Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 224 Building an Army

  Winters opened his eyes now, and dozens of people were eating and drinking.

  The men and horses of Guoquan, he has compiled them.

  The pain of the pot ring, he also experienced it.

   Before that, he never worried about logistics.

  Logistics is something that only senior officers need to worry about, and Winters is just a centurion. Whatever is sent to him from the top, he will send to the bottom.

If    is not enough, go to the logistics department to ask. If you don't come, there's nothing you can do.

   As long as he doesn't corrupt and swindle his own pockets, the soldiers will be thankful.

   But now it's different, he has become an officer with no superiors, leading an army with no rear - although there are currently only thirty-eight people - he has to rely on himself for everything.

   You are welcome to say that everyone has nothing to wipe their butts, and the first thing they think of is Captain Montagne.

   Intercepting the Grain Requisition team relieved Winters of urgent needs, but it left the nascent team facing a difficult choice.

  Do you want to return the food?

   Winters called the main men of the party together for a fireside meeting.

  The representatives of Pierre, Anglo, Vasica, and several other villages sat in a circle around the campfire, and Winters told everyone about the current situation.

  The branches were beeping and peeling in the fire.

  Angelo said timidly: "Give it back to the villagers. These grains belong to the villagers. They robbed them from the villagers in Wolf Town."

   Winters nodded, encouraging Anglo to continue. He wanted to hear what other people thought.

   He is now cutting wood by the firelight, intending to carve a few pieces.

   "Go back?" Pierre snorted coldly and asked, "What shall we eat?"

  Anglo was stopped, he was gentle by nature and didn’t like to think too complicated things. So he lowered his head and fiddled with the branches at his feet.

   Pierre bit his lip and said cruelly: "Don't pay it back at all! Not even a grain of wheat! Which family really doesn't have anything to eat, if we give them more money, they will thank us."

  The knife in Winters' hand paused, and he nodded: "This is also a way."

   The representatives of the other villages did not dare to interject, but it was evident from their expressions that they agreed with Pierre.

  Although they sympathize with the wolf town farmers, it is more important to fill their stomachs after all.

"The grain collection team is going to grab the food of the villagers, and we will go to grab the grain collection team. What's the difference between us and them?" Anglo raised his head suddenly and said sadly, "Then we will stay on the edge of Wolf Town from now on. , wait for the food collection team to rob all the villagers before they rob them? Are we not becoming carrion-eating crows and hyenas?"

   Now it was Pierre's turn to retort silently. He folded his arms and muttered, "It's not the same."

   "There's no quarrel." Wasika came out to mediate. He neutralized the views of the two and asked tentatively, "How about... return half of it?"

   Hearing this, Winters, who was carving a chess piece, almost cut his hand.

   For a moment he really wanted to pry Vashka's skull off to see how this kid came up with such a "genius" solution.

   But he remembered Lieutenant Colonel Jesska's attitude towards the ensigns - listen more, talk less, and make decisions.

   You can’t hit everyone casually, otherwise no one will dare to speak again.

   Without waiting for Winters to say anything, Pierre directly pushed back: "Half? Why don't you just not pay it back! Half? Everyone will hate us!"

  Washka also shut up.

   "Okay, arrange the night whistle, and the others rest. Anglo stays." Winters brushed off the sawdust from his body and put a horse head chess piece in his pocket: "Left tomorrow, let's go back to Wolf Town."

The   Dussacks stood up cleanly, they were used to obeying orders.

   The representatives of the other villages were a little flustered.

The    team was still living in the robber camp in the forest for the past few days, and they suddenly went to Wolf Town. They were a little uncomfortable.

   "Can't stay here any longer," Winters thought to himself: "Otherwise you'll be a robber."

  The robber camp has no walls, no barracks, no posts, and even few tents.

   Even Winters was just a bed with a blanket by the campfire.

   Living in such a place, people's mentality will even change.

   The others had already walked away, and Anglo pinched the corner of his clothes nervously: "Did I say something wrong just now?"

   "That's right, you're a good boy." Winters said softly to Anglo - in fact, the two were less than four years apart in age: "I just want to tell you this, go back and sleep well."

  Angelo raised his hand to salute, and walked away ignorantly.

   Winters took out two blankets, one for a quilt and one for a bed, and soon fell asleep.

   He had just fallen asleep when Wasika's cheerful voice woke him.

   Winters' head hurts: "What?"

"Centurion, I have an idea!" Wasika came to report immediately, and he beamed: "This time, I will give it back to the villagers in Wolf Town. In the future, we will stay next to other villages and towns and wait for the grain collection team. If we **** all the other villages and towns, we will go to grab the grain collection team, won't it be over?"

