In the city of Tyniec, the troops who had been mobilized to go north to Besancon were gradually arriving. The farthest patrol had been stationed in a temporary military camp outside the city of Tyniec for a day, but the son of a merchant named Dean had not arrived. This was not because he himself was unwilling to go on the expedition, but because many of the refugees and serfs who had been summoned temporarily had fled.
It turned out that a month ago, in order to be able to bring enough troops to Tyniec to be knighted as a trainee, Dean coaxed a group of refugees and serfs to follow him to Tyniec. However, several refugees later found out and had to follow Dean to the north. He served in the army and even fought in the war. When he was afraid of the battle, he encouraged other serfs and refugees to escape together...
At this time, Dean was busy recruiting refugees and farmers. Even his family's caravan guards had been mobilized to join the expedition team.
After being stationed in the city of Tyniec for a day with several other armies, the soldiers of the patrol team truly felt the strength of their own military discipline and combat power.
It goes without saying that Viscount Pierre's county garrison is a regular professional legionnaire in Tynets County. They are supported by materials, money and food from the palace and the entire Tynets County, and receive strict training every day. Their combat power is certainly not weak. However, this standing army with about a hundred people left is the last line of defense in Tynets County. As long as the enemy does not invade the territory on a large scale, they will not easily leave Tynets County to fight.
The armies recruited by the other three trainee knights are quite different. The trainee knights have no territory or subjects, and no one provides them with military service, so the trainee knights have to recruit from everywhere. Most of these temporarily recruited soldiers are fleeing refugees, local bankrupt farmers and even captured serfs. In addition to spears, daggers, and leather armor and iron helmets, most of the soldiers on the expedition were armed with short iron spears, wooden spears, and even wooden flails, wooden forks, and hatchets and clubs; their camp was also in a mess. The trainee knights and followers carried their own military tents, but the soldiers on the expedition had no one to take care of them. Except for the bowls of wheat paste they received from their commanders twice a day, the rest were left to fend for themselves. The aroma of wheat and meat wafting from the Yate patrol during every meal can attract a large number of drooling soldiers on the way to watch, but the fully armed sentries surrounding the patrol camp keep these poor guys away.
On the first Sunday of July, Dean’s army finally arrived at the city of Tyniec. Dean's army was much stronger than the armies of the other three trainee knights. Firstly, because the weak and timid refugees and serfs had all fled, leaving only slightly stronger soldiers; secondly, in order to make up the number of people, he transferred seven or eight guards from his own caravan into the Northern Expeditionary Army; and finally, because Dean was quite wealthy, the army he recruited had a small salary and sufficient food supply.
After the army of conscripts arrived, Viscount Pierre appeared. He took the secretary of Tynets to register the troops one by one. The army that was recruited this time consisted of more than 100 soldiers brought by five trainee knights and more than forty servants. This number of troops was much larger than the number of troops required by the palace from the trainee knights of Tynets County, so Viscount Pierre was very satisfied. The result that Viscount Pierre was satisfied with was that the troops stationed outside the city received half a fan of pork brought from the city and two barrels of low-quality fruit wine. This was also the only material supply the conscripted army received from Tyniec County.
In the military service registration document, Art brought five cavalry and a caravan with the army. There were many troops with heavy troops and handymen, but there were very few who specifically went on expeditions with the caravans. However, Viscount Pierre did not embarrass Art on this issue, and readily issued a certificate for the caravans to transport military supplies. With this certificate, the caravans could pay less or even be exempted from various commercial taxes in the County of Burgundy.
"Art, your army clearly has twenty-five heavy infantry and ten retinues, why did you only report five cavalry?" Viscount Pierre did not understand why Art underreported the number of troops, because the rations given by the palace to each army were determined based on the number of troops reported by each army. Many commanders inflated the number of troops in order to get more food, but Art underreported the number of troops.
Yate pointed to the soldiers who had not accepted the registration and said: "Sir, the palace has already said that it will provide its own military pay for this expedition. I can neither get a salary from the palace, nor can I expect the pitiful food and fodder provided by the palace. I have now collected five armed cavalry, and the rest are all troops hired in my own name. In this way, the palace can only command five of my cavalry. I don't need to ask the palace for more. A group of heavy infantry that can be used to prevent my infantry from being used as cannon fodder by the commanders. Besides, the heavy infantry is escorted by the caravan, and there are eleven remaining heavy infantry who were entrusted by Baron Galvin of Sarp Castle to gather in the county. They are not my soldiers. Besides, it is easy for a trainee knight to have too many troops, and I don’t want people to doubt me. "
Viscount Pierre glanced at the soldiers, who were obviously soldiers from Art's patrol. He despised them in his heart and said: "That coward Galvin, I thought he had to bring a few soldiers to Tinets this time to show off, but he turned out to be a softie."
Art also wanted to explain that Galvin still had to deal with the lord's military service, so he couldn't come to serve in the county in person, but Viscount Pierre obviously didn't want to talk more.
