Spring had arrived, but there was still a chill in the air.
After half a month stationed in Tinietz, the Patrol Team recruits welcomed their training competition.
On the open ground of the military camp square, a row of Soldiers stood neatly, dressed in black cloaks and capes, holding round wooden shields in their left hands and short spears in their right; Odo and his two companions stood behind the three Soldiers they had trained, while Ron stood beside the Soldier he had trained.
The square was surrounded by a circle of Tinietz city guards and idle citizens who had come to watch.
“What an imposing presence,” the onlookers exclaimed.
Among the crowd, a military officer-like figure with crossed arms said sourly, “They train like beasts every day, so it would be strange if they couldn’t stand properly.” However, although this officer disliked these guys who trained like beasts all day, he had to admit that as soon as they stood there, they immediately exuded an aura, which was different from his own city guards who stood crookedly.
Art ignored the distant onlookers; he stared at the Soldiers in front of him and said loudly, “You have trained for half a month, and today I want to see your results.
The competition will be divided into three parts: the first is the Spear-Shield Line Formation, the second is the Three-Man Battle Formation, and the third is Individual Combat Skills.
The first two parts will be contested between the three Combat Squads, and the third part will be individual combat between Soldiers.
The winning squad for the first two parts will be rewarded with half a barrel of beer, and the winner of the third part will be rewarded with five fenny copper coins.”
“Now, let’s begin the first part, the Spear-Shield Line Formation.”
“Listen to my command—Form up!”
Roar!
Everyone roared, raising their shields to their chests, holding their short spears level, looking straight ahead, bending their left leg, pushing back half a step with their right leg, and leaning slightly forward.
Art scanned from left to right; everyone’s movements were basically uniform.
Odo’s first squad was the most standardized, while the young Soldier trained by Ron was a bit flustered, his hands and feet trembling slightly.
“Defend against arrows!” Art then shouted the second command.
“Roar! Roar!”
The three Combat Squads each contracted, with the person in the middle of the horizontal formation remaining still as the center, and the two people on the left and right contracting to his front and back, one crouching with a shield to protect his legs, and the other raising a shield diagonally backward to protect his head; Ron’s formation lacked the round shield for leg protection.
Art went forward and inspected the defensive formations of the four Combat Squads in turn.
Although they all performed the basic movements, some had too large gaps between the three round shields, and some had three people not in a straight line, causing their bodies to be exposed outside the protection of the round shields.
“Form up!”
“Roar!” The three people who had contracted together separated again, returning to the formation of standing in a line with shields raised and spears held.
“Advance!”
“Roar! Roar! Roar!” Everyone maintained the posture of raising shields and holding spears, roared three times, and took three steps forward.
Ron, on the far right, glanced out of the corner of his eye at Jason, who had fallen behind a bit because his steps were too small, and he had already cursed and beaten him ten thousand times in his heart.
“Attack!”
“Roar, roar, roar!” Everyone maintained their posture, thrusting their level short spears forward three times.
“Break formation!”
“Roar!” Everyone stood up and drew back their legs, placing their round shields back on their left side, and holding their short spears upright in front of their chests.
Art walked over to Odo and the others who were watching from behind and said, “The first part of the competition is over.
The new recruits’ first squad and second squad had relatively neat movements, but the first squad’s formation was tighter, so the new recruits’ first squad wins the first part of the competition.”
Art ordered all Soldiers to return to their original positions.
“Next, we will proceed with the second part, the Three-Man Battle Formation.”
“The first squad will face the third squad, and the second squad will face the escort squad.
The two winning squads will then face each other.
The competition is lost when the main attacker is hit.
I will join the escort squad.” Art took a round wooden shield and a long staff from Odo’s hand and stood to Ron’s right as an auxiliary attacker.
Odo’s first squad and Kazak’s third squad began their Three-Man Battle Formation confrontation, with the Soldiers’ short spears replaced by long staffs with white chalk on one end.
The big man, Tuba, was the main attacker of the first squad.
He held his shield forward, his long wooden staff pointed directly at the opposing formation, his eyes fixed on the main attacker opposite him.
Tuba’s two auxiliary attackers held shields to protect his left and right.
Upon hearing Officer Odo’s command to attack, Tuba led the charge towards the opposing formation, and in a flash, the two formations collided and became deadlocked.
