The Chapel is the largest building in Evans Monastery.

Just after 5 o'clock in the afternoon, many officers and soldiers had gathered in the small square in front of the church. They were all lucky ones in the war of the 19th, 20th, and 21st Infantry Divisions belonging to the 17th Army Corps, and many of them were missing arms and legs.

The 17th Army Corps is the last regiment formed in the Red Moon Plan, belonging to the second-rate light infantry corps, with only three dissatisfied infantry divisions and a dragoon regiment directly under the corps, 1 artillery regiment and 2 baggage brigades, of which each infantry division is equipped with Type 1812 smoothbore guns, rifled guns are only equipped with a small part, called the 21st Shotgun Battalion of the 3rd Infantry Division, which is a trial load, and Sean is a minority of rifled gun users.

Most of its officers and men came from the southern part of the empire, and the main source of troops was farmers, fishermen, and vagrants from the cities, and when most of the important positions in the organs of state power and the military command were occupied by northerners, this army was not welcomed, and even the military pay was in arrears for a long time.

In the eyes of the people of the time, the northerners were the best source of cavalry and infantry.

However, the 17th Legion was the only legion that did not retreat in the great rout, fighting the Assyrian army until the last moment, and holding out until the moment when the empire regained its lost land.

As some kind of compensation for being late, and also in response to the cynicism of professional trolls in the newspapers, the Military Command Department cared for the lucky ones of the 17th Army Corps, quickly demarcated special recuperation areas, carefully cared for the wounded, paid a year's arrears of military salaries, and issued a so-called hero's allowance - equivalent to five years' military salaries, and then wrote in the newspapers to publicize the Empire's good treatment of heroes - anyway, there were not many of these lucky people, and it didn't cost the empire much money.

The lucky ones naturally divided into small circles according to their respective infantry divisions and other units of the regiment, and they all wore black tricorne hats with bronze ornaments, red summer cool uniforms, and officers in indigo, with short tuxedo styles, copper buttons, lace colors, and embroidery patterns to represent different regiments.

White criss-cross diagonal shoulder straps, ammunition boxes, swords and bayonets hanging near the hips on either side of the waist in combat condition, white linen trousers are always worn underneath, riding boots are worn by officers, and leggings and low-top military boots are worn by soldiers.

In this era of queuing and shooting, the army's costumes were popular in bright colors to distinguish friend and foe on the battlefield filled with gunpowder, and even the style was closer to that worn by ordinary people when they attended formal banquets, which was a common aesthetic.

Some officers would even pay for the good clothes themselves, which were made to order by skilled tailors, and they could not change the style and color of the uniform, so they put a lot of thought into the clothes and accessories.

The poet sings the praises of open, frontal, gentlemanly duels in the great age of knights, all in accordance with the norms of etiquette and aesthetic taste.

Even field artillery had been used in the war for many years, and knights had declined as a power class, but cavalry was still the most important and decisive force on the battlefield.

"Sean, here!"

Big-nosed Gary Norris yelled from afar. He is an elite grenadier of the 21st Infantry Division, tall and athletic, with a very outgoing and cheerful personality, especially known for having a towering red nose, and if you don't look at your height and size, you can resemble a clown in a circus.

Sean had never dealt with him before, and only became familiar with him when he came to the nursing home.

"Hello, Gary. ”

"Hello, Sean. Big Nose patted Sean on the shoulder enthusiastically, "You look good, you seem to have a head?" Hey, forget you're still a great boy, and you're still trying to grow your body." By the way, do you have any hair? The last time Giron went to the brothel with me, he peed before he took off his pants......"

Giron-Borg blushed and rushed over, grinning with a big nose and turning to run.

The people next to him laughed when they heard this. They are John Smith, George Schmidt, Andrew Barrett, Michael Benson, and Giron Borg. These people have a good relationship with Sean.

Among them, Giron Borg is younger than Sean, only 17 years old this year, and three months before the rout, he joined the 21st Infantry Division as a supplementary soldier, and he is still childish. is not like Sean, although he is only 19 years old, since he woke up in a coma, his temperament has changed greatly, and his speech and demeanor are quite steady.

