Chapter 15 Cheerfully Making Military Reforms (I)

"Long live His Majesty the Emperor!! Long live His Majesty the Emperor!!"

Hercule was riding on a four-horse-carriage amid a shower of flowers strewn by the citizens. Each time he waved his hand, the citizens would go into a craze.

That was hardly surprising—it had been a very long time since the Lemurian Empire had seen a victory. No small part of it was because of Hadrianus III's poor martial prowess.

"Support for my rule will rise after this."

Receiving loud cheering, Hercule was in a good mood. Support for the state would rise after a victorious war. That applied to all countries, time periods and cultures.

A monarch with a sharp mind for warfare would always receive support no matter what kind of ruler he was. Even if he misgoverned, he imposed heavy taxes, he ruled tyrannically… as long as he won wars, the masses' opinions would be overturned.

Now, the basis for Hercule's authority had been firmly solidified.

…That made some people feel uneasy, however.

"Ta-dah! The post-war review meeting is now underway!!"

Hercule said as he clapped his hands. Today, he had gathered the generals who took part in the campaign. Even Darios was present.

"Is this some sort of event, Your Majesty?"

"It's a meeting to reflect on our last campaign."

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"…But we won, didn't we?"

"There might have been a better way to win, you know. And there's always room for improvement."

Hercule answered Garphis.

Hercule could be described as the hardworking type. Though that may sound dubious when you consider his words and conduct so far…

Reading a massive number of books, learning several languages, amassing abundant knowledge, scrutinizing a huge amount of administrative data, revising the tax system, persuading the bureaucrats, writing down documents… Hercule had clearly exerted a lot of effort.

If it was for the sake of achieving his goals, Hercule would put in as much effort as needed. Regardless, he always made sure the process was as fun and painless as possible. Because he only had so much time on his hands, he tried to save as much time and effort as he could while avoiding accumulating stress so he could spend his time off-work on other matters.

There's no value in wasting time and stamina doing tedious, pointless and stressful tasks. That's not diligence but simply negligence.

Thus was Hercule's opinion.

And that was why this review meeting was needed.

If the result was good, it's necessary to determine the reason why it went well and work out how to improve it even further.

If the result was bad, it's necessary to find out what went wrong and make sure they never repeat the same mistake again.

Improvements must be made continuously. That was also diligence, surely.

And for that reason…

"Let's start the meeting. First of all, Darios. Let's review your performance."

"…Mine? But I was the enemy…"

"Figuring out the reason why the enemy lost is important, too."

I see, Darios concurred. After a bit of thinking, he said.

"I would have won had we fought on open plains."

"Do you take me for a fool who would fight head-on against a numerically superior army on an open field?"

"Wasn't there a famous mountain climber who surrounded and wiped out a Lemurian army twice as numerous as his own, thus driving the Empire to a corner?"

"That was no human feat, you know. A fifteen-year-old brat couldn't possibly manage that."

At the very least, the current Hercule didn't have the ability to reproduce that famous tactic. And there was no chance Darios would have allowed that.

If it's Darios, he would definitely have been able to cut his way to victory before Hercule could have enveloped his army. In the first place, it's stupid to try to copy a man who was crazy enough to lead his elephants through the mountains before going to battle.

"That's true, I guess. In retrospect, there's probably no general other than me who would lead such a huge army single-handedly. Had I dispersed my troops out, I could have been more alert. It's not like I could have appointed another commander, though. Can't trust mercenaries, after all."

"Aren't you a mercenary, too?"

"It's mercenaries who distrust other mercenaries the most."

It was self-hatred, basically.

"Fear not, our army will learn from your mistakes."

"…I'm not sure what to say about that."

Darios displayed a complicated expression. At the moment Darios had no thought of betraying Hercule, though, nor did he bear a grudge towards Hercule.

On the contrary, he rather liked this new master who gave him an opportunity to hit it big. He also wanted to watch over the growth of this young boy who obliterated Darios himself.

"Want me to tell you why you lost?"

"Why was it?"

"It's because you took territories from my father. You shouldn't have taken those territories if you couldn't manage them."

"Haha… It's just as you said."

Darios had a favorable impression of Hercule, but… he couldn't help feeling uncomfortable. That was no wonder, though—Darios's current colleagues were the very generals who he had defeated before.

Then again, there wasn't any general who had the spine to object to Hercule's decision.

"Okay, that's it for Darios's review… Let's reflect on our army's performance."

"Was there anything that could be improved? Everything went well as far as I can tell, though?"

Carolina tilted her head adorably.

"Well, there wasn't any issue with the strategy and tactics we used. But the battle itself… the weapons, I mean."

"…Weapons? What's about them?"

"The spears used by the infantry. Adopting the five-meter-long spear right away was a good decision… but they were used too poorly! They are too lacking in flexibility."

Until now, the Lemurian Army had used short swords and shields in combination with javelins. This setup was extremely flexible but had been left behind the times by the development of cavalry.

Therefore Hercule ditched shields, equipping the infantry with five-meter-long spears and adjusted his tactics accordingly. This five-meter-long spear was a come-back of the Sarissa spear used in the phalanx formation of antiquity.

Basically, the Lemurian Army had rolled back the calendar to return to using the equipment of several thousand years past. However…

"Granted that we were fighting downhill, that was a bad idea. The infantry broke ranks right away and were too weak in melee."

It seemed some infantry ended up throwing away their spears early on and fought with swords which were more mobile. As expected, the long spear wasn't usable in close quarters on poor footing.

What Hercule was looking for was a highly flexible force. One that could exert consistent strength against any enemy, on any terrain, in any weather.

In the domains of the Lemurian Empire, there were deserts, plains, and even mountains. They were facing all kinds of enemies, like nomads and mountain peoples.

Somewhere, there must be some terrains where his army couldn't operate.

Was there no choice but to create exclusive forces for use in deserts, mountains, jungles, and plains?

"How about legions, then?" asked Garphis.

We went through so much trouble to convert the army, now you want to change it back?

"That's a bit… Spears are still preferable to short swords, after all. But infantry should have shields to protect against arrows. And the five-meter-spear isn't quite long enough to fend off cavalry… It has to seven-meter long, at least."

"…"

"Having longer reach than enemy weapons, usable on poor footing, strong in close combat and light enough to use with a shield. I wonder if such a weapon exists?"

"...…"

That's asking for way too much. But the generals kept that thought to themselves.

Such convenient weapons couldn't possibly exist…

"Why not use them all, then?"

Darios jokingly said. But then…

"That's it!!"

"…Eh?"

And thus, the equipment for the reborn Lemurian Army was decided.