For Claude, the conquest of Shiks was complete. All that was left were trivial and boring matters.
General Eiblont was in charge of the transfer of ownership and jurisdiction of the ten western counties to the three neighboring countries.
While suppressing the resistance of the local populace, Stormwind also helped the Shiksan repatriation folk find their families and relatives. They also had to arrest local officials, nobles and merchants, as well as loot their properties.
Everything in Port Patkara was handled by General Siegfeld, the head of logistics, so Claude didn't have to worry too much about it.
Currently, General Siegfeld was ambitiously planning to use sufficient manpower to reclaim the wasteland outside Port Patcara, turning it into the future granary, vegetable garden, and pasture of Port Patcara.
Claude didn't have to worry about anything there, so he was quite satisfied.
The only war-related matter was taken over by the intelligence department. Colonel Borkal personally went to the Duke of Sunset River's camp as a hostage to increase trust between the two sides.
However, the stalemate would continue for another two to three months. During that time, both sides would harass each other's camps and waste a lot of ammunition. Despite the loud explosions, there weren't many casualties.
The Duke of Sunset River, on the other hand, spread the word that he was putting up a firm resistance to the invaders' attacks on his defences.
Reddragon had already finished packing their bags and was ready to embark on the return journey. Claude sent a folk from Thundercrash to monitor them in name only.
That was because Claude had instructed Bleyotte to send a note to Reddragon to close the passage from Mambamark to Shiks.
Reddragon would be forced to end their journey in Shiks and leave as soon as possible. Reddragon was quite dissatisfied with the notice.
He sent a folk from Thundercrash to escort Reddragon out of Bleyotte as a precaution. He didn't want the reluctant Reddragon to cause any trouble when they passed through Bleyotte's borders.
Fortunately, Reddragon's harvest from conquering the four central prefectures of Shiks was quite bountiful. There were more than six hundred carriages of all kinds filled with spoils of war.
With these rewards, the Red Dragon Army behaved themselves on the way back. They did not harass the local towns …
The Grand Duke of the Northern Region was a man of his word. Ever since the Military Intelligence Department sent all the people on the list he requested to the Northern Region, the eleven northern counties only strengthened their border defenses and accepted some refugees who escaped from the western counties. There were no signs of mobilizing the local garrison forces to attack the Northern Region.
The reports from the spies made Claude lower his guard.
It wasn't that Claude was afraid of going up against the duke, but he felt that the conquest of Shiks was nearing its end and there was no need for any more twists and turns.
Fortunately, the Grand Duke of the Northern Region was a smart man. He did not want to waste his military power on the autonomous region. Both sides maintained a tacit understanding.
Claude believed that once the autonomous region began to withdraw, Duke Northland would immediately mobilize for war in order to reap the greatest benefits after the war.
However, that no longer had anything to do with the autonomous region. All that was left was to see if the national army could withstand Duke Northland's attack.
Currently, the general of the national army, Count Merides Jay Kleist, had already split up Fakelin's corps and recruited young men from the local areas to form the first and second corps of the national army. With the veterans leading the new recruits, they were able to maintain order in the local areas.
Over the past half a year, the national army had gained a firm grip over the ten prefectures.
The remaining ten prefectures in the central region had been handed over to the smaller groups formed by the guides after Reddragon's withdrawal. Even the Lupus prefecture where Shiksan's homecoming folk and Sunset River's corps faced off was the same. The battlefield was in the mountains and didn't affect the towns.
As for the future of the national defence front, it would depend on the individual capabilities of the smaller groups.
The autonomous region had already provided them with funds, food, weapons and other resources for free. They would be left to their own devices.
Those matters were taken over by the intelligence department. Claude was only in charge of the overall strategy. He didn't really care about the process of carrying it out. All he had to do was achieve his goal.
In the bigger picture, Claude had nothing to do at the moment. Everything had been delegated to the various departments to take care of.
But on a smaller scale, Claude became busier instead. Countless documents that he had to sign and go through came flooding in. He had to deal with these trivial and boring affairs all day long.
After sending off the cargo ships filled with migrants and supplies, Claude returned to Saint Cyprian and received an official document from the ministry of the army and a personal letter from Blancarte.
The official document from the ministry of the army stated that the region had to submit the names of those who contributed to the conquest of Shiks so that the ministry of the army could verify the merits and reward them as soon as possible so that the officers of the region wouldn't be disappointed.
