Chapter 10： Royal Commissioner of Latino

A debate is going on.

"My lord, I still don't think it's right..." The former family knight who led his company to train in rotation—the current Captain Holman said so.

"Don't try to persuade me, Holman, after all, this matter has been going on for a while, how can you give up halfway."

"But I still want to say that it is really unnecessary to teach soldiers to read and write. They just need to understand the orders."

"No, I want to build a different army. The first difference is that the soldiers are knowledgeable and thoughtful."

"Well, let's not discuss whether they have the qualifications to receive education, but have you ever considered whether they will be willing to be soldiers after they acquire knowledge? Will they still be willing to be driven by you?"

"I will make the soldier an honorable profession. Of course, this does not refer to the soldier in the aristocratic circle, but the soldier's profession that truly belongs to the general public. If even then, they still want to break away from my leadership, that is only a matter of course." It can show that I don't have the qualifications."

"What? This is absurd. Oh, I beg your pardon, Count, I am rude. But you are their lord, what qualifications are there, and it is both a right and a duty to rule over them, just as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. So natural."

"Okay, Holman, I've made up my mind. It's been going on for so long. Do you want me to take back my order? Wouldn't that be slapping myself in the face?"

Seeing that Holman was still arguing, Paul raised a hand and said, "That's it, I'm going back to town to meet the envoy of the capital immediately, and I'll probably stay for a few days. I hope that after I come back, the Second Battalion In addition to being physically qualified, soldiers can read and write their own names."

After making a guest appearance as an "initiative teacher", Paul no longer dared to set his expectations too high. After speaking, he turned and walked out of the tent.

Holman turned to Claude next to him, "Are you and the count really teaching the soldiers to read?" He still felt incredible.

Claude spread his hands and smiled wryly: "When I heard his plan at the beginning, I almost suspected that I was dreaming. Our little count is doing something beyond common sense!"

…

Paul came to the camp of the blacksmiths, "How is the progress of the musket?"

The blacksmith Herman was fiddling with a few of his colleagues. When he saw Paul coming in, he immediately got up and saluted, and said, "My lord, we are thinking about improving the trigger of the flintlock gun. Since we are not artificers, it is a bit laborious."

He said honestly: "With the trigger in my hand, the misfire rate of the resulting gun is estimated to be very high."

Paul nodded. On Earth, when the flintlock gun was first invented, the flint could not produce sparks, or the sparks produced were not enough to ignite the gunpowder due to the steel and shrapnel manufacturing technology. understandable.

"It seems that the development of technology really cannot be achieved overnight."

He picked up a matchlock gun that had been built next to him and looked at it carefully. The structure was very simple, with no front sight or rear sight, only the barrel, butt, medicine pool and trigger, but it was indeed a real musket. Although it is generally similar to the flintlock gun, the firing structure of the matchlock gun is much simpler. The gun is composed of a serpentine rod and a trigger. The serpentine rod makes the burning matchstick contact the gunpowder pool at the end of the barrel, and the flame enters the chamber through the fire door behind the barrel. This gun mechanism is much easier to make.

The gun barrel is made by blacksmiths using the rolling method. The iron sheet made of wrought iron is wrapped on a mandrel and slowly forged. With the help of the grooves on the anvil, it is corrected and rolled into an iron pipe bit by bit. The shape of the drill can only be like this before it can't make a good drill.

"Well, let's suspend the improvement of flintlock guns for now, and concentrate all our efforts to produce matchlock guns. How long will it take you to make such a matchlock gun from scratch?" After thinking about it, he needs to get a batch of usable guns immediately. Instead of slowly researching and improving flintlock guns, it is better to immediately produce a large number of simple and mature matchlock guns, so that soldiers can become familiar with the use of gunpowder weapons as soon as possible.

"A blacksmith and an apprentice. If everything goes well, it will take about two weeks."

"Two weeks? It's a bit long... Well, it's okay, but the quality of the barrel must be good, and the finished product must not have the phenomenon of bombing in the previous experiment."

"Please rest assured, Lord Earl. We have done a lot of experiments and basically figured out the relationship between the amount of explosives and the power of the explosion. We must be more careful about the quality of the barrel."

"Very well, I am eager to use this musket. I must increase production. I will send you a group of apprentices and carpenters who specialize in making gun stocks. You must carefully teach them the skills of making muskets. Don't hide anything, whether it is Whoever teaches a qualified one, I will reward him with two months' wages."

The blacksmiths opened their eyes wide after hearing this, which is still very tempting.

I just heard the earl continue to say: "The other thing is, when there are more people, I suggest that you each divide the work. Each of you is only responsible for making one part. Assembling is just about assembling, more people are assigned to complex things, and less people are assigned to simple things. But the parts of the gun must be universal, and you must appoint a special person to be responsible for the measurement and acceptance of the parts, so that Assembling it is also convenient for maintenance after the troops are assembled in the future.” Anyway, the structure of the matchlock gun is relatively simple and does not require too high precision, let the craftsmen try this new working method.

Everyone nodded one after another, and then they flattered the Earl with his foresight.

"Everyone, I will send someone to count your finished product rate and defective product rate. This will affect your wages. If the defective product rate is too high, you may be subject to some 'small punishment'." The earl sternly Said.

Everyone was sweating profusely. Since they were in the military camp, they had already witnessed the "small punishment" received by those recruits.

…

At around two o'clock in the afternoon, a strange army ushered in Huxin Town.