   Winters overestimated his endurance after all, and he kicked Vasya over.

   The furious roar woke up all the creatures in the forest: "Get out!"

  …

   A team of about forty people and more than 20 carts.

   Randomly rolled up the things that could be taken away from the camp and threw them on the car, and Winters' troops set off.

  The team pulled a long dragon on the road, making a mess.

  If it weren't for the sixteen veterans to lead, the convoy would fall apart on its own.

   Villages, towns and even gangsters in the forest along the way are sneaking a peek at the team.

   Is it the expropriation team?

   not like.

   In the past few months, I have only seen the expropriation team pulling the grain to Revodan, and this is the first time I have seen the convoy pulling the grain to go back.

   "Raise your head! Lift your chest!" Winters rode back and forth to patrol: "You are soldiers, not bandits! Give me a free walk!"

   In Winters' scolding, the tense cheeks of the "recruits" gradually relaxed.

   They thought to themselves: Right? I'm already a militiaman, why should I be afraid?

   "Washka!" Winters shouted from a distance.

   "Yes!" Wasika hurriedly ran over on her horse.

   "Sing a song for everyone!"

  Washka's face was bitter: "Centurion, I only know the songs of our Dusa people..."

Most of the songs in the    army only have tunes and no lyrics.

   is a folk song, with only a few tunes, but a variety of lyrics.

   Winters glared: "If you want to sing, you can sing! What are you twisting?"

  Washka shuddered.

   He coughed a few times, blushed, and shouted:

   "Brother, you go out of the village!

   Little sister, it's really hard for me to stay!

  Hand holding brother's hand!

  Send brother to the gate…”

   "Stop, stop!" Winters couldn't help laughing and crying, and threw his hand at Vasya: "What's this singing?"

The    militiamen also laughed in good faith.

  Washika covered her head, she was extremely aggrieved: "This is the song of our Dussas! Dussac left home to serve, and the girls went to the village to send them off..."

   "Okay! Then keep singing!"

  Washka continued to roar:

   "Tightly pull my brother's sleeve!

   Tears are streaming down my belly!

   I only hate my sister, I can't go with you!

  I just hope that brother, you go home early..."

  Washka sings badly, three out of four lines are out of tune.

   But as he sang, the eyes of the militiamen became wet.

  The homeless farmer in the newly cultivated land suddenly resonated with Dussack, who had paid the blood tax for hundreds of years.

   "Don't just listen!" Winters stood up and ordered everyone: "All sing along! Learn to sing!"

  …

  …

   "Brother, ride away!

  Little sister, I'm suffering in my heart!

   How long will this walk take!

  I hope you will lose your hair too..."

   Accompanied by the singing like ghosts and wolf howls, Winters' team drove into Wolf Town.

   Immediately afterwards, Winters waved his hand and ordered all the food to be returned to the people of Wolf Town.

   Villagers from all directions gathered in the town square, and even the farmers of Wolf Town who had not been confiscated for food came to watch the excitement.

   There was a smile on everyone's face, the one who received the food, and the one who distributed it.

   It is easy to identify who owns the food, because the food is packed in straw baskets woven by farmers and a few sacks.

  Grass baskets and sacks are all handmade products, so each family has different weaving habits. In order to avoid mistakes on weekdays, many farmers even leave unique marks.

   So the return work went smoothly.

   Winters also served as a temporary judge: both farmers said that a basket of wheat belonged to his family, and Winters sent them home to get the reed baskets woven at home. Comparing the two, the truth is clear.

  Since the town center was burned down, it has been a long time since Wolf Town has seen so many people today.

  Winters sat on the hillside outside the town, looking at the lively scene of Wolf Town, contented.

   "Alas." Pierre was sitting beside Winters, and he was still a little distressed: "I think it's better not to pay it back. Whoever lacks food will give relief. It can also make everyone think of you."

   Winters laughed and asked: "Are you stupid when you are a wolf town? They don't know what's going on? There's no need for this kind of tricky method! Don't worry, I'll get supplies for everyone."

   "Well, I'm not worried about supplies." Pierre said sadly: "I'm worried that they will resent you in the future. You helped them once, what about the second time? What about the third time?"

   "It's okay." Winters lay back on the hillside and patted Pierre on the back: "It's okay."

  …

   After returning all the food to the people of Wolf Town, the second thing Winters led the team to do was to collect the remains of the cemetery.

  The cemetery is located next to the church and is surrounded by shrubs. It was originally a solemn and peaceful place for people to remember the deceased.

   is out of shape now.

