Herald of Steel

“How are the city defenses?” Alexander turned to Menes.

“No problem.” Menes waved his large palm to reassure Alexander, adding, “As you said the city was built to resist Tibias. Its walls are still high and strong and we will have no problem defending it with so many soldiers at our hands.”

“Hmmm, that’s good.” Alexander nodded, pleased that there was little chance of his city being sniped out under his nose.

With the defense secure, he then turned to focus on the offense.

He then raised a critical issue about the military, “The phalanx has shown some serious flaws in our last battle. And Zanzan is even more hilly than Adhan. So, this flaw will continue to manifest itself even more in the future. How do my military commanders intend to fix this?”

This very hard question drew blanks from everyone.

All understood that the phalanx had become obsolete but what Alexander was asking them to do was close to impossible.

They were asked to draw up a completely new, effective infantry formation from scratch right in front of him right now Parting the red sea would be easier.

“Ahem,” Menicus was the first to break the awkward silence with a cough, “The pasha’s concerns are certainly justified.” He admitted.

And then pointed out the problem with Alexander’s expectation, “But the phalanx has been in use for thousands of years, and proved itself over countless battles. So, changing to a new, more effective formation is no small task. Perhaps the military commanders need a bit of time to test out new battle tactics and then let the pasha judge its effectiveness,” Menicus asked for more time.

“Yes, a year should be enough. In the meantime, we can use the phalanx defensively and not launch any large campaigns.” Menes offered a time frame and a compromise.

All this sounded very reasonable to Alexander and he was also very glad to see his military commander rise to the challenge and face the difficulties instead of mopping about the virtues of the phalanx.

And even the time wanted by Menes was not at all long, in fact, it was very short.

But for the current Alexander, even that one year was too long.

So, he proposed, “I have thought of a new formation. Please give me your thoughts!”

This made everyone turn to Alexander while the same thought came to them, ‘Is there anything he doesn’t know?’

They gazed at him as Alexander handed out a piece of papyrus to each of them, with various numbers and words written on them, a paper that Alexander had worked on while idling during the cruise.

Alexander gestured using his palms, “As you can see on the papyrus, the new structure of the army is detailed on it. But, let me explain,”

He then gave a detailed breakdown, “The smallest unit of the new army will be a squad- made of ten men- eight soldiers and two servants with a mule. The leader of this squad will be chosen from these men and be called a squad leader.”

“Ten squads (10) will make up a company (100 men), led by a leader called the sergeant.”

“Six companies will make up the base unit of the army- called a battalion (600 men) led by a captain.”

“And this battalion, consisting of four hundred and eighty soldiers and one hundred and twenty servants will be the smallest army combat unit instead of the two-hundred-fifty-men phalanx.”

Alexander paused to see if everyone was keeping and noticed everyone was looking at the papyrus, trying to match what Alexander had written to what he said.

So Alexander continued, “And ten battalions will be combined to form a legion led by a Legion leader. And this legion of six thousand men (four thousand and eight hundred soldiers and one thousand and two hundred servants) will be our basic deployment unit during any war. A legion should be able to travel, fight and maintain itself independently in any engagement and its leader must be able to carry out the will of Zanzan and its people.”

By this Alexander meant he would directly issue orders to the leaders of a legion and then they will be expected to carry them out.

This brand new infantry structure was all too sudden for everyone and without even trying it out in a mock battle, the military commander didn’t know whether to praise it or find flaws with it.

Even the usual sycophantic Helliptos didn’t seem to know what to say.

After another repeat of the awkward silence, as usual, the most experienced veteran there spoke, “Pasha, there is a reason a phalanx is two hundred and fifty men big. It’s because a commander can reliably command only that many men without losing control,” Menicus said with a little frown.

But he was immediately corrected not by Alexander, but Menes, “No, leader, I’m afraid you are not counting properly.” The black giant spoke up.

