This exercise between the New Army and the old army attracted a lot of attention.
Whether it was those who had just submitted to Lai En like weathervanes, or his loyal followers, a whole crowd of people gathered on the empty ground outside the city.
Even nearby residents skipped work today to watch.
On trees, dirt slopes, rooftops…anywhere with a decent view, a few irresponsible guys had climbed up in twos and threes.
The commoners of this other world must be lacking in entertainment—that’s a limitation of the era.
Since it was rare to have a safe chance to watch a big fight, everyone was naturally excited.
After all, with nothing to do at night but poke their wives, it was pretty good to watch men poking each other during the day!
The two sides in the exercise: Yang Pigu’s 400 men—mostly militia mixed with a few sergeants—and himself, versus the Elite Training Corps (EDF)’s 200, plus Andrew and Alicia.
Of course, this exercise used training blunted weapons, and both sides were fully armed.
After all, getting killed in an exercise before even going to the battlefield would be an absolute tragedy.
It was late summer.
The breeze carried a slight chill, kicking up dust from the ground.
Alicia would never admit that the chill running down her spine was because of nervousness and fear.
It must be this damn wind, right!
What kind of illness had Lai En come down with, insisting that the other side outnumber them two to one to mess with them?
These two hundred jarheads had practiced a little emergency drill with spears yesterday, but that was it.
Fortunately, Alicia had equipped each of them with a saber.
At least they could slash at the enemy with a knife.
Most importantly, she had absolutely no idea how to command!
What was she going to do?
Maybe she should just order a full charge once the exercise started.
With this few people, there wasn’t much room for fancy tactics anyway…
Wait!
Andrew was here!
Alicia suddenly whipped her head around and stared at Andrew, who was completely taken aback.
Andrew felt uncomfortable under her gaze and instinctively shrank his neck.
“L-Lord and Master? You… why are you looking at me like that?”
The girl narrowed her eyes, a sly smile curling at the corner of her lips.
“Andrew, I recall you were previously His Highness’s attendant and followed him into a few battles, right?”
Andrew felt a bit creeped out.
He instinctively hunched his shoulders.
“Three times, I think… Lord and Master, rest assured, I’ll protect you well this time!”
Alicia’s eyes lit up, and she suddenly beamed with joy.
She stood on tiptoe and patted Andrew’s shoulder with effort.
“Great! Then I’m counting on you! As Centurion, you’d better play your role today!”
“Huh? Lord and Master, you’re not planning to have me command, are you? No way, no way!”
Andrew shook his head like a rattle-drum.
“I was just a lowly attendant before. How would I know how to command?”
“Your attitude is wrong, kid. You need to take responsibility! If there’s a difficulty, you step up; if there’s no difficulty, you create one and step up! Show me some spirit of fearing neither hardship, nor fatigue, nor death…”
“Stop!”
Andrew already knew that whenever his young lord started going around in circles, she was just being stubborn.
So he simply gave up and joined in the mess.
“I really can’t. I can’t bear the responsibility. I’m afraid of death! I have no awareness!”
Comrade Andrew’s attitude just wouldn’t do! Alicia frowned, her eyes narrowing.
“Damn it! If you can’t, do you think I can?”
“…You can’t?”
Andrew’s face instantly showed a shocked expression of, “How the hell did you become Sergeant Major?” followed by a wave of dejection—their young lord was a lost cause.
This revolution had no future.
Might as well jump ship.
Alicia gritted her teeth and punched him in the arm, but Andrew’s rigid arm guard jarred her wrist.
“Of course I can… a little! Are you looking down on me? Just watch me!”
Well, Andrew was unreliable.
She’d have to bite the bullet and go for it.
The numbers were small anyway; formations wouldn’t make much difference in a fight this scale.
This exercise didn’t demand much of the commander—it was mainly about testing the soldiers’ quality.
With Lai En loudly announcing the start, Yang Pigu’s four hundred men immediately began forming up.
Under the shouts of a few sergeants, the militia somewhat chaotically arranged themselves into four squares.
The two squares on the flanks advanced slightly, hinting at an encirclement.
Was he planning to overwhelm them with numbers?
But seeing their ragged, noisy formation and then looking at her own two neat squares of soldiers standing still and silent before receiving orders, Alicia suddenly felt confident.
“All troops—!”
She drew her dagger (she couldn’t lift a sword while wearing armor; a bit regrettable).
“Hah—!”
Two hundred throats burst out with a unified, short, powerful shout.
The sound momentarily drowned out the noise from the other side.
“His Highness Lai En is watching you from that platform! Show them our EDF spirit! Let everyone see what real soldiers are like!”
Alicia shouted at the top of her lungs.
“First square, immediately split into two squads, cover our left and right flanks! Second square, advance ten paces as a whole, three ranks, prepare to engage the enemy!”
Under the squad leaders’ direction, the squares began to shift rapidly.
True, Alicia hadn’t trained them in formation maneuvers yet.
There was a brief commotion during the change, but the squad leaders quickly stabilized it.
A slightly deformed but mostly correct battle formation spread out at an astonishing speed.
“Phew, damn it, what a mess…”
Alicia secretly wiped sweat from her brow.
Almost—her very first command order in life had almost failed.
“Oh? Not bad!”
