On the second Sunday of December, the fourth day after the meeting of the lords of the whole border, armies of various sizes began to arrive from all over the city outside Bramont, some of them were the light and heavy cavalry of the territory led by the illustrious baron himself and the lord's private soldiers (infantry), straddle the war horses and heavy armor, numbering nearly a hundred; Some are a lowly knight pulling the old and young attendants and the conscripted peasant soldiers in the mining villages, leading mules and donkeys to wrap cotton armor, and there are only a few people; Some are elite soldiers who have killed the enemy across the border and made meritorious contributions; Some are the remnants of the newly defeated army that will not be able to form a group soon; In addition, many squires (village chiefs) who had heard that miscellaneous soldiers could also be paid to eat barns, and the peasants in the village who were short of food rushed to Bramont to serve as hard labor for the army that was about to fight. Mobile

In just three or four days, the army gathered in Brammon City has been close to five hundred, and it is naturally not without guys who fish in troubled waters, but the vast majority of the army is still a relatively elite border army and the lord's private soldiers, these people may not be as good as the Wells army under the command of Art, but they are much stronger than the prisoner soldiers, in any case, most of them are also capable soldiers under the lords, and many people are on the border all the year round, and they have fought a lot of vicious battles with Swa, and victory or defeat does not matter for the time being, At least they were all battle-hardened people, and at least they wouldn't panic in front of the enemy.

The snow that had melted all over the mountains a few days ago had melted, and it was even colder when the snow melted.

Dressed in plate chain mail, Art had to cover his armor with the bearskin coat, and even then it was difficult to withstand the biting cold wind.

In such weather, Baron Art, as the supreme military commander of the East, was supposed to sit in front of the fireplace in the hall of the lords of Brammon City, enjoying the fire and planning the war with fine wine, but Art insisted on personally supervising the conscription army inspection office located outside the city gates.

There was a long wooden table in the inspection office, and Robert led a few literate clerks in the camp command camp behind the wooden table to register the lords' armies who came to enlist, and Ron, the guard officer of Art, identified the soldiers who came with the lord to recruit one by one.

As an internal officer who fought hard battles with Art for six years, Ron is very experienced despite his young age.

He first stood at a distance and looked at the soldiers' faces, figures, weapons and armor, and at a glance he could roughly tell whether the recruits were elite soldiers, ordinary private soldiers, or simply full of farmers, which was very important, and directly related to the salary level that the recruits would receive in the future.

Ron stared coldly at the soldier standing at the wooden table, he had come with a frontier knight, everyone else had already registered for tomorrow's pay, and he was left alone.

The soldier was about thirty years old, not tall and strong, wearing a thin leather helmet that must have been full of pits, an old cotton armor, tightly tied with hemp rope around his waist, no pants on the lower half of his body, two long tights in the hem of the cotton armor skirt, a pair of frayed sheepskin winter boots on his feet, and the only thing he could see from his whole body was a long-handled battle axe hanging from the hemp rope around his waist.

Thirty years old is already considered old for an ordinary soldier, this age is no longer the elite stage, but Ron feels that the poor man in front of him still has a fierce look in his eyes.

"Lord Ron, is this guy a regular soldier?" Behind the long table, the Chinese military officer with a quill turned his head and waited for Ron's reply.

Ron didn't answer the officer's words, he walked around the long table to the soldier, grabbed his right palm and glanced at it, it was very rough and calloused, the marks of a long wielding war hammer.

"Make a book according to the elite soldiers." Ron turned to the clerk and said a word, then waved for the soldier to receive his salary for tomorrow.

Art stood aside and watched Ron's selection with great interest, nodded approvingly, and walked up.

"Sir!"

"Your Excellency!"

"Adult~"

Ron, Robert, and several of the clerks stood up and bowed to Art.

"Well, it's been cold in the bone-chilling wind for a few days, and you've worked hard. I've asked the guards to prepare you a bucket of hot broth, and I'll send it to you in a moment to warm you up. ”

Art motioned for a few of the officers to sit down and continue working on the book, and called Robert and Ron to the side.

"Ron, how's the job going?" Art stepped forward and patted the dust off Ron's armor.

Ron has been in charge of the selection and classification of the conscripted army for the past few days, and after a little recollection, he replied: "Sir, six armies have come today, the largest number is forty-three, and the least are the three mercenaries who have arrived after hearing that someone is recruiting."

"Up to now, we have assembled twenty-three heavy cavalry (most of whom are themselves commanders), forty-seven cavalry (knightly attendants), one hundred and twenty elite soldiers, two hundred and fifty-one ordinary soldiers including forty-three crossbowmen, and fifty-two miscellaneous servants, making a total of four hundred and ninety-three."

"According to the cavalry of the Guards, there are still large numbers of troops on the way from all directions of Brammon, and I estimate that a large number of soldiers will come to recruit in the next two days."

Art nodded, there was the temptation of a huge salary, and he was not worried about the lack of soldiers.

"My lord, I have some concerns." Robert looked at the growing camp outside the city, but there was not much smile on his face.

"Oh? Father Robert, please. Art's eyes turned to Robert, because Art's Chinese army command camp lacked literate leaders, this military priest had no choice but to serve as the steward of Art's Chinese army command camp, responsible for the affairs of the Chinese army for the entire army, of course, his main business was to shepherd the world for God.

"My lord, I have three worries."

Art looked at Robert, listening intently.

