Shiks wouldn't be easy to fight, that much was clear to him.
However, he felt that he had no choice but to fight because the kingdom was simply too disgusting.
It was like a mangy dog that had set its eyes on you, and you kicked it a few times to drive it away.
But after a while, it would come back and stare at you from afar, making you feel uneasy.
A moment of carelessness might cause it to pounce on you and bite you. You wouldn't even have time to cry then.
It was a shameless kingdom, especially the Shiksan king, Majid III. He was a lunatic and paranoid.
While he couldn't be said to be tyrannical, the way he dealt with the Shiksan nobles alone was already quite extraordinary.
The four colonial wars had worn down the strength of the nobles while the Shiksan royal family, apart from being ridiculed for their losses, didn't suffer any damage at all. Majid III could act as he pleased and no one dared to oppose him.
In the north of Freia, Shiks could be considered a hegemon. Its territory was almost the size of Aueras and Nasri.
It had a population of 30 million and eight standing corps. The surrounding countries were all vassal states that looked up to it.
The kingdom was rich in mineral resources and had a well-developed refinery industry. It could be said that Shiksans excelled in mining and prospecting. They were natural miners.
That was the reason why Shiks only knew to expand into the mountainous interior while other countries preferred to colonize the coastal areas.
They loved mining, especially gold and silver, which could be turned into a huge fortune.
Decades of mining in the interior of Nubissia allowed countless gold and silver resources to flow into Shiks.
If other countries had spent that much money and lost 18 corps in the four colonial wars, they would've long gone bankrupt and the royal family would've been wiped out.
However, Shiks didn't seem to change at all. Instead, it allowed the royal family to expand their influence within the kingdom's borders. The failure of the colonial wars was blamed on the nobles and they became the best scapegoats.
Next, Shiks intervened in the eastern part of Freia. In the name of helping Sidins and Rimodra recover, they invaded Aueras' newly conquered territory and gained an enclave for Shiks and gained a wave of prestige.
After that, they formed an alliance of nations in the eastern region of the continent and targeted Aueras. They were prepared to take revenge on Aueras for their defeat in the colonial war.
Thanks to the debt war between Nasri and Aueras, Shiks successfully formed an eastern alliance to invade Aueras and occupy the royal capital. Majid III rushed to the royal capital and held a grand military parade to declare the eradication of Aueras, the source of the war that plagued eastern Freia.
In fact, Majid III's speech almost came true. If Aueras didn't receive reinforcements from the region, they might've really ceased to exist.
But when Thundercrash and Monolith returned to Aueras, the scales of the war tilted in Aueras's favor.
Monolith took Ambrize and dealt a heavy blow to the Nasrian and Shiksan armies. They had to retreat 50 kilometres before they could regain their footing. Thundercrash, on the other hand, landed at Port Floric in Rimodra and swept through Askilin, the Shiksan enclave, as well as Rimodra and Sidins.
The two duchies that relied on Shiks to recover were completely annihilated. The dukes and families of the two duchies became fish in the net. Not a single one escaped.
Next, Thundercrash charged into Nasri's Polivisian capital, breached the city and captured the Nasri royal family alive. The series of blows left the alliance confused and disoriented. The crisis at the back made the frontline soldiers uneasy. Left with no choice, the alliance retreated from Aueras and headed straight for Polivisian capital to deal with the enemies behind them. Thundercrash and Monolith of the region.
The last was the battle of Polivisia. The alliance and the region's two corps fought to the death in Polivisian capital.
In the end, while the alliance had the advantage in numbers, they unfortunately fell into the enemy's trap and were driven to their deaths by greed.
Only the commander-in-chief of the alliance, Northern Duke Pilag Xi Feriot, sensed that the situation wasn't looking good and fled back to Shiks with the remaining hundred thousand soldiers.
It could be said that the eastern alliance formed by Shiks was once again the loser in the second great war against Aueras.
Sidins and Rimodra were completely destroyed and Nasri became Aueras' territory. The Canas Plains were taken over by Thundercrash. Duke Canas was quick to flee to Shiks with his family. The entire eastern region was now part of Aueras' territory.
Under normal circumstances, Shiks should've signed a peace treaty with Aueras. After all, they weren't neighbors and were separated by two kingdoms.
