berklin and Moriad. They each brought two lines of Thundercrash and were sweeping through the Shiksan colony with the nikancha's guidance and logistical support.
Progress was smooth with minimal casualties and bountiful spoils.
However, the Shiksan colony was a little too big and was mostly mountainous. They had only conquered half of it so far and would need another two months to complete their mission and return.
Finally, there was a routine report from Bolonik and Skri. Bolonik mainly asked Claude if they should form a reserve corps to prevent the frontlines from suffering too many casualties. It seemed that the Shiksans were giving Bolonik quite a bit of pressure. After all, there were ten standing corps with more than six hundred thousand soldiers.
General Skri had sent a messenger eagle to report on the status of various logistics and military supplies, as well as the ongoing arms trade with the nikancha.
The nikancha had spent quite a bit of money this time. They practically packed up all the Shiksan guns and cannons from the previous three colonial wars in the war zone's warehouse.
Next, they requested for the theatre to sell them the aubass mark 3 muskets.
Currently, Thundercrash and Monolith, as well as the eighteen garrison lines made up of veterans from the two corps, were equipped with the aubass mark 3 muskets.
Had Claude not guided the invention of Sonia's Type 591 rifle, the aubass mark 3 would have been one of the most advanced matchlock guns in Faslan at the moment. It would have been one of the top three, at the very least.
The Aubass Mark 3 standard matchlock's greatest characteristic was that it could accurately aim and fire at a range of around a hundred meters, and this was mainly due to the special customization and processing of the barrel's material.
After the projectile was fired from the gun barrel, it could maintain the stability of the trajectory within a hundred meters. This was the most powerful guarantee for accurate shooting within a hundred meters.
On the other hand, no matter how much the countries of Freia tried to copy the aubass mark 3 muskets, they could only aim at a range of seventy to eighty metres.
The Shiksan regular corps, for example, could only aim at a range of seventy metres.
That meant there was a thirty-metre gap between the two sides. While the Shiksan soldiers could aim accurately at the war theatre, the Aueran soldiers had to endure a thirty-metre gap before they could retaliate.
Before the colonial wars broke out, Aueras didn't really care about the garrisons of the seven colonies.
The local garrison forces were equipped with Aubass Mark I and Mark II muskets, which were enough to suppress the nikancha's rebellion and collect taxes from their settlements.
That was until Ranger arrived on Nubissia in response to Shiks' invasion of the colonies.
Ranger had a total of 32,000 men and they were all equipped with aubass mark 3 muskets. They also had three thousand spare muskets.
Later on, Ranger was expanded into a corps and two corps were reorganized to serve as their successors. The kingdom shipped over another hundred thousand aubass mark 3 muskets.
In order to make up for the loss and damage of the muskets on the battlefield, a gun repair workshop and ammunition workshop were built in the colonies.
After the second colonial war was won, Misierc was ordered to return to the mainland.
To appease him and show his support for Misierc's strategy, the kingdom shipped over another hundred thousand aubass mark 3 muskets.
The kingdom sent over another hundred thousand standard Aubass mark III matchlock guns to form five enhanced second-line divisions and to strengthen the strength of the garrison forces in the territories under their jurisdiction.
During the third colonial war, Claude wiped out three of Shiks' main corps. However, the battle was rather fierce and cruel. Close to twenty thousand soldiers died and thousands of muskets were damaged.
However, Aljess led the royal guard to claim credit. Despite the assassination attempt, Port Vebator was still occupied by Bolonik's army and became the eighth colony of the war theatre.
When the royal guard returned to the mainland, they left their spare muskets and ammunition behind for the war theatre and boarded the ships with the bountiful spoils of war and specialties from the colonies.
General Skri's men did a count and found that the war theatre had a total of 240,000 aubass mark 3 muskets.
That was thanks to Misierc's order to leave all their equipment behind when Ranger returned to the mainland and board the ships empty-handed. That was how the war theatre had an extra corps' worth of equipment.
Thundercrash and Monolith, on the other hand, had 130,000 men and 18 local garrisons for a total of 220,000 men.
So, the war theatre's logistics department had about 20,000 spare aubass mark 3 muskets. Of course, half of them were second-hand ones that had been repaired by the firearms repair workshops.
Skri wanted to sell those second-hand muskets to the nikancha.
Had it not been for Claude's Sonia type 591 rifle, the war theatre wouldn't have bothered with the aubass mark 3 muskets at all.
But now, with the new rifles as a comparison, Bolonik and Skri didn't think much of the outdated and primitive muskets.
Skri wanted to sell the aubass mark 3 muskets at a high price to subsidize the high cost of equipping the war theatre's troops with the new rifles.
The captured Shiksan muskets were sold for 5 crowns each and the standard Shiksan light field cannons were sold for 150 crowns each to the nikancha. Of course, the war theatre also had to provide instructors to teach the nikancha how to fire the cannons.
But now, the nikancha had their eyes on the aubass mark 3 muskets that their troops were equipped with. They said that General Claude had agreed to sell them.
Skri was prepared to sell them the repaired second-hand muskets and offered a sky-high price of 20 crowns each.
