Road to the Crown

Chapter 285: Showcase of military

28th August 1574

"Present your weapons!"

Officer's shout resounded in the vast, open field of the defilade's marching ground located right beside the military plant. Standing on top of a small tribune, I could still reach the end of my recently formed army. 

Proving that their training wasn't for naught, as soon as the officer ordered, all of the fresh recturts standing on the other end of the plaza could see how nearly six hundred men brought their weapons from the resting to ready-to-dire position in a single, uniform motion.

"Fire!"

Resting the bottom of the carabines on their hip, soldiers pulled the triggers, sending a quick salvo right into the embrace of the skies.

"Fire!"

Unshaken by the recoil of their shoot thanks to a special way in which they stood, my newly formed troops shoot, again and again, always responding to the order within a single second. With my keen ears, I could still hear that some of the soldiers shoot either a bit too late or too early, but in general, they managed to reach the level beyond of any other unit that could exist on earth.

That is, in terms of how orderly they could shoot on accord during the presentation of their skills. And no matter how awesome it looked like within the safety of my lands, I doubted that even half of them could do the same in the midst of fierce fighting.

"At ease!"

Only I, Elia and some of the other high dignitaries of the city had the chance to watch this awesome scene. Them, and Constanty along with this the two of his retainers that were said to be free from charges of espionage. 

"That's Incredible"

Looking down at the orderly rows of my men Constantly could only sing praises of them, knowing that not even the Quarterly units of Commonwealth couldn't reach this level of discipline. 

"Now you see why I can be certain of the victory. While Ostros thinks that I will waste my time preparing the train lines for the logistical support of the prolonged campaign, I can just stuff them Or nevermind, you will have the chance to see it with your own eyes in a moment."

Stopping right before I would reveal the crux of the entire ploy, I smiled at my guests before turning completely mute. As annoying as it was, I had to play the host of this event, otherwise, the potential spy that remained within his ranks would realise that it was all nothing but smoke in his eyes!

And just like I said, before a long while would pass, a commotion appeared behind the ranks of my men. But anyone with good eyesight could realise that rather than coming from the back rows of my soldiers, it was actually happening way behind even the officers that controlled the order from behind the entire formation!

Sadly, no vehicle did the vroom vroom sound that I secretly hoped to hear. In a flash, the middle unit on the plaza suddenly split into two halves, instantly running aside to make way for those few logistic vehicles that my military district managed to create to this date.

But the show didn't end on the steam carriages just appearing! 

At first, the initial four units continued to ride forward, as if intending to slam against the tribune where all the guests were located. Only when they reached the middle point between the military and spectators, their group split into two once again, with two turning left and two turning right.

By the time that all the vehicles finally appeared, every single group that consisted of seven soldiers and the officer found themselves standing behind a parked carriage.

"Board the logistic vehicles!"

Just like they trained in regards to the trains, soldiers instantly threw themselves to the action, but still managed to keep their discipline. While I could spot several mishaps here and there, the general sight of my people moving towards their assigned seats and resting on their prepared position.

"Depart!"

As soon as the calm returned to the field, people could see that as impressive as the entire manoeuvre was, it also revealed that only the initial row out of all five that were prepared, had the chance to board the carriages. But that didn't change the impression that my guests must have to have when all those fifteen carriages that we managed to finish, suddenly started moving forward!

Ignoring all the eyes that were resting on their shoulders, the first group out of every platoon that had the honour of achieving the best score evaluation during the last set of tests, remained completely calm. If one were to ignore the situation around them, one would most likely believe that they were some kind of sailors sitting on their boat during complete wind stall!

"Deploy!"

Only when this command stopped all the carriages within their shortest stopping distance, did the situation changed. Moving in pairs, two by two my men continued to jump off the back of the carriage, moving up as soon as the pair in front of them freed the space. In just a few seconds, the entire group of one hundred twenty people that was previously only a bunch of passengers was now lying on the ground with their weapons pointed out in the exact same direction as the directing officer's hand!

"Set the perimeter!"

This command already reached the point that even I couldn't fully understand. As I never was too interested in command, I left the choice of teaching the specific commands to my retainers. And from the looks of it, they not only studied how the war was conducted so far but also took the prowess of the new weapons in the account!

Within just a few moments, what used to be a long line of crawling men, turned into five units, each consisting of three groups eight men strong. Two of the groups moved about thirty meters forward before dropping back to the ground in a triangular formation, with the three remaining groups protecting the flanks and centre. 

"Establish firing positions!"

Yet another order, and my soldiers stood up only to rush back to the carriages. Taking out two planks in the middle, two of them would pull out bags filled with sand before throwing them towards their compatriots and doing the cycle all over again. In less than two minutes, those bags found their in a small half-circle, high enough to protect a soldier laying down on the ground from any possible incoming fire, while creating a perfect support for the heavy barrel of his weapon.

"That will be all of the interesting points for today. I hope you liked it."

Turning my head to Constanty, I could only smile seeing how wide did his mouth open as he watched the show. Knowing a little bit about his history, I could tell that he was already creating scenarios where he would be either with those soldiers of mine or against them, and attempting to find all the pros and cons of such formation.

"Wait, is that all? But they doesn't seem to be about to stop any time from now"

Taking a peek at the events ongoing on the plaza, I could see that the troops that moved forward with the carriages, were now about to finish packing up their sandbags back to their carriages. According to the plan, they would then return to their usual position, before the next line of the soldier would repeat the entire course of boarding, deploying and so on.

"It's only going to repeat from now. I hope you didn't expect me to reveal all the formations that could be created with the use of such mobile force?!"

Pretending to be exasperated, I actually had to do my absolute best to stop from giggling. In reality, those formations were completely and utterly useless. Even if using those silly wooden steam carriages was my real intention, then they would still have the perfect use of a local cover, along with giving the advantage of elevated position. What would be the point of leaving them by the entirety of the troops in the first place?

But I could tell what kind of theory both Constanty and one of the men beside him were bound to attach to this kind of reasoning. After all, those carriages were bound to be expensive! With how two of them lacked the cover over all the mechanics that allowed them to move, something that I ordered to make sure the guests would have the chance to gaze upon this wonder of engineering, no one on the tribunes could have any doubts that every single vehicle had to cost way more than your average noble could afford!

With that said, using so expensive items just to provide cover for some commoner soldiers? Their lives were far cheaper for those slow-minded people!

"No, that's perfectly reasonable. Also, now that you have proved that you are capable of defeating Ostros, I will be taking my leave."

Clearly stunned by the show that I presented him with, Constantly was clearly anxious to get back to his home and report to his father at the shortest moment notice. But before I would let him go and bring one of the potential spies back to Ostros lands, I still had one more thing that I need him to do.

"Dear friend, I hope it won't be a problem if I ask you to bring this letter back to your father?"

Pulling out a piece of paper from under my coat, I passed it to Constanty with a wide smile on my face.

"While it's nothing important, I remember he asked me about the right to create Tarnowian beer locally in his lands. In the letter, all the necessary steps to create a drink of such quality are detailed, although the recipes that we are using remain secret. I hope it won't be a problem for you!"