After sending Borkal away, Claude didn't feel sleepy at all. He sat in his study alone and started thinking.
He didn't really mind the promise he made to Borkal. The region wasn't planning on making any big moves in the west coast for the next year anyway.
Instead, they would have to pull back the frontlines, strengthen Pamigal's defences and solve the conflict over land distribution caused by the war.
At the same time, in the next year or so, the autonomous region would also have to sort out the internal affairs of the Lusman Chieftain Alliance and deal with the violent disputes between the various Lusman tribes in the country, so that it could become a native country that could assist the autonomous region and not just be a burden.
Additionally, they would have to deal with the armed conflict between the Riscollos and Gisdians in Vasilico's colony. That was quite a headache.
In fact, the region would be powerless to do anything in the west coast for the next year or so. Even if they had any ideas, they would have to postpone it.
Unless another war broke out and the West Coast colonial countries formed an alliance to invade the Pamigal National Republic, then the Dominion would have to bite the bullet and protect this indigenous nation ….
For the next year or so, the region would have to focus on internal adjustments. The families of Shiksan's repatriated folk in Port Patkara, which Bleyotte had leased to the region, as well as the two million people, would have to be transported back to the region. The eight Shiksan repatriated folk would also have to be disbanded and settled down.
The region would have to work with the local administration to settle the Shiksan immigrants down so that they could become part of the region's citizens.
As the kingdom had already formed two standing corps, they would soon take over the newly conquered Rimodra and Askilin regions. The eight local garrisons that were originally in charge of those two regions would have to be withdrawn back to the region.
Originally, there were eight local garrison regiments, but because of the formation of the Storm Legion, suitable soldiers were selected from these eight local garrison regiments. Now, the rest were veterans who had reached the retirement period. Most of them had about one or two battalions of strength. When they came back, they could arrange for retirement and then withdraw from the establishment.
However, the military workshop that was originally set up in the three southern prefectures of the Askilin region to manufacture new bullets and cannons, as well as repair new rifles and cannons, would have to be moved to North Bay in the Canas region. General Skri would be in charge of that.
As Stormwind, Thundercrash and the eight Shiksan repatriated folk were all gathered in Port Patkara, the situation in Shiks was said to be rather peaceful. It wasn't as Claude had imagined, where the separatist factions would start fighting the moment the region was evacuated.
It seemed that the situation on both continents would be peaceful for some time. The region would have to wait until the resettlement was done and the eight Shiksan folk and the local garrisons were disbanded before Thundercrash returned to the region. Only then would they turn their attention back to the colonies on the west coast.
As for Shiks in the northern part of Freia, it was likely that the separatist factions would have to wait until the evacuation of Port Patkara's military was complete before they could start a civil war.
That was why Claude gave Borkal a private promise to contact Eriksson and see if his Blacksail Pirates had the guts to do so.
Since the region would have to lay low for the next year or so, it wouldn't be a bad idea to let the pirates cause trouble for Fochs.
Claude wasn't prepared to pay anything in return. What he promised was that Eriksson's Blacksail Pirates would only give him six ironclads after they wiped out one of Fochs' fleets.
The six ironclads were actually the same as the armoured fleet that was handed over to Freia. They were all first-generation destroyers that had just been decommissioned and were stored in the naval base at Port Patras. They hadn't figured out how to remodel them before they were put on sale.
The navy's suggestion was to remodel them into fast passenger ships to transport people between the two continents. That would shorten the journey from half a month to ten to twelve days.
Currently, the armoured fleets of the region's navy consisted of second-generation and third-generation destroyers and cruisers, as well as transport ships.
On the other hand, the ship design department led by Master Liboyd was excitedly designing the fourth generation of ironclad warships. It was said that the latest steam power for ships had been manufactured and verified, ready to be installed in the fourth generation ironclad warships. General Moriad had even submitted a report requesting for all second-generation ironclad warships to be eliminated …
It had to be said that the emergence of ironclads greatly improved the technology of the region. Be it steam engine, material craftsmanship, metallurgy, smelting, welding and other basic production technologies, all of them developed rapidly.
Even the chemical industry was showing signs of development. For example, a highly toxic paint that was applied to the bottom of ships was developed to prevent the growth of living organisms such as oysters at the bottom of the Iron-armored Battleships. As a result, the refurbishment of the bottom of the ship, which had to be done every three to four months, was extended to a year …
Unlike his previous world, however, most of the technological development in this world was concentrated in the various magic laboratories. For example, when developing a new type of steel plate for ships, rune magi would conduct various metal synthesis experiments in alchemical formations. Once they were satisfied with the results, they would redo the steps of the experiment and add in the metal composition calculations. Then, they would bring it to the refinery for smelting and finally forge and weld it together. Only then would they be able to produce a successful steel plate for ships.
