"He? Mindis III?" Grand Duke Ronny shook his head in disbelief: "Is he the threat you said?"
"A docile king who has been dead for over a hundred years?"
Lumba looked at Grand Duke Ronnie coldly.
The look in his eyes made the latter very uncomfortable.
Grand Duke Lecco sat down again at the brown-black rectangular table and coughed specially.
After a few seconds, Lumba finally turned his head.
"Most people, including you, may think that his achievements are mediocre and even a little cowardly," Grand Duke Heisha snorted, "Don't worry, I thought the same way when I was a child."
His eyes turned cold: "Mindis Bright Star III."
Trudida, who had been looking at Lumba, couldn't help being slightly startled.
That look...
"What does it have to do with him?" Olesiu asked.
Lumba took a deep breath and looked at Olesiu.
"Do you know him? This so-called 'virtuous king'?" Grand Duke Heisha asked calmly.
Several Grand Dukes frowned almost simultaneously.
"I heard Bachelor Costa mention it a long time ago, not many," Ronnie narrowed his eyes and recalled the past years in the study: "But I heard that he never did anything big."
Lumba's eyes moved, and then he snorted coldly: "Didn't you do anything important?"
"I don't have much impression of him. It is said that he relied on various diplomatic means to drag out the Fourth Continental War," Ronnie replied calmly: "A king who does nothing is rare even in the stars."
Lumba's expression did not change.
"I heard that he is a weak king who always compromises with his vassals," Trudida rubbed his chin, thoughtfully: "For example, the so-called High Nobles' Council and the National Council are all him.
What’s left behind is turning Fuxing Palace into a noisy market, which not only reduces efficiency but also hinders the view.”
"That's all?" Lumba raised his eyebrows: "No more?"
"He promoted a large number of people to manage his territory, and he especially liked to appoint officials from low-level nobles." Grand Duke Lecco thought about something: "He even made detailed regulations for this - thus offending many hereditary officials.
Vassal."
Olesiu frowned at the side and continued: "Father used him as an example to warn us to be careful of merchants - I heard that Mindis III borrowed money from merchants to pay for the finance, and even had to issue a charter to repay the debt, so the nobles
They all mocked him behind his back as the merchant's 'slave king'."
Lumba let out a long sigh.
"Is this the 'virtuous king' in your impression?"
The princes had different reactions: Trudida shrugged, Ronny still had a cold face, and Olesio had a doubtful look on his face.
Only Archduke Lecco's pair of cloudy eyes glowed with strange and special emotions.
"The prisoner twelve years ago, Urad told me," Lumba lowered his eyelids, seeming to sigh: "He used to be a small tax collector in the north. During the war, he was recruited as a grain inspector - usually a small tax collector.
They are tax collectors who are responsible for transporting baggage during war, and are especially common in the armies in the south and center of the stars."
Lumba opened his eyes suddenly.
"But whether it's a tax collector or a grain inspector, these positions all need to pass an 'assessment' to get them - tax collectors must be proficient in arithmetic and understand accounts clearly."
In front of the surprised and uncertain faces of all the Grand Dukes, Grand Duke Heisha continued to speak with a vicissitude of tone: "Even a noble person will not be qualified to serve as an official if he cannot pass such an assessment."
"What did you say?"
Trudida said with some confusion: "Assessment?"
Lumba nodded.
"It's very strange, isn't it?" Grand Duke Heisha said coldly: "I bet that except for being punished for not being able to recite a certain family motto in the study during your childhood, you will never hear this word again in your life."
Several princes were slightly startled.
"But this is the food supervisor in the Star Army," Lumba took a deep breath, with fear and solemnity in his eyes: "It's not just that."
"In their officer corps, there are military judges, clerical officers, logistics officers, medical officers... too many, I can't remember them all." At that moment, Lomba's expression became ugly, as if he remembered something bad.
Past events: "When they are not fighting, they are all professional officials with fixed jobs and have undergone specific assessments - military judges must be familiar with laws and distinguish right from wrong, clerical officers must be proficient in processes and identify information, and logistics officers must be familiar with various materials.
If you can grasp the palm of your hand..."
Trudida interrupted.
"I know what you are talking about," Grand Duke Zaizhanta rolled his eyes and raised his eyebrows slightly: "Are you saying that the backbone officers of the Star Legion are all composed of these literate and knowledgeable people? That's why they can be like this
Regroup quickly..."
