A prelude to battle
And so, Old Buck and his men returned to the prisoner-of-war camp in new gear and with the canned food. The other guards were drooling with envy when they saw Old Buck's new outfit.
They were especially envious when they learned that Old Buck had become Auxiliary Troops in the Two Rivers Territory. Old Buck then gave a speech to the guards, using himself as an example, encouraging them that as long as they worked as hard as he did, they could also get these things and treatment. These words naturally stirred the hearts of the guards.
The prisoners, especially the soldiers in the Blacklin territory's standing army, noticed that the guards' gazes towards them had changed, becoming unusually intense. If they slacked off even slightly while working, they would be beaten with sticks by the guards.
Soon, the captured soldiers also learned the fate of the unfortunate prisoners of war from that morning, and why the guards looked at them with that kind of gaze. The guards were hoping that the prisoners would cause trouble because of their mistreatment, so that they could suppress them and gain merit and better treatment.
The captured soldiers were now even less arrogant and worked very hard, but they were all cursing the guards and the entire Southern Marching Legion in their hearts, wishing that they would lose the war quickly so that they could regain their freedom.
However, the battle on the main battlefield has not yet begun. So far, the two armies have not clashed, but their cavalry are currently engaged in combat.
Victor kept James's Cavalry forces stationary, only sending out a Light Cavalry Battalion as scouts. This was partly to conserve the Cavalry's strength for the upcoming battles, and partly because if he used his Cavalry, the Great Oak Territory's Cavalry would certainly be deployed by the Allied Army forces, making such attrition between the two friendly forces pointless.
The distance between the camps of the Southern Marching Legion and the Coalition of Nobles was quite far, and both armies marched slowly, prioritizing conserving their energy. In addition, to maintain their formation, they had to regroup every so often during their march.
The Legion Commander of the First Legion Beck, was also surprised to find that the Southern Marching Legion Corps not only formed ranks quickly, but also marched a long distance to reorganize their formation. The First Legion had to adjust its formation every hundred steps, but the Southern Marching Legion only needed to adjust its formation after marching at least three hundred steps.
As for the private armies of nobles, Beck didn't want to say anything; most of them had no formation whatsoever when marching.
Only the army of Great Oak Territory was decent; although not as outstanding as the First Legion, they would at least take several dozen steps before adjusting their formation.
Beck simply deployed a portion of the disorganized noble private army to the right flank of Great Oak Territory, transforming the entire Allied Army force into a horizontal formation composed of four square formations. This perfectly complemented the Southern Marching Legion's horizontal formation, although the War Department appeared more solid compared to the Southern Marching Legion's slender formation.
After adjusting their formation, the entire Allied Army extended outwards from the First Legion and the private army of Great Oak Territory as the central axis, forming a semi-circle. This was a design by Beck to compress the operational space of the Southern Marching Legion Cavalry.
However, although this adjustment was ingenious, it also affected the marching speed of the War Department.
Starting at 7 a. m., the two sides marched for more than two hours before closing the distance between them to 2 kilometers. Fortunately, the soldiers on both sides were in good physical condition, which served as a warm-up for all the troops.
Victor has been beating the war drum all this time. The temperature is still low, and Victor is sweating a lot. Steam keeps rising from his body, as if he is emitting white smoke.
All the soldiers of the Southern Marching Legion saw that Victor had been continuously beating the drum until now, never stopping except to drink water. They all looked at Victor with awe, which greatly boosted their morale.
Just as Victor was about to stop for a drink of water, James came to him and told Victor directly about the Allied Army's formation adjustment.
Victor ordered his guards to give him the map, Victor after looking at it, he understood why the Allied Army had adjusted their formation.
"They're trying to surround us. What do these formations on both sides look like?"
Victor sketched a simple drawing on the map with charcoal and pointed it out to James.
"Like a pair of pliers."
Victor nodded. "This Beck on the other side is no mediocre man. He knows that our Cavalry might not be reliable, so he's trying his best to limit our Cavalry's performance."
James laughed. "What's the use? With the help of Great Oak Territory, we've already won."
"But we can't be careless. Moreover, the enemy has a lot of troops on both flanks. If we were to engage in a normal battle, we would be facing off against the enemy on the front, while our flanks and rear would be squeezed by the enemy. This would definitely shake our formation. Besides, the Cavalry would not have any room to maneuver."
Upon hearing Victor's words, James also realized the purpose of the enemy's formation.
"So what do we need to do?"
"Then let's respond in a straightforward manner. The enemy doesn't want our Cavalry to play a role, so let's do as they want. Your Cavalry can leave the front line and attack the enemy on the flanks directly."
"Okay, I understand."
James examined the map carefully, then pointed directly to the left flank of the First Legion. "I'll attack the enemy on this side. The right flank can be left to Great Oak Territory!"
"Okay, let's do it that way."
After the two reached an agreement, James immediately left to arrange for the Cavalry to turn around. Victor intended to continue drumming, but found that his position had already been taken by the guards, who refused to let Victor continue drumming. Helpless, Victor had no choice but to sit under the banner.
Soon the Southern Marching Legion's horizontal formation changed, with the outermost Cavalry units turning around, forming an arc, and circling around to the rear.
To fill the gaps, the other four smaller square formations reduced their thickness and increased the number of soldiers in each row, turning the square formations into horizontal formations.
The entire process was smooth and efficient, taking place during the march, with only the speed being slowed down at most.
Beck observed the Southern Marching Legion's change of formation from the opposite side and was extremely surprised. He really couldn't understand why the enemy could change formation so quickly.
Meanwhile, in the leftmost horizontal line of the Southern Marching Legion, Regimental Commander Marvin breathed a sigh of relief after the new formation stabilized. Holding up the counting stick in his hand, he said to his detachment Detachment Commander, "The Viscount is truly a genius. He actually came up with such a tool to help with formation changes. This is really useful for our army in the Two Rivers Territory, which prefers to fight in large square formations."
Marvin's counting stick is about 1.5 meters long and about 2 centimeters in diameter. It is made of hard wood with a smooth surface and the ends may be slightly sharpened for easy insertion into the ground or for indicating direction.
The sticks were marked with different values, which officers could use to quickly calculate the number of soldiers needed for each row and column and adjust the formation accordingly.
This tool was uniformly issued to Detachment Commander and above by Victor. Although many officers had studied mathematics in training courses, multiplication of two-digit numbers was still difficult for many. Victor simply created this tool based on the counting rods used by officers of the Spanish phalanx in his previous life.
The result was very popular with officers as soon as it was introduced, especially with officers like Marvin who later joined the army of the Two Rivers Territory. Marvin came from the Iron Birch Territory, and most of his officer training was done through actual combat and by relying on his battlefield intuition.
After joining the Two Rivers Territory, there was a lot to learn. Military and cultural courses were manageable, but mathematics was too difficult for him. In particular, Victor preferred infantry to fight in well-organized square formations and to be able to adjust the formations quickly and accurately, which required a high level of mathematical ability from the officers.
For Marvin, just setting up a regiment into a square formation, calculating the number of soldiers in each column and row, took him a long time. Having a useful tool to assist him was a great help, and with this opportunity, he finally made his regiment the fastest unit in the territory to change formations.
Marvin looked at his troops with great satisfaction. He then signaled to the flag bearer to give the order. The flag was waved, and the drummers began a new drumbeat. The first three Pikemen in the square raised their spears at an angle, and the archers took the crossbows hanging on their backs.
A great battle is about to begin.