Mercenaries of the World. 2

Author: Master Shuode
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: According to the empire's selection of soldiers, the best soldiers entered the pike corps, the next best joined the archer corps, and the worst were assigned to the swordsmen corps. Moreover, the swordsmen corps never had the opportunity to enter the battlefield, mainly because they were too weak. While training with the soldiers and carefully observing their performance, Amy was quite satisfied with this unit. The empire still had strict standards when selecting soldiers, so the average quality was relatively high. Most of the soldiers who entered the swordsmen corps were due to their small stature, unable to match the original tall pike soldiers, let alone using long bows, so they were eliminated. However, this was quite in line with Amy's special needs. Two weeks later, seeing the performance of these well-fed, well-dressed, and well-trained soldiers, it was impossible to associate them with the scenes they had seen when they first arrived on the island. As the military supervisor of Xilin Island, Amy made her first personnel adjustment: all soldiers over the age of 35 collectively left military service. Except for some who transferred to the firehead army, the rest joined the subsidiary organizations such as agriculture, fishing, animal husbandry, and commerce established by the small mercenary group, with salaries uniformly paid by the small mercenary group. Those willing to leave Xilin Island to return to their hometowns could receive a return allowance. The 200-person team was reduced to 132 people, almost halved. Next, Amy posted a recruitment notice openly on the island. Unlike the empire's recruitment, Amy's recruitment was conducted in the mode of mercenary groups paying for recruitment. According to the abilities of the soldiers, each soldier could earn a stable income of 8 to 12 gold coins per month. This was a huge difference from the fixed subsidy of only 2 gold coins per month for imperial soldiers. A ordinary fisherman on Xilin Island could earn about 6 gold coins per month fishing. Moreover, the mercenary group also provided food and accommodation. In the Xilin Town of over 2,000 people, more than 800 people signed up. After strict selection, 120 young and strong men aged between 18 and 30 joined the swordsmen corps of the small mercenary group. Soon, the new soldiers discovered that Amy did not intend to train everyone to become a type of swordsman. The swords provided by the blacksmiths of Xilin Town for the small mercenary group had arrived, and they were all swords, totaling 5 types. These swords were significantly different from the traditional knights' thrusting swords. The main function of traditional knights' thrusting swords was to be used after the knights charged, to thrust directly at the opponent. Therefore, they required swords to be narrow and long, not only convenient for thrusting but also convenient for drawing out while charging on horseback. The best quality was cast steel swords, as they were highly elastic and would not break during the charge due to armor or other protective gear. Among the swords delivered, the most numerous were two-handed heavy swords without edges: a total of 300, weighing 50 jin each, unsharpened. It was obviously training swords, ensuring that all soldiers could maintain sufficient training intensity during training. All the soldiers, as instructed by Amy, received long swords they had never used before. Almost more than 50% of the newly joined swordsmen received two-handed great swords over 1.6 meters long. The average height of this group of warriors was over 1.8 meters. Years of fishing labor had made them broad-shouldered and strong-waisted. Their accustomed hands, which were used to pulling nets, suddenly grasped the two-handed great swords and felt very uncomfortable. However, they quickly discovered that it was actually like this