Orphan Brigade

The Bask stayed close to Gutierrez, and he was also fascinated by Gutierrez's description of this change in the territorial reward and punishment system.

He imagined that he would have the opportunity to make great contributions and be awarded a knighthood or lordship for life, so he could go home and live the life of a small estate owner.

However, he soon stopped thinking about flying and became attracted by the scenery in the open space.

Gutierrez not only answered the soldiers' questions about rewards and punishments, but some soldiers, seeing how imposing Gutierrez was, also asked him for advice on combat techniques, Gutierrez readily agreed to.

Just as Bask sensed, Gutierrez was indeed a formidable warrior with exceptional combat skills. He demonstrated a few moves, leaving no room for doubt about his fighting prowess.

Then Gutierrez got excited and gave everyone a martial arts demonstration, which really opened the eyes of the Bask.

The 4-meter-long spear, originally intended for barricades, was wielded with such force that the extremely hard shaft, made of jujube wood, was shimmering with spear flowers.

The soldiers cheered, which attracted the attention of the other Personal Guard in the barracks.

Seeing the Military Judge's superhuman strength, everyone was full of admiration. They had initially been somewhat resistant to this parachuted Military Judge, but now Gutierrez had won over the soldiers with his performance.

Many of the Personal Guard were envious that Shuk and his squad had such a formidable commander, which made the soldiers of Shuk's squad stand tall with pride.

Bask felt a little jealous watching the Personal Guard cheering for Gutierrez, but he wasn't jealous of Gutierrez; after all, that's how it is in the military.

High strength is awesome. Gutierrez's fighting prowess is Bask that even the entire Third Regiment cannot find anyone stronger than him.

Gutierrez performed for more than ten minutes, demonstrating several weapons, but after putting down the weapons, there wasn't a single drop of sweat on his forehead. Bask could tell at a glance that this wasn't even a warm-up for Gutierrez.

Bask glanced at his pocket watch; it was already past 4 p. m., almost lunchtime. So he stood up and called out.

"Alright, you've enjoyed such a wonderful performance for free, and you've asked all your questions, right?"

Military Judge Gutierrez has just arrived and has a lot to do. Those of you who need to go eat should go eat, and then hurry up and pack your things.

We're breaking camp and setting off the day after tomorrow. Anyone who's not fully prepared by then, you'll see what I do to you!

"And everyone has to oil and maintain their own armor. I'll check tomorrow, and if I find anyone slacking off, they'll be in charge of cleaning the entire team's latrines after we head south!"

"Alas!" all the soldiers cried out in sorrow.

They scrambled away as fast as they could, saying, "**, get me some food, my armor isn't finished being maintained yet."

"Go eat by yourself, I haven't been taking care of myself either!"

"Oh well!"

"When you go to eat, bring one back for me."

"You bastard!"

They were all laughing and joking around, and seemed quite lively.

This also led Gutierrez to discover something he hadn't noticed before: the entire Personal Guard was very young. Even the Squad Leader, including Shuk, were not old, at most 24 or 25 years old, and the average age of the soldiers was estimated to be only 20.

"Military Judge Gutierrez, you've noticed, haven't you!"

These soldiers in our Personal Guard are all young, but they are all seasoned veterans!

"Yes, I just noticed. I'm sorry, Captain Bask, I wasn't prepared before coming here. I didn't see this in the files!"

Bask shook his head. "It's nothing, the current situation was just adjusted by the Regimental Commander."

You know, the army in the entire Two Rivers Territory is actually very young, with the vast majority of the troops being established within the last two years.

These armies were basically composed of soldiers trained from indentured slaves; of course, once they became regular soldiers, their status as indentured slaves was lifted.

Gutierrez nodded. He was a veteran of the Golden Sunflower Territory and had participated in the entire development of the Two Rivers Territory, so he knew a lot about it.

"Many of the serfs purchased by the territory were bought from individual families, but there were also many single male slaves."

These young men are mostly single male slaves, sold to slave traders from a young age. Even if they are not orphans, they do not know where their parents are.

After being selected to join the army, they trained diligently and went through fierce battles, and many of them died in battle.

You know that the distribution of war-killed personnel compensation is handled by the commanding officers of each unit and officials from the Department of Civil Administration, right?

Before Gutierrez could nod, Bask continued, "When Captain Marvin and I were checking the death benefits that should be distributed to our troops, we found that many of the young men who died in battle had no relatives at all. We didn't know who to give the compensation to. They even got their names after they came to the territory. Many of them didn't even have a friend before they died!"

Gutierrez noticed that Bask's eyes were red, and he sighed, already knowing the specific reason for the youthfulness of this Personal Guard.

"After that, Captain Marvin gathered all the young soldiers in similar situations from various units into the Personal Guard and reported the matter to the Viscount."

Since then, there has been an unwritten rule within the territory to avoid conscripting orphans and only children into the army.

Speaking of these young men, although they are all elite veterans, they are probably too active and hot-tempered because of their youth. They are always getting into fights, and I have cleaned up their messes many times.

Because of this incident, the other members of the team gave me a nickname: Bask Granny.

Oh, by the way, our Personal Guard also has a nickname: the Orphan Brigade.