I want to be emperor

Chapter 998 Welsh Crisis

An Tongxuan was quite surprised by the arrival of members of the Welsh royal family, because he did not invite them.

But it's just some minor accidents. If you say you are surprised or even panicked, it's nonsense. This Welsh royal family is said to be a royal family, but in fact, in the eyes of a powerful businessman like An Tongxuan, it is actually just that. .

Because the king of Wales, like most kings of vassal states in Europe, was an agent supported by the Chu State.

After asking carefully, I found out that these people from the Welsh royal family came here to reach further cooperation with Anwei Mining Company. They wanted to sell the survey and mining rights of several mining areas and obtain more income than the regular sale of mining areas. .

But more importantly, they tried to use this transfer of interests to get An Tongxuan to help smoothen the relationship and then meet with the Consul General of the British Region.

The reason why they wanted to urgently see the Consul General of the British Region was because the Kingdom of Wales had applied to purchase a large number of military supplies, including a batch of percussion rifles.

The Dachu Empire's only arms trading company responsible for overseas areas, namely the Dachu Empire Arms Trading Company, which is jointly invested and held by the five major arms companies, has finally received high-level approval to sell flash cap guns to various vassal states.

The percussion gun is the most advanced individual weapon that the indigenous countries can obtain from the Dachu Empire so far.

However, although the flash cap percussion gun has been approved for export, the early export restrictions are still relatively large, and not all vassal countries are allowed to purchase them.

The Kingdom of Wales submitted a purchase application a few months ago, but it still has not been approved... They also inquired about it themselves and found that the purchase application has been submitted to the Consul General of the British Region stationed in Dover... But But I'm stuck, it's neither approved nor rejected.

When asking through official channels, they just said that they were still under study... and did not give any meaningful positive answers... In desperation, they could only smuggle through underground channels to inquire about the situation and then think of a solution.

So they planned to find some powerful and prestigious people to help them connect and smooth the relationship with the British Consul General in Dover. Even if it didn't work, they still had to know whether it was approved or not. If not, why not Approval... we can't keep delaying it like this.

Helping with matchmaking is not a big deal... Anwei Mining Company of An Tongxuan can be regarded as a large mining company in the British area, and it is also connected with the British Consul General in Dover.

But An Tongxuan needs to understand the whole story, and he can’t be stupid and help with the matchmaking... After insinuating and talking to several of the Welsh nobles who are partners, he found out that the Kingdom of Wales has recently had a conflict with the Kingdom of England in the south. An armed conflict broke out on the border. Although the scale was not large, it seriously damaged the relationship between the two countries. If one of them fails, a large-scale war may break out.

No wonder we need to purchase new weapons, it turns out we are facing the threat of war!
The war between the natives, even between vassal states, unless it is to completely destroy the country, otherwise the Chu people will not pay attention to ordinary wars, such as ceding territory... Therefore, the war between the two countries, the Chu people will not pay attention to it... The people were not even interested in mediating. Instead, they enthusiastically set up a stall on the side, preparing to dump various weapons and equipment and other consumable materials on a large scale.

When the natives fight among themselves, it is when the Chu people get rich.

Therefore, basically don't expect the Chu people to mediate.

Even the current Kingdom of Wales and the Kingdom of England are actually agent countries supported by the Chu people.

The King of Wales was a typical agent of the Chu Empire. He was just an ordinary nobleman in Wales. Later, the Chu people came to England. During the war and the subsequent continuous purges, all the people in England were wiped out. The great nobles killed them all...

The Chu people went to Europe to expand their territory and engage in colonial expansion... They didn't care about the aristocratic families among the Europeans, and they wouldn't just kill the person involved and then leave the family to you... The Chu people are here When engaging in a war to destroy a country, we always pay attention to eradicating the roots. We often clean out the original royal family, the resisting nobles, and even the great nobles who want to play neutral. It is the kind of cleansing that eliminates the roots.

As for those local nobles who surrendered to the Chu people early, they would be saved, and even go one step further to become great nobles and even return to the king.

The King of Wales was originally just a little-known local nobleman, but because he had taken refuge with the Chu people early, he later led his family's private army to fight against the Chu army.

After the war, the Chu people divided the British region into five kingdoms in order to maintain stable colonial rule throughout the British region.

