Imperator: Resurrection of an Empire
Chapter 177: Proxy War (1)

Chapter 177: Proxy War (1)

** Bonus Chapter **

Thanks all once again!

Hope you’re enjoying Volume 5, we’re getting close to the end once more before we enter the 6th volume which... might be the last one for a while, sustained a writing related injury so one of my hands is outta commish till it heals up and one handed typing is seriously taking a toll on my psyche.

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*** One Week Later ***

The delegates from Dacia and Germania left peacefully after securing a number of agreements with our new nation.

Serena meanwhile had convinced her people and ships had set of to Intin and Tideshore to inform the sailors there as well.

A draft order was placed via Julius’s system calling for those seeking to become sailors and join the new nations navy.

The outpouring of applicants was honestly overwhelming, Lunan was never a very naval focused nation but the drawing factor this time would be the mention of the Letters of Marque, the hired sailors would be personally trained by carthage, the ships would be on loan to these men and women.

And through that agreement 25% of the captured booty would belong to Carthage’s people as the cost to loan the ships.

The formation of this private naval force was currently under going training however a number of ships had already set off from the port in the direction of the Ramie Kingdom.

Julius’s first proxy war had already begun, as the boiling blood of the Carthaginians could not be held back.

The risk was not all that great to Julius so he did not reprimand them for it, while the new shipyards created from his build system had already begun to creation of ships unique to his new nation, all currently in production ships will be military ships while not as grand in design as the Carthage Grand Navy ships these would still allow for proper control of the south seas when produced in large enough numbers, and with further tech advances better ships could be developed.

The Carthage ships were effectively decareime ships, while at present Julius could commissions the creation of Quadreime’s with dual sails and metal joints rather than wooden ones to increase the ships durability, while deepening the hold as well to solve the problem of this periods ships which was the flat ship bottoms allowing for easier capsizing as a result of waves or ramming from enemy ships.

This was the first stage development for his warships, and the first ships should be rolling of the production line within the month allowing for the further growth of his navy and less dependence on the Carthaginian peoples.

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- - Serena POV - -

Within her office at the lords mansion inside the port city of Nova Carthago Queen Serena was pouring over the content of reports arriving at her desk.

The proxy war started by Julius had begun, it took little convincing on her part to loan the ships to volunteers from Latinium with mixed crews to begin training and raiding their former coasts.

The bonds between the people were growing closer, as allies always grow closer when against a common foe.

The Latinium people had a desire to learn sailing and positions as leaders, while the Carthaginians wanted revenge against those who ravaged their country.

The first few reports that came in stated the simple raiding of Ramie merchant vessels by our Privateers their cargo was captured, and any Carthaginians among the crew were taken, while the rest were released.

After the first week more reports came in as vessels continued to return.

Many merchant vessels were raided, Military ships were targeted and in many cases captured being brought back to Latinum ports, and on one such occasion a fleet of 5 ships decided to make landfall on the coast of Ramie, using their legionaire training to their benefit they raided the surrounding villages taking all the peoples there as slaves, their livestock, horses.

Nothing was spared.

In the wake of this attack evidence was left behind that this was retaliation from the Kingdom of Carthage.

These attacks were performed on Ramie’s original territory so the only Carthaginians they came across in the villages were those pressed into slavery from the war, or who had fallen into slavery before it even began.

The action had hardly begun but it was immediately clear that Ramie could not trade with the western half of the continent unless they wanted to send their goods through a slower land route, their ports to the east were still open but the loss of their western routes would be a crippling blow to them, along with the loss of their agricultural villages along the coast would mean the loss of fisheries, food stuff, and more importantly criticism against the crown and army would circulate as they could not defend their own lands.

This inflow of captured goods, and people was a great influx to the newly refounded port city of Nova Carthago.

The captured peoples were enslaved but many lived better lives in slavery under Julius’s laws than they had lived as freemen under the Ramie kingdom.

The Carthaginians rescued were questioned first and their enslavement marks investigated those found to have been war trophies were released and reintegrated in with their people, while those found to be proper criminal or debt slaves were left in slavery and sold for their worth at market to those looking for ownership.

These slaves likewise received a greater life, due to Julius’s reformed slave laws.

Thanks to Serena’s agreement and the participation of her people, Julius was receiving even more labour forces to further grow his agriculture, allowing for the expansion of specialty goods, and public facilities to further advance his system, all while receiving free training for his own nonexistent naval force.

By the time the first Quadreimes were sliding down the slipways into the ocean properly trained captains would be taking the healm with virgin crews and from there a proper navy would be formed.

The Carthage Grand Fleet would continue their raiding of Ramie, while Julius built up his own personal fleet, this would also allow him to deny the actions of the Grand Fleet since his own Navy was not personally involved in this conflict granting plausible deniability for the actions of these private owned and operated ships.

The slow breakdown of the Ramie economy had begun, Parthia meanwhile had likewise gotten word of what was happening by the sea and had adopted a similar strategy forming bandit raiders who captured merchants travelling by land out of Ramie flying the nations flag.

The worlds first effective embargo had begun, as the noose around Ramie’s neck was begin to tighter as their nation slowly suffered a potential death by a thousand tiny cuts.