Archduke Karl Johan Lorenz of Habsburg pressed hard on the middle of the bridge of his nose. After the soreness of his eyes temporarily eased, Ostoria's recognized best commander issued a new order in the dim light. Contents
It's about the hawkers who march with the army. The army
At the same time, the working hours of prostitutes - all civilians accompanying the army are not allowed to make any noise or move around after the lights-out signal is blown. Violators will be punished with 30 lashes; the roosters carried by women accompanying the army are not allowed to crow before 9 a.m. to avoid exposing the military station and disobeying military orders.
Kill the rooster without mercy.
This order may sound a bit ridiculous, but the Grand Duke was not joking at all.
A burst of noise broke in through the tent curtains. Pulling up a corner of the curtains, there were old-style crested leather helmets, fashionable tall military hats, ruffled large-brimmed hats, and bearskin hats with pointed fronts like flies.
Walking around everywhere, the lustful laughter and gasps of men and women, the hawking of vendors, and the noise of fights...
The discipline and order that a military camp should have cannot be found here at all. Rather than saying it is a military camp, it is more like a rural market, a red light district or a market. Anyone with a little military knowledge will shake their head when they see this situation, and then
It is doubtful how much combat effectiveness this army has and whether it can shoulder the important task of being the vanguard of the expeditionary force.
The Grand Duke was naturally well aware of the various shortcomings of the army. According to his true intention, it was best to expel all these non-combatants from the army, because these people had a negative impact on marching discipline and combat. But the Grand Duke finally gave up.
This tempting idea, you know, without the comfort of women,
That group of angry Qiu Ba will definitely break out into mutiny, using bayonets and muskets to defend their "sexual happiness." What's even more terrible is that there are two foreign field hunting battalions in the army, many of which are camel tribe orc mercenaries. These mercenaries
When fighting a war, you are not afraid of death. As long as you have enough money, no matter who the target is,
They will rush forward to fight to the death. But these soldiers also have a head-scratching problem: their sexual orientation is highly consistent with the Castilian gays, and they prefer boys or teenagers to plump women. Including Archduke Carl
The commanders inside and outside had no choice but to let it go - "After all,
It is a hobby passed down from their ancestors, and they are proud of it. They firmly believe that the bond built by the "naked true love" between men is a must on the battlefield. Nothing makes them feel more at ease than comrades + "comrades"
.It is very difficult to change this custom. It is almost impossible.”
If the young lovers of these guys are ordered not to approach the military camp, there will definitely be a large-scale mutiny. Before the troops arrive at the city of Riga, there will be tens of thousands more human corpses on the land of the principality...
There was no way. All the Archduke could do was compromise. He did not have a force as powerful as the Titans. It was enough to deal with the mutiny. More importantly, before setting off, the Archduke's sister - Marie, who hated Charlemagne and was also hated by Charlemagne.
Leah Theresa Habsburg repeatedly warned: "Be sure to preserve your strength and don't let the blood of the Ostorian warriors be drained for Charlemagne's ambitions!"
The Crown Prince's calculation is obvious, and he himself has no intention of explaining it. Any qualified politician will not turn a blind eye to potential internal threats. As long as there is an opportunity, they will start to eliminate or weaken potential threats.
Letting the disobedient military forces charge into battle and serve as cannon fodder, with the direct troops following behind to take advantage, picking peaches is undoubtedly a concrete manifestation of this idea. It is efficient, safe, and highly profitable. It is so wonderful that Charlemagne's politicians were satisfied.
Maria Theresa and Archduke Charles were naturally aware of these little tricks, but unfortunately they did not have the means or courage to refuse.
Cowering in the holy war with the infidels; collaborating with the enemy; apostasy from the faith... These crimes are so serious that the Habsburg big shots cannot ignore them, and the Habsburg family is "cleansed" by the entire human camp.
They were worried about the terrible scene of "Gateway". In order to avoid the scene of doomsday coming true, they had no choice but to bow their heads and accept their fate.
It is a tragedy not only suffered by the Crown Prince of Ostoria and St. Stephen, but also a tragedy common to all small and medium-sized countries. Since ancient times, the way for small and medium-sized countries to survive and develop has never been to be independent, but to adapt to the wind.
, it is easier to develop with the wind of a big country than to develop against it.
Much more, and the consequences of going against a big country are often asking for trouble. Before a weak country can find a thicker thigh to embrace, it can only bite the bullet and obey the will of the big country. This is the law of nature, and it surrounds celestial bodies with small masses.
It is the same principle that celestial bodies with large masses rotate.
Although the last piece of heretical nonsense will make the Grand Duke, who is a devout Christian, feel disgusted, the fact is that there is never fairness, justice and justice, only laws and only truth.
Following the basic principles of international relations, Archjustice Karl led his troops to become the vanguard of the expeditionary force, marching arduously in a strange land.
It is no exaggeration to use "difficult" to describe this march. Every step they took was full of hardship and helplessness. It can be said that trouble followed them all the time.
