I will be crowned king

To the west of the Turbulent Sea, in the area of ​​Frostfang Mountain, is Sail City.

Storms that lasted for many days swept almost all the empire's colonies along the coastline; the colonists living in this generation had just spent a harsh winter dominated by floods and shipwrecks.

But even after finally surviving the most difficult "winter wave" of the year in Shuangya Mountain, the dome shrouded in dark clouds is still dim, the air is always filled with the smell of moldy rot, and the damp cold wind takes away The last trace of warmth in the world.

Facing the weak morning light with only a ray of pure white, the young knight walked out of the church and looked at the open plain at the foot of the mountain outside the city. There was a hint of worry in his blue pupils.

There was once a fertile wilderness. After more than 130 years, the originally lush and primeval forest has gradually developed into a rich and large-scale plantation, rich in cabbage, thanks to the continuous efforts of successive colonists to open up the land. , beetroot, potatoes, carrots…

It was precisely relying on the agricultural products provided by these plantations, as well as the continuous flow of local materials arriving at the port from across the sea, that Sailing City became a bridgehead for the imperial colonists to march to the New World, and used it as a base to continue to more distant lands. Pioneering and developing a series of satellite colonies.

At its peak, just one city, Sailing City, provided 60% of the food rations and more than 80% of the daily necessities in the entire Frost Fang Mountain area, helping many small colonies survive the most difficult days in the early days—— Just like twelve other large colonies.

But now... Even standing in front of the church several kilometers away, without a telescope, the young knight could see the scattered craters and horizontal ravines left by the cannonballs on the plain; as well as the scattered ravines soaked by heavy rain and exposed Corpses in the wilderness.

No one expected that a small commotion that broke out in a few farms would eventually turn into a collective rebellion across the empire's colonies.

The original reason was that the plantation owners were too harsh on their slaves, or they raised too many "beast slaves" in order to maintain the plantation economy, which made these cowardly indigenous people want to resist because of their numbers. , or both... it no longer matters.

Due to initial negligence, the best opportunity to suppress the riot was missed - of course, whether it could be suppressed is another matter - after the first farm was breached by the rioting "beast slaves", the surrounding plantations also Thunderstorms began one after another, and one after another fell quickly as if they were infected by a virus.

Whether this is really the case, no one knows, because no one cares about it at all - until a small town is directly attacked, slaughtered and burned to the ground by angry beast slaves.

When the colonial parliament finally realized that this was not a "little accident" where an "old rival" had bad luck and could take advantage of the fun, but a group vicious event that was likely to involve him and his whole family, they were killed. It's too late.

Facing an army of "beast slaves" that were several times their own number and were suspected of being mixed with old god sect spellcasters, a small colony with only log walls and dozens of shotguns had little room for resistance.

In addition, a large number of "beast slaves" are maintained in the city, which are used for "menial" tasks such as disposing of domestic garbage and maintaining urban sanitation... Under the coordination of internal and external cooperation, the rioting indigenous army outside the city easily conquered this colonial town without any effort. town, and quickly spread the riot to all surrounding colonies.

Compared with "newcomers" such as Beluga Port, which were born only fifty years ago, the old imperial colonies have a more developed and mature slave trade, relying on a steady stream of "cheap labor" to maintain production scale. , so that more immigrants can continue to expand to the surrounding areas and open up new colonies.

This convenient and cash-based colonization method allows the empire to expand its colonial scope faster and to a wider extent, while also being less dependent on the local population; the "simple" Clovis people have only begun to try it in recent years. This approach--it used to be either killing them all or expelling them.

Now, they finally taste the consequences of this "convenience".

Hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of "beast slave" armies appeared out of nowhere, setting fire to, killing and looting everywhere, attacking settlements and farms, looting the colonists' caravans, and ambushing servants who went out to rob slaves and clear the wasteland. corps……

For many years, they had been plundered, slaughtered, enslaved, and invaded. The blood feud broke out all at once.

