148 [interlude]The army with a state I
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-Pov of Mervyn first moon 286 AC
"Shields up... maintain formation... advance... there, coordinate your steps," said the instructor.
"Halt, left foot forward... sword above the shield... again, advance to the drum's rhythm," the instructor shouted again.
"Now, put all the weight of your bodies onto the shield and charge," said the instructor.
All of us who were receiving his instructions charged against the other group of students.
We clashed our shields, putting all our weight into it as ordered. My opponent yielded to the force of the blow and fell backwards, as did several of my line mates and several of our opponents.
Quickly, we began exchanging blows with our wooden swords, seeking out the weak points of our opponents, always striving to keep our guard high to not show weakness against any attack.
"Don't waste your energy on furious blows, focus and only strike when you see an opening. In a fight where both know how to fight, the man with more endurance always wins," shouted the instructor, whose voice echoed across the training field.
I applied force with my shield to make my opponent lower his and I struck him forcefully on the head with the wooden sword, which was absorbed by the padded armor we wore, before throwing myself onto him and attempting to stab him with the dagger as we had been taught.
But before I could accomplish it, I saw someone about to tackle me and released my enemy to dodge my new opponent.
"Back to formation... reform the line, this is starting to look more like a children's brawl than soldiers' combat," shouted the instructor.
We all returned to formation, keeping our gaze on the opposite side, and the instructor's orders were repeated several times.
Charging, fighting, and retreating multiple times until we were all tired, exhausted to the point of fighting with heavy armor and completely drenched in sweat from the extra padded protections that helped absorb the blows but were terrible for dispersing the heat.
"Alright, remove your gear and stretch your muscles before heading for a bath. Tomorrow, we'll only do light training... Nonetheless, good work everyone, if you keep this up, you'll have no trouble joining the police or the army should the opportunity arise," said the instructor in his serious tone.
We removed our heavy gear and began storing it for future training, then headed to the baths near the training grounds, where many of us rested a bit with a dip in the large pools available.
Training was exhausting, but it was already showing a lot of progress, and if I wanted to fulfill my father's wish of having a good job and family before he passed away, this was the best path to achieve it, following the family profession.
My entire family had served Tarly as men-at-arms for generations, and it was expected that I would follow the same path as my father, even though wars were rare, skirmishes with the Dornish dogs were common, and many of my relatives had died.
When my father and uncles followed Lord Tarly into battle, we thought the day would come when they would be granted what our ancestors had long sought: the title of knight. But it seemed that God had other plans for our family.
Without much choice, my family had to fight against the very envoy of God on earth, who already had the fame of being a conqueror who had never lost a battle.
As expected, our lord's army and the Tyrell army clashed violently against the forces of our Prussian lords, only to end up being a unilateral massacre. But it seemed that the Almighty blessed the members of our family, as no one died, but many were wounded in combat.
My father had to have his hand amputated before gangrene killed him. It was a divine providence that the Prussian doctors were able to save his arm before they had to amputate it completely.
My father and uncles returned when they were released with the news that the Tarlys were no longer our lords and that we now only served the kings in Prussia. They came accompanied by a group of Prussian veterans who came to our villages to start a new life.
With them came civilization, as many changes occurred in our villages. A city was created with stone houses, sewers, churches, markets, baths, aqueducts, doctors, and with all these infrastructures, artisans arrived in droves, making it much easier to obtain things as long as you had the money, and that's what characterized the Prussians, they always had gold and lots of it.
Many of those Prussian friends married some of my sisters and cousins, and we became united by blood. One of the first things they did was to remove the blindfold that the false religion of the Faith of the Seven had placed on us. They had simply twisted the true beliefs of the faith for their own benefit, corrupting the word of God, while they worshiped seven false gods.
The problem my family faced was that we no longer had Lord Tarly, who had gone to Oldtown, and the governors were using their own guards to protect their territories. So, for some time, my relatives offered guard services to the merchants passing through the area, but due to the high security, the pay was quite low, and we struggled a bit. However, our new relatives helped a lot by opening new industries, although it was very different from what we had trained for almost our entire lives to be men-at-arms.
