The Fochs Islands Union had gone mad. Half a year ago, it was the country with the most colonies on the west coast of Nubissia. But in just a few months, three of its colonies were gone. What surprised it the most was that the three colonies weren't in the hands of its biggest enemy, the autonomous region. Instead, they were taken over by the allies it had roped in, the pirates.
What it thought was an ally had stabbed the Fochs Islands Union in the back. The central colony and the southern colony, Port Lupsere, were taken over by the authorities of the Duchy of Leoro and the Opsaro City-States Union respectively. This was what angered the Fochs Islands Union the most. The two colonies had been in operation for many years, with many immigrants and abundant resources. They were the most reliable logistics bases for the kingdom's powerful navy to traverse between the two continents.
The Mount Weyders Colony being taken over by the Blacksail Pirates was another piece of bad news. However, the colony was located at the northern end of the continent and was quite remote. It was a mining area for the Fochs Islands Union. There weren't many immigrants. Apart from ore carriers and slave traders, there weren't many merchant ships that came to trade.
If the kingdom hadn't wanted to turn the colony into a shipbuilding base capable of producing ironclad warships, they would've invested in a large scale infrastructure. But all of this was destroyed by the Black Sail Pirates. After being plundered by the Black Sail Pirates, this colony was forgotten by the kingdom's higher-ups, but they did not expect the Black Sail Island to quietly come back and reoccupy this colony.
Having lost all their colonies, the Fochs Islands Union was like an ant in a pot. They were extremely anxious and sent three envoys to the autonomous region within three months. The first envoy waved a bank draft and ordered twelve second-generation ironclad warships to be delivered in half a year. The second envoy came to discuss the training of the ironclad students. They paid a hundred thousand crowns to get the autonomous region to use Cape Loducus as a training base.
The third envoy also came from the autonomous region to purchase the cannons for the second-generation ironclad warships. Unfortunately, the autonomous region no longer produced the heavy cannons that fired solid projectiles. Fortunately, more than ten armed merchant ships captured by General Moriad's fleet were still equipped with these things. He ordered them to gather these cannons and satisfy the third envoy's request …
Half a year later, twelve Ironclads customized by the United Kingdom of Fox Islands gathered at Cape Loducus. The trainees were all trained, and the Ironclads were fully loaded with coal. The high-ranking naval officers of the United Kingdom of Fox Islands were commanding the fleet to set sail to recapture the lost colony.
However, Claude wasn't optimistic about the Fochs' second-generation ironclads being able to do much in the north. The kingdom was too biased. It was no longer an era where a powerful navy could conquer the world. With just their navy, the kingdom wouldn't be able to take back their lost colonies. Even if they did, they wouldn't be able to defend them.
As expected, the first target of the ironclad fleet of the Fochs Islands United Kingdom was the Port Lupressel colony annexed by the Opsaro City States Alliance. However, the Opsaro City States Alliance didn't have a powerful navy and had no intention of fighting a decisive battle at sea with the United Kingdom of Fox Islands. On the contrary, perhaps out of guilt, they took the initiative to avoid the Fox Kingdom's ironclad fleet. They moved the residents of the cities and towns within thirty miles of the coast inland and implemented a sea ban, allowing the ironclad fleet to toss and turn within thirty miles of the coast …
There was nothing to toss and turn. There was nothing to toss and turn in the empty port town unless they formed a team and marched inland. However, the United Kingdom of Fox Islands' weakest force was its land force. Leaving the warships and marching inland was simply suicide in the eyes of the naval officers. So, after tossing and turning in the Port Lupressel colony for two or three days, they felt bored and ordered the fleet to return and set sail again. This time, their target was the central colony occupied by the Duchy of Lerioro. There were hundreds of thousands of immigrants from the Fox Kingdom there. They should be able to get help and recover the lost land.
However, the Duchy of Lerioro had already built strong defensive facilities such as turrets in the port towns along the central colony's coast and launched an artillery battle with the ironclad fleet of the United Kingdom of Fox Islands. At the same time, another generation of ironclad warships launched an attack to harass the ironclad fleet. As a result, after three days and two nights, the ironclad fleet of the United Kingdom of Fox Islands took the initiative to withdraw. If they persisted, their ammunition and fuel would run out, and the ironclad fleet would be captured by the enemy …
Now, the remaining supplies of the ironclad fleet were only enough for a trip to the Mount Weiders Harbor Colony. As long as they could recover this colony, all the supplies and ammunition could be replenished. The naval officers of the United Kingdom of Fox Islands had never been so eager to have a harbor base on the west coast. They believed that the Black Sail Pirates were no match for the ironclad fleet. Under normal circumstances, pirates would turn around and flee when they saw the regular navy of a country.