"First, the source of such an army is very large, and you are only a frontier baron, so it is not so easy to command. And this kind of army likes to rush forward to compete for military merits and gains when it encounters a smooth battle, and when it encounters a counterattack war, it often stops and even abandons the battle and flees, and the combat strength is really worrying. ”

"Second, with such a large army, it is very difficult to supply food and baggage for soldiers and horses, and the city of Jonah can only provide us with food and supplies for a thousand people at most, and there is often a shortage of them, and now there are more than 2,000 people and horses here, and the daily consumption is too great. Now that the whole of Brammon County is struggling to be self-sufficient, even if you have the money, you may not be able to raise such a large amount of food and baggage in a short time, and an army without baggage supplies cannot be sustained. ”

"Thirdly, the sudden appearance of an army of 2,000 men in the east, where there was no heavy army, will certainly be taken seriously by the Swabian court, and if Swabia feels that we are determined to attack the border, then our situation will be even more dangerous. Besides~"

Art looked up, "Besides what? ”

"Besides, you're too high-profile and presumptuous. My lord, don't forget that you are only a baron leading soldiers on the frontier, and even if you are promoted to the rank of viscount, you will not have the right to lead thousands of soldiers...... "Robert has seen how those court magnates wipe out some usurpers who may threaten power, and sometimes the so-called loyalty cannot offset the concerns in their hearts, not to mention that the reputation of this "usurper" in front of him is really not very good, and it is not easy to make people believe that he is absolutely loyal to the Count of Burgundy.

Moreover, the second time Robert mentioned the next words, it was not that Art did not know the consequences of doing so, but he really did not want to continue to suffer, he had been fighting in this world for six years, and it was too difficult to come through step by step.

He didn't want to miss this opportunity to make a difference.

In response to Robert's three questions, Art also responded.

First, in order to deter and control the border armies, he has ordered Odo to transfer the Second Infantry Regiment from the border back to the vicinity of Fort Genes, and Kazak and his troops who are far away in the Vaal City on the Western Front have also been urgently transferred to the east.

The army of the valley that had rushed to fight in the north from the barony of Tignets in the south was also about to arrive in Bramont, and when these armies were all there, the number of troops under Arte's command exceeded 1,200, and he still had an absolute superiority in strength in this patchwork border army. And Art did not expect them to resist the Swabian army led by Randy, the main task of these border armies was to attack Fort Gennet, and the heavy task of stopping the Swabian army would be done by Art Ark's own army.

The main thing is that Art firmly controls the money and food of the army, which is the key to his control of the army.

Second, the supply of food and materials for more than 2,000 troops has far exceeded the limit of Brammon's bearing, Brammon has been beaten by Swabian and bruised, many civilians in the county are even difficult to protect themselves, it is impossible to come up with the supply of 2,000 men and horses, and the Jonah court can't count on it, and now Besançon has entered the critical period of attack and defense, and the people and property of the entire eastern province of Jonah must be given priority to the Besançon battlefield, and Art does not have the ability to make the center of gravity of Jonah's court move eastward.

As a last resort, Arte left the caravan of Salter and the European Merchant House temporarily incorporated into Spencer's army baggage, and Spencer led the garrison regiment and the recruited miscellaneous laborers to buy grain at a high price in Bramont County as an emergency grain reserve for the army of two thousand, Bramont was short of food, but the barns of the lord squire's house were not lacking, as long as the price was attractive enough, a lot could be purchased; The caravan led by Salter went south to the county of Geraru to buy military rations and send them to Bramont for the army.

The first two problems can also be solved by Yate's own means, anyway, it is to sell money. But the third question did give Art a headache.

The fact that the Swabians have not invaded the country now is the fundamental reason why Art can barely resist the Swabian army, and if this delicate balance is broken because of Art's high-profile gathering of troops, it will be a disaster for the entire Count of Burgundy, and the consequences will not be borne by Art.

And the reason why Ballwin and Flender can still trust Art is because they feel that Art is a steel blade that can be used, and if this steel blade cannot be manipulated or even has the strength to turn against it, this trust will slowly turn into suspicion. Even if it won't now, it doesn't mean it won't in the future.

"I have sent letters to the court of Jonah, to the camp of the Central Command of the Liberation Army, and to Flender and the Earl of Balwin, stating that the eastern frontier is eroded, that the Swabians may invade the frontier at any time, and that the gathering of the frontier army is also a contingency plan. He also stated in the letter that he hoped that the two lords would soon send an important minister to the east to command this army. ”

"As for dealing with the invasion of the whole country by the Swabians, it is up to the troops sent by the Duchy of Swabia to play a deterrent role."

Art's head was also a little messy, but he didn't want to show a sense of powerlessness in front of his subordinates.

At this moment, a huge procession slowly moved from the dirt road to the south towards the recruiting place where the Artsers were recruiting, and it seemed that the number of people was no less than two hundred.

A soldier dressed in a shabby animal skin robe, lined with hay, and carrying a notched knife in his hand, wiped his nose and ran towards the recruitment office.

He didn't pay attention to Art and Ron Robert standing aside, but said loudly to the clerk behind the long table, "My Baron Bob has personally led a large army to fight, so don't hurry up and send someone to prepare barracks and food for our army." ”

The soldier took a sharp breath as the two guards carried a large pot of steaming broth onto the long table.

"Bob ?!!" Art was attracted by the name, and the Bob he was familiar with seemed to have been driven back to the court of Besançon, and had disappeared for a long time, when did he become Baron Bob?

Yate raised his head suspiciously, put up his tent and glanced at the road to the south, "Huh! This noodle~"

I couldn't help but exclaim.

Rise in the Middle Ages