According to the original plan, Charlemagne's army, as the main force of the expeditionary force, was supposed to take a train to the northern front to assemble, then break through the company's defense line and advance towards the Riga Fortress. However, the railway system was paralyzed because of the failure of the army who was proficient in railway business.
In accordance with the Crown Prince's request, in order to ensure the railway's wartime transportation safety, v.e Company handed over the railway to officials nominated by the Crown Prince, and then sent all railway employees home to take rare paid leave.
The company even paid for a family vacation to the seaside. As a result, the bureaucrats who accepted the railway found that they had inherited only an empty shell, empty facilities, a few tables, chairs, railway timetables, financial statements, and railway lines.
Pictures, train status sheets...all the things that could be called documents were gone. The safes and vaults were empty. Not even a piece of paper was left. I submitted it to V.E.
After the protest, the answer was that the company had carried out a general cleaning before the holidays, and all the railway-related funds and documents were collected and prepared for sorting and inventorying. As for when the sorting will be completed, we will not know until the relevant department personnel finish their holidays.
Prior to this, in order to prevent the files from being lost or damaged, the company had sealed all the files and locked them together with the cash in the vault of the consortium headquarters building. No one was allowed to approach...
This is obviously the consortium's revenge for the Crown Prince putting his hand into his pocket. Since all the employees of the railway department were chartered by the company and sent to other places and even to the southern colonies for vacation, it was impossible for the Crown Prince to bring them back to work with bayonets. He could only
While cursing the "profit-seeking profiteers", he forced himself to let the generals sent to take over the railway try to control the trains.
One can imagine what Charlemagne's transportation system would look like if such a group of guys who knew nothing about railway operations were responsible for scheduling the railways. In just three days, stations across the country were packed with locomotives and carriages
In fact, empty trains were running on the railway, troops and ordinary passengers were all stranded, and the angry crowd almost destroyed the station building. In the end, Titans troops had to be sent with bayonets and gun butts to persuade people to regain their rationality...
Railway transportation cannot be expected in a short period of time, and we can only rely on traditional means - walking and mules and horses to transport to the north. Although it is a bit troublesome, at least we are free from the constraints of the consortium, but the speed has lagged far behind, and we can only let Karl
The Grand Duke took the lead and went to join the Albion army. Unexpectedly, after this vanguard force entered Lapland, new problems arose.
The marching speed is too slow.
The road conditions in Lapland have always been poor. After the emergence of railways, people paid less attention to those roads that had not been repaired for many years. Now the consequences of this carelessness began to punish mankind. With a sudden cold rain,
The road suddenly became muddy, and a large number of baggage and artillery were jammed on the road. Due to the insufficiency of rear transportation and the fear of causing diplomatic problems, the expeditionary force did not dare to behave like the Duke or Charlemagne's army.
In this way, the troops had to carry bulky and large field bread ovens on the march, which further increased the burden. In addition, the troops in the Crown Territory of Ostoria and St. Stephen took longer to accept the military reform.
Charlemagne's army was even later, and the top and bottom were not yet familiar with the new military structure, which led to chaos in the organization. Under the interaction of various factors, they had to stop for a whole day every two days to rest and wait.
Baggage.
The Grand Duke was already very busy with these problems. What made him even more worried was that a large amount of intelligence showed that the principality had formed a group of light cavalry based on the wolf tribe, specifically responsible for investigation and harassment. This group of people were like hungry wolves.
For such an elusive and cruel and cunning guy, the heavy and slow baggage troops were the best prey. How to arrange the hussars to protect the baggage troops while ensuring that the marching speed would not become slower became a problem that the Grand Duke had to face.
Compared with the various issues that threaten the life and death of the troops, family members accompanying the troops are nothing but trivial matters worth mentioning.
As if he could no longer endure this situation, the Archduke frowned and walked around the tent, going in circles. Finally he stopped in front of the map, took out a half-smoked cigar from his arms and stuffed it into his mouth, and then stopped
All activities included neither lighting the cigar nor spitting it out, or sitting back in his seat. He just stayed there, as motionless as a statue.
His mood was extremely bad, but he didn't know how to solve it. If anyone unfortunately ran into his gun at this time, he would become a vent for the Grand Duke to vent his anger.
"Your Majesty the Grand Duke."
An unfortunate man walked in. He was the Grand Duke's adjutant - General John Shearer, an old-fashioned soldier with outstanding ability but unruly attitude. He was the only one in the entire expeditionary army who never looked at the Grand Duke's face.
With a straight face and a piece of communication paper under his arm, he strode towards Archduke Karl regardless of etiquette and demeanor.
Standing at attention, leaning on one's legs, and saluting, after completing the formal etiquette, General Hiller reported in a slightly bitter tone:
"The Duke of Wellington of Albion asked us again when we can arrive at the gates of Riga."
Looking at the adjutant's sharp face, the Grand Duke moved his lips, took a long breath, and reluctantly put away his cigar. (To be continued...)