A week later, at the recruit training ground outside the wooden fort, more than thirty soldiers who had been laid off by the legion and newly recruited young men were still receiving training here from the third squadron leader Tuba and two squad captains Bangeda and Klaus.
"Guys, you have to work hard in the next few days. Your Excellency has ordered that this~this~ assessment will be conducted on the soldiers of the new army in two days, which is to test the effectiveness of your training. The recruits with the best performance will be promoted to combat soldiers. Soldiers, form a third squadron; qualified recruits will be dispatched to patrols, border outposts or caravans; soldiers with poor performance will be removed from the army and enter the wooden castle to work as farmers and will be converted into Valley Guard peasant soldiers. If the army expands, Valley Guard peasant soldiers will be recruited first..."
"The recruit assessment two days later will mainly include two contents. The first is the assessment of the recruits' personal combat skills, including physical endurance, weapon use, and multi-person fighting. The second is the assessment of the recruits' battle formation training. The content of this battle formation assessment is mainly the new battle formation we have been practicing in recent days."
"Okay, now Bangeda and Klaus will lead you for training respectively. "
Bangeda and Klaus took the orders to start training with a dozen recruits each...
After the recruits started training, Tuba turned to Art and bowed slightly, and said, "Sir, what do you think?"
Att stared at the new recruits who picked up sticks and wooden shields to train the new battle formation, and said to Tuba: "Odo, Angus and I have been busy training the soldiers to become familiar with the new battle formation recently, and we have no time to take care of the training of the new recruits. You guys will have to worry more. I told you before that most of the soldiers of your third squadron will have to Select from the new recruits. If you train the recruits well, your third squadron's combat capabilities will not be too bad in the future. That Klaus is a rare warrior who has experienced hundreds of battles. You must make good use of him and ask him for advice on everything. Although you are his commander, there is no shame in asking for advice humbly..."
Tuba nodded and accepted the instruction.
"By the way, I plan to formally form a crossbow squad recently. The soldiers are already selecting crossbowmen, and you can also choose among the new recruits."
"Yes!"
On the other side of the training ground, Odo was selecting soldiers who were a little good at crossbows but not strong in melee combat as crossbowmen candidates. The several squadron captains and squad captains standing aside looked bad looking at poaching people from their own teams.
In front of the arrow stack, Jason, a former member of the Sentinel Cavalry, was testing the selected candidate crossbowmen with Smith, a mercenary archer who had newly joined the legion.
Looking at a soldier who had just pulled his bow and shot five arrows, his arms began to tremble. Smith, who was stuttering, whispered to Jason: "Brother Jay, Jason, this is no good, my hands are weak, and I can't pull the string a few times."
This is the fourth time that Jason has changed teams. From infantry to cavalry, from cavalry to infantry as a part-time archer, and then from infantry back to cavalry. Now he has been transferred to form a specialized crossbow team, but this time Jason is really happy because Art promoted him to the captain of the new crossbow team, which is considered a promotion.
Next to him, Smith is a mercenary archer who has just joined the valley. After completing the basic training of the new recruits, he was directly promoted to legion soldiers together with Lusignan and Klaus. For a mercenary who has experienced battles, this is also the favor he deserves. After being promoted to a soldier, Smith was not good at battle formation training, and his personal combat skills were very average, but his shooting skills were very good, so Art directly regarded him as an elite archer and transferred him to Jason, who was forming a crossbow team, as the deputy captain. Art originally intended to make Smith the captain and Jason the deputy. , however, the mercenary Smith had just joined recently and was not smooth in speaking. Art was not yet reassured, so he was given the position of deputy. However, Smith was very surprised, because in his previous mercenary army, archers did not receive preferential treatment, and even ordinary infantry were treated better than him.
Jason looked at the soldier who was shooting arrows in front of him, turned his head and replied to Smith helplessly: "There is no way, all the officers regard the soldiers in the team as treasures, and will not let them leave easily. They just send the soldiers with the weakest and weakest combat ability." Select them for us to choose from~"
What Jason said is the truth. The soldiers who have been selected a few months ago are basically the elite backbones retained by each squadron. How can the squad leaders and squadron leaders be easily sent to the crossbow squad? So after picking and choosing, only two or three soldiers with lower combat power were sent to Jason for selection...
"This is not going to work like this. No, sir, let us choose four more crossbowmen. This is enough."
In addition to the two crossbows and two bows allocated to the border outpost and the Boulder Town patrol station, there are now more than a dozen bows and four crossbows in the wooden castle arsenal. The officers and soldiers in the legion who can shoot arrows are individually equipped with bows. In addition, Art also plans to form a six-person full-time crossbow team to provide long-range fire support for the army.
"Your Excellency has also guessed this result, but currently it is not easy to select enough soldiers so that they can meet the requirements of the battle immediately. As an archer, you must know that bows and arrows are not heavy hammers and flails, and they cannot be trained without three to five years of training, so Your Majesty Tell me that the crossbow team mainly uses crossbows. The training difficulty of that thing is relatively low and it is easy for soldiers to get started..."
