Chapter 75

As they stood atop the hill and looked down at the men going through the drills, their presence was soon noticed by the commanders and the general of the army broke apart to come and greet them.

"Little lord." General Bronn said with an exaggerated bow from atop his horse before he gave a more serious bow to his aunt. "My lady."

"How is the training of the men going General Bronn?" he asked the man whom he had scouted due to his vast experience as a mercenary and some who lot a lot of experience in actual battle field. Bronn was not the only mercenary turned soldier working under his command. In fact, the ranks within his army was filled with mercenaries and other veterans of the war who had a lot of experience in actual battle.

After all, he might have his own ideas about creating an army but it would not work without the feedback of someone who has actually taken part in a battle and knew how the whole 'war' thing worked.

"Can't believe I'm saying this. But the lads are coming along well. Better than I had expected." General Bronn said as he looked at the soldiers marching together in a formation before turned to face him. "For someone who has never taken part in a real battle, you seem to have a lot of good ideas about forming an army."

He shrugged in response to Bronn's words. After all, how was he going to tell them that he had based this army of his on the model of the Roman empire army from back on earth.

"You here for enjoying the sight or do you actually want something?" General Bronn asked him "Because if you want hospitality or some shit like that then I'm afraid you've come to the wrong man."

His aunt bristled at the crass words of the man but he knew that despite his insolence, Bronn was highly loyal to him. This was just how the man talked. Nothing more. Nothing else.

After all, it would be height of stupidity if he goes to a great length to form an army but then doesn't make sure that the General is loyal to him.

"As good as it would have been if you had offered us some bread and tea. You're right. We're not here for that." He said and moved his horse forward toward the training area as his men and General Bronn followed after him.

"I'm here for some of your men. Admiral Muron is having some trouble hunting down the pirates from around Sisterton and fighting the Whaler Ships from Ibenesse intruding upon our domain at once and has asked us for some support." He said "This is also a decent enough time to bloody our troops and give them experience in actual combat."

"You're right in that. Most of the lads here are green as piss. And now matter how much you might train them here. You do not become a veteran without actually participating in a war. No matter how much you train, war is something that you just can't replicate." General Bronn spoke, Varko making a noise of agreement from behind him.

"But before that." He said, turning the horse so as to wall parallel to the training grounds "How are the studies of the men coming along."

General Bronn grimaced at his words. "Not very good. Tell the lads how to take an axe and chop a tree and they'll do it. No question asked. But tell them to sit straight in a… class and they start to gossip like fishmongers. Half of them fall asleep while other half can't concentrate."

He grimaced at those words. Maybe the course he had selected for the men was a little too hard and needed to be brought down a few notches in difficulty.

After all, he might have a vision in his mind about the perfect army. But he knew that reality and imagination were two different things by now. And no matter how much he wished it was otherwise, he knew that literacy rate in his domain was not even at 1%. Something that he was doing his best to change.

"Hmm… I'll come back with the maesters at a later date to revise the course for your men."

"Still don't see the point in learning to read and write." General Bronn grumbled but he ignored the man to gaze at the army in front of him.

"General Bronn." He said "What are your opinions in building a regiment of Horse Archers."

General Bronn thought about his words for a while before shaking his head.

"Hard. Very hard. Expensive and time consuming." Bronn replied "Training a cavalry regiment on it's own is a hard task. Do you know how long it takes a man to learn how to ride a horse. And then teach the same man to weild a Lance or a sword while doing so. Well… it is ten times harder to teach them how to ride the horse and use a bow and arrow at the same time. It is not something you can do without lots and lots of training. In fact, the people who are good at it are the Dothraki. And that is because they've been living their entire live on horses. So unless you've ready to invest a lot of gold and time into this thing. Don't even think about it."

"I see." He said and went in deep thinking about building a new regiment of Horse Archers within his army.

After all, he knew that if he was able to train a regiment of horse Archers then they would be able to do a lot of damage in a battlefield thanks to their mobility.

In fact, if used correctly, then Horse Archers held the potential to destroy a whole army as a support group.

Not to mention that the Horse archers could be used as messengers, for scouting or for harassing the enemy.

Yes. Bronn might be correct when he said that it would take time and gold to create Horse Archer regiments. And he was lacking in none at the moment.

But for now.

"There's another thing I need to inform you about General Bronn."