Normalcy returned to my life when one of the Prussian nobles funded something for the new city out of his own pocket, along with several other Prussians: a school. Here, the Prussian priests taught us to read, write, do arithmetic, and speak German. But most importantly, they started to prepare us physically with a program similar to the Prussian army for our future, with constant physical training and training to find leaders among us.
For the Prussians, serving in the armies was an honor that we should experience, and they took care of financing everything in the beginning, from practice swords and shields, padded armor, crossbows, and horses for us to practice riding. All of this was paid for by the Prussians living nearby through donations.
Although later the school was bought by the king and all other services were provided by the Prussian governor.
Many of the veterans became school instructors, but unlike what my parents and uncles often told me, the Prussians didn't fill our heads with the most obvious lies of war. They didn't tell us that glory and fame awaited us, that we would be the new Arthur Dayne, nor that we would be rich soldiers. They only told us the harshest truth about the hardships of a soldier: hunger, fatigue, pain, only to then teach us why we fought, for the defense of our religion, our values, our culture, our family, and as a last resort, the pay, which was generous. We just had to wait for the Prussian army to start recruiting, but that could take some time.
My father agreed for me to go to this school because everything was paid for by one of my Prussian relatives, and then it became completely free when it became the king's property.
Almost all the young people attended here because it was education and training that was difficult to provide at home.
After some time, there was a call for recruitment, but it was not for the army, but for the police, and they needed several thousand men. I was too young to be recruited, but several of my brothers joined the police and received training, and thanks to their prior preparation for that, they did very well when they finished their training. All of my brothers ended up as officers in the police. My older brother ended up being a captain of the police in the capital, receiving a pay that exceeded the golden dragon per month, and several of my other relatives ended up as corporals or sergeants.
This made this school incredibly popular, as this was the path if anyone wanted to ascend socially in the Prussian hierarchy. Thousands of people traveled from various parts of the territory or even from other areas for their children to attend this school and be trained to take a position in the police.
Since it was one of the few jobs where one could obtain Prussian citizenship, for administrative jobs, you needed to know how to read and write and be very good with mathematics; for the police, you just needed to be healthy and a little tall. If you wanted to be important, you had to have that citizen title obtained with twenty years of military service in the army or the police, or twenty-five years as a worker in the public administration. Since citizens got a bunch of benefits, state-provided services had preference for citizens, as well as tax benefits for the number of children or the service preference among Prussians. Unfortunately, citizenship was only inherited if you were noble; commoners didn't inherit it, but there were benefits. Instead of twenty years, it was only two, either military or civilian, since the Prussians believed that everything had to be earned.
Although with Lord Tarly back, it might be possible for the tradition of serving his family to return.
As I walked back home, accompanied by several of my classmates and discussing ways to improve our technique, we heard a herald in the city center.
"Hear ye, hear ye, inhabitants of The Reach! Let it be known that on this great day, His Royal Majesty Wilhelm von Hohenzollern calls upon all young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two to join His Majesty's armies. There will be a pre-selection stage where the best will be selected for the army. If the recruitment quota is met, the rest will join his canton as reservists," said the herald, who repeated the message several times.
I met the age requirement, but just barely, maybe only by a month, so I decided to go to the recruitment office near the town hall. There was already a good group of people lining up in front of the Prussian doctors who were conducting physical tests.
While I was in line, it was getting much longer, and it was advancing very quickly.
It was only a few minutes before it was my turn.
"Stretch your arms, put your palms together, and feet together," said the Prussian doctor with his characteristic bird mask.
I did as he asked, and the man watched me for a while before taking some metal implements.
"Alright, you have very good symmetry. Open your mouth," said the doctor.
As I opened my mouth, he inserted those metal implements and began to examine my teeth.
"A healthy set of teeth, no rotten teeth or cavities," said the doctor, writing everything down on a paper.
"Alright, go to the next checkup, you passed this test," said the doctor, handing me the paper.
Upon entering, I found many doctors waiting for someone to enter.
"Undress," said the group of doctors.
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Give me your power stones
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