98. Flag drills
Chapter 98 Flag Language Drill
“Count Gleiman, I’ve tentatively drawn up a semaphore program, please take a look at it.”
On the second day after the meeting where everyone decided to prepare the army for war, the female advisor, Miss Diaz, found Paul and submitted the results of her research over a period of time.
Paul was delighted: “Oh? This is really a sleepy head.”
Irene is a bit strange: “Count Greiman why do you say so?”
“Uh …… truth be told, we’ve had a bit of a ‘tiff’ with our neighbors to the south and may need to engage in some special forms of communication.”
Erin understood, and inwardly felt a pang of contempt, “Men are really a bunch of barbaric creatures, they all like to use force to solve problems when they can’t move.”
“Can’t they just sit at the table and talk it out?”
Thinking of the rebellion in the south of the kingdom that almost ruined her life, she was very emotional about the Creator’s injustice, “How nice it would be if this world was dominated by us women, then surely there would be no wars.”
She didn’t worry much about Paul, unless there was a blood feud between two families, the wars between local lords usually didn’t go down to the death, even if one side was captured, the winning side would feed the captive with good food and drink, and then the family would pay a ransom and put it back.
The only ones who are really unlucky are the soldiers who were forcibly recruited and the civilians who were looted, not many lords will care about their deaths, in the eyes of the nobles, they are all expendable.
Paul turned over a thick atlas handed over by Ms. Diaz.
Only to see that it is filled with all kinds of small people holding the flag to make no sense of the posture, each posture next to a detailed description of what it means, and some complex messages need to use several poses to express.
“Have the officers of the staff read it?”
“Yes, Count Greiman? It was all finalized after full communication with them.”
Remembering when she first took over the job, Erin was a bit irritated that the officers had to make her sign some kind of non-disclosure agreement and bring memorization before she could start working.
The agreement was nothing more than that: not a word of what she saw in the military and not a word of what she saw in the military was to be divulged to anyone else.
What’s even weirder is that these guys have to take a secrecy test every once in a while.
“I, Erin Rodney – the Second Princess of the Kingdom of Aldo – am a person who does what she says, how can I be mistrusted like this.”
Thinking of this, she complained a few words to Paul about the secrecy system in the army.
Paul comforted her with a smile, “It can’t be helped, rules are rules, and you’re not the only one who’s a foreign associate, don’t you see that those officers on the staff have to be examined on a regular basis just like you?”
That was true, and Erin balanced herself internally.
But the situation in Alda’s army was really quite different from her previous perception of the army, her big sister was also the person in charge of the army, and often told herself some things in the army, and she had also gone with her big sister to see the barracks.
The Lord’s army is different from the Royal Government’s army in every way, except for the strict confidentiality system, there is another difference that the gap between the upper and lower ranks is relatively not very big, and the exchange between the officers and the soldiers is relatively more.
In the kingdom’s army, the officers and soldiers are two species living in two separate worlds, the officers are all from noble families, while the soldiers are all from the commoners or serfs, the barracks is a miniature society, and all kinds of things in the society will naturally be mapped to the barracks.
She guessed: it might be because the members of this army were all from the lower class.
Irene realized that except for the chief of staff, Schroeder, who could be called a “quasi-noble” knight, everyone else was from the commoners or serfs in the territory.
Paul looked through the atlas from beginning to end, and found that there were no problems, and that the battlefield instructions he had envisioned were basically covered.
“Ms. Diaz, let’s find some time to rehearse and see?”
“During the development of this system, the staff allocated a platoon and a gun crew to learn it whenever they could, and they are now very proficient with the semaphore.”
Paul was satisfied, “I’ll inform the staff to arrange a drill right away.”
……
A large open area on the south shore of Lake Wise was temporarily set aside as a drill area, and no loiterers were allowed. All of the troops stationed in Lake Center Town were assembled here to watch the demonstration of the semaphore operation.
Paul and the officers stood on a rise with two trained “communicators” standing in front of them.
Of course, the female counselor was also with Paul.
A platoon of musketeers and a battery of artillery were deployed to the southwest of them, at a distance so great that the two sides could only see each other’s movements through binoculars.
Far to the southeast and due south of them, several huge circles were very visibly circled with lime powder, target areas for the artillery to fire on.
In the circles were erected a large number of scarecrows, and after the artillery had fired, the musketeers would use these scarecrows as targets for shooting or stabbing.
When all was ready, the maneuver began.
Paul began by saying, “Order the artillery to fire at the enemy due south.”
A communications officer immediately flagged down the maneuver artillery site to the southwest.
There were also four communicators on this side of the artillery position, two for artillery communications and two for infantry communications.
One of the communicators with binoculars always watching Paul’s side nervously shouted out, “Incoming order! For the artillery.”
In the binoculars, the communications soldier next to the Lord Count started waving his flag.
His eyes watched the other party’s movements without blinking, and after the other party’s first operation was completed, his brain confirmed and parsed the message the other party wanted to convey without error.
The communications soldier commanded his companion to the side, “Reply with confirmation!”
The companion nodded and flagged toward the heights where the officers were located to acknowledge receipt of the order.
The communications soldier who had been holding the binoculars earlier quickly relayed the received order to the artillery, “Target due south of command, sustained fire.”
“Fire away, boys!”
Under the command of the gunnery chief, the gunners turned their guns to point at the target area to the southeast of themselves, the ammunition had already been loaded, and after slightly adjusting the angle of elevation, they began to fire.
After five consecutive shots, the communications soldier in charge of observation on the infantry platoon’s side shouted, “Infantry platoon advancing to target due south of command!”
The marching drums sounded, and along with the drum beats and the platoon commander’s orders, the infantrymen equipped with muskets advanced in a horizontal line to the southeast.
As they advanced, shells fired by the artillery behind them whistled over their heads from time to time, and they would not stop until they received a new order or possibly hit friendly troops.
On the high ground to the north, Paul and the others watched with great satisfaction as the infantry platoon advanced to hit a volley near their objective and then charged.
“Very good!” He exclaimed heartily, a Chinese word popping into his head – as good as it gets.
He bowed to Ms. Diaz: “Thank you for your contribution, this is what I wanted.”
Irene was very pleased with what she heard, but still said modestly, “This is my job, Count.”
“Let’s test the other commands!”
Paul rubbed his hands together excitedly and addressed the crowd as such.
The group was assigned a new project yesterday, and with less free time during development, I’ll only be able to do one shift a day, but if I have time, I’ll still do two shifts from time to time.
Thank you for your support and understanding.
(End of chapter)