Sword of Dawnbreaker-Chapter 94 - Regarding the Army

Chapter 94: Regarding the Army

For now, this ‘army’ in this world could only be evaluated by Gawain as — outlandish.

At least within the borders of the Anzu Kingdom.

Civilization had severely regressed; production capabilities were low; the aristocrats were divided; the higher-up military professions were only willing to work together with an unconditional regime due to various factors, causing the abnormality in the Anzu Kingdom’s military system. Nominally, the kingdom was a united entity, but in fact, every noble clan was occupying their own independent kingdom. The so-called king was merely the most prominent feudal lord among the rest; furthermore, he might not even be the one with the most authority. This kingdom didn’t have all their military personnel together; there were only soldiers of various noble clans and also the royal knights of St. Soniel City. As well, the various noble clans didn’t have top-down sovereignty. They were similar to ancient Europe on Earth where they had a severe case of my vassals’ vassals aren’t my vassals. Even the purported king’s vassals, the noble southern clans, were merely adhering to the royal clan in the form of alliances. They were merely providing information about the places that the kingdom was responsible for, sent troops during war, and had a few other obligations. However, they wouldn’t listen to other requests from the king.

The soldiers under them were naturally serving them only.

Even the small number of soldiers under a viscount was also serving the viscount only.

Then, what if a major noble clan was going to conduct a war? How was he going to assemble an army?

Simple. If the noble had enough prestige, had a good reason for the war, and was able to guarantee enough benefits after the war, then the various feudal lords under the noble’s authority would have the obligation to lead their private troops to assist in the battle. These private troops would form their own groups and would be led by the feudal lords or the powerful military professionals sent by the feudal lords. It was normally the latter, as the nobles in this era’s Anzu Kingdom had already degraded so much that they didn’t know how to ride into war; hence, they could only use money to hire experts to oversee the clan. During war, the formation would be filled with various flags and formed a ‘mixed army’ that would march in a grand manner. After weighing the strength of the enemy and their benefits, they would choose to either fight with little effort or lay down and pretend to be dead. After the war was finished, the leaders of the groups would look for the chief commander or the king to settle the distribution of the spoils of war.

The result of such a military system was obvious: the kingdom overall didn’t have a professional army, and there wasn’t a unified military system or regulation for training soldiers. Each noble clan would use their own individual methods to assemble their own private army. The weapons were different; the military systems were different; the logistics were different; even the army trained by the noble clan’s feudal lord and his son would be different… if the father and son’s relationship wasn’t good.

Apart from the myriad of soldiers, such a disordered military system resulted in a series of severe consequences: it would be extremely slow for the army’s combat strength to take form; there would be a low training efficiency; there were no standards in selecting soldiers; the number of army deserters would be terrifyingly high. Furthermore, once the expert leading the army perished, the entire group of soldiers would be done for… because they didn’t have discipline or the knowledge on how to proceed. They merely learned how to follow the leading knight and charge.

The Cecil Clan was slightly superior in this aspect as compared to other noble clans. As the ‘southern guardian clan’ that resisted the monsters’ invasion at the borders — even if the Cecil Clan had regressed — they still retained the institution that had been passed down for generations: the fairly rational militia system.

Apart from the official soldiers (who were also the clan’s warriors), the Cecil Clan’s soldiers had another source, and they were the trained militias. The clan’s knights would train these free citizens who were enlisted and instructed using the standard method of training official soldiers. When they were free, they would be training. When they were busy, they would be farming. They would then serve as a supplement for the official soldiers when the numbers weren’t enough. At the same time, by using such a method, the clan could prepare a large number of reserve troops. Because there were a lot of individuals who had received basic military training, during emergencies, the Cecil Clan had a much easier time supplementing the official soldiers as compared to other noble clans.

The criteria of militia enlistment and also for militiamen to be able to become soldiers had been enlarged by Rebecca from free citizens to serfs. This resulted in an advancement of the system.

But Gawain decided to advance it further.

When considering his future plans, he required a professional and specialized army with a stable source of troops. Hence, he was planning to dismiss the separated system between militias and clan warriors. He was going to convert all the soldiers into a unified ‘Combat Corps’. He requested all of the soldiers to follow the new and unified method for training and would issue a salary to them.

Before this, the noble clans’ private soldiers didn’t have any salary. Normally, the private soldiers would have to prepare their own weapons or have to purchase the weapons from the feudal lords. Before they went on a campaign, they had to prepare their own rations too. The soldiers were still willing to fight wars for the noble clans in such situations because they were allowed to ‘plunder personally’. The soldiers could plunder on the battlefield and also after the cities were seized. They would be able to keep half the spoils, and it would serve as their reward as soldiers.

The situation of the Cecil Clan and the others were different. Generations of the Cecil Clan’s feudal lords would use a rental method to supply the soldiers with weapons and equipment. They would also issue rations as compensation for any delay in farm work due to training or war. But apart from all these, the soldiers didn’t have salaries either, and the rations were only enough for them to barely get by.

As it should be, Gawain decided to issue salaries to professional soldiers and also announced that the Cecil Clan’s military personnel would be forbidden from any personal plunder.

