Wadbury, known as the "Earl of Hundred Wars" in Lombardy, was a bandit leader in eastern Lombardy. During his great-great-grandfather's time, he participated in the founding battle of the Lombard Principality and became a high knight. Speaking of which, Art's great-grandfather also fought under Wadbury's great-great-grandfather.
The Burley family made their fortune through war, but also through conspiracy. The first generation of Burley did not change his banditry after becoming a knight. He often led the soldiers in his territory to collude with bandits to rob merchants and travelers.
His reputation is not very good, but his wealth is increasing. The Burley family gradually became a powerful noble in northern Lombardy, and by the generation of Wadbury's great-grandfather, they directly became the earls of the Principality of Lombardy.
In the Principality, an earl is not a high-ranking noble, but it is extremely rare for someone to reach this height in just three or four generations.
At the time of Wadbury's father and grandfather, the Burley family was in some decline and the family property was almost exhausted. Fortunately, Wadbury inherited the bandit talent in his ancestor's blood. With his unremitting efforts, the Burley family relied on conspiracy and force to regain a lot of territory and wealth, including the territory of the Wells family.
Wardbury was notorious but also famous. He was indeed good at fighting, especially in the war with the Principality of Provence six years ago. The 500 Lombard troops he led fought all the way to the vicinity of the capital of the Principality of Provence, killing hundreds of Provencal troops, and of course, countless innocent civilians.
The war that is about to begin is not only a war to protect the wealth of the territory, but also a war to kill the enemies who are hostile to him, so Wadbury attaches great importance to it.
Of Wadbury's 1,300 Northern Expeditionary Army, 300 private soldiers were elite, half of them were cavalry, and the rest were elite armored infantry and elite archers. The 500 northern garrison can also be regarded as the standing army of the Principality of Lombardy. Many of them were veterans who had participated in the Provence National War, and their combat effectiveness was quite strong. However, because Wadbury used the public to supplement his private interests, he transferred the weapons, equipment, food and salary of the principality army under his command to his own private soldiers. Therefore, these 500 principality soldiers who did not have enough to eat, received insufficient wages, and lacked soldiers and armor were naturally unable to compare with the 300 private soldiers.
As for the five hundred territorial conscripts, they were oppressed by their lords all day long and were only used as hard labor in the army to carry bags and pull carts. When necessary, they had to be used as cannon fodder to fill ditches and pits when attacking cities and fortresses.
The Northern Expeditionary Army was stationed near a town at the northern entrance to Lombardy.
Wadbury has ordered several small teams to start fighting in the mountains...
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The southern end of Wales, in the Lakelands.
The peaceful and busy days of the past were invaded by a sudden war atmosphere.
Since receiving the enemy warning from Nanguan Army Fort, it took only two days for the lake land to enter a state of combat readiness.
The first one to react was the garrison camp. After hearing the clarion call to assemble for war, the thirty soldiers who had come down from Nanguan Army Fort to rest and rest all stopped. They heard the sound and moved from there. Standing up from the fishing platform on the shore of the lake, leaving the wooden table in the settlement tavern, returning from the hunting mountain forest near the lake, and of course, there are also those who hurriedly threw down two copper coins from a low wooden house and ran to the military camp with their pants picked up.
It only took less than an hour from the time the horn was blown in the military camp until the thirty or so garrison soldiers were assembled. This was because those who went hunting in the mountains in groups were delayed.
The soldiers were assembled, all armored and armed, and they rushed towards Nanguan Army Fort under the leadership of a squadron leader who was on rotation.
When the soldiers left the garrison and rushed to the battlefield to defend the enemy, Obot, the commander of the garrison camp and the head of the reserve regiment of the Wells Garrison Corps, immediately convened a military meeting.
In less than a day, the reserve regiment assembled all 120 standing farmers and soldiers, took over the military camp and began to distribute weapons and equipment, enter emergency training and prepare for war.
The reserve regiment is of a peasant-soldier nature. Except for a few officers above the flag captain of the reserve regiment who have military establishments and positions and are permanently stationed in the camp, the rest of the peasant-soldiers are usually farmers.
Even the standing peasant soldiers are not in the army at all times. The so-called "standing" refers to the registered peasant soldiers. The standing peasant soldiers are truly half peasants and half soldiers. Except for the busy farming season, they spend half of each month serving in the reserve army. When they serve in the army, in addition to daily military training In addition to training, they also have to take turns to be responsible for foreign military affairs such as patrolling, public security, and building camps. When war comes, the best among the standing peasant soldiers will become the grassroots officers at the squadron and squad leader levels of the peasant army, and those ordinary standing peasant soldiers will also become the main combat force of each peasant army.
Of course, standing peasant soldiers also have fixed military salary income and promotion paths.
