85 – Countries ahead of their time (4)

After touring the training center, I called a meeting with the barons of each territory to find out the situation of the territory.

And Heinz, the eldest of the barons, began to speak on behalf of them.

“We are training 4,000 infantry at the Blueport Training Center, 9,000 infantry and 2,500 man-at-arms at the Nantes Training Center, 3,000 infantry at the Creutel Training Center, and 5,000 infantry and 1,700 man-at-arms at the Hellsmann Training Center. The number of people recruited to train them is 2,500 infantry and 200 knights.”

“How is the supply going?”

“In each region, weapons and armor were supplied through the influential guild, and although food is a bit more expensive than the large guild, we buy about 1.3 times the amount of food we need through the farming villages in each region.”

“Then, how did you plan the training process for the soldiers?”

“Infantry to be enlisted as a private is 5 weeks, and soldiers to be commissioned as man-at-arms are organized into 16 weeks as instructed.”

“Report in detail about the training process.”

“Yes, Your Excellency.”

Hearing those words, Baron Heinz stood up and handed me a scroll with a clear summary of the training process.

“First of all, as a result of discussions with me, the other baronets, and Viscountess Her Excellency Hellsman, the training for five weeks was organized equally for infantry and soldiers entrusted to Man-at-Arms. Although there is a big difference in combat proficiency between infantry and man-at-arms, it is because I thought it was necessary to transform them into true soldiers with absolute obedience to their superiors.”

“I see, but before I tell you about the training process, can you tell me about the treatment and origins of the soldiers commissioned into Man-at-Arms? I have to leave this to my father, because I don’t know exactly.”

In normal times, I intervened as much as I could, no matter how small it was about the basic military system.

Seriously, I wondered if I had reviewed all the documents one by one even when setting the average amount of food to be distributed to one soldier, which several field-level officers had agreed upon and tried to finish.

But man-at-arms, in other words, I didn’t have much involvement in training knights without domains.

Because in my body, I was a beginner who didn’t know how to train a knight, even if I didn’t know the skills and experience needed to fight as a knight and handle various documents.

In such a situation, if I did everything, it would just cause a catastrophe, so I threw out a very simple idea to my father and other nobles.

After that, I was told to formulate a man-at-arms recruitment and training process and report it.

And Heinz opened his mouth and started to speak, as if he thought I had finished reading the document.

“First of all, in the case of Man at Arms, we mainly recruited wandering knights who were appointed as knights but did not have a domain to inherit. At first, there were few enlistments because they showed resistance to the idea that they had to start with a noncommissioned officer who was treated as a free citizen, but gradually the number of people who applied after hearing the stories of Second Lieutenant Mark and Second Lieutenant Short, Major Frost and Sir Baron Balt increased.”

“Right.”

“However, the majority of those who applied were full of arrogance and a desire to show off other than the necessary military force as knights. When I was a wandering knight, I had to do that to win tournaments or even serve as a mercenary knight, but now, those guys are worse than not having them.”

If you look at the Man at Arms candidates like job seekers, they are single-minded generals who have all the necessary capabilities when handling personal tasks, but lack character and cooperation.

“In that case, even the superiors who are commoners will be ignored.”

“Yes, it is. In particular, non-commissioned officer assistants are often ignored because they are commoners. Training hasn’t started yet, so there’s no case of ignoring assistants during training… In the enlistment exam that took place a few days ago, Sergeant Lawrence was slapped in the face by Man-at-Arms candidate Galion Herheim.”

“How did you do it?”

“Galion was ordered to leave immediately, and was completely banished from the territory. I will never set foot in Kreutel again.”

In a way, it may seem like a lenient measure to issue a banishment order to the guy who assaulted his superior.

However, in this society where honor is the most important thing, causing trouble and being expelled from the territory acts like a lifelong employment restriction order in Korea.

For no matter how backward this age may be, dishonorable rumors of this kind spread quickly.

So that guy won’t be able to live as a knight anymore.

“You acted wisely. However, if more cases like this occur, they will start to deteriorate in an instant, like a bank on the bank of a river. Do you have any plans on what to do?”

“As His Excellency said before, verbal abuse and disobedience to superiors are insulting to His Excellency and will be severely punished. However, sometimes a subordinate may be right, so even mild disobedience is handled by an officer of at least a major. And if the case is a little serious and the death penalty should be considered, the colonel will review the second round, and after that, we will execute it with the approval of a baron or higher nobleman.”

“Right. Well done. Anything else to report on the training of the man-at-arms?”

