Building an Army in Lakeheart Town

Building an Army in Lakeheart Town

Paul Greiman spent nearly a week familiarizing himself with and adapting to the daily work and life of a lord. During that time, the memories originally belonging to this body gradually returned in full.

His territory belonged to the Auldo Kingdom, the westernmost country on the continent in the known world. To the east of the kingdom lay numerous human nations, the strongest of which was the Gabella Empire.

To the kingdom's north and east stretched mountain ranges that ran for thousands of miles, inhabited by many dwarven clans. North of the Rocky Mountains lay the vast Great Prairie, scattered with countless orc tribes, and farther north was the desolate Endless Icefield.

In the south of the known world were scattered, vast rainforests inhabited by elves renowned for their beauty and elegance.

What worried him somewhat was the existence of a massive religious organization in this world—the Church. It had held different official names throughout history, but people later simply came to call it the Church.

Its faith spread through nearly all the Human Nations, with followers even among the Foreign Races. The priest on the night he awoke had been a clergyman of this religion.

With his current memories, he still knew little about the religion's past and had no idea whether it had any dark history. But one thing was certain: there was no shortage of fanatical believers among humans. Even with his limited experience, he had already encountered several.

The Holy See directly controlled little land, scarcely more than a duchy, yet its influence could be described as capable of stirring up storms with a single gesture.

Isn't this an overused setting already? Every transmigration world has something like it. He no longer had the strength to complain.

In addition, magic seemed to exist in this world. Although most people, nobles included, went their entire lives without ever seeing a single person who could use magic, many regarded it as pure nonsense.

Yet his butler Philip swore that, when he was young, a mage had saved his life from bandits. According to Philip, the mage made a gesture with his left hand while chanting, then a huge fireball burst from the staff in his right hand and smacked into a bandit's face before anyone could react.

Well, with fantasy races like dwarves, elves, and orcs already around, magic was hardly impossible. Still, Paul preferred to believe that what his butler had seen was some kind of stage trick.

On the first weekend after he awoke, the long-awaited parade inspection finally began.

At his request, the soldiers formed three square formations and marched past the small plaza one after another under the knights' command.

"This... is my army?" The young earl's face turned livid.

The soldiers in the "formations" wore all kinds of mismatched clothing. The only thing they had in common was a cloth cuirass bearing the Greiman Family crest.

At first, their formation was fairly orderly, but after marching only a short distance, their steps fell into disarray. By the time they reached him, the ranks had become a complete mess—loose and scattered, no longer resembling a square formation at all.

"Gentlemen, we need to raise our standards for the quality of our army!" After gathering the knights, Paul spoke with a grim expression.

"Uh..." The knights exchanged looks. In the end, Bryce stepped forward. "My lord, it's like this. Our region is rather remote, with no other lords coveting it, and the local people are simple and honest, so we have been somewhat lax in military preparedness. To be honest, none of us expected pirates to strike so far inland from the coast."

"A bloody lesson, comrades... ah, no, I mean gentlemen." The young lord sighed toward the heavens, looking utterly grief-stricken. "That last defeat was a bloody lesson!"

The knights were deeply ashamed. The Old Earl's death had always cast a shadow over their hearts. Paul pressed his advantage. "Therefore, I have decided that I will personally supervise the training of the new recruits this time!"

"Yes, my lord!" Although they had serious doubts about how much the young earl knew about military affairs, the shameful performance during the parade inspection left the knights without the courage to object.

Another week passed. The new round of recruitment brought in a total of 315 additional recruits. Paul decided to reorganize the army after the military forces of Earth before his transmigration, and so he announced his restructuring plan to the knights.