As if overnight, the imperial colonists who were singing and dancing a moment ago realized in horror that they had been surrounded - both inside and outside the gate were full of "beast slaves" who wanted to cut them into pieces. There is no way to escape.

Having said that, the imperial colonies were not unresponsive - after clearly realizing that the "beast slave" rebellion had begun to spread, the six largest colonies quickly contacted each other and organized militia and mercenary groups to defend and counterattack. Quickly make contact with the mainland and obtain reinforcements.

Although the gap in "total military strength" between the two sides is so huge that it is hopeless, on the one hand, these indigenous armies that resisted the colonial rule have no organization at all, and no plan. Apart from a passion and desire for revenge, they do not even have the specific details to do. Nothing is clear at all...a rabble in the true sense of the word.

Although the imperial colonists' army was small in number and had almost no morale, it at least had the minimum organization, stable logistics, and the goal of "defending their homeland", which prevented them from dispersing when facing the almost unarmed indigenous people. .

At the same time, the imperial emperor, who received the news of the colonial riots, did not hesitate and quickly assembled troops and weapons capable of arming 20,000 people. They set off in February of the 100th year of the Saint calendar and were transported by the imperial fleet to Changhu Town and Changhu Town respectively. Sailing City.

Although the empire was far from being as dependent on the colonies as Clovis, if one wanted to describe loyalty to the emperor in terms of the amount of taxes paid, the autonomous assemblies in the colonies would probably be higher than those of the dukes with prominent family backgrounds in the empire.

Three months later, news came that the Iser Guards Corps had been nearly wiped out at the foot of Eagle Point City; Emperor Hred, who originally planned to continue to send more troops to the colony, had to temporarily turn his attention to the south.

However, the empire continued to reinforce ten infantry regiments to the colonies, in cooperation with the local militia, scattered adventurers and small-scale mercenary groups, totaling a total of 30,000 to 40,000 people, close to 1 A full army of troops.

Although there are still far fewer "beast slaves" than the rioters, it is more than enough to suppress the rebellion.

In less than six months, this colonial army completely suppressed the rebellion of tens of thousands of "beast slaves". Although the opponent had a large number of spellcasters, it was a group of fanatical believers whose combat effectiveness was comparable to that of street gangs. In the face of an organized and large-scale imperial army, it is impossible to even die together.

So almost at the same time as the news of the disastrous defeat of Hantu's imperial expeditionary force came, the emperor also received the good news that "peace" had been restored to the colony.

But probably before His Majesty himself could get over the shadow of the expeditionary force's disastrous defeat, he received another letter from Sailing City - the colony that had just restored "peace" broke out again in less than a month. Rebellion.

It's just that this rebellion is slightly different from the previous ones...

……………………

"Red Hand Bay, Gray Pigeon Castle, Winter Torch City, Black Reef Port... In addition to Sail City and Lake Town, four of the six most important colonies in the empire have rebelled?!"

In the Beluga Port headquarters, Lieutenant Colonel Alexei, who had just returned from the escort mission, looked at the map on the table and blurted out in shock.

Not only him, but all the officers present were also dumbfounded and shocked to the point of being speechless - although they had seen many incredible things since they followed Anson Bach, a boss who "pursued perfection", but this It would be too incredible to answer.

You must know that although the New World seems to be really rich and fertile, it is also very wild and full of wild beasts, diseases, ice fields and elusive natives. The apparent prosperity relies on the vacancies of necessities filled by native trade and the continuous flow of new products. Immigration fills labor and population gaps.

According to Clovis' statistics, at least 25% of the immigrants in the New World will accidentally disappear or die due to murder, cold, disease, and small-scale conflicts every year, and 35 to 45% will He would suffer from hunger, extreme poverty and malnutrition for about ten years before dying a painful death.

Among the one hundred new immigrants, no more than thirty would actually survive twenty years in the colony and have some savings.

