Compared with the ambitious Sui Xiong, Crick's thinking was much simpler and more down-to-earth.
At present, in addition to the new agriculture, the work he focused on was training soldiers.
The last time they were ordered to join the volunteer army to support the Eagle Kingdom, Baron Keane's territory suffered heavy losses. Less than one-tenth of the more than 100 people came back, and even the knight Divor Outh died on the battlefield. This greatly damaged the strength of Baron Keane's territory, and it could be said that the elites of the territorial army were almost buried.
This was not difficult to calculate. Generally speaking, a baron should have three knights, and each knight should have roughly three cavalries, about ten professional soldiers (sometimes hunters also counted), and about twenty militias. And the baron itself should have six cavalries, about twenty professional soldiers, and about fifty militias. In general, a baron could dispatch fifteen or sixteen cavalries, about fifty professional soldiers, and more than a hundred militias.
Baron Keane's territory was almost a standard baron's territory. Losing more than a hundred people at once was really a serious blow. If Crick had not had some money, and there were a few masters in the territory, and he had the support of the Church of Void Mask, he was afraid that bandits would have broken into the town and looted it.
But it was far from enough to rely on only the masters. Maintaining order, chasing bandits, patrolling, collecting taxes, guarding the checkpoints … all these needed manpower. No matter how powerful the masters were, they could not be divided into several people.
So Crick had to recruit more soldiers to fill the gap of the territory's soldiers.
After careful consideration, he decided to slightly imitate the practice in some historical novels and try to change the way to train the army.
First of all, he gave up the idea of recruiting adventurers as professional soldiers. The strength of adventurers was naturally unquestionable, but whether it was loyalty or discipline, it was very problematic. Professional soldiers themselves did not need too much strength, what they needed was training and discipline.
Then, he also gave up the idea of training the militias. The reason why the militias were called militias, to put it bluntly, were ordinary people who had received a little military training. Such soldiers, even if they had weapons, their combat effectiveness and fighting will were very questionable. When they had the upper hand, they might not be able to catch up with the fleeing enemy. When they were in a confrontation, they might not be able to withstand the situation. When they were in a disadvantageous situation, they would be grateful if they did not flee. Instead of wasting manpower and resources to train the militia, it was better to save these resources and train a few more professional soldiers.
As for cavalry, there was really no other way. Even among the adventurers, there were very few who could ride a horse in battle. Most of the adventurers who 'knew how to ride a horse' could only ride a horse for a journey. They still had to dismount when fighting. A good man who could fight on a horse, or even charge and shoot on horseback, was hard to recruit, let alone train.
In fact, in the entire Baron Keane's territory, there were less than 10 people who had this kind of ability, including Knight Divor Owens, who had already been sacrificed.
Since it had been decided, Crick sent out a recruitment notice to recruit soldiers from the entire territory.
However, the requirements for recruiting soldiers this time were different from the past. They were not required to be strong, fierce, and daring to kill. Instead, they were required to be honest, disciplined, and obedient.
This request surprised everyone. Knight James couldn't help but ask.
"My Lord, it's fine if you don't recruit adventurers as soldiers and don't train the militia, but why are your requirements for recruiting soldiers different from others?!" The loyal Knight Howard James advised, "You are recruiting professional soldiers who are free from work. Of course, you should ask that every one of them be tall and strong, and even more so, dare to fight and kill. What's the use of those honest and obedient people who only listen to orders? "
Crick smiled and said, "Of course I know that soldiers should recruit strong men who can fight and dare to fight, but in our territory, there are already very few people like this. If we recruit them again, if something happens, we really won't even have a militia. On the contrary, keep them among the people, and when we have more manpower in the future, we can train them to be militia captains. Who knows, they might be able to help in the future. "
Knight James was stunned. He felt that this seemed to make sense, but also seemed to be wrong somewhere. However, no matter how he thought about it, he couldn't figure out what the problem was. He could only frown and leave. As he walked, he was still talking to himself, muttering to himself.
Crick smiled slightly. Fooling a person who only had an intelligence of nine was really not a challenging thing.
For Baron Keane, who had just lost more than a hundred strong men, it was not easy to recruit strong men who dared to fight and kill, but it was not difficult to recruit honest and obedient ordinary people. In a short five or six days, the 30 people that Crick had planned to recruit were all recruited.
According to his plan, after these 30 people were trained, 10 would be sent to their own villages, and the remaining 20 would stay in the town. As for the two knights, Charles Owens and Howard James, they both had the ability to protect their own territory, so Lord Crick did not need to worry too much about them.
After recruiting 30 people, naturally, they would have to be trained.
According to the tradition, the training program for professional soldiers was generally divided into three parts: using weapons, wearing armor, and simulated combat.
