When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#654 - The First Four-Year Plan Hearing Session (Part 2)

After the reports were completed, it was time for Saintess Yianna, the Exorcist Captain of the Exorcism Tribunal, to speak.

But anyone with eyes could see that although Yianna was the Exorcist Captain, Hakuto was the one truly in charge.

So, the one who actually came to the stage with the report was Hakuto himself.

Hakuto came from a proper Norn military aristocratic background, and had fought all his life, his experience and theory far surpassing Yianna or Yeshka.

Yeshka knew he couldn't compete with him, so he settled for the position of commander of the Black Champions.

If nothing went wrong in the future, once the Exorcism Tribunal was gradually improved, Yianna would resign from the position of Exorcist Captain and only serve as the Commander of the Salvation Army.

According to the current opinion within the Papal Palace, the order of succession for the Exorcist Captain should be Yianna, Hakuto, Yeshka, and Bernardo.

The order of succession for the Truth Tribunal was equally clear, being Madeline, Bussac, and Armand.

Originally, Petier also had the strength to compete for this position, but he was older than Armand and his merits and qualifications were less than Armand's, so unless something unexpected happened, the best he could hope for in this life was the position of Privy Chancellor.

Grasping the lectern, Hakuto's deep voice echoed in the hall:

"Between 1445 and 1446, the Salvation Army grew from just over 4,000 infantry and cavalry combined to a standing army of 11,500 men.

Currently, the Salvation Army still consists of two legions totaling 9,000 men, 1,500 cavalry, and 1,000 engineers and mage corps, totaling 11,500 men.

Except for the engineers, 70% of the infantry are equipped with breastplates, 60% of the cavalry are equipped with three-quarter plate armor, only 10% of weapons are missing, and 50% of the holy gunners are equipped with electro-gold pendants.

Throughout Thousand River Valley, mountain and plain counties have each established a quarter-strength new-style local garrison legion... Currently, the Jeanne d'Arc Fortress recruit camp has 1,000 recruits in training, and the Saint-Dangis Military Academy has 220 officers in training..."

"...59 supply stations have been built, and 112 are under construction..."

Hakuto's report was much shorter than Cici's, partly for confidentiality reasons, and partly because his military achievements were obvious, the greatest achievement and credit being the defeat of Prince Condé.

But everyone knew about this achievement, and there was nothing to report.

Listening to Hakuto's report, Horn gently tapped the armrest of his chair with his index finger.

The so-called modernization of the army is actually the standing army of soldiers and the professionalization of officers.

The general level of the army in the Empire is based on local nobles and feudal lords, and the king can only summon nobles to provide troops when needed.

In other words, it is temporary and emergency-based, so the level of training is uneven, and the national army is even inferior to privately formed mercenary groups.

In the past, most of the time, faced with such poorly equipped, low-morale, and poorly trained infantry, fully armored transcendent knights could easily crush their ranks.

Even the culture of knights fostered a custom of reckless charges, because it really could win.

But with the emergence of the Dunjar phalanx and professional transcendent infantry, although the infantry still did not have the ability to counterattack, they could block and exchange blood.

Horn's first four-year war preparation plan required soldiers to be preferably standing or semi-standing (reserve system).

At the same time, with the evolution of battlefield tactics, the original practice of knights serving as commanders began to fail.

Horn took the lead in adopting full-time, formally trained professional junior officers in the army, and used these junior officers to obtain an unimaginable level of organization in the same era.

Coupled with the revolutionary weapon of the holy gun, the Salvation Army repeatedly created miracles on the battlefield.

But with the victory of the Thousand River Valley War, when Horn wanted to continue to expand the army with this set, problems arose.

The army, especially the standing army, is a gold-devouring beast.

A fully equipped new-style army costs about 30,000 gold pounds a year to maintain, and Horn has two such armies.

Originally, he could rely on fighting demons and burning churches to obtain funds to supply the army, and only after emptying the cash of the two plain counties of Lower River County and Langsand County, he barely made up for the deficit.

Moreover, the cash flow in the bond market and the industrial market is quite tight, and if he casually transfers funds, he may face financial bankruptcy.

To cope with the invasion of the Laye Kingdom, relying solely on the current 25,000 standing troops is far from enough, at least 40,000 to 50,000 troops are needed.

Thousand River Valley belongs to the future warriors, and the promising future means that it is not yet possible now.

With the current financial situation of Thousand River Valley, it is already a bit stretched to maintain the expenses of these 20,000 standing troops, let alone recruit 20,000 new standing troops.

So the Exorcism Tribunal and the Holy Treasury Tribunal proposed the idea of a local garrison legion, and the two new Salvation Army-style legions in Thousand River Valley belong to the garrison army.

The so-called local garrison legion is actually Hakuto's discovery that a new-style army trained for 3 to 6 months is enough to resist an equal number of elite Imperial infantry or a small number of transcendent knights.

Although they cannot break through the enemy and win like the Salvation Army elites, they have no problem with defense or guarding the city.

In that case, why not simply maintain only a half or even a quarter strength in peacetime, retain only officers, and regularly train reserves, and then replenish them when the war starts.

With the mobilization speed of the Imperial system, Horn should receive the news when the Laye Kingdom begins to assemble.

When the Laye Kingdom completes its assembly and the army gradually advances to the border of Thousand River Valley, Horn should have completed the replenishment and even be able to train for another half a month.

Then, only half of the elite standing army, coupled with half of the quarter-strength reserve army, can maintain sufficient combat power while maintaining financial solvency.

Although the Laye Kingdom is now precarious, a lean camel is bigger than a horse, and no matter who the new king is, it is not difficult to draw out 70,000 troops.

In fact, excluding the border garrison troops, the Laye King can directly mobilize only about 20,000 troops, and the remaining 50,000 troops in the estimation of Horn and others are completely provided by vassals and mercenaries.

The Privy Council had already made a concrete judgment on what would happen after the Laye civil war ended.

No matter who wins, the first thing they will do after stabilizing the political situation is to use Thousand River Valley to establish their authority.

After all, Horn has too many hats, heretic, torturing nobles, promoting magic, and treating witches as saints...

Within the Imperial Church, Horn has long been defined as a heretic, so military orders and knight orders can participate in this crusade.

With the attitude of mutual excommunication among the current popes, these nobles have the added bonus of "holy war enthusiasm."

Using this large-scale team-building activity that everyone is interested in, can establish prestige with half the effort for the new king.

There is not much time left for them.

After the main leaders made this year-end report for a year and a half, the directors of each department and the archpriests of each township took the stage to report or conduct routine meetings and discussions.

Originally, Horn was still listening carefully, but soon he discovered that many people were actually taking a political showboating attitude.

Many of the reported affairs were repeated and watered down, just to brush their faces in front of Horn and other high-level officials.

Listening and listening, Horn even felt drowsy.

However, this feeling disappeared after an engineer named Leonardo came to the stage and proposed a hydraulic energy storage clockwork engine scheme.