The better the    tombstone, the more severely damaged the tomb is.

  The dug tombs are like wounds in the earth, brutally exposed outside.

  The corpses were scattered everywhere, and many of them could not be identified.

   There are also deceased relatives who are still alive, and most of the remains have been collected.

  The bones scattered in the cemetery now belong to the deceased who no longer care about the world.

   Winters led everyone to bury the remains that could be distinguished, and put those that could not be distinguished into a newly excavated mass grave.

  Many people from Wolf Town also volunteered to stay and help.

   With the efforts of everyone, the dug tombs were backfilled one by one. It's like a wound healed, but a shallow scar remains.

   Returning the food and collecting the remains, after these two things were done, Winters assembled his team on the ruins of Wolf Town.

"Here." Winters stepped on the scorched earth under his feet and drew a random circle with his cane: "It's here, we're going to build our barracks. The barracks is home, and it's the rear. From now on, we're no longer rogues. ,bandit."

   People listened quietly.

"I know that everyone stays with me, not because you are willing to be soldiers, but because you have nowhere to go." Winters held on to his cane and smiled: "So I thought about it and needed a ceremony to let everyone understand. , you are no longer farmers. Come on! Bring the stuff!"

  Angel came over with a sack of clanging things, gold coins!

   Winters took the purse, walked up to the people, and handed everyone a ducat.

He said to the soldiers word by word: "This thing is called military pay. When you are a soldier, you are paid and you are paid. From now on, you are soldiers, and we all have obligations to each other. You may not understand why you fight. , but you will gradually understand."

   "Okay." Winters tapped his cane lightly: "Swear it!"

   No clergy, no holy symbols, and no other additional rituals.

One by one the    soldiers approached Winters and swore allegiance to him.

The    oath is a regular rite of passage in the military, and it's a little strange to swear an oath to an individual in a republic, and that's not what Winters wanted, but the army is really held together by charisma at the moment.

   Although it is still small, it is enough to be called an army from this moment.

After the    oath ceremony, the army of less than forty men was reorganized in obedience.

  Winters is like a painter standing in front of a blank sheet of paper, he can finally build an army according to his ideas, without restrictions and restrictions.

There are only 8 people in the 10-person team, which is too small, and it is inconvenient to undertake the functions of night guard and patrol, so Winters is increased to 12 people.

   And 12 people living in one tent was too crowded, so Winters divided it into two tents.

   There are 6 people in one account, and two accounts share a pot, which is for a group.

   A group of soldiers has a ten captain and a deputy ten captain.

  Because of the phalanx tactics, the smallest tactical unit of the current military system of the alliance is the brigade.

  However, the centurions sometimes carried out combat missions alone. Winters was deeply inconvenienced by the small size of the 80-man centurions.

   At the same time, the experience of commanding two Centuries in battle taught him something.

   He plans to expand the centurion to 120 people, the size of the brigade will remain unchanged, and at the same time add a first-level command layer between the centurion and the brigade, which may be called a squadron.

The internal organization of the    brigade was changed to 1:2:4, with two centurions having three officers, and no matter which one was killed, someone would take over.

   But this is only Winters' draft, and he has no way of knowing what problems will be encountered when it is implemented.

   Because he now has only thirty-eight soldiers, three groups and two messengers, not even a centenary.

   And the most important question now is: Where does he go to find food for everyone?

   [This chapter is also thanks to the leader for adding more]

   [Because I never thought that there would be an alliance leader, and I did not make an agreement with the book friends, please allow me to explain to the book friends here:

   The addition of the leader is limited to the current two book friends (a total of 4 chapters have been added, currently 2/4).

   My ability and energy are actually very ordinary, far inferior to those energetic gods.

   Four thousand words a day is almost the limit. When writing is difficult, there are only three thousand words a day. Occasionally, due to things like overtime, I have to dove for a day.

   On the days when the writing efficiency is high, I also write a chapter and send a chapter, just like the previous two days and three shifts.

   Although I have been clamoring to prepare the manuscript, but I have never been able to save the manuscript...

   If there is a leader in the future - although I don't think there will be, I'm sorry I can't add more like this time. Because I really can't guarantee that I'll be able to write an extra chapter on top of the daily update.

   I am very grateful to the two book friends who are in the league, thank you to every book friend who is willing to read this story, thank you all]

   [Brother Rhett's character card has been updated, still at the end of the second volume]

   [Thanks to book lovers for their collection, reading, subscription, recommendation tickets, monthly tickets, rewards and comments, thank you all]

   (end of this chapter)