Seeing his own formation starting to be pushed back, Tuba pushed forward with all his might, causing the opponent to retreat half a step, revealing a gap.
Tuba seized the opportunity and thrust his wooden staff through the gap…
On the other side, the escort squad, which Art had joined, was also confronting the second squad.
During this time, Art had been busy socializing and networking with influential figures in Tinietz, such as the city captain, the armory steward, the granary steward, and the agricultural official, trying every means to obtain farm tools, seeds, and weapons supplies for Wood Fort and the Patrol Team.
He also had to supervise and guide the training of Odo and his three companions, so he could only spare time to participate in Ron’s escort squad training.
The result was a lack of coordination in the escort squad’s three-man formation.
Although the Soldiers of the opposing formation were mindful of Art’s face, they were also newly trained recruits, not battle formation experts, so even if they wanted to deliberately lose to the escort squad, they couldn’t control the extent.
Therefore, the escort squad, lacking coordination, suffered successive defeats, and in less than a moment, Jason was struck by the opponent’s main attacker and left the field.
The remaining two-man Three-Man Battle Formation of Art and Ron became stronger instead.
Although Art, for the sake of fairness in the competition, mostly focused on active defense, Ron, full of pent-up anger, raised his wooden shield and, utilizing the advantage of being fewer and more flexible, avoided the opponent’s main attacker, directly circling to the side of the right auxiliary attacker, repeatedly and fiercely striking the right auxiliary attacker’s lower body.
The opponent’s formation was thus disturbed, and Ron then raised his spear to strike the opponent’s main attacker’s wooden shield.
Ron, fully focused and attacking fiercely, did not notice a long staff already thrusting from his left side.
In the first round of the battle, the third squad had just confronted for a moment when the main attacker of the first squad found a gap and struck the main attacker down.
The escort squad, after losing its left auxiliary attacker, attacked the opponent very bravely, but Ron, neglecting his left flank defense, was struck by an auxiliary attacker from the second squad and was defeated.
In the second round of the battle, the first squad faced the second squad.
The two squads were evenly matched and fought fiercely on the field for a long time.
But as their stamina rapidly depleted, the second squad’s formation began to loosen, and the two auxiliary attackers clearly could not keep up with the main attacker’s pace, exposing their flanks.
Tuba and his two companions in the first squad always gritted their teeth and stayed together.
The main attacker noticed the opponent’s formation loosening, so he led his two auxiliary attackers and charged fiercely, breaking the second squad’s formation.
Art saw the fellow from the second squad who had fallen to the ground being helped up by a Soldier from the first squad, then turned and announced, “The second part of the Three-Man Battle Formation competition, the first squad wins.”
In the subsequent third part, Individual Combat Skills, the big man Tuba from the first squad, who had the greatest hope of winning, failed to achieve the final victory.
First place in Individual Combat Skills was taken by Simon Kuntz, the lean man from the third squad.
Art was not surprised by this result; Simon Kuntz was originally a professional bounty hunter from southern Provence.
He was hunted down for killing a lord’s second son.
He had been wandering throughout northern Provence, making a living by working as a guard for merchant caravans and as a guild enforcer in cities.
On the evening of the day the competition ended, Odo bought half a lamb, hired a cook from Tinietz, and at a corner of the encampment, lit a bonfire and set up an iron pot to stew a whole pot of lamb and lamb soup.
Art also fulfilled his promise, bringing back a wooden barrel of thirty pounds of light beer from the beer shop as a reward for the first squad, and personally handed five fenny copper coins to Simon in front of everyone.
At Odo’s instruction, the first squad shared the large barrel of beer with their Patrol Team brothers, so every Soldier of the Patrol Team could hold a piece of lamb with bone and meat in one hand and a full bowl of beer in the other, enjoying the rare leisure and indulgence after hard training.
The dinner lasted until midnight.
Seeing that everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, Art gathered all the officers and Soldiers of the Patrol Team around the bonfire to sit down in a circle.
He stood by the bonfire and said loudly, “Everyone, it is God’s will that we gather together.
You have become my Soldiers, Art’s Soldiers, and you will also become my brothers, Art’s brothers.
After half a month of arduous training, you have mastered the most basic skills of a professional Soldier.
Our time stationed in Tinietz has come to an end.
