Claude knew very well that the only thing the self-governing region could get their hands on with the colonies on the west coast was the colony of Cape Loducus, which belonged to the Fochs Islands United Kingdom.
The reason was simple. Firstly, the colony was connected to the north and east of Loki Mountains, making up for the gap in the state's map.
With the Cape Loducus Colony, the Rocky Mountain region was much more complete.
Secondly, there weren't many natives in Gulf Loducus, which made it much easier for the region to govern.
The west and south sides of Nubissia were divided by the Cape of Morox. Cape Morox was a small peninsula in the Loki Mountains that extended deep into the sea. The Cape Loducus Colony was a coastal plain surrounded by the Cape Morox and inland mountains.
Back then, the Fochs Kingdom made Gulf Loducus their fourth colony on the west coast. But when they found that there wasn't much room for expansion, they lost interest in developing it.
Therefore, the Fox Islands United Kingdom did not transport the Nikancha settlements over as labor targets. As a result, the Cape Loducus Colony only established a Cape Loducus Bay City next to the bay. The residents were all immigrants from the Fox Islands United Kingdom. At most, they employed one or two Nikancha servants and maids …
Claude's military would rather instigate the liberation of the natives and establish their own nations in the west coast than allow the region to invade the west coast. The main reason was to avoid trouble and repercussions.
There were about 60 million people in the west coast colonies. The ratio of natives to immigrants from Freia was about ten to one.
There were about fifty-five million natives and about five million white immigrants from various countries on Freia.
According to the map, the region to the south of Nubissia was the region along the coast. Behind Cape Morox was Loki Mountains.
With Cape Morox as the boundary, the part of Loki Mountains that belonged to the west coast was a gap. Gulf Loducus was at the other end of the gap.
Next to the Cape Loducus Colony was the Lesnian Kingdom's colony. This was Lesnian's second colony on the west coast, and it was slightly smaller than the first colony.
Next to the Lesnian Kingdom's colony was the Morosik Kingdom's colony. Now, the pamigars of this colony had launched an armed uprising and were about to regain their independence.
Next to the colony of the Morosik Kingdom was the colony of the Vassiliko Principality, and further away was the colony of the Opsaro City-States Alliance.
On the other side of Opsaro's colony was Fochs Kingdom's third colony.
The main reason why the overseas autonomous region could annex the Cape Loducus Colony and make it a part of the Loki Mountain region was because there were no indigenous tribes in the colony. It was quiet and easy to govern. Moreover, after merging with the Loki Mountain region, the transportation of mineral resources produced in the Loki Mountain region would be greatly convenient. At the same time, the Cape Loducus Colony would also become the garrison of the overseas autonomous region's ironclad fleet. This way, the coast of the autonomous region would not have to worry about threats from the west.
If the Overseas Autonomous Military Zone continued to occupy the colonies of the Lesnia Kingdom, the Morosik Kingdom, the Vasilko Principality, and the Opsaro City-States Alliance Colony, it would be a headache to manage the native tribes in those colonies and the so-called ethnic groups that split from the nikancha people …
For example, Lesnia's colony was a semi-desert and semi-hilly region with three million rusmans.
The Kingdom of Morosik, on the other hand, had a population of five million pamigars.
Then there was Vasiliko's colony. There were two native tribes that called themselves the skoros and gisds. Each of them had a population of two million or so.
Back then, Claude used the nikancha nation as an opportunity to purify the region and forcefully relocate the two million nikancha there to the nikancha nation, turning the region into a world of Aueran immigrants.
While there were still nikancha living in the region, they were the minority and didn't pose any threat to the region.
That was why the region could incite the natives in the colonies on the west coast to revolt for the sake of national liberation and independence. They didn't have any desire to take over the colonies on the west coast.
For the overseas autonomous region, they already occupied a lot of land. Even after another one or two hundred years, there would still be enough land waiting to be developed.
There was no need for them to poke their noses into the west coast. Not to mention, the colonies closer to the region were rather mediocre.
That was the goal of Operation Wildfire, which was to turn the west coast into the region's backyard, a place where they could dump their goods and find a long-term market for the region.
As long as the natives could establish their own nations, the products they needed would be enough for the region's commerce and manufacturing to last for a long time.
"Sir!"
"Come in," said Claude.