From the colonial war to the second great war, Shiks had always been the losing side. There was no need for them to get entangled with Aueras.
As long as they were willing to admit defeat, Aueras wouldn't make any unreasonable demands and the two countries could easily end the war and reach a peace treaty.
However, Majid III, the king of Shiks, refused to admit defeat no matter what. Even though he lost three or four standing corps and a powerful sail fleet, he still refused to send an envoy to Aueras to sue for peace. He would rather the two countries continue to be at war and remain in a stalemate.
Apart from refusing to admit defeat, Majid III also supported Prince Vedario, the only survivor of the fallen Nasri, to become the new king of Nasri. He and Grand Duke Canas, who had fled to Shiks, formed their own court in exile and declared that the Second Easternian War wasn't over yet. Shiks would help their allies reclaim their country and destroy Aueras.
He had to admit that this feeling was really disgusting. It was as if no matter what he was doing, there would be a malicious gaze staring at his back from behind, as if looking for an opportunity to give him a good beating.
Claude received some news about Shiks while he was in the region. The hereditary lands of the Nasri nobles were often raided and robbed by bandits from Mambach. There were Shiksan agents behind those bandits.
At first, Claude felt a little schadenfreude, thinking that it wasn't a bad thing for Shiks to cause trouble for the royal capital. That way, the big shots of the royal court wouldn't have to focus their attention on the region.
He was even more envious of King Frederick the First's act of bestowing hereditary lands to the nobles without any cost. In exchange for a huge sum of gold crowns, he resolved the kingdom's financial crisis in one fell swoop.
Everything else aside, the 30 million crowns, 400,000 new rifles, 30 million bullets and 16 ironclads from the region alone were enough to make Claude's heart ache.
However, he couldn't object to it alone. After all, all the councilors, honorary nobles and high-ranking officers were satisfied with it.
Exchanging money and resources for a hereditary land was the pinnacle of their lives and was worthy of the respect of their descendants.
Currently, the situation in the kingdom was very good, and it was a scene of prosperity.
With sufficient funds and without the influence of the old noble families in the kingdom, the Prime Minister of the kingdom, Marquis Blancarte, had begun to implement his economic revival plan with great fanfare. A year had passed, and the first signs of the kingdom's resurgence had been seen.
That was why the small skirmishes between Nasri and Mambach were something Claude loved to see.
Even though Nasri had already been bestowed to the nobles of the kingdom and they could form their own armed forces to deal with the bandits, Fredri I was still the king.
However, as the king, Frederick the First had to make decisions for the nobles in his territory. It was his duty to send a special envoy to negotiate with the Mambamark Kingdom.
What he didn't expect, however, was that the wildfire project in the eight colonies would attract the attention of the Shiksan king, Majid III, who sent an envoy to get in touch with the Shiksan folk.
That wasn't something Claude could tolerate. He had no choice but to order two Shiksan folk to retreat back to the region.
Just as Claude told the two generals, if the Shiksan spies managed to infiltrate the region and contact the released captives, they could threaten them with the condition of reuniting with their families or the safety of their families. That would really cause chaos in the region.
If the two Shiksan folk were allowed to carry out Operation Wildfire on the west coast, they would be able to easily take a colony from the natives if the envoys sent by Shiks turned against them.
Then, Shiks would send another army to Nubissia. Given Majid III's temperament, it was likely that the region would have to fight a fifth colonial war.
That was the main reason Claude was determined to get rid of Shiks once and for all. He had to completely crush that shameless nation and put a foot on it so that it would never be able to cause trouble again.
That was the only way the kingdom could focus on economic development and the region could continue with the wildfire project without any worries.
Now was the best time for Claude to defeat Shiks. Shiks had just retreated from the second great eastern war. No matter how stubborn Majid III was, it wouldn't change the fact that the nations in the east were wiped out.
Even though Shiks still had the two exiled kings to maintain their alliance, they had already lost their eastern territories and were at a low ebb.
Secondly, the region and Aueras still had a military advantage over Shiks. Be it in terms of advanced equipment or tactical training, they were decades ahead of the Shiksan army.
Thundercrash alone was more than enough to take on two Shiksan corps at once.
If Claude didn't use that advantage on the battlefield as soon as possible and waited for Shiks to slowly catch up, he would be the biggest fool of all.
