Diligent training day after day, excellent instructors, good weapons and equipment are all to reduce bloodshed and sacrifice in actual combat - this principle should have been known a long time ago. But for some reason, as time goes by, some people begin to brag about "genius warriors" who have achieved "self-awareness" in actual combat.
Marshal Rosenta Gustav Kievel, the famous Suomir general we mentioned in the previous chapter, is believed to have been training a certain group of officers who thought they could strategize without having to train every day like soldiers. He said this:
"You think you don't need to train. You think you can't do it in training just because you don't take it seriously enough. It's just because training imposes too many restrictions. But when you enter actual combat, you will perform better."
"But you're not."
"If you can't be calm and use every bit of your strength during training, then when you enter actual combat, you will only fall into endless panic and bewilderment."
This is how this great marshal from more than a thousand years ago, who possessed wisdom and vision beyond the times, explained the complex and meticulous training program he created that was different from the past. These include the use of equipment, the development of hand-to-hand combat, weapon dressing, infantry coordination, infantry and cavalry coordination, the issuance of instructions, even torture and being tortured, various languages, communication, geographical environment, etc., etc., which are extremely complicated in the eyes of today's people. Although the training did not change the destiny of Suomir, which was already a small country, it later created the shockingly disciplined elite legions and generals of the huge and arrogant Laman Empire.
If an armed civilian is thrown onto the battlefield, there is a 90% chance that he will die from the enemy's attack, and another 9% chance that he will die from an accidental attack or trampling by one's own personnel during the battle, and the remaining One percent of the total, there is also 0.9 percent that died from various other accidents such as diarrhea, poisoning, fire, flooding, or even falling - only one in a thousand, or even one in a thousand There was an unreachable chance that a peasant who had never received good training could survive his first battle.
A big factor that determines this probability is weapons and equipment. The reason why things like spears and shields are rampant in any part of the Rigal continent is not because of how powerful they are. It would take at least a week and a half for an old blacksmith to forge a long sword or long knife, including the iron-making process. These are cheap products that have not been carefully polished and have very simple equipment.
But even such a long sword consumes far more metal and man-hours than a spear. The time required to make a long sword is enough to make a dozen or twenty spears. The iron ore consumed by the spear tip is relatively small and wood is available everywhere. Even novice blacksmiths, apprentices and farriers can use it even if the size is not particularly large. Effortlessly crafted, considering all the factors, it is enough for one person or a dozen or dozens of people, but to arm hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of troops, this weapon has the lowest cost, manufacturing requirements, and labor hours. , is obviously the best choice.
The reason why this kind of weapon that is rampant all over the continent still dominates human frontal battlefields is that it is not only cheap but also easy to use. When forming a formation, you only need to know how to thrust forward, unlike long swords and long knives. Pay attention to the various angles of waving and exerting force - and extending from this starting point, as this kind of "cheap" and "mass-produced" component, you naturally cannot use the militia called by the lords of the West Coast countries. I hope the nobles above will equip them with some kind of armor.
There is no invincible armor in this world, and the attack power of weapons and the defense power of armor are not fixed and simple values. What a breastplate can do is cover most of your body so that you can be hurt by the enemy. The surface area has been greatly reduced, and with the excellent curvature of the shape, it bounces away arrows fired at you. Its defensive power comes from the shape and design rather than simple thickness. Therefore, the weight of an excellent full-body armor is only 30 to 40 kilograms. Enough to provide near-invincible protection.
Although it will still be damaged under the attack of heavy cavalry and some armor-piercing weapons, considering the relative scarcity of such weapons, compared to lower-level mercenaries and militiamen who have nothing, a person with bright armor and professional experience can The survival rate of noble knights trained in combat on the battlefield is much higher. This is also the main reason why the Kingdom of Sivalier, with its noble cavalry as its main force, has become the strongest country on the entire west coast of Morbigas.
Returning to the original point, the well-trained legions of the Laman Empire spent a lot of time learning how to cooperate with friendly forces and the most effective way to kill the enemy. The professional conventional army was completely different from the west coast militia. And if these soldiers who have been training all day long do not talk about command or the right time and place, and simply calculate a battle between equal numbers in absolute terms, the survival rate is unusually high compared to the militia.
