I am the son of the traveler

Chapter 99 Visiting the Barracks
In a blink of an eye, a week has passed.

During this week, the enlistment quota designated by Antigonus was fully recruited. A total of 8192 bronze shield pikemen and 1024 hoplites enlisted. The royal barracks finally became lively after a long absence.

However, due to time constraints, all the weapons and equipment for the Copper Shield Pikemen were not in place. Even if the foundry processed day and night, only one-third of the equipment for the phalanx soldiers was driven out. Equip half of the soldiers.After learning about this, Antico couldn't help but frowned. Before that, he never thought that he would encounter the embarrassing situation of not having enough equipment. Now it seems that he can only temporarily replace it with a wooden spear.

Fortunately, when training the spearmen of the phalanx, it is necessary to train their discipline rather than their combat skills. However, even if they need to train their combat skills, wooden utensils can temporarily cope with it, so Antigonus ordered In the end, more than 8000 phalanx spearmen took up super-long wooden guns five or six meters long, and formed a clumsy formation under the guidance of instructors—many of the enlisted soldiers were veterans who had been disbanded before. They were all arranged to concentrate in the first row, trying to influence the recruits in the back row by their own actions.

What the phalanx spearmen need most is discipline and orderliness. The enlisted soldiers have also undergone certain military training before, so they quickly transitioned from the clumsy at the beginning, and practiced vigorously under the instructor's password.When Antigonus came to inspect the royal barracks, what he saw was the phalanx (the phalanx here refers to the large phalanx composed of 4096 phalanx infantry from the four regiments, which is also the upper level of the double phalanx) The bronze shield spearmen who were training for the unit, they turned left and right amidst the shouts of the instructors, and from time to time someone turned in the wrong direction and was beaten a few times by the instructor walking in the square with a whip.

On the other side of the school field, 1024 Macedonian heavy infantry are training in an orderly manner. Their elite level is undoubtedly much higher than that of the copper shield pikemen who are mostly recruits next to them. Most of the citizen soldiers have received the teachings of their parents since they were young, and they can skillfully use weapons to launch attacks, but they still need to go through a period of training in formation.

The chief instructor who was in charge of the training of the Bronze Shield Pikemen quickly saw Antigon outside the school grounds. He asked his deputy to take over, then hurried to Antigon and saluted.

"Your Majesty, Lord Cronus, why are you here?"

"Let me see the effect of your training." Antigonus replied with a smile, and Cronus next to him also nodded.

Hearing this, the chief instructor smiled wryly: "I am laughing at you. Although these recruits have a certain foundation, it is still a bit difficult to train them into a regular army in a short period of time."

"What's the difficulty?"

Antico was really curious, he wanted to know what would happen without direct recruitment by the system.

Oh, I always forgot to say that the whole battle system left to him by a generation of traversers is a castrated version. There is no recruitment option at all. If he wants to get an army, he can only mobilize and recruit troops through officials' orders.

"Because the number of instructors in the barracks is not large, we cannot train a single detachment (also known as a regiment). We can only conduct concentrated training from a higher unit, and then try to train a single detachment after certain results .”

Having said so much, isn't it the lack of instructors?Antigon raised his forehead, but as a royal barracks, how could there be a lack of instructors, so he turned to look at Kronos beside him, and asked him, "What's going on?"

Antigonus suddenly asked himself, and Cronus quickly replied: "Your Majesty, this starts from the period of the former king's rule. Because there has been no large-scale conscription in the kingdom in the past 30 years, the instructors attached to the royal barracks also It will be reduced accordingly, so there will be a shortage of instructors..."

Hearing this, Antico couldn't speak for a while, he couldn't scold Daddy Cheap in front of his subordinates, so he could only cough lightly, and said: "I probably won't be able to find a suitable instructor in a short time, But I have a way."

"What way?" the chief instructor asked curiously.

"There should be a lot of soldiers who retired due to injuries after several wars." Antigonus didn't answer him, but asked Cronos.

"This... yes." Kronos replied, he was not sure what Antigonus was asking this for, but he quickly thought of something, and his eyes widened.

Antico took his reaction into his eyes, he smiled slightly, and said: "The veterans who have retired due to injuries can be used as instructors, which just solves the whereabouts of these veterans."

"But their abilities..." The chief instructor hesitated, before he finished speaking, Antigono interrupted him, saying: "You don't have to worry about this, isn't there still veterans in the army who can assist in the training?"

The chief instructor really wanted to say that since this is the case, he might as well ask the veterans to help directly, but Antigonus said so, so he had no choice but to follow the other party's wishes and nodded in agreement.

Seeing that the chief instructor agreed to come down, Antigonus asked Cronus to start. After the latter left, the chief instructor couldn't help asking: "Your Majesty, since the heavy infantry has been recruited, do you want to start the process?" Recruitment for light infantry and cavalry?"

Antico glanced at him and said with a smile: "There is no rush, as long as you can train these heavy infantry well, I will soon let Cronus prepare for the recruitment of light infantry and cavalry."

The chief instructor couldn't laugh or cry at Antigon's answer, but then he heard the king continue: "According to the practice of previous years, the barbarians should attack again in October and November, so I want you to complete the training before then, Understand?"

"Understood, Your Majesty." The chief instructor replied, he naturally understood the importance of this matter and must be serious.

Seeing him like this, Antico nodded in satisfaction, and said, "Go back, I won't disturb your training."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

……

After walking out of the royal barracks, looking at the dense crowd in the street, Antigonus took a deep breath, and then let it out slowly. He didn't know if his approach of disbanding all the troops and rebuilding a standing army was correct, but he was very happy. It is clear that if this army is built, the military power of the kingdom will be greatly strengthened, and it is not impossible to emulate Alexander the Great and make a great conquest in this world-after all, Alexander the Great was able to conquer the huge Persian Empire, relying on Not only was the Sarisa method of warfare created by King Philip, but also a large and elite professional standing army.

(End of this chapter)