The army would have five levels of organization: regiment, battalion, company, platoon, and squad. Under normal circumstances, the basic squad would consist of ten men, with a Squad Leader and Deputy Squad Leader. Following the Three-Three System, a platoon would command three squads and have a platoon headquarters, a Platoon Leader, and a Deputy Platoon Leader. A company would command three platoons and one cook squad, with a company headquarters, a Company Commander, and a Deputy Company Commander. A battalion would command three companies, with a battalion headquarters, a Battalion Commander, and a Deputy Battalion Commander. A regiment would command three battalions, with a regimental headquarters, a Captain, and a Vice Captain.

Corresponding to this structure, he also copied the military rank system from his previous life. Under the current organization, there would be two enlisted ranks—Private and First Class Private; three Non-commissioned Officer ranks—Corporal, Sergeant, and Staff Sergeant; three officer ranks—Second Lieutenant, Lieutenant, and Captain; and three field officer ranks—Major, Lieutenant Colonel, and Colonel. He also specified the relationship between each Military Rank and its corresponding post.

He further established the order in which command would be transferred under special circumstances—for example, when a commander was wounded or killed and could no longer lead the unit. Command would first pass according to position, then according to Military Rank, and finally according to length of service.

Taking a company as an example, if the Company Commander became a casualty on the battlefield and could no longer direct the battle, the Deputy Company Commander would assume command. If the Deputy Company Commander also met with an accident, the Platoon Leaders would take over command of the entire company in order of rank. If all the Platoon Leaders held the same rank, they would be ranked according to their length of service. The same principle applied to other units.

Military ranks would make the army's organization more rigorous, preventing the old army's habit of dispersing in a panic the moment its commander fell. Under the rank system, if such an accident occurred, a new commander would automatically emerge according to the established order and continue leading the troops in battle, ensuring the army's sustained combat effectiveness.

The knights grew dizzy from all these complicated titles. Some suggested simply establishing four ranks—Private, Non-commissioned Officer, officer, and field officer—without further subdivisions within each rank. Their reasoning was that the territory's army numbered only a few hundred men. But the young earl rejected the suggestion.

He explained, "Although our army is still small, we must build the framework first. That way, if we encounter a more serious emergency in the future, expansion will be much more convenient."

What a bunch of short-sighted fools, Paul grumbled inwardly. I haven't even brought out divisions, armies, army groups, generals, and marshals yet!

The reason he did not propose larger organizational units or higher ranks now was partly because the army was indeed too small. The other reason was that he did not quite dare to. Under the current highest regimental organization, a fully staffed regiment would already have more than a thousand men. For an earl's territory in such a remote area, that was already a considerable military force.

If he proposed divisions of over ten thousand men or even larger army-level formations, and word reached the wrong people, he might be accused of plotting rebellion. After all, even a knightly order in the royal capital had only a little over ten thousand men.

Moreover, only decorated nobles who had fought long and hard for their country were qualified to be called generals. It would be absurd for a group of provincial knights with fewer than a thousand men under them, who usually just suppressed bandits and fought pirates, to be called major generals or generals.

Some also objected to assigning a cook squad to every company, believing it entirely unnecessary.

"This will guarantee our combat effectiveness!" At the mention of cook squads, the lord suddenly became excited. He stood up and gestured wildly as he explained their great significance, saying many things the knights could not understand. But seeing how seriously the lord took the matter, no one objected.

Finally, Paul proposed making the army a standing force. To compensate for the loss of labor in soldiers' households, he would pay a certain allowance.

The knights had no objections to this point. After all, the money came from the Lord's Manor. Butler Philip, standing to one side, nearly fainted. Recruiting soldiers this time had already cost a great deal of money, and now the young master wanted to add even more long-term expenses. It seemed Philip would have to find a chance to give him a proper warning.

After the meeting, something even more painful for Butler Philip arrived. The young master actually ordered him to arrange two sets of custom-made clothing for every one of those infantrymen, and to finish it all within a month. Although Philip did his utmost to oppose such "wasteful" spending, the young master repeatedly stressed the importance of uniform attire to a regular army. Philip had no choice but to carry it out.