73. Captive camps

Chapter 73 The Captive Camp
Early in the morning of the 4th, Myron Garnard woke up from his sleep, and with a depressed look, he finished his washing and went to the dining room of the castle for breakfast.

During the night he had dreamed again of that scene when he had overheard the conspiracy, and the incident had dealt a major blow to his mind.

Yesterday his brother Paul Greiman had led his troops to Bairdine to crush the rebels, and he wondered how the battle was going now.

He trusted Paul, seeing Paul so confident look, should soon be able to end the war.

After breakfast, Philip, the butler of the Greiman family, came to him, saying that Chief Steward Ford and Baron Abbott had something to ask for, so he came to the hall to meet with them.

“Congratulations, Lord Earl!” Chief Steward Ford and Baron Abbott rose to congratulate him as soon as they saw him.

Myron’s head was full of questions, “Did something happen?”

Old Ford explained, “Yesterday afternoon, Lord Gleiman has defeated the rebels Angelo, Abbott and the others, and the city of Butua is now under the control of our army.”

Myron grew his mouth in surprise and asked incredulously, “This …… is so fast? Didn’t he just leave yesterday?”

He thought that even if he was able to crush Angelo and the others in a field battle, with Butua’s walls and the reserves inside, how could it take a week of siege to break the city? Last night, he had spent half the night worrying about the safety of the city’s inhabitants.

“The troops of Angelo and the others are nothing more than a bunch of peasants who have just been conscripted for a few days, a rabble. Even if they keep some private soldiers on weekdays, it won’t change the big picture.” Hansel had seen those soldiers patrolling the streets when he was in Butua, loose and shapeless, not even close to the elite soldiers of Lakeheart Town.

Myron cupped his hands in front of his chest in a prayer, “Thank you for the blessing of the Lord of Light!”

Chief Steward Ford smiled and said to Myron, “Lord Gleeman asks you to return to Butua today so that you can stabilize the hearts of the people of Baildin as soon as possible.”

Myron nodded, “Good, I will leave immediately.”

……

Paul is in the lord’s mansion in Butua, listening to the report on the results of yesterday’s battle.

According to the information obtained from interrogating a few knights and petty leaders, of the rebels’ strength of over 2,000, nearly 400 or so were private soldiers that Angelo and the others had had before, 300 or so were mercenaries, and the rest were peasants or serfs conscripted from all over Baildin.

At the end of the battle, the Arda army had captured 823 prisoners of all colors, everyone else alive had been routed in the battle, and together with the knights who had been blown up by the scattering of bullets, the total number of enemies killed was 98, with a large number of wounded left unaccounted for.

He explained to the officer managing the prisoners, “Screen them carefully, if they are freshly conscripted peasants, feed them a full meal and send them home, so that they don’t have to eat our food here. If they are the former private soldiers of the rebels, they will be locked up for a while, and released when the situation is stabilized. If they are knights, no one is allowed to be released without my orders.”

The officer asked, “Won’t you keep those of serf origin on your own? Theoretically, they are not prisoners but trophies.”

Paul was stunned and said, “Let them make their own choice; if they wish to go to Arda, I’ll make them free citizens, and if they want to return to their original places, don’t stop them.”

Despite being surprised by Paul’s decision, the officer made a note of it.

Paul continued, “Those who have been killed, put out the news of our victory and have their families come and claim them. Those who have no one to claim them or can’t wait will be buried first.”

As for the Arda army itself, there were only 16 lightly wounded and 3 seriously wounded, though no lives were in serious danger.

This was thanks to the massive armament of firearms, and when the enemy approached, a volley of lead shot or a few grenades thrown could disperse a large group.

A soldier in charge asked with slight difficulty, “There are some seriously wounded but still alive prisoners, you see ……”

“How many wounds?”

“Those who have lost their mobility and are even still unconscious.”

Paul was in a difficult situation, after thinking for a while, he said, “Save them if you can, I don’t want the Arda army to carry the reputation of being cold and cruel. First take me to the place where these prisoners are housed.”

After arriving at the camp where the seriously wounded prisoners were housed, the smell here was very unpleasant, mixed with rotting meat, spirits, herbs, olive oil (used to stop bleeding) and all kinds of odors that were difficult to identify.

The moans of agony were heard throughout the camp, constantly irritating Paul’s nerves.