However, the Black Sail Pirates seemed to have regarded the Mount Weiders Harbor Colony as their own territory. They built turrets in the coastal port and built waterways in and out of the harbor. They displayed the courage and determination to fight the ironclad fleet of the United Kingdom of Fox Islands to the death. So the battle began again. The morale of the sailors of the ironclad fleet, who had been drifting at sea for a long time, was low. They did not have the determination to fight the Black Sail Pirates to the end and the dedication to die bravely on the battlefield …
The ironclad warships of the Black Sail Pirates took action. The cannonballs of both sides swept through the air, leaving cannonball marks of varying sizes and depths on the deck of their respective ironclad warships. A Black Sail Pirate ironclad warship rushed not far from a second-generation ironclad warship of the United Kingdom of Fox Islands, about ten to twenty meters away. Braving the fierce gunfire, several Black Sail Pirates put an iron-shelled shark-like object into the water, aimed it at the second-generation ironclad warship in front of them, and lit the match on it …
As the match was lit, black smoke rose from the back of the shark specimen. Then, the shark began to move in the sea and charged towards the second-generation Iron-armored Battleship not far away. The speed was not fast. However, the naval officers and soldiers of the Fox Islands United Kingdom had no idea what it was. They even thought it was a sea monster. They could only watch helplessly as the shark specimen hit the bottom of the second-generation ironclad warship.
There was a huge explosion, and the water splashed more than ten meters above the warship. The second-generation ironclad warship began to tilt to the other side as if it had been hit by a train. The damage control personnel at the bottom climbed up to report that the violent explosion had caused a large crack to appear at the welded parts of the metal plates at the bottom of the warship. Seawater surged in, and the steam-powered machinery at the bottom had been submerged. There was too much water on the warship, and it was hopeless. Everyone, run for your lives …
After four violent explosions, three second-generation ironclad warships of the United Kingdom of Fox Islands were scrapped. There was one that was lucky. The damage control personnel desperately plugged the crack, and it was towed away from the battlefield by another warship. The nine ironclad warships of the United Kingdom of Fox Islands finally arrived at the colony of Federo Principality before running out of fuel. They repaired and reorganized themselves at the port here …
Federo Principality didn't produce blackstone coal, so the United Kingdom of Fox Islands had no choice but to purchase large amounts of charcoal to fuel their ships. They brought the nine damaged second-generation ironclad warships back to the region and repaired them at Port Vebator before purchasing a large number of steam-powered machinery and propeller shafts before returning to Fox Islands. In the next few decades, the United Kingdom's fleet would never set foot on the west coast again.
Claude already had the blueprint of the shark-like bomb that the Blacksail Pirates used to attack the ironclad warships. What Claude didn't expect was that it was called a mobile mine.
Who came up with that name? Claude picked up a pen and changed it to a torpedo. It looked like a shark anyway, so there was nothing wrong with calling it a torpedo. It was said that it was the work of one of Eriksson's rune magi. That guy wanted to make a mine that could wait for prey in the water, but he couldn't make a device to control the time of the explosion. So, he decided to make a mobile mine that could crash into the warship. That was how the shark-like torpedo came about.
The structure of the torpedo was simple. It had a cylindrical shape that looked like a shark with two fins on the outside for balance. The head was filled with gunpowder and had a ramming trigger. The tail was a small propeller with a spring. After it was placed in the water, the spring would be wound up and the torpedo would be propelled forward. Of course, the distance wasn't too far, only about 20 meters. It wasn't too fast either. It was about the same as a person walking on flat ground. If the warship noticed it early enough, it would be able to avoid it.
If they couldn't avoid it, then the mine would explode the moment it hit the ship's deck. This explosion would basically happen underwater. The water pressure from the explosion would tear the welds of the ship's deck, causing the ship's deck to leak and sink into the water. However, the torpedo didn't seem to be a threat to the third-generation and fourth-generation ironclads of the Dominion's navy. Their own ironclads were designed to be waterproof and a leak like that wouldn't do much to them.
This was probably the most primitive torpedo. Claude ordered them to pay more attention to the weapon and invest in experiments to upgrade it so that it could be used as soon as possible. His requirements were simple. The torpedo could be launched from a warship and had a range of up to a kilometer. It had to be twice the speed of an ironclad warship and be able to sink a warship in one shot. Only then would it have practical value.
Apart from the surprise of the Blacksail Pirates' torpedoes, Claude wasn't all that interested in what happened to the Fochs' ironclad fleet. A kingdom that had lost all its colonies and didn't have a strong army would be dreaming if it wanted to rely on its ironclads to recover its lost territory. Not to mention, its enemies also had their own ironclads. They couldn't even lock down the sea, let alone have a port to resupply. How were they supposed to recover the three colonies they lost?
Next, it was time for the region to deal with its own affairs. The reorganized Shiksan and Thundercrash were already in place and would soon work with Pamigal's standing corps to provide humanitarian aid to the Skorro and Gist natives who were still fighting each other in the neighboring colony of Vassilik. They wanted to put an end to the civil war and bring Vassilik's colony into an orderly society.
