Operation Wildfire was named after a wildfire that would start a prairie fire.
Colonel Borkal was inspired by the wildfire he saw on his way back to the west coast when he saw the locals burn the land and start a wildfire. He came up with the plan on his way back.
The two centuries of colonial rule had left the people of the west coast with endless pain and resentment. Just like a forest during a drought, a single spark was all it would take to start a prairie fire.
That was the plan Colonel Borkal came up with three years ago. He wanted to see if the region could start a wildfire and cause the west coast's colonies to start a new nation.
However, three years ago, the relationship between the west coast and the region was very harmonious and it was the period when trade was at its peak.
The region believed that they couldn't let the west coast's war affect their profits, so the plan was shelved.
As it was a plan personally written by his good friend to incite a local rebellion, Claude had a deep impression of it. He even went so far as to ask Colonel Borkal what gave him the idea to come up with such a plan.
When he heard about the trade ban imposed by the eight colonies on the western coast, he knew that it was finally time for his plan to come to fruition.
Colonel Borkal had told Claude about what he saw in the west coast colonies. Unlike the region, the colonies practiced a semi-feudal, semi-slavery system mixed with racial discrimination.
As long as one was a mixed-blood, then they were born to be slaves.
Generally speaking, the white people of Freia were the noblest among the colonists, followed by the color of their skin. The darker the skin, the lower their status.
The West Coast had been colonized for more than two hundred years. To the natives, it was a long history of being conquered, oppressed, and humiliated.
Nowadays, there were no longer any pure-blooded natives on the west coast. Instead, they were all mixed races, such as the Pamigar, Lanstorbke, Lusman, Djibgoths, Doramana, and Marchaelin, all of whom had different names.
In the eyes of the people of Freia, Nubissia had always been a barren wasteland, a continent suitable for exiled criminals.
Just like the colonies on the West Coast, even though they had been colonized for more than two hundred years, in the eyes of the people of the mother country, it was still a land of adventure to obtain wealth. The mixed-race people there were discriminated against.
For the mixed-race people of various colonies, various colonial countries had introduced many discriminatory policies, such as not being allowed to join the army, not being allowed to become local officials, and so on.
The only thing these mixed-blood people could do was to sell their labor in exchange for low pay to feed their families.
They endured the endless exploitation and oppression of the colonists. They were either slaves or servants. Even if they had their own land, they had to bear a heavy burden of taxes and labor …
However, for more than two hundred years, there were many beautiful stories of love and friendship between the colonists and the mixed-blood natives.
Just like the first candidate Borkal recommended, Tazsinger Nora Taganem.
His father was a hereditary baron of the Kingdom of Morosik. He fell in love with his mixed-blood maid, the mother of Tazinger Nora Taganem, and eventually had Tazinger Nora Taganem, the fruit of love.
Tazsinger's father was a brave man. He didn't care about what others thought of him and left his fortune and title to his son before he passed away.
However, a beautiful wish could not produce a beautiful reality. As a mixed-blood, Tazinger Nora Taganem was discriminated against because of his skin color. In the end, he regarded himself as a pamigal, and had the idea of overthrowing colonial rule to achieve national liberation and independence …
There were many mixed-bloods like Tazinger Nora Taganem in the western colonies. Just as Borkal had said, some of them came from family feuds, some from personal grudges, and some from ambitious people.
That was especially true for the mixed-bloods who became smugglers. They traveled extensively, were knowledgeable, wealthy, bold, and had a high reputation in the region.
These knowledgeable and outstanding people of the mixed race were deeply dissatisfied with the status quo of the colony. They all wanted to change the situation in the colony. Even if they did not seek to overthrow the colonial rule and achieve national liberation and independence like Tazinger Nora Taganem, they still hoped that their people could obtain a relatively fair identity and status without discrimination.
Claude knew very well that the eight colonies had imposed a trade ban on the region. It was clear that the eight countries had come to an agreement or formed an alliance against the region.
Even if the region sent troops to attack one of the colonies, they would be greeted by a joint declaration of war from all eight countries.
Even if the autonomous military district's Thundercrash and Monolith Corps were truly invincible and invincible, it was not a good choice to fight against eight of them alone.
If the colonies of the eight countries were only as big as the Nasrian region, they might be able to give it a try and flatten it out with a single battle.
In any case, Claude didn't really care about the combat power of the eight colonies.
Based on the reports he had gathered over the past few years, the combat power of the colonies was basically average and not much different from the local garrisons of the colonies.
