Randomiser wrote:[
1) I was reminding readers that you would have ensured an ammunition supply for the serfs
2) I was encouraging reflection on how complacent the government was in assuming that it was peacetime and their convoy was perfectly safe. (Sporadic uprisings have been popping up for quite a while)
3) I was anticipating the response of many of the Aristocracy in blaming the ministers (Aristos who would, of course, have done exactly the same thing themselves)
4) I was indulging in a bit of Shadenfreude (What does it say about a culture that it has such a word in its language, anyway?)
In other words, I was mostly having fun, but from North Wind Blowing's POV your comments are perfectly reasonable and business as usual.
I just reread Snippet#4 and came across something that I overlooked that is a pretty big deal.
"Didn't seem to me they lasted a lot longer here," ex-Sergeant Syngpu observed. "Still, I'll give you that they didn't know their arse from their elbow.
Just like the Captain of Foot said they wouldn't." (bold text added for emphasis by yours truly)
The ambush was commanded by an 'ex' sergeant and an 'ex' corporal. They got their intel and a run down on the enemy formation from "the Captain of Foot".
Now, that may have meant that they interrogated a captured Captain of Foot and got the intel but would he really have had a frame of reference as to the quality of the troops they would be facing in comparison to what the Mighty Host had faced? Doubtful since the Spears and the regular Harchongese army didn't get sent to the Temple Lands.
Oh the other hand, 'the Captain of Foot' may refer to
their Captain of Foot- suggesting that there's already a chain of command in place made up of Mighty Host veteran NCO's and officers.
Mighty Host veteran NCO's that were trained up by Temple boys veterans to a surprisingly high standard before they got a taste of what it was like to face Charisan and Siddarmarkan "New Model Army' troops. if I remember the last book or so correctly, Charis and Siddarmark found them to be a handful, too, and a big step up in quality from the massed Temple armies they had faced the previous campaign season.
Just the sort of folks you'd want to use as a training cadre, huh?
The sort that had 'been there, done that,' enough to know what was important to know and what could be saved for later.
The sort of folks that could give some quick and dirty field instruction to complete noobs on little things like proper maintenance and manual of arms of a front stuffer rifle or the Temple's Ferguson knockoff and get useful results from doing it?
Peasants, slaves and serfs already understand following orders. The biggest problem they will have is holding discipline after the fighting's over.
Rainbow Waters used a pretty heavy hand culling out the dullards with lots of connections but no skills from his officer cadre, too, especially those with field positions. Those back in Harchong will be combat veterans, too, I think. Very few, if any, nobles at the lower levels, most likely, but some very bright junior officers with good training and combat experience.
Methinks that column in this snippet is not going to be an issue and things in the North are going to be getting very ugly, very very quickly.