Chapter 362: Chapter 112: A Warlike Army

As the commander of the Fengman Clan’s Griffin Knight Order, Knight Commander Deman naturally had many important responsibilities and did not linger in the Affleck Domain.

After seeing Knight Commander Deman off, Robson immediately ordered the First Regiment to assemble.

As for the other regiments, Robson had no intention of mobilizing them for the time being. Even from the First Regiment, he would only select two hundred elites to march out with his Lord’s Guard.

This wasn’t Robson’s fault. During prior discussions, everyone had agreed that the Military Commission’s Standing Army would consist of one hundred men, supplemented by the able-bodied youths provided by the various nobles. Lord Robson had, in fact, contributed slightly more than his share of soldiers.

Now that troops were needed, this was the number of soldiers the Military Commission had at its disposal—a number they had all agreed upon.

And what if he, Lord Robson, were to undertake a "public service" bandit extermination for the greater good?

Robson could almost guarantee that, knowing the habits of his fellow lords, the only reward he would receive for suppressing the bandits on his own would be empty praise.

And Lord Robson had no taste for such noble-minded hobbies.

It couldn’t be helped. It wasn’t an official state of war, and without the logistical endorsement of the Kingdom Government, if Robson wanted to establish a properly-sized Standing Army, he would have to find a way to handle the logistics himself.

Besides, the benefits of expanding the Military Commission’s Standing Army were simply too numerous—the Commission’s special privileges, its overall size and influence...

All of this was crucial to Robson’s future plans for dominating the lands beyond the frontier.

After all, the Military Commission had no rule stating that only nobles from Ehrlichland could join.

Thinking even further ahead, the Military Commission would be an invaluable tool for Robson when it came to coordinating with the major powers beyond the frontier.

After all, when the time came, the nobles of Ehrlich Province, facing financial pressures, would surely be happy to see new members joining the Military Commission.

To the lesser nobles, the so-called distinctions between the military merit faction, the southern faction, and the northern faction were not so important in the face of real money and benefits.

.....

"A horn? Is that the sound of a horn?"

"There’s no mistaking it! We’re going to war!"

Hans had just returned from the Demon Beast Mountain Range, his cart laden with Magical Beast Meat.

After Everton had given his instructions regarding the Demon Beast Mountain Range, development of the range had gradually begun in the Affleck Domain.

According to the domain’s regulations, a typical expedition consisted of three soldiers from the Lord’s Guard and six elite soldiers from the First Regiment.

Although Hans had now passed the military adjutant examination and was already serving as an adjutant in his original battalion, he had been roped into the hunting party due to a manpower shortage.

"War?" Hans asked, slightly bewildered. He stopped a young man beside him, a friend he recognized from his battalion.

Seeing it was Hans, the young man began to explain excitedly, recounting everything from the first appearance of the griffin to the sound of the horn.

Before the young man could finish, the horn sounded again.

"The First Regiment! It’s coming from the First Regiment’s designated area!" Odin’s hearing had become preternaturally sharp ever since he became an Extraordinary.

"It’s the call to assemble! Are we really going to war?!" Hans listened to the horn, his expression turning to one of excitement.

Hans himself might not have even realized it, but in the past, he had been conscripted as a soldier, practically forced into service by the lord. Now, however, hearing the domain’s call to arms, he felt a genuine sense of joy.

In fact, Hans’s reaction was a reflection of most soldiers in the domain.

For one, the soldiers’ pay and benefits were indeed much higher in times of war, and this was no exception for the First Regiment. Moreover, Robson had always led them in victorious battles.

Secondly, the merit system had been implemented throughout the Affleck Domain for some time.

Before, no one had seen what merit points were actually used for, nor had they received any tangible benefits from the system. Even though everyone knew merit was important, the system still lacked public trust.

Now, everyone saw what merit points could actually do.

It was no exaggeration to say that throughout the Affleck Domain, merit represented everything.

Under Robson’s merit system, merit points were essentially another form of currency. The exchange rate between merit points and money was one-to-one, a measure Robson had put in place to prevent the system from collapsing.

But the difference between the merit system and regular currency was that it could offer the Peasants something they had never dared to imagine before.

That was status. In the Affleck Domain, merit represented not only wealth but also, to a certain degree, power. Only by accumulating high military merit was it possible to obtain more official posts.

Many soldiers had a deep appreciation for this fact; brothers who had once stood on the same starting line as them now occupied high positions.

At that very moment, a great dragon happened to fly across the sky.

Hans raised his head to look at the great dragon in the sky, his eyes filled with more than a little reverence.

As a soldier who had passed the adjutant examination, Hans was a bit different from the others. Influenced by the adjutant’s manual compiled by Robson himself, the adjutants held a degree of personal reverence for the man.

Of course, every soldier in the army shared this reverence. After all, Robson’s personal story was legendary enough. Who wouldn’t idolize a Commander-in-Chief capable of leading them to one victory after another?

"Let’s get going!"

.....

After the horn sounded, many soldiers began to grow expectant, with some even celebrating joyfully as if it were a festival.

Unfortunately, the first deployment consisted only of the First Regiment and the Lord’s Guard, which left many other soldiers feeling disappointed.

After all, the entire Affleck Domain was currently shrouded in a belligerent atmosphere, from top to bottom.

To address this, Robson gave instructions for the Second and Third Regiments to intensify their training and adopt a stance of being ready for deployment at a moment’s notice, which helped to appease everyone.

The First Regiment and the Lord’s Guard did not take long to assemble.

Claude and Ais gathered their things and quickly joined Robson.

Affleck was now running on the right track. Its foundational organizations were much improved, and with the existing military divisions, it was no longer the case that the domain couldn’t function if someone was away.

The only concern was what to do if the domain encountered an emergency after Robson left.

Robson had a candidate in mind for this: Bo Yang.

Bo Yang’s domain was separated from the Affleck Domain by only a river.

Bo Yang had been in frequent contact with Robson recently, and Robson had put in considerable effort to help with the construction of Bo Yang’s domain.

Furthermore, Bo Yang was a veteran of Robson’s army. Having previously led a detachment on his own, Bo Yang had accumulated a fair bit of experience and could be tested with an independent command.

After the carriages were brought out and everything was prepared, Robson surveyed his surroundings and nodded slightly.

"Everyone’s ready. Let’s move out."

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