General Birkin had mentioned in the meeting yesterday that in the one and a half years since Claude's conquest of Shiks, more than four hundred new technologies, materials and crafts were classified as top secret by the region alone. Most of them were in the shipbuilding industry. It was like a blowout.
Thanks to the development of steam engines, the region's locomotives were now equipped with seventh-generation ones that could reach speeds of 40 to 50 kilometers per hour.
But at the same time, Birkin also complained that the shipbuilding industry was burning through too much money.
The problem was that the region's ironclads were already outshining the others. Other countries didn't even have first-generation ironclads, yet the region's were already at the fourth generation.
That was why he suggested that the Patres Military Port Shipbuilding Base should consider developing the manufacturing of civilian ships. Just building ironclad warships alone would cost a lot of money, and they would never be able to get it back …
Claude had already considered visiting the shipbuilding base at Patres for a visit. The replacement of the ironclads really needed to be slowed down.
They could design and test it out in the future before storing the technology away. If they wanted to improve it, they would have to do it on the experimental warship.
Instead of starting mass production right after the new generation of warships was finalized, they should try to modify the old ironclad warships as much as possible. They should consider the issue of replacing the old ones during the design, and leave room for future modifications during the manufacturing of the warships …
The shipbuilding base's design department and four large shipyards could shift to building civilian ships. Iron-hulled ocean liners, transport ships and large fishing vessels were the most popular in the market. As long as they could be built, they wouldn't have to worry about not being able to sell.
Every shipbuilding workshop would have a dock that could be used to build or modify ironclad warships. That way, they would be able to create their own market as soon as possible and not just focus on the two to three million crowns allocated by the autonomous military zone for the construction of ironclad warships.
Sheila pushed the door open and saw Claude sitting behind his desk in a daze. She couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong, Claude? What happened?
Did that fatty friend of yours bring you some bad news? "
Claude snapped out of his daze and chuckled. He shook his head. "No, I was just thinking about my military schedule. There are quite a lot of things I have to deal with personally. I'll have to go to Patres in a few days.
By the way, why are you here? "
"Why am I here?"
Sheila said angrily, "Can't you see what time it is? It's time for the master to have lunch.
I thought you'd be having lunch with General Boa, but I heard from the servants that he'd already left. You've been staying in your study all this time, so I came up to see what was going on. Who knew you'd be just sitting there in a daze? "
Only then did Claude know that it was time for lunch. He looked at the crystal hourglass on the desk and suddenly remembered that he could discuss it with Liboyd. Perhaps he could make some exquisite clocks out of it. That would be a huge source of income.
So, he stood up and accompanied Sheerah downstairs for lunch while thinking about the clockmaking problem. Perhaps he could give this to Marlex as his private property. He was the illegitimate child of Madam Sonia and himself, and was now learning mechanical knowledge from Master Liboyd as an assistant …
After lunch, Claude returned to his bedroom and was about to take a nap when he heard a servant report that General Myjack had come for a visit.
Seeing his brother-in-law, Claude had no choice but to climb out of bed and put on his clothes. He wondered why he'd come all day.
Myjack was no longer leading troops. He was in charge of the daily administration and logistics of the autonomous region's headquarters. He was like a butler, just like General Skri in the past.
As the person in charge of the region, Claude needed a trusted aide to help him manage the region after he handed over his duties to Bolonik a few years ago. After much thought, he chose his brother-in-law, Myjack, in the end.
Myjack's visit was about Claude's schedule after the holidays. It was official business.
The first was to report on Claude's eldest son, Tesoray's performance in the army. The other was that he was forced to join Claude's family by his wife, Anna, who was also Claude's sister. He wanted to add the Han Ferd surname to his name.
Myjack was originally a homeless child without a surname. After the first five-year war broke out in the eastern territories, he was forcibly conscripted into the army by the local administrative office to make up for the number of conscripted soldiers. He was only sixteen at the time.
Claude had him follow him around as an orderly and he had been following him ever since. Nobody would've thought that the vagrant from back then would become a major-general and a hereditary baron of the kingdom. Not only that, he was also able to help Claude with his affairs.
As Claude's trusted aide and married to Claude's sister, Myjack had considered joining House Ferd.
However, Claude was busy with military affairs at the time and his mother and Kefnie kept causing trouble for him. Later on, Bloweyk's lover, Adele, was killed by Claude's mother. The enraged Bloweyk gave up his position as the family head and left home. That made Myjack's thoughts of joining House Ferd fade.
So, Myjack sent someone back to his hometown to find out what his surname was.