..................
To the north of the wooden castle, on the edge of the dense forest in the valley.
Angus, the adjutant of the legion, was leading the sentries on a patrol mission and training the cavalry. Since Lusignan and Art's brother-in-law Felix joined the sentries with two cavalry attendants, the combat effectiveness of the sentries has instantly increased by several levels.
When there are too many talents, conflicts are inevitable. Those who can join the Sentinel Team are all capable people, and naturally they are not just people who want to be accepted casually.
The first is Lusignan, the mercenary cavalryman who is the second son of a knight. He was not born a civilian, and he has participated in the Holy War. He is well-informed and strong in force, so he is not convinced by the young captain Ron of the Sentinel Cavalry, so he joins him. The Sentinels have been dissatisfied with Ron since he became the deputy captain. However, Ron is Art's personal bodyguard and confidant. Although he is young, he has experienced many battles and has the blood of many enemies on his hands, so he can barely accept it.
But Lusignan’s attitude towards Master Felix, who was also a newcomer, was not so kind.
Felix is not essentially a playboy, but he is indeed the only son of a baron. He has a certain arrogance in his character, and he has always been a mastermind at Sarp Castle. Therefore, after joining the Art Legion, except for his brother-in-law Art and his friend Ron, who is about the same age, he does not show much awe and kindness to others. His relationship with Lusignan, who was born as a mercenary, is particularly poor.
Lusignan considered himself to be experienced and experienced countless battles. He often regarded Felix, who was only fifteen years old, as his elder brother. Moreover, as the second son of a knight, Lusignan had an unspeakable rejection of Felix, the eldest son. Therefore, Lusignan often used his identity as deputy captain to embarrass Felix; and Felix also maintained his identity and ignored Lusignan's orders. Both of them have their own pride, and neither of them obeys the other.
Ron, the captain of the Sentinel, is not good at handling such a complicated relationship, and Angus, the adjutant of the legion directly under the jurisdiction of the Sentinel, does not care about this matter. Anyway, as long as it does not affect the battle, he doesn't care about the fighting between soldiers. In the words he told Art, only those who crawled together through a pool of blood will become brothers...
On the wasteland at the edge of the dense forest, several rows of thatched mannequins with wooden poles were erected more than a hundred paces away. A line was drawn thirty steps in front of the thatched mannequins. Angus was riding on the back of a war horse. There were five throwing spears (javelins) in the pouch of the horse's back saddle. He took out a throwing spear and held it in his hand. He said to Lusignan and Felix, who were staring at each other on horseback: "Listen, aren't you two convinced? ? Did you see the thatch man over there? He galloped seventy steps and threw his spear at the marked line. Each person had five spears, and the one who hit more was the winner. The loser would feed the horse of the winner for three days. "
"Lusignan comes first!"
Hearing the sound, Lusignan gently pinched the horse's belly, and the horse under him paced out. Although Lusignan had been trained as a cavalryman since he was a child and had been fighting on horseback for many years, the skill of throwing spears on galloping horses was new to him. He sideways pulled out a spear from the rear saddle bag, raised his hand over his shoulder, and kicked the spurs lightly. The horse under him began to move forward slowly. After more than twenty steps, the horse's speed suddenly became faster. The tip of the spear in Lusignan's hand rose. Before reaching the line, Lusignan threw the spear at the speed of the horse. The spear flew high with astonishing momentum under the power of the galloping horse and Lusignan's arm strength. Then Lusignan turned the horse's head and ran towards the flank according to the mark on the ground. It was very heroic...
But the spear did not hit, to be precise, it flew more than ten steps...
"Flower style~" Felix sneered at Lusignan's performance.
“It’s your turn!” Angus said to Felix.
Felix had to be more serious when learning to throw a spear. He recalled the spear throwing skills taught by Angus on weekdays, and let the horse under him run at a constant speed. When he reached the marking line, he threw the spear in his hand vigorously, and the spear hit a thatch man in the thigh. Seeing their master's first hit, Felix's two attendants cheered loudly.
But then Lusignan, who had adjusted his strength, was hit twice in a row, and the three spears behind Felix all fell into the gaps between the thatched men...
In the end, both of them only hit two of their five spears.
Both of them came back defeated. Angus glanced at the two of them, then he lifted the reins and clamped the horse's belly. The horse neighed and rushed out. He ran more than thirty steps in front of the marking line. Angus flew out a spear, and the spear drew an arc in the air. It hit the thatched man in the abdomen; the excitement was not over yet. After throwing the first spear, Angus leaned back and took out another spear from his bag. Before the horse's hoof reached the marked line, the second spear flew out and hit again.
Angus turned his horse's head, and the horse turned sideways, grazing the lines on the ground and ran towards the flank...
The galloping horse returned to the people who were staring blankly, Angus shouted to Lusignan and Felix: "Useless things, they will know how to fight with each other day by day, you two, feed the whole team for three days!"
...