Chapter Thirteen: Reorganizing the Army (Third Update)

After the defeat on the Orc Continent, Amaskia naturally paid close attention to the annihilation of the Orcs’ million-strong army. Even though he had not witnessed Sun Li’s army’s astonishing bayonet charge firsthand, he had heard of Song Kingdom’s idea of combining flintlock muskets with long spears. However, since Song Kingdom had only defeated a backward and barbaric orc force, Amaskia did not take it seriously.

At that moment, seeing the advantages of his hastily assembled peasant army’s spear charges and musket volleys in terms of endurance, Amaskia began to contemplate merging the two to maximize the army’s combat effectiveness.

A man of action, Amaskia wasted no time and immediately ordered his craftsmen to produce large quantities of bayonets that could be fixed to musket barrels, ensuring that after firing, soldiers could swiftly switch to bayonet charges for close combat.

By this period, industry on the European continent was already quite advanced. After Amaskia provided his specific ideas, samples of this new weapon were soon presented to the Republic’s First Consul.

The first European bayonet was a plug bayonet, sword-shaped, 30 to 60 centimeters in length, featuring a wooden conical handle that could be inserted into the muzzle of a smoothbore musket for stabbing purposes, effectively replacing the long spear.

Yet, it had an obvious flaw: once inserted into the barrel, the musket could no longer be fired; if inserted too tightly, it was difficult to remove; if too loosely, it could fall off easily.

Nonetheless, Amaskia reasoned that during a charge, muskets would naturally cease firing, so this flaw was minor. More crucially, time was scarce, and he lacked the resources to invent a more advanced bayonet now—he would wait until after repelling the allied invasion.

Following his order to accelerate bayonet production, the Germanic Republic, inheriting the Madrid Empire’s industrial system intact, quickly manufactured large quantities of these bayonets. Amaskia then reequipped the remaining 150,000 peasants in his army, using flintlock muskets fitted with bayonets captured from the nobility.

Based on the recent campaign against the nobles, he selected the bravest soldiers for the Germanic Guard and, using the republic’s limited funds, designed a uniform for them—tall hats, blue attire, high boots—neat and uniform, ensuring the guard’s collective pride was greatly enhanced.

Under Amaskia’s vigorous expansion, the Germanic Guard grew to 100,000 men. Most peasants fought courageously, so manpower was not an issue. The main limitation on the guard’s size was uniform and equipment costs, essentially a financial burden. To distinguish the guard from regular ethnic troops, in addition to their military allotments, the guard received a modest monthly pay, and in case of death in battle, their land grants were doubled.

While ordinary ethnic soldiers received only five acres of land as compensation after death, guardsmen were entitled to ten acres, which by law could not be privately sold. Disabled guardsmen would receive regular government subsidies, whereas regular soldiers got only a meager one-time compensation before being sent home.

Even their rations differed: regular troops ate just enough to fill their stomachs and only occasionally had meat during wartime, while the guards enjoyed weekly meat and never lacked good food during campaigns.

Amaskia clearly nurtured the Germanic Guard as his elite core forces. Officers and propagandists were his trusted subordinates, and he used their superior treatment as an example to motivate the regular ethnic troops to fight harder. The recent induction of fifty thousand peasant soldiers into the guard sent a clear message: courage in battle could earn anyone a place with better benefits.

This elevated status and uniform discipline greatly bolstered the guard’s esprit de corps. Under the relentless ideological campaigns of the propagandists, the Germanic Guard radiated fervent zeal. Guardsmen saw themselves as the pillars of the republic, Amaskia’s loyal warriors, and the true masters of the nation.

Amaskia was pleased that after crushing the nobles, his guard now included 10,000 soldiers armed with flintlock muskets, among them the valiant fighters Bobby and Porter.

The only shortcoming was the Germanic Republic’s severe shortage of artillery and cavalry. Most cannons were left idle in the supposedly impregnable fortress complexes, and the Islerian Peninsula had long lacked warhorses; cavalry existed merely for reconnaissance, with no organized combat units.

With the republic stabilizing, military discipline had to be standardized. The old practice of boosting morale through looting was no longer acceptable. Though the Frankish Empire’s troops were wealthier than the nobles, their combat effectiveness was far greater.

The newly supplemented 200,000-strong Germanic Republic army abolished the looting share system entirely, replacing it with combat allowances. After each engagement, provided there was no catastrophic defeat, varying rewards were granted—gold coins, land, and more. However, land grants were extremely difficult to obtain, reserved only for the bravest infantry units that suffered the heaviest losses. Naturally, the more lives lost, the less land was distributed.

Well-fed by generous provisions, the Germanic Guard fully supported these reforms. The ethnic troops, seeing the new goal of joining the guard and the prospect of combat allowances, had few complaints.

Once again, Amaskia used his powerful propagandist system to bolster troop morale. This time there was a great victory to serve as a textbook example, giving propagandists even more influence. The entire republican army was suffused with a fervent, belligerent spirit—the Germanic Republic, newly founded, was already on the irreversible path of militarism.

Having settled these military policy adjustments, Amaskia commenced a three-month training regimen, demanding strict drill and musket marksmanship from both the Germanic Guard and the ethnic troops.

He did not expect his soldiers to match the elite standards of the great powers’ regular armies, but at minimum, they must form ranks properly and obey orders for volley fire. In war, a musket’s greatest power lay in coordinated volleys; random firing was worse than useless.

He hoped the noble forces holding the front would hold out and buy him a few more months. Just three months—if his fiercely motivated 200,000-strong army could complete basic training within that time, they should be able to withstand the Frankish Empire’s offensive in a defensive posture.

Hmph. Let the English Empire and the Frankish Empire witness firsthand what a people’s war truly means!