And then pointed out, “In the phalanx formation, a captain had around twenty-five squad leaders under him. But now, with the formation of ..ummm” Menes looked down on the papyrus to look for a specific word.

“Company,” Alexander helped out.

“Yes, company,” Menes repeated.

And then continued, “With the formation of the new sub-unit, the company, the captain will have to deal with only six people under him. And even sergeants will have to deal with just ten squad leaders.”

“So, you see the work will not double but be quartered!” Menes finished his reasoning.

This drew very impressed looks from everyone, including Alexander who liked Menes’s use of maths, something he had taught the man to use.

Menicus too nodded understandingly, tacitly admitting his oversight.

But then another man, Melodias, spoke up about his own concern, “Pasha Alexander, the number of servants seems pretty low for an army. Usually, a servant can at most serve two soldiers and even that’s very difficult. My lord should know this!”

On the surface, many might feel even twelve hundred servants is too much, much less the two thousand being demanded by Melodias, but it should be remembered that an army needs a lot of logistical support to operate.

It needs food to eat, firewood as fuel, maintenance of weapons and armor, and proper care of the pack animals.

And to do all these, extra help is essential as a single soldier can’t fight and also complete everything else.

Alexander being a slave in the mercenary group was of course aware of the burden placed on a servant and gave his reason, “There won’t be the need for so many servants because we will do away with the large, cumbersome baggage train pulled by slow animals and instead require individual soldiers to carry his own gear!”

Alexander’s seemingly innocent suggestion made everyone who understood what he suggesting go wide-eyed and some even visibly paled in fright.

“That…comman…Pasha, that’s too much!” This came from the most unlikeliest of sources- Helliptos, who had always supported Alexander, but now felt that Alexander was asking them to do the impossible. 𝐞𝐨𝘃𝐞𝐥.

And even if Heliptos felt that way, it could be imagined could the others felt.

But Alexander snorted in disdain, “What too much? I have carried close to fifty kilograms every day for years and I was a child then. Are you saying that my army can’t do what a child can?” He chided Heliptos.

Alexander did carry such weights sometimes when the baggage carts were full and there were no spare animals, forced to march for hours with the heavy load on his back.

But doing it for years was clearly an exaggeration.

This was a fairly uncommon practice and it was rarely done, unless in dire circumstances.

But few knew about this and Alexander’s strong rebuttal made Heliptos sink a bit and he quickly lowered his head in fear.

And seeing this Menicus quickly jumped in, “Pasha Alexander, we are mercenaries. We are professionals and of course, even carrying another man is no problem for us.” He exaggerated.

But added, “However, this is the army you are talking about! And those untrained, conscripted peasants won’t be able to take such heavy loads.”

Usually, an army consisted of ten percent professionals and ninety percent levies. Even the famed Adhanian army was such, with the nobles making up the professional core and the peasants the main body of the army.

And without training, ordering the army to carry such loads and then expecting them to fight was a recipe for mutiny.

Hence Menicus’s fears were very justified.

But Alexander had certainly thought of this, “There will be no conscripts or levies in my army. My army will be an entirely professional army!”

This statement sent his military commanders into another quagmire of confusion and a meek voice from Grahtos asked for clarification, “Does the pasha mean like a permanent mercenary army?”

Alexander lightly smiled and nodded, “Yes, like a paid mercenary army, But it will be loyal to only us.”

This drew some murmur from the crowd as this was not a new idea but in most eyes a stupid idea.

“Ahem, Commander, I think that’s a very bad idea.” Menicus strongly gave his opinion.

And reasoned, “What you are proposing is something only similar to what Exolas has, and because of their permanent army, they have virtually no economy to speak of and are forced to rely on its sister city-states to provide for all its essentials while it provides the muscle and security to them.”

Menicus as an experienced man who had traveled all over Thesos certainly knew a thing or two about the major city-states.

He also knew why the demand for his services were in so high demand and why no one wielded a large standing army.

Because it was stupid.