“They are supposed to train for 5 weeks and then 4 weeks for lance charging and mounted combat. And for the remaining two weeks, I will learn extreme physical training, marching, and hippo (getting off a horse) battle.”

It’s a reasonable training method, but it’s a method that doesn’t fit the changes of the times.

Because, like the Duke of Brussels, if the long spear square I created spreads widely, the knight’s charge will lose a lot of meaning.

So I opened my mouth to tinker a bit with the training process.

“It’s a very desirable idea, but I don’t think it’s necessary to teach mounted combat for a long time to those who already have the necessary horseback fighting ability as a knight. So teach them ritual drills and pincer attacks with infantry.”

“A joint battle with the infantry? Isn’t there a battlefield for infantry for infantry and a battlefield for knights for knights? Although your Excellency, as a baron, has stood on the same battlefield as infantry… Didn’t you command only infantry as an infantryman at that time?”

The only reason I’ve been able to do that in combat so far is because the enemy foolishly didn’t know how to use infantry properly.

They said how the square was made, but the formation mainly composed of serfs was broken with just one gap.

However, if measures were taken such as raising elite infantry to lead the serfs like the Duke of Brussels…

“It was possible because the Schwein guy at that time was an idiot. However, from now on, unless the enemy is an idiot, he will make a long spear square with his spear. If so, it will now turn into a war in which the infantry pushes back the enemy infantry and then the knights attack the infantry.”

Hearing this, the rest of the barons began to speak loudly.

“It’s ridiculous… Isn’t it the law of war for knights to fight with each other and infantry against infantry…”

“But in Strenheim the infantry beat the knights. So now, depending on how you use them, infantrymen might be as powerful as knights.”

“An infantryman without honor or strength…”

“Guy Frost is a knight who has already risen from an infantry lieutenant to a major. And they are the brave ones who relied on a single spear and defeated the knights squarely. And there’s no guarantee that such foot soldiers won’t come from other territories…”

Then I clapped my hands to get their attention and then said,

“So, we need to study the cooperative tactics of infantry and knights from now on.”

After that, I presented a road construction method to advance commerce within the county and side jobs that various serfs could do during off-farm seasons.

So we discussed for quite a long time, and when we were leaving, a soldier approached and reported to me.

“Your Excellency, this is a report from Major Gentry, the head of the guard. Over the past week, the number of missing persons and unidentified corpses has been rapidly increasing. As a result of investigation, it is said that a group of criminals presumed to have come from the north has been created. The number is larger than expected, and it is difficult to respond with the guards alone, so we requested support.”

As soon as I heard that, I answered so naturally before turning my head.

“I’ll be there tomorrow morning, tell Major Gentry to let the rats loose and dig up all the information.”

**

As soon as the day dawned, I moved to the headquarters of the security guard in charge of Blue Fort.

As soon as I entered the guard, Gentry, the captain of the guard, hurriedly came running in his armor.

“Major Gentry, meet your Excellency Count Kreutel.”

“you’ve worked hard. So, what do you think is the scale of the damage and the criminal organization that seems to have come over from the north?”

“Five nobles suffered property damage ranging from 10 to 30 gold coins, and one of the 10 large warehouses operated by merchants caught fire. And 2 merchants, 4 citizens and 10 serfs are gone.”

Out of 10 large warehouses, one was burnt down… One large trade union related to this, and several small and medium-sized trade unions lined up under it, will go out of business.

If that happens, only hundreds of unemployed people will come out, but what should I do with those people?

Should we just treat the competent merchants as low-level officials and let the incompetent ones die on their own?

Ha, I don’t know why I have to worry about those criminals.

I tried to suppress my complicated feelings and sighed.

“It would be enough to provide adequate support to the upper ranks that reported their taxes on time so that they can rebuild, but this shouldn’t be a problem. And to do that, you need information.”

“Yes, according to His Excellency’s order, according to the members of the organization, who are hired by sergeants and above at their own expense, those guys mainly stay in the corner of Blue Fort No. 5. And I heard that they use a lot of prostitutes belonging to District 5 and secretly sell a strong drink called whiskey, a specialty of the north.”

“Okay, let’s continue.”

“Also, they are currently trying to attract informants who have only been in contact for a few days due to lack of manpower to their side. So it was easy to get more information. And this is not certain, but…”

“Tell me something.”

The guard captain in front of me held his breath, then slowly opened his mouth and spoke.

“Criminal gang members sometimes say that Count Petersburg of the Northern Alliance is watching them.”

….

As soon as I heard that, it started to turn white in my head, as if an eraser had gone through it.

How should I handle this…