Chapter 173 - 159: Speed
Chapter 173: Chapter 159: Speed
After Robson got his rear guard in order, he led them on a grueling march to catch up with the main army ahead.
Even Robson’s army faced numerous problems during such a high-intensity forced march; nearly 500 men had become stragglers in that time.
Although the average physical constitution of people in this world was much better than in Robson’s past life, there was ultimately a limit.
In truth, it was already astonishing that they could maintain the army’s cohesion during such a high-intensity forced march. When marching a hundred li a day, having even half the men not fall behind upon arrival was considered a respectable figure.
The only reason Robson could maintain his army’s integrity was due to his system of non-commissioned officers at the lowest levels, the resilience of his soldiers, and all the preparations he had made beforehand.
All the armor and military supplies had been loaded onto carts.
At the very least, their performance had astonished most people, including Prince Noah.
"You’re saying you want to build large carriages for transporting soldiers?" Mage Norria asked, giving Robson a strange look.
"Are you sure horses can pull vehicles of this weight?" Mage Norria asked.
Robson had sought out Mage Norria, hoping the Mage could use his Shaping Technique to create enough carriages for him.
Of course, these carriages were not for the Tier Two Soldiers who couldn’t keep up with the main force.
In reality, Robson was already preparing to split his entire army into two echelons that would arrive on the battlefield sequentially.
It was an unavoidable necessity. Some soldiers truly couldn’t keep pace with the main force. If he wanted to keep their units intact, he had no choice but to let them travel as a separate group.
Fortunately, while Robson had integrated many Tier Three Soldiers into each legion, with the exception of the non-commissioned officers, these higher-tier units were mostly organized as the Elite Camp or in elite teams.
A sense of competition was fine at the regimental level, but allowing it to spread further down the ranks would be detrimental to unity.
However, at their current pace, even the Elite Corps would be largely combat-ineffective by the time they reached their destination.
"We’ve already discussed it. We’ve gathered a number of horses with magical beast bloodlines from among the nobility.
With the addition of mules, it shouldn’t be a major issue.
As long as you can guarantee the quality of the carriages," Valentino added from the side.
Robson’s plan was to use dozens of these new carriages, in addition to their existing supply wagons, to transport an entire regiment of soldiers, allowing them to preserve as much of their combat strength as possible.
"Oof, using the Shaping Technique dozens of times in a single day... This old man might not be able to take it," Mage Norria said with a wry smile.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help. The Shaping Technique was a second-tier spell, on the level of a Mage, and Robson’s requirements were not simple. Robson had even included some engineering principles from his past life to create a shock-absorbing effect. Just one of the earlier Magic Crystal Cannon carriages had taken Mage Norria two whole days to figure out.
A few of the Magic Crystal Cannons were still with the soldiers lagging behind.
"Of course, you won’t be doing it alone. In fact, I’ll be participating in this project myself," Robson said.
"You? Lad, it’s not that this old man looks down on you, but your carriage design is quite complex. Without sufficient experience, it’s very difficult to construct the corresponding magical model in your mind," Mage Norria said.
Mage Norria had a point. The more complex and intricate an object, the harder it was to create with magic. Magical shaping was a significant test of a person’s memory and imagination.
The creation of the Magic Crystal Cannon carriages had essentially been a one-man show put on by Mage Norria.
"You misunderstand, sir. In reality, we only need you to create the most complex part—this thing here that looks like a rabbit," Robson explained.
This was the device Robson intended to use for shock absorption. He’d stumbled upon the concept online in his past life as a hobby, and was surprised to find it actually worked when he experimented with it yesterday.
"That, and the accompanying wheels. You don’t need to worry about the other parts," Robson said.
Robson planned to have the entire Mage Corps work on it, giving everyone the same specifications to produce different components in an assembly-line fashion.
For this project, Robson had even established a unit of measurement equivalent to a centimeter, which Falan had helped recreate from memory.
That way, even if problems arose during assembly, they would be minor issues that could be easily corrected with the Shaping Technique.
Mage Norria was still a bit dazed by it all, but in the end, he agreed.
.....
"Sir Robson, you’re here! I was looking for you.
Something’s come up. Take a look."
It was Prince Noah, who was now wearing a helmet fashioned in the shape of a bear’s head.
"This was sent back by the Griffin Knights at Thermopylae," said Prince Noah.
Although the ground support from the kingdom was still a long way off, the Griffin Knight Orders of the three great families were quite swift.
The royal family had sent 200, the two Marquises a total of 100. Including Marquis Oscillate’s forces, there were now nearly 500 Griffin Knights on the entire Western Front.
Seeing Prince Noah’s rushed demeanor, Robson’s heart sank. He reached out and took the dispatch.
"Wolf Cavalry?" Robson’s brows furrowed as he read the contents of the dispatch.
His worst fears had come to pass: the sheer, overwhelming national power of the Beastmen.
Even while locked in a fierce, large-scale battle with Marquis Oscillate, they could still spare tens of thousands of elite troops to seize the pass.
Among this army of tens of thousands, there was a full five thousand Wolf Cavalry!
"What do we do now?" Prince Noah asked, looking to Robson, completely at a loss.
"According to the intel, the enemy will arrive at Thermopylae the day after tomorrow. Our current speed has already reached its limit," Robson said with a frown.
He knew his own army’s condition best. Their morale was plummeting. This wasn’t just a matter of physical stamina; the march was a torment to the soldiers’ minds and bodies.
Warfare in this age was different from the era of Robson’s past life. The common people’s interests were separate from those of the noble lords; they had no faith in the wars of the aristocracy.
