A few days after the victory celebration, Roland returned to his farming duties.
Sitting in his office, the steady drip-drip outside the window sounded like a gentle rain. It was the melting snow. When he spent the New Year in the countryside, he loved leaning by the window to watch the long icicles under the eaves turn into transparent droplets, dripping down slowly. Though he no longer had such leisure, it was still delightful to write his plans while listening to the earth's awakening.
Based on past experience, snowmelt typically takes about a week, but the land route between the town and the fortress would require at least a month to clear. Roland could easily envision the state of the unpaved mud roads without proper drainage once the snow and ice melted. If he successfully captured the Long Song Fortress, his first priority would be to build a hardened road between the two locations that could accommodate horse-drawn carriages.
However, the primary issue that needs to be addressed at present remains the construction of the military. Without a reliable and powerful army, it is impossible to defeat the fortress forces despite being outnumbered. Transforming the militia into a regular army is merely the first step; the specific organizational structure, regulations, discipline, and reward-punishment systems are the real challenges he faces.
Though he had played military chess as a child, he had completely forgotten the game by now. After much deliberation, Roland decided to invent it himself. After all, as the creator of the modern army, even if the premise was flawed, no one would notice.
The First Army of Border Town was thus swiftly established, structured around five-tier units: army, division, battalion, company, and platoon. Each artillery piece required at least five operators, so five operators formed a company, ten companies constituted a battalion, and ten battalions made up a division. The division and army's troop sizes were deferred to future planning. Given the era's combat capabilities, merely two or three battalion-level units could decisively defeat most adversaries in open battle.
Roland let out a long sigh when the most basic framework was finalized.
The subsequent regulations were far simpler, encompassing only the time-honored rules of obeying military orders, submitting to superiors, refraining from desertion, and avoiding betrayal. Roland's first rule, however, was a clear prohibition against looting and disturbing civilians.
The detrimental consequences of allowing subordinates to plunder are innumerable, and the severe impact on the local population would take years to mitigate. This is precisely why he insisted on using civilians as the military personnel.
When the Nobles answered the Lord's call to campaign, the idea of not plundering after defeating the enemy was pure fantasy. In fact, their primary motivation for joining the Lord's expedition was the chance to freely seize the enemy's wealth and territories—including the innocent civilians within those lands.
As for mercenaries and bandits, they are even more notorious. Though they appear fierce and brutal, they are only capable of fighting when the wind is favorable, and robbery is also a major source of income for them. Military discipline holds no meaning for these individuals.
Only an army composed of civilians would not regard other civilians as sacrificial lambs. Of course, discipline and harsh punishments alone are insufficient. Over time, the greed in one's heart will inevitably amplify with each successive victory. Therefore, reward mechanisms must be implemented concurrently to fundamentally eliminate looting and other disciplinary violations.
To make the rewards truly motivating, Roland decided to unleash his ultimate weapon—the land grant system. Those who distinguished themselves in battle would be awarded plots of land. Roland had already identified the source: the undeveloped territory between Border Town and the fortress.
In an era when ninety percent of the land belonged to the Noble class, this was undoubtedly a substantial reward. Once they acquired permanent property, these individuals would cling to it fiercely, and anyone attempting to overthrow them would face the most intense resistance from the beneficiaries.
The people are not driven by words and whips, but by tangible benefits. In other words, as long as one consistently represents the fundamental interests of the people under their rule, no one can shake their position of authority.
Unlike traditional feudal domains, Roland limited land grants to a few to a dozen acres. These plots could be used for building homes, purchasing serfs, or hiring farmers, but were not permitted for industrial development. In contrast, a Knight's domain spanned nearly 2,000 acres—equivalent to a small village. The income from these operations funded the Knight and his retinue's military needs, such as purchasing weapons, armor, and horses.
This small-scale land grant would neither provoke strong resistance from the Noble interest group nor compromise the independence of the recipients. To Roland, it was akin to a retirement pension, ensuring soldiers a steady income after their service.
Meanwhile, to consolidate central authority and prevent the paradox of 'a servant's servant is not my servant, 'those granted land held only ownership without autonomy. The land remained governed by the Lord's jurisdictional laws, regulations, and systems. In a sense, they functioned more like modern-day farmers.
After meticulously transcribing these preliminary institutional concepts, Roland stretched lazily. Now he could finally focus on his forte—weapon development.
With the rapid advancement in musket production, maintaining a long spear corps to protect musketeers would have been a waste of manpower, as these soldiers needed to be capable of independent combat in close-quarters fighting.
The solution was straightforward: equip the guns with bayonets. Roland didn't expect his troops to launch a frontal assault. He only needed a fighting force when the enemy was cornered and artillery couldn't crush their morale.
A bayonet is not difficult to manufacture. In its simplest form, it is merely a sharp cone. The key lies in how it connects to a firearm: the earliest versions featured a thin wooden rod wrapped around the hilt, which could be directly inserted into the barrel. While this design simplified production, it also had obvious drawbacks—such as the inability to fire during close combat and the considerable effort required to remove it after the fight.
Roland's project was to develop an upgraded second-generation bayonet—the barrel-type bayonet. The blade's tip featured a chamfered end connected to an iron sleeve. The sleeve's slightly larger inner diameter, with a zigzag notch, required only a small iron strip welded onto the barrel to secure the blade. The triangular blade had a V-shaped cross-section with all three edges sharpened, allowing it to be easily retracted after insertion while leaving a non-healing wound.
The bayonet with a sleeve is slightly taller than the barrel after installation, which may affect ammunition loading. However, compared to the folding bayonet, it is simpler and more suitable for mass production. A single prototype can be delivered to a blacksmith to craft it.
The key to making bayonets work in actual combat is training soldiers on how to use them.
Roland was completely clueless about this. Fortunately, he remembered Chief Knight's boast that any military weapon could be used effectively, so he decided to ask the Chief to teach the musketeers how to wield bayonets.