And this is under the premise of being able to trade smoothly with the mainland. There are no cotton textiles, sugar, salt, spirits, spices from the mainland... The penniless colonists holding a pile of leather, wood and coal, What do you plan to do to make a fortune?

More importantly, who gave them the confidence that they could defeat the imperial army?

The officers stared at the map and the two letters brought back by the chief of staff. Their cheeks holding pipes and cheap cigarettes were full of disbelief, and their brows were almost wrinkled.

Amidst the exclamations one after another, Fabian sitting beside him remained silent, thinking about the possible consequences of this matter; the little clerk sitting in the corner was leaning over his desk, without even turning his head. He was holding up the meeting minutes.

Anson and Karl, who had already read the letter, looked at each other in confusion, waiting for the other to come up with an idea first.

"I have a question!"

Alexey raised his head suddenly and couldn't help but said: "Have they already rebelled, or are they about to rebel?"

After the words fell, the eyes of the entire room turned to Carl Bain - including a certain Commander-in-Chief.

"Already rebelled." Rolling his eyes inwardly, Karl replied helplessly: "I guess your next question is why they rebelled. Are they crazy?"

"No, the truth is exactly the opposite. These colonial councils are very rational. They should have absolutely sufficient reasons and only made up their minds to start a rebellion after careful consideration."

"What reason?"

"Rebellion means death, not rebellion means death - so why not give it a try, maybe it will work." Karl shrugged.

This impeccable-sounding answer did not resolve Alexey's problem, but instead made those present even more confused.

"To put it simply, after a riot by natives and beast slaves, these colonies have suffered heavy losses. Some of them have found it difficult to even make ends meet. They are completely unable to make ends meet." Karl had no choice but to continue to explain:

"But at the same time, they have to continue to maintain an army of 30,000 to 40,000 people to continue to exterminate the remnants of the rebellion; and on top of this, just like Clovis, the empire's 'taxation' on the colonies is also penny. Quite a bit, and even in order to make up for the shortfall in the war with Hantu, the amount has increased compared to last year."

"In order to solve this problem, the parliaments of the six colonies formed a lobby to see if they could reduce this year's taxes, or at least postpone the payment deadline; the imperial tax collectors warmly received them, and then, uh..."

"Kill them all."

Carl Bain shrugged and said with a strange expression.

Um? !

The officers' eyes widened with astonishment on their faces.

To be honest, when they first arrived at Beluga Port and discovered that the local forces were not very welcoming to them, many people actually had similar thoughts.

But on the one hand, Anson, as the commander-in-chief, has always maintained restraint. On the other hand, ideas are always ideas. As long as there is still talk, they do not intend to completely turn the Storm Division, which is barely considered an army, into a group of bandits who burn, kill and loot.

So what exactly inspired the person in charge of the empire?

"After killing the lobby group sent by the colonial parliament, the empire immediately mobilized the troops that were encircling and suppressing the riots and went to suppress them everywhere." Karl continued:

"But the colonies, which have experienced more than a year of riots and counter-insurgency wars, already have their own armies and weapons - although they are just unprofessional militias and mercenaries, and the arms are also smuggled and homemade muzzleloaders, but they have already been compared with the latest It started to look very different;”

"Unless the empire can completely suppress all colonies and maintain sufficient troops there, it does not look like this rebellion can be ended quickly in the short term."

"In the end, except for Changhu Town and Sailing City, the empire has lost almost all of its colonies; and even these two places are not stable; just a few days ago, they just defeated a group of people outside Sailing City. The rebels and the commanders of the empire are worried that there are insiders in the colonial parliament, and would rather stay in the rain in the wilderness than enter the city easily - what other problems are there?"

"I have a."

Fabian, who had been silent before, suddenly said: "Who gave us the information about the empire's counter-rebellion army in the area of ​​Sailing City, and what do they want to do?"

"It was given by the Red Hand Bay Council."

Before Karl could speak, Anson took over the topic:

"They want to take this opportunity to win over us, and then..."

"Capture Changhu Town!"