162 – Mercenary Captain Martin’s first expedition (2)
Count Dion’s unit, command barracks.
At this time, when Count Dion and his vassals have not yet arrived, a tense battle of wits is taking place between the mercenary leaders who arrived first.
A middle-aged mercenary leader looks at the guy sitting across from him and provokes him by glaring at him.
“Hey, our Golden Beer mercenaries will be at the forefront of Count Dion’s troops. How about you guys just quietly fold your arms in the back and wait? However, the down payment and bonus will be paid regularly.”
The young mercenary leader, who seemed to be only about 2 or 3 years older than me, sat in a proud posture and opened his mouth arrogantly, as if he had something on his shoulder.
“Sir, are you a clerk? You’re old enough, and it looks like you’ve saved up quite a bit of money. Are you thinking about retiring and taking a pretty girl to the countryside and living comfortably? “I think you’re old enough to do that.”
If this were not a military camp, the moment these words were said, the armor would be blown off and there would be an uproar demanding a duel right away.
However, as they were both people who rose to the level of ‘mercenary leader’ and had some experience with this, they were able to control their emotions well and showed no signs of reaching for a knife or engaging in a fist fight.
‘Fist fighting in a military camp or pulling out a sword at an opponent is an immediate execution, right?’
There are no exceptions to this law, even for titled nobles.
But there is only one reason why they argue like that, and that is because the moment they are looked down on by other mercenary units of their side, they will be eaten.
Just as in the Korean military, when a senior is exploited by a successor, the senior who was exploited is ignored and the frequency of misfortune increases. Here, a mercenary unit that was looked down on takes on a mission that is not profitable but is dangerous…
Everyone has no choice but to keep in check without crossing the line, and in the meantime, naturally, provocations came to me as well.
“Hey, I don’t think your mercenary group has ever been active here in the Montmartre Empire. Why did you come this far away? “Did you come all the way to this faraway place because you were a weakling and a loser who was not accepted anywhere else?”
Huh, the person was quiet because he wanted to be quiet, so why did he touch me and make me fall asleep?
I wanted to at least curse him, but fighting like that could cause great damage to our entire mercenary unit.
I smiled and took out the invitation I received from Count Dion and showed it to him.
“No, I came because Count Dion sent someone all the way to the Rhine-Palatinate and asked me to come. Rhine-Palatinate. “There were many families looking for us, even in the Medici Republic, but since the Count himself sent someone first, we had no choice but to respond.”
Hearing those words, the face of the guy who touched me turned bright red.
It became red like a heated iron ball and I ground my teeth.
“This… This… Young bastard.”
Even though I saw that guy getting angry, I just smiled and didn’t say anything.
Because, even though I am employed in the same position, it is obvious to anyone that I, who was sent by the Count himself to take care of me, have a higher name value.
There is no need to say more here because it will only make things look ugly.
And then the door of the tent opened and the Count came in.
“Everyone is here. “Yes, it was a lot of trouble to get here.”
No matter how much we say we are men with full blood and boiling blood, fighting in front of our employer, the Count, is not a man, it is just a fool.
And as if to show that such a crazy person could never become a mercenary leader, the mercenaries who had been keeping each other in check until just now were making serious expressions as if they had never been like that to us.
“I meet Count Dion.”
“Everyone, please sit down. As you all know, tomorrow we will finally engage in a full-scale battle with the Barcelo Kingdom.”
This is my first battle after becoming a mercenary leader, and it is here that I am judged in earnest whether I am worthy of being a mercenary leader or not.
‘Am I really suited to be a mercenary leader?’
I’ve done well so far, but now that I’m in a place where my new abilities are being tested, I can’t help but feel my heart pounding.
The Count glanced at the mercenary leaders.
“Let’s see, it’s Jansen of the Black Lion Mercenaries, right? “Can we expect you to do more than you did last time we hired you?”
He, the leader of the largest mercenary force under the earl, answered loudly.
“Please trust us.”
“I’m not looking forward to it. And the Golden Beer Mercenaries? “I understand that you fought hard under other nobles of Montmartre and achieved great results. I expect even more performance this time.”
Then the mercenary leader of the Golden Beer mercenaries slapped his breastplate and said.
“We will show you results that exceed whatever you expect.”
It’s quite impressive to raise their morale by pointing out each mercenary unit in order of size and telling them that they are looking forward to it.
It doesn’t cost anything to say something like this, but the leaders of those mercenaries will definitely go back to the barracks after the meeting, grab their men, and boast that they acknowledged that the Count told them he was looking forward to it.
The morale of the soldiers who heard those words would naturally rise.
‘We are not hiring that person, but we are his employer in name. Of course it feels good to hear that you are looked forward to it.’
The Count looked around him and then turned his gaze towards me.