Speaking of which, the two indigenous tribes, the Skolo people and the Gist people, had been killing each other for about four years. Originally, the two indigenous tribes had a total population of nearly five million, but now, there were less than two million people left. It was said that more than a million old, weak, women, and children of the Skolo people and the Gist people had fled to the colony of the Opsaro City-State Alliance as refugees. It could be said that in the four years of enmity between the two native tribes, the population had been artificially reduced by two million.
At present, the two indigenous tribes, the Skolo people and the Gist people, had built their own strongholds in the mountains and hills to protect themselves. They had almost returned to the primitive life and refused to communicate with outsiders. If they ran out of supplies, they would go out in groups to loot. This was also the reason why the Vassiliko Principality was forced to abandon this colony after two failed expeditions. The local garrison was no match for these vicious natives, and the casualties were very high.
However, after the pamigar announced that they would be carrying out a humanitarian rescue mission to stop the two natives from killing each other and build a peaceful life together, Thundercrash, Shiks and the pamigar corps entered the colony with great fanfare. They destroyed all the forts the two natives built and isolated them in the east and west of the colony.
In less than three months, the entire colony of the Vassiliko Principality had been swept clean, and all the indigenous tribes had been quarantined in two camps. However, the two legions of the Autonomous Command Regiment continued to advance and soon entered the territory of the Opsaro City-State Alliance. Opsaro's colonial authorities hurriedly sent troops to block the way and sent envoys to the frontline command to discuss how to resolve the issue.
However, General Beechlin, the commander-in-chief of the Autonomous City-State Alliance's front command, did not think that it was a problem of entering the border by mistake. He asked the colonial authorities of the Opsaro City-State Alliance to immediately make way and cooperate with the forces of the Autonomous City-State Alliance to completely solve the problem of the vendetta between the Skolos and the Gids.
When the Dominion's military swept through the colonies of the Vassiliko Principality, they discovered many clues that showed that the colonial authorities of the Opsaro City-States Alliance had instigated the Skolo people and the Gist people to kill each other, which eventually led to a humanitarian disaster between the two indigenous peoples of the Vassiliko Principality. Two million indigenous people died of violence and massacres.
Of course, the envoy of the Opsaro City-State Alliance's colonial authorities shouted that he was wronged and that it was impossible. He protested that the so-called humanitarian relief of the autonomous military zone was actually a way to invade the Opsaro City-State Alliance's colony. Birkin laughed. What can you do even if it's an invasion? Don't forget that we still have evidence to prove that you're the mastermind behind the conflict. For the sake of peace, I hope you'll put down your weapons and surrender obediently.
That was naturally impossible. The Opsaro colonial authorities immediately mobilized the local garrisons to set up a defensive line, but that wasn't enough to stop Thundercrash and Shiks. The three standing corps of the Opsaro City Alliance were routed at the first touch. Many of them even raised their white flags when they were attacked.
Therefore, when the Thundercrash Corps captured the former Fox Islands United Kingdom's Lupssel Colony, which had fallen to the colonial authorities of the Opsaro City-States Alliance, they suddenly found themselves under the command of two Security Corps formed by the surrendered officers and soldiers of the Opsaro City-States Alliance …
Originally, the natives of Opsaro were the Skolo people and the Gist people, the same as the two natives of Vassiliko. When the Skoro and Gist tribes in the colony of the Vassilico Principality violently massacred each other, the colonial authorities of the Opsaro City-State Alliance immediately sealed the border between the two countries and strictly guarded the two indigenous tribes within their own colony. Only then did the two indigenous tribes calm down, following the example of their compatriots in neighboring colonies.
On the other hand, the Autonomous Command Area was accusing the colonial authorities of the Opsaro City-State Alliance of being the mastermind behind the vendetta between the two indigenous peoples. However, who asked the colonial authorities of the Opsaro City-State Alliance to block the way of the Autonomous Command Area?
After conquering the Opsaro City-States Alliance colony, the Dominion Dominion carried out a mass migration plan. All the Skolo people were moved to the former colony of the Duchy of Vasily, and all the Gisdians were moved to the colony of the Opsaro City-States Alliance. The two hostile indigenous tribes each occupied a colony, and two tall walls were built on the border between the two colonies, with a distance of 300 meters between each other. Apart from a limited number of checkpoints, anyone who appeared between the two walls would be shot dead by the soldiers on both sides.
Thus, the Skolo Nation and the Gist Union were established. The two natives viewed each other as mortal enemies ever since they were established. As for the Port Lupsal Colony, the indigenous people who also called themselves the Lanstorbke people established the Lupsal Free Federation. The Dominion leased the famous deep-water port of Port Lupsal from the Lanstorbke people as the second military port base on the West Coast. The lease period was also 99 years …
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
