Kapitel 6: "Platoon"
After dealing with the consequences of siege I was acting as commandant until Magnus was back in shape. Few weeks I spent dealing with problems of undermanned garrison. Local lord promised to sent reinforcements but ongoing conflict required more meat for grinding so now fort that usually had around 400 soldiers now consisted of barely 50 soldiers. It was very difficult week, with only 50 soldiers I had to bury the dead, organise trophies, send patrols and a lot of other things.
But luckily Magnus recovered and was able to get back to work within few weeks so I could get back to my platoon. Well what was left of my platoon, two humans, dwarf and an elf. So next few weeks I spent training and getting used with them.
The only surviving dwarf's name was Lukas Pickaxe, he was a smuggler that was caught and sent here as punishment. According to his words he was trying to sell weapons made in his clan and be able to buy food as this years harvest was very bad and clan could face famine. But this was prohibited so he ended up here as smuggler.
Two lads Pervak and Joe were just ordinary peasants that left their lords fiefdom without permission and were sent here. To my question why they said that they got fed up and decided to leave. Since they lived in frontier and know how to use axes and spears they hoped to join mercenary company. However, one of the patrols of the nearest city caught them and sentenced them to flogging and drafting into army. Typical story of many peasant fleeing from harsh rulers.
Elf told us that he is an outcast and has no name anymore. Everyone kept calling him elf and he was fine with that. But after looking at his stats I had a lot of questions, very good skills in melee but mediocre archery skills in comparison. But on positive side I was able to ask him to train me in swordsmanship and double-wielding style.
Things get back to normal after we received newly drafted militia and we could relax a bit. I got new soldiers so I can be leader of real platoon and not the rag-tag gang of survivors. I had to go trough platoon drilling with marches and formations. But thanks to experience and help of Joe and Pervak I was able to deal with that in short period of time.
In the beginning new recruits were quite unhappy with strict discipline and having to serve with non-humans but a right amount of violence in form of punches and slaps solved all problems. After being able to march and fight in formations I started improving their endurance. Running and marching with heavy weights yielded good results and now they were able to fight even after long march.
I could have achieved even greater progress but lack of good and sufficient nutrition were limiting factors. Garrison was getting barely enough supplies to sustain the garrison so I had no way to feed my platoon better. I was even thinking about sending elf and few poachers but Magnus told me not to do that unless I want to end up hanged since nearest forest owned by lord and only he can hunt there.
Another problem was equipment, most of our trophies were either taken away by quartermasters following the army or required repairs. We had only one smith and he was killed during siege so we were able to perform minor repairs. As results most of our soldiers had to wear only gambeson and shitty shields with spears. Even I had to wear helmet full of dents and light chainmail as it was the best we protection we had.
Despite this I still tried my best and was able to turn bunch of peasants into good platoon. My personal progress with swords and other weapons was good that even my elvish instructor got impressed and now I could even last more than few minutes in spar with him. Dwarf wanted to teach me as well but height difference made it useless attempt.
There was also one thing that I brought from my previous world. Esprit de corps, I tried to make ordinary peasants into soldiers with feeling of pride belonging to the best platoon. This also helped a lot in building mutual trust as I told them that they can only trust man standing with them in battle. It was hard to explain and place that thought into their heads but slowly they started to change.
Now my platoon looked as solid organisation and not like bunch of scared kids in other platoons. However there was last thing needed to make them into real warriors, a good fight. Till then they are just good toy soldiers which can march.
I was hoping that such chance will come as soon as possible and one day my hopes come true. Kingdom of Red Lake needs more soldiers and every garrison must send their best forces as reinforcement.
Magnus not without displeasure had to assign me the incoming supply caravan which will bring me to the army. And now I am marching with my platoon along a caravan. My soldiers were a bit scared but kept walking. Slowly feeling of fear passed and after long tiring and boring marches they wanted to leap into battle.
Well boys I can see big camp with banner of Kingdom of Red Lake it means that our long journey reached it end. Now we just need to prepare for coming battle.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein