Chapter 6: WHEN THE COUNT IS GOOD (6)

All of this protocol was derived from the military regulations that had existed since the start of the conflict.

Even though it underwent almost daily grooming, the basic rules were the remnant of the previous war.

It was realized at the time that a war could not be conducted without a legal framework, to avoid excesses but also to clarify the reading of events.

For the record, this conflict had been an asymmetrical war launched by one of the greatest economic and military powers. In the conflict we are interested in, this superpower was neutral. It was not that they were not affected by the world struggles, but the parliament of this superpower had decided with a three-vote margin that the population could do very well without the comfort of fleece triple-thick in pure fir-wood toilet paper. As for the reason of this peculiar vote, it was said by many deputies that the question was ambiguously posed and that they didn't know what to answer. As a matter of fact, their salary was directly determined by their participation in plenary votes, so many of them answered after throwing a coin, yes for heads, no for tails, like the tradition dictated them to do in such situation. If the coins had been well balanced and had not been piped in favor of the yes, maybe the history would have been changed.

As for the other belligerent of this previous war, it was one of their small bordering states, insignificant economically as well as militarily. At that time, a diplomat from this little country had treated the superpower's head of state of congenital goat more worthy of a pork-butchery than the platform of an international organization he occupied.

This diplomat should have been prosecuted for illegal practice of medicine but the superpower, by the voice of his chief wounded in his pride, had chosen a more radical method.

It goes without saying that the small state had seen its development stopped dead and its existence on the geographical maps was deeply jeopardized. It was not until ten hours of fierce fighting punctuated by numerous massacres of civilians that a commission of experts had met and had begun to draft these regulations.

The shock and stupor strategy employed by the legitimate favorite of the conflict unfortunately did not leave time to test this regulation, to the chagrin of journalists from all countries who no longer had editorial boards that were simple to write.

In the end, the commission decided not to dissolve itself after this war and planned for an upcoming conflict that was bound to arise. It took three years of negotiation to reach a settlement compromise, which was finally ratified by the majority of countries around the world. Since then, the commission continued its work because its members did not know how to do something else and because accommodations were needed all the time.

This regulation was divided into different chapters, which in turn were subdivided into laws which itself generally included several articles, divided into paragraphs which could have sub-paragraphs, willingly amended by a 'a' or even a 'b'.

In these chapters, there was for example the calculation allowing determining the displacements of the front line. It was a scholarly calculation established by mathematicians, and when the principle was understood, it was not that more complicated than operating of a thermonuclear plant.

To put it simply, each maneuver could be valued in the form of positive or negative points, the referee recorded it by pressing discreet buttons placed in the palm of his hand. To be able to avoid suspense and to facilitate fraud, the points count was revealed publicly in the evening by the referee, provided that he did not die during the day, in which case an alternate referee took charge.

For example, when a soldier was eliminated by killing or crippling him enough so that he had to leave the army, a lot of points was scored, and a little less when the soldier was only seriously injured but not enough for preventing him from resuming the fight a week later, and this was finally almost no score when it was only skinning, and a bandage quickly deposited gave him a new chance to be killed.

The number of points was moreover weighted by the rank, killing a general was much more profitable than a simple soldier. The same was true for vehicles, with a special scale.

The referee still had his role because he had to determine if a puncture was the result of a voluntary maneuver, a fratricidal shot or a simple pebble lying there because the cleaning-men had not done their job correctly.

Conversely, it was possible to lose points when disapproving of a rule and violating it. The absolute value of the difference between the number of points for each of the two camps was multiplied by on plus square root of five, all divided by two, called phi, the golden number. Why this number when it would be easier to just get the crude number. First, adding a coefficient always made things look more serious and second, why doing simple when you could do complicated? This rule was discussed an evening by the committee. That particular evening, they had spent a part of the afternoon celebrating the retirement of a colleague during a somewhat alcoholic friendship pot. One of them, particularly excited had suddenly remarked that there was art in war and this number was its natural allegory. It was late, everybody was exhausted and most of them had something else to do so everybody agreed in chorus, saying they would discuss the next paragraph of the article the following day. Then, they departed to attend their own business, being finding their family, finding their mistress or visiting a brothel.

Finally, the front was moved by as many meters, rounded to the nearest ten centimeters, as the calculation gave, in favor of the winner.

In the early months of the war, the front often moved north.

Everyone was enjoying it. It was a bit like going camping; they slept in tents, they picnicked willingly. However, logistics had to follow, which quickly posed problems for the armies on one side, but also for the followers.

Every day, it was a whole war infrastructure to put in place, soldiers and their package, but also the television crews and an impressive advertising caravan. It was the latter who protested first.

They regretted the comfort of their hotels and began to tire of the rough living conditions as they continued north and winter was approaching. Then the front moved to the south. After spending a little over a year wandering, the followers, e.g. the non-military personnel were called, went on strike because they did not want to spend another winter bivouacking.