The others were all in their twenties, and the eldest, Michael Benson, was no older than 25, almost all of them came from families of farmers, craftsmen, apprentices, or small merchants, all of whom Sean had met in the sanatorium with his comrades from the 21st Infantry Division.

"Corporal Gary Norris, you bull in heat, don't let me hear about you spending all your paychecks on a woman's belly!"

Captain Hans-Horns came over with the rest of the 21st Infantry Division and roared from afar.

Captain Hoths was the highest-ranking of the 20 survivors of the 21st Infantry Division, and the highest-ranking of the 320 surviving officers and men of the 17th Regiment — except for the few officers who did not go to war for some reason — and in the minds of the survivors, they were not of their kind.

For example, a senior officer of the Legion has been in the Holy City from beginning to end, and is said to have been ordered by the Legion Commander, General Conrad Adenauer, to fight against the bureaucrats in the Holy City who owed the Legion military supplies for no reason.

Horns was an excellent professional soldier, even in the hot summer in the north, his uniform was always worn without harshness, his body was tall and mighty, and his face was serious, because he lost his left eye in the war and covered it with an eyepatch, which made him exude a murderous aura all over his body.

The grapevine said that today when someone from the Military Command Department came, he may be directly awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel by skipping the ranks, and in terms of career development, he has entered a fast lane of rapid ascension, especially since he is just 30 years old.

A civilian-born lieutenant has no reliable background and the appreciation of big names, and he can't be promoted to major until he is almost 40 years old. Don't you see that those high-ranking officers are all from noble backgrounds?

Sean has a lot of respect for Captain Horns, because it is the captain's insistence that Sean, who is unconscious in the battlefield, will not be burned as a dead body.

Captain Horns' only drawback is that he is too serious and not sarcastic, and his arrival makes even the big-nosed Gary Norris serious.

In fact, except for a few survivors such as Xiao Si, most of the survivors' injuries have long been healed, and the rest of the time is to raise fat and brag. So Sean's change impressed Captain Horns.

Captain Horns was the same, and he had been writing since he heard that he had recovered from his wounds, and then he often went to the headquarters of the Military Command in Ars City to get along with the generals. He even went to the Holy City several times for activities.

He believes that the 21st Infantry Division has not been completely wiped out, as evidenced by the other 19 soldiers in the sanatorium, so the 21st Infantry Division should be rebuilt as soon as possible.

Sean even read a very inconspicuous article in the latest Herald referring to Horth's report, in which the journalist suggested that Horns was trying to take the opportunity to occupy a significant position in the rebuilt 21st Division and even the 17th Army.

Perhaps, but Sean doesn't care too much.

"Sean, you look good, you really look back. Horns walked straight over.

"Thank you again, Captain!" Sean saluted. Horns also saluted:

"You're welcome. I heard that you've been hiding in the library lately reading a book with a beautiful woman? Well, that's a foreign proverb. You should go out into the streets, like other young people, though I don't like taverns like that. ”

There is Yan Ruyu in the book, and it is said that there is a saying in the country of Great Xia.

"Actually, I jog five kilometers every morning. Sean said, seeing that Captain Horns seemed to be in a bad mood, he asked tentatively, "Captain, what difficulties have you encountered, maybe I can help you with some ideas?"

Horns pulled Sean into the corner and said, "Sean, among us survivors, it can be seen that you are wise and have the temperament of a scholar. I came back from the Holy City this time, and the atmosphere there was very unfriendly. It is very unfair that public opinion has put most of the blame on Marshal Pierce. ”

"Yes, dead people can't quibble. Sean said, "Someone has to take the blame." ”

"With the iron pot on your back?" Horns wondered.

There is no such thing as a black cauldron in the Europa language, and Sean coined a word of his own, but Horns immediately understood what Sean meant.

