Even though the atmosphere was a little solemn after hearing Gwen's words, Byron still answered the question with a blank expression. "After two rounds of expansion in winter and spring, the number of combatants in the Cecil Combat Army has reached five thousand, and one thousand of them have received artillery training. But even though we have five thousand soldiers, three thousand of them are still complete recruits. They have only received basic training and know how to use heat ray guns, grenades, and landmines. Their actual combat experience is zero. "
Gwen nodded slightly. This result was more or less within his expectations, and he was already quite satisfied with it.
Today, Cecil Domain had expanded again, especially after Kant was officially incorporated into Cecil. The population in the domain had exceeded seventy thousand — thirty thousand of them were in the main city of Cecil, and the rest were distributed in the surrounding villages and the vast Kant area. Considering the development model of the magical-engineering industrial society, he was still gathering more people to the main city and continuing to recruit refugees.
With this population base, the almost eight civilians and one soldier ratio in the early days of development had finally been alleviated. And because of the existence of the construction soldier system and the support of the domain's productivity, the current size of the Cecil Combat Army was more reasonable and balanced for the domain.
And more than half of the soldiers in this army were recruits. This was a fact that could not be changed.
Apart from the experience of actual combat and the accumulation of time, the recruits in the army could not be turned into veterans out of thin air. Although the combat army had always had high-intensity and intensive training, regularly going to the periphery of the domain to eliminate bandits and monsters to increase their 'bloody experience', and the tradition of veterans leading the recruits as seeds, the training efficiency was much higher than the traditional private army of this era. But no matter how high the efficiency was, it was impossible to train the recruits in two months.
But Gwen knew that even if the proportion of recruits was high, the soldiers of the combat army still had a huge advantage compared to the traditional private army of this era. This advantage was enough to offset many of the problems caused by the high proportion of recruits — the uniqueness of the magical-engineering equipment.
In this generation, traditional soldiers still mainly relied on cold weapons for combat. Magic power was often only used by a small number of combat mages in the army to enhance the battlefield and counter the enemy. Meanwhile, soldiers who used cold weapons for combat had an exceptionally long and difficult time to train. Complex combat, attack, and defense techniques required many years of training. The courage required to kill enemies at close range wasn't something that could be honed overnight. But what about magically-engineered soldiers?
They only needed a month's worth of practice to go from being exposed to heat ray guns to being able to hit a person's torso from dozens of meters away. During this period of time, they could also receive discipline and systematic brainwashing, as well as learning about soldier ethics. As for cold weapon combat …
The performance of the melt-cutter sword was enough to make up for many shortcomings.
What's more, for the Cecil Combat Army, close combat with cold weapons was not the main part. The melt-cutter sword was just a secondary weapon.
As the main commander and one of the early founders of the combat army, Byron certainly knew the situation of the soldiers under his command. So after reporting the proportion of recruits, he immediately said, "A magical-engineering infantryman who has received two months of training can kill several traditional soldiers who have received years of training and have even experienced several battles from dozens of meters away. So even our recruits have a strong combat power — on the premise that there is enough space to shoot."
"In comparison, the artillery training is more complicated and slower," Hao Ren said. "Teamwork, quick access to the firing table, memorizing various battlefield commands, and using and maintaining the orbital accelerator are much more difficult than the heat ray guns."
"This is normal. The formation of advanced units has always been this fast." Gwen nodded. "As long as they can master those small cannons as soon as possible."
"You can rest assured in this regard," Byron said confidently. "The miniaturized version of the Persuader accelerator cannon can be controlled by two people. The firing table is simple and the sight is even simpler. So far, the training is in place."
After Byron finished his report, Philip continued, "I'm integrating and reorganizing the old army from Kant. After the Knight of Kant swore allegiance to him, Walter Perry led the Knight Regiment, their squires, and their militia into Cecil's territory. There are about 3,000 of them. They are all old-style aristocratic private soldiers. Their combat effectiveness and discipline are very poor. They can't be compared to our combat troops at all. But fortunately, there are 12 regular Knight Knights in this group. With the cooperation of these Kant knights, the integration and reorganization of the old army went smoothly. "
"Step up the training, especially the ideological transformation," Gwen, who knew the situation of the aristocratic private soldiers in this era, emphasized the ideological transformation of the old army. But fortunately, Kant's territory was relatively open and orderly, and the old army there was not rotten to the point of no return. He was still optimistic about this. "After the training, this army will be the second army, and it will still be under the command of Knight Walter Perry. I've had contact with Walter Perry and I know that he's a reliable and loyal person as long as his ideological transformation is good. "
"The first batch of students and the preliminary training plan of the Steel Rangers are in place, but the training has just started. There's nothing to report yet." Solderlin was the third to speak. "I've privately thought about some equipment design plans based on my combat experience and the characteristics of the 'magic-conducting weapons'. I'm going to discuss it with Mr. Egg in the near future."
