Black Iron's Glory

Chapter 349 Great Battle’s Eve

Combining four colonies into one war theatre and giving military power entirely to one person was something with no precedent in Aueras. However, the kingdom was forced to make that choice. They considered Cromwell and Balingana already given up on. Robisto and Anfiston would in turn be where most of the defensive battles would be fought. Even if Robisto was lost, Ranger could still fall back to Claude Defence Line to protect Anfiston.

Perhaps the two sides had been on really uneven footing ever since the start of the war. Shiks could utilise the might of their whole nation and send reinforcements to Nubissia without consequence. Aueras on the other hand could only send out Ranger and only managed to raise a corps of forces in the colonies for the war effort. Both in terms of military might and rear support, Aueras was at a disadvantage.

As Miselk had said, however, against the Shiksan forces hadn’t fought a war for the past four decades, the only things Ranger could rely on were their new equipment, tactics and experienced soldiers. The enemy could send nonstop reinforcements while Ranger couldn’t afford to rely on the support of the kingdom. It wasn’t that Aueras didn’t want to do so. They were truly unable to.

The five-year war had sapped the kingdom of wealth they built up over two decades. The treasury was now nearly empty. Even though they won the war, they still had a huge obstacle before then. Their archnemeses, Nasri and Canas, were still present. Though they’ve signed a peace treaty, the kingdom still had to sustain half its military force to keep the peace at the border.

Additionally, the newly conquered territories of the three defunct duchies had been ruined by the war and needed investment and development efforts from the kingdom and a long time to heal from the war. New standing corps also had to be formed to be stationed in those areas, which greatly increased the financial burden the kingdom had to bear.

And that was only the external threats. The internal state of the kingdom wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine. Stellin X had been bedridden from illness and was unable to run the kingdom. The new and old nobility were in conflict over their respective interests in the new territories and caused quite a huge uproar in the House of Lords. While they could still barely work together during wartime as one, everyone scrambled for their own profits after the war was over. Conflict began popping up and the three duchies that Aueras conquered weren’t able to generate profits that could satisfy everyone.

Piling up on all that was the war on the Nubissian continent with Shiks. The seven colonies had been providing Aueras with enough goods to sustain them, but now they became the reason it could achieve peace with Shiks. Shiks’ ambitions were growing far too big and they wanted to swallow three Aueran colonies, which touched on the baseline Aueras was willing to accept.

And instead of the nobles and powerful people in the kingdom actually meant to put the royal family’s private forces in harm’s way by sending them to face off against the Shiksan forces, there was truly no better candidate than Ranger to send to respond to the war.

Among the four main standing corps of the kingdom, Reddragon and Griffon were tied up at the borders of Nasri and couldn’t be moved. Bluefeather had just been reformed but they were tasked with keeping the light cavalrymen of Canas at bay. As for the royal guard, they were in charge of the safety of the royal capital. If the royal guard was sent to Nubissia and suffered huge casualties, that would only fuel Shiks’ ambition and greed. They would then turn to the remaining Aueran colonies.

The three newly formed standing corps had to defend one conquered duchy each and couldn’t be mobilised. And while the Ranger folk didn’t use to be a corps in its own right, it consisted of elite units and its capabilities were acknowledged to be at least the four main standing corps’ equal, as was apparent from the war games between the royal guard’s two tribes against Claude’s own tribe which ended after four out of ten of the planned games. How could the distinguished troops of Ranger not rise up to the occasion during a time of crisis now?

It took them only half a year to rush top Nubissia, and they didn’t disappoint. Ranger eliminated two Shiksan standing corps, the flotilla of Seaking, and reclaimed all lost land. Aueras even believed that Ranger showed the enemy the cruel reality and sent an ambassador to Shiks to demand a peace treaty with the condition of ceding one colony away.

However, the ambassador’s peaceful intentions were completely ignored by Shiks. The huge casualties suffered by their colonial forces incurred the rage of Shiks’ armies. Aueras’ offering of one colony in exchange of peace only seemed like an insult to them. They clamoured about going back to the battlefield to take back what’s theirs and decided they would send five standing corps to Nubissia to continue the war.

No Aueran would’ve foreseen such a development. No matter how powerful Ranger was, they were only a force of 30 thousand which would have to deal with 300 thousand more enemy reinforcements. They were outnumbered ten to one, and it was a gap that couldn’t be made up by other means. As for the two new colonial corps formed in the seven colonies, they were merely cannon fodder to bolster their numbers and didn’t have any real battle power to speak of. Many believed that the war in the colonies would end with the Auerans’ loss.

By the unprecedented move of uniting the four colonies into a single war theatre and making General Miselk the field marshal, Aueras had expressed that they were willing to give up on Cromwell, Balingana and Robisto. They only needed Ranger to keep Anfiston no matter what as a minimum.

Hansbach had told Miselk in their private talks the kingdom’s position on the Nubissian war. The uniting of the four colonies meant that in Balingana and Cromwell, there were many citizens to be moved away and earths to scorch. There would be no room for civil affairs.

