First Army/History

## Start

State of military at novel start:

This world’s productivity was much too low. Having enough to eat was already a difficult task, so wearing shabby clothes was just normal. As a prince he had ignored such things. Just leaving his castle he could see many people who only wore clothes that did not cover the whole body, begging for something to eat. In fact, in the capital of the Kingdom of Graycastle there existed a job as a corpse carrier – the only thing they would do was to collect the people who starved to death and then burn their bodies every day.

So what was the general fighting power in this world? Roland closed his eyes and reviewed his plan carefully again, ‘Ah… probably a little stronger than a high-level street fighter’. Generally, when the Lords decided to wage war (or more precisely fight – Roland thought naming their little fights as war would be overstating it), they would summon all the aristocracy placed under their jurisdiction in their territory. A Lord would always split his territory into many smaller territories and select lower ranks of nobility to govern them, like a Duke would select Earls, the Earls would select Viscounts, and they again would select Barons, and so on.

These nobles usually had a group of knights and mercenaries as their personal army. They were the main force in combats, equipped with a complete suit of armor and sophisticated weapons. At the same time, they would recruit civilians and farmers who worked on their territory to help out during combat – in fact, they were used to deliver food supplies to the troops and when needed they would even fill up the holes in the front lines as cannon fodder. The most people who died on the battlefield were the people used as cannon fodder. Fighting between nobles would rarely result in someone’s death; they generally would be caught and later exchanged for ransom.

Roland did not expect help from the several other nobles in Border Town to fight against the demonic beasts. In fact, they had no relationship with Border Town. Most of the local Barons were living in Longsong Stronghold. The stronghold was also under the jurisdiction of the regional aristocracy.

An all-civilian force was in this day and age a very imaginative thing. After all, they were stupid and ignorant, failed to understand strategies, nor could they understand the commanding structure, and they also hadn’t received professional combat training. How could they compare to a knight who was trained in the art of the sword from when he was ten years old?

## Recruiting

From Van'er / Fanna's perspective:

Of course, he had to give up his job as a gravel producer. But the temptation was too big, after all, they would get a monthly salary of 10 silver royals. This was comparable to a skilled mud artisan! He was no longer a young boy. He was only waiting until the spring of next year to marry his future wife Sheryl, a tavern maid. Now he had no problem to save some money.

As for the requirements and the future tasks of the militia shown on the notice, he did not pay any attention to them. Anyway, it was to carry the burden of protecting the civilians on behalf of the lord. They had to patrol along the city wall and keep the beasts from climbing up the wall, and withstand the crazy attacks of the demonic beasts.

He had to go through a very strict screening process. Alone, the sight of some knights was enough to make people feel afraid. Fortunately, he had a sturdy physique and got through the review, but many scrawny guys were carried away by the knights. In the end, only 100 men were recruited.

But he had never expected that the person who would train them would be His Royal Highness the Prince himself!

For their training, they were brought to a grass field west of Border Town. In the background the city wall was being built, and in front of them was an unceasingly and continuously extending forest.

The prince ordered everyone to line up, and then he went to the site to rest. Just a few days ago they had heavy rain, so the ground was still damp and muddy. The water infiltrated his shoes along the seam at the soles, which made his whole body feel uncomfortable. The stance they were ordered to take was not a normal one. Their hands needed to be aligned vertically, attached to the sides of their thighs, while their backs were required to be perfectly straight.

Only a quarter of an hour later they already felt terribly fatigued. This was even harder than breaking stone with a hammer. But he gritted his teeth and tried to hold on. After all, His Royal Highness had said before that those who moved would get no egg for lunch. God, it had been so long since he had eaten an egg. Apparently, all the people around him felt the same way. Although they staggered, most of them still endured.

When the prince declared it was time to rest, he found out that his back was already drenched in sweat and the whole standing time wasn’t even long, at most it was two-quarters of an hour. Those who couldn’t persevere till the final moment were annoyed. It seemed as if they could see the eggs rolling away from them.

He just didn’t understand. Why did they have to practice this strange stance? Only standing was enough to get several bags of food?

If it wasn’t for his Royal Highness training them, he would have already stood up and begun to argue noisily.

Unexpectedly, after a short break, the second command His Highness gave was even more eccentric. He asked all the people to continue standing in a line. This time, as long as all of them persevered till the end, they would all get another egg added for lunch. As long as there was a person who gave up, everyone would lose the opportunity to get an additional egg.

## Historical lessons

During the cold war era, it was impossible to train a group of qualified soldiers in two or three months. And Roland had never thought of that, as he did not need that kind of Spartan warriors who were strong enough to tear a beast apart with bare arms. The individual soldiers did not have to be strong, but they had to be disciplined and execute every order without fail.

The power of a unit was usually much stronger than individual strength. This was decided by social norm and acceptance. So he needed to form them into a unit quickly. The modern military training, with some modifications to suit the current situation, was a good choice. In his personal experience of military training, it took only half a month to integrate students from all over the country into a cohesive unit. The effect was very obvious regardless of the process.

Only when this group of people completely understood the importance of discipline, could Roland implement the next step of his plan.

## Training

The training contents were almost unheard of. For example, they needed to run laps around Border Town in the afternoon from 2 p.m. till sunset. The regulations emphasized that everyone had to complete this, and they were allowed to help each other on the way. If they persevered and no one gave up, they would get an extra egg for dinner. Another example, when the whistles were blown at night, everyone had to get dressed and fall in as soon as possible. With these kinds of training exercises, Carter was afraid that most people would quit in a few days.

The first few rules were already hard to understand, and the last one completely confused him.

"Every day after dinner, they're required to go to Mr. Karl's college for cultural training."

"Your Highness... What do you mean by cultural training? Do you want to teach them to read and write?"

"I hope so, but the time is too limited. Karl could only teach them some simple words and numbers so that they can read and write orders. I'll personally explain this part to Karl. You just need to send them over."

"But, why do you want to do this? It's of no use in fighting against the demonic beasts."

"Who said so?" Roland yawned. "A unit good at fighting must also be well educated. That's the experience learned from history."

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 25 (novel)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 26 (novel)