After creating five kingdoms, it is natural to support five kings.

Therefore, five people from the five British nobles who had taken refuge early and had made considerable contributions were selected to become the new kings.

The King of Wales suddenly became the King of Wales.

To put it bluntly, this person is actually the agent supported by the Chu people. All major policies in the Kingdom of Wales are nominally made by the king, but in fact they are all made by the Chu Empire’s vassal consul in the Kingdom of Wales behind the scenes. , especially in the three major matters of diplomacy, military, and finance, the Kingdom of Wales actually has little autonomy.

Of course, the Chu people did not come to the British area to rule over the local indigenous people, so the Chu people actually had little interest in their many internal affairs, and their focus was only on commercial interests.

Even if a war breaks out between these vassal states, as long as it does not affect the interests of the Chu people, the Chu Empire will not care.

After the Chu people supported the King of Wales, they began to carry out economic colonization in Wales. It was against this background that An Tongxuan came to the Kingdom of Wales, and then obtained mineral exploration and development rights in the southern region of the Kingdom of Wales at a very cheap price. Road rights were built and the port town of Cardiff was purchased as the company's territory.

These actions of Anwei Mining Company would actually be impossible to achieve in a normal indigenous country... You can explore and develop minerals, but you can't just pay a few hundred yuan in rent every year. They sent it away!
But it is normal in Europe today!

Because almost all indigenous countries in contemporary Europe are vassal states of the Chu Empire, and the rulers of these indigenous countries are agents of the Chu people...the reason why these agents are supported is to obtain better economic benefits. , and at the same time they are unwilling to bear the cost of colonization.

After all, maintaining colonial rule also requires costs, and the cost of maintaining colonial rule is not small. In some cases, the gains outweigh the losses.

The ruling officials and soldiers in the colonies, infrastructure construction, etc. all need funds...

At the same time, if you directly engage in colonial rule, you will need to directly face the resistance of the colonial people... Don't think that if your country is strong, the people in the colonies will not resist... Colonial rule is essentially economic plunder, and the life of the indigenous people in other colonies If they can no longer survive, or if the interests of the original interest groups among the indigenous people have been violated, they will naturally resist.

Large-scale military resistance is not dared, but various sporadic attacks are very easy.

In order to ensure the stability of the colony and avoid scattered traders, the colonists inevitably increased military investment, increased the number of garrison troops, and built various fortresses and the like.

As a result, military costs will remain high for a long time.

The people of the Chu State have a deep understanding of this... After all, when the Chu Empire expanded externally, it can be said that there were various expansion methods. Traditional colonization naturally also existed, and the scale was not small... Various administrative Territory is actually this traditional colonial method.

In this kind of traditional colony, the cost of colonization in some areas has remained high for a long time... The military investment is very high, and you will suffer sporadic casualties from time to time, which is disgusting.

Otherwise, why did the Chu Empire create various servant armies? The Indian servant army alone has successively formed more than twenty divisions, and today's European servant armies have also successively formed more than ten divisions.

The purpose is to reduce colonial military costs and reduce regular army casualties.

At the same time, this is also the reason why the Chu people began to set up large-scale agents in Africa, Europe, West Asia and other regions... It was because the Chu Empire found that if it directly ruled the colonies, the cost would be relatively high, and sometimes it would be difficult to do things. Instead of being timid, it is better to support the agents and sit firmly on the Diaoyutai and only plunder financial interests.

Therefore, the current Chu Empire has begun to gradually reduce the size of its administrative territories in terms of overseas governance, and has begun to turn some administrative territories into directly administered territories or vassal states.

This is actually the current European model!
The ruling model of the Great Chu Empire in Europe was mainly composed of small-sized but strategically located territories directly under the Central Government, plus a large number of vassal states. Although there were also administrative territories, the areas were not large.

Even in the governance of administrative territories, military investment in regular troops began to be reduced, and instead a large number of foreign legions were used, which were the servant armies in the past.

What I have to say is that these foreign legions, which are low-cost and recruited and used from other places, are very easy to use.

