Road to the Crown

Chapter 271: New military

8th August 1574

"Discipline? Isn't the level to what we trained the previous armies already enough?"

With how I already put a great emphasis on this aspect during the training of my old armies, it was no surprise that my most loyal and oldest subordinates would be confused. But between teaching everyone how to listen to most of the leader's commands and implementing a draconic and perfect discipline, my troops were still near the amateurs end of the spectrum!

"No. When the new recruits will come to this place, for the first month of their life, rather than learning the basics of fighting, they will have to go through hell. On the mornings, before even the sun will come out, you guys will be responsible for waking them all up. After set amount of time, they will have to clean their room, dress in their uniforms and line up for breakfast. Then, the entire day of exercises including marching, shooting and field buildings will continue. While the new recruits will be training, older officers will go through their rooms. As long as even a single thing is not perfectly set as it's supposed to be, they will turn the entire room around, so that before going for the dinner, the recruits will have to clean it all over again."

As I continued to speak, more and more memories started to reappear in my mind. In this very moment, I couldn't even imagine how happy I was that I used to watch the entire series of how the compulsory military service looked back before the polish military of the future changed to a voluntary one!

"But this training reaching the point of bullying will only last for a month. After this, every single recruit will be renamed to a cadet and given the right to speak the words of the military oath that I have yet to write. For the next five months, their physical exercises and standard military training will continue, but there will be no more bullying. Do you understand what I said?"

While this finishing question of mine could be taken as a simple one, an attempt to make sure that both Al and Elemo understood what position they would wield from the moment the barracks would be finished, it was actually far from what I had in mind. Tightly gripping the handle of my crane, I started to prepare for what was about to come.

"Yes, sir."

Sensing that I would be really mad if they were to treat the current question without proper type of discipline themselves, both of my retainers straightened up while replying.

"I don't think so. Let me demonstrate what I mean. Elemo, please, be so kind as to stand aside and pretend that you are just some farmer who decided to join the army."

Dropping my crane to the side, I waited for a moment for this trusty friend of mine to finish my order before clearing up my throat and gathering a mouthful of air in my lungs.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING, MAGGOT?!"

Instantly releasing all the air from my innards that I could in this single shout, I moved way closer to Elemo to his comfort. From what I saw in movies that I watched, breaking one's personal space was one of the main ways to make them feel uncomfortable and threatened!

"I am"

"STRAIGHTEN THE HELL UP WHEN YOU ARE TALKING TO AN OFFICER, YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT!"

While this was just an example aimed at making the two of them to understand what I meant by bullying, I already felt bad by acting like that. Not like my morality was tainted by doing so, but rather due to how bad my throat started to hurt from just two series of shouts like that!

"Sir, Elemo reports"

"WHAT THE FUCK IS ELEMO!? YOU REPORT WITH YOUR RANK, UNIT ALLOCATION AND THEN THE NAME! UNDERSTOOD?!"

I knew that implementing the railing forms that the military I knew about created through an extensive set of learning, making mistakes and fixing them was impossible, all I could do was to strive for the perfection right away. Even if I didn't really understand the point of being that hard on the new recruits, since it was something done by every single military around the world of the future that I knew off, there had to be some deeper meaning behind it!

"Sir, Sergeant Elemo of the first recruitment army reports for duty!"

With Elemo finally reaching something at least resembling the idea that I had in mind, I could finally relax and point Al to help me pick up my crane. With this handy support now back in my hand, I could finally retract a few paces back, stopping my invasion of Elemo's personal space.

"And that's what I want you guys to do with the new recruits. They will be confused, scared and most likely will hate you for doing so, but for the first month, the most important part for them is to learn their place in the group."

Holding tightly to my crane, I allowed it to be the main support behind the weight of my body. Just this quick and silly example of the disciplinary officer way of acting was enough to nearly completely drain me out of energy, but there was still much that has to be both said and done.

"With that said, after the first month, at first you, and then the subofficers that you will be initially responsible for picking up will decide where each specific soldier will go. For now, I want to create five types of units."

Using my crane as a pen and the soft ground of the yet to be covered with the concrete ground as drawing board, I created five different symbols, each resembling a single division that I wished to create.

"Starting with elite troops, they will be equipped with the best weapon we can provide, and will have to prove to be better than anyone else. They will enjoy vast privileges and better pay, but their training will be far harder."

Putting a line under a simplistic, five armed star, I marked this symbol as taken. Moving on to the next one, a simple circle, I once again raised my eyes towards those two poor men of mine.

"Secondly, the standard army troop. They will be the main force of the army, trained to fight in groups, both small, average and big ones. For the small group, it will consist of seven regular soldiers and a corporal, who will have to be first picked out of the outstanding soldiers and additionally trained to act as the head and overseer of the small group. The next size of the unit will consist of five groups and be called a platoon, commanded over by the officer in the rank of a captain. The huge group will consist of five platoons, be called regiment and be commanded over by a major rank officer. Those ranks will be what I want you to start with for as long as it will take our forces to reach the numbers to think about the higher ranks."

Despite having the ideas for the units and their respective ranks above the regiment, with how all my men were used to operate in armies up to two hundred fifty men strong, setting the new base unit to be two-hundred strong with the addition of the commanding officers would be a good starting point.

Obviously, as soon as the fifth regiment would finish its entire training, I would form them up into a corps, consisting of a thousand men and commanded over by lieutenant. With five corps, a division would be made which would be in turn, managed by a general. 

Due to how the current highest commanding rank that the commonwealth itself allowed being a hetman, I was kind of forced to use a separate name steeming from the modern times to not push the wrong buttons of the high nobles, that claimed the right to name hetmans for themselves. Yet I could already be sure that from the moment that I could freely command five thousand men strong units on my own, I could claim the Hetman's insignia on my own, creating yet another army unit of a strategical order, called front!

"Sir This is a lot of information to digest for us. Would you mind repeating it once again so that we can make sure we won't pass wrong information later on?"

Contrary to my expectations, it was Al who actually came up with this request. But seeing how invested he was already in this new idea of mine, I could only smile with sparks of joy lifting in my eyes.

"Sure. The units start with a group of eight men, five of those makes up to forty people and are called a platoon, and five of those can create two-hundred heads worth of unit called regiment. As for the ranks that will command over those units, its corporal, captain and lastly, a major. With that said, let's drop this topic, as there is still one more thing that I want to take care off before going back to the New Tarnow proper."

Finally moving my sight away from the two lesser nobles in my service, I scanned the area surpassing the limits of the fenced down future location of the barracks. In the end, if I wanted to introduce modern types of army organisation and discipline into this world, I had to make sure that all the other aspects of the daily life of the soldier would be up to the modern standards as well!

"In that field to the north, I want to set a huge food factory, producing long-lasting food. By mixing several nutritious ingredients and turning them into a thick paste, I want it to be packed while still piping hot into small metal containers that would be in turn, sealed off. The quicker it will appear, the sooner we will be able to start accustoming our future soldiers to this kind of meals!"