Chapter CLXXXI – Those who humble themselves will be exalted.

56th of Summer 5860
Libertycave, State of Casamonu

Six thousand.

Perhaps to a modern reader, “six thousand soldiers” doesn’t sound that impressive. A mere six regiments. Even to John Brown, who was inspecting the troops one last time before departure, had seen and heard of armies of his day which were much bigger. Yet, when they were all neatly lined up as they were, one couldn’t help but feel the weight of six thousand souls.

If they had all stood shoulder-to-shoulder, they’d make a line of men about three kilometers (two miles) long. Of course, the actual formation was much more compactly lined up in columns, though that certainly didn’t make it any less impressive. At the front the blue-white-green of the Republic was in display, accompanied by the regimental colors. The regiments had begun emblazoning battle honors onto their colors, out of their own initiative as there wasn’t any authority in the Republic which claimed an authority to bestow them. Brown didn’t have much liking for professional military men, and as such he didn’t want to encourage these units to develop such a culture. The army of the Republic still didn’t pay a salary beyond providing food, drink, housing and clothing plus a small stipend to provide for miscellaneous living expenses. For most newly-freed slaves who lacked work and connections to find work, or for Gemeinplatzers who had lost their livelihood due to the ongoing war, this was a decent deal. Getting to fight against their enslavers alongside fellow comrades-in-arms was a nice bonus on top of all that, and the citizens of the Republic had developed a sense of belongingness not found in the subjects of the Empire which made service more enticing of a prospect.

By now the equipment had become fully standardized as looted and captured armaments had made their way out of the regular units. The old copper helmets were on their way out too, with them being sold back to the Copperworks to be smelted down and recycled. Combat was growing even more distant, first with the pikes, and then with the muskets. Even then, during the close-quarters fighting of the Battle of Karabush, the copper had proven to not provide much protection against the iron and steel of Gemeinplatz. Either the Republic would have to spend its resources on providing worthwhile protection, which encasing a man in steel was no cheap task, or it would have to give up on armor. With the Imperial Protection Squadron relying exclusively on firearms, even a full plate of armor would be of little help for much cost. Therefore, the helmets had been replaced by peaked caps of different colors for each regiment. The blue gambeson still remained the standard, only having gotten thicker with several more layers of fabric added to the standard design as the Republic could afford it. It was good enough to stop a lazy arrow or turn a fatal stabbing into a merely painful one, not to mention that it protected from the elements, so it was still kept as a form of light armor. The nomadic cavalry, which now numbered two thousand with the new recruits from beyond Gemeinplatz, kept their pre-existing armor.

A seemingly miniscule, yet very important, addition to the standard outfit was the backpack, complete with straps to roll up a blanket on top of it. Quite a lift on the burden of logistics for the Republic, as the soldiers could carry many of their daily needs on their person rather than leave it with the supply train. The individual men weren’t too happy having to carry around a load of stuff all day long, but not getting their belongings lost alongside everyone else’s was enough of a bonus that they didn’t complain too much about it.

As for the equipment that the men carried in their hands, another thousand men had been equipped with muskets since the last battle. The liberation of Aroghlie had added dwarven industry to the Republic, and with a bit of instruction, they had begun producing flintlocks of their own. Not just that, dwarven engineers had simplified a few of the bits and bobs of Rabanowicz’s flintlock mechanism, making it easier to produce. Half of the muskets were with the 1st Ranger Regiment, comprised of the most experienced troops, while the other half had been spread out to the rest of the infantry (the 2nd, 4th and 5th). The cavalry regiments, the 3rd and newly-formed 6th, still primarily used lances and bows. Brown hadn’t found it prudent to give them flintlocks when they were already experienced in skirmishing with bows on horseback.

Accompanying the army as auxiliaries were units of the National Guard drawn from the five states of the Republic. Some of them were left behind to defend the land and continue construction work. Those who accompanied the army were there mainly to operate the supply train and act as sappers; men donning the yellow tabard covering what they could afford to wear. They were armed with whatever they brought along: shovels, axes, spears, swords, bows, crossbows, hand cannons… and a weapon newly making its rounds around Gemeinplatz: the arquebus.

The weaponsmiths of Gemeinplatz not hired by the Republic were not sitting by idly while the flintlock made its debut. The hand cannon was unwieldy, lacking even a firing mechanism of its own as it was fired by a match separate from the gun. The flintlock mechanism was significantly harder to produce as it had many more moving parts, but a matchlock was a simple matter of having a lever push a lit match forward. Crossbows already had levers, so the concept of using that on a ranged weapon was familiar to smiths. It was easy enough to copy the form of the rest of the flintlock, and thus, the matchlock had been born from a combination of the pre-existing hand cannon and the new flintlock. Once the first few matchlocks had found their owners, it was over for the hand canon as it was abandoned in favor of the better weapon. Same was true for the bow and crossbow which were on their way out. The matchlock didn’t require much physical strength to reload and fire, was cheap enough to use especially with gunpowder becoming more common, and was way more powerful when fired. Like that, the matchlock had made its way from the civilian market to the National Guard, and Gemeinplatz was truly entering the age of gunpowder.

John Brown finally reached the end of the troop formation. All looked well, and the officers reported to their Commander-in-Chief that they were ready. The thousands of bayonets and pikes shone under the sun, a sea of men was standing at the ready under them.

“Let’s begin the march. Godspeed!”

With that, the way to Ancoire laid in front of them.