This coincided with the beginning of the financial problems the coalesced army was facing. Between intelligent people, it was often difficult to agree, so imagine between soldiers... The fact was that everybody sat around a table and discussed. The coalesced political authorities insisted on fixing a demarcation line on the old border, but on the one hand, the third regiment did not want to undertake yet another move of several hundred kilometers to the north, and on the other hand, the Grenati army did not see why they should free conquered lands, so a compromised was found between the two armies, leaving the protests from the politics aside.

Everyone agreed to establish a demarcation line to make war on it without having to travel too far from one day to the next. Finally, after a few palavers during which there was a semblance of peace, it was the followers, in particular the people representing the televisions and who feared that the lack of fighting would affect the audience who accelerated the process, proposing to fix the front where it was today.

The population of a small, somewhat isolated town was displaced in order to use pre-existing infrastructure, which was completed by erecting a few useful building. The front would no longer move; it was a huge step forward.

A static and tactical war like that between the coalesced and the Grenati was a very special case. For all the other ongoing conflicts, phi was still used to calculate the basis to move the frontline, sometimes by a few meters, sometimes by several kilometers. However, the rules on the other fronts had their own arrangements to meet regional cultural and geographic characteristics.

The responsibility for the regulation and its application was devolved to the Federation of War Jousting, the FWJ.

The FWJ was the child of the old rules' committee. It was a supposedly independent international organization based in a neutral country because if it had been placed in a belligerent country, it would have ended up finding people complaining. Overall, however, it had no particular interest in seeing one side win more than the other; the outcome of the conflict would only serve to write official history, according to the winner.

Its major role was to make the necessary changes and adjustments to the rules. It was also responsible for the recruitment, training and assignment of referees, who were directly accountable to the FWJ, which itself was responsible for setting all the rules.

Every day there were new rules while others were dropped from the regulations under pressure from a whole bunch of more or less legitimate lobbies. That was how it happened, for example, after the work of a lobbyist paid by an agricultural union, the rule saying that it was forbidden to refuse a carrot to any soldier participating in the first game from the moment he had requested it. The armies had to adapt and had mobilized a few soldiers to manage the stock of carrots and ensure their distribution. In total, more than twelve thousand five hundred and fifty articles were in force, more or less useful, anecdotal or absurd.

A majority of rules were imposed on the combatants, they had for example to respect as much as possible the indigenous populations, or at least in the presence of camera; they had to facilitate the work of the followers as long as that did not encroach on their missions etc.

Conversely, the followers respected the chapter code of ethics of the followers, by never filming a soldier doing his business, only the soundtrack was authorized with fixed shot on a tree, the followers did not have the no right to interfere directly in the course of a match etc., just basic rules everybody would have naturally followed, even without the existence of the regulation.

There was still room for maneuver for the armies. A local tripartite college between each of the two armies and the followers could propose an initiative, which voted prevailed over the general regulations for a period of up to a week. Then, the FWJ had to study the request and possibly integrate it into the rules so that it would continue. At first glance, it was a bit complex, but it worked in most cases.

In theory, everyone among the combatants and the followers had to know the rules; in fact, the theory did not hold. There were military schools and training camps in most of the belligerent countries where rookies should be formed. It would have been the perfect location to instruct fresh soldiers who could patronize old veterans oblivious to the changes when arriving at the frontline. It was naturally where it was possible to find the most up to date version of the regulation. However, the teaching programs in the military schools were already very busy and the modifications made during the fighting weren't not especially treated in class but just displayed at the entrance of the libraries. This was not the most strategic location to find those modifications, even if only most of military structures didn't have a library. Placing them at the entrance of the toilets or next to the daily menu in the canteen, it would have touched more people but nobody had to have this idea until now.

The television program, 'one evening a rule', had become famous by proposing to explain a rule daily. After ten years soon and almost three thousand rules explained, they were still far from the mark even if many soldiers watched it frequently, especially because of the pretty face of the presenter of the show.

In fact, apart from a few enthusiasts and the referees, nobody knew all the details.

The entrance exam offered by the FWJ was really difficult, a multiple choice quiz of almost a thousand questions. Moa had tried to do it once, to know his level. He had painfully reached a score of fifty percent, when the threshold to become referee was placed at ninety. He was far from the mark but it didn't really matter to him; he didn't want to become a referee and most of his mistakes included action unrelated to his job.

So the scoring was no longer as important on this front as it was when the line of battle moved, except to determine which anthem was going to begin and for the pride of the army which gained a victory but the role of the arbitrator remained important.

He always had the option to chop the game or let it go, and could even punish offenders with measures ranging from three rounds of land, a warning or ten push-ups, stoning, and extortion. .

In the morning, the schedule was organized around three jousts.

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