"In the Red Moon Plan, Pierce was only the commander of the front line, but he could only command three of the seven legions under his command, including the 17th legion that we had a false appearance. But the marshal has a lot of subordinates all his life, and the Pierce family is also quite influential in the political circles, and I guess the military command department will definitely reward them in order to appease his subordinates. Put all the blame on Marshal Pierce, and everyone will breathe a sigh of relief. ”

Captain Horns sighed:

"Sean, you're right, just like what I inquired about in the Holy City, I have a classmate from the military academy who is from a noble background, and he is well-informed as an intelligence officer in the Military Command Department. How did you come up with this judgment?"

"It was written in the newspaper. Sean replied.

"How could it be written in the newspaper?" said Horns.

"Of course it won't be written so explicitly, you just need to care about the personnel changes related to Master Pierce after he committed suicide. Isn't it all generally elevated?"

Horth was thoughtful, and some of them behaved so badly in the war that they even left their troops and became deserters.

He didn't know if Sean knew that the failure and great rout of the Red Moon Project had seriously affected the reign of His Majesty the Emperor, and the Emperor issued several declarations in succession, very tactfully apologizing to his subjects, mainly blaming the failure on the incompetence of the front-line generals, the corruption of logistics officials, the collapse of the imperial finances, and the continuous agricultural failures.

And the high-ranking officers who were involved with Marshal Pierce were promoted, how could they not be approved by the emperor?

This point, whether it is in the drunken holy city or in the small city of Ars on the border, is a taboo topic, he and Sean tacitly glance at each other, and at the same time he feels the need to reacquaint Sean with the little sergeant.

Horns pointed to his comrades not far away and said:

"Sean, I've talked to them all, most of them only have the skills to be a soldier, like Gary, who only knows how to brag except for charging with a bayonet. A small number of people with physical disabilities return home with a large severance pay. You are literate, and by virtue of your military exploits, you are qualified to go to the Royal Military Academy of the Gangdis. You know, you are still very young, I heard that after an hour, everyone can be promoted to two levels in a row, and you will be a second lieutenant officer immediately, and you will only be 22 years old after graduating after 3 years, and at least you can become a captain directly at that time. The captain had an annuity of at least 1,000 louis per year.

When the time comes, you have to have qualifications, you have to have military merits, and the signboard of the Royal Military Academy, and more importantly, you are very young, if you know more noble children in the Military Academy, the future is immeasurable!

I was the youngest son of a grocery store owner, unable to inherit the family business, and was twenty-one years old when I got the opportunity to enter the Royal Military Academy, first as a midship, and if it weren't for the horrors of the war, I would not have been able to become a captain so quickly. ”

"You're not going to be there soon. Sean laughed, and he noticed that Captain Horns was also a chatter, "I congratulate you on your promotion in advance!"

"Thank you!" Anyway, it was extremely rare to move up two ranks, and it was an important leap to enter the ranks of colonel-level officers, and Captain Horns was very happy, which obviously allowed him to waste many years and make a big difference in the army.

Horns didn't know that he was crooked, and forgot the reason for the earnest admonition just now, and said with a smile:

"I met with several journalists and news commentators in the Holy City, and they were very interested in my experience of the war, about which many outsiders have written a lot of articles, and they wanted me to write a few articles from the perspective of a junior officer who had experienced it firsthand. You know, although I have no problem with my literacy skills, I am still a little bit away from publishing in the newspaper, are you interested? I can help you introduce it, but people don't need it. ”

Sean saw that he was very earnest, and said curiously: "You owe someone a favor?"

"That's true, but I don't want to write a few boring articles like old chicken that make people laugh, and I don't want others to tamper with what I really mean. Seven years ago, a report in the Holy City's Business Review triggered the collapse of paper money, and my conscientious dad almost went bankrupt.

Sean, you are a very literate person, you may not have known me before, but I have heard of you.

Sean, the poet who was delayed by the army, and Sean, the sharpshooter who was delayed by writing poetry!

And you have personally experienced every war of the past three years, and I believe that no one is more qualified than you, if not for me, but for the officers and men of our 21st Infantry Division. ”

I love to write poetry, Shaun remembered.