Among the entire team of advisors, Duncan was the one with the most experience in territory governance. This old butler's master, Earl Winston, had died under the butcher's knife of the Orcs last year. Although he was dug out by Roddy, he never said a word. Obviously, he did not dare to express his opinion without knowing Roddy's temperament.
But Roddy would not let him continue to play dumb. "Duncan, I know you have a certain amount of experience in large-scale battles. Come, tell me what I'm doing now is reasonable, and what's the difference between your experience and mine."
Duncan did not dare to refuse Roddy's direct question. He bowed in fear and trepidation, thought for a few seconds, and said in a low voice, "Prime Minister, what I've experienced is really not worth mentioning …"
"You don't have to be polite. I'm the most efficient here. Say what you want to say."
Duncan choked, but he had a good impression of Roddy's words. Most nobles liked to listen to empty words, but that was because they themselves were not good at fighting. Not to mention that their brains were not sharp, just the complicated data alone was not something that many people could listen to. Now that he had gotten permission, he felt that he could not keep hiding it, so he opened his mouth. "Prime Minister, I've always been curious … Are you really not going to summon the lords of the territory to fight?"
The battle in the Kingdom of Karen had always been a gathering order issued by the great lord, and the lesser lords would swarm over with their knights and squires. Everyone would gather together and announce the battle plan. Usually, they would arrive at a certain place on a certain day of a certain month. There was no arrangement in the process, and everyone acted according to their ability. The great lord was usually responsible for a part of the supply and logistics, and the rest had to be gathered along the way, or raised by other lords.
It was already April, and as the Prime Minister, Roddy still hadn't issued any 'enlistment orders'. The only army that had been mobilized was Sodelor. Apart from Roddy's personal guards in Elsen City, the entire combat force added up to about fifteen thousand people … and this number included the 'logistics system'. In other words, the first army that would be sent to the battlefield might only have around five thousand people.
"Calling a bunch of people with uneven military literacy to fight a war, and before they even started, they already dragged themselves down. I can tell you clearly that from now on, this kind of thing will never happen again."
Roddy knew that this advisor was good at calculating numbers, but pure calculation ability was not very meaningful. He needed the entire team to keep up with the changes of the times. If they only used past experience and applied it mechanically, it would be a waste of effort.
"You must understand that the battle we are about to fight is different from any other battle that we have fought before. So from now on, you must not follow the framework of previous wars to calculate data, understand? "
His words made the advisors in the conference room stop what they were doing. Some of them were thoughtful, and some still couldn't understand. Duncan was obviously the one who thought more. He replied, "The steps you've taken seem to be more efficient now. The roads and trucks have increased the speed of logistics by more than ten times, but … I always feel that the funds you've spent on logistics are too high."
Historically, the transportation of food in war had been saved as much as possible. In other words, the knights were responsible for their own food, and if they wanted the lords to pay, who would give them fish and meat? Black bread and water were the most common treatment. During famine or special circumstances, there were even cases where the knights had to catch mice to eat … After all, the productivity of this era was too low.
Now, Roddy's construction of roads, manufacturing of trucks, and 'paving' the roads alone cost enough gold coins to fight a thousand-man battle. In contrast, the amount of money used to train a professional army was not even half of the cost.
"It's not just logistics, that … 'plane' project also cost a lot of money. Prime Minister, if it's just for reconnaissance, I think it's not appropriate to spend so much money on this research."
Duncan's words were actually the doubts in the minds of many advisors. They did not understand the meaning of Roddy spending so much money on Kardashian's research of planes. Was it really just to please the Dragons?
Although they had created aircraft that could carry people into the sky, this thing brought them limited surprises … After all, this was an era where mages could fly in the sky. "Flying" was not an unattainable dream for humans. In Duncan's eyes, a few planes could not change the course of the war. Apart from reconnaissance, what else could they do?
"This is one of the main points I want to talk to you about today." Roddy stood up and pointed to the map beside him. "Whether it's a war with tens of thousands of people or a local war with only a few dozen people, the side that has the initiative has a greater chance of winning. You all understand this, right?"
Everyone nodded. Anyone who knew a little about military affairs knew that "number" was not the biggest factor in determining victory or defeat. "Initiative" was.
"'Plane' is the most important tool to help us gain the initiative. You will gradually understand this in the future." Roddy then swiped his finger across the map, from Elson to the Holy Sanctum, and then pointed to the Royal City in the south. "You may think that the war should be done step by step, gradually encroaching and annexing. But from now on, I hope that you will understand this new concept of war. "
"The most important thing in this new way of war is logistics. It can be said that I think the war is fought with logistics, not the number of people each side mobilized. "
Roddy reached out and pulled out a document from the pile of documents next to him. It was labeled "March Weapons Production Report". One of the pages was folded. He directly opened it and handed it to Duncan. "How much do you think this weapon will affect the war?"
Duncan frowned as he stared at the output list of "Type III Crystal Energy Cannons". He was unable to make an evaluation for the time being. For people who lived in the cold weapon era, if they didn't personally witness it, it would be very difficult to understand the effects of this "hot weapon" equipment in actual combat …
"Prime Minister, this kind of weapon should be equivalent to letting the troops bring a few mages with them to battle at any time, right?"
Roddy nodded. "You can understand it that way."
"Then … if it is used on a large scale, compared to the cost of training mages, we can indeed save a lot of money, and at the same time greatly improve the combat ability of the army …"
Duncan's perspective was always related to money. There was nothing he could do about it. Who asked him to deal with gold coins all his life?
"But you said that the war is fought with logistics. Do you mean that we need to put more energy on … roads, planes, and these armaments?" Duncan found it hard to understand, but he was not a stubborn person. Since he was sitting here, he had to try his best to understand his superior's intentions. He thought for a moment and replied, "Then now we may face a very big problem. If we maintain the current investment ratio, after the war, we will have to spend a lot more gold coins than any previous war of the same scale."
After that, he began to list a series of numbers. Because it had been more than half a month since he joined the advisor group, he had already understood everything that needed to be understood. He was now quite familiar with the budget of trucks and planes, so his judgment of the expenditure after the war began was extremely accurate.
Compared to Camilla, who had never experienced war, Duncan was obviously more experienced in the details. Because many things on paper were one thing, but when it was put into practice, it often became a different situation. Take the simplest example: on the surface, it was said that all the soldiers in the army were treated with bread and meat soup every day. But when an army of tens of thousands of people moved, where could they find meat soup and bread in many places? What if the words she brought changed in the middle? If they used a refrigeration array, how much would it cost? How many crystals would it cost? How much would it cost in the middle? If they were to find substitutes, who would supervise in the middle? How to implement it? How much extra expenditure would there be?
It was difficult for Camilla to imagine things that she had not experienced before. Duncan was very familiar with it and supplemented the various details on the calculation of military expenditure. But the result was that the preliminary budget for the whole war was higher than before. According to the expectation that everything went smoothly, this war would cost at least more than eight million gold coins!
This number was very shocking. Because in the past wars with the same number of people, it might take two years to spend so much gold coins. Moreover, with the current gold reserves of the Kingdom of Karen, there was not so much gold coins at all. They could only use items of equal value to replace it.
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