Oath Of Iron And Fire

Chapter 10 External Admissions

Bud is one of only three external cadets in Winters's class of officers, and he is probably the most powerful of the three.

Because most of the external admissions to the Army Officer Academy were to the Artillery Department, who made special admissions for some mathematically gifted people. But Bud was studying in the Cavalry Department, and the Cavalry Department had not had any external admissions for six years before Bud.

When the United Provinces was still the Dukedom of Piedmont, starting from Bud's grandfather, his family made a living by raising horses for Count Mennay's family, from when the old count was still alive until the old count's grandson inherited the title.

Whenever he had time, Bud's grandfather would take his two sons to work on the family's dozen acres of land. Although life was hard, they didn't have to worry about food and clothing.

But the Bud family never dreamed that the sovereignty war would break out. Bud's grandfather and father didn't understand why the people in the city suddenly wanted to rebel against the emperor. In their eyes, the emperor was far away. In the eyes of Bud's family, their lives were peaceful and well-fed, and they never thought that this living state would be broken.

When the Galenic sect destroyed churches everywhere, the Bud family had already vaguely sensed that a storm was coming. But their family had been grooms for three generations, making a living by raising horses for the count. They could do nothing but feed the count's horses.

When the first Guitu City riot broke out, the militia captured the city.

The Buds were feeding the Count's horses, but the Count was keeping quiet because he was not a royalist;

When the first Guitu City uprising was suppressed, the army of the governor appointed by the emperor entered the city.

The Budds were feeding the Count's horses, but the Count held his ground, for he did not support the militia either;

When the second Guitu City riot broke out, the militiamen attacked Guitu City from inside and outside and trapped the governor in the city fortress.

The Bud family was feeding the Earl's horses, but the Earl continued to sit back and wait and see;

When the second suppression of Guitu City failed, the Battle of Golden Saddle ended, and the royalist nobles led by the Duke of Shanqian were completely annihilated.

The Bud family was feeding the Count's horses, but the Count remained silent, intending to wait and see;

Finally, the emperor released his vicious dog, the Duke of Arleans. The Duke of Arleans declared that all the nobles who did not die in the Battle of the Golden Saddle were traitors, and led his mountain militia to kill the Duke in front of the mountain until blood flowed like a river;

The Bard family is feeding the Count... Oh, there is no need to feed the horses this time. Because all the horses have been taken to the war by Count Mennay. The fence-sitting nobles in the Dukedom of Piedmont can no longer sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight.

The Bud family changed their job and fed the earl's cattle, sheep, chickens and ducks.

After the Duke of Arleans was defeated and committed suicide, the Bard family thought they could finally continue feeding the count's horses.

But the Bud family did not expect that the militia and the anti-royal aristocratic army, who were fighting side by side in the last second, would start fighting again.

Knights in armor patrolled the Royal Road, killing any suspicious pedestrians without trial, just to intercept messengers connecting the militias of various cities;

Solitary swordsmen roamed the forest paths, carrying their swords and muskets wrapped in oilcloth on their backs, waiting to assassinate any nobles they could find.

The civil war in the Duchy of Piedmont ended with the victory of the militia. No duke was elected, and the land was renamed the "Piedmont Republic" (also known as the United Provinces Republic).

Bud's family no longer had to worry about when they could go back to feed the Count's horses, because the militia's knives were sharper and more ruthless than the Duke of Arleans's.

There is no Count Mennay anymore, his entire family has been slaughtered, and the United Provinces will no longer fall into the hands of the nobles, because there are no nobles alive in the United Provinces who dare to claim the title.

The Bud family thought that the matter was over: although they could no longer feed the count's horses, at least they could go back to manage their own land.

The Bard family had never expected that they would see Richard IV lead the entire empire to fight. And this was no longer just the United Provinces Republic, the Royal Territory of Aquamarine, the Dukedom of Plateau... the entire Greater Bay Area was involved.

The former Earldom of Mennai, now the Province of Mennai, was turned into a wasteland. Unripe crops were trampled and burned, and the fleeing soldiers were more terrible than robbers. In the war, Bard's father lost his father, brother, sister and all his children.

The Bud family went bankrupt, they only had a small piece of land but no food. In desperation, Bud's father mortgaged his small piece of land to the Green Heart Monastery near the village, and the couple took refuge under the protection of the monastery and became tenants of the monastery.

After the sovereignty war was completely over, the emperor withdrew his troops, and the Great Gulf Alliance gained complete sovereignty, the couple gave birth to Bud.

For Bud's parents, there was no way out for the life of tenant farmers. They could only barely make ends meet and were destined to not be able to save enough money to redeem their land. So the only hope Bud's parents had was to let Bud become a monk in a monastery.

But monks are officially registered clergy. Bud's parents want him to be a monk? Of course they can think about it, but it's impossible.

Because the monastery would not accept a young man with nothing, if you want to become a monk you must bring some property to the monastery. The monastery welcomes those "brothers" who come with deeds and precious metals.

Bud had been a servant in the monastery since he could remember, and he was responsible for menial tasks such as cleaning toilets. He was diligent, careful in his work, and tight-lipped.

So he was soon freed from the lowest chores and began cleaning the manuscript room and library of Greenheart Abbey. A kind monk taught him to read and speak the Old Tongue, and Bard taught himself the Old Tongue using the Old Tongue/Old Tongue dictionary.

Since he was able to read, Bard spent all his free time in the library of the Green Heart Monastery. He read a large number of ancient books and materials preserved in the monastery, and taught himself "Arithmetic" and "Principles of Geometry" by scholars of the ancient empire, and "Medical Classics" by the Fremen.

At the same time, his status in the monastery was constantly improving: from cleaning the library, he became responsible for cleaning precious holy vessels and relics of saints, and then he became the abbot's personal servant, responsible for helping the abbot with accounting.

But the more Bud learned about the monastery, the more he realized that he would never become a monk, and he would never want to spend his life as a tenant farmer and servant. By chance, Bud learned about the Army Academy from a visitor to the monastery, and learned that there were no restrictions on applying for the Army Academy.

So when Bud was 16 years old, he decided to make a desperate effort. He set out from his hometown, Gerard Village, with the six small silver coins and three pieces of black bread he had saved, and walked a hundred kilometers to Guitu City.

Relying on his ancestral horse-breeding skills and outstanding academic test scores, Bud was miraculously admitted to the Cavalry Department of the Army Officer Academy. He also became the only off-campus student enrolled in the Cavalry Department in six years.

Bud and Winters met in a horse riding class (horse riding and horse riding are two courses). Bud is not as good as Winters in horse riding, but Winters can't catch up with Bud in terms of horse care.

When they first met, Winters only admired Bud's horse breeding skills. But as they got to know each other for a long time, Winters found that Bud had advantages that he didn't have, such as being gentle to others and not losing his temper.

Winters lacked these qualities, so he unconsciously approached people with these qualities. Winters's friendship without charity also made Bud feel comfortable. Over time, the two became very good friends.