The problem was that the colonies were too big. They were more than ten times the size of Nasri and more than four times the size of the region as a whole.
Even if Thundercrash were to flatten them all the way, it would take them more than half a year to travel from one end to the other. That would put a lot of pressure on their logistics.
More importantly, they didn't have the manpower to defend the places they conquered.
Another problem was that the eight colonies had a population of more than 60 million people.
After more than two hundred years of colonization, the mixed-bloods of the colonies naturally saw themselves as part of the nation.
If the region started a war and the mixed-bloods of the colonies saw them as invaders, the eight colonies would mobilize their people to fight against the region. That would make the war a lot harder to fight.
As a transmigrator, Claude naturally understood the power of a civil war. He wouldn't step into that trap no matter what.
Just as Skri had said, the region wasn't just going to declare war on the eight colonies. They were also going to declare war on the eight colonies to the south of Freia.
If they didn't mobilize nearly a million soldiers and spend five to six years, there would be no end to the war.
So, the region couldn't afford to fight or pay the price for it.
No matter which colonial country they declared war on or attacked a colony of a country on the West Coast, it meant that the overseas autonomous region would have to fight against eight or even sixteen enemies.
Given the current situation in Eastern Freia, the region wouldn't be able to bring back two corps.
Therefore, in the face of the trade ban jointly issued by the eight colonies on the West Coast, the overseas autonomous region could only swallow their anger and accept this result …
However, that didn't stop Claude from carrying out the wildfire plan Borkal came up with three years ago and stirring up chaos in the colonies.
Sometimes, things were just that interesting. If the Overseas Dominion declared war or launched an attack, the eight colonies on the West Coast would definitely join forces to resist and launch a counterattack.
However, the region accepted that outcome and didn't pose any threat to the colonies.
If civil strife broke out in one of the colonies on the West Coast, it would not get the support and help of other colonies. Instead, it would be watching and fanning the flames with schadenfreude. Even the neighboring colonies might secretly help the rebels, hoping that the fire would burn bigger and bigger, giving the bystanders a good chance to take advantage of the situation …
Most fortified fortresses could be attacked from within, so Claude decided to start a revolution in the colonies of the west coast to overthrow the colonial rule and establish their own nations.
Regardless of whether it succeeded or not, it would be more worth it for the region than sending out troops to declare war.
If it succeeded, the independent nations would need the region's support to stabilize their territory. At the same time, they would become a dumping ground for the region's products.
It was just like the nikancha nation that occupied the former Shiksan colony. Even though they were nominally independent, they didn't have a manufacturing industry or a unified agriculture. Everything was still in a primitive state of production.
All their resources had to be imported from the region. Be it food, daily necessities, luxuries, weapons, alcohol, etc., they were all sold through the region's market.
Claude had already put Borkal in charge of Operation Wildfire. The first choice was to fund the Morosik colony, Nora Taganem, the half-blood baron, to set up the pamigar liberation front and provide them with a large amount of supplies and equipment to form a pamigar folk.
He also sent veterans from the region to infiltrate the Morosik colony under the guise of being hired to help and guide the pamigar armed forces to complete their training as soon as possible so that they could start an armed uprising and fight for their independence.
Borkal told Claude that the trade ban imposed by the eight colonies on the west coast was the best way to ignite a riot.
In the past few years, the people of the colonies on the West Coast had gotten used to a variety of daily necessities and goods from the overseas self-governing territories. Now that the local government of the colonies had banned the people from using those goods and introduced the high-priced, low-quality domestic goods, it was the worst move of all.
It was like how a person who was used to eating cake was banned from eating it and could only eat black bread.
What was even more displeasing was that the price of a piece of black bread could easily buy two cakes from before.
Under such circumstances, it was easy for the people of the west coast colonies to feel that they were being discriminated against unfairly, especially the mixed-bloods. They were the ones who suffered the most.
As long as one colony was set ablaze, it wouldn't take long for the other colonies to start a similar wave of independence.
When that happened, the eight colonies to the south of Freia would have no choice but to send their reinforcements to maintain order in their own colonies.
When they were all exhausted, the overseas dominion could easily send troops to the West Coast under the banner of helping the colonies achieve independence and achieve the final victory.
It was still too early to talk about sending troops. In fact, Claude didn't want to use the region's forces to participate in the uprising of the west coast colonies.
But that didn't stop Borkal from giving the rebels one last glimmer of hope. That way, even if they failed, they would still have confidence in their future and believe that the region would send troops to help them realize their dreams.
