Perhaps it was because of the battle with the Shiksan light-cavalry. The nikancha refused to admit that they were massacred. They only admitted that their 126 scouts were ambushed by 240 Shiksan light-cavalry while they were scouting the enemy.
After going through an arduous battle, they paid a heavy price and defeated the enemy. The remaining seven warriors returned with their heads held high …
There was also the matter of the camp bombing. Tens of thousands of nikancha youths guarding the defensive line didn't even see a single Shiksan soldier. Just the flickering of a long line of torches on the mountain path in the distance caused the nikancha youths to cry for their mommy and daddy before abandoning their positions and fleeing in a single night.
Those two incidents finally made the nikancha elders and chiefs come to terms with reality and they quickly came to an agreement with the war theatre.
However, Claude didn't feel too comfortable about it. Bolonik and Skri actually gave the nikancha a discount when they came to an agreement.
Fortunately, the two generals were rather sensible and didn't give in on the ceded land. They only gave a discount on the two million crowns Claude extorted from the nikancha. The nikancha only had to pay 800,000 crowns worth of gold and silver ingots.
General Skri's messenger explained that General Bolonik was worried that the negotiations with the nikancha would drag on, delay the battle, and delay the deployment of the frontlines.
After all, the Shiksans were already at the border of the northern and eastern mountains. If they sensed the weakness in the eastern mountains and launched a surprise attack, it would disrupt the original defensive deployment plan and cause unnecessary casualties to the frontlines.
So, after some discussion, Skri and Bolonik decided they could take a step back.
As long as the nikancha agreed to cede the territory Claude gave them, they would be willing to give in a little in terms of funds. That way, the nikancha representatives would be able to answer to the negotiations.
At the very least, the nikancha representatives didn't really care about the mountain territory. Instead, they were more concerned about the funds. At the start of the negotiations, they were only willing to pay 500,000 crowns.
Claude, Eiblont and Birkin were rather puzzled. They couldn't understand why the nikancha would care so much about money and not territory.
But in the end, the nikancha must have felt that the territory they occupied was large enough. Not to mention five million nikancha, they could even arrange for two or three times that number.
So, they didn't think it was a loss to cede the mountain territory to the war theatre. Instead, it was a wise decision to let them avoid the war with the Shiksans. With the war theatre in front of them, they could live their lives in peace.
However, that was how the nikancha understood it. They believed that the territory they gave was the price they had to pay, so they didn't have to pay the troops in the war theatre.
If the Shiksans were defeated, the warzone would reward the soldiers. If they were defeated, punishment would be given. That had nothing to do with the nikancha.
Claude's demand for two million crowns was pure extortion.
It was truly difficult to get something out of the nikancha's pockets. Even when Bolonik and Skri gave them a 50% discount and only asked for a million crowns, they refused and said that they would only pay 500,000 crowns at most.
The negotiations for the territory only took a day to complete, but the issue of funds took five days to come to an agreement.
In the end, Bolonik slammed the table and demanded 800,000 crowns. That was their bottom line. If they couldn't come to an agreement, they would leave. Only then did they come to an agreement with the nikancha representatives.
After the negotiations with the nikancha, Claude's territory, the eastern mountains and the northern coastal mountains, became part of the war theatre's territory. However, whether or not those territories could be converted into colonies would depend on the outcome of the upcoming war between Claude and the Shiksans.
If they won, they would be able to expand Aueras' territory again. If they lost, they would get nothing and might even have to pay for other colonies.
Claude, on the other hand, was quite confident about the upcoming war. It wasn't that he was being arrogant, but that he was confident.
Even though the Shiksans had seven standing corps and 400,000 soldiers, they couldn't possibly send all of them into the attack.
Based on what they knew about the Shiksans' military deployment, they would definitely use the eastern mountains as a breakthrough point.
The Shiksans stationed a standing corps at Phunbix Hill in the rear plains to prevent the war theatre's troops from sneaking in and attacking the main supply base.