The Dachu Empire currently organizes and maintains a foreign legion with a total of more than 100 million people. The soldiers mainly come from India, West Asia, North Africa and Europe. These more than 100 million servants of the army refer to the foreign legions that the Chu Empire formally recruited, organized training, and organized into an army. They bear the name of the Chu army and have Chu army officers as middle and senior commanders.

It does not include the armies of the vassal states under the rule of the Great Chu Empire, but they also obey the orders of the Chu people...the number of these is even greater.

Therefore, the military composition of the contemporary Chu Empire in overseas areas is relatively complicated!
Their own military strength consists of three major branches of the regular army, namely the army, navy, and guards. In addition, there is an armed tax policeman who is not an army, but whose combat effectiveness is not weaker than that of the regular army.

The army in overseas areas has A-class combat readiness divisions and B-class standing divisions that serve as the main mobile forces. In addition, there are local garrison troops under the jurisdiction of various garrison headquarters, that is, C-class garrison regiments and battalions in various places. In addition, there are a large number of militia!
Then it is worth noting that in the system of the Dachu Empire, there is still a paramilitary organization that is not an army, but actually has combat capabilities, that is, armed patrols. Patrol bureaus in various places organize these armed patrols according to their own conditions and are equipped with light weapons. Mainly used to combat violent crime.

Armed patrols in overseas areas often also undertake certain military missions and functions... and can be used as regular military personnel when necessary.

The above are all the regular army and militia of Chu people.

Excluding the militia and armed patrols, and only counting the regular army, the total number is about 250 million, of which the army is the largest, with about 200 million.

However, among the 200 million armies, many are low-cost C-class garrison troops and B-class standing divisions that appear to be equipped with a lot of heavy weapons, but are actually relatively cheap to maintain.

The cost of the army is mainly personnel cost, mules and horses cost, weapon purchase cost, weapon consumption cost... But the second-class standing divisions that have not been mobilized and strengthened will be equipped with a large number of heavy weapons, various artillery and so on, but But there will not be a large number of mules and horses... and there will be relatively little daily training.

At the same time, in terms of personnel rationing, only combat troops and auxiliary key personnel will be retained! An A-class combat readiness division can have more than 6000 or even 8000 troops, but a B-class standing division can only have about 1 people... This is a shortage of more than 8000 people.

Under the current circumstances, if a second-class division of the Chu State is to be sent overseas to perform combat missions, it will need to supplement at least more than 6000 people, a large number of livestock and carriages, and some new weapons if necessary.

The cost of Class C garrison troops is even lower. They often exist in regiments, battalions or even companies, and are stationed in various places. They are mainly equipped with light weapons and a small number of heavy weapons... These Class C garrison troops basically do not have mobile combat capabilities and Ability to attack difficult situations.

In fact, there are not many mobile troops that can be mobilized and mobilized at any time in the army on weekdays. There are only some A-class divisions and B-class divisions that are on duty overseas and have been strengthened through mobilization. The total number of troops is only more than 50.

However, in addition to retaining a certain amount of troops in the mainland, the remaining 50 troops need to be dispatched to garrison all over the world... So these 10 people seem to be a lot, but when they are allocated to a specific place, they are very few.

For example, in the British region, the Chu army's regular army strength in the entire British region is only a meager 1000 people... These more than 1000 people are stationed in Dover, a directly-administered territory on the edge of the English Channel.

These more than 1000 regular troops are the regular troops of the Great Chu Empire Army that shocked the entire British region.

Moreover, these more than 1000 regular troops must serve as strategic reserves when necessary. If there is any problem on the European continent, this mixed battalion can be quickly mobilized by sea to the European continent for landing operations.

As for the Kingdom of Wales, there is no regular army... There is only an infantry battalion of the Foreign Legion in Birmingham, the capital of the Kingdom of Wales.

There is only one division of the Foreign Legion in the entire British region, namely the Indian No. 30 Division [-], which was recently transferred from India.

According to tradition, the main soldiers of this division are still mainly untouchables in India...and these untouchables are the roles that everyone shouts about in India. However, once they are successfully selected into the Foreign Legion, after going through the unique characteristics of the Foreign Legion, After receiving brainwashing education, they often behave very cruelly towards the natives when carrying out various combat missions... Especially when carrying out missions against local Indians, they will massacre them at every turn!

why?
Think about it, in the past he was just a pariah who was beaten by everyone and would be beaten even if he stepped on other people's shadows... Suddenly, one day people from Chu came to his village and recruited him as a foreign soldier.

