August, midsummer has arrived, and the air is filled with humid heat.
In a large quarry in Jonne Province in the eastern border of Burgundy, hundreds of miners wearing shabby coarse linen clothes or simply shirtless and wearing only a pair of trousers are carrying their hands in the mine.
In a wooden shed in the middle of the quarry, Spencer, Art's army baggage officer, and several veterans of the baggage team were drinking cool thirst-quenching beer with the quarry stewards and supervisors, and chewing fragrant barbecue in their mouths.
The steward of the quarry picked the minced meat between his teeth, put it into his mouth and continued to chew it a few times, and said: "Mr. Spencer, don't worry, since it is the order of Baron Art, the military adjutant, and the instruction of Lord Baldwin, you can choose the miners in the quarry, but you cannot take away the mine slaves. They are all private slaves of the mine owners. We can still recruit miners, and we can recruit slaves." There's no way to replenish it."
Spencer drank the remaining half glass of beer on the table and replied: "Don't worry, I only want free miners, and I'm not interested in those skinny bones that are no longer human."
"Then this~" The quarry steward touched the money bag at his waist, indicating that Spencer should move on to the next step after eating and drinking.
Spencer laughed a few times, took out a money bag containing six hundred pfennigs from his waist and threw it on the table, "It's agreed, thirty miners, let me choose."
The quarry steward grabbed the purse and put it in his arms, "Of course, this is Baron Art's order, I dare not disobey it."
The quarry steward turned around and left the wooden shed, causing people to ring the broken bell for assembly.
After a while, the wooden shed in the middle of the quarry was surrounded by miners.
The steward of the quarry walked out of the wooden shed patting his round belly, stood on a large stone plate in front of the wooden shed, and said to the miners who were slowly gathering around him: "Guys, you are lucky. The Eastern Military Adjutant of the Palace, Baron Art, sent people here to recruit legion soldiers. Thirty lucky guys among you will be selected. Now let Baron Art's recruitment officer tell you."
quarrying The field steward waved to Spencer, and Spencer also jumped on the stone plate and began to repeat the scene when Art recruited soldiers in the quarry north of Lucesien...
The recruitment results were of course very smooth. The miners are definitely a high-quality source of soldiers. The hardships they endure for survival are beyond human reach, so they do not think that joining the army and becoming a professional soldier will cause more suffering than staying in the quarry.
What's more, the conditions for recruiting soldiers promised by the recruiting officer are really attractive.
Such a scene of recruiting soldiers also took place in the eastern part of Burgundy and the northern part of the Principality of Provence.
In the past few months, Yate has recruited one hundred and twenty soldiers through two caravans from the north and the south. Most of them are laborers, bankrupt citizens, unemployed guards, refugees who have entered the city, etc. that the caravans picked back to the valley when passing through various trading cities and towns. These young men who followed the caravans back to the valley are receiving recruit training at the Beiguan Army Fort.
The apprentice officers at the Officer Academy got twenty days of repair, because Art ordered all apprentice officers to go out to recruit soldiers. They followed the two adjutants Odo and Angus to recruit soldiers in eastern Burgundy and northern Provence respectively in their original squadrons.
After arriving at the cities of Yona and Kitzby, Odo Angus divided his officers into several recruitment groups, carried money, issued recruitment tasks, and went to surrounding places to recruit new soldiers.
These officers have all experienced recruitment to a greater or lesser extent, so they have a good understanding of the requirements and procedures for recruiting new recruits. Their first choice is to recruit free laborers, mine miners, and bankrupt farmers who are struggling at the bottom. Their second choice is to recruit young refugees, unemployed citizens, woodcutters, and fishermen. Finally, they will carefully select some professional mercenaries and caravan guards who have certain combat experience and are practical and reliable.
While the legion infantry was being recruited on a large scale, there were also two special recruitment teams that stayed away from urban fortresses and population gathering places, and went to the scattered grasslands in the northern part of Burgundy and the high mountains, dense forests and barren valleys in the southeastern mountains.
Of course, those who came to the grassland area were Lusignan and the sentry cavalry. They not only recruited a group of herdsmen from the grasslands to train as cavalry, but also brought money to buy relatively low-priced high-quality horses from the herdsmen for use as military horses.
The ones who broke into the secret valley of the mountains were naturally the crossbow team Jason and Smith. They followed the hunter's trail in the dense forest of the mountain stream to look for the hidden hunters. These people are all professional hunters. Not only do they have superb shooting skills, they are also good at digging holes, burying ropes, and setting traps.
While the officers were recruiting soldiers in various places under the scorching sun, Art was not idle either. He was leading his bodyguards and southern caravans to purchase weapons and armor throughout Provence.
At the beginning of August, a batch of weapons and armor worth 150,000 pfennigs purchased by Baron Galvin from Paris and surrounding cities was quietly transported to the Barony of Arte via Sapp's caravan via Provence. This batch of weapons included 160 long and short spears, 70 broadswords and daggers, single swords, and 40 battle axes. Warhammers, twenty foot bows, five crossbows and ten thousand arrows of various types; one set of plate chain armor, five pieces of half chain mail, twenty sets of leather armor and sixty sets of cotton armor. The shields can be made by the valley weapons workshop, so Art exchanged the money for the shields for eighty simple dome helmets and wide-brimmed saucer helmets.
These weapons and armor can barely equip about two hundred simple light infantry, but it cannot guarantee that every soldier has all the weapons and armor. However, Art intends to build a well-armed elite army. Although it is impossible to expect that after expansion, every soldier can wear armor, hold a shield, carry a sword and hold a spear, but at least the ordinary soldiers must be equipped with a helmet and a cotton armor (made by the uniform valley). In addition to a spear, they can also be equipped with a dagger and battle axe.
After thinking about it, Art squeezed out 60,000 pfennigs from the already small military expenditure, and took out 30,000 pfennigs from the operating funds of the Continental Trading Company. Together with the 10,000 pfennigs from the baron's private treasury, he scraped together 100,000 pfennigs and came to Provence to buy weapons and armor.
It makes sense for Art to go to Provence. As a country that has been at war for more than two years, there is a lack of food, clothing, and all materials needed for survival, but there is no shortage of weapons, armor, and graves on the ground.
The journey was non-stop and we arrived at Verno, an important town in the south of Provence in mid-August. The Lombard army could no longer withstand the huge military pressure and took the initiative to withdraw its troops from Wilno and stationed them for a confrontation on the border between the two countries.
With the withdrawal of the enemy troops from Verno, all the lost city fortresses on the entire southern Provence front were recovered, and the two-year national war was basically over.
Garrisoning the city of Verno and its surroundings are three palace legions of varying sizes in Provence, totaling more than 1,600 people. Baron Balian also led his legion of more than 600 people to garrison the city.
Ate sent caravans to various parts of the Northland to purchase weapons and armor from the armies and lords. Then he personally rushed to the city of Wilno to visit Viscount Balian, hoping to obtain a batch of weapons and armor for himself through Viscount Balian.
At the largest tavern in the city of Wilno, Viscount Balian entertained Art and the others warmly.
"Art, I feel very sorry for not being able to come to the County of Burgundy in person to congratulate you on your promotion to Baron. When the day comes that I can take off my armor, I will definitely be a guest in your valley."
Balian raised his glass of wine, exchanged a few words with Art, and asked seriously: "Nowadays, there are also undercurrents surging in the County of Burgundy. I also heard that you are a confidant of Count Baldwin's group. At this time, you would not come to Wilno just to meet me, an old friend, right?"
Art didn't pay attention to those false gifts in front of Balian. He replied directly: "Thank you for the gift. It's just a pretense. The real reason why I came to Provence is to buy some weapons and armor from you. As you know, the place where I am is turbulent, and I must have enough strength to deal with the next crisis."
As a highly regarded new dignitary in the Principality of Provence, Balian was of course not completely unaware of the general situation in neighboring countries. It was no secret that sooner or later there would be a battle between the young prince of the Count of Burgundy and Flanders, Count of Longchaia. Of course, Art, who was in the Flanders camp, would not be alone, so Balian was not surprised by Art's plan.
"How many weapons and armor do you need?" Balian had no intention of rejecting Art's request.
Ate held out two fingers and replied: "At least two hundred sets, and it is a full set of weapons and armor for light infantry." A nine-foot short spear, a short sword (hand axe), a dagger, an iron round helmet, a set of cotton armor (or leather armor), a shield, a sash and a pair of cowhide boots. Of course, different soldiers will also add some breastplates, neck guards, shoulder guards, etc.
Based on the cheapest full set of light infantry weapons and armor, equipping a light infantry would cost at least two thousand pfennigs, and two hundred sets would be four hundred thousand pfennigs.
Balian almost choked on his drink, "Art, are you kidding? Two hundred full sets of armor? Not to mention whether I can get such a large amount of things for you, these weapons and armors will cost at least four to five million pfennigs! I dare not say that I can come up with it, but you can still come up with so much money. ? "
Art scratched his head and said: "Lord Balian, aren't we here to find a solution for you? It is indeed impossible to get two hundred new sets of weapons and armor, but it should be possible to raise two hundred sets of "obsolete and obsolete" weapons and armor, right? And now that Provence has won the war, it is impossible for the Provence court to continue to support so many troops once the war subsides. "
"Those disbanded local armies have a lot of weapons and armor in their hands~" Art whispered to remind Balian of the direction of his thinking.
Balian stroked his chest a few times, took a breath, lowered his head and thought for a while, and said: "This is a good idea. The palace has begun to disband and demobilize local armies that were called up for war. As long as they can bribe the commanders or baggage officers of those armies, it is not difficult to get some weapons and armor away. Anyway, it is not difficult to get rid of some weapons and armor. Most of these weapons and armors are allocated by the palace arsenal to the armies in various places. The officers can report a battle damage to make the weapons and armor disappear from the warehouse."
Once you have a way, the next thing will be much easier to handle. Balian sent a confidant knight to lead Art and his entourage to visit five or six armies that were about to be disbanded in the eastern theater. He met the commanders of several armies or the baggage officers who managed the arsenal. They were accompanied by Viscount Balian's cronies, and there were golden cakes and silver coins knocking on the door. Those noble officers who had suffered from the war why not take the opportunity to make a fortune.
In the end, Art bought 80 long and short spears, 180 iron spearheads (which can be used with spear shafts), 100 swords of various kinds, 60 battle axes and hammers, 30 foot bows and 20,000 arrows of various types from the troops that were about to be disbanded at less than one-third of the market price; 160 sets of cotton armor and 60 sets of single-layer leather armor (prick armor), more than 110 iron helmets of various colors, and some fragmentary armaments.
Although these weapons and armor have been used by the army, most of them can continue to be used.