Herald of Steel

Menicus didn’t simply fold under everyone’s pressure and accept the proposal.

But instead chose not to oppose it for the time being because coincidentally the proposed legion was around five thousand soldiers strong, almost equal to the total number of mercenaries and Cantagenans, and even he would agree that letting these men be farmers would be too much waste of talent.

In addition, given their likely numerical inferiority in near-future combats, they would almost undoubtedly have to depend on the quality of their troops to win battles.

But even then, though Menicus accepted it for the time being, he still disliked the idea of a standing army.

Menicus’s vehement dislike for a standing army was related to his upbringing.

He was born in Exolas, and saw firsthand what the policy Alexander was suggesting had done for the city-state.

Because of its fanatical approach to its army, it rarely did anything else, leading to very poor standard of living for anyone other than its soldiers.

Menicus had lost his mother and three sisters due to the poor conditions and the lack of healthcare and he blamed the Exolas’s way of living for their death.

That was also when he had decided to switch sides with Cantagena.

And in this way, in his mind, the word standing army came to be equated with poverty and destitution.

However none present there knew the thoughts harbored by the old man and instead chose to move on.

Alexander spoke again, “Going back to topic, the professional soldiers will be expected to carry food for at least five-seven days, pots and pans to cook the food, entrenching equipment such as pickaxe and saws, ropes and baskets for miscellaneous things, while the mule will carry the tent, the mill to grind wheat into flour and various other things along with its own food.” Alexander gave a detailed list.

And then added, “Of course, the soldiers will also have to bear their arms and armor. This will include a helmet, full upper chainmail armor over a linen thorax, leg greaves, two pilum javelins, a spear, a large rectangular wooden shield with a bronze center, a short sword for thrusting, and at last a dagger as a secondary weapon. So, all in all, he will have to carry thirty-five to forty kilograms while on the march.”

Everyone was a bit shocked at the so detailed list of things said by Alexander and thinking back on his previous accomplishments, many felt it might be a divine revelation.

After all, this was a brand new concept, but somehow Alexander was already listing specifics.

“I think this is a very good new infantry formation. And I think we should give the new formation s test to find its capabilities,” Melodias diplomatically said, not rejecting anything, but also not blindly accepting everything, instead preferring to let the results speak for themselves later.

Others also liked this, as Menes spoke, “Yes, let’s do that. Things like the pilum javelin has proved its worth in the last battle as without it the center might not have held. But I am worried that replacing the spear with the sword will put us at a serious range disadvantage. So, we will have to test it out and see.”

Alexander too wasn’t sure how the Romans, whom he had copied this from, dealt with this.

But later mock battles would help him produce a standard manual on how to take on the phalanx.

First, the pilum would be thrown to kill or disable the phalangites by pinning their arms to the shields.

Then the two sides would come closer, the five protruding rows of the phalanx spears claiming many legionary lives at first.

But once close enough, the legionaries would charge, trying to close the gap between the spear tips by either locking shields and brushing the spear points away using them or by feinting low to bait the spears into pointing upwards, and then rushing under the pikes, where the phalangites would be almost useless and the legionaries would be in their element.

In this close-quarter combat, the spear’s long reach would act against the phalangites, turning the pointy stick to just a wooden stick, while the shorter sword could hack and slash in the narrow melee.

And in this strategy, changing the shield from a round one to a rectangular shape was seen as essential as the shape allowed it to be locked onto each other without gaps, unlike the circular ones, and thus prevented stray spear strikes from killing the legionaries.

In this way, the legion could hold its own against the phalanx.

And although in a frontal attack, a phalanx was still superior, Alexander and his high command would decide to implement the much more versatile legion, capable of fighting in all terrain rather than the one-trick-pony phalanx.

But all these were in the future as right now Alexander agreed to his military commanders’ suggestion and only nodded. “Okay.”

But just as when he was about to move on to another topic, an unfamiliar voice spoke up, “Pasha Alexander’s reforms are extremely detailed and well-thought-of. This old man’s eyes have been opened.”

This praise came from a well-dressed, middle gentleman whose biggest identifying feature was his large, callused hands.

The huge bearded man was called Harun and he was the representative of the blacksmiths, sitting here on Alexander’s invite.

And until now this civilian along with his fellow artisans who had been invited here was happy to let the military men discuss their military affairs.

But there was something that Alexander said that drew his attention and he had to say it out aloud, “Please forgive this old man for speaking out of turn, but I seemed to have heard was something that I wanted to clarify.”

Harun then added, “I heard the pasha say that each of the soldiers will be armored with chainmail and linen thorax. But this will be very good, but arming so many soldiers could be a challenge.”

He explained why, “As you all know making linen thorax needs special tanners to process the linen and glue them together. And the end result is an armor even better than bronze cuirass as the latter tends to be brittle under attack. But this needs a lot of time and manpower to manufacture, meaning they are very expensive.”

Harun further pointed out, “And this is not even talking about the chainmail. That thing is almost impenetrable, but it is also prohibitively expensive and time-consuming to make. That thing makes the linen thorax look cheap.”

He thus ended by saying, “So, what I’m saying is that equipping all the soldiers will take very long and be very costly.”

As soon as the bearded man stopped speaking, Menes chirped happily, “That’s easy. We’ll make the soldiers pay for their equipment.”

He was very confident that he had found the magic solution as this practice was followed almost universally, in varying degrees.

Soldiers most of the time would only be given the weapon- the spear and the shield, and the question about armor and sometimes even food would be left upto the individual.

This created a very heterogenous army with various gear as each soldier bought whatever they had the means to buy and for Alexander, who was obsessed with creating a homogenous, coherent unit of form such an arrangement was of course impossible to accept.

And he made that clear, “Soldiers will not be responsible for their gear. All equipment will be standardized and be provided entirely by the state.”

And before anyone could raise their objections, he quickly added, “Of course, I’m not blind to reality. We will only equip our soldiers with things within our means. I will expand the artisan guild in multiple magnitudes as soon as manpower becomes available to help cope with the demand and if even then both full chain armor and linen thorax are not possible, then we will provide with only one and ask the soldiers to procure more on their own.”

This compromise suited everyone and they nodded in assent.

Then Grahtos quickly asked, “Pasha, what about the cavalry?”

The Sycarian had a worried tone to his voice as the new legion made no mention of any cavalry.

Alexander lightly smiled and assured, “Of course, the legion will have its own cavalry. Otherwise, how will the short-sworded legionaries defend against the prevalent Adhanian cavalry?”

He then announced, “Each legion will have five hundred cavalries with five hundred servants accompanying them. These will include a mix of scouts, skirmishers (light cavalry), and heavy cavalry.”

“And just like the innovations in the infantry, the cavalry will also be upgraded to better suit the new battles.” Alexander mysteriously promised.

“Oh! What are they?” Grahtos excitedly asked, his eyes sparkling like a kid that’s been promised a shiny new toy.

“Haha, it will be easier to show you,” Alexander chuckled as he gestured for the man to be patient. 𝚍ｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕.𝚝

He intended to make his cavalry like the medieval knights, a fully armored horse and man, charging into battle with a lance.

As Grahtos forcefully simmered his excitement down, the worried voice of Theocles sounded, “But Pasha, how are we going to afford all these?”

And this was a question that haunted not just this council, but every man who had an army to command.