A New Army

The First night wasn't that interesting, I just finished up my letter and the necessary paper work and went to sleep in the other room. I shared this room with 7 other guys, because we haven't dealt with the housing of my 700 strong Army, as I was getting ready to sleep, I thought about what to do with them, I already knew that I'm gonna reform my army, and recruit more people, but they need a base somewhere, out of town, so they can't cause problems, but where. Then a someone tapped my shoulder, it was Amauri.

"Evening Sir, getting ready to sleep?" "Yeah, I'm just thinking what to do with you guys, I can't let you just occupy every possible place in town." I told while washing my face. "Well, we could set up camp outside of town, and sleep in tents, like most of the Caravan servant's do." He told me, while leaning on, the door. "Ha, ha, that won't do, not everybody are as though as you are Amauri, and we're gonna recruit more men. I was thinking about 2.000 more." I told him as I let him, get to the washing bowl. "That's a lot of rookies, who will train them?" "You guys, and it's gonna help you as well, I'm thinking about a reform in the army, with more uniform equipment, but I leave the details for tomorrow. Do we have patrols out?" "Yes, Gawain set up 3 patrol groups with 15 men each, I stationed 10 men to the West, and East gate, and 20 more to the Main gate." He answered without delay. "Thanks for the help, I cant believe that the city is still standing after having just 35 men guarding it... Don't forget to change them every 8 hour, night Amauri." "Good night Sir." he told me, it's good to have reliable men with you, but even this didn't help, the North tower was full, just as the Town hall, the Guard house, and the dungeon. I heard that some men even were sleeping in the city stables.

~Next Morning~

The meeting room was almost full, Gawain, Amauri, Franco, the squad leaders who weren't on patrol, and Hans the Leader of the Town Watch were all looking at me, while thinking why the sudden meeting.

"All right, I hope that everybody had a good night sleep because we have problems, we have to find a suitable place to station the troops, I'm thinking about a place where we can stay for extended periods of times, and also build up facilities to support the troops, Hans, any idea?" I looked at the only local in the room. "Are you looking for a defensible place, which isn't used for anything?" He asked after some thinking. "Yes, and if it's close by the merrier." "Alright, I know just the place, it's a big flat area over the Bayhead fjords, it's about one day away by foot." "Perfect , Franco, can you head out later with Hans, and some men to check out the place, and maybe think up the layout." "Of course."

"Alright, thank's. Then the other topic for today, I want some reforms in the army, as we are currently sitting on a gold mine, we could expand our numbers, and I'm really looking forward to it." I told them, and as just children who's getting some candy, they eyes started to shine. "We are looking to get about 2.000 more rookies, we gonna form 6 companies, each company will be one Cohort which consist of 480 men, plus their officers. A cohort will be led by one Warrant officer and three Sergeant, each cohort has 6 centuria consisting of 80 men, each centuria has a Platoon leader, while the cohorts are one fighting force, the centuria is to be able to do solo task, just as well as in pair's or in a cohort level. A centuria is broken down to 10 maniple's, its sole purpose is that one maniple is one entity, one man's mistake is his maniple's mistake, they eat together, they fight together, and they sleep together in one tent. In every maniple there's a squad leader and a guard leader. There will be three infantry cohorts, one cavalry,one spear and one archer auxiliary cohorts. This six cohorts form one Army group named a Legion. Each Legion will have two flag bearers. Is everything clear?" I explained, while all of them lost somewhere, well I don't judge them.

"Yeah, we kinda do, but did you wrote it down somewhere?" A squad lead asked, "Yeah, i did..." A told him as I handed them the plans. "Please put out a recruit notice around the town and the nearby villages. A infantry man has a monthly salary of 20 silver, a auxiliary man will have 15 silver, the cavalry man will have 25, but only recruit those who already know how to ride." I asked some of my men. "Gawain, Amauri can you two stay to help me with the math's?" "Yes sir" They said in unison as the others left. "Alright, a Guard lead will earn will earn 1 more silver, while the Squad lead has 2 more. A Platoon lead has 5 more, a Sergeant 10 more, the new Warrant officers will earn 15 more silver. The flag bearers also get 10 more, but they have protect the flag with their lives, if anything happens to it, they'll lose a head." "Alright, I'll start the accounting." Gawain said. "Alright, Amauri the new Warrant officers, Sergeants and Platoon leaders will be chosen by the current army, but the Squad lead's and the Guard lead's will be chosen by their talent, while training the maniple's, each of them should choose their own lead's, is that clear?" "Yes" "Good, now get to the other part, every day, each soldier should get a portion of porridge (6 bronze), and some bread(2 bronze), they'll get a bundle of firewood every week(1 silver), every weak 1 centuria will get the job to hunt, if they fail, then there won't be meat, is that alright?" "Yeah I think so, should I also get this on a paper so we know how much we need?" "Yes please." And then the tree of us got to work, I helped out Amauri once or twice, as he didn't knew how to calculate as he didn't get education, but he did just fine, and after an hour we finished. "So, the salary will be 561 gold a month, while the food will cost us 70 gold. The fire wood will be around 119 gold. In total it's gonna be 750 gold a month per Legion. That's alright, I think, guys how 'bout you?" "Well, we checked it twice, so yeah, I think it's right." Said Gawain. "So, I'll get a infantry cohort, and Gawain gets the cavalry cohort?" Amauri asked. "No, you two will be promoted to a Brigadier General, it's not much yet, but later on both of you will lead one or two Legions. Congratulation guys." I said swiftly, as both of them just looked bluffed for a second. "What? Did you think, I'm not going to let my two best officers just lead one small group, it's finally time to think big." I told them, so they could calm down a little, now then, could you to leave, and ask the Old Wolf to get inside. I have to ask him politely to forget about his retirement, after he left this mess of a Town Watch for me to deal with." I ordered them.

About three minutes later a Big man, in plate armor stepped in my (now) office. He had a wolf's pelt on his armor as a cape, but the most intimidating thing, was the scar on his face, it started on his forehead, and curved around his eyes to his cheeks, then to his chin. It was quite scary on the first glance, and on the second too, but on the third, it was just intimidating.

"Good day to you Sir, are you the Old Wolf?" I asked as I leaned back on my seat. "Yes, I'm, my full name is Wolfram Otto, better known as the Old Wolf. What do you want?" He said, his way of speaking was with which carried power. "Well..." I started with a half smile. "I want to talk about your new job, as a Drill instructor in my army, if you decline my offer, you will be sentenced to death of treason, as you left the Town undefended in times of war." I said to him, with a huge grin on my face, which said, 'I'm not joking'.