Chapter 94 - Regarding the Army (1/2)

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

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.