The Arda army had not yet been equipped with a full-time military doctor, and could only allow some people with experience in treating wounds to make guest appearances, and the means were relatively crude. Those who were directly hit by solid shells on their bodies almost didn’t survive, and the adults housed here were those who were wounded by spears, bullets, and loose bullets.

Those who were wounded by spears were fine, for those who were wounded by muskets or loose bullets, they could only follow the previous experience of dealing with archery wounds, tying up the patient and holding him down, stuffing a wooden stick in his mouth, and then picking the lead bullets out of the wounds with a knife, applying herbal ointment and then wrapping it up with a bandage.

For those wounded whose limbs were already clearly unsalvageable, there was only one way to go – sawing them off with a saw.

Paul happened to see an operation so unfortunate that the gruesome spectacle caused him to glance at it only for a moment before hurrying to quit the tent.

Bryce said to him quietly, “Are …… those who have become obviously unsalvageable,” and he made a motion of wiping his neck.

After struggling internally for a moment, Paul said helplessly, “Give them a break.”

Even if they were rescued captive wounded, they could only do their best. In a world where medical technology was backward and hygiene concepts were almost non-existent, even if their lives were temporarily saved, many of the wounded would die from wound infections such as tetanus, and the mortality rate was extremely high.

This inspection was a wake-up call for Paul – it was time to establish a more formalized medical system, especially in the military.

In the previous battles, Arda’s army had crushed the other side by virtue of their equipment and system advantages, and their own casualties were extremely low, but what about the future?

In case they encountered an evenly matched or more powerful opponent in the future, there would definitely be a large number of seriously injured people, so field medical care would be very important. Should we rely on these primitive medical techniques in front of us or the holy water of the magi to save our precious soldiers.

Never in a million years! Every soldier was precious, how much of one’s heart and blood had been poured into them. In the current situation where the army was small in size, the death of every soldier was an extremely significant loss, especially those experienced veterans, all of which were the seeds for the future expansion of the army ah.

Moreover, the civilian population also needs an advanced medical system, not to mention other things, just the matter of women giving birth to children, from maternal to infant mortality rate is extremely high.

Paul remembers reading some information in his previous life, the maternal mortality rate in ancient China was as high as thirty percent, and the infant mortality rate before the establishment of new China was about twenty percent, which must be similar to the level of social development in the medieval world, and these data will not look good.

“Even if we can’t get the medical level up right away, we must at least get the nursing level up, which is still quite easy to do.”

Paul looked at the dirty and messy wounded camp and thought in his heart as such.

He remembered that in the Crimean War, despite the presence of military doctors in the British army, the mortality rate of the wounded was still high until the originator of nursing – Nightingale arrived.

Although Florence Nightingale did not have superior medical skills, but by cleaning the hospital wards, washing the soldiers’ clothes, improving the ventilation and drainage environment and other measures, it was surprising that the mortality rate of British soldiers from 42% down to 2.2%, she also because of the meticulous care of the soldiers, and was awarded the title of “Goddess of the Lamp”.

Based on her own investigations and military data, Nightingale used her knowledge of statistics to analyze the health of soldiers, thus confirming that the number of deaths from disease and infection during wartime far exceeded the casualties directly caused by the war.

Let’s start with improving the hygiene of the prisoner camps. From the day of the military reform, Paul always emphasized the hygiene in the military camps, so the soldiers themselves lived in a clean place, but the place where the prisoners were placed was not so much cared for, and it was not to place a group of lords, why so much effort.

He called in the officer who managed the prisoner camp and criticized him severely.

“The captive camp is so dirty and disorganized, what if a disease breaks out and infects us ourselves?”

The Lord Earl was furious, and the officer was so admonished that he did not dare to utter a single breath.

A large number of measures for the care of the wounded and injured were brought up, such as: garbage and dirty water should be cleaned up in time; ventilation should be kept in the camp tents; and the clothing of the wounded should be boiled in boiling water to sterilize and disinfect them.

“What is sterilization? Just do what you’re told first.”

After giving the instructions, Paul returned to the lord’s house, where the soldier standing guard told him that Count Myron Garnard was already waiting for him inside.

So soon? He was a bit surprised.

Just as well, it was time to have a good talk with this blood oath brother.

I worked overtime tonight and came back quite late, so I uploaded it rather late, sorry haha!

(End of chapter)