"Huh? Wasn't the atmosphere very lively? Why did I get cold as soon as I came? ”

Lawrence continued to ask, and at the same time swept his eyes over the eyes of all the onlookers, and every soldier who looked at Lawrence quickly lowered his head and said nothing.

"I am Lawrence Bonaparte, commander of the 4th Infantry Battalion, and this is my adjutant, Major Trefali."

Lawrence loudly identified himself and Trefali, and then asked the soldiers:

"How many companies does the fourth battalion have?"

The soldiers replied, "Two." ”

Lawrence frowned slightly, the number of people in a company should be about one hundred and twenty, and the establishment of only two companies in the fourth battalion means that the number of people will not exceed three hundred. Under normal circumstances, a battalion should have about 500 people.

Lawrence glanced at the tents in the camp out of the corner of his eye, and judging by the number of tents, there were indeed only about two hundred people.

There is no doubt that Paulie must have deliberately given the Fourth Battalion to Lawrence in order to minimize his influence in the Wehrmacht.

"Poly, this guy, don't talk about stuffing me with a bunch of garbage, stuffing garbage and cutting corners."

Lawrence couldn't help but shake his head, it seemed that Poly really didn't want to interfere too much in the affairs of the military.

Putting the idea of Paulie behind him, Lawrence still had to deal with the problems within the 4th Battalion quickly.

"What about the commanders of the two companies? Dequeue! Lawrence shouted.

Then, a middle-aged man with a long beard in the crowd stood up with a panicked and uneasy face, and the pattern on his sleeve indicated that he was a lieutenant.

After waiting in place for a while, Lawrence never had another company commander in the ranks, so he couldn't help but ask:

"Where's the other company commander?"

The lieutenant who came out of the ranks said carefully:

"Report to the sir, another company commander was just shot by you."

A little speechless glanced at the fat man who was lying in a pool of blood, no longer a trace of life, and Lawrence couldn't help but sigh No wonder this fat man could sit at the gambling table, it turned out that he still had a half-official position.

"You, come with me." Lawrence said to the lieutenant, and then took Trifali and the three of them to the outside of the camp. I really don't know how these soldiers endured this camp, which was full of feces and flies.

"Sir, I'm Lieutenant Seth, the company commander of the First Company."

Lieutenant Seth said with trepidation, and couldn't help but glance at the fat man's body in the distance, until now no soldier dared to come forward to collect his body.

Lawrence didn't bother to talk nonsense, and directly asked the question he was most concerned about:

"Why is the Fourth Battalion so messy?"

Lieutenant Seth hesitated for a moment, looked bitter, and said:

"The soldiers of the fourth battalion are not recruited normally, they are basically prisoners from prisons, or forcibly recruited from vagrants."

In the early days when Poly gathered an army against the Genoese, when the war was very anxious, Poly had to integrate criminals, ruffians, and outcasts into the army, which on the one hand could increase the strength of the army, and on the other hand, stabilize the law and order in the rear.

Lawrence nodded in understanding, and such arrests were still common in this era.

And now, when the war situation is very good, these conscripted cannon fodder have lost their value, presumably this is the reason why the fourth battalion is not stationed in the city but on the outskirts of the city.

After all, the regular army in the Wehrmacht will inevitably discriminate against these low-quality and weak conscripts.

"How many people are in the 4th Battalion now?"

Lawrence frowned and asked, understanding the situation of the Fourth Battalion, but he did not expect to lead such a force to complete the task of attracting the Genoese to attack.

When the time comes, pull the fourth battalion under the fortress of the Genoese, and maybe the other side will think that the disaster is from somewhere.

Lieutenant Seth swallowed, and hesitated for a moment on Lawrence's question before he said:

"I don't know, it's been a long time since there has been a roll call here, and anyone who wants to go home will just leave. However, they still get paid for staying here, so many people go home for a while and then return to the camp. Anyway, I'm playing cards and drinking here every day..."

Even Lawrence couldn't help but twitch the corners of his mouth when he heard such an answer, where is this half-cent army, it looks like a large welfare institution, you can come and go when you want, and you can get a salary.

"And what about weapons? Where are your muskets stored? Lawrence's brow did not stretch for a moment, and the problems of the Fourth Battalion were beyond his expectations.

"Musket," said Lieutenant Seth, whose expression was about to burst into tears, and he glanced uneasily at the fat man who had fallen on the spot, and said:

"Everyone is secretly selling it for money, anyway, it hasn't been a war for a long time... And even if it starts, it's not us. ”

"I see, you can go back."

Lawrence waved his hand at Lieutenant Seth angrily and said, he was afraid that if he continued to understand, he would be so angry that he would shoot Lieutenant Seth on the spot.

When Lieutenant Seth had slipped away as if he had been granted amnesty, Major Trefali asked with a worried expression:

"How to do this, with this group of people, let alone fighting, I'm afraid it's not realistic to pull them to walk five miles."

"No matter what, we have to put order in order tomorrow." Lawrence nodded.

Major Trefali sighed, "That being said, what are you going to do?" ”

Lawrence yawned, removed the blanket from his horse bag, and said:

"It's nothing more than a sentence, a turnip stick, and grace and power. By the way, do you know those cuirassiers who escorted us? ”

Although Travary didn't know why Lawrence suddenly said this, he nodded and said:

"I'm pretty familiar with it, in fact, most of the cuirassiers' pistols were built by me, and I met them when I made them."

"Very well, tomorrow we will go back to Bastia, I will go and ask for supplies, and you ask those cuirassiers to go back to camp with us in your private name."

Before Trevary could ask about the purpose of these cuirassiers, Lawrence had already found a pine tree and sat down, covered with a blanket and prepared to sleep.

......

In the early morning of the next day, in addition to the calls of hundreds of songbirds among the trees, you could faintly hear the sound of orders and shouts in unison from the direction of Bastia not far away, which seemed to be the daily practice of the Northern Army.

Lawrence and Trefary got up early, looked at the still silent camp, and figured that the group would not get up until noon.

When the two men parted ways on their return to Bastia, Trefary followed Lawrence's instructions to request six cuirassiers to accompany them.

Lawrence stood on the street and wondered how to negotiate with General Nathan, after all, he and Nathan had only broken up yesterday evening, and he had to be cheeky to ask for a batch of supplies, but he had to prepare a good explanation.

Just as Lawrence was standing on the street and almost making up his mind, a dozen or so soldiers carrying wooden boxes walked in front of him, each of which was uncovered, and the contents of the box turned out to be shining gold coins.

Even the two boxes of one-eyed gold coins combined were not half of the gold coins in any of them, and there were more than a dozen of them here.

Lawrence couldn't help but be a little surprised, waved his hand to stop a corporal at the head, and asked, "What is so much money for?" ”

The lieutenant didn't want to answer, but after seeing Lawrence's rank, he hurriedly explained:

"Sir, this is not a Corsican gold coin, it is a counterfeit coin made by the Genoese in order to disrupt our monetary system, sir, you can see the difference if you look closely."

Lawrence took a coin from the box and examined it for a moment, and found that it was identical to the Corsican gold coin in size and style, but it was much darker in color, presumably replacing the gold in the gold with brass.

However, if you don't look closely at the sun, it is really not easy for ordinary people to notice. Brass is much less dense than gold, but it's hard to feel the difference in weight even if it's just one or two coins.

"These gadgets... Maybe it will be useful. ”

Gently tossing the counterfeit back into the box, Lawrence suddenly had an idea and decided to add the counterfeit coins when he asked Nathan for supplies.