Chapter 414: Powerful Enough to Punch Through Plate

The Streit Gunners’ drill training had become a local attraction in Rosenheim.

The crowds had thinned compared to the early days, but plenty of people still gathered in small groups, despite the cold, to watch the gunners drilling hard with their brilliant red coats flapping.

And the recruits, perhaps wanting to look impressive for the onlookers, kept their shouts booming and their faces stern, moving with knife-edge precision to the calls of training instructor Erich and the veterans.

Was this perhaps the first time these troublemakers, once written off as family screwups or unwanted burdens, had ever gotten this much attention? From the moment they joined the gunners, they’d transformed into splendid soldiers.

Taking pride in the organization you belong to is a good thing.

"What do you make of the Streit Gunners?"

Today, I’d brought someone along.

He’d only just arrived in Rosenheim, so I could understand why he felt out of place, but in front of me in particular, he looked like his heart was about to leap out of his chest. I’m not going to eat you, man.

"It seems like an expensive unit to maintain. Setting aside the red dye and firearms, the gunpowder..."

"As a former finance bureaucrat, of course costs are the first thing you see."

"My apologies. Force of habit from my line of work—I analyzed it without thinking."

He stammered, but he said what he had to say.

He was right that it was costly.

Gunpowder was the biggest burden; having all 140 men fire at once required two barrels of powder. So to conserve it, live-fire training was being done sparingly, twenty men at a time in rotation.

Until the infrastructure in Vintenheim was complete and gunpowder production got going in earnest, we’d have no choice but to tighten our belts. Two barrels of powder cost 10 gold coins, and the powder wasn’t easy to come by either.

"Which is why you’ve come here."

"Thank you truly for taking in my brother when he was in a difficult spot, my lord."

Peter Meyer was a high-ranking finance bureaucrat who until recently had belonged to the Finance Department, but after receiving Ted’s letter, he’d finally come over to Rosenheim. Peter was the elder brother Ted deeply respected.

"I heard it was thanks to you that Ted got into the inspector unit."

"I only recommended him. His selection for the inspector unit was down to his own hard work."

"A finance bureaucrat who knows humility. So that’s why Ted trusts and follows you."

Peter lowered his gaze, looking embarrassed.

When he talked about his brother, Peter’s expression relaxed considerably. He was immensely proud of the brother who’d brought honor to the Meyer family. He was a textbook doting elder brother, but I could see why Ted looked up to him so much.

Ted, for all his idle streak, had been able to apply himself thanks to his brother’s good influence. And from what I’d heard, Peter was quite capable as a finance bureaucrat himself. But things hadn’t gone smoothly for him.

Adelbert had given Peter an important post purely because of Peter’s link to me. Adelbert, held in check by the late Finance Minister, had desperately needed to improve relations with me, so he’d used Peter as a bridge.

But Peter, once riding high, had ended up as something Adelbert could neither use nor discard.

My influence in the Finance Department had grown so large that Adelbert was starting to feel the pressure. But he couldn’t treat Peter poorly either, so Peter was left in an awkward position.

Peter had been agonizing over it when Ted’s letter arrived, and he’d come to me with new hope.

"Keep a close watch to make sure the 500 gold coins I’ve invested in Vintenheim aren’t wasted. Anton will help you. He’s your brother’s friend, so there’s no need to feel any pressure."

"Thank you. But, um..."

"It seems you have something to ask of me."

"Forgive me, my lord. Might I bring my subordinates with me?"

As a high-ranking finance bureaucrat, he naturally had subordinates of his own. And because of him, they too were being treated as dead weight in the Finance Department, which had left them in a very nasty situation.

"I simply can’t abandon the men who trusted and followed me. I will devote myself heart and soul to you, my lord, so please, give my subordinates a chance as well!"

A superior who takes responsibility for his subordinates no matter what is the sort worthy of respect. The mere fact that he cared for subordinates whose careers had hit a wall showed what a good man he was.

There was a reason his disposition was honesty (good).

Each territory has administrators, but naturally they don’t work alone; they have various staff under them. Managing that staff is the department head’s job, so I didn’t interfere.

I gladly granted his request. To carry out and oversee finances, he’d need subordinates he worked well with. With the worry that had been weighing on him gone, he could finally smile in earnest.

Unburdened, Peter left for Vintenheim.

His subordinates would join him there, and he pledged to me that he would rigorously manage and account for my precious funds without wasting a single coin. With Anton there, there was nothing to worry about.

If he proved his competence in Vintenheim, the position of the Streit family’s finance officer would be his.

Before the joint training between the Streit Gunners and the duchy army, I summoned Oscar and the duchy army commander to explain tercio tactics. Combining gunners and pikemen was an unfamiliar idea to them.

"So in this tactic, the gunners are the offense and the pikemen are the defense."

"The key is that the pikemen have to hold firm so the gunners can fire without worry."

Since the arquebus had many flaws, the pikemen’s role was critical. The duchy army commander pointed out that stopping a heavy cavalry charge with pikemen alone, without heavy infantry, would be a tall order.

A heavy cavalry charge is terrifying on the level of a natural disaster, like a landslide. No matter how strong pikemen are against cavalry, when those hulking brutes come barreling in, it’s impossible not to be afraid.

That’s why even the sturdiest pike line collapses in an instant once heavy cavalry breaks through. The role of heavy infantry was to work in concert with the pikemen to counter that heavy cavalry.

"Blunting the heavy cavalry’s breakthrough will be the gunners’ job."

The tercio is a simpler tactic than you’d think. Break the spearhead of the charging enemy with a volley from the gunners, then have them fall back quickly behind the pikemen in the rear and reload for the next volley.

With their spearhead broken, the enemy’s momentum is much diminished, so the pikemen can hold them, and once the gunners finish reloading, another volley shatters them completely. The duchy army commander swallowed a groan.

"...Are firearms really that powerful?"

"Powerful enough to punch through plate armor."

Oscar answered the commander’s doubt. They’d occasionally used plate armor for target practice, so the gunners no longer felt blind terror at the sight of armored knights.

Fearing a knight in plate armor is an unavoidable instinct. Once they mow those knights down with a volley in real combat, that instinctive fear should fade to some degree.

Now that they had a concrete understanding of tercio doctrine, Oscar and the duchy army commander decided to work out the operational details as they carried out joint training. Running the tactics was their job now.

Truthfully, the composition was far too bare-bones to call it a tercio. It was just gunners and pikemen. Normally swordsmen would be placed among the pikemen, but the gunners could fill the swordsmen’s role.

The bayonets fitted to the arquebuses were for stabbing enemies who forced their way into the pike line. The barrels weren’t long like a musket’s, so they were too short to use as spears; instead, the gunners served as a substitute for swordsmen.

The duchy army commander’s name was Walter Schreier.

He shared a given name with Old Man Bertheim, which made him feel oddly familiar.

And the prisoners from Basel who’d been in the duchy army’s custody were finally sent to Vintenheim. The Count of Basel had refused, to the end, to pay ransom for his captured soldiers. Per custom, they would be put to forced labor.

"Argh! Hold the line! The line! The line!"

"Damn it, which bastard stepped on my foot?"

"Hey, you son of a bitch! Watch where you’re pointing that muzzle!"

The joint training was a mess from the start. The tactic was unfamiliar, so it would take them some time to get used to it, but it was also a simple one, so it shouldn’t take too long.

The force consisted of 140 gunners and 100 pikemen, and the shortage of pikemen was the biggest problem. I asked Viscount Loewenbert to send any surplus troops fit to serve as pikemen to Rosenheim.