Claude knew very well what the ministry of the army was trying to convey. The invasion of Shiks had been planned and executed by Claude alone, leaving Aueras out of the picture.
It could be said that the autonomous region had carried out the war on its own. The kingdom only shamelessly sent Reddragon to take a share of the spoils after learning of the plan's success and made it known to the public that the kingdom wanted to participate in the war as well.
Now, the ministry of the army was trying to take back control of the invasion of Shiks, implying that the autonomous region had carried out the Shiksan attack under the guidance of the ministry of the army. That was another attempt to smear their reputation.
After all, the autonomous region was nominally a subordinate unit of the ministry of the army.
Now that the autonomous region had abandoned the ministry of the army to launch a war against another kingdom, it made the ministry of the army look bad.
Claude really wanted to laugh. Before the plan was carried out, he had reminded Blancarte that the autonomous region was going to attack Shiks.
However, the idiots of the ministry of the army didn't believe that. They even conducted a sandbox exercise and believed that the autonomous region wouldn't attack Shiks and would definitely suffer a huge loss. So, they decided to watch from the sidelines, only to be slapped in the face by the autonomous region.
That was why, even before the autonomous region had even retreated from Shiks, the ministry of the army had already announced that they would reward and promote the soldiers. It was a show of their existence.
He believed that the ministry of the army would definitely hold a huge celebration after he submitted the list of meritorious soldiers to show how important the army was in the Shiksan invasion.
He decided to leave them out to dry for now and wait for the dust to settle. At the very least, he would have to wait until the entire autonomous region had retreated to Port Patkara before he could decide on the merits of the troops.
Despite the fact that the autonomous region had wiped out the hegemon of the north, Shiks, the merits of the troops weren't that great.
That was because there weren't any heavy casualties during the attack on Shiks that affected the overall situation.
There were only two battles that were decent. One was when they wiped out the Steelguard and the other was when they wiped out the two standing corps of the prince. Both of them were easy victories.
Even when they took over Saint Cyprian, they didn't face any fierce resistance.
On the contrary, it was the rebellious people that became the biggest problem for the autonomous region after they took over the royal capital.
Even when they took over the prefectures of Shiks, the autonomous region's troops were fighting to maintain order and wipe out the garrisons of the various regions.
In terms of merit evaluation, wiping out garrisons was different from wiping out the enemy's standing corps. There was no comparison between security, field and siege battles.
For example, when Eiblont led Stormwind to wipe out six prefectures in the west, the total amount of merit he gained wasn't even comparable to him wiping out a regular army corps.
In terms of merit evaluation, most of the high-ranking officers in the region wouldn't be able to get a promotion during the Shiksan invasion. They would only get one promotion at most.
After all, Claude's plan was far too intricate. Nobody could've expected Breyotte to collude with the region and open its gates to Shiks.
It was as if Shiks had been stabbed in the back by Bleyotte. Just like that, Shiks was decapitated by Bleyotte.
Saint Cyprian suddenly fell into the hands of the autonomous region. King Majid III, the Shiksan royal family and the ministers of the kingdom were all taken captive. As a result, the kingdom lost the ability to unite and fight against the invaders.
The prefectures couldn't elect a leader that could convince the people of their authority either. In the end, they all fought their own battles and were wiped out by the autonomous region's troops.
The grand duke of the north was a decent candidate and had some prestige.
The problem, however, was that Majid III didn't like him. So, many of the prefectural officials and nobles lost their resolve to elect the grand duke as their leader and had to think about how to deal with the aftermath.
Their luck wasn't that great either. The grand duke needed time to recuperate and wouldn't be able to send troops to the north to resist the invasion. So, in the end, Shiks was in a state of disunity.
That was one of the reasons why the two corps of the autonomous region weren't able to gain much merit in the invasion.
As for the eight Shiksan folk, their goal was to reunite with their loved ones and emigrate to the region.
Once the war was over, the eight Shiksan folk would most likely be disbanded upon returning to the region. The officers of the eight Shiksan folk would only be rewarded for their management and not for their military achievements.
Contrary to the military achievements, the Shiksan invasion was the most profitable. However, that had nothing to do with the ministry of the army.
The promotions and rewards the ministry of the army referred to were for those who contributed to the war, such as promotions and knighthoods. The monetary rewards were only symbolic.
However, the region had already prepared a cash reward for the troops. Even a normal Shiksan folk soldier would get ten crowns as a reward.