“And Martin Mayer of the Whitebeard mercenaries.”
“Martin Mayer, the mercenary leader of the Whitebeard Mercenaries, is here.”
Then the Count walked towards me and made a meaningful expression.
“Let me believe in the bravery and resourcefulness that made the mercenary captain I served before into a baron of the Rhine-Palatinate Empire. As always, I am determined to write a new legend this time as well.”
If I can’t live up to the value of 10,000 gold coins as a deposit, I’ll bite my tongue and die.
“I will keep this in mind.”
With that, the Count’s encouragement ended, and he sat down and looked back at us with a very serious expression.
I thought his expression was crumpled because the war situation was so bad, but the count smiled broadly and waved his hand.
“First of all, this war is not that unfavorable to our troops. However, it is difficult to say that it is advantageous.”
Hearing those words, the mercenary captains heaved a sigh of relief.
No matter how much we are real men who risk our lives to make money by picking off enemies, fighting in an unfavorable battlefield is something we want to avoid.
I guess it’s because I don’t want to fight at a disadvantage unless I’m in dire need of money. This is the same for me.
“However, the soldiers mobilized in this war are 80,000 friendly troops and 80,000 enemy troops. “It is proof that the King of the Kingdom of Barcelo and His Majesty the Emperor of the Empire of Montmartre regard this war as important.”
I knew that a battle where the honor and face of a nation, and especially the king, were at stake would be larger in scale than a normal war.
I never thought that the number of enemies and allies combined would exceed 160,000.
The mercenary leaders all seemed to be embarrassed and began to whisper to each other.
“I’ve been fighting for decades, but I’ve only participated in wars of this scale less than five times.”
The young guy, about the same age as me, shrugged his shoulders.
“Is it finally time for the Red Horse mercenaries led by this body to act?”
The count sighed after seeing everyone’s different reactions.
“Ha, but there is something more important than all of this.”
“What the hell is going on?”
“This war is being carried out by His Majesty the Emperor. That means His Majesty is watching us from here.”
When I heard those words, I simultaneously had contradictory emotions and feelings, my heart pounding with anticipation and the back of my neck pulling.
Because if the emperor is watching in person, when I make a contribution, I can receive a much bigger reward than other times, and I will receive enormous honor and glory…
Count Dion or some other crazy nobleman might abandon Pappenheim under the pressure of the emperor watching, right?
It’s as if the battalion commander, who had lost his mind after hearing that the division commander was coming, ordered the remaining soldiers to apply shoe polish to the asphalt road.
“……”
“As you all know, the reason His Majesty is participating in this war is because King Barceló dared to forcibly claim ownership of the Duchy of Tulua.”
The current situation is roughly like this.
Some crazy guy on a Japanese community site suddenly came up with nonsense at the level of Imna Japan, saying that Gyeongsang-do is a land that Empress Shin-gong personally ruled, so the Korean government should quickly cede Gyeongsang-do to Japan.
Not only in Korea and around the world, but also in Japan, people will react like this is some kind of bullsh*t…
The problem is that the guy who is spouting this bullsh*t is the king of the Barcelo Kingdom.
“I don’t know what King Barceló’s intention is by saying such things, but if we lose the war, we will have no choice but to cry and admit that bullsh*t. If that happens, it will be a dark history that our Montmartre Empire will have to endure for more than a thousand years, no, 10,000 years. Therefore, His Majesty the Emperor decided to go to war personally and encourage our nobles and soldiers.”
Count Dion looked around at me and the mercenary leaders and said.
“And in the battle tomorrow, our Dion unit is the vanguard of the left wing, and His Majesty the Emperor has ordered us to crush them with overwhelming force.”
Putting down with overwhelming force, to put it another way… It means attacking head on.
“Everyone, make sure you are prepared.”
After saying that, the count left, and the mercenary leaders looked half excited and half worried.
“Ha, f*ck. “I want to make money, but I don’t want to go to war with the emperor himself.”
“Still, aren’t you glad that Count Dion doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who just loses his mind just because the emperor is watching?”
“Is there anyone who is distracted because the emperor is watching?”
From Noble mtl dot com
In the conversation that continued like that, I laughed and said.
“I heard a story about how during a certain battle, a crazy army, knowing that the enemy had hidden themselves in the walls and stationed a huge number of wizards and archers there, shut up and charged while shouting ‘Long live the Emperor!’ I’ve heard of it. Of course, that crazy army was destroyed.”
The story I am telling is the story of a Japanese soldier armed with the spirit of a samurai who charged into a machine gun position with a katana during World War II.
Hearing those words, the oldest mercenary captain covered his head.
“f*ck, that antics can be explained by just saying that the emperor is watching. “Please, there should be no such thing in our military.”