Survival Plans (5)

The former captain was startled and upon my saying so returned to the formation where his men celebrated his promotion meanwhile I could hear him boisterously assigning tenman ranks to his men filling the position he had just recently left.

Every chain of command needs to be filled and rather than assign everything myself I trust in the military system to fill the gaps so long as those chosen are competent.

The current system in place is not much different than the one actually used by Rome on Earth,

First, there were individual soldiers, who were grouped together and led by a (captain) Tenman, who led a ten-man squad, next ten tenmen (Captains) grouped together under the command of a Hundred Man (Lieutenant) and lastly 10 of these hundredmen would be under the command of their Legion commander, and then lastly overall control was held by the General commander which in this case would be Baron Hadin who was recently released.

With the main event having come to an end the assembled men were treated to lunch on the lord's behalf.

While they were dining, I approached the Commander and his subordinates along with the remaining legion commanders.

"General, I have a question for you?"

"Hai! Ask as I shall answer milord."

The time has come, how to convince this commander of mine to lead all the assembled men in the defense of the realm, but with my reputation I cannot realistically persuade him.

"Alright then, so General if you were the commander of the Visigoth Kingdoms forces how would you attack Aquitania?"

The commander's eyes nearly bugged out of his head, while his subordinates were confused by my question but also were looking alternatingly between me and the commander.

"Y, Your Excellency, D-do you think I'm secretly communicating with our neighbouring country to plot your downfall?"

"Commander I don't care if you are a spy or not, what I'm asking for now is your opinion as a commander."

"I-if Visigoth was to invade theirs only one way then, they'd need to take the mountain ridge that's the only direct path into our territory, unless they came in from another territory first."

Well let's put those 57 intelligence points to use here

"But that pass is too narrow for a large army to pass through the defending side would be able to easily set a blockade on that pass as well preventing the invasion, so rather than send all forces in at once, I'd break up my forces into individual legions who would search for and take alternate routes over the mountains that way we could flank any defenders in the pass, and also attack behind enemy lines to crush and barracks and bases alike while they are undefended or with few remaining defenders. After that, we can do pretty much anything we want with the enemy as they would lose the advantage if they go for an all-out assault but also have nowhere to retreat to"

"I see. So that's how you'd see it. But for me with the exception of using the mountain pass, we'd still be dead meat. Besides that, we won't be able to get that pass within a day."

"A Day..?"

"Straight for us, that's how they gonna come for Aquitania, Military bases like they care about those, making up a force of common foot soldiers will be nothing but a waste of time!! What they want to accomplish is to flashily assault us and force us to get reinforcements from our home country Lunan Kingdom, and while they are that Visigoth's main army will attack Lunan herself, they won't be satisfied just by taking our outskirt province on the border, they'll seek to take the whole country. They think that if they can seize Aquitania, they can overrun and take us by the roots before reinforcements arrive!!!"

*sigh*

Gotta calm down a bit, got a little to into it there.

"You know what, it's probably already the end, we're just animal feed... and not to mention Visigoth's invasion of Lunan will begin tomorrow."

"Begin... Tommorow?"

"They'll attack?"

"Breech the long peace?"

"War is what happens when you don't belive the unbelievable, don't worry you don't have to belive me now, because you see not one but two roads exist. the first allows us all to see our homes burnt to ashes, our friends slain upon the ground and our women become the play things of those bastards, or the second where we march with our full strength and show them just who the real masters of this province really are!"

[This young lord has always said the most outlandish things, and yet it's like he really knows this will come to pass, but even still that there'll be a war with Visigoth and our province will fall in such a short amount of time, he's gone to far this time!! Even after re-recruiting someone he'd previously dismissed, does this lord... does he really thing i don't have my own pride. but why, i can't find the words to refuse him]

"From the look on your face you've chosen, and it's good choice General, once the men have eaten get them marching towards the mountain pass, and summon a logistic team to begin a supply chain."