Two corps were stationed at the northern border to seal off and defend the area. That way, three corps wouldn't be able to participate in the attack.
While there were four corps stationed at the eastern border, one of them was the royal knighthood reserve corps, a light cavalry corps. Only a fool would send light cavalry into the mountains to fight.
So, the Shiksans could only send three corps to attack the eastern border.
Once they entered the eastern border, the Shiksans would have to send a corps to protect the supply lines like they did in the previous war.
That way, they would only be able to launch an attack with two corps of around a hundred thousand soldiers. That wasn't something Claude cared about at all.
Claude ordered the three garrisons that had retreated from the eastern front of the mountains to return to their original positions. General Birkin led a division of Monolith and two main field regiments to the three defensive lines in the middle of the mountains to command the defensive operations.
Thundercrash continued to rest and reorganize while they waited for the Shiksans to attack.
However, the Shiksans were more patient this time. It was already June in the blink of an eye and the Shiksans still showed no signs of attacking.
According to the spies in Bay Loducus, the Shiksans were still buying rations and other military supplies from the colonies on the west coast. The main supply base near Bay Loducus was also sending the purchased rations to the various frontline camps.
According to the spies, the Shiksans were prepared to stock three months' worth of rations in the three frontline camps. It seemed that the Shiksans were afraid of starving and wanted to be prepared. Even the spies working under the name of Wild Bull Merchant received a huge order for a hundred thousand barrels of ale to be delivered to Bay Loducus within three months.
For the theatre and colonies, the later the Shiksans attacked, the better. It would be best if they could drag it out until next year.
That way, at least half of the two corps under the theatre would be equipped with the new rifles and they would be able to make better preparations for the war.
However, even after July came, the Shiksans still didn't make any moves. Even Claude was a little puzzled as to what the Shiksans were up to.
What disappointed Claude was that even though he mobilized Wolfang, Myjack's tribe 131 was mobilized to ambush the Shiksans patrols and capture quite a few Shiksans as captives. However, the captives didn't understand why their superiors didn't attack at all. It was as if their arrival was a standoff with the theatre's troops at the border of the mountains.
Another thing that worried Claude and the other generals was that Colonel Borkal had returned to the royal capital on behalf of the theatre and brought a large number of gifts to meet the new king, Stellin XI. He wanted to convey the theatre's respect and find out the royal capital's opinion on the theatre and how to deal with the situation.
Three months had passed, but there was no news of him at all.
Based on the schedule and time, Borkal should have returned by now.
Over the past three months, not a single ship from the kingdom had arrived at the colonies. The situation was very strange.
After Bolonik discussed it with Claude and the others through a kite hawk, they decided to send two more smuggling ships back to the mainland to gather intelligence and find the whereabouts of Borkal and his men.
Even though Claude was worried that something might have happened to his friend that prevented him from returning to the colonies, his main concern was still the Shiksans' movements.
Claude personally went to the eastern border of the mountains to find out why the Shiksans hadn't attacked yet. However, he didn't have a clue even after staying at the frontlines for nearly half a month.
The Shiksans had closed their perimeter and only sent out patrols within a five-kilometer radius of their camp.
If they were ambushed at such a distance, the first thing the Shiksans would do was to get down and prepare for a counterattack and wait for reinforcements from the main camp to force Thundercrash to give up on their spoils of war and retreat.
That was because if Thundercrash's soldiers left the ambush point, they would easily be shot at by the enemies who were prone on the ground.
If the standoff continued, they wouldn't be able to protect themselves when the enemy's main camp arrived.
Unless they could wipe out the entire Shiksans patrol with their first shot, they would have no choice but to retreat if they didn't want to die.
Claude, on the other hand, forbade his comrades from sacrificing their lives for the sake of killing the enemy. After all, the enemy's advantage lay in their sheer numbers.
