A few days after the victory celebration, Roland once again immersed himself in farming.
Sitting in the office, he could hear the incessant dripping sound outside the window, as if it was raining. It was the sound of melting snow. When he was in the countryside during the New Year, he liked to lie by the window and watch the long ice prism under the eaves turn into transparent water droplets, dripping little by little. Although he didn't have such leisure time at the moment, he could still write a plan while listening to the sound of the earth's recovery.
According to previous years' experience, it would take about a week for the snow to melt, but it would take at least a month for the road between Border Town and Longsong Stronghold. Roland could imagine what would happen to the muddy road after the ice and snow melted without any hardened pavement or drainage measures. If he could successfully capture Longsong Stronghold, the first thing he had to do was to build a hardened road between the two places for carriages to pass.
However, the first thing he needed to solve was the problem of army construction. Without a reliable and powerful army, it would be impossible to defeat the stronghold army when they were outnumbered. Transforming the militia into a regular army was only the first step. The specific establishment, regulations and discipline, as well as rewards and punishments, were a headache for him.
Although he had played military chess when he was a child, he had completely forgotten about it. After much thought, Roland simply decided to make up his own plans. Anyway, he was the creator of the new army, no one would find out if the settings were unreasonable.
So the first army of Border Town was quickly organized: army, division, battalion, team, and group as the overall framework, five people for a group (taking into account that a cannon needed at least five people to operate), ten groups for a team, and ten teams for a battalion. As for the number of divisions and armies, he decided to think about it later. In view of the overall combat level of this era, as long as there were two or three battalions, it would be enough to defeat the vast majority of opponents in the field.
After the most basic framework was set, Roland breathed a long sigh of relief.
The following regulations and discipline were much simpler. In addition to obeying military orders at all times, obeying officers, not deserting, not betraying, and so on, these old rules and so on, the first discipline that Roland set was to prohibit looting and harassment.
The disadvantages of indulging in looting were numerous, and the bad impact on the local people would take several years to make up for. This was also the reason why he insisted on using civilians to form the army.
When the nobles responded to the liege's summons, it was impossible for them not to participate in the plundering after defeating the enemy. In other words, the main reason why they were willing to follow the liege into battle was that they could plunder the enemy's wealth and territory. Of course, that included the innocent civilians in the territory.
As for the mercenaries and bandits, it was needless to say. They looked fierce and fierce, but in reality, they could only fight with the wind. At the same time, robbing was a big source of income for them, so military discipline was meaningless to them.
Only an army made up of commoners would not treat other commoners as lambs waiting to be slaughtered. Of course, it was not enough to rely on discipline and torture alone. As time passed, the greed in the bottom of his heart would continue to grow with each victory. Therefore, rewards must be given at the same time in order to put an end to plundering and other violations.
In order to make the reward sufficiently motivating, Roland decided to give out his ultimate weapon — Granting Fields for Military Contributions. As long as they made great contributions in battle, they would be granted a piece of land. Roland had already thought about the source of the land. It was the land between Border Town and Longsong Stronghold.
In an era where 90% of the land belonged to the aristocracy, this was definitely a generous prize. Once they obtained permanent property, these people would closely adhere to him, and anyone who wanted to overthrow him would encounter the fiercest resistance from those who benefited from it.
The people didn't need to be driven by words or whips, but by real benefits. In other words, as long as he could always represent the fundamental interests of the people under his rule, no one could shake his ruling position.
Different from the traditional fiefdom, Roland controlled the area of the granted land to be between a few acres and a dozen acres. It could be used to build their own houses, buy serfs, or hire farmers to take care of the fields, but it was impossible to establish an industry. In contrast, a Knight's territory was close to two thousand acres, an area equivalent to a small village. The income from the businesses above could provide for the Knight and his attendants' combat needs, such as the purchase of weapons, armor, and horses.
Such a small area of land as a reward would not arouse strong opposition from the aristocratic interest groups, but would also weaken the independence of the recipient. In Roland's view, it was like a retirement pension, which could ensure that soldiers would have a stable income after retirement.
At the same time, in order to strengthen the centralization of power and avoid the situation of "the servant's servant is never my servant", the person who granted the land only had the ownership, but no autonomy. In other words, the land still followed the laws, regulations, and systems of the Lord's jurisdiction. In a sense, they were more like the farmers of the later generations.
Roland stretched himself as he wrote down the rules of the preliminary system one by one. Next, he could finally devote himself to the field he was good at – the development of weapons.
As the speed of the production of guns increased, continuing to assign pikemen to protect the musketeers would be a waste of manpower, and the latter must have the ability to fight independently in close combat.
The solution was very simple, and that was to add a bayonet to the gun. Roland didn't expect his troops to take the initiative to launch a melee attack on the enemy, he only needed to have the strength to fight when the enemy was desperate and the cannons couldn't completely destroy the enemy's courage.
Bayonets weren't difficult to make. If you wanted to pursue simplicity, it was a sharp cone, and if you wanted to further increase its lethality, you could cut a blood groove on it. The key was the connection between the bayonet and the gun: The original bayonet had a thin wooden shaft wrapped around the hilt, and the wooden shaft could be inserted directly into the gun barrel. The advantage was that it was easy to make, but the disadvantage was also very obvious. In close combat, you couldn't shoot, and after stabbing someone, it was easy to fall into a predicament where you couldn't pull it out.
Roland planned to produce the improved second generation of bayonets – the casing bayonet. The end of the handle had a corner, and it was connected to an iron casing. The inner diameter of the casing was slightly larger than the barrel, and it had a groove. The barrel only needed to be welded with a piece of iron bar for the groove to be inserted, and the blade could be fixed. The blade was a triangular iron, and all three sides were sharp. After stabbing into the body, it wouldn't affect pulling it out, but at the same time, it would leave a wound that was difficult to heal.
The casing bayonet, after being installed, would be slightly higher than the barrel, which would affect the loading of ammunition. But compared to the folding bayonet, it was simple enough and convenient to mass produce. As long as they made a sample, they could hand it over to the blacksmith shop to make it.
To make the bayonet useful in actual combat, the key was to train the soldiers how to use it.
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