Chapter 66： Hansel returns

Hansel spent a week in the capital and found a total of 37 people who wanted to develop in the northwest, including his good friend Bernard Francis. Among the 37 people, there were 17 low-ranking nobles including Berner, and 20 commoners, whose occupations included librarians, artificers, and former lower-ranking officials of the kingdom government.

After deciding on a date for his return trip, Hansel said goodbye to his family. Mother Miranda was very sad. At first, she thought that her son would not leave after he came back, but she did not expect to have to go to the legendary wild land. She hugged her son and kept wiping tears, complaining about the officials who assigned him this position. Earl Abbott patted his second son on the shoulder and encouraged him to work hard, "Since you have decided on the path you want to take, don't give up easily."

"Take care of yourself, don't get too tired, we all hope you are safe and well," said his brother Harrison Abbott. For Hansel, Harrison has very complicated feelings. On the one hand, his respected father made him kindly love this younger brother who was not born of a mother. On the other hand, this younger brother with the so-called "humble" blood also made his growth inevitable. suffer some negative effects. But he admired Hansel's hard-working attitude, and felt sorry for his younger brother who was bound by blood.

The only younger sister in the family, Julie, was very excited. In the past few days, she was fascinated by some Northwest legends such as pirate treasures told by Hansel, "Brother~ Please take me away~" She grabbed her brother After being sternly rejected by his brother, he quickly turned from excitement to depression, and stopped talking to Hansel.

"In a few years, when the Northwest Bay becomes prosperous and little Julie grows up, I'll take you there!" Hansel comforted his younger sister, touching her head, and the little girl smiled through her tears.

Another day later, everyone gathered at the north gate of the capital and embarked on the road to the north together, and also embarked on the turning point of their lives.

…

After confirming the decision to go to war against Bairding, Paul transferred the Second Infantry Battalion stationed in Fulan Port to Huxin Town, and assembled all the army troops for training and exercises.

At this time the Army of Arda already possessed the following forces:

Two infantry battalions, each battalion has three spearmen companies and one battalion mortar (tiger squatting gun) platoon.

A separate musket company.

An independent artillery battery, equipped with two 6-pounders and six 4-pounders.

An independent transport company under the command of the Logistics Department.

There are 1,355 officers and soldiers in the army, which has always been a force that cannot be underestimated in the northwest area. Fortunately, a large amount of money from the pirates and the profits from paper and porcelain were seized, otherwise Paul really couldn't afford to support such a well-fed and well-clothed standing army. Even so, Old Ford, the keeper of the seal, reminded him every now and then: If the sales of paper and porcelain cannot continue to expand or there is no new source of income, and when all the money seized from the pirates is used up, the army can only drink the Northwest The wind or directly disbanded and went home. Paul was worried every day, and he didn't know what was going on with Quiller in the south, and whether the porcelain could be sold there.

After learning from the intelligence that Bairding had a large number of knights, Paul asked the staff to conduct a drill of the hollow phalanx. A complete hollow phalanx in the version of Arda looks like this: a quadrilateral phalanx composed of several layers of soldiers, and the outer layers are composed of spearmen. Slant outward to form an impenetrable hedgehog formation, with one or two layers of musketeers inside, responsible for long-distance killing and wounding cavalry, the remaining musketeers are not responsible for shooting, they are in the middle of the phalanx responsible for the outer musketeers Soldiers load ammunition to ensure rapid and sustained firepower. If the situation permits, mortars are also deployed in the middle of the phalanx to kill the enemy with curved fire.

In fact, to put it bluntly, it is a "human flesh bunker". The outer layer of spearmen forms a thick wall, and the inner layer of musketeers act as machine gunners, but the intensity of firepower varies greatly.

Although it is easy to say, it is quite troublesome for the soldiers to quickly and skillfully form an effective hollow phalanx. Although they have practiced many times in advance, they received the order to form a phalanx without any preparation during the exercise. In the end, most people were in a panic and didn't know where they should stand. This really tested the organizational skills of grassroots officers. Moreover, it also tests the judgment of the officers. For example, according to the number of enemy troops and the charge formation, how large a phalanx should be formed on your side, whether to form a large phalanx or several small phalanxes, each phalanx should be Configure several layers of spearmen and several layers of musketeers. In addition, there are also how to quickly adapt soldiers to various configurations of phalanxes, and how to quickly repair the gaps that have been opened by the phalanxes.

After repeated drills, the formation speed of a battalion-scale phalanx was finally controlled at about 5 minutes.

…

On this day, Paul was on site supervising the training of soldiers when someone came to inform him that the Royal Commissioner, Baron Hansel Abbott, had returned.

He quickly returned to the Lord's Mansion. Mr. Baron was already waiting for him in the hall. The two greeted each other and hugged each other warmly. Now they can be regarded as a pair of political allies Searle reported to Paul the progress of his recruitment in the capital. Paul was very happy when he heard that more than 30 people had come to Huxin Town. Although there are not many people, it is just the beginning after all. I believe that under his preferential treatment policy, more and more talents will come to join him. He and Hansel had discussed before that they would set up an office in the capital, and send people from the original capital who had lived in the Northwest Bay for a period of time to station there, so as to continuously recruit people.

A batch of buildings have been built in Huxin Town to accommodate the newcomers recruited in the plan, and now they can finally be used.

Paul still asked slightly worried: "How do your friends feel after coming here?" What if they think that the Northwest Bay is too remote and run back, wouldn't it be a waste of time?

Hansel shrugged: "I can't say it is good or bad. Although it is not as prosperous as the south, but thanks to Jingyao's exaggerated and false descriptions of the Northwest Bay, after seeing the real scene here with their own eyes, they felt that it greatly exceeded their previous expectations. .”

"That's right..." Paul didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

He said to Hansel: "Go to Philip butler to reimburse the expenses on the road. We will hold a banquet tonight to clean up the people you brought. It is hard enough to travel all the way. As for how to arrange these people , let it be put in charge by the Ford supervisor, I have discussed the personnel gap in all aspects with him in detail, and he knows what to do."

Hansel saluted Paul: "I thank you sir on their behalf."

Then he suddenly asked: "I want to ask you a question. After entering the border of Arda, I felt that the atmosphere was inexplicably tense. I saw militiamen training in the villages along the way. Did the pirates attack again?"