Beiguan Army Fort Officer Academy Classroom. After the officers completed their training, this place became Art's residence and the legion command camp (legion headquarters).
· Odo, the adjutant in charge of the legion’s baggage and general affairs, sat on the low stool opposite Art, frowning, "...Sir, the uneven distribution of weapons and armor can be dealt with for a while, but the fourth flag of the first company and the fourth flag of the second company More than half of the soldiers in the team have not been able to distribute autumn and winter uniforms and burkas. The two flag captains ask me for supplies every day. The valley tailors sent by the Civil Affairs Bureau to assist do not have enough manpower to make them. Seeing that the weather is getting colder, we cannot let the soldiers wear single clothes for the winter. "
The focus of the two military procurements some time ago was weapons and armor. The weather was still very hot at that time, and Art did not pay attention to the issue of warm autumn and winter clothing for the army. As time went by, the weather gradually turned colder, and it was urgent to solve the problem of winter clothing.
Matt kept tapping his fingers on the wooden table, thinking for a long time, and suddenly an idea flashed in his mind, "Send an order to the baggage team, and ask them to hand over all the army's fabrics to the civil administration, and ask the civil administration to mobilize the peasant women in the territory to help the soldiers make autumn and winter thick coats and robes and cloaks. By the way, they will also make a batch of shoes and socks for backup. Farmers The women’s wages for sewing clothes and making shoes are paid by the army. "
"We must make arrangements with the civil administration. The quilts must be sewn firmly, and the cloaks must be coated with dye mixed with grease. The autumn and winter are cold and humid, and it often rains. The soldiers have a waterproof cloak to protect them from the wind and rain, which can also preserve some morale."
Otto thought carefully and slapped his forehead, "Yes, just ask the peasant women in the territory to help make the soldiers' uniforms. Anyway, the farm work is idle at this time of the year, and the women have enough time and interest to do these sewing and repairing things."
Otto finally breathed a sigh of relief after a long-standing problem was solved.
But immediately Odo's face was filled with sadness again, "Sir, the problem of winter clothes has been barely solved, but what about the weapons and armor? Yesterday, the border garrison and patrol team sent people to ask me for weapons and armor, but currently the legion's weapons The reserves in the treasury are not enough to equip the legionnaires, and there is no excess equipment to be allocated to them. "
"If it were not for the fact that the border garrison and patrol team may also face danger at any time, I would like to take the weapons and armor in their hands back to the legionnaires and distribute them to the legionnaires."
Otto really had no choice. After several years of accumulation and several large-scale purchases more than a month ago, the legion's arsenal also had a lot of weapons and equipment. If it were a little more crude, each person would be given a short spear or a single dagger to replenish the inventory. These weapons and armor could barely equip more than 500 people.
But Art doesn't want to be simple. Each soldier has a basic set of weapons and armor as well as military supplies.
The consequence of not wanting to discount soldiers' weapons and armor is that there are still nearly a hundred legion soldiers who have not been issued weapons and armor for more than half a month. They can only participate in training with long sticks and short sticks every day...
Otto continued: "There is also the issue of the horses of the Guards Corps and the Cavalry. The Guards Corps is your personal guard. They are not large in number and the requirements for horses are not too high. I can barely provide them with one man and one horse."
“But the cavalry is different. Although it is mainly light cavalry, the horses used to participate in mounted battles cannot be ordinary riding horses, right? In addition to a combat horse, a cavalry also needs at least one daily riding or riding horse. The packhorses that carry weapons, armor, fodder and supplies must at last have a mule. And not only the cavalry and guards, the baggage team also needs more packhorses, mules and donkeys, and the border garrisons and patrol teams are also applying for military horses."
"Sir, we only had a small reserve of military horses before. Although Lusignan and the others went to the Northland Ranch last time to buy seven or eight military horses, the gap is still huge..."
Listening to Odo's words, Art began to have trouble again. He scratched his scalp that had not been washed for more than ten days, and his eyebrows were wrinkled.
The root of all these difficulties is the lack of money in hand.
According to the consumption of soldiers' pay, food, clothing, etc. determined by Art, the average monthly salary of each soldier is sixty pfennigs, and the remaining consumption including food, clothing, tents, etc. is at least forty pfennigs per month. In other words, each soldier has a fixed consumption of at least one hundred pfennigs per month. There are more than 600 soldiers under Art's command (including border garrisons, patrols, and garrison regiments), and the monthly fixed military expenditure alone exceeds 60,000 pfennigs. This does not include the extremely expensive consumption of weapons and armor.
After leaving three months' military expenses for all the soldiers under his command, Art no longer had half a copper coin left in his hand.
"My father-in-law has already replied to my letter asking for help. He said that after Felix returned to Fort Sarp, he immediately started to form an elite army in Fort Sarp. At the moment, Fort Sarp is also short of money and cannot support us in a short time."
"My lord, is there no other way to replenish the military expenditure? The bow of the legion has been loaded with arrows, and the string cannot be cut off at this time." Odo said.
"Other ways~" Art let out a long breath.
