Chapter 93 Army Framework

A few days after the victory celebration, Roland devoted himself to farming again.

Sitting in the office, the ticking sound outside the window kept ringing, as if it was raining. It was the sound of snow melting. When he was in the country for the New Year, he liked to lie down by the window and watch the long icy prisms under the eaves melt into transparent water droplets, dripping down bit by bit. Although I don't have such leisure at the moment, it's good to listen to the sound of the earth recovering while writing the plan.

According to experience in previous years, it takes about a week to melt the snow, but it takes at least a month to pass the land route between the town and the fortress. Roland could imagine what would happen to the dirt road without hardened road surface and drainage measures after the ice and snow melted. If he can successfully take down Longsong Fortress, the first thing he has to do is to build a hardened road between the two places that can be used by horse-drawn carriages.

However, the priority that needs to be solved now is still the issue of army building. Without a reliable and strong army, it is impossible to defeat the fortress army when it is outnumbered. Transforming the militia into a regular army is only the first step, and the specific organization, rules and regulations, rewards and punishments are his headaches.

Although I played military chess when I was young, I have already forgotten all about it. After much deliberation, Roland decided to make it up by himself. Anyway, he is the creator of the new army, and no one can find out if the setting is unreasonable.

As a result, the formation of the First Army in Bianbian Town was quickly released: with the army, division, battalion, team, and group as the overall framework, five people form a group (considering that a cannon requires at least five people to operate), ten groups form a team, and ten groups form a team. The team is a battalion. As for the number of divisions and corps, he decided to think about it later. In view of the overall combat level of this era, as long as there are two or three battalion-level troops, it is enough to defeat most opponents in the field.

After finalizing the most basic framework, Roland let out a long breath.

The following rules and regulations are much simpler. Apart from obedience to military orders, obeying officers at all times, no fleeing, no betrayal, etc., etc., the first discipline Roland set was prohibiting looting and disturbing the people. .

The disadvantages of indulging his subordinates in plundering are too numerous to list, and it will take several years to make up for the bad influence on the local people. This is why he insisted on using civilians as the composition of the army.

When the nobles responded to the lord's call to go out, it was a fantasy not to participate in the plunder after defeating the enemy. In other words, the main reason they were willing to follow the lord was to plunder the opponent's wealth and territory at will—of course, It also includes innocent civilians on the territory.

As for mercenaries and bandits, let alone. They look tough and fierce, but in fact they can only fight against the wind. At the same time, robbery is also a major source of their income. Military discipline is meaningless to this group of people.

Only an army composed of civilians will not regard other civilians as lambs to be slaughtered. Of course, relying on discipline and severe punishment is not enough. As the days go by, the greed in my heart will always magnify with one victory after another. Therefore, the means of incentives must be kept up at the same time, in order to fundamentally eliminate looting and other violations of discipline.

In order to make the rewards inspiring enough, Roland decided to release the ultimate weapon - military meritorious service. As long as you make great achievements in the battle, you can grant the field. Roland had already thought about the source of the land, it was the land to be reclaimed between Border Town and the fortress.

This is definitely a huge prize in the era when 90% of the land belonged to the noble class. Once there is a permanent property, these people will be closely attached to themselves, and anyone who wants to overthrow him will encounter the most fierce resistance from the beneficiaries.

It is not words and whips that drive people, but real interests. In other words, as long as he can always represent the fundamental interests of the people under his rule, no one can shake his ruling position.

Different from traditional fiefdoms, Roland controlled the land grant area to between a few acres and a dozen acres, which could be used to build houses, buy serfs, or hire farmers to take care of the fields, but they could not establish industries. In contrast, a knight's territory is close to two thousand acres, an area equivalent to a small village. The income from the industries operated above can provide the combat needs of knights and squires, such as purchasing weapons, armor and horses.

Such a small area of ​​land reward will neither cause strong resistance from noble interest groups, but also weaken the independence of the land recipients. In Roland's view, it is equivalent to a retirement pension, which can ensure that soldiers have a stable share after retirement. income.

At the same time, in order to strengthen centralization and avoid the situation of "a servant's servant is not my servant", the person who grants the field only has its ownership, but no autonomy. That is, the land still enforces the laws, regulations, and institutions of the lord's jurisdiction. In a sense, they are more like farmers of later generations.

After writing down these preliminary systems one by one, Roland stretched himself. Next, he can finally devote himself to the field he is good at - research and development of weapons.

As musket manufacturing accelerated, it would be a waste of manpower to continue to have pikemen protecting the musketeers, who had to be able to fight independently in close hand-to-hand combat.

The solution is very simple, is to install a bayonet on the gun. Roland didn't expect his troops to take the initiative to launch a white-blade charge against the enemy. He only needed to have the power to fight when the opponent jumped the wall in a hurry and the artillery failed to completely destroy the enemy's courage.

Bayonets are not difficult to manufacture. If you pursue simplicity, it is a sharp cone. If you want to further expand the killing effect, you can dig blood grooves on it. The key is how the bayonet is connected to the gun: the original bayonet was a thin wooden rod wrapped around the handle, and the wooden rod could be inserted directly into the barrel of the gun. The advantage is that it is easy to manufacture, but the disadvantages are also very obvious. You cannot shoot in hand-to-hand combat, and it is easy to fall into the predicament of being unable to pull out after stabbing someone.

What Roland intends to produce is the improved second-generation bayonet—the casing bayonet. There is a corner at the end of the handle, which is connected with a piece of iron sleeve. The inner diameter of the casing is slightly larger than the barrel, with a tongue and groove, and only a length of iron bar needs to be welded on the barrel for the groove to be inserted to fix the blade. The blade is made of triangular iron, with all three sides sharpened. After piercing into the body, it will not affect the extraction, and at the same time, it will leave a wound that is difficult to heal.

After the casing bayonet is installed, it will be slightly higher than the barrel, which will have a certain impact on the ammunition loading, but compared with the folding bayonet, it is simple enough and convenient for mass production. As long as you make a sample, you can hand it over to the blacksmith to make it yourself.

For the bayonet to work in actual combat, the key lies in training soldiers how to use it.

Roland knew nothing about it. Fortunately, he still remembered that the chief knight once boasted that any military weapon could be used in a decent manner, so he might as well ask him to teach the Musketeers how to fight bayonets.

UU Read Books welcomes all book lovers to come and read, the latest, fastest and hottest serial works are all in UU Read Books! Mobile users please read here.