This field confrontation exercise of the 11th Field Battalion of the Blue Feather Corps stationed at the Fulkby Hill Military Camp was like a stone thrown into a calm lake, causing a circle of ripples and then disappearing. Within a week, no one was talking about this competition anymore. Occasionally, they thought that although Claude defeated the strong with the weak, his tactics were clumsy and his courage in the confrontation was not worthy of praise.
In addition, his tactics may be suitable for small group drills, but they are useless on the battlefield. After all, today's wars are large battlefields with tens of thousands of troops. A confrontation between two armies can often determine the outcome of a war. If you adopt Claude's tactics and imagine tens of thousands of people crawling on the ground, it will be like what Lieutenant Cmondeau said, the Blue Feather Army will become the Maggot Army.
Therefore, after Claude returned to camp, he did not become the target of everyone's attention because of his victory in this field confrontation exercise. The only good thing is that Second Lieutenant Most and Second Lieutenant Carlos of the Logistics Department no longer make irresponsible remarks about the gunpowder guns consumed by Claude's security team. They have seen the power of precise shooting, and what Claude said It is believed that only long-term and large-scale live ammunition shooting can improve the shooting accuracy of soldiers.
However, what troubled Claude was that although the Obash Type III standard matchlock gun in his hand was a newly designed musket designed for precise aiming and shooting by the Kingdom's Fire Gun Research Institute, its shooting accuracy was still unsatisfactory. Claude found that at a distance of about a hundred meters, accuracy could still be guaranteed. It was not difficult to aim at the ten-ringed red heart that hit the target. But the distance is more than 150 to 200 meters, and the error in aiming and shooting is about a palm's length.
This is not a problem of soldiers, but that today's matchlock guns are basically smoothbore guns, and the projectiles are balls made of iron and lead. In addition to human and environmental factors, the ballistics after launch will still change. This is not Long-term and large-scale live ammunition shooting can allow soldiers to fully master it. In other words, at a distance of more than a hundred meters, whether the shot can hit the bullseye depends on luck.
Claude originally trial-produced a modified matchlock gun at the forest farm, mainly for hunting, and the distance was mostly within a hundred meters, so he didn't notice this problem at all. It was not until after that field confrontation exercise that he felt that it was still difficult for the soldiers to shoot accurately at a range of two hundred meters. If the alchemy magic talisman array was around, he might want to try it out himself. Remember, this problem could be solved by carving rifling in the barrel of the gun and using Mini bullets. Although I was not a firearms expert in my previous life, I still saw some related posts on the forum.
But now in the military camp, Claude does not have this condition. Although the Blue Feather Legion has a small firearms repair shop in the city of Gonigada, Claude discovered after going there once that the greatest ability of this firearms repair shop is to reassemble the muskets and replace the good parts with broken ones. The musket is dismantled and reassembled into a good one. It usually takes four or five broken muskets to assemble a new musket. As for wanting to modify the muskets or something like that, that is a dream to this gun repair shop and there is no need to even think about it.
In addition, for Claude, that field confrontation drill somehow made many officers in the legion camp give him an evaluation of being good at training soldiers. It is quite acceptable that Claude can train a group of people who were eliminated from the recruit training into soldiers who can obey orders and shoot accurately in just two months. Even if these soldiers cannot march in a queue and fire in unison, they can still perform vigilance missions and patrol.
So more than a week later, Claude received another mission to accept the sixty or seventy newly eliminated recruits in the legion camp. The requirements were the same. They only needed to be trained to the level of soldiers in the treatment center guard. .
It is said that this was the suggestion of Lieutenant Colonel Leon Crow, the deputy director of the training department of the legion camp who came to watch the actual confrontation exercise. He believed that all the items that were eliminated from the recruit training should be thrown to Claude for training. Just like scrap metal being put back into the furnace, maybe some qualified security soldiers can be brought out. This is much better than sending these recruits to the logistics department to do hard work.
Claude complained to Lieutenant Most that he had become a nanny. In addition, if he accepted these eliminated recruits, he would have two squadrons under his command. The question was who would be the squadron leader of these two squadrons. . The organization of a team is such that the sergeant chief serves as the team leader, and a noncommissioned officer becomes his deputy, who can replace the failed sergeant chief at any time on the battlefield and continue to lead the team. But the squadron leader will basically appoint a second lieutenant to take charge. There are four squadrons in a squadron, with a total of four sergeants and four sergeants' deputies.
The security team of the treatment center under Claude now has seventeen soldiers, ten idiots plus mentally ill patients as stretcher bearers, and four noblemen as non-commissioned officers. If you add in the eliminated recruits sent here from the legion camp, there will be nearly a hundred people, almost enough to form two squadrons.
The more soldiers under his command, the better. Claude had finally trained the seventeen soldiers of the guard, and was trying to figure out how to make those ten idiots and mentally ill people become qualified stretcher bearers. As a result, he had to accept so much rubbish, which made him feel a little dizzy for a while, so he found Second Lieutenant Most and resolutely stated that he would not take the blame. You can train yourself, but you need a formal second lieutenant to protect you from the wind and rain.
Second Lieutenant Most was also in a dilemma. This was what the above meant, and there was nothing he could do about it. But as Claude said, sending two ensigns to serve as captains was something he couldn't do. All the second lieutenants knew what kind of stuff Claude was training. No one wanted to be the trash who was eliminated from the recruit training and became the squadron leader. Seeing that the war is about to break out, the second lieutenants who hope to further their merits on the battlefield are not willing to hang around in the treatment center guard team.
