章 26: New Troop
It took Kinoya four more days to make a complete recovery. During the time big changes happened on the plane of Eale.
The whole plane was transformed into a wooden fortress. With so many watchtowers along the walls and on the hills, it was a heavily fortified supply station.
This was the empire's first foothold in the country of Torria and the army will soon drive further into enemy territory. So this will be an important strategic point.
"No matter how good the fortification is, this place lacks natural defence. It will be easy to attack." All Kinoya could do was shake his head. Even with double promotion, his stand wasn't high enough to change the mind of those sitting above him.
'I have better things to do' he sighed looking at the 9 squads of heavy infantry and 1 squad of cavalry in front of him. Kinoya's voice was loud and clear, "Raise your hand if you are not recruited six months ago."
There were seven hands in the air and all of them were sergeants.
"If you have any problem serving under me then spit it out now. I will help you to change the troop." Kinoya had no intention to let his men die because of another idiotic decision.
"The way you are now, you will die at the next battle." The words were harsh, yet nobody responded. "The battlefield is changing, if you don't then you will die."
"If you want to stay in my troops then you have to train more. And believe me, it won't be easy."
Kinoya stopped, "So no one wants to leave? Ok. That is good. We will be training here for the next 10 days, before leaving the city."
'That is another idiotic decision. it will be like we are giving the enemy enough time to reorganize their troop.'
Kinoya frowned before continuing, "Till then the heavy infantry squad will practice the formation I am going to show you next and the cavalry will learn archery."
They looked at Kinoya with disbelief. There was a standard military formation in the army, they have been taught from the beginning. Now they are told to change the formation?
"Permission to speak captain." One of the brave sergeants asked.
"Tell me if these newly trained recruits were added to the formation of a battalion with another troop, will they be able to move in sync?" Kinoya threw the question to the sergeant.
Never did the sergeant expected question. He hesitated, "It will be hard." With his 10 years of experience, there was no denying it, but he added, "That is why we need to train more in that formation."
"How long a heavy infantry could hold the formation after engaging the enemy?" Kinoya didn't agree or disagree, rather asked another question. "As soon as we come into contact with the enemy our formation collapses. Then what? You fight alone. If your enemy is weak you prevail otherwise…"
"The formation is important for the military but we need to change the way we fight. We need to change it. I want each of the squad to act as a single body, not as ten independent soldiers."
"But the formation was perfected over the generation for a reason." One of the recruits shouted.
Kinoya smiled, "You go and run around the fortress now."
'What would a child as you know?' Even if he was reluctant he had to obey the order, 'I will change my troop as soon as possible. This is pure madness.'
"Do you train in a battalion or a squad? Why use the formation of a battalion to train when you are going to fight in a squad. All those formations that were perfected under the 1st emperor almost 100 years ago. The emperor had changed, people have changed, and the battlefield has changed, then why are you so against the change?"
Another raised his hand before asking, "Won't we have problem formation in the field too?"
"No. With a formation of ten men, it will be easier to manoeuvre through the field. With the rotation between the ten, it will be easier to conserve the energy. In front of a strong enemy, you will have a better chance of survival if you fight 10 vs 1."
'Why am I acting like a salesman?' Kinoya couldn't help but smile about it. 'No matter what I won't let them die again.' Even though he knew it was an impossible task, yet he had felt he had to take every necessary step to make it possible.
"Permission to speak." Kinoya looked to find out it was Chanakya. 'Here come the archery question.' The one Kinoya was most curious about.
"It will be hard to use a longbow from the back of the horse. It should be better if we use a pyramid bow."
'Ho?! He saw through the problem?' Kinoya couldn't help but take another look at Chanakya, "Don't worry about the bow. I will teach you how to make it. It's a compound bow. Perfect for horseback archery."
After confirming that nobody had any more questions, Kinoya spoke."So from today, the cavalry will do their daily practice with General Vaicus's cavalry, then they will train for some forest running training for two hours and after that, will be the archery training."