"I have ordered the civil administration to collect this year's shield tax from the citizens, and have collected eighteen thousand pfennigs and equivalent food supplies, but this amount of money is only enough for the legion's food consumption for a month."
Odo shook his head and said softly: "Sir, I am not talking about plucking hair from myself, I am talking about pulling hair from the county~"
"I can't think of plucking hair from the county? A week ago, I ordered the patrol team to go to various parts of the county to collect security taxes again. If we are lucky, we can levy 20,000 to 30,000 pfennigs. If we are unlucky, it may not be as much as we can pluck ourselves."
Yate has long sent patrol teams to the county to collect public security taxes, but rather than collecting taxes, it is better to say that soldiers and bandits are crossing the border for extortion.
In order for the legion to operate normally and improve its strength, Art even ordered the group of bandits he secretly controlled to rob several wealthy villages in the county. However, this kind of thing also depends on the weather, and no one can guarantee the outcome.
"Sir, why don't we take the army and go out to suppress the bandits? As long as we can annihilate a few large-scale bandits, we can survive the current predicament by capturing them." Odo thought of another way to make quick money.
"Suppressing bandits? Are there any bandits worthy of our action in the county? We have killed all the bandits of any size. Now the most powerful in the county is Redoan. You want me to kill Redoan? Besides, the legion has just been established, and most of the soldiers can't even hold a sword. I'm afraid it will be difficult to rely on them to suppress bandits, and I need to train for at least a few more months." Art rejected Odo's suggestion.
"Then what should we do? How about we ask Earl Baldwin for help? His fiefdom is very large and he should have no problem supporting five or six hundred people."
Att picked up a secret letter from the table and threw it to Odo, saying : "This is the news just returned from Hawkeye. Count Baldwin has established two new legions of more than a thousand men in the eastern province of Yona. Together with the original border legion, Yona has supplied nearly three thousand people. The civilians of Yona Province may have shed several layers of skin."
If open source fails, we have to go back to reducing expenditures.
"Sir, how about lowering the salary of the legionnaires from now on, so that the military pay does not have to be paid in full, which can also save some money."
"It is impossible to reduce the salary and delay the payment of military pay. Doing such a thing when the legion has just been established will easily lead to unrest. But you reminded me that we can persuade the legionnaires to voluntarily pay the general's salary. One-third of the total will be invested in the European Commercial Bank, and we will borrow it from the European Commercial Bank. Many military officers and civil affairs officials have already taken shares in the commercial bank, which can be considered an emergency measure."
Odo nodded, "Well, we can hold a military meeting tomorrow morning and let the officers at all levels mobilize the soldiers."
Att moved his buttocks from the armchair, sat upright, and said to Odo with a serious face: "But these are all temporary measures. I have discussed a method with several civil affairs officials in the past few days..." Att spoke out his thoughts.
"Borrow money from the Knights of the Holy Order? How much do you plan to borrow? Why do they lend it to us?" In Otto's understanding, church organizations have always collected donations and taxes from believers, and he never thought that he could take out silver coins from the church's purse.
"There is money in the Holy Order Knight's treasury that cannot be spent for hundreds of years. I have inquired about how the Holy Order Knight's treasury has been specializing in lending money to nobles and merchants in recent years and collecting interest. As long as we have the ability to repay the money and interest, and with someone guaranteeing it, we will definitely be able to borrow huge sums of money from their treasury."
"Then how much do you plan to borrow?"
loyors in the tavern of Emma's family in Emma's tavern, with the entire Valley Barony as collateral for the loan!
Hangda, the captain of the fourth flag of the first company of the legion, was holding a glass of beer and said in a depressed tone to the heavy armored infantry captain Klaus beside him: "Brother, I really envy you. Now you have become the commander of the heavy armored infantry. You follow the adults every day and accept your direct command. And your heavy armored infantry enjoys the most generous treatment. We light infantry really can't compare with you~"
"The first company has more than 200 people, the rest of the flag teams are full, and my fourth flag team is allocated less than 40 people. If there are vacancies for soldiers, they will be allocated to the main flag team in front, so I endured it. However, when the weapons and armor were distributed, I was only allocated 17 sets of weapons and armor, and even the uniforms were only allocated less than 20 sets!!! You tell me..." Bangeda's helpless tone was filled with bitterness.
Klaus filled Bangda's glass with wine and consoled him: "Man, you and I should be satisfied. We have been directly promoted from squad captain to flag captain. This is the greatest favor and reward given to us by the legion. Among the light infantry flag squad officers, you I am the most junior with Pastor, and of course I have to take second place when it comes to allocating soldiers and supplies. This is nothing to complain about. "
"I'm not complaining, I just feel a little uncomfortable when I see my soldiers training in single clothes and holding sticks."
Klaus felt a sense of relief towards Bangda again...
While Bangda and Klaus were drinking in the tavern to relieve their depression, two newly promoted legion soldiers and other soldiers took advantage of the rest day to go to the wooden castle grocery store to buy winter leather goods and daily necessities.
But what is different from others is that the money bags in the arms of these two people are too bulging, and their falcon-like eyes glance at the castle lord's mansion from time to time...