When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 650: The First Four-Year Plan Hearing (Part )

After finishing the report, it was the turn of Saint Jeanne, the chief exorcist of the Exorcist Court, to speak.

But anyone with a discerning eye could see that although Jeanna was the chief exorcist of the Exorcist Court, Hakuto was actually in charge.

So the person who actually came on stage according to the report was Hakuto himself.

Hakuto was born into a family of Norn military nobles and had fought wars all his life. He was far superior to Jeanna or Jeshka in both experience and theory.

Jieshka knew he couldn't win, so he settled for the second best and got the position of commander of the Black Champion.

If nothing goes wrong in the future, when the Exorcist Court is gradually perfected, Jeanne will resign from the position of Chief Exorcist and only serve as the commander of the Salvation Army.

According to the current opinions within the Papal Palace, the order of succession to the chief exorcist should be Jeanna, Hakuto, Jessica, and Bernardo.

The order of inheritance is as obvious as that of the Court of Truth, which should be Madeleine, Boussac, and Armand.

Originally, Pettier also had the ability to compete for this position, but he was older than Armand and had less achievements and qualifications than Armand. Unless something unexpected happened, the best he could do in his life was to be Privy Councilor.

Holding the podium, Hakuto's deep voice echoed in the venue:
“Between 1445 and 1446, the Salvation Army went from having just over 4000 infantry and cavalry combined to a standing force of 11500.

Currently, the Salvation Army still has two legions totaling 9000 people, 1500 cavalry, and 1000 engineers and wizards, for a total of 11500 people.

In addition to the engineers, 70% of the infantry were equipped with breastplates, 60% of the cavalry were equipped with three-quarter armor, there was only a 10% shortage of weapons, and 50% of the holy musketeers were equipped with electric gold pendants.

In the Thousand River Valley as a whole, the Mountain County and the Plain County have each established a quarter-strength new local garrison corps... Currently, there are 1000 recruits in training at the Jeanne d'Arc Recruitment Camp and 220 officers in the Saint-Danger Military Academy...

...59 military stations have been built and 112 are under construction..."

Hakuto's report was much shorter than Sissi's. On the one hand, it was for confidentiality reasons, and on the other hand, his military achievements were obvious to all. His greatest achievement and contribution was defeating Prince Condé.

But everyone knows this achievement and there is nothing to report.

Horn tapped his index finger lightly on the armrest of his chair as he listened to Hakuto's report.

The so-called modernization of the army actually means the regularization of soldiers and the professionalization of officers.

The general level of the army in the empire was mainly composed of local nobles and feudal lords, and the king could only summon the nobles to provide troops when necessary.

In other words, it is temporary and emergency in nature, so the training level is uneven, and the national army cannot even compare with privately formed mercenary groups.

In most of the past, faced with such poorly equipped, low-morale and poorly trained infantry, the fully armored Super Knights could easily break through their formations.

Even in the chivalric culture, the custom of reckless charge was cultivated because it really led to victory.

But with the emergence of the Dunjar Phalanx and professional extraordinary infantry, although the infantry still does not have the ability to counterattack, they can block and exchange blood.

Horn's first four-year war preparedness plan required that soldiers be made regular or semi-regular (reserve system) as much as possible.

At the same time, with the evolution of battlefield tactics, the original practice of knights serving as part-time commanders became ineffective.

Horn was the first to introduce full-time, professional junior officers with orthodox tactical training into the army, and used these junior officers to achieve a level of organization unimaginable for his contemporaries.

With the addition of the subversive war weapon, the Holy Gun, the Savior Army has repeatedly created miracles on the battlefield.

But with the victory of the Thousand Valley War, problems arose when Horn wanted to continue expanding his army using this method.

The army, especially the standing army, is a beast that devours gold. The annual maintenance cost of a full-scale modern army is about 3 gold pounds. Horn has two such armies.

Originally, they could rely on fighting demons and burning churches to obtain funds to supply the army. After emptying the cash of the two plain counties of Lower River County and Longsand County, they were able to barely make up for the deficit.

Moreover, cash flow in the bond market and industrial market is quite tight. If it is withdrawn at random, the finances may go bankrupt if one is not careful.

To deal with the invasion of the Kingdom of Leia, the current 2 standing troops are far from enough. At least 5 to 4 troops are needed.

Qianhe Valley is a future warrior, and a promising future means that it is not possible now.

Given Qianhe Valley's current financial situation, the cost of maintaining more than 2 standing troops is already stretched, not to mention recruiting another 2 new standing troops.

Therefore, the Exorcist Court and the Holy Court proposed the concept of local garrison corps, and the two new Salvation Army-style corps in the Thousand River Valley both belonged to the garrison corps.

The so-called local garrison corps was actually Hakuto's discovery that a new type of army that had been trained for 3 to 6 months was enough to resist an equal number of elite imperial infantry or a small number of extraordinary knights.

Although they cannot defeat the enemy like the elite Savior Army, they have no problem being responsible for defense or guarding the city.

In this case, why not simply maintain a half-staff or even a quarter-staff force in peacetime, retain only officers, train reservists regularly, and then replenish them when war breaks out.

With the mobilization speed of the imperial system, Horn should have received the news by the time the Kingdom of Leia began to assemble.

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By the time the Kingdom of Leia has assembled its troops and gradually advanced to the border of the Thousand River Valley, Horn should have completed his recruitment and could even train for another half a month.

Then only half of the elite regular army and half of a quarter of the reserve army are needed to maintain sufficient combat effectiveness while maintaining financial stability.

Although the Kingdom of Leia is in a precarious situation now, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse. No matter who the new king is, it is not difficult to mobilize 7 troops.

In fact, excluding the border garrison troops, the army that King Leia can directly mobilize is only about 2 troops. The remaining 5 troops estimated by Horn and others are entirely provided by vassals and mercenaries.

The Privy Council had already made a specific judgment about what would happen after the Leian Civil War ended.

No matter who wins, after stabilizing the political situation, the first thing they will do is to establish their authority through Qianhe Valley.

After all, Horn has too many accusations: heresy, abuse of nobles, preaching of magic, and treating witches as saints...

Horn had long been declared a heretic within the Imperial Church, so both military orders and knightly orders were allowed to participate in this crusade.

Judging from the attitude of several popes currently excommunicating each other, these nobles are all blessed with a "holy war zeal".

By taking advantage of this large-scale team-building activity in which everyone participates, the new king can establish his prestige with twice the result with half the effort.

There is not much time left for them.

After several key leaders made their year-end reports for the past year and a half, the directors of each department and the priests of each township and county took the stage to report or hold regular meetings and discussions.

Horn was listening carefully at first, but he soon discovered that many people actually came for political showmanship.

Many of the matters reported were repetitive and watered down, just to save face in front of Horn and other senior executives.

As Horn listened, he even felt drowsy.

However, this feeling disappeared after an engineer named Leonardo came to the stage and proposed a hydraulic energy storage clockwork engine plan.

(End of this chapter)