After spending a little time and thinking, anyone will conclude that the survival rate of trained people is definitely much higher than that of people who enter actual combat from the beginning. It is true that many people who have fought for a long time and survived will sum up their own set of experiences, but most of the time, they are just lucky or have a certain item that is as strong as brute force or faster than others. .
Combat skills that have been gradually improved from generation to generation cannot be surpassed by a few "geniuses" overnight. After all, many people who learn this skill are geniuses themselves, and coupled with superb and excellent instructors, when they or After they have learned all this diligently, when they encounter a need, at least these people will be more calm and calm than those who lie lazily and think that they can do everything when the time comes. Be rational and understand what you should do.
…
Horse hooves trampled on the still wet mountain path. The most suitable word to describe Henry and his group at the moment was defeated. Even the two leaders of the team had not said a word for a whole morning. , the four surviving novice mercenaries were naturally crestfallen. Even Ofemio, who loved to make jokes and was eloquent, did not say a word for a long, long time.
The hunting mercenary team under Jeronimo suffered heavy losses this time. Although Henry and the three of them, who knew the mercenary team leader's little calculations, felt that it was possible that he was so depressed. It has more to do with the snake dragon skin, but no matter what, if the mercenary group loses these manpower, it will probably be difficult to replenish it for a long time.
Although it is a bit cruel to say, the death of those novice green-label mercenaries cannot be regarded as a big event. After all, the southern border is so prosperous, and a large mercenary group with a big name wants to recruit a few newcomers, there will still be Many people struggled to get in. What really seriously damaged the vitality of Lao Juan and his mercenary group was the death of the three orange mercenaries. Although the mercenary who was responsible for controlling the field like Jeronimo and who passed out the night before yesterday should actually be regarded as Life or death is uncertain, but the possibility of him surviving in such a flood is very slim. Everyone tried their best to search yesterday but could not find him around, so they had no choice but to give up.
Veteran mercenaries who have experienced many missions for a long time before being upgraded to the orange badge are extremely rare talents. This kind of character is not only more efficient in doing things with experience, but also in the training of new generations. Their status is also irreplaceable.
Among many large-scale hunting mercenary groups like Lao Juan and others, these mercenary teams that hunt certain specific creatures regularly according to seasons can actually only be regarded as second-tier teams. The front-line hunting mercenary team travels around the world as the face of the mercenary group. They will accept challenging hunting missions with high rewards. The entire team is composed of elites, and no one is lower than the blue card level. , after gaining fame, he brought more commissions to the mercenary group, such a virtuous cycle.
A team like this, which can draw on the experience of its predecessors and has veterans leading the team with novices, is the second-line support team used to train a new generation of members in the team - however, even this is extremely controllable, as long as it is based on the previous With experience, there will be no big mistakes. A mature and fully planned hunting behavior will still tend to get out of control from time to time due to the stupidity of a single individual member.
It's okay to lose everything, and the losses suffered by the younger generation are still within the tolerance range. Due to a series of reasons, three veterans who were elite members suddenly died or disappeared during the mission? ——Even if Jeronimo didn't have those little Jiujiu who colluded with the Batty Merchant Group, he would have returned to the mercenary group this time. As the team leader, he would definitely be left out in the cold for a long time without any missions. Out.
After all, no one wants to follow a team leader who is an experienced hunting expert but doesn't listen to the other person's opinions and sets up camp in the wrong place, leading to an accident. Even if Old Juan didn't want to tell his story, the four surviving young mercenaries and everyone else, including Henry and Mira, other free mercenaries, had experienced the previous conversations.
In order to preserve his reputation, even though he had lost the snake-dragon skin that was the target of the trade, the possibility of Geronimo choosing to kill him still existed. With this in mind, Lao Juan decided to move forward along a shorter and steeper road, on the grounds that he lost the flatbed carriage and was left with only mules and horses, so there was no need to consider the terrain factors required for the carriage to travel. Rush back to town.
Naturally, when he proposed this plan, he wanted to avoid the Bati business group who might still be ambushing nearby. Jeronimo didn't know if he had guessed that Old Juan had discovered his plot, and sighed in despair, and then There was no response of approval or objection to his decision. He just stayed in the team and moved forward slowly, very quietly.
"Stop!" Geronimo stopped talking, and the old hunting expert became the de facto leader of the entire team. He raised his hand and ordered everyone to stop at a place where white stones were exposed on the half slope here. Then he explored left and right for a while, and took down the short bow and wooden arrows from the saddle.