If the soldiers wanted to be promoted or have additional rewards, it was simple. Gawain had also promised to implement a detailed reference for outstanding military service and various contributions to conduct promotions. In comparison to how they plundered chaotically and like savages in the past, there would be more wealth that could be obtained in exchange for killing enemies dauntlessly and for carrying out orders well.

This matter wasn’t a problem because the Cecil Clan had always been battling monsters; they had only fought the foreign barbarian tribes in the earlier days. Their soldiers didn’t have any habit of plunder at all, and they had been maintaining their loyalty to the Cecil Clan all the time because of those supplementary rations and the various benevolent policies for those families that participated in the military. This time, Gawain was merely turning the ‘prohibition on personal plunder’ into an actual law. No one had any objection, and they even welcomed the idea. After all, Gawain had promised that even when serfs participated in the military, they could also rely on outstanding military service to get promotions. In the past, only the clan’s warriors had such a privilege.

But the next matter might make some have differing opinions. In order to maintain and extend the original militia system, Gawain set the law that all adult males on the territory had the obligations to receive basic military training during the idle farming periods. It had changed from an enlistment into a compulsory one, and it applied to all male citizens.

This didn’t mean that everyone would have to fight in the war. It was to guarantee that all the citizens had basic military skills, and it would allow them to be converted into professional soldiers more easily.

If this matter was proposed at some other time, it would probably cause a lot of resentment. But right now, the assault of the monsters had just happened less than a day ago. Gawain Cecil’s prestige was now unprecedentedly high. After personally protecting the camp and giving them inspiration, this new regulation was announced without any trouble.

Moreover, everyone was lighthearted. Since they were already ‘working’ during their forced labor under the feudal lord, they would also be ‘working’ when they participated in the military training. If thought like that, there weren’t a whole of changes actually. It was fine as long as they could eat until they were full.

Furthermore, if they had the chance to be selected as official soldiers, after putting on armor and wielding a sword, they would be considered ‘half a respectable person’. This was a rare opportunity for most of the people that had been living in poverty. The prerequisite for this opportunity was to use their idle farming period to train. It was totally worth it.

The changes to the military system weren’t going to be completed in just a single day. The details involved were far beyond what a few words could explain. After considering the audience’s ability to accept and the various complexities, Gawain didn’t explain all of his thoughts on the platform. He merely spoke roughly about the formation of the ‘Combat Corps’ and the basic military training before he left the tall platform. As for the details… he would need to discuss them with Heidi and the two knights.

Everything he had announced today was just a foundation. To be frank, with the current state of the territory, everything he had said was perhaps a little ahead of time… In order to develop this land, they would have, at most, over eight hundred individuals. Among these people, there were a hundred that had been pulled out for military training as soldiers. These one hundred individuals could be considered the Cecil Clan’s entire ‘army’. The scale and the concept in Gawain’s imagination of the future were simply poles apart.

But these one hundred individuals should not be underestimated. The ratio of militia had already reached a deranged extent… The population had been converted into professional soldiers at an 8:1 ratio. Just looking at the ratio, it was the same as writing the word militaristic on the face. In Gawain’s imagination, when this world was at peace, the militia ratio of the kingdom would be within the range of 40:1 to 70:1, or even lower. Even during war, the ratio wouldn’t exceed one tenth… unless it was a great battle for survival or back when the northern barbarian tribes attacked with their entire population in arms.

But on Gawain’s territory, one-eighth of the population were soldiers!

If these were all full-time soldiers, then it meant that nearly all of the camp’s supplies would have to be supplied to the combat personnel at a ratio of 8:1 for the entire camp. It meant that development would stagnate and that the stability of the society would decline. As such, not all of the soldiers of this territory were full-time soldiers. Apart from their normal training and guard duties, soldiers would participate in the construction and development work of the camp. It was to ensure there was sufficient labor.

This had made them close to a construction army. Gawain was glad that none of the soldiers had any complaints about this.

One of the reasons was because almost half of the soldiers were militiamen, and they weren’t full-time soldiers in the first place. The rest of the soldiers were veterans who were extremely loyal. Furthermore, the Cecil Clan had always been strict in military management and had ensured that the warriors of the clan didn’t become lazy soldiers who were all take and no give, resulting in the current advantageous situation.

Even if this was the case, the soldier ratio of 8:1 wasn’t a long term plan. Gawain’s next plan was to think of a method to attract more people here, and it was the camp’s greatest shortcoming.

If the population couldn’t keep up, everything else would be a fantasy. If Gawain wanted to produce a professional and specialized modern army from just an eight-hundred population with one hundred soldiers, even he wouldn’t believe in such a fantastic dream even if he had opened the coffin’s cover back then and got smashed on the head.

But he had to set down the framework in advance even if it was just a framework… Because once there was a huge import of population, it would be too late to change a lot of things. By then, if they didn’t have a firm and mature framework to support, all the hard work that Gawain did would be diluted by the newcomers, which might consist of crooks among honest folk.

After dismissing the gathering, Gawain immediately called for the two knights and the rest of the supervisors. Furthermore, he had also called for the farmer Norris, who had been adapting to the position of ‘Agricultural Manager’ over the past 10 days, and also the blacksmith Hummel, who had already started to be in charge of the steelworks’ matters.