The registered peasant soldiers are different. They are essentially professional farmers. They only receive no more than 20 days of military training each year during the off-season. They generally have no military tasks other than training during non-wartime conditions. During the training period, the registered peasant soldiers' food and accommodation are provided by the army, but they do not receive any salary. This is considered a conditional fulfillment of military service obligations. In a state of war, if the standing peasant soldiers are no longer able to cope with the war situation, the Welsh garrison will issue a mobilization and recruitment order according to the war situation. At this time, the registered peasant soldiers will be officially incorporated into the garrison and become "third-line" soldiers.
After these "third-line" soldiers, there are the real civilians.
The Lake Land is located in a border area, and wars may break out at any time. This was explained by the Government Affairs Office before the lake land residents settled in. If there are timid people, they can go to other places in the valley.
But the land in the Lake Land is too fertile. It is surrounded by mountains and lakes, and is full of fertile fields. For those who long for land, the temptation is too great. So even though they know the risks they may face, many people still choose here.
Now that the seeds have just been sown in the land and there is hope in life, we encounter the Lombards heading north.
However, thanks to the prestige of the Nanguan Military Fort garrison and the sense of security brought by the garrison reserve group, the residents of the Lakeland have not panicked until now. While responding to the call for the army, they also obeyed the management of government officials and went out to work collectively in teams of ten.
Lake Land, a spacious barracks in the garrison camp, this is the military meeting hall.
All officers of the reserve regiment above the flag captain level gather here. They are the command system of the entire reserve regiment.
In addition to the officers, Christopher, the chief administrative officer of Lakeland, and two administrative stewards also attended.
Obot, the reserve group leader, is from the patrol team. In the past, he mostly dealt with bandits and outlaws in the territory. Although he also went north to participate in the second phase of the Succession War, he lacked actual combat experience. Now that the Principality of Lombardy is heading north again, and is about to face the army of a powerful enemy country, Obote is inevitably uneasy, but he also has a hint of impassionedness about making a great contribution.
He picked up the water glass on the table and took a big sip to calm down. "According to wartime regulations, we have taken the lead in gathering one hundred and twenty standing peasant soldiers. Except for the ten soldiers who were recently recruited from the Mountain Confederacy and have combat experience, the rest have just learned to use weapons."
"I have just received the military order. Nanguan Army Fort has assigned two tasks to our reserve group. One is to organize soldiers to immediately block all southern roads except Nanguan Army Fort to prevent enemy troops from sneaking in and maintain public order in the lake area; the other is to assemble farmers and soldiers and be ready to rush to Nanguan Army Fort to participate directly at any time. Join the fight. "
"I have sent urgent military information to the central commander of the garrison. It is estimated that I will get authorization to assemble peasant soldiers early tomorrow morning. The most important thing now is to immediately complete the absolute blockade of the border area. The Lakeland is the southern gateway to Wells Province, and we cannot make any mistakes."
loggene through in ineus in the matter of thief to the table, and the seven or eight officers on both sides of the long table immediately stood up and stood in awe; the three political officers also stood up slowly, imitating the same example.
Benson, the deputy commander of the reserve regiment, personally led half of the standing peasants and soldiers to immediately set off southward, responsible for blocking the possible roads on the southern border, and making sure not to allow the Lombards to step into the province of Wales."
Benson, the original Wells Army Reserve Corps The deputy captain of the patrol team under his jurisdiction. After Obote was transferred south to serve as the newly formed reserve regiment, he had many differences with the new patrol captain Redoan (Matthew's father, a bandit). Therefore, when Obote asked for orders to recruit people from the patrol team to join the reserve regiment, Benson immediately applied to Bass, the commander of the reserve regiment.
Considering that Benson was originally the deputy company level, he became one of the deputy commanders after being transferred to the reserve regiment.
“Yes! The Lombard dogs will not be allowed to cross the border.” Benson clenched his fists on his chest and stood up to receive the order.
"Master, I request to accompany Benson to the battle." The person who spoke was called Roger, and the other deputy commander was this guy. He was the squadron commander who had just transferred from the Welsh Legion.
Roger, a mercenary, joined the army four years ago. He was formerly the squadron leader of the First Flag Squadron of the Third Company of the First Division of the Wells Legion. The scars left on his body from years of battle made him rank above Benson in the command order of the reserve regiment, and he became the "secondary commander" of the reserve regiment.
He thought that Obote was planning to keep him in charge of assembling and training the registered peasant soldiers. He was originally unwilling to be transferred from the combat soldier corps to the second-line garrison corps. If he hadn't been promoted to two levels in a row, he would probably refuse the transfer.
"Roger, don't worry, I won't leave you, a warrior who has fought many battles, in the rear."
After arranging the military combat tasks, Obote motioned for everyone to sit down and said in a slow voice: "The Lombard invasion of the north is quite strong this time. I estimate that your Excellency will send troops south in the near future. In addition to gathering and training registered peasant soldiers as ordered, the rest of us must also prepare for rear support for the upcoming war."
He looked at the political officers sitting beside him and said, "Sir Christopher, stewards, I need your full support in gathering peasants and soldiers and preparing for war."