In Claude's eyes, the lives of his soldiers were more precious than those of the Shiksans. That was mainly because the ones carrying out the ambush were either Wolffang or Myjack's tribe 131, both of which were elites under Claude's command.
Since the ambush failed, they could only monitor the enemy's main camp instead. What left Claude depressed was that the Shiksans were conducting all sorts of military drills behind their main camp every day as if they were there for actual combat.
After observing for half a month, Claude still didn't see any signs of the Shiksans preparing to attack. In the end, he could only return to the defence lines helplessly.
At the end of July, Claude received the latest intelligence from the spies in Bay Loducus. It was said that the spies had learned from a Shiksan logistics supervisor in the main base that the Shiksans weren't attacking due to the lack of supplies. They were waiting for the next batch of supplies to arrive in the middle of August.
On top of that, Count Norberton Pang Bellondi, the Shiksan general who led the Shiksan army of five veterans to attack the eastern mountains, had been dismissed from his post by Majid III and returned to his country.
The one who took over the post was another Shiksan general, Marquis Clario de Sirios. He was 43 years old.
The spies finally managed to find out more about Clario de Sirios' background. They learned a lot from the Shiksan logistics officers.
If the former chief commander was said to be an old-fashioned Shiksan, then the new chief commander, Clario de Sirios, was a representative of Shiksan's younger generation.
It was said that Marquis Klario de Sirios wanted Shiks to learn from their three defeats in the colonial wars and reform their military by researching new weapons and nurturing elite corps. Due to that, he offended a number of veterans in the Shiksan military.
However, during the chaos in Shiks, Klario de Sirius took the initiative to join the war and swore fealty to Majid III, winning his trust and favour.
The reason the Shiksan nobles were able to quell the rebellion in such a short period of time, unlike the war between the two Aueran kings that lasted three years and turned the entire kingdom into ruins, was mainly due to Marquis Klario de Sirios's great efforts.
He was reputed to be the best general in Shiks in terms of offense. During the later stages of the civil war, he led a light cavalry corps to the rear of the rebel noble army.
Within a month, he swept through the territories of four rebel nobles, causing the rebel army to collapse without a fight and ending the civil war.
After the war, not only was the lord promoted by one rank from earl to marquis, but his military rank was also promoted from major general to general. He became the favorite of Majid III and an important minister of the kingdom.
The fact that he was sent to Nubissia to take over the post of frontline general was a clear sign that Majid III had high hopes for him to bring victory and glory to the colonial war.
That fellow won't be an easy opponent to deal with, Claude thought as he stroked his beard.
The spies revealed that the new Shiksan general and frontline general had already handed over his duties to the old general who was dismissed at the end of the fourth month. However, the spies only found out about it at the end of the seventh month.
Clearly, Clario de Sirios knew how to keep a low profile and kept a secret, so much so that the war theatre didn't notice the Shiksans had a new general.
Additionally, the new Shiksan frontline general was reputed to be the best general in Shiks in terms of offense. However, no one knew where the Shiksans would attack or how they would attack. That was something Claude had to worry about.
There were times when Claude envied Birkin's calmness, as he was very confident in the defensive lines he designed and built. He believed that the Shiksans wouldn't be able to break through them.
On the 13th of the eighth month, Seaking and the Alliance's fleet escorted a large number of supply ships to Cape Loducus.
After receiving a report from the spies that the Shiksans were transporting a large number of supplies to the frontline, Claude issued another order to prepare for the enemy's attack.
However, to Claude's surprise, the Shiksans didn't attack until the end of the eighth month.
The spies reported that Seaking and the Alliance's fleet had already set sail from Cape Loducus to return. The ships docked at the bay were mostly coastal transport ships transporting supplies from the colonies on the west coast. Their owners would leave as soon as they paid for the goods or paid for them.
What the hell are the Shiksans doing?
Why aren't they attacking yet? Claude felt an inexplicable sense of frustration and unease.