Steel, Guns, and the Industrial Party in Another World

Chapter 5: Building an Army in Lakeheart Town

Paul Grayman spent nearly a week familiarizing himself with and adapting to the daily work and life of a lord, during which time the original memories of his body gradually recovered completely.

His domain was part of the Ordo Kingdom, located at the westernmost edge of the known world. To the east of the kingdom, numerous human nations spread out, among which the Gabella Empire was the most powerful.

To the north and east of the kingdom lay vast mountain ranges, home to many dwarven clans. North of the Rocky Mountains was an endless grassland inhabited by countless orc tribes, and further north lay the scarcely-trodden endless ice plains.

In the southern part of the known world, there were discontinuous vast rainforests, where the elves, known for their beauty and elegance, resided.

What concerned him was the existence of a massive religious organization in this worldthe Church. It had different official titles in various historical periods, but later people simply referred to it as the Church.

Its faith was almost universal among human nations and even had followers among other races. The priest he met on the night he woke up was a clergyman of this religion.

With his current memory, he did not know much about the history of this religion and whether it had any dark past. However, it was certain that there were not a few fanatical believers among humans, as he had witnessed several with his limited experience.

The Churchs directly controlled land was not vast, only slightly larger than a duchy, but its influence was enormous.

This is such a clich setting, isnt it? Every transmigration world seems to have its shadow. He was too exhausted to complain further.

Additionally, it seemed that magic existed in this world. Although, including the nobility, most people might never see a magic user in their entire lives, and many regarded magic as a myth.

Yet, his butler, Philip, earnestly claimed that as a child, he was saved from bandits by a mage. According to Philip, the mage gestured with his left hand, muttered words, and then a fireball burst from the staff in his right hand, striking the bandits face with the speed of lightning.

Well, since there were fantastical races like dwarves, elves, and orcs, the existence of magic was not impossible. However, he was more inclined to believe that what the butler saw was some sort of magic trick.

On the first weekend after he woke up, the long-awaited military parade finally began.

As per his request, the soldiers were arranged into three squares and passed through the small square under the command of the knights.

Is this my army? The young Counts face turned ashen.

The soldiers in the squares were dressed haphazardly in various attire, the only uniform element being a tunic emblazoned with the Grayman family crest.

Initially, the formation was relatively neat, but it soon fell into disarray as they marched. By the time they reached him, the formation was a complete mess, loosely scattered and hardly resembling a square anymore.

Gentlemen, we need to raise our armys standards! Paul declared, his face grim, after gathering the knights.

Uh The knights exchanged glances until Bryce stepped forward, Lord Count, our region is quite remote and has never been coveted by other lords. Combined with the simple local customs, weve been rather lax in military preparedness. To be honest, we never expected pirates to raid so far inland from the coast.

A bloody lesson indeed! Comrades ah, I mean, gentlemen. The young lord sighed deeply, looking deeply distressed. The last defeat was a bloody lesson!

The knights were shamefaced, still haunted by the death of the old count.

Seizing the moment, Paul announced, Thats why Ive decided to personally oversee the training of the new recruits!

Yes, Lord Count! While the knights were skeptical about the young Counts military expertise, the embarrassing performance of the parade troops left them without the courage to voice any objections.

Another week passed, and the new recruitment drive added a total of 315 new soldiers. Paul decided to reorganize the army based on his knowledge of Earths military structures before his transmigration. He announced his reorganization plan to the knights.

The army was structured into five levels: regiment, battalion, company, platoon, and squad. A typical squad consisted of 10 people under normal conditions, with a squad leader and deputy. Following the principle of threes, a platoon consisted of three squads and had a platoon leader and deputy. A company comprised three platoons and a mess team, led by a company leader and deputy. A battalion was made up of three companies, and a regiment consisted of three battalions, each with their respective leaders and deputies.

Correspondingly, he adapted a military rank system from his previous world. According to the current structure, there were two ranks for soldiers (private, first-class private), three ranks for non-commissioned officers (corporal, sergeant, staff sergeant), three for junior officers (second lieutenant, first lieutenant, captain), and three for field officers (major, lieutenant colonel, colonel), along with defined corresponding duties for each rank.

He also established a chain of command for special circumstances, such as when a commander is incapacitated or killed. The command would first pass according to position, then rank, and finally by length of service.

For instance, in a company, if the company leader was incapacitated, the deputy would take over. If the deputy was also unavailable, the squad leaders would assume command in order of their rank. If their ranks were the same, it would be decided by their length of service, and so on for other units.

This rank system was meant to organize the troops more tightly, avoiding the old armys issue where the unit would disperse if the commander fell. With this system, a new commander would automatically step up in order, ensuring the sustainability of combat effectiveness.

The knights were somewhat dazed by these complex titles. Some suggested simplifying the ranks to just four levels private, non-commissioned officer, junior officer, and field officer without further subdivisions, considering the armys size was just a few hundred. But the young Count rejected this idea, arguing the importance of establishing a comprehensive structure for future expansion.

Paul inwardly criticized them for their shortsightedness, thinking he hadnt even introduced larger military units and higher ranks like division, army, army group, generals, and marshals.

He refrained from proposing larger units and higher ranks because the current army was too small, and he dared not push too far. The largest current formation, a company, would number over a thousand if fully staffed. For a remote counts domain, this was already a significant military force. Proposing larger formations could risk being accused of rebellion, especially considering that a knightly order in the capital might only number over ten thousand.

Moreover, those who had seen battle and served the country merited the title of general. It would be absurd for rural knights, who mostly dealt with bandits and pirates, to hold titles like major general or general.

There was also dissent regarding assigning a mess team to each platoon, deemed unnecessary by some. Paul, however, passionately defended its significance, emphasizing the importance of a unified uniform for a regular army, which no one opposed seeing his conviction.

Finally, Paul proposed to regularize the army and compensate the soldiers families for their loss of labor. The knights had no objections since it was the lords money, but the butler Philip nearly fainted. Recruiting soldiers had already cost a considerable sum, and now the young master was increasing expenses, and long-term at that. Philip thought it prudent to advise him on financial matters soon.

After the meeting, what pained Philip even more was the young masters instruction to tailor two sets of uniforms for each soldier within a month. Despite his strong opposition to such wasteful expenditure, the young master repeatedly emphasized the importance of uniformity in a regular army, leaving Philip no choice but to comply.

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