On the distant platform, Lai En stroked his chin with interest, nodding as he asked Kratos beside him.
“You said Alicia hasn’t included battle formations in her training yet, right?”
“Yes.”
The bald general’s gaze was fixed on the rapidly forming ranks below.
A hint of barely perceptible approval flashed in his eyes.
“And I am certain Alicia is not well versed in military science. However, she seems to have ordered the soldiers to select a squad leader for every ten men. Judging by now, these leaders are remarkably effective at relaying orders and maintaining squad discipline.”
“The speed of forming up is impressive! Hmm… relying on the main force in the center to absorb the impact and using the flank units to cover and break the encirclement?”
Lai En saw through the girl’s plan at a glance, a faint smile on his face.
“Simple thinking, but to get new recruits to execute it to this level in such a short time…”
That was all the experience Alicia had.
She really missed the delegated command function in games.
But in reality, she was the supreme commander, and her only deputy, Andrew, stood beside her with an expression that said, “Lord and Master, you say how we fight and that’s how we fight.”
One step at a time.
She hoped these two hundred jarheads would perform steadily and not embarrass her.
Seeing the enemy’s formation, Yang Pigu became smug.
While recklessly mocking Alicia for being all talk and no military knowledge, he ordered his troops to press forward en masse and surround the opponent.
However, this order, passed down through layers, evolved somehow into a full charge among the militia, who lacked strict hierarchical control and discipline!
So the sergeants in the front and bold militiamen started running forward.
Those in the rear instinctively followed.
Fear, herd mentality, and a hint of desire for glory mixed together.
Four hundred men surged like a burst flood, shouting and charging chaotically toward Alicia’s thin, orderly line!
The scene instantly became a mess.
On Alicia’s side, all were new recruits facing their first battle.
Most soldiers panted with excitement.
The scent of sweat, the heavy tense atmosphere, the enemies charging ahead with war cries—everything stimulated everyone’s nerves.
“Andrew, squat down. Carry me on your back!”
Alicia gave a bizarre order in a low voice.
“Huh? Lord and Master, this…”
Andrew was stunned, asking with his eyes about the baffling command.
“Execute orders! Hurry!”
Alicia had no time to explain, but she had to admit that standing behind a group of burly men averaging over six feet tall, she couldn’t see the battlefield at all.
Andrew could only grit his teeth and comply, assuming a piggyback position.
Without hesitation, Alicia stepped on his arm, nimblely climbed onto his broad shoulders, and wobbled upright.
Her vision instantly cleared!
“Tch, what kind of brainless charge is this…”
Taking a look at the dark mass rushing toward them, Alicia bit her lip and ordered loudly: “Center, brace for impact! Left wing! Right wing! Advance and intercept!”
When the surging tide crashed violently against the formation, things started slipping out of Alicia’s control.
The first wave of the militia’s impact failed to shake the spear line of the hundred jarheads in the center.
Without Alicia needing to say more, the squad leaders proactively ordered a thrust.
At the same time, the flank squads didn’t embarrass her—they withstood the impact and then fell into a stalemate.
Perhaps Alicia’s “Spiritual Civilization Construction” had borne fruit, or maybe these jarheads had held a bellyful of anger after being yelled at for over a month.
In any case, these grunts began to vent violence without restraint on the panicked militia.
The scales of victory started tipping toward Alicia’s side.
The militia of this world, to put it bluntly, received only minimal military training.
They were battlefield filler used to pad numbers.
Under the organization of the supervisory unit and a few sergeants, they could serve some purpose, but at the end of the day, they were just mobs relying on numerical superiority.
With the chaotic charge failing, the militia’s morale broke apart.
Yang Pigu was horrified to discover that the “Choir” Alicia—that loud-mouthed sycophant—had created, who only stood around singing, actually had such high organization!
He had expected to overwhelm them with numbers in one wave, causing a rout and securing victory.
Now it seemed they were on the losing side!
But Yang Pigu had some backbone.
Instead of conceding immediately, he personally joined the battlefield with his two attendants, trying to salvage the situation.
“Damn it! Don’t panic! Hold steady!”
“Reform ranks! Don’t run!”
“Are you deserting? Get back here!”
The sergeants tried to shout to maintain the line, but their voices were quickly swallowed by the militia’s chaotic yells.
Meanwhile, the unified responses of the two hundred jarheads grew more and more earth-shaking.
Before long, the militia collapsed.
Some fled, some begged for mercy, some fell to the ground, some wailed.
Now was the time to secure victory!
“All troops—!”
Alicia gave the final command of this battle.
“Charge! Claim your first victory!”
The two hundred jarheads, at the peak of morale, burst into a thunderous battle cry.
Brandishing the cursing words they’d learned from Andrew and Alicia, they unleashed all their enthusiasm on the enemy before them, like lambs to the slaughter.
The scene was quite the spectacle—like a hungry tiger pouncing on an antelope, a kestrel on a dove, or city inspectors on street vendors.
An all-encompassing, meticulous care for the opponent that made the militia wish they could immediately hand over all their money voluntarily.
All-out brawls broke out everywhere on the battlefield.
It was exactly like school bullies picking on younger students—the strong bullying the weak for pleasure… anyway, that was pretty much it.
Alicia watched with great satisfaction.
So men poking men could be this fun too?