Claude ended his visit to the Pamigal Republic on the 11th of August and returned to the Patres naval base in the self-governing region.
The results of this visit were quite good. Both the overseas autonomous region parliament and the autonomous military region were very satisfied with the results.
The acting chairman of the parliament, Marshal Bolonik, led a group of parliament members to Patres to welcome Claude back and expressed their appreciation for the economic cooperation agreement between the region and the pamigal republic.
Claude knew that most of the investments in the economic cooperation agreement between the region and the pamigal nation were in the hands of the councilors' family businesses and private companies. Every crown they invested in the pamigal nation would bring them tens of crowns in the future. That was why they were so excited to welcome him back.
Of course, Claude wasn't lacking in that regard. Nobody would forget about his share of the profits.
On the contrary, Borkal, who accompanied him on the trip, was the one who obtained the exclusive right to sell the aphrodisiac wine.
In other words, only Claude and Borkal's father would have the right to sell the aphrodisiac brewed by the pamigars in the region. The unique effects of the aphrodisiac would surely bring Claude countless gold coins in return.
Compared to the economic cooperation agreement, Claude was more interested in the military cooperation agreement between the region and the pamigal republic. The effects were obvious. While the colonial countries on the west coast harbored ill intentions towards the pamigal republic, they also began to consider whether they had the power to provoke the region behind the pamigal people.
Claude's ostentatious visit made it clear that the Dominion was the pamigar's backer. That made the colonized countries wary of starting a war.
The Filimuz Harbor lease agreement further deepened the impression of the West Coast colonial countries that the Overseas Dominion had formed a de facto military alliance with the Pamigal National Republic.
Under such circumstances, invading or attacking the pamigal republic would be challenging the region's dignity. The region would easily find an excuse to join the war.
In the eyes of the colonial countries on the west coast, the pamigal republic was the only thing of value among the three rebellious colonies.
The territory occupied by the lusman chieftain alliance was a desert and wasteland. While it was large, there wasn't much value in developing it.
Putting aside the fact that the lusman tribes were killing each other, just the fact that it was situated between the region and the pamigal republic was enough to make the colonial countries give up on the idea of conquering it.
The other was the colony of the Vassilik Principality. The situation in the colony was even more complicated. It was a hilly area, and two indigenous tribes, the Skoro and the Gist, were killing each other in the wild. Rather than calling it a riot, it was more accurate to say that they were waging a war against each other.
The Vasilik Dukedom, on the other hand, had exhausted its resources during the two expeditions and had decided to give up on the colony and was quietly evacuating its citizens.
The colonial garrison of the Opsaro City-State Alliance, which was initially requested by the colonial authorities of the Vasilik Dukedom, only occupied a few seaports and towns along the coast after entering the colony. They did not dare to march inland, nor did they withdraw their troops. They just stayed there.
It seemed that they wanted to annex the colony but did not have the courage to do so, fearing that they would be involved in the war between the two native tribes.
Therefore, the most delicious of the three colonies was the pamigal's territory. Although they had become an independent nation, none of the west coast colonial countries recognized them.
But now that the Overseas Dominion and the Pamigal National Republic were on the same side, all the colonial countries on the West Coast who had designs on the Pamigals had to think twice. Was it worth it to piss off the elephant behind it just to catch a rabbit …?
If they did not target the pamigal republic, then the only remaining colony of the Lesnia Kingdom, which had no ability to defend itself, would be the best target.
The Kamarlyne Kingdom and the Leoriolo Dukedom once again turned their attention to the territory sandwiched between their two colonies, but they also faced the risk of a naval blockade and declaration of war by the Fochs Islands United Kingdom, so they did not dare to make a rash decision.
Claude, who returned to Lanu, was once again very busy. During the last few days of his visit to the pamigal republic, Claude went to visit the volunteer corps stationed in the region.
Although Beechlin formed the volunteer corps with two divisions of Monolith and retired members of the local garrison forces, the situation was not optimistic after Claude visited the volunteer corps.
The two divisions of the Monolith Regiment had been rotated by General Beechlin, so the situation was not bad. However, most of the retired soldiers of the local garrison forces decided to stay in the Pamigal National Republic after leaving the volunteer corps, rather than go back to the overseas self-government.
The reason was simple. If they stayed here, they could marry two Pamigal women. After the war with the three colonial countries, the half-year long recuperation period allowed these retired soldiers to find their lovers near the encampment …
The pamigal republic was more than happy to see that happen. Some of the retired soldiers who had performed meritorious deeds on the battlefield even received promises from the pamigal military that they would be able to continue their military careers after leaving the corps.
