In the lord's hall in Tyniec, Viscount Pierre was listening to the clerk reading a parchment-printed document from the court of Besancon. The parchment document clearly responded to Viscount Pierre's request for the palace to authorize him to appoint five trainee knights. Thirty armed infantrymen with their own weapons and pay, or five cavalrymen with their own horses and weapons, and freedmen who have served the Marquis for more than half a year can be canonized as trainee knights. If these trainee knights can make meritorious service on the battlefield, they can be officially canonized as knights after the war. However, the letter clearly stated that these canonized apprentice knights were lifelong apprentice knights. Unless they could accumulate military merits and be promoted to knights, they could not be hereditary and would not have an inch of fiefdom.
The clerk closed the parchment letter and praised Pierre who was sitting on the armchair: "My lord, you are worthy of being the person who comes from the Marquis. You have long expected that the Marquis will agree to your suggestion. No, as soon as your request was handed over, the palace immediately agreed. If there can really be five trainee knights who come to apply, the palace will not force us to send fifty soldiers."
Viscount Pierre said nonchalantly: "I am sharing the worries of the Marquis. You see, this method will spread in other provinces and counties of the count in a short time. Using a trainee knight with no title or fiefdom and a false title can summon a large number of soldiers with their own weapons and pay. At that time, the Marquis will only need to provide some food to obtain a large number of additional troops. I think the Marquis will not be stingy at this time."
"It has been said in Believable that as long as they accumulate military merits in the war, the trainee knights will be officially canonized as knights."
h "Yes, but if you think about a real war, will the army commander let the troops who spent a lot of money to train and support rush to the front to die, or will these trainee knights and their soldiers who did not spend a single copper coin from the palace be sent to death?"
The clerk nodded in agreement, put down the parchment, picked up a glass wine bottle from the table, and diligently poured half a glass of wine for Viscount Pierre. He said with a smile: "Sir, my businessman brother has quite a lot of money, and he also wants my nephew to recruit a group of soldiers to join the war. Look at this~"
Viscount Pierre picked up the wine glass in front of him and drank it down in one gulp, smiling at him. The clerk replied: "As long as you can lead troops in battle, you can of course be canonized as a trainee knight. But let me tell you first. Once on the battlefield, the sword will be merciless. If you die on the battlefield, don't blame me for not reminding you."
"...If your Excellency cherishes glory and desires fame, I will guarantee you the reputation of the Marquis and the Dieng family, and I will definitely seek a knight lord for you when you return in triumph. I hope you can come. Pierre Jacques de Dieng."
After Art finished reading the parchment paper he put down in his hand, he asked everyone in the wooden house: "What do you think, please tell me."
Odo listened to the letter quietly, thought for a while, and said: "My lord, it is not that simple to become a noble. The letter only says that you can be canonized within two months by leading thirty armed soldiers or five cavalry to Tyniec and then go north to perform military service at the palace of Besancon. As a trainee knight, there is no mention of the payment of military salary and material supply for the serving army. Once we leave the valley and go to the battlefield, food and material supply will be the biggest problem. But if the palace does not provide us with food and salary, how can we hope to plunder the enemy? "
In the wooden house of the wooden castle in the valley, the four patrol team captains and the three civil officers of the wooden castle gathered here to discuss the letter that had just been delivered.
This letter had already departed from Tynets before the palace replied to Viscount Pierre. Eight other letters with similar content were sent from Tynets to all parts of the county. As long as the free people were capable, they could accept the invitation and bring thirty armed soldiers or five cavalry to Tynets to accept the selection of Viscount Pierre. Once selected, they would be immediately appointed as trainee knights in Tynets.
However, unlike the other eight letters, the one that Art received was written by Lord Pierre himself, because Viscount Pierre had seen Art's patrol soldiers, and other soldiers who might have been temporarily recruited. Compared with the farmers, he felt that Art's patrol team was an "army" with the most potential. He was worried that Art would not accept the recruitment after seeing through the true nature of this trainee knight, so he wrote a letter to Art in person, strongly inviting Art to lead the patrol team to serve in the war.
Bass, who has always listened to Odo's words, was very assertive today. He put forward a different opinion, "Although what Chief Odo said is good, our original intention is to take the initiative to request the palace to join the army. Now you can not only join the army in the war, but also be awarded the title of an apprentice knight. If it were not for the war, this is an opportunity that many people will never get in their lifetime. Once you become an apprentice knight, your identity will change, and we can also call ourselves the army."
Odo has always been responsible for managing the patrol's military supplies and wages. The patrol's daily consumption of supplies is huge, so he has a deeper understanding of the importance of logistical supplies. He retorted: "But according to our previous plan, the patrol will go out to fight with Tyniec County and the palace. The one who provides weapons and food is silent about these two things in his letter. He probably doesn't want to pay for it, nor does he want to provide food. Without a fixed source of supplies, we can still deal with it in three to five days. If the war lasts for a year and a half, what will we eat and drink?"
No one could answer the question. They were really just confused by the title of trainee knight and had not thought deeply about the disadvantages of fighting outside the country.
“But this opportunity is so rare...”
…
After an afternoon of discussion, everyone reached a consensus - to accept the canonization of Viscount Pierre.
