บท 22: The canton system II

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By the way, the goal for the extra chapter was fulfilled today, I will upload it on Monday and that same day I will give the opportunity for the extra chapter.

Remember that you can give me ideas and if it is possible to apply them in the story I will do it.

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As I left the examination tent I felt relaxed, I was not one of those eliminated, I had never heard that they select soldiers based on height or if they have physical problems, the lords recruit what they can

but it seems that the Prussians decided to change how recruitment works, offering payment for service and having the luxury of selecting who will serve, and the Prussians want tall men to form their new armies and above all healthy, any physical problems they might notice would eliminate anyone applying to serve in the army.

Having the day off, I moved towards the canteen, as I was getting hungry.

Entering the canteen, I met the cooks who were preparing the rations.

''Luthor, I see you passed the exams'' said one of the cooks ''I managed to pass, I had the height they asked for in the recruitment'' I said with a smile.

''I see, but you must put on weight Luthor, you look like a stick, and soon you will have to wear 30 kg of armor'' said the cook with concern.

''well recently I didn't have the capacity to eat every day, it's normal for me to be skinny'' I said scratching my head.

''yes, but that won't be an excuse for your trainer, so now you sit at the table and start eating'' said the cook while he pointed me to the table.

Quickly, I obeyed, I will not refuse extra food, for almost 2 hours they had me eating the classic wheat porridge with fruits and dried meat.

''Jürgen I don't think I can eat anymore, I'm full'' I said trying to refuse the fourth bowl of food the cook was giving me ''no bullshit you must eat, the results of how many were selected are already coming out, and they are not pretty many had problems with the height, you don't want to be left out because you can't wear the armor'' said the cook forcing me another bowl of food

''why so much insistence in feeding me, Jürgen?'' I asked ''orders from the commanding officer of the training, many are too skinny even though they meet the basic requirements'' said the cook seriously.

I never thought that the day would come when I would regret eating so much, and it seems that from now on, I will be forced to eat to get fat.

After I finished eating, I heard a lot of conversations about how many had to go back home because they did not meet the requirements.

I heard that there were almost 200,000 applicants, but at the end of the day, there were only 60,000 left and according to what the priest said, now comes the worst part of the day.

Then I went back to my tent and fell asleep with a stomach that felt like it was going to burst at any moment.

I woke up to the sound of a trumpet, nobody knew what it meant, but we were waking up until a Prussian entered with a face of few friends.

''all right you bastards, I am your training sergeant, from today onwards, I am in charge of making you damned peasants become a fearsome force that can fulfill the king's requirements, NOW REPORT TO THE LOGISTICS QUARTERMASTER TO RECEIVE YOUR EQUIPMENT, I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN UNTIL YOU ARE PRESENTABLE AS SOLDIERS'' shouted the drill sergeant.

Quickly, we all went out to look for the quartermaster officer, after 10 minutes we managed to find the quartermasters' tents where huge lines were forming to receive the equipment.

After waiting another 30 minutes, we arrived with the quartermasters, and they began to measure our feet, apparently to get shoes according to our size.

They also gave us 3 changes of black clothes and a lot of socks.

Quickly, back to our tent and I changed the shoes were the best I had ever seen, these were to be worn by rich merchants, not soldiers.

a few minutes after we were ready, the sergeant returned, and we got into position like Prussian soldiers did.

The sergeant was walking around looking at everyone's faces, until he noticed me and came almost face to face with me.

''LUTHOR, WHAT IS YOUR ONLY PURPOSE IN THIS ARMY?the sergeant shouted at me''uh...to do everything you order me to do sergeant?''I said timidly''DAMN IT LUTHOR, YOU ARE A DAMN GENIUS THAT IS THE BEST ANSWER I HAVE EVER RECEIVED, YOU ARE REALLY GIFTED LUTHOR''said the sergeant before going to see my companions.

After the sergeant met all of us, we went out to the fields outside the military compound.

''Ten laps around the field now, maggots'' the sergeant ordered us.

Our first workout was to run around a field to warm up.

Then it was followed by a workout of sit-ups, push-ups, squats only to go back to jogging, this whole workout lasted 4 hours, and we were all almost dying of fatigue

''well we're done for today, tomorrow will be harder, as today we were just warming up.

''sir this was just a warm-up'', asked one of my buddies ''I AM NOT SIR, I AM YOUR DRILL SERGEANT OR YOU CAN CALL ME SERGEANT KLAUS, IF I GET TO LIKE YOU, YOU CAN CALL ME SERGEANT, BUT GUESS WHAT, I DON'T LIKE YOU MAGGOT, NOW GO TO THE CANTEEN AND EAT YOUR FUCKING RATIONS, LEAVE NOW''' shouted the sergeant.

after that we went to the canteen, we were exhausted and defeated and it was just the first day.

