Black Iron's Glory

Something seemed to be off. Claude put down the reports and got to thinking. If they were accurate, it was easy to conclude that Shiks wouldn’t be able to send more reinforcements to Nubissia within half a year at least. In other words, their troops would continue being cooped up in Port Vebator. It was a perfect time to stage the nikancha rebellion.

But whether they did now was no longer important. What’s more pressing was when the internal situation of Shiks would stabilise. Who would win in the fight between royals and nobles? Majid III had given the order to conscript the private forces of the nobles and refused to send the royal corps no matter what.

At the same time, Nasri and Canas refused to hire out their main corps to Shiks. Thundercrash and 3rd monolith had exterminated both voluntary corps and it hurt enough for those nations to not dare to try that again.

In Canas’ case, since the five-year war ended, they only had three main corps remaining. They hired out one to Shiks only for them to be wiped out in Nubissia. There was no way there would go with the same arrangement once more.

While Nasri had substantial forces remaining, almost double what Canas had, it had been less than a decade since the peace treaty with Aueras was signed. They wouldn’t risk angering Aueras by continuing to hire their troops to Shiks. They could excuse the first one as discharged soldiers willingly working for Shiks, but doing so for a second time risked sabotaging their fragile peace with Aueras. They wouldn’t wish for yet another war with them.

Claude finally understood why Majid III had instigated this series of wars in the first place. The Shiksan colonies on Nubissia were mostly located inland in the continent. They were covered in mountains and forests and weren’t suited to farming, providing only mineable resources. Additionally, they had to be wary of attacks from natives.

The newspaper article from Bleyotte mocked Majid III for being delusional for wanting to move the fiefs of the nobles to Nubissia. Given the situation there, there was no way nobles would agree to that. Even newly created nobles would be willing to go without a fief than have their fief in the colonies.

All this changed, however, when they got the colony of Vebator from Nasri. With a good port, Shiks’ inland colonies had access to the sea and resources for developing the colonies were sent there nonstop. The nobles came to discover mining to be a rather profitable endeavour, so they hired some merchants and proprietors to go to Nubissia to forage for some mines for them.

Majid III acutely sensed the change in the nobles’ attitudes. They no longer seemed to be against a partial fief transfer or having a new fief being given there. However, a new problem surfaced: giving a piece of land where a noble had mining operations running to another noble created conflict easily.

That was why he turned his sights on the Aueran colonies instead, more specifically, the two on the north bank of Dorinibla River which had seen basic development, Cromwell and Balignana. Those colonies had rich farmland and flat terrain, making them really suited for agriculture. Not to mention, the two colonies were connected by Albator Plains. Other things aside, the migrating bull herds would net them quite a huge profit annually, more than what a gold mine would produce.

The paper reported that the nobles were in full agreement of their king’s plans for the Aueran colonies. Some of them even proclaimed that they would be willing to have their fiefs reassigned there in its entirety to be the pioneers on the new continent. That further cemented Majid III’s goals to demand the two colonies from Aueras.

Back then, less than three years had passed since the end of the five-year war. Aueras was worn and its economy was a wreck. Shiks, on the other hand, still remained on their throne as hegemon of Northern Freia surrounded by smaller, allied nations. Majid III and his ministers believed that they would be able to strongarm Aueras to go along with their wishes, only to be disappointed when their unreasonable demands were denied.

That was how the first colonial war came to pass. Shiks thought that it could easily overwhelm the Aueran forces with two of their standing corps, but their forces performed disappointingly after the four decades of peace the nation enjoyed. It took them half a year to take Wickhamsburg, which was more than enough for the Auerans to respond to the invasion.

What followed was the chance for Ranger to perform. The two so-called elite Shiksan standing corps were eliminated in their entirety. The noble faction to whom the two corps belong were beyond enraged and demanded vengeance on Ranger in the colonies.

So, the king went along the flow and gave the order for five elite standing corps of the nobles to be sent to Nubissia. He also declared that anyone with great achievements could be given fiefs, and those with existing fiefs could get additional ones. The kingdom was willing to give all of Balingana and Cromwell away to reward the firm and brave pioneers.

Not a single noble thought they would actually lose. Five standing corps numbered up to 300 thousand men, whereas Aueras only had a folk that belonged to the royal family of 32 thousand. It was a ten-to-one disparity. As for the two Aueran colonial corps, nobody took them seriously since they were formed from the pushover local keeper forces.

The nobles who put in the effort and funding soon gathered the supplies the five corps needed and launched the second colonial war. But their grand plans came crashing down like a house of cards. Unlike what they had imagined, their five standing corps were led around by Ranger on a leash and even got into huge trouble. In the end, what remained of their forces had to surrender when Wickhamsburg, their supply base, was burned down.

When word of the complete and total extermination of the five standing corps spread to Shiks, the only person beam with joy about it was Majid III. With the seven noble corps gone, the eight royal corps became the pillar of the kingdom. The royal family became the sole voice in matters of the kingdom and no noble was willing to step up to oppose them.

