Chapter 4

Since the reorganization needed time to take effect, the stay at Pagras ended up being much longer at 5 days in total. This was a very needed break as they had been marching and fighting so much in so little time. Rest and refit was required if General was to continue fighting with that force. Everyone had taken the break in different ways.

For the General, it was the time of painful sitting and waiting. All he could do by himself was send and receive reports. Send the news of the invasion to the capital, request reinforcements, gather scout reports... He was reduced down to just paperwork handling. Now normally he wouldn't have minded it at all, after all it was a necessary part of his work. Yet now, when it seemed to be needed the most, he dreaded it.

After the recent battle, he urgently needed the information on the enemy movement. Over 200 goblins alone would be a cause of concern. To add everything else to the equation, it was cause for emergency summons to the capital. The issue was, he had no idea if there were more enemies out there and, if there were, where they could be. Scouting missions have been sent in all direction, prioritizing the Stonecliff Mountains east of his position. He needed to know if contact with Hammerhold, a major city just across the mountains, was even possible at the present time.

Until these reports came in, however, there was nothing else he could do. It was clear to the officers that he was quite stressed due to this so Agate made his way to his temporary office one evening with two mugs of beer. General initially refused, but Agate was adamant. "Come on. Duty won't call as soon as you take a break. Besides, you got us to deal with any problems long enough until you sober up." He then extended his arm.

"Fine." General took the mug and drank the beer. He had an immediate reaction. "Oof, strong stuff."

"Pure dwarven ale. Better enjoy it while you can. We price it quite fairly."

"Haha, by that you mean quite expensive. Cheers." The two clanged their mugs and finished their drinks. It took several minutes until General spoke up again. "Thank you. I needed it."

Agate smiled. "My pleasure. It was clear you needed a break. Let me guess, your first command."

"Well, first major command. I served as the captain of the City Guard in the capital."

"Ah, so we were destined to meet one way or another." Agate laughed.

General nodded. "Yeah, I would guess so."

Agate calmed down and then continued. "Anyway, that does explain your style of command so far. Standing your ground rather taking decisive attacks."

General pointed it out: "To be frank, it's not like I have options. As is, cavalry in Linirea isn't popular due to its terrain and the only horses I have are the scouts and the supply train. Can't exactly make flanking charges with them. In addition, my army is basically composed of mainline infantry. I don't have any light troops that could strike ahead of the army. So, even if I wanted to, I can't change the tactics or the strategy at all."

"Now the question is how long until the enemy notices it."

"I would pray as long as possible. In the meantime, I am more worried about the lack of flexibility. We only got your crew as our artillery. If they get out of your range, we are in trouble."

Agate frowned. "We would have been in trouble regardless of it."

General tilted his head in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I have some good news and some bad news. Good news is that the Big Bonne is fully replenished. We have restocked the ammunition and are prepared for the march."

"And the bad news?"

"There isn't a lick of gunpowder within 20 kilometres left. Until the trade from the mountains or the dwarven holds resumes, there won't be restocking any time soon."

General made a jest. "Thanks for making my job easier."

"My pleasure, Milord."

After exchanging the laughs, the two left their separate ways. While the meeting didn't change anything about the General's situation, it at least made him relax for a bit for a change.

In the meantime, it was basically the rest period for the Big Bonne crew. Unlike others, they could barely afford practice at the present time. Other than few training shells, they had nothing else to try and use in training. Then again, due to circumstances, they only could use their bombard to fire targets at a distance away from the frontline so all they needed was range training anyway.

While the dwarves rested, the militia was in full training mode. With additional manpower from Pagras and Southport, the Company nearly swelled to the numbers of the footmen and, because of the difference in training and experience, Captain Clancy needed to bring them up to speed. The first marching test was proof enough.

In order to test on how effective his company was in terms of obeying orders, Clancy ordered a march in formation, ordering sudden turns to see their reaction. And to say he wasn't impressed was an understatement. Basically half of the militia constantly fell out of the formation and needed reforming back into line. Seeing this, he knew he had to institute more training.

And so, militia spent most of their time in Pagras training marching. It was the simplest training they could get at this time and the best they could use while staying there since they never knew when they would move again. At the very least, the training showed immediate results. After few days, instead of half his men constantly falling out of formation, it was less fifth that sometimes did so by the end of it.

There was also something else the militia ended up receiving while training. With agreement from the General, Clancy gathered all the blacksmiths from the nearby area and had them reforge the captured weapons and armour for militia use. The Company would barely have a uniformed look with this, but at least all received reforged orc chest armour and a proper spear and some even received a helmet.

However, it did take time to get finished and so, while waiting their assigned armour, most wore their backpacks on their backs while training to get used to the weight. It didn't take long for the nickname Clancy's Mules to take ahold across the whole of the force. The militia ended up accepting it without much fuss as there wasn't really any reason to protest it.

On the last day of the training, Clancy did have one last surprise for the Company. In secret he had the city flag made into a proper battle standard for the unit and unveiled it to everyone and gaining massive ovations in the process. At the present time there was no dedicated standard bearer, but at least it would serve as a great source of pride for the company. From then on, the standard would fly in the middle of the formation, proudly announcing to enemy who they were dealing with.

Meanwhile, the footmen seemed to have been delegated into the back of everyone's minds. Despite their best efforts to show the militia on how everything was done, including effective formation marching, it seemed as if the militia didn't care at all about their rivals. After all, Clancy's Mules were locals. They were in the spotlight of everyone rather than the Battalion that came here only on orders.

It did not help that the battalion's captain seemed to have been bypassed and ignored by almost everyone. Few outside the battalion knew his name, let alone the man himself and it seemed there was a curse placed on the poor captain. Every time he tried to loudly proclaim on who he was, he was either interrupted or called away. Either by accident or by fate, it seemed the poor captain's name would remain obscured.

While the frontline troops were going through their training, there were those that seemed to have been ignored completely and for a very good reason. Battalion and militia archers as well as the Southport mages were basically assigned in the back of the frontline without any real consideration. After all, they had no one to ask for new orders.

As stated, the archers were assigned to their respective units, but had no commanding officer they could directly report to for tactics. None of the current officers could advise well on how to improve the current situation. All they could do was allow the archers to gain experience and hope to find someone who could plug the gap.

It was the same for the mages. Directly mobilized from Southport, they had no one who could take charge and lead them at the moment. However, that seemed to have no effect on the mages themselves. Unlike the archers, they had much higher hopes in finding someone to lead them well. It seemed that they were betting on the relatively lower number of mages compared to other professions to eventually provide them with a leader.

And so, after 5 days of reorganization and retraining, the motley force was ready for the next part of campaign, the march to the capital.