After all the reports were over, Gwen nodded with satisfaction. Heti, who had been wanting to speak for a long time, finally could not help but ask, "Ancestor, are we … preparing for war?"
"Yes, preparing, but it's just preparation for now." Gwen looked into Heti's eyes. "To be honest, I don't want to involve the developing territory in war now, but we have to be prepared for changes in the situation."
"Changes in the situation …" Heti thought for a moment and understood what Gwen meant. "You mean, the peace talks between Typhon and Ansu will be messed up? Will it lead to war? "
"I just have a bad feeling." Gwen confirmed Heti's words indirectly. "I'm willing to believe that the leaders of both countries are aware of the common threat from the wasteland and understand that it's irrational for the two countries to go to war at this time. But I doubt that everything will go so smoothly. The Eternal Sleepers, the Perish Society, the war-supporting nobles of both countries, and the rumoured 'lunacy' of Emperor Typhon. There are too many factors that threaten this negotiation. Once something goes wrong during the negotiation, it'll be too late to prepare for war."
"I understand." Heti nodded slowly. "The government office will also start to act. In fact, since the various trade routes were opened, the work of hoarding supplies has not stopped. But now I'll increase the hoarding of supplies according to the standard of preparation for war."
Cecil Hill appeared to be a peaceful and prosperous place, but in fact, due to Gwen's crisis awareness, the land was ready for war from the beginning, regardless of whether the enemy was mutant or human. In the past year, Gawain had opened up trade routes in three directions. Now, all kinds of ores from the Leslie Region in the west, medicinal materials and wheat from the Kant Region in the north, and grains, furs, and textile materials from the Gelan Region in the east were continuously sent to the warehouse every day.
Outsiders only knew that Cecil Hill had earned an amazing amount of wealth in the fields of alchemy, potions, arcanotech, and so on. But they probably would not have imagined that more than half of this wealth was actually spent at an alarming rate, becoming supplies for war in Gwen's warehouse.
"In addition to hoarding supplies, once the war starts, we also have to consider the maintenance of the territory's security, public opinion, logistics, distribution of supplies, and so on," Gwen said, and not just looking at Heti, but also at everyone present. "Cecil Hill has prosperity and order far beyond the outside world. What we have to prove is that even in war, this prosperity and order are far beyond any place."
After completing all the preparations for war, Gwen announced the end of the meeting, but the atmosphere was still a little tense and serious.
Looking at the situation, he laughed. "Of course, we're just here to prepare for a rainy day. Maybe this negotiation will end smoothly, maybe nothing will happen, so don't be too nervous. We still have to live our lives."
Amber heard this and could not help but mutter, "Why do I feel even more nervous when you say this …"
Gwen immediately glared at the guy. "What are you talking about?"
Amber muttered, "Last time you said that it would be good if the mutants did not attack, and now there are more than three thousand monsters attacking before winter is over …"
Gwen slapped the half-elf's head. "You're in charge of being stubborn when Rebecca is not here, huh?!"
"Ouch — Ouch!"
Thanks to the half-elf's dedication and sacrifice, Gwen's slap was no longer so tense and serious.
After slapping Amber, Gwen remembered something and looked at Byron. "Come to think of it, winter is over. Seems like we can start exploring the remaining parts of Defiant Fortress again."
After Kamel joined Cecil's domain, many of the secrets of the ruins in the mountains were unraveled, and its name was changed to 'Defiant Fortress', the official name of the Kingdom of Gondor. At present, a third of Defiant Fortress had been put to use again, and after the modern Mana Net modifications, it was connected to the power source and became the location of munitions factories, sophisticated equipment factories, and war supplies warehouses. But there was still a large part of it hidden in the dark.
While Kamel was one of the senior technicians of Defiant Fortress, the ancient fortress was too large and there were too many secrets buried within. Only the Gondor Royal Family knew all the secrets of the fortress, so Kamel only helped Gwen to draw a map of the bottom floor of Defiant Fortress. As for the southern and eastern parts of the fortress, it was still a mystery.
When winter came, Gwen stopped exploring the unknown areas of Defiant Fortress and ordered his men to seal off the corridors leading to the southern and eastern parts of the fortress. But now that winter was over and the weather was getting warmer, he thought it was time to restart the project.
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