It had to be said that Shiks was indeed the hegemon of the north. Even after losing four times in a row against the region, Shiks' treasury was still stocked with all sorts of supplies and rations.
Saint Cyprian and the royal capital alone had looted no less than 50 million crowns in gold and silver. If the other resources and goods were included, it wouldn't be a problem for it to exceed 100 million crowns.
Claude allocated 10 million crowns in cash to General Skri, who was in charge of the development of Northbay. Another 20 million was given to the council for immigration and another 30 million was given to the region's reserves.
The remaining 30 million gold, silver, and other valuables were prepared to be used as rewards for the soldiers under him.
Every one of the 400,000 soldiers from the eight Shiksan folk would be rewarded handsomely.
Apart from that, there were also close to 10 million worth of antiques, jewellery and magical items to be split among the higher-ups of the region and the council.
Claude himself would get a few hundred thousand crowns, which could be considered a bonus from the war.
Just as he said, there was nothing more profitable than robbing a kingdom. Of course, the prerequisite was that the kingdom had to be relatively wealthy. Otherwise, a poor kingdom like Mambamak wouldn't earn much even if it was destroyed ….
Putting aside the official document from the ministry of the army, Claude opened Blancarte's personal letter and was surprised to find a scandal about him circulating in the royal capital.
Blancarte told Claude that his mother had sued Claude, Angelina and Bloweyk to the noble court for being unfilial. The reason was that they weren't willing to bear the debt of House Ferd's promotion fee and land selection fee. They didn't fulfill their duties to their family and betrayed their mother's love for raising them.
The Noble Court of the Kingdom rejected his mother's lawsuit at the first instance, believing that his mother's lawsuit was unreasonable.
While Claude and his siblings were his mother's children, they didn't inherit House San Ferd's estate and title, so there was no reason for them to bear the debt.
If they agreed to hear the case, it would cause a huge uproar among the nobles. That would be akin to spreading the debt to the children who weren't heirs, which wasn't fair.
But his mother didn't stop there. She quickly filed a second lawsuit, requesting for the kingdom's noble court to recognize the Sang Ferd family as the main family of the Han-Ferd family. Now that the main family was in trouble, the branch family had to provide support and help the main family pay off the huge debt of a million crowns.
However, the nobles' court rejected the second complaint, as House Hanferd was established before House Sang Ferd. Logically speaking, House Hanferd should be the main house of House Sang Ferd.
However, the legal consultant hired by the mother argued that the deceased father of the three siblings was the one who had received the title of nobility. It was a posthumous title granted by the king, and there was no reason for the children to be the head of the household. Currently, the case of the mother suing the children was still in the court of nobility.
It was said that the king regretted what he did and felt that he shouldn't have conferred the title on Claude's father. He didn't think that Claude's mother would be such a commoner and cause such a huge ruckus, turning Claude into a laughing stock among the nobles of the kingdom.
According to Blancarte's investigation, the reason his mother sued Claude and his siblings was because she had no other choice but to protect her family's fief.
That was mainly because she owed the queen a million crowns in order to obtain the fief. The interest on that loan was five percent per year, which meant she had to pay back fifty thousand crowns per year.
But while Arbeit and his mother's fief consisted of a town and two villages, their annual income didn't even amount to ten thousand crowns.
The queen was considerate enough to give them a three-year interest-free period to develop the fief. But after a year, there wasn't much progress in the fief's livelihood.
No matter how much they plunder, they would only get around a hundred crowns in profit. Due to their harsh treatment, many of the people fled and the fief became even more desolate.
If that were to continue, the three years of income wouldn't even be enough to pay off the debt. Once the three-year interest-free period was up, the only thing that awaited his mother and Arbeit was being stripped of their fief and fief.
So, his mother had no choice but to target Claude and his siblings. The last time Arbeit went to Claude, he only gave him around ten thousand crowns, which was far from what his mother had hoped for. She was so angry that she scolded Claude for being unfilial.
In the end, she listened to someone's idea and filed a lawsuit against Claude and his siblings for being unfilial and refusing to pay off the family's debts.
Blancarte tactfully reminded Claude to settle things with his mother as soon as possible and not let the matter get out of hand. While they were the laughing stock of the royal capital, it would spread to the rest of Freia in the future. That would greatly affect Claude's reputation.
As for how to settle things with his mother, Claude would have to pay for it.