Proposal For A Garrison
1480 Words
"Please speak your mind, Old Mann. Do not stand on ceremony and stop bending your body in that manner towards the ground. You won't find any gold coins or silvers that had been dropped by the citizens here."
I chuckled to myself and the duo looked at me sheepishly and retain their postures. These new inductees sure need some time adjusting to themselves when they see a royal walking the grounds without an escort whatsoever.
Besides, even after repeated announcements of not allowing the traditions of bowing and curtsey when the citizens happen to bump with me or Heather in the street, it still happened on quite the contrary. As long as no one threw themselves in the ground and spreads their arms before them as if I was a Sun God or something, it would be fine.
Maybe people from that kind of tribes would do that if I would be walking around with a lighted torch in my hands...!!
Hahaha...!!!
"It's this, Your Majesty. I had noticed that you had quite an armful of militia that called themselves as Shadows. They were equipped with bows and arrows as well as a short sword at their sides."
"As you would recall the first time you came over to Burghbrig, you had learnt that before I retire, I was one of the squad leaders for the pikeman division. Since we would be entering winter soon and most work would be ceased except to accommodate the orders from other towns, would it be alright if I make a small proposal?"
"Sure, Old Mann... Speak your mind. If you do not share your thoughts to others, the next person that would be suffering would be your spouse as you would have sleepless nights and be mumbling in your sleep. Your missus would definitely have more wrinkles and looked 20 years older...!"
Hearing me cracking a joke with the commoners amidst being in high places, the duo laughed heartily.
"Oh alright, in this case, I would cut to the chase then. Please do allow me to set up a conscript made up of a garrison of pikemen that would not only be handling a single weapon but would also be trained in ranged and melee classes."
After Old Mann had spoken his mind, both he and his wife were silent, as if they were waiting for the ultimatum and they had little hope of getting their words across, for they thought that someone like me would not be interested in military forces and be concentrating in trade and commerce instead.
Besides, they seemed to think that the Shadow members were mercenaries and were paid to tend to the town based on contractual terms and conditions.
"Sure... Give me a plan and a breakdown on how a trained conscript would look like." I made a short reply since I prefer my citizens to be assertive in their own and able to speak up freely.
Old Mann was slightly taken aback and he quickly regained his composure and quickly explained his plans to me.
"A trained conscript would initially be ranged personnel. Ability to wield between 100 to 120 pounds of a bow's draw strength. Secondly, the person would also be trained in swordsmanship, either with a single or two-handed sword."
"Being trained in these two classes, a shield would normally be out of the question. And thirdly, the person would be trained in handling a pike. Being able to make a strong pike wall, warding off foot soldiers, knights and cavalrymen."
"Here...let me draw up a simple diagram." Old Mann squatted on the ground and I squatted before him as I watched him scratching the ground with a stick. He drew a shallow crescent and then followed by circles at the sides and back and lastly some crosses at the back.
"It's a simple forward defence and offence mechanism for a single garrison that's made up of 3 rows and 12 columns of men in the pike wall position. It's the most basic setup and we could rotational have several roles of classes within the garrison."
I pondered at his idea and finds that it would be a good idea after all. Besides, multi-role classes mean an archer could be a swordsman and a swordsman could be a pikeman. Besides having a shield would aid a pikeman and swords wielding militia.
"Alright, let me gather some men tonight so we would have our first military conference. Besides, Eagle is the one who oversees the whole safety and security aspect around here and I am sure he would be glad to have more men aiding his role."
I stood up and patted Old Mann on his shoulders and was taken aback at my reaction. I scoffed at him and told him simply, "We are all human beings, Old Mann. The only difference that separates us is status. Strip us all and throw us into the river, and what do you get? A bunch of naked fools, am I right?"
Old Mann and his wife can't help but release their suppressed laughter after discovering the lighter side of me. By the way, who likes to have a young ruler who was as stiff as an ironing board, right?
They excused themselves but before they leave, I requested Old Mann to come up with some designs for the shape of the pike as well as the length and shields. I knew a bit of the militia that was implemented back in Darlington so the shapes and sizes of the shields were a bit unique.
Although the design was unique and coupled with common, lightweight materials, these shields proved to be a lifesaver as it nearly stood as high as an adult. It would be able to stop a rain of arrows and also sustain some bashing from a blunt object such as a mace or hammer. No one would be in a right state of mind to start stabbing these shields with a dagger or sword, right?
Majority of the forces would not be equipping multiple weapons on militia personnel because they believed in the number of men rather than the quality. Besides, arming a person with up to 3 types of weapons would look to be wasteful.
Seeing old Mann walked away with a lively spring in his steps meant that he would be kept busy in the next coming month. I saw a guardsman manning the side gate and announced to him to relay a message to Eagle using the copper voice lines to look for me at the wicker materials production area.
The guardsman soon left to relay the message from one of the watchtowers and soon Eagle came along as I checked with Gwen on the progress and discovered that the first batch of 15 Standing Icebox would be rolled out right after Imelda had done her part.
"What's the urgency, Your Majesty?" Eagle came and saluted when he came before me.
"Oh... Old Mann had suggested that he would like to train a group of the garrison for Gracehaven in the pikeman division. Since we are relying on the Shadows heavily, we would like to have a set of conscripts to man the main entrance as well as these two side ones. What do you think?"
"Seems to be a feasible idea. A conscript does not differentiate genders and I am sure those who volunteer would go through a phase of training, am I right? Besides, do you have plans to build an armoury?"
"An armoury would be ideal rather than a barrack as they would still need to go back to their homes at the end of the day. However, I believe the weapons would be best kept with them since having an armoury would take up space."
"What do you think? A person that is an archer as well as a swordsman. And a swordsman that also wields a pike and a shield. Your scouts are also a batch of close range assassins armed with daggers only, right?"
"Seems a good idea, Your Majesty. Yes... My scouts are trained at stealth as well as other passive skills and they are only armed with a pair of straight or curved daggers. All of us are lightly armoured so that we would be able to move about with ease."
"Well, in that case, let's have our first military discussion after our nightly conference tonight. Gather some of your trusted men so we could share some ideas. I need to gather as much information as possible especially in weaponry and armour as I have only a rather shallow knowledge in these areas."
"Will do, Your Majesty." Eagle saluted me and headed back where he came from while I sat around at the wicker materials production area and watched Imelda does her task in making the freezer and chiller compartments for the Standing Icebox.
- Writer