However, he was well aware that the nobles still had deep foundations despite the loss of their forces. He decided to strike while the iron was hot to cause the nobles to bleed further. After their defeat in the second colonial war, some ministers did advise for the royal corps to be sent to Nubissia to salvage the situation, but they were ignored by the king who cited that their arms were still insufficient to deal with the Aueran threat.

What he did later caused everyone to gasp in horror. He hired the troops of Nasri and Canas as well as their navy to stabilise the situation in Nubissia. Then, he forbade the Aueran ambassador entry with the excuse of venting rage on the nobles’ behalf, closing the door to the negotiation table for good and humiliating the Aueran ambassador and the Stellin royal family. That also forfeited all hopes for the nobles to ransom back their captured relatives.

He then gave an impassioned speech on revenge and voiced his support for the nobles to form new forces to continue the fight on Nubissia. The royal family would fund the formation of ten standing corps. Now that he had offered such a great deal, the drafting of the troops would no doubt have to come from the nobles’ fiefs.

It was then when some nobles looked back at all that had happened and began to ponder. It only just occurred to them that the nobles had been doing all the heavy lifting throughout the two prior wars while Majid III cheered from the sidelines. Apart from paying some money out of his pocket, all he did was make grand promises and gestures without bearing any of the consequences from the two wars.

And now, the formation of the ten standing corps would deprive the nobles of their manpower pool in their respective fiefs and allow the royal family an opportunity to stretch their influence into their fiefs. With nearly all the troops in Shiks in the royal family’s control, if Majid III ever wanted to prey on the nobles, they wouldn’t be able to resist the assault of the elite royal corps with their private keeper forces at all. The consequences would be unthinkable.

The nobles who were aware of the ploy began resisting the royal family and Majid III in the only way they knew how: secretly not cooperating and delaying the formation of the standing corps as best they could. In the coming year or so, only two of those corps were formed and the other three couldn’t get fully staffed no matter what.

Majid III also found out that his ploy was discovered, but he didn’t really mind and sent the two formed corps to Nubissia while pushing for the other three to be staffed. As for the other five, since the nobles weren’t interested, he didn’t mind delaying their formation. He’ll let the situation on Nubissia develop and encourage them to do so again once they began seeing yields. He understood the nobles really well. They wouldn’t bite unless there was bait.

The way the king and the military saw it, they didn’t really care about the failure of the two colonial wars and believed it to be a result of the nobles being too eager and greedy to see results. Majid III decided to fight firmly and patiently. He would wait for the three other standing corps to be formed and trained first before starting the third colonial war.

By then, there would be seven main corps in the colonies. With the two voluntary corps leading the charge and the other five at the back, they would first clear out Cromwell and set up a tough defence line there before attacking Balingana. He and the military advisors believed that the five enhanced Aueran folks wouldn’t be able to resist being overwhelmed with numbers like that at all and their best bet was to give up on Balingana and Cromwell to retreat beyond Dorinibla River to use it to stop the Shiksan offensive.

As long as he could gain the two colonies, Majid III would be able to fulfill his promise to the nobles and give them fiefs relative to their efforts and the losses they suffered in the past two wars as reparations. After tasting profit, the nobles would no doubt drop their suspicion for the royal family and go through with the formation of the other five standing corps without delay.

Once that was complete, Shiks would have 12 standing corps in Nubissia. The king believed nobody would be able to stop them after that. They could even take all the remaining Aueran colonies to make up for their two humiliating losses.

After that, the reputation of Shiks would once more skyrocket on Freia. The nobles would no longer be against having their fiefs moved to the colonies. Majid III would no doubt go down in the history books as the legendary monarch that ushered in the golden age of his kingdom.

Yet, lady fate was ever so fickle. Never would Majid III dream that the new field marshal, Miselk’s successor, would take the initiative to start the third colonial war. He launched an attack on the two voluntary corps from Nasri and Canas with Thundercrash, a mere folk. In three triumphant victories, he crushed the two strong corps and even swallowed the new Tofeid corps up. The remaining standing corps turtled up in Port Vebator and secured the only chance Shiks had to fight back.

All his plans evaporated with the horrible loss in the third colonial war. When the news broke, he smashed all the precious art pieces in the royal study. Sometimes, even the most perfect of plans could be ruined by subordinates who didn’t do their part. Even so, he still wanted to try one last time and immediately sent ambassadors to Canas and Nasri in hopes of hiring their corps and sending them to secure the situation on Nubissia once more.

But no matter how hard the ambassadors tried, the two nations refused to hire their forces away. Majid III wasn’t willing to send his own royal corps there either, so he decided to use the royal family’s rightful authority to forcefully conscript the private armies of the nobles for the five corps he intended to send away.

The nobles didn’t openly call for a rebellion, but secretly gave the order for their troops to resist forced conscription and escape to the mountains for a game of cat and mouse with the corps Majid III sent after them. With Shiks in such turmoil, its king couldn’t be bothered with what was happening on Nubissia at all.