Claude felt a little dizzy and had to rest for a while.
Wasn't war coming soon? Why were they all so busy with business?
The spies they sent out were busy with the ale business with the Shiksans. Even Skri only cared about dealing with the nikancha.
Fortunately, the war theatre already had a gunsmithing workshop that could produce new rifles to replace the aubass mark 3 muskets.
Otherwise, they would be doomed if they ran out of spare muskets after the war.
So, Claude didn't beat around the bush. He wrote an official reply and had Anders use a hawk to send it to Skri. The only thing he emphasized was that the nikancha were not allowed to haggle over the price at twenty crowns a piece.
The new rifles only cost 10 crowns each. Selling one aubass mark 3 musket to the nikancha would be enough to exchange for two new rifles. It was a good deal.
As for the other messenger eagle sent by Bolonik, Claude pursed his lips and decided to ignore it.
The letter stated that Bolonik was going to order 10,000 revolvers from Claude in the name of the war theatre to be distributed to all officers in the army. He was also going to form a few assault squads equipped with revolvers to strengthen their night attacks.
That wasn't a bad idea and Claude had the same plan. However, Bolonik's price was rather low. He was only willing to pay five crowns per revolver and hoped that Claude could understand the tight finances of the war theatre. Claude thought, Even if I understand you, who's going to understand me? I've already given you a discount of only ten crowns for the one thousand revolvers I ordered from the war theatre. I've already ordered a thousand revolvers for the market price of twelve crowns per revolver and I've already given you a discount of only ten crowns and 30 rounds of ammunition.
Due to the small quantity, there wasn't a need to build a production line.
Angelina and Sonia worked hard for seven to eight days to assemble all the parts in the alchemical formation and complete the order. They only earned two to three thousand crowns for their hard work.
Now, the war theatre wanted to order 10,000 revolvers for only five crowns and asked Claude to understand the war theatre's tight finances.
That was a joke. Fifty thousand crowns might not even be enough to build a production line for the revolvers.
Everything else aside, the war theatre had already squeezed out two million crowns worth of gold and silver ingots from the nikancha. Thundercrash's loot from helping the nikancha conquer the Shiksan colonies probably amounted to a few million crowns as well.
Not to mention the cost of equipping all the troops in the war theatre with the new rifles and training, it would be more than enough to pay for the rewards and pensions after the war and recruit another hundred thousand soldiers to form two reserve corps.
By the time Berklin and Moriad returned with the spoils in two months, the war theatre would be filthy rich.
The price for a revolver was only five crowns. Claude decided to ignore Bolonik's message and ignore it.
Furthermore, the Blackstone Firearms Manufacturing Workshop had just reached full production capacity. (That was what he was going to deal with this time) All of their energy was focused on the production of the new rifles. There was no way they would have the manpower to assemble a mechanized production line for the production of revolvers. They did not even have the time to train the technicians.
Moreover, Claude defined the revolver as a self-defence weapon. Its biggest weakness was its short range and lack of lethality at long range.
With the new rifles, the revolver's usefulness on the battlefield would be limited.
Additionally, Angelina and Sonia were busy researching the concepts and concepts of the new weapons Claude provided. If they were successful, they would be much more powerful than the revolver on the battlefield.
So, there was no need to discuss the production of revolvers at such a critical juncture. Claude had never been one to haggle.
After reading the messenger, Claude said to Eiblont, "Looks like our preparations didn't make the Shiksans nervous. I wonder if they're confident or if the higher-ups gave them strict orders not to act rashly.
Looks like we'll have to wait another two or three months for the other two corps to arrive before Shiksans attack the nikancha nation. "
It wasn't that Claude hadn't considered attacking the three Shiksan corps that had just arrived in Cape Loducus. However, Thundercrash had just replaced the veterans and brought the new recruits with them. He wasn't confident in taking on the three Shiksan corps head-on.
That was why he ordered the newspapers in the colonies to advertise their military aid to the nikancha nation, including the sale of Shiksan firearms and cannons to the nikancha nation and sending instructors to instruct the nikancha in combat.
The only thing they didn't mention was that their forces had already entered the northern and eastern mountainous regions of the nikancha nation. Instead, they said that they had already deployed a large number of troops to the nikancha nation's borders and were confident that they could protect the natives of the colonies and allow them to live a peaceful and happy life.
Claude believed that the Shiksan agents would pass on the news and newspapers of the colonies to the commanders of the three corps. If any of them couldn't resist the temptation and decided to launch a surprise attack on the nikancha nation while they weren't properly trained, Claude would be more than happy to reel in his net.
He even planned to surround the enemy and wipe out the three Shiksan corps in one fell swoop.
When that happened, he really wanted to see the Shiksans' expressions. When the other two corps arrived, they found themselves alone and could only defend Cape Loducus. That would make Shiks the laughingstock of Freia.
It was a pity that the three Shiksan corps didn't fall for it. They didn't even send scouts into the mountainous regions to investigate.
The security of the camp in Cape Loducus was tight on the inside and loose on the outside. There wasn't an opportunity to take advantage of, much to Claude's disappointment.