Part 19 (1/2)
”The Russians, or rather the Ukrainians, will be largely wiped out in the next three or four years I don't think that ill find it possible to give thearians, well, they'll be attacked at the same time that we are, and will have their hands full with their own problems It is more likely that ill be able to aid the”
”This land that you have set aside for training,” Sir Wiktor said, ”A dozen square miles seems like a lot
And what is this need for privacy? Much of the reason for having a strong military force is toyou Why try to hide it?”
”The Mongols are co whether we're ready or not,” I said ”They won't believe what infantry can do until we show them on the battlefield There are two reasons for the seclusion of our training grounds The first is that I don't want our training techniques on public display They are one of our major secret weapons”
”The second reason is , ill be doing two things to our soldiers The obvious one is that ill be building up their bodies and teaching theical We will be tearing their ether in a newer, stronger way It helps to have them in an isolated, alien environment”
”How does one tear apart the mind of another?” Sir Vladi to have to show you, and you won't like it I trust that you gentleard for you as individuals and asrude to you, especially when it's not deserved But in order to teach you how to train others, I' the peasants you'll be training I won't be polite In fact, I' to be as rude as possible I don't knohy this helps to make men absolutely obedient, but it does”
”If there are no further questions, I'll see you all at the gate toood shoes We'll start off with a three ”
It was snowing, but they were standing out there at dawn, and with them was Piotr Kulczynski
”Piotr, what the hell are you doing here?” I said
”My lord? I ahts, I thought-”
”Well, you thought wrong! I need you as an accountant I don't need you as a training instructor! Now get the hell out of here!”
Piotr left, alh on him, my lord?” Sir Vladimir said
”Shut your face, Vladimir! When I want your opinions, I'll tell the Such rudeness wasn't needed with hts, and certainly not with Piotr, but it would be with the peasants and workers we had to train
Sir Vladiht like a hellion I had no doubts about the three Banki brothers, either, and I thought that Piotr would walk through fire if I asked hiavein The Skeptical Inquirer, An Ae cult practices that abound in that country
Aht to personal freedo-saucer worshi+pers, Scientologists, and other crazies to abound
The azine explained quite carefully hoas possible to walk on a bed of glowing coals, and under what circu could convince an arh fire should do it! Perhaps as part of the graduation exercises Yes
So we ran three miles in full arh s would be sore for a week Theon horseback are quite different fro! This was folloith an hour of calisthenics in the snow, and then sonored it and kept the until they could at least stay in step
”Your other left, Vladimir!”
We ate leftovers for lunch and were silent while doing it Soh to say nothing
After lunch, we entles will be to explain and to hash over e did in the ”
”Very well, or said ”I would like to knohy you felt it necessary to speak so rudely to us Had I not been sworn to you, I swear that I would have challenged you to a duel for sos you said”
”Well, I warned you that I was going to do it, but you didn't take h Was it necessary to talk to you in the manner that I did? The answer is no, it wasn't You four have spent er for it Your whole systee lord into battle and fighting there honorably”
”But it will be necessary for you to kno to deal with people whose previous life aih food to feed their families and to maybe lay a little reat majority of people in this world You must impress them with the importance of instant obedience to a direct order, even when the order makes absolutely no sense to the at people seems to accomplish this”
”Tell s when I shouted at you for defending Piotr this er, at first, e and sha yourself”
”Exactly,” I said ”Anger and shaoes more quickly than the shame I think it would be very unlikely for you to speak up like that again in the sary at me, in part because of this discussion and in part because we have known each other for a long ti will not have the benefit of your previous acquaintance with your drill instructor, nor will they have the benefit of these s They will learn to hate you, and that is a necessary part of the training Years after it's over, most of them will' look back and see you with a certain amount of respect, but that is a very hollow sort of reward In fact, being a drill instructor is one of the roughest jobs I know of”
”Itto save your country, because it is”
They were silent for a bit
”This funny kind of walking' thisDoes that have some reason for it?” Sir Wojciech said
”There are two reasons, one practical and one psychological To you a weapon called the pike It's like a lance, but it's six yards long With one, if it's used properly, foot soldiers can destroy cavalry But carrying soets tangled up with everybody else's pike”
”There are two parts to the psychological side Fro of group belonging It gives a feeling of power, a feeling that your unit can't be stopped And if enough of the men really believe that, they truly can't be stopped”
”Fro a thousandthe sa in exactly the saround at exactly the sa ainst an unstoppable machine”
”Once our men and their men both believe that we are unstoppable, the battle iswent on all winter long Besides the pike, I introduced the rapier, a foote to speak of but only a point
At first ore the rapiers in the norot in the way of calisthenics Sir Vladimir was the first one to wear one over his left shoulder He had the tip of the blade stuck into a long dagger sheath at his belt and the rest of the sword covered with a thin leather tube attached to a strap that went over his left shoulder He could get it out in a hurry, although getting it back in was a bother Still, it was a lot led around your feet Wearing the sword high became one of our trademarks That, and our funny haircuts
You see, I believe that every elite anization known to land wore one that looked as though they put on a beret, cocked it a bit, and then shaved off everything that wasn't covered The Cossacks shaved their heads except for a pony tail hanging on the left side The Mongols shaved a big square on the top of their heads, leaving a curl in the middle of their foreheads, in front of their ears, and a thick fringe around the back
I don't understand the psychology of this brand of nonsense, but obviously, we had to have a funny haircut too For a while there, I was toying with going to a Mohawk, but then I decided that the modem military crew cut was as weird as any of them, and took a lot less maintenance to keep up
We also spent a lot of time on unarmed combat, for a warrior must stay a warrior even if he's unaro the rounds of the other factories There were always technical problems where a feords froerial problems that only the boss could resolve
I put Sir Vladiave him a daily schedule of as to be done He followed it as best he could For ram even when I was on the road, but it was hard to do
I especially didn't want to stint the boys at Eagle Nest Those kids were so earnest that I felt a ive them all the help I could It didn't faze them in the least that one of their members had already died in the air They fully expected to take further casualties and, in typically Polish fashi+on, illing to pay the price It wasn't the ignorant feeling of 'it can't happen to me' They knew that it could happen to them! They just felt that the prize orth the price, and they went on This from twelve- and thirteen-year old boys! If only NASA had such heroes!
What could I do but love theot the device that would be built on top of the big conical hill near there