The door to the office was pushed open and the new adjutant, Captain Fachselin, entered.
He used to be an executive officer of the logistics department and was in charge of implementing the various measures the department came up with.
There were plenty of officers like him in the logistics department, and he had somehow managed to catch the eye of Lieutenant Colonel Mason Hughes, who recommended him to Marshal Claude for the post of aide-de-camp.
He had been on the job for half a month and his performance wasn't too bad.
"Lord Marshal, this is a messenger hawk from General Skri. There's an eagle feather on it," said Fachselin as he held a secret letter with an eagle feather attached to it.
If there were three feathers on the letter, it meant it was top secret and had to be dealt with immediately.
If there was only one eagle feather, then it was not allowed to be spread. This meant that even if the person who received the letter had read the contents of the letter, they would not be allowed to spread it out.
The main reason was to prevent the people at the Sparrow Hawk Shuttle Communication Center from spreading rumors.
It wasn't a problem to spread it without an eagle feather, but if it was, they would be punished by military law.
General Skri was in charge of the construction and unified planning of the hereditary nobles' territories in the Great Plains of Canas in the east of Freia. Since his secret letter wasn't top-secret or urgent, he could deal with it later.
Currently, Claude was doing some mental calculations on the amount of supplies to be delivered.
"Put it on the table first. I'll read it later," said Claude.
Fachselin placed the letter on the table and saluted before sneaking out of Claude's office.
More than ten minutes later, Claude put down the document in his hand and signed it with his quill before stamping it with his seal.
This meant that the document had passed his review and could be sent back to the original department to implement the contents of the document.
Naturally, the documents that Claude could review were the major decisions of the region's military.
For example, the document he was referring to was Monolith's 3rd Folk to the frontlines, such as the transportation capacity, ammunition, supplies, Shiksan uniforms and so on.
Even though the staff of the various departments had already calculated the amount of supplies and ammunition they needed, Claude still had to do some mental calculations to see if there were any omissions.
As the person in charge of the overseas autonomous territory's military, he didn't just command the troops on the frontlines. Most of his energy was spent on the logistics. Logistical support was the key to fighting a war. It was a well-known saying that logistics were the key to fighting a war.
Picking up the letter from General Skri, Claude opened it and his gaze froze. He immediately understood why the general had attached an eagle feather to the letter.
The contents of the letter didn't have anything to do with the construction of Northbay, nor did it have anything to do with the region. It was about the fate of the Shiksan captives after they returned to the region.
When Claude first returned to the region, he dealt with the Shiksan captives' application for repatriation. Nearly half a million of them had completed five to eight years of hard labor in the region and obtained their freedom.
However, as Shiks hadn't signed a peace treaty with Aueras, the captives couldn't return and could only stay in the region to work for a living.
Naturally, the region wouldn't let the Shiksan captives go either. They were all veterans of the battlefield and would be a formidable force once they put on their uniforms and picked up their weapons.
Since Shiks, Aueras and the region were still in a state of war, they naturally couldn't let the Shiksan captives return.
The funny thing was that Shiks and Aueras weren't neighbors at the moment and they weren't at war.
However, Shiks didn't send an envoy to ask for peace in order to maintain their dignity.
As the victors of the war, Aueras naturally wouldn't send an emissary there. Majid III had already insulted Aueran's emissary in the past. Who knew if he'd go crazy again this time?
So, the strange state of war had been in a stalemate until now.
As such, the Shiksan captives in the region were in a miserable state. They couldn't return to their homeland.
At first, the region was rather curious as to why Shiks didn't care about the captives at all.
They were Shiksan's armed forces, after all. Why wouldn't they send an envoy to check on the captives?
It was only after some investigation that they found out that the captives belonged to the Shiksan nobles. They were either the nobles' private forces, the local garrison forces, or the youths conscripted by the nobles.
Majid III believed that without the 500,000 captives, the nobles wouldn't be able to oppose him. All of Shiks would be in his hands.
The earliest batch of Shiksan captives had been living in the region for close to a decade. Some of them wanted to settle there while others wanted to visit their families and bring them back to live there.
Most of the freed Shiksan captives worked for a living while hoping for the war to end sooner and sign a peace treaty. That way, they would be able to return to their families.
When Claude received reports that more than a hundred thousand Shiksan captives had applied to be allowed to return to their families, he decided to make an exception and set a quota of two thousand.