Tomorrow, we will set off for the southern border regions to suppress bandits and maintain order.”
“Now I officially confirm our current Soldier assignments and appoint officers, and determine salaries.”
“Before recruiting more Soldiers for expansion, the Patrol Team is divided into three levels: Combat Squad, Squad, and Team.
A Combat Squad consists of three Soldiers, with the main attacker of the Three-Man Battle Formation serving as the Combat Squad Leader.
Two Combat Squads form a Squad, with the Squad Leader concurrently serving as the Combat Squad Leader of the first Combat Squad.
Two Squads form a Team, with me concurrently serving as the Team Leader.”
The Patrol Team structure announced by Art was similar to that discussed during the previous military meeting, and everyone’s training over the past half month had primarily been conducted by Combat Squad, so there was no surprise.
“The new recruits’ first squad will be renamed the second Combat Squad, with Tuba as Combat Squad Leader.
The new recruits’ second squad will be renamed the fourth Combat Squad, with Simon as Combat Squad Leader.
The first Combat Squad and the third Combat Squad will be selected and formed by Bass and Kazak respectively from the remaining Soldiers.
Jason will be assigned to Bass’s Combat Squad.”
Art paused for a moment to allow everyone to carefully clarify the Soldier assignments and structure.
“The first and second Combat Squads will form the first Squad, with Bass serving as Squad Leader and concurrently as the Combat Squad Leader of the first Combat Squad.”
“The third and fourth Combat Squads will form the second Squad, with Kazak serving as Squad Leader and concurrently as the Combat Squad Leader of the third Combat Squad.”
“Ron will be my personal escort and cavalry scout, receiving a Squad Leader’s salary.”
Everyone was silent for a moment~
Bass and Kazak secretly turned their heads to glance at Odo; the fact that the most excellent Odo did not become a Squad Leader surprised everyone, but Odo’s expression remained normal, unmoved.
Soon, the mystery was revealed.
Art drew out his voice: “Odo Fernand, since following me south, he has performed most excellently, therefore I appoint him as Deputy Captain of the Patrol Team, responsible for training Soldiers, managing military pay and weapons supplies, and enforcing military discipline.”
“Regarding salaries, ordinary Soldiers will receive ten fennies per week, Combat Squad Leaders twelve fennies, Squad Leaders fifteen fennies, and Deputy Captain eighteen fennies.”
During this time, Art had sought or purchased a batch of military supplies, such as military boots, belts, and felt blankets, discarded by the city guard army, as well as weapons like short knives, broadswords, hand axes, and arrow hammers.
He also purchased several slightly rough-made armed swords and several sets of armed clothing and leather armor through the armory steward.
Therefore, in terms of weapons, ordinary Soldiers were equipped with one black oak round shield, one six-and-a-half-foot short spear, and one set of black cloaks and capes, so ordinary Soldiers were also issued cowhide belts and a wooden-handled short knife (or sword) of about thirteen inches.
Combat Squad Leaders’ weapons were supplemented with an eighteen-inch short sword or battle axe/hammer in addition to the ordinary Soldier’s equipment.
Squad Leaders’ weapons were supplemented with a three-foot broadsword or armed sword, plus a set of armed clothing, in addition to the ordinary Soldier’s equipment.
Odo and Ron had an additional single-layer leather armor compared to other Squad Leaders.
In terms of miscellaneous supplies, all Patrol Team Soldiers also had a set of eating utensils, a pair of leather boots, a water skin, a sheepskin pouch, and a whetstone, among other small items.
Each Squad was equipped with a military tent, and the entire team also had a horse-drawn carriage, two mules (purchased), one horse, and a batch of grain, wheat seeds, and farm tools…
Early the next morning, after bidding farewell to Viscount Pierre, Art led his Patrol Team out of Tinietz’s South Gate and headed south.
Viscount Pierre stood behind the battlements on the South Gate, looking at the receding figures heading south, and asked the Attendant Captain beside him, “Did he really divide the Patrol Team into a three-tier structure?”
The Attendant Captain replied, “Yes, my lord, I arranged for someone to personally listen near their encampment last night.”
Viscount Pierre pondered Art’s team structure carefully, muttering, “Art, are you a religious guard or a forest hunter? Or do you have another unspeakable identity?”