The third advantage he had was that he didn't lack any guides. The eight Shiksan folk were the best puppet troops. They didn't belong to the Shiksan royal family and were the subordinates of Majid III's enemies, the Shiksan nobles.
They hated Majid III to the core because he saw them as trash and abandoned them in the region without a care for their lives. He even stopped them from returning to their families.
The way he saw it, the five hundred thousand Shiksan captives were already his. The only problem was how to make them willingly migrate to the region.
So, bringing them back to Shiks and having them migrate to the region with their families was the best choice.
That was a win-win situation for the region. The region would have an influx of new immigrants, unlike the natives who only had a thousand or so in a year, but millions.
If the families of the five hundred thousand Shiksan captives were to migrate to the region as well, that would be at least two to three million immigrants.
Claude didn't need the eight Shiksan to be the vanguard as cannon fodder, even if the Shiksan captives hated Majid III to the core.
At the same time, the eight Shiksan folk hated their original owners. The Shiksan nobles didn't care about their lives and allowed them to serve in the region without being able to return home. Nobody came to visit them either.
Claude only needed the eight Shiksan folk to defend the Shiksan territory after Thundercrash conquered it.
They were Shiksan to begin with, so they wouldn't incite any resistance from the Shiksan populace. In fact, they could even be pitied by their plight.
As long as nothing went wrong in the rear, Thundercrash would be able to charge forward without any reservations and sweep everything in its path.
On the 16th of the 1st Month, Year 604, Claude boarded the new flagship of the armoured fleet, the Saint Heslind, and headed for the kingdom.
"… To us, the Autonomous Military District, the three elements of an Ironclad Warship are its structure, speed, and firepower.
"In this era, Faslan doesn't have any ironclads that can compare to ours. Basically, other countries are still trying to figure out how to use mechanical propulsion to propel their ships.
"We're already far ahead of them, so the first thing we need to do is to design ironclads that are more suited for cruising and combat and improve their long range capabilities.
"I've always believed that the cruiser's speed is the most important factor in naval battles. Only by being fast can we catch up to the enemy. Even if we're at a disadvantage in numbers, we can use guerilla warfare and run after a fight or launch an ambush to break through the enemy's formation and create chaos. Then, we can surround them and take them down one bite at a time.
"Firepower is also very important. That's the third component.
"Actually, we don't have to worry about defending our ironclads at the moment because the enemy's muzzle-loading cannons can hardly pose a threat to our ships.
"Only heavy cannons like the ones that fire huge solid iron pellets can deal a certain amount of damage to our ironclads.
"Our cannons, on the other hand, don't look all that great.
"Look at the six turrets we've installed at the front.
"When can a turret fire two cannons at the same time?
Of course, our naval cannons are considered the best because other countries can't compare to us. No matter what, our naval cannons have a range of 2,500 meters, which is already a huge improvement … "
Claude and his lackey, the commander of the fleet, Moriad, spent the entire voyage discussing the tactics of ironclads in naval battles as well as Claude's opinions on them. It was only after Claude emptied his stomach that Moriad was satisfied enough to let him go.
More than 20 years later, the retired Moriad wrote a book called Naval Warfare Review. In it, he praised Claude as the founder of a new era of naval warfare.
After 16 days of sailing, the fleet appeared in Sharkmouth Bay outside Whitestag. Two ironclads approached them from afar with their sirens blaring.
Through the monocular, on the deck of the ironclad destroyer on the left, a sailor was constantly waving two small flags of different colors in his hands.
"The flag signals that the prime minister, Lord Blancarte, has been waiting in Whitestag for a long time. He welcomes Lord Marshal Claude back to his hometown," Moriad read out the flag signals.
"Why is Prime Minister Blancarte here?"
Claude asked curiously. "Shouldn't the commander of the royal navy, General Pratchek, be in charge of receiving the last six ironclads?"
"It's obvious that the prime minister is here for you, Boss. You're the marshal after all, so it's only by being the prime minister that he can show his worth.
As for what he's planning, you'll have to meet him to find out, "Moriad said with a smile.
"Darn it, I wanted to head straight to Northbay," Claude muttered, "Forget it, let's head to the port first. I'll meet him and see what he has to say."