The detailed plan is roughly as follows: the patrol going north is divided into three parts. The first part is the combat personnel, including the eleven Odo men who nominally serve Baron Galvin and the five cavalrymen who accepted the conditions for being canonized as apprentice knights in Tyniec, plus ten more The armed soldiers were led by Art himself to fight with the army; the second part was the caravan led by Cooper, assisted by the businessman Salt, and Lawrence brought prisoners of war who performed well as the main force; the third part was the caravan guard and reserve team composed of the remaining patrol soldiers and the young men of the fort residents who volunteered to participate in the expedition.
These three parts exist independently and are closely related to each other.
Needless to say, the combat team is mainly focused on combat; the caravan accompanying the army mainly conducts trade between the army and various places, and does not seek to make money, but only needs to ensure the daily logistics supply of the combat team; the third part is mainly responsible for guarding the safety of the caravan accompanying the army, and at the same time providing personnel supplies for the combat team.
The cost of this expedition must be considerable. Once neither Tyniec nor the palace will bear any food and wages, Ater will be able to support dozens of soldiers and caravans through the coordination of these three parts. If managed properly, in addition to being able to support himself, Art might also be able to make a lot of money in the war...
In order to go all out for this expedition, Art made a temporary major adjustment to the valley wooden fort and patrol team.
The first is the wooden castle side of the valley. Since Cooper and Lawrence are about to go on an expedition with the army, Scott will temporarily take care of all the affairs of the Valley Wood Castle. The fort defense team will leave most of the peasant soldiers to guard the Valley Wood Castle. The construction of the carriage road will be stopped to block all connections between the Valley Wood Castle and the outside world to prevent strangers from intruding into the valley to ensure the stability of the foundation.
The second issue is the personnel establishment of the caravan accompanying the army. The main task of the caravan accompanying the army is to shuttle back and forth between the outgoing army and various places. On the one hand, it is to raise food for Ater's combat team, and on the other hand, it is to conduct wartime commercial trade with various parts of the Burgundy Counties. The general manager of the caravan is the old butler Cooper. The specific commercial trade is handled by the newly joined down-and-out businessman Salt. Lawrence is mainly responsible for managing the labor, carriages and livestock of the caravan. There will be two fort guarding teams of peasants and soldiers to build roads during this period. The five prisoners of war who have performed well in the war will work as coachmen for the caravan; in order to protect the safety of the caravan, Kazak and his second team of five soldiers will serve as armed escorts for the caravan, following the caravan between the army and various places.
The last thing is the staffing of the patrol team. During the last trip south to the Aosta war zone to transport military rations, a soldier was killed on the spot. The seriously injured one with a slashed belly was not saved at Sarp Castle. The other seriously injured one is still lying in a separate room in the wooden castle for treatment.
On one trip south, the patrol lost three soldiers and a war horse.
But the harvest was quite rich. The biggest one was the high commission of tens of thousands of pfennigs paid by Baron Balian and Baron Galvin to Art. In the hilly raid, a horse and a mule were captured. Baron Galvin gave another strong horse as a gift. He also collected three sets of leather and cotton armor, three notched broadswords, four battle axes, ten short spears and five hundred pfennigs. In addition, six bandit minions were captured. After the battle at the manor checkpoint, most of the weapons and armor were taken away by Baron Balian, and Art got four pieces of leather armor and two high-quality horses.
Unknowingly, Ate already had eight war horses, weapons for nearly fifty people, and eighteen sets of armor of various colors.
On the way back, he recruited three more young men to join the patrol team, making up for the three soldiers lost in the battle.
Yate has not made major adjustments to the staffing of the patrol team for the time being, and has basically maintained the original status. It was just that another peasant soldier was recruited from the fort defense team and converted into a soldier from the patrol team, and a soldier with better riding skills from the patrol team was transferred to Ron's sentry team.
It was already dark, and everyone had been discussing in the wooden house for a whole afternoon.
"Let's arrange it like this for now. Tomorrow I will take Ron's sentry team to Tyniec to receive the canonization. Odo will continue to train in the wooden castle with the patrol. Baskarzak and Tuba must cooperate with Odo's training. I estimate that there will be at least a month before the official expedition, so you will train my soldiers vigorously this month." , seize the time to build the road, but don't open the last half mile. In addition, you need to observe Salter more to see if he is trustworthy. "
"Lawrence, you must slowly withdraw from the farming in the valley and strengthen the management of prisoners of war. At the same time, you must take more peasants and soldiers from the fort defense team to participate in the training of the patrol team. I will ask Odo to allocate a batch of captured weapons to you to strengthen the fort protection team."
“Scott, you are about to temporarily take charge of the affairs of the Valley Wooden Castle. You must take care of two things. One is to do a good job in farmland cultivation, especially the autumn harvest in a few months. The second is to maintain the stability of the people in the Valley Wooden Castle. Externally, you must prevent strangers from intruding, and internally, you must prevent the fort residents from causing trouble. The third is to ensure the supply of food and materials. This time we brought them back from outside. There is a lot of food and supplies to ensure the supply of this side of the valley for most of the year. After we are all gone, you still have to manage the fort defense team and the prisoners of war."
"Okay, let's go down and prepare. There will be a banquet tonight, and military rewards for going south will be distributed based on merit."
Everyone got up to answer the order and dispersed to work.