vstars Chapter 157 Land Servant
Chapter 157 Land Servant
Autumn 1447 Windham
King Mitland was in his office, reviewing the documents collected from all over Mitland as usual. Unlike John, who needed to take care of everything, King Mitland had a huge civil service group. After being screened and graded and handed over to the corresponding departments, all the documents that came before the king had a huge impact on the country.
At this time, King Mitlan was reading a document from the western part of the kingdom. This document was written by the commander of the western legion of Mitlan, and the content of the document was about suppressing the indigenous legion.
In the document, the legion commander described himself as a Midlan general who was dedicated to his duty for the kingdom, devoted himself to his work, was brave and fearless, and was able to judge the situation. He led his troops to defeat a larger force with a smaller one, and with only some minor losses, he captured the natives' lair and killed the native leader.
Seeing this, King Mitlan chuckled and took out an envelope with the Mitlan royal emblem printed on it.
No ruler would sit idly by when a rebellion breaks out in the country. After all, internal rebellion is far more likely to shake the king's rule than a defeat. As early as the beginning of the war, the King of Midland used his intelligence agency to keep an eye on the progress of the war, and ordered the entire Midland Central Corps to gather at the junction of the central and western parts of the kingdom to support the Western Corps at any time.
After opening the envelope, the king could not help but frown when he saw the contents of the letter. The reason was that the letter the spy wrote to him was highly inconsistent with the letter written by the legion commander.
From the spy's letter, the king learned about the true situation of the Western Legion in recent years and the stupidity and incompetence of the legion commander. It can be said that in the king's eyes, the entire Western Legion had lost its due role.
However, the king did not have the energy to deal with these good-for-nothings at the moment. The western part of the kingdom had already become increasingly chaotic due to the nobles and various forces. If he intervened again, the originally balanced forces would be thrown into chaos again. The worst result might be that the king would be caught in a two-front battle with Yoda outside and the nobles inside.
Although most of the letters were about the various shortcomings of the standing army and the various stupid behaviors of the commanders, there was also some information that the king was more concerned about, such as the mercenaries recruited by the legion commander to fight.
King Midlan learned about the size, equipment and combat proficiency of these mercenaries just from a few words in the letter.
It has to be said that although these mercenaries running around all over the place annoyed the lords of various places, for the king they were all high-quality sources of soldiers in the country. Not only did they have many years of combat experience, they also had their own armor and weapons, which made them many times stronger than the old farmers recruited directly from the fields.
As the king continued to browse, a mercenary group called Black Watch appeared in front of him. According to the description in the letter, this mercenary group was not only large in scale, but also had infantry, cavalry, and long-range weapons. The king even saw at the end of the letter that it said:
"In the process of clearing out the natives, the mercenary group used dozens of cannons and continuously bombarded the native army, eventually defeating the rebellious natives."
"Black Watch..."
King Midlan thought for a long time and finally found some information about this mercenary group in his memory.
"John's tool for making money?"
Just a few days after John founded Blackwatch, the king received information from the spies. However, John at that time was just the second son of a nobleman without a formal position or title, so the king did not care and only thought that John was using the army to make money for himself.
Many nobles and bureaucrats were doing this kind of thing, but most of them were not as civilized as John. Usually they would just rob the caravan travelers passing by. Among them, the country knights were the most barbaric and rampant, causing the merchants to only dare to take the main road. This gave the king a headache. Compared with these, John did a pretty good job in this regard. He not only built a stable standing army, but also made legal profits through the army.
"Since John can have so many experienced soldiers, can I also get such an army in this way?" Seeing that John's mercenary business was so prosperous, the king couldn't help but fall into thought.
Of course, he didn't want to steal business from John. The wealthy Midland royal family would not cause any unpleasantness with their subjects for a little money. On the contrary, what the king lacked was an armed force like the Black Watch mercenary group under John.
Although Midland has a professional standing army through the efforts of successive kings, it is limited by the king's control over the country and the aristocratic struggles within Midland. The main body of Midland's army is still the conscripted peasant soldiers mobilized by nobles from all over the country under the feudal social model, as well as some of the nobles' own standing armies.
In theory, this model saves the monarch's management costs while allowing the king to have an army without paying any fees in time of war, which seems to kill two birds with one stone.
But theory is not reality. The current situation is that such an army is simply unable to win any war when the enemy and our side are of the same size.
First, due to the delay in information, when the news of war mobilization reached some remote noble territories, almost a week had passed. By the time the nobles prepared the army to arrive at the designated location, the war had already been fought for half a month.
The second issue is the quality of the soldiers. Since most of them are old farmers recruited from farmland, one cannot expect them to fight a war where the outnumbered are defeated or the tide is turned. Sometimes, these conscripts often cause large-scale routs due to morale problems, and sometimes they even become a burden to the army.
Finally, there is the issue of the nobility. Due to the complex power structure within the nobility, it is impossible for all the nobility to respond immediately when the king issues an order. Moreover, the unclear relationship between some nobles and Yoda makes the king feel the danger from within.
The king needed a large, highly professional, active and motivated army in a short period of time. Although this was simply a fantasy for the king before, due to John's success, the king thought about it and felt that it was acceptable to spend money to give it a try.
So, with a goal in mind, the king immediately began to think about the planning and construction of this army.
First of all, this force is defined as a mercenary army that is only loyal to the king. The source of soldiers can be obtained by recruiting mercenaries from all over the country, attracting a large number of mercenaries with double or even multiple times the remuneration of the regular army, and selecting experienced and strong ones from them to form the basis of the army. The mercenaries are active, aggressive, enterprising, well-trained and other characteristics, which can enable the army to burst out with combat effectiveness far exceeding that of conscripts and regular troops in a short period of time.
Unlike John who made money by building a mercenary group, the king did not care how much money the mercenaries could make for him, but rather how many Yoda soldiers the mercenaries could kill for him.
Regarding training, the king plans to let people who are better at it take charge, such as big-name mercenary groups like Blackwatch. After all, these are generals trained by himself, and the king is very confident in their loyalty and ability.
Looking at the plan that filled the entire sheet of paper in front of him, the king realized that he had not yet given this army a name. Since this army was a mercenary recruited in the name of the country, the king thought about it and finally came up with a name:
"Land servant!"
So the king dipped his quill pen into ink and wrote the name of the army on the back of the plan.
"Dad~Dad~"
When the king, who was in a good mood, was about to take a rest, a tender baby voice echoed in the king's ears. Looking in the direction of the voice, he saw his princess and her daughter Charlotte in her arms standing outside the door.
The king stood up in a hurry, took two quick steps forward and helped the princess sit down at the seat where he had just been working, and as he supported her he advised:
"You just gave birth to Charlotte not long ago, so don't walk around. If there is anything, just ask the servants to tell me."
"It's not that I have something to do, it's that the child really wants to see you. As soon as you left, she called you dad. It seems that she is really close to you." The princess looked at Charlotte who was looking around in her arms with a smile on her face.
Hearing what the princess said, the king also looked at Charlotte with a smile. Seeing the king approaching him, Charlotte's chubby little white hands stretched out from the wrappings and gently pulled the long beard around the king's mouth.
"Charlotte, don't do this." The princess quickly put Charlotte down, but the king next to her smiled and said:
"Oh, it's okay. It doesn't hurt at all. Charlotte loves us the most, and she will definitely be a gentle girl in the future."
Looking at the princess and Charlotte in front of him, the king's tense mood gradually eased. For him, perhaps only this moment was a truly happy and relaxing time.