After crossing the pontoon bridge at random, the army marched towards the Lord's Mansion along the Central Avenue at an unbelievably neat pace.

"Concentrate after entering the town, strictly maintain the formation, don't look around, don't whisper to each other." Company Commander David ordered loudly, and then continued to shout the slogan "one two one".

Both sides of the street were full of curious townspeople. The reason for their boldness was that they saw that the leader of this team was their lord—Paul Paul. Trained recruits.

"Hey? Isn't that someone's so-and-so? Hey, I haven't seen you for a while, and I can't recognize it. I used to grow wrinkled, how did it become so strong?"

"Yeah, my neighbor's youngest son is also in there. He used to be weak in writing, but now he looks like a different person."

"This team is really neat, the previous guards are incomparable..."

Similar comments kept coming from the crowd, and Makarov, who was walking in the team, was secretly proud: "It doesn't matter if you get stronger, I can still read now! Speaking out scares you to death." But the strict military discipline made him continue With a sullen face, he dared not reveal anything.

The team marched to the hillside on the north side of the island, and finally stopped in front of the gate of the lord's castle.

"Stand still! Take a break!" Captain David ordered loudly: "The lord sympathizes with your hard training, and gave you an afternoon off. You can move freely in the town. Before the sun sets, you will be at the gate of the old camp in the town. Assemble. Remember all the disciplinary rules for me, and if anyone is caught by the pickets, I will definitely give him good fruit to eat."

"Long live the lord!" After cheering, the crowd dispersed in groups. Not long ago, the military pay was just issued, and many people who have no habit of saving money have long covered their hands, and now they finally have something to spend.

After the soldiers dispersed, Paul rode his horse into the gate of the castle, and the old butler greeted him immediately after being notified, "Master, the messenger is waiting for you in the hall."

"Okay, I'll go see them right away."

When I came to the castle hall, I found that besides the envoys from the capital, Chief Ford and Battalion Commander Bryce were also inside. Seeing the lord coming in, the three stood up and saluted him.

"My lord, this is the emissary from the capital, Baron Hansel Abbott."

"Baron Abbott, this is our new Lord of Arda, Earl Paul Greyman."

General Manager Ford introduced the two sides.

The new lord is more tender than expected, Hansel bowed slightly and saluted, "Dear Earl Greiman, I have come to your land this time on the orders of the royal family, on the one hand to convey His Majesty's will, congratulations, Now you are the official lord of Arda recognized by the kingdom government. On the other hand, I will be stationed in your territory on behalf of the royal family. You must have heard about the recent situation, so many representatives of the royal family have been sent to various places to strengthen the The connection and solidarity between loyal ministers like you."

Paul took a slight look at Hansel. He was of medium height, with a thin figure, very elegantly dressed, his gray hair was carefully groomed, his face was white and beardless, and his eyes gave a very shrewd feeling, revealing a trace of arrogant.

He said gratefully: "Thanks to His Majesty the King for trusting me, I will definitely live up to His Majesty's trust."

Because they were all waiting for the lord to come back, no one had lunch, so the host and guest sat down in the dining room and talked while eating.

But soon a dispute arose.

"But Lord Earl, please forgive me for being rude. I took the liberty to visit your territory. According to my observation, the threat to you from pirates is not as serious as you imagined. I think the most urgent thing is to organize a team of kings Join the counter-insurgency army under the command of the eldest princess. Although the eldest princess has granted you no need to send troops, it is the basic duty of a courtier to defend the royal family after all."

"Master Messenger, what are you talking about? Our old earl died because of the crusade against pirates. Isn't that serious? I really can't agree with you!" Bryce retorted dissatisfiedly on the side.

"With all due respect, if the old earl doesn't provoke the pirates, nothing will happen." A commoner warrior dared to interject, and it was already unethical for him to eat at the same table with nobles, Hansel was slightly displeased.

"What about the safety of the town and the people?"

Hansel said with a little disdain: "If you lend another ten courage to the pirates, they will not dare to attack Huxin Town where the lord is located. UU Reading will incur the collective anger of the surrounding nobles. As for the life and death of the untouchables in the border area , why should you care so much?"

"This..." Bryce blushed and wanted to refute, but he didn't dare to say some words. No matter in the eyes of the other party or in his own heart, he still belonged to a commoner. The huge gap in identity made him quickly He calmed down and restrained himself.

A living class education, a certain earl who has not cultivated the consciousness of the ruling class sighed inwardly.

He smoothed things over and said: "The failure of the last crusade against pirates caused a lot of casualties. We recruited a group of recruits to supplement the army. With the current level of training, we can't do anything. Let's talk about everything after the recruits have finished their training!"

After Hansel heard this, the boss was not happy. He originally wanted to fool you into being cannon fodder and training you ass. After all, he just didn’t want to go.

"My lord, please allow me to remind you of the primary obligation of a vassal to the lord. Pirates are just scratching your head, but Giles' rebel army is a serious threat to the kingdom."

He still refused to give up, and looked at the little kid lord sitting in the first place with the aristocratic style of the royal capital, and his tone became serious.

Damn it, if you don't accept me as the protagonist, you can just worship me, but you still want to command me, look at my arrogance.

"Let me also remind you that I am the lord here! And the pirates have a sworn hatred against me." The young earl slapped the table and stared at him with a serious expression. Do you stare? I am too familiar.

…

"Yes, my lord count."

After a long time, Hansel lowered his head slightly, as if giving in, and then ate the food in silence.

The banquet continued in an awkward atmosphere...