After two days of interaction with Claude, Borkal excitedly prepared to head to the west coast colonies to carry out Operation Wildfire.
As the west coast colonies had already sealed off their own waters to prevent smuggling ships, Borkal had to travel by land. He had to first reach the nikancha nation and then head to the west coast colonies from the border. It would take him around a month to reach his destination.
That was also the reason why Claude assigned Bloweyk's Wolffang unit to Borkal. It was to ensure his safety.
At the same time, it was also to find a job for Bloweyk so that he wouldn't have to stay at Angelina's ranch all day getting drunk.
Apart from that, it was also to open up a smuggling route to the colonies on the West Coast. The goods from the Nikancha Country would be transported to the colonies on the West Coast.
Claude had another important matter he had to deal with in the region.
It was the five hundred thousand Shiksan soldiers who were captured during the colonial war. They were sentenced to five to eight years of forced labor and most of them had completed their terms and needed to be released.
The problem was that Shiks hadn't signed a peace treaty with Aueras. Theoretically speaking, the two kingdoms were still at war.
Even though the borders of the two countries weren't adjacent and there were two other kingdoms in between, making it impossible for them to attack or defend against each other, the two countries were still enemies in the war.
Traditionally speaking, the loser would send envoys to the victors to sue for peace. The victors would then have to express their magnanimity and have the two sides negotiate amicably to reach a peace treaty.
But the problem now was that Shiks wouldn't admit defeat. Even though Majid III was repeatedly slapped in the face by the region and lost close to a million soldiers, he still stubbornly believed that he hadn't lost. He even called the retreat of the hundred thousand Shiksan soldiers from Nasri a strategic victory.
Under such circumstances, there was no way Aueras would send envoys to Shiks to negotiate a peace treaty.
No one knew whether Majid III, who was sick in the head, would think that he was the winner and propose a series of conditions that were like a lion opening its mouth.
If that happened, Aueras would suffer even greater humiliation, let alone sign any peace treaty.
So, the laughable fact that the two kingdoms were still at war would remain there for the time being.
But the problem was that it made it difficult for the region to deal with the Shiksan captives. Since their term of labor was over, they should be released and given freedom.
But since the two kingdoms were still at war, the region couldn't repatriate them. They could only keep them in the region and give them temporary identification so they could move about freely within the region.
Two years ago, the Shiksan captives were welcomed by the various workshops and farms in the region. They were all young and strong workers and happened to fill the shortage of manpower the region needed to expand production.
But after two years, many of the Shiksan captives fell in love with life in the region. Some of the luckier ones even became the son-in-law of their bosses. They wanted to be naturalized and receive the same treatment as Aueran immigrants.
Mason-Hughes sent him a lot of information regarding the Shiksan captives. Skri had also considered the matter of releasing them. There were more than a hundred thousand Shiksan captives roaming around the region, working part-time jobs for a living. They basically didn't break any laws and didn't cause any trouble. Most of them wanted to be naturalized and have their own land and property.
There were also a hundred thousand Shiksan captives who signed long-term labor contracts with the workshops and farms in the region. They didn't like to move and went to work on time.
Some of the Shiksan captives didn't know where they would go in the future. They learned some skills and wanted to live a stable life in the region, while others wanted to return to Shiks.
There were also about two hundred thousand Shiksan captives who wanted to return to Shiks after the war. For that, the region set up several construction teams to arrange their labor and pay them accordingly.
For example, the Dominion was still in the process of constructing the railway lines. These construction teams were the main force of the construction.
Since they could earn more from the construction team than in Shiks, they were relatively calm and only hoped that the war would end soon so they could return to Shiks to see their families.
What troubled Claude was that more than a hundred thousand Shiksan captives had applied to be allowed to return to reunite with their families.
Some wanted to be naturalized and bring their families back, while others wanted to bring back the money they earned in the region to make their families happy. There were also those who wanted to see their families before coming back to work.
They could hold back when there weren't many of them, but now that so many wanted to return, the region couldn't ignore the views of the released Shiksan captives anymore.
Claude rubbed his temples and felt a headache coming on. It was indeed a problem for the region. Nobody knew what would happen to the captives once they returned to Shiks. After all, the two countries were still at war.
Claude didn't want the captives to be armed again and turn into enemies of the region.
"Let's do it this way. Send someone to inform the Shiksans and have them pick their own representatives. Let's set a quota of two thousand and have them return to Shiks to take a look. If there's nothing else, let the others return," Claude decided.