Chapter 1700: Chapter 104: The Era of Exhausting Soldiers and Wars (Part 3)
Especially the Frank people love cavalry, and the ambitious Charles III directly announced: Five cavalry corps and ten knight corps will be established within five years.
For a great Empire, sixty thousand troops are nothing, but the issue is that these are cavalry.
The increased military spending is by no means minimal. Even for the wealthy Frank Empire, it is still a painful expenditure.
If not for the Five Nations Alliance as a backdrop, Charles III’s massive military expansion would indeed be considered exhausting soldiers and wars.
Once the plan is completed, the Frank Empire’s standing army will surpass the Alpha Kingdom, becoming the largest among the Human Race and the largest on the Continent.
The Iberia Kingdom’s plans are slightly smaller, also planning to expand five cavalry corps, but the number of knight corps was cut in half.
With two leaders taking the lead, various countries in the South Continent invariably followed suit.
As if chasing a trend, governments across countries announced their own cavalry expansion plans.
However, when it came to specific execution, changes occurred.
The two leaders invested real money, while many smaller countries were purely jumping on the bandwagon.
To expand cavalry, first, you need war horses. This first hurdle is enough to stop many.
Now it’s not about money, but the limited production of quality war horses, with Alpha Kingdom’s horses needing to be prioritized for allies.
In competition under equal conditions, small countries certainly cannot compete against big countries.
Countries are unwilling to lose face by using inferior horses to make up numbers, so the plans previously announced are just plans.
Small countries can jump on a bandwagon, but big countries cannot.
Perhaps to prove they have not declined, the other three major kingdoms on the South Continent also gritted their teeth to participate in the expansion plan.
The standard is very simple, directly following the cavalry numbers of the nearby hegemon, then halving and executing.
Influenced by the expansion wave, even the low-key Clergy, which has been quiet for some time, announced the reconstruction of ten knight corps.
The scale certainly can’t compare to the original, but the framework was still set up.
Perhaps to avoid provoking countries, this time the Clergy did not use the banner of combating heresy but used the political slogan of protecting the Human Race.
In secret, the Clergy even sent people to buy horses from Hudson, but naturally, it was all in vain.
Raising the price is meaningless, selling a war horse for a few more gold coins means nothing to Master Hudson.
When it comes to military trade, political interests always override economic interests, and aiding the enemy is certainly not acceptable.
Hudson is unwilling to make such deals, while other kingdom aristocrats are simply too scared to do so.
The Alpha Kingdom does have its own Clergy, so cooperating with the Old Holy See deemed heresy by the kingdom becomes a suicidal business.
Involving competition for religious orthodoxy, once reported, one might either face burning at the stake or be hanged.
In a situation where buyers are everywhere, no one desires to take risks.
Even middlemen aren’t viable, as countries prioritize war horse trade, with aristocrats purchasing uniformly at once.
The opportunity to join the bandwagon isn’t given to them, greatly disappointing many Clergy leaders.
If buying is unattainable, then breeding oneself is the only route. But achieving sizable scale, who knows which year it will happen.
While continental countries are expanding their military, the Falcon Kingdom, isolated overseas, hasn’t been idle. However, in an era when everyone is crazily expanding land armies, they chose to develop their navy.
Thanks to booming maritime trade, the Falcon Kingdom’s economy has grown rapidly in recent years, leading the Continent purely in terms of speed.
With money in the government’s hands, the navy, a gold-eating beast, expands visibly.
Once including the warships on the slipway, the total tonnage of warships surpasses that of Frank and Iberia, making the Human Race’s largest navy a mere matter of time.
Besides Human Kingdoms preparing for war expansion, Different Races haven’t been idle either.
With neighbors expanding their armies, various Different Races can only passively respond.
Except for the Elf Race in a blessed corner, who feel minimal impact and sense little threat, other races feel threatened.
Among them, the Orcs feel this most profoundly, watching Hudson train extensively at the border, the high-ranking Orcs often feel uneasy.
Attempts to follow suit? Unfortunately, the productivity of Nomadic Tribes dictates they cannot raise large numbers of full-time troops.
Even semi-full-time troops, if in excess, cause the same pressure on various races.
Life is hard for serfs, and even harder for Orcs on the grasslands.
If it weren’t for racial segregation, perhaps Hudson waving a hand at the border would have many small tribes crying out to join them.
As for hatred, that’s secondary.
The world of Orcs is perpetually turbulent, where everyone reveres the Strongman most. Who has the greatest strength, who is the spokesman of the Orc Empire.