Chapter 309 (1/2)

Crick’s ideas were much simpler and more down-to-earth compared to Sui Xiong who had far-reaching aspirations.

At present, Crick mainly paid attention to the military training as well as the new agriculture.

Last time, Crick was ordered to join in the volunteer army to support the Eagle Kingdom. Baron Keane had suffered great losses in the battle, and less than one-tenth of one hundred people came back alive. Even the knight, D’vor Ouss died in the battle, and that had a severe impact on Baron Keane. It could be said that nearly all the elite armies had died in the battle.

Generally speaking, a baronet should have three knights, and each knight roughly should have three cavalries, about ten professional soldiers (hunters sometimes could be counted), and about 20 militias. The Baron himself should have six cavalries, about 20 professional soldiers and 50 militias. In a word, a baronet could send out 15 or 16 cavalries, about 50 professional soldiers and 100 militias.

Baron Keane was almost a standard baronet, and losing more than one hundred people at a time was a serious defeat for him. If Crick hadn’t gotten some money and won the support of several masters and the church of the Void Mask, their territory would have been attacked and looted by bandits.

But it was far from enough to rely only on the masters. Maintaining order, hunting bandits, patrolling, collecting taxes, guarding checkpoints… all of these needed hands. No matter how strong the masters were, they could not be divided into more hands.

So Crick had to recruit more soldiers to replace those who were dead in the battle.

After careful consideration, he decided to follow the example of some historical time-travel novels—trying another way to train the army.

First, he abandoned the idea of recruiting adventurers as professional soldiers. There was no doubt about the strength of adventurers, but they all lacked loyalty and discipline. Professional soldiers themselves did not need too much strength; what they needed was training and discipline.

Next, he abandoned the idea of training militias. The reason why the militia was called the militia was that they were composed of the common people who had received a little military training. Such soldiers lacked both combat effectiveness and the willingness to fight, even if they had weapons in their hands. If they were in a superior situation, they probably would not be able to catch their enemies. And if they were in an inferior situation, they probably would turn and flee. Therefore, instead of wasting manpower and material resources to train militias, these resources should be saved to train more professional soldiers.

With regard to the cavalry, there was no way out. There were few who could fight on horseback even among the adventurers. Most of the adventurers who could ride a horse could only ride for travel, and they still had to dismount when fighting. Men who could fight on horseback, even assault and shoot on horseback, were very difficult to recruit let alone train.

In fact, there were less than ten people who had the ability to fight on horseback in Keane’s baronets, including the dead knight D’vor Ouss

Since Crick had made a choice, he sent out the recruitment notice to recruit soldiers throughout the territory.

However, the requirements for recruiting soldiers were different from those in the past. They did not recruit soldiers who were strong, fierce and daring to kill, but instead those who were honest and obedient to discipline and orders.

Everyone was surprised by the requirements; even Knight James could not help but ask why.

“Sir, it’s all right that you don’t want to recruit adventurers as soldiers or train the militias. But why are your requirements different from others?” the royal knight Howard James asked. “You are going to recruit full-time professional soldiers this time, so you should require them to be strong and daring in order to fight and kill. What can those who are honest and who obey orders do?”

Crick smiled and said, “I also know that soldiers should be strong men who can fight, but there are few men like that in our territory. If we miss the recruitment and something happens, we may even lose all the militias. On the contrary, if we leave them in our community, and when we have sufficient hands in the future, we can train them to be the leaders of the militias and they may support us when we need them.”

Knight James was stunned by his words. He thought that what Crick was saying was reasonable, but there also seemed to be something amiss. Knight James thought it over again and again but could not figure out where the problem was. He just frowned and left. He muttered to himself as he walked away.

Crick smiled and found that fooling a person whose IQ was only nine was not a challenge.

It was not easy for Baron Keane, who has just lost more than a hundred strong men, to recruit more strong men to fight and kill; but it was easy to recruit ordinary people who were honest and obedient. In just five or six days, Crick had recruited 30 people.

According to his plan, after these 30 people were trained, ten of them would be sent to their own villages, and the rest were to leave town. As for the two knights, Charles Oss, and Howard James, they both had the ability to guard their territory, and Crick did not have to worry about them.

After the 30 people were recruited, they had to accept the training.

According to their traditions, the training programs of the professional soldiers mainly include using weapons, wearing armor and simulating actual combat.

The weapons of the professional soldiers were mainly divided into the following categories: sword and shield, spear, and bow and arrow. People who used a sword and shield were strong but not too tall. They were the pillars of the army. People who used a bow and arrow were professionals but few in number and who lacked lethality. They could also effectively damage the enemy’s morale. As for those who had no special skills, they were better off learning to use spears because they were the simplest.

With regard to their armor, swordsmen and shields-men should wear heavy armor, usually with a mosaic armor inside. Sometimes they would even wear armors composed of chains and animal skins. Lancers should wear thick leather armor, and archers, if conditions permitted, should wear chain armor; if not, they had to wear light leather armor.

This didn’t mean that the archers who wore light armor wanted to be more agility—they were towards the rear of the army and so didn’t have to wear heavy armor.