In terms of weapons, professional soldiers were divided into three categories: sword and shield, spear, and bow and arrow. Those who used swords and shields were the kind of people who were thick but not tall enough. They were the pillars of the army, and were responsible for blocking the enemy's attacks. Those who used bow and arrow were professionals. There were not many of them, and they did not have much lethality, but they could effectively damage the enemy's morale. As for those who did not have any special skills, they could learn to use spears, which was the easiest.
In terms of armor, the sword-and-shield soldiers had to wear heavy armor. Usually, they had to wear inlaid armor or even composite armor made of chains and animal skins. The spear-wielding soldiers had to wear thick leather armor. As for the archers, they had to wear chain armor if they could, or light leather armor if they couldn't.
This did not mean that the archers pursued agility, so they had to wear light armor. It was just that the archers hid in the back, and generally did not wear heavy armor.
Although … in fact, the archers often had the highest combat value, and all good archers were mostly good at hand-to-hand combat, who would let them go to the battlefield to fight hand-to-hand! That was too wasteful!
When even the archers had to draw their swords to fight, it was almost the lord himself who would not be able to protect his own life. At this time, who would have the time to care about others!
But Crick's approach was completely different from others. Among the 30 people he recruited, there was not even a single archer or sword and shield soldier. They were all spear soldiers. And the armor he prepared for the spear soldiers was also different. It was not the ordinary leather armor, but the chain armor.
Although the chain armor was relatively crude, it was still a chain armor no matter how bad the quality was!
A chain armor, even if it was crude, often cost more than 100 gold coins. The chain armor of this batch of 30 people cost almost 3,500 gold coins at once. If it were not for the fact that there were still some inventory in the territory, and that the Eagle Kingdom had returned a lot of relics after the war, just buying these armor would make Crick, who did not have much money at present, feel a little distressed.
But he had to admit that the 30 soldiers wearing chain armor, standing in several rows with spears in their hands, were indeed mighty and majestic. Just looking at the momentum was enough to make people gasp in admiration.
And the training program that Crick gave them was also very strange. Instead of the usual straw dummies and targets, they first started from lining up and walking in unison.
"Are these things useful?" Knight Howard James asked privately.
Crick himself did not have much confidence, but he felt that since he had recruited people and spent money, he should finish the experiment no matter what.
Under his orders, these soldiers, who were farmers or small helpers not long ago, stood in line and walked in unison after eating and drinking every day. Coupled with long-distance running and other physical training, they did not look like a group of soldiers, but more like a group of actors.
Not only that, Crick would go to the barracks every few days to inspect them and give them political lessons. He told them that "you fight as a soldier, not to earn money to support yourself, but to protect your stable life now." He told them that "for soldiers, death is terrible, but failure and escape are even more terrible." He made them recall the bitterness and think about the sweetness, comparing the hard life in the past to the stable life now. In short, he thought of various ways to stimulate their fighting spirit.
But to be honest, the effect was very average.
It was true that the intelligence of these soldiers was generally not high. The highest intelligence was actually only nine, but there were a few who had intelligence of seven. But they were definitely not stupid, and they would not be like the small soldiers who played small roles in some old-fashioned novels. When the protagonist's body shook and exuded a domineering aura, they would all bow down to worship him, and their loyalty would immediately be locked at 100.
They came to be soldiers, after all, to make money, to live a better life.
And for them, there was nothing more terrible than death. In fact, they were not mentally prepared to kill or be killed at all. They had not completed the transformation from ordinary people to soldiers.
Why did the recruitment of professional soldiers emphasize on fighting and killing? That was the key.
Crick was not in a hurry. He still trained them to stand in line, walk in unison, and physical fitness every day. He still patrolled regularly and gave them lectures and heart-to-heart talks.
About a month later, the soldiers finally lined up neatly and walked in unison. Thus, the training entered the next phase, the thrust of the spear.
The spear technique was actually a very large system. In general, there were four parts: smashing, thrusting, sweeping, and head-thrusting. Smashing referred to using the spear from top to bottom. It was especially useful when fighting with the enemy's spearmen. Thrusting referred to poking and stabbing. This was the main method of attack. Sweeping referred to using the spear to sweep left and right. It was very useful when driving away monsters such as goblins and sweeping away mobs. Head-Thrusting referred to fixing the spear on the ground, forming a forest of spears that was difficult to move. This was naturally used to deal with cavalry, although it was almost impossible to use.
A skilled soldier would need to spend more than half a year just to learn the four main moves of the spear. But Crick directly ignored the other three moves and only kept the collective thrusting.
In this way, the training speed was naturally greatly accelerated, but the soldiers' combat effectiveness was also greatly reduced.
Knight Howard James was worried again. He privately advised them to train the other moves no matter what.
"We don't have that time," Crick said. Crick said, "First learn the formation — marching in unison — thrusting. Then they train their stamina. Then they put on their armor and they can fight."
"That won't work …"
"Anyway, for the time being, we only need them to exterminate the goblins and the like." Crick said with a smile. "We don't need other moves for the time being."
The knight with nine points of intelligence was once again convinced, although he still felt very strange.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
