Chapter 425: Chapter 57: Forming the Battle Array to Meet the Enemy_2
“Throw this! Can it still be thrown?”
When Winters and Mason hurried back to the main camp, Jeska’s battalion was assembling.
In the area allocated for the militia support troops, the reprimands of centurions rose and fell in succession.
One of the keys to forming ranks quickly was for everyone to know their place, and it was obvious that the Paratu militia did not quite grasp this.
Seeing the two centurions return to their troops only now, Colonel Jeska showed some displeasure, “Where have you been?”
“If Montaigne hadn’t come for me, I wouldn’t even know there was an urgent assembly,” Lieutenant Mason asked the colonel with suppressed anxiety, “Sir, just how many Herders have come?”
“Don’t know yet,” Jeska’s expression was grim, “Get your men ready first.”
Jeska’s battalion had not been directly involved in last night’s siege. Half of Winters’ subordinates were on trench duty, while the rest were on standby in the camp.
The camp militia was quickly assembled, while it took some time for the trench militia to gather.
Luckily, Winters’s centurions were capable enough that he didn’t need to attend to everything personally.
MMost of the militiamen’s faces could not hide their panic, which made Winters thankful that he still had some “veterans” who had seen blood as a core force.
Mason, who had hurried back, went to the colonel for instructions, then hurriedly left with more men and carts—to move cannons.
Lieutenant Bard, in charge of arms management, began to distribute weapons, armor, and ammunition to the militiamen.
Jeska’s battalion had captured over a hundred pieces of Herder armor, which were usually kept and repaired by the battalion arsenal, and now all were issued to Winters’s spearman.
There were also some temporary armors made from modified Herder horse armor also being issued. It was blacksmith Berlion who came up with the idea of changing horse armor into human armor.
[Note: Herder horse armor and human armor use the same plates]
Because of reinforcements and supplements, Jeska’s battalion’s strength had reached eight centurion teams—two more than a full-strength battalion.
So the colonel rearranged the teams, turning the “mixed teams” of various weapons into “solid teams” consisting of only one type of weapon.
[Note: Mixed teams are centurion teams with a mix of weapons; solid teams are centurion teams with a single type of weapon.]
Now, Jeska’s battalion had a complex composition, with Winters’s two teams of spearmen and halberdiers being the most reliable, followed by Andre’s two teams of musketeers and crossbowmen.
Winters and Andre’s subordinates were mainly the old hands of the battalion and newly recruited militiamen.
Compared to them, the men under Lieutenant Bard and Lieutenant Mason were a more mixed lot: penal laborers, merchants conscripted into service, remnants of other militia squads… all sorts of people.
In a way, the reason Bard and Mason were leading this “ragtag bunch” was because these “ragtag bunch” could only be managed by the two of them.
The Dusack cavalry was led by Colonel Jeska personally.
Winters walked among the formation, checking weapons and armor one by one.
Half of his subordinates wore Paratu half-armors while the rest were clad in the awkward-looking Herder armor, and at first glance, it was difficult to distinguish which side the soldiers were on.
“What in the world are you wearing?” Winters stopped in front of a spearman in armor.
Anxious, he couldn’t help but speak sharply, “Why did you leave the ties on the outside?”
The spearman swallowed hard.
“You’re Ish?” Winters remembered the spearman’s name, “Is it you?”
Ish from Ganshui Town nodded quickly. He tried to untie the straps, but his movements were clumsy, and he couldn’t find the end of the tie.
Impatient, Winters directly untied the spearman’s arm armor and deftly dressed him properly, “Tie it like I do! Tuck all the knots inside!”
By the time Ish came to his senses, the lieutenant had already moved on to others.
Ish tried several times to speak up but only licked his lips, and the words “thank you” never left his mouth.
“Centurions, listen up! Check your tent-mates’ armor!” Winters, who was inspecting the line, ordered loudly, “Help each other dress!”
The centurions immediately sprang into action, and unlike the flustered militiamen, these old hands who followed Winters showed a bit more steadiness.
Xial and Heinrich came running up to Winters with a centurion’s armor: “You should get armored quickly too!”
Winters stood at a clear area, and Xial and Heinrich began dressing him in a three-quarter armor.
Andre and Bard came over to confer with Winters.
“Do you know how many Herders have come?” Andre asked, frowning deeply, “To put up such a grand posture?”
Winters shook his head
Bard gestured towards the center of the main camp, saying calmly, “Everyone’s on the move.”
Suddenly, an invisible intense vibration filled the air—it was the thunderous sound of horse hooves trampling the ground, very close by.
Everyone was startled; some militiamen were even scared enough to drop their weapons.
“They’re here so soon?” Andre’s eyes widened.
Winters pursed his lips and listened intently, then soon let out a sigh of relief, “It’s not the Herders coming; it’s the cavalry from the camp heading out, maybe scattering the scouts.”
“No, not scouts,” Bard touched his pulse and counted, “Since when are there so many scouts?”
The three lieutenants climbed the nearby watchtower, where the whole camp was visible at a glance from atop the tower.
At the other end of the large camp, the cavalry campsite kicked up a huge dust cloud that filled the sky. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on N()velFire.net
At least four squadrons of cavalry had left the camp, and even more cavalry were getting ready to move out.
Andre squinted, scrutinizing carefully, and suddenly exclaimed, “Almost all the light cavalry are mobilized!”
Outside the camp gates, a long trail of dust stretched northward.