The food they carried was exhausted, and in order to fill their stomachs, everyone could only hunt and collect food while moving forward. Although Old Juan was an expert in archery, the arrows he and the others carried on this trip were very limited. Fortunately, the experienced hunting mercenaries are all skilled at craftsmanship. They took slender trees from the nearby woods, sharpened them with a knife, and then burned them to carbonize them. The arrow tips were hard enough to hunt small creatures. The simple arrows were made by tearing and cutting off the longest feathers from wild animals obtained by hunting, and using the resin from the tree as an adhesive to wrap string around them to fix three arrow feathers.
As a precautionary measure, old Juan and Federo, who also knew how to use a short bow, collected the wild hard feathers that could be used as arrow feathers from the previous hunts in packages on the backs of mules and horses, and now sent them on important use.
The two of them turned around and left to hunt. Here, Euphemio, another young mercenary, and Henry Mira began to select the firewood around them. They still couldn't get out of the area covered by the heavy rain the night before yesterday. Although the sun was shining, the moist water vapor still remained on the forest floor that was blocked by the dense southern forest.
Therefore, it is quite difficult to find dry firewood that can burn. Fortunately, everyone present has the most basic ability to survive in the wild. They can judge the degree of dryness by the crisp sound of breaking. Most people, including the free mercenaries, They all took action and were able to collect enough wood in a short period of time.
The route we climbed was a rugged one, and the mountain springs here were not as easy to find as before. Both humans and horses need water. Mules and horses can get moisture from green grass. Humans who cannot do the same can naturally only seek moisture from some common fruits in tropical areas.
While waiting for the hunters to return, the firewood burned slowly, and it took more than half an hour for everyone to collect some common non-toxic wild fruits nearby.
Half a pot of water was filled with various kinds of fruit pulp. Although the colors were bright, how they tasted made several people, including Mira, who watched them gradually begin to tumble, frowning involuntarily. But our Luoan girl was hesitating here, but Mr. Sage didn't stop for a moment. He ran to the nearby palm trees that are common in the tropics, and quickly opened them under the doubtful eyes of others. of skin.
Henry chose some new palms. They were not big and he could completely peel them off quickly. The brown outer skin and green leaves fell to the ground in layers, and then the snow-white palm core was exposed. The person decisively broke it with his bare hands. He turned around and saw Mira and Ofemio standing by the pot looking at him blankly. The expressions on their faces did not change. They simply broke off and threw a piece towards each of them.
"Eat and see." Henry said concisely, then turned his head and continued to collect.
"..." The young mercenary frowned and stared at the thing in his hand, while Mira, who had great trust in Henry on the other side, picked it up and took a bite.
"How is it..." Although there has been some embarrassment between the two of them due to a series of things in the past few days, they can be regarded as people who share the same sorrow. Ofemio curiously said this to Mira in West Coast dialect, and the girl also Without taking what happened before into her mind, she frowned and turned her head away: "It's a bit bitter..."
"But it's quite delicious," she said, then took another bite.
Palm cores, which are used to simply satisfy hunger, are rich in nutrients, so there is another dish like this in the pot of soup that already contains a lot of fruit pulp. The bitter taste more or less softened the sweetness in this pot of soup that was too high in sugar. When Federo and Old Juan, who had been out for more than an hour and nearly two hours to finish hunting, came back with the wild animals and rabbits, Seeing this scene, the old hunting expert's expression was very subtle. He stared at the sage for a long time, as if asking him with his eyes why he knew this southern delicacy that only experienced hunters knew.
Of course Henry was fooled by a shrug.
The old hunting mercenary who sighed and shook his head had no intention of continuing to dwell on this issue, but the next second he walked towards this side he found that the sage had reached his hand towards the hilt of the sword behind him—— Juan, who had already established a trusting relationship with him through this series of events, did not suspect that he wanted to attack him. Instead, he dropped the prey in his hands and grabbed Federo and started running forward.
His experienced and decisive move was quite correct. The next moment, the heavy sound of horse hooves came from the front. A group of mercenaries wearing leather armor emerged from the rainforest riding prairie horses. They were equipped with various long swords and long swords at their waists. .