Unfortunately, his hometown had been devastated during the kingdom's civil war. The original records of the local administration office had all been burned, and most of the survivors didn't know him. Even the elderly who remembered Myjack as a homeless child couldn't remember his surname.
There were only two ways to resolve such a situation. One was to join a close family or choose a surname and become the founder of a family.
Given Myjack's current status and position, choosing a surname was more than enough for him to start a family.
However, Myjack was a cautious person and felt that starting a family wasn't enough. Additionally, he was busy with work and wanted to choose a nice and suitable surname. So, he delayed it until now.
Now that the two Houses of Ferd were separated and Claude became the head of House Han Ferd, Angelina forced her husband to join Claude's family.
After much consideration, Myjack felt that joining Claude's family would be more appropriate. So, he came to ask for a naturalization certificate and consent form. The application required Claude's signature and seal.
Apart from Myjack joining House Ferd, Gum was also going to retire and become Claude's retainer.
Unlike Myjack and the others, Gum was a lieutenant-colonel of the kingdom and was 46 years old.
Even though he had followed Claude since the first five-year war like Myjack, his role was that of Claude's personal guard and he had saved Claude's life during the Greytower magi's assassination attempt.
Now, Gum was a lieutenant-colonel of the kingdom. Unlike Myjack, Bakkerin and the others, his military career had come to an end. Two years ago, he married a burly woman and had a child last year.
That was why Claude didn't bring him to the Shiksan campaign and left him to serve in the region.
After 25 years in the army, Gum was getting tired of it and decided to retire to become Claude's retainer.
His real name was Glemet Orpes. It was a pity that he had a surname, or Claude would've let him join House Ferd for saving his life.
Naturally, people like Myjack who joined Claude's family were considered side branches. The only difference between him and Bloweyk was that he couldn't inherit the position of head of the house. However, the more side branches there were, the more power and influence the house would have.
After discussing the matter of Myjack joining House Ferd, Claude and Myjack talked about the arrangements for Gum.
Coincidentally, Sergeant Kester, who was in charge of the tobacco factory's security, had gone to the royal capital with Kefnie to protect the three of them. Claude decided to let Gum take over as the head of the household's security and rebuild a reliable force for the household.
Myjack took out some documents and prepared to confirm the schedule with Claude. He wasn't Claude's aide and didn't have to pay attention to Claude's daily schedule. Instead, he had to let Claude look through the official matters he had to deal with personally. That way, Claude would have a clear idea of what was going on.
The most important thing for Claude to do now was to visit the Pamigal Republic in three months' time. That was if there wasn't a war going on there in three months' time.
As the highest authority of the region, Claude would be visiting the native nation and signing a few agreements with the president, Tazinger Nora Taganem. There would be military assistance, economic and commercial cooperation.
The most important point of the visit was that the Dominion had declared its stance to the other countries. The Pamigal Republic was under their protection, and anyone who went against it would be challenging the Dominion's authority. It also served as a warning to the remaining colonized countries on the southern coast of Freia.
Myjack had to confirm the time of the visit with Claude so that he could contact the pamigal nation and arrange the itinerary.
Apart from that, he also had to confirm whether Claude would have to visit the Lusman Chieftain Alliance.
However, Claude wasn't interested in the infighting within the alliance and refused to pay them a visit.
After dealing with the official matters, Myjack brought up Tesoray's performance in the camp.
Claude didn't just leave his eldest son in the camp. Instead, he secretly ordered Myjack to keep an eye on him and keep an eye on him.
But after three years, Myjack didn't have a high opinion of Tesoray. He felt that the kid had become a veteran who spent his days in the camp without any ambition.
When Tesoray first entered the camp, he was a cowardly punching bag. After half a year of new recruit training, his performance was passable. He knew that his father wouldn't change his mind about letting him out of the camp, so he improved a little and became a passable recruit.
But in the camp, it was easy for Tesoray to mingle with a bunch of veterans. It could only be said that certain types of people were born to stick together.
Cheating, slacking off, bullying new recruits, stealing meat from the canteen, drinking in the barracks, molesting women, and so on. In any case, these veterans in the barracks were all the same. They didn't commit any major crimes, but they kept on committing minor ones. They were often locked up, which actually affected a soldier's future in the army.
Tesorre quickly became a veteran, and he even went to the West Coast Colony War twice. His performance was passable, participating in four battles, and according to his own bragging, he killed three enemies …
However, in summary, his military career in the past three years could be considered a failure. Because he had violated too many rules, his military rank was currently only that of a staff sergeant, not even a sergeant.
Claude and Bloweyk, on the other hand, had become captains in three years.