There was nothing Claude could do about it. Everyone had their own ambitions. Since the retired soldiers had decided to stay, there was nothing he could do to stop them.
That way, he noticed that apart from the two folks from Monolith, most of the veterans from the other two folks would choose to stay in Pamigal, save for a small portion who decided to return to their homeland.
At the very least, it was easy to find a wife there and they could marry two. That was a benefit that the region could not hope to match.
To put it simply, the volunteer corps was now useless. After the two divisions of the Monolith Corps returned to the overseas autonomous region, the volunteer corps could no longer be maintained. This meant that the autonomous region had trained a large number of military personnel with actual combat experience for the Pamigal National Republic.
Claude began to worry that when Thundercrash came to garrison, the pamigals would use the same method to lure away a large number of soldiers.
At the end of the ninth month, the navy transported another 400,000 or so Shiksan immigrants. That was the fourth shipment in Year 606 of the Sacred Light Calendar.
However, there were still more than a million people gathered at Port Patkara, as well as Thundercrash and the eight returning Shiksan folk that needed to be transported. It would take at least four more shipments to complete.
The Shiksan immigrants totaled up to 3.8 million. After digesting them, the region's population would reach 11 million, just barely reaching the population threshold.
This would enable a third of the territory of the Dominions to be developed and used, instead of being deserted and desolate from the towns where the settlers had gathered.
Using the excuse that all the ships had to undergo a short inspection and repair, Moriad went to the headquarters of Lanu and pestered Claude for funds to build fourth-generation ironclads and decommission all second-generation ones.
Claude looked at the report submitted by the navy and rejected the request without hesitation when he saw the amount requested. What a joke.
What a joke. Where would the autonomous region find a sum of 20,000,000 crowns for the navy to build fourth-generation ironclads?
Not to mention, the more advanced the technology used, the more expensive they became. Claude recalled that the first generation ironclads didn't even cost more than 50 thousand crowns, the second generation ironclads neared 100 thousand crowns, and the third generation ironclads went for 150 thousand crowns. The cruisers went for 220 thousand crowns each. Only the transport ships were the cheapest, costing close to 100 thousand crowns each.
As for the fourth-generation experimental warship that Boyd had just completed, it cost almost 350,000 crowns to build.
Even though a large-scale construction would reduce the cost, it wouldn't be that ridiculous. It would be great if they could reduce the construction costs by thirty to forty thousand crowns.
Moriad's request for the construction of fourth-generation ironclads went up to 20 million crowns. It was clear that they were planning to eliminate the third-generation ironclads as well.
In a world where the first and second generation ironclads were invincible, Claude would have to be crazy to approve the navy's request.
After scolding Moriad for a while, the general produced a piece of evidence. Claude was shocked when he saw it and hurriedly summoned the head of the bureau, General Fodelus. In the end, Fodelus told Claude that the bureau didn't know about the situation because they hadn't deployed any intelligence on the royal navy.
The evidence Moriad brought out was information on the Aueran navy. Before the region began its attack on Shiks, Claude went to Whitestag and handed over 16 ironclads to the royal navy, completing the arms trade between the region and the kingdom.
After that, the region didn't pay much attention to the 16 ironclads anymore. They were all old and refurbished goods. While they could deal with wooden warships, they weren't on the same level as the navy's ironclads.
Only General Moriad, as the admiral of the region's navy, kept an eye on the royal navy. Naturally, that had to do with the fact that he saw the royal navy as an imaginary enemy. After all, the royal navy was equipped with 16 ironclads. Even if they were all first-generation obsolete warships, they would still be harder to deal with than the sailing fleets of other navies.
However, no one had expected that the Wang Family Navy would do such a thing to the 16 Iron-armored Warships. At the beginning, three of the 16 Iron-armored Warships were taken to the dock, disemboweled, and used as research samples to be redrawn for all kinds of experiments.
The three ironclads consisted of one destroyer, one cruiser and one transport ship each. The royal navy had spent quite a bit of money on them.
After a year's worth of research, the kingdom began to replicate the ship's propulsion system. However, it was a huge challenge for the technical experts of the kingdom to go from scratch. Without any guidance and with only samples, it was a difficult task to replicate the ironclads.
According to a technologist bribed by the Dominion Navy, the Stellin royal family had specially approved five million crowns for the purpose of replicating the ironclad warship. However, the funds were about to be used up, and there was still no progress on the task.