I am also a second lieutenant officer, but I can't make decisions for other second lieutenant officers. Second Lieutenant Most could only express tactfully that he would ask for instructions from above on Claude's behalf. But if there was no arrangement from above, he could only let Claude act as the squadron leader. As for arranging for other non-commissioned officers and sergeants to come over, Second Lieutenant Most said that manpower was tight. Since Claude acted as squadron leader as sergeant major, the four nobles could also act as squad leader as sergeants.
As for the issue of their deputies, Second Lieutenant Most can transfer a few veterans with the rank of corporal or sergeant. Due to the expansion of army recruitment training and preparation for war, veterans with the rank of sergeant have been promoted to sergeants. Second Lieutenant Most With his power, he could only allocate a few corporals and sergeants to Claude. However, the remaining seventy-two Obash type III matchlock guns at the battalion headquarters were all transferred to Claude by Second Lieutenant Most with a stroke of his pen, and he promised to provide an unlimited supply of gunpowder guns. He knew that Claude's live-fire training was very time-consuming.
Seeing Claude still dilly-dallying in his office, Second Lieutenant Most finally became annoyed and warned Claude sternly that as a soldier, the most important thing is to obey orders and carry out the orders given by his superiors to the letter. task. You are not a small trader. You cannot bargain with your superiors because of the difficulty of the task. Remember, you are a soldier and it is your bounden duty to obey orders.
Claude had no choice but to hand over the eliminated recruits and bring them back to the treatment center to figure out how to train them.
Time passed quickly, and while Claude was busy training new recruits, news reached the military camp at the end of May. The war broke out. The Kingdom of Ovelas declared war on the anti-Austrian Five-Nation Alliance, and the anti-Austria Five-Nation Alliance also declared war on the Kingdom of Ovelas. The clouds of war were over the entire eastern region of Farea continent, and the beacon fire had been lit. I just don’t know who will be burned to ashes.
Waves of cheers erupted in the military camp. Many soldiers and officers rushed to the playground and loudly cheered slogans such as Long Live the Kingdom, Long Live Sterling X, Down with the Anti-Austrian Five-Nation Alliance, and loudly sang the military slogans of the Blue Feathers. Songs and other war songs are high-spirited. Perhaps in their eyes, victory in this war is just around the corner, without any effort.
Claude is training his stretcher team outside the military camp. There are currently thirty-eight people in the stretcher team, all of whom are not suitable candidates to become soldiers. What Claude had to do was to train their reflexes, throw the scarecrows wearing the uniforms of Blue Feather Legion soldiers and officers in the mountains, and let the stretcher team go up and carry these scarecrows back on the stretchers. In order to let these stretcher teams adapt to the atmosphere of the battlefield, Claude also asked people to go to the kitchen of the cafeteria to get some pig blood, intestines, heart and lungs and other things to put on the scarecrow.
The stretcher bearers who can carry the scarecrow back can drink water and rest, and may even be rewarded with a piece of fruit or a small piece of bread. Those who didn't carry it back would be whipped, and then they would turn around and continue lifting until a scarecrow was brought back. There was no other way, Claude could only train these stretcher bearers in the same way as hunting dogs, and find ways to develop their reflexes. As for what military regulations say about rescuing the officer first, Claude said it was too complicated, and the idiots and mentally ill people in the stretcher team couldn't tell the difference at all.
In one month, Claude accepted three batches of eliminated recruits from the legion camp, a total of 121, and then organized and trained a 60-man guard squadron and a 38-man stretcher team. The hopeless idiot was thrown into the army's logistics department to work as a coolie.
There are two recruits who used to be local gangsters. After being forcibly recruited, they pretended to be crazy and stupid in the legion camp and were eliminated from the recruit training. When they came to Claude, they repeated their old tricks. After being discovered by Claude, they still refused to change. So Claude reported it to Second Lieutenant Most of the Military Training Department. The two fools became two chickens and were beheaded in front of the entire battalion of recruits. The heads were ordered to be sent to the legion camp as a warning to all recruits.
The news of the outbreak of war was brought by Dr. Perrent in a carriage. Dr. Perent said that there was a commotion in the military camp. The officers were celebrating and cheering, clamoring to overthrow the anti-Austrian Five-Nation Alliance. As for the soldiers, some of them were cheering and celebrating along with the officers, but most of them just watched silently, and the atmosphere was a bit depressing. After all, the outbreak of war means that they have to go to the battlefield to serve as cannon fodder, which is actually not good news for sober-minded people.
Claude had nothing to say, he was just prepared in his heart. Although he is now a sergeant major, he is still acting as the squadron leader of the treatment center's security squadron. In terms of safety, he is still much more secure than the soldiers in the military camp. At least he didn't have to charge into battle. Even the treatment center had to follow the battalion to the front line, which was at the rear of the battlefield.
"Are we about to leave?" Claude asked.
Doctor Perrent shook his head: "I don't know, the Legion Camp has not issued an order yet, and I don't know what orders our Eleventh Field Battalion will receive. But I heard that the Third and Seventh Field Battalions over there at the Legion Camp The battalion has received orders to move in the direction of the Principality of Sidings. I think the main attack direction of our regiment is likely to be the Principality of Sidings."
Claude sighed. The war broke out too suddenly. He originally thought that there was still a month's buffer time to at least train these eliminated recruits. When reading the news in the newspapers recently, most of them are about the Kingdom sending special envoys to visit the anti-Austrian Five-Nation Alliance, hoping to reconcile the disputes between them and not easily start a war. I didn't expect the war to start so soon, or the kingdom took the initiative to declare war on the anti-Austrian Five-Nation Alliance. I really don't understand what happened to force the kingdom to launch a war.
Claude had a helpless feeling of being caught up in the tide of history. He is very humble and many things are out of his control.