Half a year ago, he sent the two thousand Shiksan captives back to Freia. They first arrived at Northbay before being sent to Shiks via another country's ship.
Claude still remembered that when the two thousand Shiksan captives took the train to Cobicus, each of them carried a bulging sack of letters. Those were the letters the captives had asked them to bring back home.
Back then, the train station was filled with the Shiksan captives who came to see them off. The two thousand Shiksan captives even patted their chests and promised to deliver the letters to their families to let them know that they were still alive.
Skri's letter told Claude some cruel news. After the two thousand captives returned to Shiks, they caught the attention of the local authorities and the news was quickly reported to Majid III.
In the end, Majid III made an announcement that the returning captives were traitors. It was because they were cowardly and cowardly that Shiks lost their colonies on Nubissia and became the laughing stock of the other nations.
So, Shiks declared the returning captives to be guilty of treason and began arresting them.
Furthermore, it was announced that after the local authorities caught these traitors, they could hang them on the roadside trees without a trial. Even the families of these traitors would be sentenced to hard labor and all their assets would be confiscated.
Skri said in the letter that only two hundred or so of the two thousand captives managed to escape and return to Northbay. Only ten or so of them managed to bring their families back with them.
Thanks to the fact that their hometowns weren't too far from the borders, they were well-informed and had the help of their friends and neighbors, they managed to avoid the local authorities who came to arrest them.
Now, the two hundred lucky ones were furious and wanted to return to the region to tell their comrades about what happened. They also hoped that the region would help them form an army to return to Shiks for revenge.
That was the reason Skri sent the letter. He didn't know if the news would cause unrest among the five hundred thousand Shiksan captives, so he added an eagle feather to the letter and requested that it be kept confidential.
The first thought that came to his mind was that Majid III was going crazy again. But on second thought, he understood why Shiks was doing that.
The five hundred thousand captives belonged to the fief nobles. If they were allowed to return, it would be the same as letting the fief nobles in Shiks regain their armed forces. It wouldn't be good for Majid III's tyrannical rule.
So, Majid III decided to use the cruelest method to stop the five hundred thousand captives from returning. He didn't want them to increase the power of the fief's nobles and cause another power struggle between the royal family and the fief's nobles.
Compared to Shiks' population of thirty million, it wouldn't be a pity to abandon the five hundred thousand captives and veterans who didn't belong to the royal family. Letting them return would be the worst news.
Claude rapped his fingers on the table and thought for a long while. He decided to write to Skri and ask him to let the two hundred lucky ones return to the region.
Shiks had become a security threat and had to be dealt with firmly. That was why the Shiksan captives could be put to good use and help increase the population of the region.
Ever since the kingdom strictly controlled the number of immigrants to the region, the region's population grew at a snail's pace. There were only around seven million residents at the moment.
The territory of the overseas autonomous region was very large. According to statistics, the developed towns and cities were only a quarter of the territory's total area. There was a huge shortage of labor and immigrants.
Even if the Monolith Legion and Thundercrash Legion returned to the autonomous region, the total population wouldn't exceed eight million, even if the soldiers brought back the wives and their families they had found in the eastern part of the continent.
The reason was that the newly conquered regions had been in constant war for more than a decade and lost a lot of the young. Most of them were women, children, and elderly.
Many of the soldiers' wives were either orphans or widows. Some of them were elderly and young children.
If the five hundred thousand Shiksan captives could be brought back to Shiks, they would be able to bring back at least two to three million more immigrants.
However, the region would have to create the conditions for them to do so, such as attacking Shiks. The 500 thousand Shiksan captives would become the region's most reliable military force and most loyal guides, as long as they wanted to reunite with their families.
That was why Claude needed the 200 captives to return to the region and tell the Shiksan captives about what happened to them. That way, they would be able to incite the Shiksan captives' rage and desire for revenge.
That was the only way the region would treat the Shiksan captives as one of their own and arm them with confidence before sending them to attack Shiks.
Of course, Claude still had to clean up the mess on the west coast first. At the very least, he had to complete the first phase of Project Wildfire, which was to annex Fochs Island's Cape Loducus colony, tie the luthmans of Lesnia's colony to the wagon of national liberation, help the pamigars of Morosik's colony to establish their own nation, and fend off the attacks of neighboring enemies.
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