Alexander originally planned to train his legion for a year before employing them on the battlefield.
And this was the order he gave at his first council meeting three days ago.
But, unfortunately, it was in the afternoon of the very same day that Camius had submitted his report on the temple and various gangs in the city, which led to him taking the drastic measures that led to the events of today and yesterday.
Hence, though before he wanted to pretend to get along with the lower peerages scattered around the city till his army was fully ready, now, with the destruction of Amenheraft’s faith in Zanzan, these staunch fanatics were unlikely to be diplomatically coerced, leaving only military conquest as the only viable option.
Listening to Menes restricting his training period to only two months made Alexander subconsciously frown a bit.
He knew Menes likely said this due to the impatience Alexander had subconsciously displayed and he felt that getting the army fully ready might actually take double or even triple that amount.
After all, this was a completely new type of infantry formation for them and two months was definitely too short to develop any sort of tactics using the new battalion (600-men unit) military system.
After all, even the experienced Roman army needed four months to train a legionary.
Though in fairness this was for training raw recruits and not veteran soldiers like the former mercenaries under Alexander.
“Take your time. And don’t be hasty. We can wait a few months if needed.” Alexander advised Menes, wanting his general to iron out the details first before committing the new formation to battle.
“Two months will be enough for the men. They don’t need to be babied.” Menes was confident about his men’s capabilities.
“That’s good then,” Alexander gave a light smile and then bought out a piece of parchment from his breast pocket.
“I wrote the basic training plan for the legion, please have a look,” Alexander passed the piece of animal hide to his general, while also giving several copies to others.
“Thank you, my lord,” Menes quickly accepted and glanced down on the detailed writing there.
The parchment read:
Each recruit must undergo roughly four (4) months of training before being called a soldier or in our case a legionnaire.
The training for these four months will be broken down into the following three categories:
* Weapons training,
* Armor training and
* Marching and drills
1. The weapon training will include:
i. Training with the sword, like how to thrust, parry, and riposte while also learning the basic footwork of swordsmanship.
ii. Training to throw the new kind of javelin called the pilum.
iii. Training how to hold and use a shield, both in individual combat like shield bash and parry and in various formations like the testudo.
iv. Training on how to use the bow, especially the crossbow and instant bow, and by the end to be able to hit a target hundred meters (100m) away with a hundred-pound bow (100lb) at least five times out of ten.
The way this training will be done is to have the to-be soldiers equipped with a wooden shield, a wooden sword, and a blunt pilum that weighted twice as much as a real one and be made to memorize its usage.
They will be made to thrust their swords and throw their pila at a wooden dummy or stake, which will help them perform these moves without conscious thoughts by building up their muscle memory.
And every alternative day, the legionaries must practice shooting at least a hundred pound (100 lb) draw weight bow for two hours at a hundred and fifty meters (150m) target to hone their skills.
Soldiers must do this weapons training every day for at least two hours during the entire four months and though the hours can be much longer if the instructor deems it so, it must never be less.
*The armor training
This will teach a soldier the basics of his armor. This will include:
i. How to properly equip armor- This will include how to properly and securely tie the various leather straps all around the armor, including the cuirass and the arm and leg greaves, and how to quickly wear and dislodge the armor.
ii. How to maintain armor- Each soldier will be responsible for maintaining his gear and this will be a soldier’s most important task, just after fighting. The armor that will be given to the soldiers will be considered state property and hence any undue damage to it will be considered vandalism.
iii. Therefore a soldier must properly oil and polish his armor to make sure no rust grows on it, properly take care of the leather straps and buckles to ensure that the armor can be quickly and securely fastened together and in the case of damage due to training or during battle, must promptly inform his superior with details of how it happened and request for repair or if the damage is too severe, a replacement.
It will be up to the individual squad leader (10-man leader) to ensure that all the men under them have their armor in tip-top. pristine, condition and any lapses found will mean fifty (50) strong strikes with a wooden club for all both the soldier and the squad leader, issued by the sergeant (100-man leader).
This punishment will be carried out under Pasha Alexander’s name and such severe consequences must exist for an army is only as strong as its weakest soldier.
Every soldier must be aware that a badly maintained armor will inevitably produce weak points along the metal piece, which might cause the death of its wearer, causing openings to appear in the tightly knit formation and putting the lives of adjacent soldiers and even the entire army’s existence at risk.
Thus any soldier who does not properly look after his armor will show that he has no concern for his brother-in-arms and should be severely reprimanded.
And vice versa, a soldier who properly takes care of his armor should be seen as a role model who values the lives of the brothers in the army.
This specific training will last only one day, but recruits will be expected to properly wear and maintain their armor for the entire four months duration.
Note: No soldier will be punished if the damage to his armor is due to reasonable circumstances like training and fighting.
*The Marching and Drilling
his part of the training will be responsible for turning an individual soldier into part of an army and will be divided into four (4) drills:
i. Mental Conditioning Drills
ii. Marching Drills
iii. Formation Drills
iv. And Mock Battle drills
i. Mental Conditioning drills- This is the very first step that a recruit must pass on his path to becoming a legionary. Because this is where the newbie’s mindset will be molded from a civilian to a soldier.
In this stage, the citizen part of the recruit must be smashed and ground to dust, and replaced with the spirit of a soldier- that is, a man who follows orders without questions and marches to battle leaving his wives, children, and wealth behind, just for his land and lord.
Thus passing this training step means that he is no longer a man, but a warrior, a fearless being who is no longer beholden to the fear the grim reaper casts.
He must become like a force of nature, capable of withstanding all that the enemy is capable of throwing, from arrows to javelins to cavalry charges and still keep fighting regardless.
And for this transformation to happen, the soldier must be strictly disciplined by his instructors, all individuality must be stripped out until the soldier replaces “I” with “Us”. Because that’s what an army is, a coherent fighting force made of “T”s that combine to form an “Us”.
The time period of this training will be for the entire duration of the training, i.e- four months, during which the instructor will constantly make sure the recruit obeys the rules and discipline of the army while cracking down on any unruly behavior.
ii. Marching Drills- The soldiers of Zanzan must develop the skill to rapidly move from one point to another, in formation and with all the needed equipment.
To be able to achieve this, an individual soldier will be required to be able to march thirty-two (32) kilometers in under eight (8) hours while carrying a 30 to 35 kg equipment load.
Individually he must be physically fit enough to run 5km in less than 18 minutes, do 100 sit-ups in two minutes, and perform 20 pull-ups In 3 minutes. 𝚍ｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐
Such strict requirements are needed because this mobility will be the core strategy of the Zanzan army, to be able to outflank and outmaneuver its opponent and thus- ‘Defeat the enemy by simply outmarching them.’
Alexander’s manual had reached the end of the first page at this point and so pausing a bit, Menes then turned it around to find the same detailed writings on the opposite side.