Robisto was the same. Most of the natural barriers near Dorinibla River had to be used for defense to maximise enemy casualties. Only after they were completely unable to hold on would they continue to fall back to Anfiston and use the terrain and mountains to hold their ground until the war ended.

It was already tough enough for Aueras to support the only unit to reinforce the colonies, Ranger, that far away. The long transport routes of supplies posed a huge burden to the kingdom. What was certain was that Shiks would definitely pay a much higher cost by maintaining five standing corps on Nubissia. Aueras hoped that the war could be dragged on so that Shiks could continue to be bled dry till they could no longer hold on.

Before the first prince left, he announced for an arms factory to be built in Anfiston for maintenance and production of new firearms to make up for ones damaged in battle. That would be the first overseas firearms factory of Aueras and it was built out of desperation, as transporting firearms from the kingdom would take at least half a year.

Ever since Aueras came to Nubissia decades ago, the colonies were forbidden from making their own factories to produce civilian goods. Raw materials had to first be transported to the mainland to be manufactured before they would be sent back. Arms factories were even more taboo. Firearms were only sent to the colonies on a need-based basis.

However, the kingdom had no choice but to permit the founding of such a factory in Anfiston. The 100 thousand Aubass Mark 3s first prince brought with him was only enough to arm Ranger corps. Few remained for the colonial forces. Another estimated 100 thousand muskets were required for the new corps, local garrison forces, and replacements for weapons damaged in the previous battles.

That wasn’t feasible for the kingdom to achieve within the short term and they wouldn’t be able to transport them to Nubissia before the great battle began. In the end, it was decided that an armory was to be built in Anfiston to repair damaged muskets and to refit old muskets into new ones to temporarily meet the demands of the battlefield.

According to the informants from Port Vebator, Shiks would need at least three to four months to transport another five corps to Nubissia to continue the war. The reason for that was simple. The supplies consumed by five corps of 300 thousand soldiers was no small amount. Even though Shiks’ colonies have more area than their Aueran counterparts, they weren’t developed enough. The most Shiksans did to exploit local resources was through raids.

Other things aside, the Shiksan settlers even had to rely on buying food from Aueran colonies to sustain themselves. That was the reason Shiks desired Cromwell, Balingana and Robisto. If they got those three colonies, the Shiksan settlers would become self sufficient.

After transporting three standing corps to Port Vebator in one go, the Shiksan military was dumbfounded to see that their food and supplies had not made it there. How could they fight any war without food or ammunition? However, there was only so much supplies Seaking could transport per trip every two months. There was only barely enough supplies to go around before the next shipment.

That was part of the many difficulties the inexperienced strategists of Shiks faced after four decades of peace. They had zero experience waging war on a distant continent. Given that their colonies were lacking in almost every respect, they had to transport everything they needed from their home country. The sea route wasn’t always safe either. There were storms, pirate attacks, ships going missing from fog, and so on. Even intercontinental communications would take one month to deliver.

So, the logistics units of Shiks had been wracking their heads during the past half year. In the end, they had no choice and hired Nasri and Canas’ allied navy and expropriated most long-distance ships in their own kingdom to secure a stable maritime supply route to Nubissia.

According to an Aueran informant in Port Vebator, the military base there was stocked full of resources. There was an estimate of two more shipments before a large enough stockpile for war could be achieved. Coupled with the two standing corps that had yet to arrive, it might take another four months for preparations to be complete and the attack on Cromwell to start.

The informant asked whether they should send men to sabotage the base in Port Vebator by burning supply warehouses to delay the start of the war.

However, Miselk refused the suggestion. Four months was more than enough for the Ranger corps to finish their prewar preparations. There was no need to delay the war. Ranger had to lure the enemy deep into the theatre, surround them, cut them off and exterminate the corps one by one. Only then could they make Shiks feel true pain. Perhaps the loss of five corps would make Shiks understand that the Aueran colonies weren’t targets they could lust after.

The evacuation of citizens from Cromwell and Balingana had been going on without a hitch. All seven colonies had been tasked with recruiting youths of fitting age for the formation of the second colonial corps in Anfiston. Miselk wasn’t planning to use them as cannon fodder. All they had to do was take over manning Claude Defence Line after their short-term training.

“Colonel Claude, how goes the expansion of Line 131?” Miselk asked after an urgent summons.

“Sir, the expansion has been completed. All new recruits were picked from garrison units across the colonies, so we saved a lot on training time. Currently, they are familiarising themselves with the use of the Aubass Mark 3 and carrying out shooting practice. They are also being drilled in new Ranger tactics,” Claude replied.

“Have there been any difficulties?”

“Sir, we have insufficient war horses. Our line requires another two thousand, but logistics said that the next batch of war horses aren’t coming until half a year later. They recommend using race horses as replacements.”

Miselk made his decision after a moment of silent contemplation. “I will have the other lines of the folk transfer enough war horses to you. Colonel, you only have three months to complete your training. The enemy is highly likely to attack beyond that. After the enemy enters Balingana, we need Line 131 to transfer to Cromwell to cut off the enemy supply lines to create the conditions necessary for us to exterminate the five enemy corps.”

Claude stood ramrod straight. “Yes, General. We shall complete our mission.”

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