Chapter 260

The news that Alda had sent troops to Emsen alone spread throughout the Northwest Bay, making the lords look at the earldom that had shined in the Battle of Bidoburg with new eyes. Emsen was the home of Maltz Kent, and this was tantamount to touching the tiger's butt alone.

Other lords in the alliance wrote to Paul anxiously, urging him to act cautiously, and if the battle situation was unfavorable, they might not be able to provide timely support, but Paul replied to let them rest assured.

Paul's confidence came from two points, one was the current combat effectiveness of Alda's army, and the other was the new military service system implemented by the General Staff.

Since last year, the General Staff has sent personnel to various large villages and towns in the territory. These people are either retired officers or active soldiers directly drawn from the army. Their task is to organize and train local militias to make the militias a qualified reserve force.

After the beginning of the new year, these instructors were assigned to a new organization - the military service station. In addition to continuing to organize and train local militias, the military service station also added a new task - regularly counting the military service population in the area under its jurisdiction that meets the enlistment conditions. The examination conditions include age, height, physical fitness, and even the reputation among neighbors, family criminal records, etc. Then the statistical information is summarized to Huxin Town.

When the various armed organizations of Arda - the navy, army, and internal security forces - are short of personnel, such as encountering heavy casualties or forming new troops, the staff will take out the latest list of military service population, select a group in various places according to the proportion, and send enlistment notices to the military service stations in various places. The people at the military service stations will then visit every household with the notices, and finally organize the personnel to report to Huxin Town on the specified date.

A new batch of Arda's children and children were born in this way. After three months of concentrated training, they can go to the battlefield with rifles. If the situation is urgent, they will be trained in a hurry for a few days and then directly sent to the battlefield. Anyway, most of the enemies they face have just put down their hoes for a few days.

According to the calculations of the General Staff, after the implementation of the new militia system and military service system, under ideal conditions without considering other factors, Alda and Bairdin can mobilize a total of 15,000 troops in an emergency.

As an earl, the Graman family does not have many vassals under their name, and has always been regarded as a symbol of weakness, but for Paul, it is a great advantage. Every inch of land in his territory is directly managed by him, and his decrees can reach every town and every village, at least in theory.

Other lords of the same level as him do not have this convenience. Their decrees can only be unimpeded in their own direct territories. When they reach the territory of their vassals, they must first be approved by the vassals before they can be implemented. Of course, this also depends on the relationship between the lord and the vassal. If it is a strong lord with absolute power, most of his decrees can be implemented on the territory of the vassal. As for the effectiveness of the implementation, that is another matter.

Moreover, the obligations of vassals to their lords are not unlimited. For example, if a baron has 20 knights in his territory and can recruit 500 soldiers, then strictly speaking, he only needs to provide 5 knights and more than 100 soldiers to his superior feudal lord to fulfill his obligations as a vassal. The lords will only devote all their strength to defend their own territories.

However, in reality, no one would be stupid enough to only provide the minimum number of troops in the vassal obligations for their lords. In addition to showing their loyalty, providing more troops can also gain greater say in the distribution of spoils after the war.

However, the superior feudal lords cannot abuse the loyalty of their vassals. After recruiting the vassal's troops for more than a certain period of time, they should either let them disband and go home, or be responsible for their expenses, or even pay extra military pay.

Before the deadline stipulated by the obligation, the logistics expenses and weapons and equipment of the vassal army are solved by themselves. This obligation extends down layer by layer. In most places, the lowest-level soldiers need to pay for weapons and protective gear after being recruited by the lord. Of course, if you think you are extremely lucky or don’t care about your life, you can also directly carry a hoe to the battlefield. No matter what the equipment is, you must go anyway.

This has caused the armies of local lords to often have messy clothes and a variety of equipment. In Paul Graman’s view, even the battle of more than 10,000 people in the Battle of Bido Castle is like an enlarged version of the villagers’ fighting.

A few lords with strong financial resources will support a group of full-time or part-time soldiers, wearing uniform clothes and holding uniform weapons, but the number will not be too large. For example, the group of archers who appeared in the Battle of Bido Castle were the soldiers of Duke Ferdinand in the past. They were concentrated to train archery two afternoons a week.

Only national-level forces, such as the royal family of the Gabela Empire, the royal family of Aldo, or semi-independent dukes like Giles who own large territories and numerous vassals, can afford to support a complete army.

In the previous march, the Alda army occupied almost half of Emsen's territory. Under the management of the Kent family for generations, Emsen developed into a large earldom, with a population of nearly 100,000 in half of its territory. If the first and third battalions continued to attack, although the lower-class civilians of this era could not be said to be loyal to their lords, Paul was still afraid that there would be trouble in the newly occupied land, so the southward troops stopped at Byron Castle. One of the purposes of the action was to create a buffer zone between Alda-Baildin and Emsen, and now this goal has been achieved.

Moreover, Byron Castle, the residence of the Kent family, is more solid and has more complete defenses than Bido Castle. Even with artillery, it is not easy to conquer it. Paul still plans to wait for the armies of other allies to gather again and fight against the Kent family together.

Fighting in the front and building in the rear. The rebellion in the south caused the royal family to purchase armor and weapons all over the country. Due to the adoption of new technologies, the iron production in Arda has skyrocketed, and the cost of iron smelting has been greatly reduced. Naturally, they want to share a share of the royal family's strong demand for weapons. However, the royal family needs finished weapons. The number of blacksmiths in Arda is not enough for the production in the territory itself, so how can they be allocated to produce swords, armor and other things that are bound to be eliminated in Paul's eyes. Moreover, whether it is Arda or Bayerdin, there are very few blacksmiths who are good at making traditional weapons.

But there are some in other people's territories! It's time to talk to the allies about cooperation.

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