''what happened lothar? it looks like you got torn apart today'' asked the cook ''no kidding Jürgen, I still hear the sergeant's screams in my head'' I said while holding my head

''hahaha we all went through that, first day with the drill sergeant it seems, they are the grumpiest and loudest person you will find in the army'' said Jürgen as he laughed

''how did you manage to survive'', I asked him doubtfully ''it's not that hard, you just have to endure it, then you will get used to do everything, and it will seem easy, the first three moons are the hard ones, but I was lucky I had a good hand with cooking, and they let me as an army auxiliary, so I could avoid many hard jobs by making the food'' said with a smile the cook.

''How I envy you Jürgen, what's for lunch today,'' I asked to change the subject ''today we have a piece of beef with mashed potatoes,'' he said pointing to the pots and pans.

''Mashed potatoes?, what is that'' I asked doubtfully ''something the king recommends for food, so it has to be good, it's a plant the king is growing with milk and butter, it's very good, so you shouldn't have any problems'' said Jürgen while he handed me a tray with the food.

I sat down to eat and was very excited about the beef, it was very rare when I could eat fresh meat, and it just happened to be the leftovers, now I can eat as much as I want, as I have to put on weight.

Jürgen was not wrong, the damn food was delicious, I ended up eating three times until I was full and went to sleep, praying to the almighty that tomorrow the sergeant would be merciful.

The next day my whole body ached, waking up with the trumpet, I quickly got dressed to wait for the sergeant like many others.

This was my specific routine during this week, get up, sergeant's review, eat, exercise, eat and sleep, none of that changed it was just more intense and apparently God did not listen to us since the sergeant seemed like a mad animal with the failures, but for some reason he was more gentle with me.

The next day we were given our full armor, Jürgen was right about 30 kilograms of steel, even though it had only been a week I could already feel that I had put on a little weight, and it was going to be very useful.

Jürgen warned me that the next day they would teach us how to put on the armor by ourselves, and they would probably make a competition by punishing the slowest ones.

When I found out that the punishment is casually cleaning the latrines the rest of the day, I dedicated myself with Jürgen's help to practice putting on the armor to be ready for tomorrow.

The next day everything happened as usual, except that Jürgen was right, today the sergeant was showing us how to put on the armor, luckily he had already practiced, and it wasn't that difficult.

''well I see now to encourage you to learn how to put on the armor, we will have a competition, whoever takes more than 15 minutes to put on the armor, will clean the latrines for the rest of the week, SO DO IT RIGHT YOU MAGGOTS'' said the sergeant while he took out an hourglass.

Quickly, I put on the helmet, breastplate, shoulder pads, gauntlet. Until I had all the armor in place

''ready my sergeant'' I said almost shouting ''LUTHOR'' said the sergeant as he approached menacingly.

''WHY DID YOU PUT ON YOUR ARMOR SO FAST LUTHOR?''' the sergeant asked me ''you ordered me to do it sergeant''' I said with disbelief

''DAMN IT LUTHOR THIS IS A NEW COMPANY RECORD, IF IT WASN'T FOR THE PRUSSIAN HIGH COMMAND NOT LOOKING FOR NEW MEMBERS, I WOULD RECOMMEND YOU AS AN OFFICER LUTHOR, YOU WILL BE A FIELD MASTER ONE DAY, NOW TAKE OFF YOUR ARMOR AND PUT IT BACK ON.

At the end of our training we were released for the day, I managed to save myself from cleaning latrines.

The next day another group of men arrived, they were former soldiers of the Prussian army who came to teach us how to use a pike on the battlefield.

All day long we were in front of the king's fearsome veterans, where they showed us all the dirty tricks that can be used in the pike fight to get out alive.

The next day we had to apply it, as we were put to fight in full armor against another company as we tried to hit them with our blunt pikes

for one moon we had these trainings without rest, finally we started to see the effects of the training, I had gained a lot of weight in the last moon and not only fat, I had gained quite a lot of muscle mass.

Recently, we had started training with weapons, we were taught how to use maces, crossbows and daggers, how we should use them in the battlefield and when it is advisable to stop using the pike and switch to melee combat.

I was getting used to it fast and so were my companions, although many had retired, my company remained almost complete.

A new training was the march, we had to march 5 kilometers and return to the camp with full armor and pikes up, this was the most exhausting training, the one that made your legs ache all day long, because of the immense amount of weight we had to carry.