Without that faith, it was difficult to maintain high morale on a forced march through sheer willpower. If they continued like this, their morale would likely drop to 30 or 40 by the time they arrived.
They’d be little better than a common army of Peasants.
Of course, a regular army of Peasants would have scattered long ago during such a forced march, with most, if not all, of them deserting.
"The army’s morale won’t permit us to keep up this pace. Moreover, we must ensure that the troops still have enough fighting strength left when we reach the battlefield."
Although he had long expected it, upon hearing Robson’s words, Prince Noah still couldn’t help but sigh.
’Robson’s army is already impressively elite, and their marching speed is incredibly fast.’
Prince Noah knew it wasn’t that Robson didn’t want to quicken their pace. The issue was that while increasing their speed, they had to preserve the army’s ability to fight!
’Sending a disorganized mob to charge would be nothing but a gift of battle honors to the enemy.’
’But the situation with the Beastman Wolf Cavalry is just as critical. If we let the Wolf Cavalry get there first, we’ll be trapped outside the pass. Once the main Beastman Army arrives, we’ll be in an impossible situation.’
Robson looked at the sighing Prince and suddenly thought of a solution that could kill two birds with one stone.
"Your Highness, I have an idea. It’s just... I don’t know if you are willing to pay the price," Robson said.
"At a time like this? Sir, please speak freely. There is nothing I wouldn’t sacrifice for the kingdom," Prince Noah said, his brow furrowed.
"Your Highness... do you have money?"
.....
After two days of high-intensity marching, everyone in the army, from the highest officer to the lowest soldier, had grown weary.
Hans clutched a piece of jerky, huddled under a tree with his old captain, Jason, and his friend, Odin.
"When will these days ever end?
"I’d rather be on the battlefield killing a hundred Beastmen than take one more step!" Hans said, utterly dejected. He then took a vicious bite out of his jerky.
"If it weren’t for days like these, would you be eating meat with every meal?" Jason retorted.
"Yeah, what’s so bad about this? A day’s work back then wasn’t much easier than this, and we couldn’t even get a full meal," Odin added.
Odin was telling the truth, of course, but he was overlooking one crucial fact: his current physical constitution was on a completely different level from before.
With his old, sallow-faced, malnourished body, marching a hundred li a day would have been a death sentence. It was no different from being ordered to die.
Most of the soldiers who had fallen behind simply didn’t have the physical constitution to keep up.
Across the army, soldiers of the First Regiment merely felt weary. Those in the Second and Third Regiments were exhausted in both body and mind, while many in the Fourth and Fifth were already showing signs of minor physical ailments.
Hans sighed. Back in their territory, his father was a hunter, which meant he was at least from a family that owned property.
The lord demanded a weekly tribute of food, but he allowed them to keep a portion to sustain themselves—ensuring his lordship’s own sustainable method of draining the pond to get all the fish.
Hans’s father would usually trade this meat for wheat flour, so Hans’s life wasn’t as bad as Odin’s.
"Say, where’d that kid Jack run off to? Isn’t he usually the most gung-ho at a time like this?" Hans wondered aloud.
Just as he said that, Jack came walking over, his face beaming with delight.
"Hey, Jack! What, did you run into a pretty she-goat? Look at you, all red in the face," Hans whistled, a teasing look on his face.
Jack often bragged about his romantic escapades in the city, but many men in the legion came from the same village as him.
It wasn’t long before one of his fellow villagers called him out, and Hans loved to tease him about his made-up stories.
Jack ignored Hans. He had no time to pay him any mind right now.
"Captain! Captain!
When do we move out?" Jack asked Jason, his face alight with excitement.
Jason, who was in the middle of eating his jerky, looked at Jack in surprise.
"Move out? You’re so eager now?
"Good, good. If everyone works hard, our squad can definitely earn a bonus, too," Jason said, nodding in approval.
"No, don’t you guys know?" Jack asked, looking at Jason with a puzzled expression.
"It’s the talk of the camp! I just asked Ais, and he heard it from the big man himself!
For the next two days, in every legion, any soldier who marches a hundred li gets one Silver Coin! One hundred and twenty li gets two Silver Coins! And one hundred and fifty li gets five Silver Coins!" Jack exclaimed, his face flushed with excitement.
"For real?!" The incredible news made Jason’s head spin. He even stopped chewing his jerky.
"For real! As real as gold!
Ais heard it with his own ears, and a messenger is coming to make the official announcement any minute now!"
As if to prove Jack’s words, a soldier with a red cord tied around his arm—the mark of a runner—sprinted over moments later and began speaking quietly to Jason.
The more Captain Jason listened, the brighter his face became. He had to take a few deep breaths to compose himself.
"I understand," Jason said.
After delivering his message, the soldier turned and left, looking to be in a great hurry.
"Well? Well? Was I telling the truth or not?" Jack asked, looking at Jason eagerly.
The other members of the squad also turned their gazes toward their captain.
Although they all usually complained about the long, grueling marches, if what Jack said was true...
A hundred li a day? Forget a hundred li! They were ready to challenge their own limits and ask how many Silver Coins they’d get for two hundred li a day.
Of course, two hundred li a day was actually impossible. Even a Tier Six Soldier would drop dead from the effort.
Jason shook his head.
"Tch! Knew it. How could that be possible? Jack, you’re..." Hans began to mock.
"One hundred li a day, one Silver Coin. One hundred and twenty li, four Silver Coins. One hundred and fifty li, eight Silver Coins," Captain Jason announced.
Upon hearing this, all the soldiers gasped.
Hans quickly scarfed down the rest of his jerky in a few large bites.
"What are you all standing around dazed for! Let’s get a move on!
This is our chance to get rich!!"