Viscount Pierre glanced at Art and chuckled: "You are now a knight errant? Working as a mercenary for others? The last time you suppressed bandits in the south of Sap, you received money from Galvin, right?"
Matt did not deny it. He did not feel ashamed to use money to do things. "Master Viscount, you have also seen that my patrol team has strong and excellent soldiers, sophisticated weapons and equipment, and sufficient supplies of supplies. The palace and the county did not pay me much for food and supplies. I need to solve these things myself. Besides, I took the money to do the work seriously!"
Viscount Pierre did not really mean to blame Art. He patted Art on the shoulder and said: "Art, I just remind you that you are a knight. Even if you are a trainee knight, you should cherish the honor of a knight. "Thank you for reminding me, sir. But now that I have said this, I still have to tell you whether you promised me to exchange bandits for money and weapons and supplies. I have not forgotten this..."
On Monday, the conscripted army set off from Tinets. Viscount Pierre personally led a team of more than 150 people from the north gate of Tinets to the palace of Besançon.
For the County of Burgundy, which has been without war for many years, an army of more than 150 people is already quite large. Many villages and villagers along the way have left their thatched houses to watch on both sides of the road; some sharp-minded small traders have spotted business opportunities. , carrying a basket and pushing a cart, followed the team heading north to sell fruits, vegetables, chickens, ducks, fish, geese, bacon, fresh eggs and other goods purchased from the countryside. Yate's army brought a lot of food and bacon baggage, but Yate still ordered some purchases of fruits, fresh vegetables, fresh eggs, chickens and ducks.
When the camp was dark, several scantily clad professional women followed the army smelling the scent of silver coins. They wandered around the military camp, waiting to do some flesh business with the soldiers who sneaked out of the camp...
........................
Spencer, who was officially promoted to the patrol baggage officer, has been very busy recently. He was not only responsible for providing three meals a day for the thirty or forty soldiers in the army, setting up camps, assisting doctors in treating the wounded, collecting statistics and distributing military pay, and many other chores, he was also responsible for managing the labor of the two prisoners of war assigned to him. In addition, he also had to be responsible for the food, drink and accommodation of the caravan before it was separated from the army. Spencer, who was originally unable to stand the hardships of training and fighting on the battlefield, was even more tired now, but perhaps because he had served as a merchant's apprentice, he was quite comfortable with these trivial chores in the army, and he did it somewhat well, so Art made him a baggage officer on the same level as the combat team leader.
At this time, Spencer, the baggage officer, was directing two prisoner-of-war laborers to cook for the soldiers and caravans. He took half a carrot from a small vendor in his hand, put it into his mouth and chewed it. He arrogantly said to the laborers who were busy around the fire: "Listen to me, you two bastards. Following me is God's favor for you. Look at those who were sent to cut down trees, dig trenches and build camps." How hard and tiring is the labor? You two only need to gather firewood and cook for a while here, and you can still have a chance to eat two more hot meals. If you perform meritorious service, I will also tell the Lord to restore your free status... Where can you find a commander like me? "
The two prisoner-of-war laborers are of course very grateful to Spencer.
Spencer used his thumb to pick up the crumbs of food in his mouth, and ignored the two guys by the fire. He turned to look at the busy soldiers and eight prisoners of war working around the camp, and muttered: "There are no enemies around, so why bother to build a camp?" Four-foot-long sharpened wooden stakes were placed, and the wooden stakes surrounded the entire camp, leaving only a six-foot-wide camp gate. While checking whether the wooden stakes were firm, Art said to several commanders around him: "Don't question me asking you to practice setting up the camp. We usually suppress bandits and have been attacked by bandits and rogues. Moreover, this expedition is facing the enemy's army. If you don't practice more now, you won't know how to set up a camp on the battlefield."
Matt touched a sharpened stake of rotten wood, turned around and asked: "Who found the wood for this fence?"
Kazak stood up with a red face and replied: "Sir, our team found it. I thought there was no enemy around and no one came to attack the camp, so I didn't choose too much~"
"Take your people to the forest to find ten strong logs and come back. The second team is not allowed to drink broth for dinner." Art kicked off the wooden stake and walked straight towards his military tent.
Kazak, who was so ashamed, waited for Art to leave, and roared to the soldiers in the squad: "Didn't you hear? All of you, go chop down the trees for me!"
?……………………
Standing at the gate of the military tent not far from the patrol camp, Jerry, the knight of the palace, said to Viscount Pierre: "My lord, what do you think this Art wants to do? He keeps torturing his soldiers all day long, and those guys still listen to him~"
Pierre replied with a smile: "I have inquired clearly. His ordinary soldiers alone are paid twenty pfennigs per week. , the commander's salary is higher. If you can give such a high military salary, others will listen to you."
The inner knight asked in disbelief: "Such a high military salary? It also provides weapons, equipment and food supplies! Where does this guy get so much food and salary???"
Viscount Pierre shrugged and turned into the military tent.