For the sake of the Imperial Envoy sent by His Majesty the King of Hu Nong, the Royal Navy built a huge iron hull warship. Then, they dismantled two ironclad destroyers and moved the power from the two ironclad destroyers to the empty iron hull warship to drive the iron hull warship.
Their response plan was a success. The imperial envoy who came down for inspection did not understand at all. Seeing that the huge iron-shelled warships built by the kingdom could sail on the sea, he thought that the imitation work was a success. He happily reported to his superiors that the imitation work was progressing smoothly …
As a result, the king allocated another 5 million crowns to build an ironclad fleet that wasn't inferior to the one in the region.
However, the royal navy didn't expect the king to be so eager. They had no choice but to continue building the huge ironclad warships and order a batch of propulsion systems from the region.
As the kingdom's propulsion system had already been phased out, the machinery workshop in the region accepted the order.
In the end, the navy's five million crowns were quickly spent. In order to deal with the royal family's inquiries, the navy set their sights on the remaining eleven ironclad warships. Using various excuses such as sinking on reefs, training accidents, or being attacked by a storm, the navy reported five ironclad warships to be scrapped and sunk. They then sold the five ironclad warships at a high price to other coastal countries at a high price, amassing a million crowns for further research.
The news General Moriad received was that the Fochs Islands United Kingdom bought two ironclads at a high price of more than 400,000 crowns.
There were also three other coastal countries that bought the remaining three ironclads, but they did so through agents, so the Royal Navy's technicians who were bribed by the Dominion Navy didn't manage to find out the names of the three coastal countries ….
This all happened in the second half of last year. General Moriad believed that other coastal countries had invested more money in the development of ironclad warships, and their technicians were also more professional, unlike the Royal Navy in the Kingdom, which was struggling with money.
He believed that in the second half of this year or next year, the four coastal countries that had acquired ironclads would make great progress. There was a high chance that they would develop their own ironclads and pose a threat to the dominion navy's ironclad fleet.
Therefore, General Moriad represented the navy and hoped to eliminate all second-generation ironclads and replace them with fourth-generation ironclads.
That way, they would be able to form a generational advantage over the enemy's armoured fleets in the future, and still be able to crush them at sea …
General Foders, the head of the military intelligence department, expressed his doubts about the information submitted by General Moriad. He personally believed that it was impossible for the royal navy to carry out such an operation.
However, Claude told him that the information submitted by General Moriad was very likely to be true. Last year, Speaker Bennett received several protests from the kingdom's prime minister, Marquis Blancarte. He said that the ironclads trade between the dominion and the royal navy was a scam and that several ironclads had sunk or been scrapped due to training accidents and shipwrecks.
Speaker Bennett didn't take the protests seriously. Those situations could only be blamed on the royal navy's own mishandling and bad luck.
Later, he told Claude about it as a joke. No one took Prime Minister Blancarte's protests to heart.
Anyway, the deal had been completed. If anything happened to the royal navy, they could only blame their own bad luck.
However, looking at it all now, the royal navy was very suspicious. It was indeed possible that they would do such a thing.
General Foders doubted that the royal navy would have the guts to lie to his superiors. Claude could only smile bitterly and tell him that, based on the royal navy's character, he believed that it would be amazing if even half of the ten million crowns that His Majesty had allocated twice could be used on the ironclads.
Most of the funds were either misappropriated or embezzled. That had always been the royal navy's bureaucratic custom. Currently, the royal navy had no way to earn extra money. They could only keep their eyes on the funds. Anyway, if there was a shortage of funds, the unlucky ones would take the blame. No one was willing to spit out the benefits that they already had.
So, with no other choice, the top brass of the royal navy could only set their sights on the ironclads. That was the inevitable result.
Claude gave General Foders a new mission. He had to find out all the secrets of the royal navy in the shortest time possible.
As for General Moriad, he was reprimanded by Claude. Could the dominion navy not rely on the advantage of the generation difference to defeat the new enemy?
The enemy only had first-generation ironclads. What was there to be anxious about? Second-generation ironclads could easily deal with first-generation ironclads.
In the end, Claude threw the navy's shipbuilding application into the rubbish bin. He told General Moriad solemnly that there would be no large-scale shipbuilding plans for the region in the next few years.
Only one of the four major shipbuilding workshops in Patres Military Base was left with a military dock. They could only build four replenishing warships for the navy in a year. If they were to build fourth-generation ironclads, the region might not be able to afford them due to the high cost. So, they could only build third-generation ironclads.
In the end, General Moriad returned dejectedly.