Henry, Juan, and Mira all glanced at the cooking cauldron at the same time. It was obviously the white smoke rising from the wet wood that attracted the attention of these people - but if they just came to get a bite of food, it would Forget it, the two mercenary leaders in front of them looked quite well-established from their clothes and the horses they were riding, and they were also wearing purple badges that were the symbol of elites. They just made eye contact with the old mercenary with a squinting goatee. , his expression became heavy.
"Bati Business Group..."
Just a simple word was enough to explain everything. Henry observed these people carefully. They carried nothing except war horses and weapons. Even if they were traveling lightly for an ambush attack, they obviously should not have even basic survival supplies. In addition, these people appeared in unplanned places. The only explanation is that they also encountered flash floods or other disasters during thunderstorms. , coincidentally discovered the white smoke igniting here while escaping.
Just as Henry, Juan and others were observing the people of Batty's business group, the other party easily judged the loss of goods from the confusion and attrition here. However, the purple-branded mercenary who led him hesitated for a moment. After tilting his head, the people behind him still immediately grasped the weapons at their waists.
"No! Our goods have been lost, everything is gone, gone!" After all, the damage was not thorough enough. Geronimo got up and opened his mouth to shout. Although the root cause is whether he is afraid that he will be silenced or whether he is really planning to defend his few remaining team members as the squad leader, but in short, he rushed forward and then began to try to reason with the opponent.
"The plan has failed! Even if it continues now, there is nothing valuable left. It's cancelled. It's cancelled. Do you understand?" He didn't seem to intend to hide his plans anymore. Anyone who asks the question can guess it. Henry, who was standing behind Jeronimo, took this opportunity to quickly use his peripheral vision to look at the reactions of the others in the team - the two free mercenaries who had gone into the water to rescue them, as well as Ofemio and Fede. The four green card newcomers, including Luo Luo, all looked confused, while the remaining three——
"Are you serious or are you acting? If you are acting, then I think you can play a major role in the Grand Theater in Ella City, because you look like a real and complete idiot." Holding the purple card, the red-haired mercenary leader mocked Geronimo in a calm tone, and finally realized that the other party's original intention was to silence his group regardless of success or failure, the team leader was angry. Feverish, he reached out and grabbed the sword he was leaning on the stone - but before that, the three free mercenaries who had been silent attacked him.
"Ding - Cang -" The hunting mercenaries were not good at fighting between people. In panic, Geronimo only had time to use his sword as a shield to barely block a blow, and he was immediately forced towards him. Henry and the others retreat.
"Haha, it's really embarrassing -" The terrain here is a steep slope all the way down, and they may not necessarily know how to fight immediately. The purple mercenary and a dozen other companions got off their horses and walked towards this side while taunting. The two free mercenaries saw the other three rebelling, and the leader was another purple mercenary. The opponent had a large number of people. Everyone was in panic at this moment. The three rebellious blue-brand mercenaries jointly attacked Jeronimo. In this case, the heavy giant sword was suppressed to the point where it was impossible to lift it. The slow attack The speed made him have to raise his hands high if he wanted to attack, but once he did this, the front door would be wide open and his weak point would be caught and his throat would be sealed with a sword.
"Goodbye, poor fool." The purple-branded mercenary grabbed Geronimo's attention as if to show off. At the moment when all his attention was ahead, he stabbed his neck accurately from the left side, but as expected, There was no feeling of bones and muscles being cut apart——
"Ding--clang-dang--whoosh" to block, and then he pressed the sword against his own blade and used the soft force of his wrist to pull a sword flower to divert his strength to the side - the purple-brand mercenary in an instant He judged the opponent's approach, and in the next second, the three blue-brand mercenaries of the Bati Merchant Group who surrounded Jeronimo were all killed by a powerful and heavy vertical slash from the diagonal stab. Gotta go back.
"Back to back, weapons unsheathed!" Henry shouted in surprise, waking up everyone who was still confused. "Clang--" Mira and two other mercenaries pulled out the long swords and knives from their waists, and stared at themselves The red-haired mercenary, who looked at the wrist for a while, silently turned his attention to the sage again.
"You guys... have two, but do you know who I am."
"..." Henry waited in silence. The purple-brand mercenary twitched his eyes, and then said slowly: "Okay, then remember it well. I am the fastest swordsman of the Batty Merchant Group. Christo is one of the best warriors in the entire Southern Territory."
"Remember the name, because I don't want you to not know who killed you—"
"Wha—" The silver light flashed, and the long knives in both hands stabbed straight at him. (To be continued.)