"As for the Infantry, all you have to do is run, while carrying a weight of 20kg, in formation, three hours in the morning and another three in the evening. If you think your weapon art is not good then train after you are done running. You will do it every day unless you are subjected to work from the general."
"Do you get it?"
"Yes, captain." All shouted in unison.
"Then the cavalry will go report to general Vaicus. Infantry come here and let me show you the 'Wedge formation.'"
"Permission to speak again captain." It was Chanakya again. "Can I take a look at the formation?"
Kinoya stopped for a moment before answering, "First complete your training. Then you can come and watch. You can ask me anything you want. Now on the training." The cavalry soon left on the training.
But at the end of the day, the number of soldiers was reduced to 78. Yet the gap was filled on the very next day. Kinoya had no idea that it was the result of his fame.
************
"What are they doing?" One of the cavalry-man jabbed at another to show the troop members of Kinoya, who was still in the 'Wedge formation' as the whole army moved towards Yeomcheon.
"Don't you know who they are? They are Captain Kinoya's troop."
"Who? Kinoya? Never heard of him"
"You came as reinforcement right? No wonder you don't know about him. He is the one who went to enemy camp with the other 29 general guards."
The one asking took a deep breath in, "Oh! The blind Devil'?"
"Yes, the blind devil. I heard that the name was given by the Captain of the general guard himself. Nobody knew what happened and the general had forbidden to speak about it."
"I heard he is just a 12 years old boy. What can he do? He must have done something naughty."He added with a laugh, "Like you call your naughty child 'little devil'. It may be that kind of thing."
The other one looked at him with a question, 'Is this guy thinks that the battlefield is some kind of child's playground?' But he didn't say that rather he asked a different question. "What is the situation in other places?"
"Last time I heard General of the North was having a hard time against the Cantela"
"Why? The Knight Templars?"
He nodded and said. "Open plane, armoured cavalry, great mobility. It wasn't something I want to go against."
"Didn't they cut out the number of cavalry in our army to assist them?"
"All in vain" He shook his head. "I heard there was only 50,000 Knights. The General of North wasn't able to hold ground against it with, 120,000 cavalries. You can imagine the strength of them." He signalled at the other to come closer as he whispered in his ear, "I heard they are moving 10,000 magus guards."
"Magus Guard?" He almost shouted out.
"Silent. Do you want to die?"
But the one shouted had no care about it, "They are the elite of the empire."
"You can understand how dire the situation is."
'Lucky for us we didn't get posted there.' The man sighed in relief before asking, "What about the Godola? Isn't the Moon general leading the army there?"
"What do you expect from him? He is the great moon general. He is nailing it. He is already closing in at the capital."
"Capital of Godola? Which one? I heard Godola has two capital cities."
"It's Ceblob, the one closer to the empire. But…"
"But what?"
"The Bosonic Archer squad didn't appear yet, on the top of that Cantela is sending 20,000 knights and 30,000 squires to help Godola."
"Whatever as long as the Moon general is there, there is nothing to worry about."
Even the Kinoya's cavalry attracted the attention of the soldier, "That is the cavalry squad of 'Blind Devil'."
"What are you talking about? Isn't that child is just a captain? How can he have a squad of cavalry in his troop?"
"The sergeant of the cavalry squad is a 'Vishnugupta'."
From beginning to now nothing surprised him as much as the name 'Vishnugupta'. "He is from the cursed family, still he joined the army?"
"You know about the treaty, there is nothing one can do."
"Yup, you are right, but what are those thing on their back?"
"Believe it or not it's a bow made by the devil himself. Nobody knows what they are, archers or cavalry."
"Now I am sure that he is just a naughty child. He is just playing with the army. Must have some strong backer." He cracked a smile.
"If he is an heir of a great family then all of these makes sense," The soldier nodded, "Otherwise there is no way a sergeant could become a captain in just one fight. Better not mess with him."
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