In September, the summer heat is gradually fading, and this dense forest canyon in the mountains in the central part of the mainland is busy and prosperous.
Beiguan Military Fort, the sound of soldiers training floats in the late afternoon heat.
Angus's hands-clasped observer was leading the squadron soldiers to train the formation in the open space of the military castle. Ron couldn't help walking up to stop the formation and shouted: "Ron, you have to grasp your position. You are an infantry commander now, not a sentry captain." , your task is to command the soldiers of the squadron from the center, control the combat movements, and coordinate the pace of action. You cannot rush to lead the charge. You must always remember that the combat power of a single soldier cannot defeat the enemy. You need to clench your soldiers into a hard fist and smash them against the enemy."
Angus pointed at the protruding Ron and the others and said: "Look at yourself, your position is in the middle. Once you lead two guards to protrude into the formation, the two squads of soldiers must speed up to catch up with you. As a result, a good line formation becomes a "pig rush" formation, and your flanks will also be exposed to the enemy's swords..."
Ron lowered his head in shame. He has always been with Art as a cavalryman since he started participating in the battle. Although he has been following the infantry for basic training to familiarize himself with infantry combat skills, he has no experience in personally training infantry, so after taking over the Fourth Squadron, his training skills were somewhat behind.
Angus noticed Ron's mood, raised his hand and patted Ron on the shoulder, and said slowly: "You have to regard the two squadrons as your right and left hands. You and your squadron soldiers are integrated. You are their head. You can't fight with your head stretched out, right?"
"Well, go ahead and practice the squadron's charge formation again."
Ron turned around and began to organize the squadron soldiers to rehearse the squadron's collective charge formation...
In the wilderness outside the dense forest of Beiguan, Art and Bass, who had barely recovered from their injuries, were leading Scott Lawrence and Lin Engel to train the peasant soldiers of the garrison. The grain in the valley had been harvested and the land had been plowed. The farmers had a rare free time. Except for the labor farmers who were sent by the construction manager to build houses in Kutim Village, all the young farmers in the territory who were over 16 and under 40 years old were gathered in Beiguan for intensive training.
In addition to the twenty-odd peasants and soldiers of the original guard (who can be assembled at any time), there are also about a hundred ordinary peasants and soldiers (conscripted soldiers) who have been registered here. Most of these peasants and soldiers have not received formal training, so they are not familiar with marching operations.
However, Art did not expect that these farmers who dealt with sickles and iron hoes every day could be like soldiers, so the weapons issued to ordinary peasant soldiers were only spears made by the valley craftsmen's workshops. The spearheads of these spears were lightweight winged iron spears made by melting down the war-damaged weapons eliminated by the army. The spear shafts were made of high-quality woods such as birch and ash, and were up to twelve feet long. In addition to the spear, each peasant soldier also has a one-and-a-half-foot-long wooden-handled single-edged knife on his waist. This crude short knife can be regarded as a personal auxiliary weapon of the peasant soldiers. As for armor and iron helmets, it is not extravagant. Art plans to issue a black robe to uniform uniforms for the peasant soldiers in the future. However, for the peasant soldiers who are only responsible for protecting the safety of the valley, such a weapon configuration is not too shabby.
Ate divided these 100 or so ordinary peasant soldiers into groups of 50 into two companies to form two dense spear phalanxes, and then let another twenty or so standing peasant soldiers equipped with halberds, swords and axes cover the flanks and weak points.
However, after training for two full days, this group of ordinary farmers and soldiers still could not achieve the basic effect that Art had expected. The farmers could not maintain the tight formation they imagined. Especially after a slight movement, the entire formation turned into a pot of wheat paste. The farmers who were slow to react had just taken a few steps and began to look left and right to find their "comrades" around them. They could not keep up with the rhythm of the drums.
"Okay, there will be no formation marching training today. Let everyone familiarize themselves with the defensive formations first." Art looked at the performance of the peasants and soldiers, shook his head and stopped the chaotic marching training.
After hearing this, Bas was about to personally organize the peasants and soldiers to form a defensive formation, but Art grabbed Bas and said, "Bass, you still need to recuperate from your head injury. You don't have to go to training yourself. You can just watch them train and point out their problems. Don't let the wound on your head recur." "
Basi touched the thin layer of gauze wrapped around his head and replied with a smile: "Sir, it's okay. I can handle it as long as it's not strenuous training. I have been lying in the wooden house for several months. I have to move." After that, he picked up a spear on the ground and walked towards the assembled peasant soldiers.
"Guys, train well with me. There are still three days of peasant and soldier training. After the training is over, I will prepare a sumptuous dinner for everyone, and the guys who train well will also be rewarded with a few glasses of delicious fruit wine."
There was a burst of laughter in the two peasant and soldier phalanxes. Although these ordinary peasant soldiers did not receive any military pay, Art would provide them with sufficient food to keep them full during the off-farm training period, so everyone was quite enthusiastic about participating in the training camp.
Bass waved everyone to be quiet, and then shouted to the twenty or so standing peasant soldiers standing aside holding halberds, swords and axes: "Come, the halberds, swords and axes are ready, let's practice again."
The standing peasants standing on the periphery of the phalanx, holding halberds, knives and axes, entered the front and two wings of the phalanx to cover.
"Everyone remember, when defending a phalanx of spears, they must form a dense formation. The men in the first row squat down and put their feet on the end of the spear handle, with the spear head raised, the men in the second row half kneel and raise it diagonally, and the men in the back raise the spear horizontally, with the spear tip facing the enemy..."
Matt watched Bass, Scott, and Lawrence enter the phalanx to correct the peasant soldiers' movements one by one, then left the peasant phalanx training ground and followed the carriage path through the dense forest back to Beiguan Army Fort to continue supervising the training of several squadrons of soldiers and the crossbow team of the Sentry...
He was so busy until mid-September.
A few days ago, news came from the European Commercial Bank that after one and a half months of non-stop purchasing and transportation, they had stockpiled nearly 100,000 pounds of grain at the border post. Most of this grain was purchased from near Besançon and Lucese, and a small part was collected sporadically from Tyniec County.
Due to the bumper grain harvest this year at the border of the country, and the fact that the commercial banks purchase grain directly from farmers, the total cost of 100,000 pounds of grain is only 25,000 pfennigs. Including the cost of consumption along the way and hiring a fleet of vehicles, the total is only 30,000 pfennigs. According to the current grain price at the border of Provost, these 100,000 pounds of grain can be sold for at least 60,000 pfennigs, and after excluding internal consumption costs, they can earn at least 20,000 pfennigs.
Happily working for nearly two months, he only earned 20,000 pfennigs. Compared with the southern goods trade, the profit is indeed not high. However, Art just wants to open up the southern goods trade route in Provence through grain trade, so he has to do it even if he loses money, not to mention that he can still make a lot of money now.
On the second Sunday of September, Art decided to hand over the affairs of the valley and the army to his stewards and officers, and personally led a small number of troops to escort the grain caravan south to Provence.
But Art was troubled by a small matter today.
"Matthew, please stop pestering me. I said I won't let you go, so I won't let you go. You failed to complete the test I gave you, and it's useless to say anything now."
In the lord's mansion, Matthew has been pestering Art all morning.
Matthew failed to complete the test task that Art gave him a month ago. When Art personally tested his word learning yesterday, Matthew only wrote forty words. Art was immediately surprised. The "barbarian" who didn't want to learn a word was actually able to master forty difficult words in just one month, which showed that Matthew was indeed a talented guy, and Art was even more determined to force this guy to continue training in the school.
But this talented guy is surprisingly stubborn. It’s not that he can’t learn, he really doesn’t want to learn. So early this morning when he learned that Art was going south to transport food with a small number of troops, he made up his mind to follow him south.
"Master, I went back last night and memorized all the remaining words. If you test me again, I will definitely be able to write them all down!" Matthew plopped down and knelt down in front of Art.
Matt really has nothing to do with this stubborn donkey. Some time ago, Art privately approached several school apprentices to question this guy. It turned out that in order not to continue to stay in the school, Matthew actually used food as payment to bribe several apprentices. The apprentices fought with him every day. This ironic "truth" caught Art by surprise. He originally planned to give the "barbarian" who bullied his companions a good repair, but after hearing the apprentices' confessions, Art was at a loss to deal with this guy again.
The hard one was too hard, so Art had to use a soft one. He pulled up Matthew who was kneeling on the ground and said softly: "Look, now your mother has also moved to live in the valley. She has only you as a relative in the valley. Are you willing to leave her? Can you wait until you accompany your mother to get familiar with the valley?" Working in the house is much better than working in the mountains, and she is very adaptable here. "
Matt was a little anxious, "What about your father? Your father personally told you to stay in the school well. He hopes that you can become a literate official in the future."
Matt just didn't talk to Matthew anymore, "Okay, I won't talk to you anymore, just stay in the school for me. If you dare to make trouble again, I will put you in jail!!!"
Matthew fell to his knees again with a plop, knocked his head deeply to the ground, and said nothing.
Matt seemed to see Ron who was forcing himself to follow him to the north, but the guy kneeling in front of him was a hundred times more stubborn than Ron at that time.
After kneeling like this for a whole noon, Art finally wavered. He put down the paperwork in his hand, took a deep breath, and stood up from the chair, "After you come back from Provence, you will continue to go back to school, and you can only mention the matter of joining the Legion to me after you have learned two hundred words."
Matthew's legs and feet were already stiff, and he stood up tremblingly, and replied firmly: "Okay~ I promise you~"
"You go to Spencer, the baggage officer, and ask him to prepare a riding horse, a set of cotton armor and a dagger for you. Remember, when you leave the valley, you will temporarily act as my escort and follow my orders."
"Yes, sir!" Matthew limped out of the office with a smile on his face.