All this was repeated during a moon, our combats with pikes were more and more coordinated, and we practiced with the scorpions and catapults, and it was almost bearable to march in full armor.

But everything changed one day, we had to march, but no Prussian officer accompanied us, we marched for 30 minutes until we saw how dust was rising in the distance

we thought we were under attack by the rebels, although the rebellion was crushed they might be new, many were getting desperate not knowing what to do, as the dust and the sound of horses approached

''DON'T PANIC REMEMBER YOUR TRAINING, FORM THE LINES, PIKES IN POSITION FAST'' I shouted at the top of my lungs.

I managed to calm my companions down a little, and we formed lines preparing for a clash against the rebels, but to our surprise it was Prussian cavalry.

They kept watching us for a while, until a horseman came out of formation and kept watching us, until he left, taking all the cavalry with him.

We were frightened and very confused, we did not know what had happened or what kind of training this was, we quickly finished the training and I thought that nothing had happened until the next day.

I was approaching the tent where the veterans were teaching us how to use the pikes, but I was stopped by the sergeant.

''YOU DON'T LUTHOR, YOU HAVE TO GO TO ANOTHER TENT, YOU SURPRISED THE HIGH COMMANDS, THEY RECOMMENDED YOU FOR ANOTHER TYPE OF TRAINING'' said the sergeant.

Quickly, I went to where the sergeant directed me until I found a large tent occupied by only 10 men, waiting 20 minutes a Prussian officer with many medals on his chest arrived.

''well, you may be wondering why you are here, you showed initiative and we Prussians love that, you did not wait for orders, you took action, you will not leave here as soldiers but as sergeants and captains, as the position indicates you will lead instead of being led, and you cannot receive the same training now you must add tactics to your regular training'' said the Prussian officer.

this day was intense, they taught me many battles I have never heard of, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Hannibal, but all this was little with what we saw of the king's tactics, as they were the most modern tactics there were the ones we learned the most about during the day.

Unfortunately, I had only increased the burden on my shoulders, for not only did I have to train like everyone else, I also had to attend lessons in strategy and tactics, and then lead small groups of men in mock battles.

''You look like you're almost dead, my friend'' said the cook ''yes, I'm under a lot of pressure, but it won't be long before the training is over, and I'm finally a professional soldier'' I said wearily.

''look this is just between us, the commanding officer of the training camps Friedrich von Roon has got permission from the king to give a position in the Prussian high command, plus a knighthood and guess who they are thinking of giving it to'', he said smiling.

''me?'', I said with doubt ''who else idiot, the sergeant loves you, he has said only good words about you to his superiors, besides you excelled when you took command of your company, many were taken by surprise and only a few managed to put together a decent defense, you managed to unite everyone, you are the obvious choice.

I was cold, a knight?, but I'm just the son of a peasant who barely had enough to eat and now they want to give me a title.

I thanked Jürgen and continued with my duties.

During another moon nothing changed, everything remained the same, only when the day came when we were officially soldiers of the king

they were preparing us for a ceremony because they wanted to do something special to the first generation of locals in the Prussian army.

There was a small banquet, until at one point Friedrich von Roon, the commanding officer of the training camps, appeared.

He began to give a speech at a podium.

''soldiers, it may be that separately each Prussian soldier is strong, but in unity we are invincible, you must learn to trust blindly in your comrades because for the next years they will be your new family, you will share the pain, the sorrow, the victory and the glory, something you must never do is to abandon your position, your superior will never forgive you, not only you put yourselves at risk but your whole company if someone in the formation fails the whole tercio falls'' Friedrich von Roon said with seriousness.

''having said these words I want to personally deliver a gift from the king, to the best soldier that has been seen in this generation, it was not easy, the king is not one to hand out awards, but on this occasion we have a soldier who has shown the right virtues and should be rewarded, remember everyone can rise in the armies of the King of Prussia, they must demonstrate their capabilities, a recruit can become a captain general'' he said almost shouting.

''Luthor of the XV canton come forward'' he said looking at me.

I quickly obeyed and approached him and got into position.

''Here is the best that Prussian training could create, a man with initiative and a will of steel, it is my pleasure to personally present you with the title of knight of the order of Hohenzollern, as well as to give you a position as field master on a provisional basis, you must continue to demonstrate your abilities to earn the position on a permanent way.

I knelt down and was anointed as a knight, I was very confused, I came here looking for a position as a soldier, and now I am a trusted military officer of the king.

When I returned to my chair at the banquet many of my companions congratulated me, when I managed to calm down and understand my situation I was very happy, now I was a knight and I had a huge salary compared to a common soldier.

I can't wait to go back to my village and rub my title in my father's face.