In the beginning, he would still be very reserved and even afraid because of his long-term untouchable life, but after a lot of brainwashing and education, they would gradually break this fear...

Especially when taking them on missions, these untouchable soldiers saw the high-caste people who used to be superior and trembled under their guns... They didn't even dare to stop those old-fashioned untouchable soldiers from carrying out various violations on their female relatives. When...their psychology often undergoes drastic changes...

And most importantly, because these people often have not received any cultural education, they are uneducated and do not even have basic human moral concepts.

Then slowly, a demon without any moral restraint came out of the cage!

The Great Chu Empire has had foreign legions for so many years, and various natives have tried to recruit them, but to be honest... there is very few groups that are like these untouchables. Once they turn around, they will become so brutal after being brainwashed. …

Therefore, the combat effectiveness of the Indian Foreign Legion in the Chu Army may not be very good... The foreign legions in many areas of the Foreign Legion have stronger combat effectiveness than them. For example, the foreign legion composed of Nepalese people has a very strong combat effectiveness, in the mountains and at close range. The combat effectiveness is very good.

There are also some other foreign legions, some of which have quite good combat effectiveness... The Indian Foreign Legion, although the largest in number, has more than 20 divisions in total... but its combat effectiveness is actually just that.

But when it comes to cruelty and even perversion, the Indian Foreign Legion is definitely second to none. Damn, these untouchable soldiers are so cruel that they even dare to force their way onto crocodiles... pigs, cows, horses, sheep and the like, not to mention them.

Just ask if you are afraid?
And this is why the Chu people like to recruit these untouchables for a long time...the deterrent effect is very good.

Deploy a foreign legion composed of Indian untouchables to a place, and the local indigenous people will be honest in a few months!

Otherwise, their sows will have to remain chaste!

Therefore, despite the fact that the Chu Empire has only a small number of troops deployed in the British region, with only more than 1000 regular troops and less than [-] foreign legions, its deterrence is strong enough to protect the interests of the Chu Empire in the British Isles. There are even It has sufficient military strength and can dispatch troops to the European continent at any time to act as a strategic reserve force in the European region.

However, although the Chu people have a lot of troops in the British area and their deterrence is strong enough... But again, the Chu people hardly interfere in the affairs between the indigenous people.

Even when the conflict between the Kingdom of Wales and the Kingdom of England gradually escalated due to border issues and now turned into a large-scale war, the Chu people still chose to watch.

But this kind of watching does not mean doing nothing... In fact, although the Chu people do not directly interfere in most cases, they often influence the conflicts between indigenous countries through arms sales, commerce and many other ways. The direction and results of the war.

For example, the purchase of the latest flash cap percussion gun... Both countries have submitted purchase applications. If the Chu people have a preference, it will lead to an imbalance in the individual equipment levels of the two!

And this is why the Welsh royal family sent many envoys to places like Dover, the Isle of Man and even Cardiff, in order to find more help and ensure that the Chu Empire's military trade against the two countries would not occur. Preferring the situation of the Kingdom of England.

It would be best if the Chu Empire's military trade could be inclined towards the Kingdom of Wales.

After An Tongxuan understood these basic situations, he accepted the proposal from the Kingdom of Wales after a little thought.

Helping to connect with the British Consul General in Dover was just a conversation. He didn't have to pay anything, and he didn't even have to participate in the subsequent negotiations.

He just acts as an intermediary...

The mining area provided by the Kingdom of Wales is indeed good. As the saying goes, you can’t make money without being a bastard. Regardless of the subsequent talks between the Kingdom of Wales and the British Consul General, will there be a war between the Kingdom of Wales and the Kingdom of England? The Kingdom of Wales in the future. His fate actually has nothing to do with An Tongxuan.

But... once this mining area fell into the hands of An Tongxuan, it would be impossible to spit it out again. Even if the Kingdom of England annexed the Kingdom of Wales in the future, it would have to recognize Anwei Mining Company's ownership of these mining areas.

Therefore, no matter what happens in the future, it is always right to take down the mining area first.

(End of this chapter)