"Bullshit," Rumba replied unceremoniously, choking the rest of the Grand Duke Trudida's words in his throat: "Most of our Exeter officers are nobles, they can read and count and even read poetry.
, some can even recite one or two verses from the temple’s scriptures.”
"But what can they do when they are sent into the army to lead those rural levies?"
Grand Duke Lecco knocked lightly on the square table and looked at Lombard across the table.
"So what you are saying is," the old Grand Duke said softly, "the key to the immortality of the Star Legion is these inconspicuous little officials?"
Lumba glanced at the other three grand dukes.
"I remember my uncle Kaslan, when he was a child, I often heard him bragging about how versatile the White Blade Guards were - the strict and brutal training allowed them to serve in almost every role from death squads, couriers, logistics, scouts to prison guards, etc.
A position.”
"A rare elite in the world."
The Duke of Heisha immediately changed the subject:
"So, whenever a war begins and countless warriors are recruited, the king puts his sword guards and nobles loyal to him to use to fill positions ranging from junior officers to guard commanders - just like us grand dukes.
We send our personal guards and cronies to various positions. Are you all familiar with this scene?"
Lumba tilted his head, his weathered face illuminated by the firelight.
"And where is the Star People's army?" he said calmly.
The hearts of the princes suddenly became tense.
Just listen to Rumba's deep and thick voice, resounding in the hall:
"Long ago, they got used to a fixed system."
"The grain supervisory officer is only responsible for calculating figures and transportation, the logistics officer is only responsible for distributing materials, the military judge is only responsible for beheading in accordance with laws and orders, and the clerical officer is responsible for coordination and communication..."
"They only know and can only do the thing they are doing well. They have a clear division of labor and perform their duties without interfering with each other. They do not need to be constrained by the cronies sent by the king or the Grand Duke."
"The logistics and management of conscripts do not have to be temporarily decided by people sent from above, nor will they be completely changed due to a change of coach."
Lumba slapped his hand on the table, his eyes burning.
Staring at him made several princes unhappy.
"Can you imagine?"
Lomba gritted his teeth and said with a ferocious expression: "We Northlanders - no, almost all armies in the world - have recruited soldiers from the territory for hundreds of years to fight, and we are used to throwing out a handful of gold coins to familiar confidants.
The personal guards, that is, the subordinate vassals, can discipline the large group of soldiers themselves, pay them with food and equipment, behead them, chop wood and chop the prisoners, right?"
"What you are talking about are all processes that only a standing professional army has the time and effort to refine," Archduke Ronnie put down his tightly folded arms, frowned and retorted: "The victory or defeat on the battlefield is determined by the moment of hand-to-hand contact.
, rather than spending energy on these personnel matters and offending countless vassals, it would be better..."
Lumba suddenly raised his head and glanced at the Grand Duke of Qiyuan City.
He shook his head contemptuously in his heart.
"Yes, in the war, these are trivial things to the war, but they cannot be ignored." Although Lomba was disdainful in his heart, he still said patiently: "Only those who have been on standby all year round and have experienced hundreds of battles
After years of fighting, a professional army can gradually get used to it, become familiar with it, and form its own military traditions and rules, such as the White Blade Guard and Glacier Watch."
But the Duke of Black Sand's expression immediately changed: "But the Star Legion is also a conscripted corps!"
Ronnie's face stiffened.
"But this is how it works: logistics transportation efficiency is more than twice that of ours, personnel reorganization is a breeze, military discipline is well maintained, rewards and punishments are clear, and there are clear rules from attack to retreat."
Lumba glanced at each grand duke seriously and solemnly, looking at the expressions on their faces that were either in disbelief or confusion:
"It's these crappy things that we have never looked down upon. They are weak and soft-handed. The newly recruited child soldiers are countless times better than us - so even after they are defeated and defeated, they can still follow a set of self-defeating measures.
Establish regular procedures and habits, immediately resume logistics, regroup, and restore combat effectiveness in a short period of time."
Lumba took a deep breath with an ugly expression.
"Twelve years ago, during the days at the rear, I listened to that good-for-nothing Perfit complaining about the injustice they suffered every day." Angry eyes appeared in the eyes of the Grand Duke of Heisha: "'Why is it always us in Fengzhao City?'
, that little brat only knows how to curse like this."
Olesiu and Trudida looked at each other, feeling each other's uneasiness.
Lombard's tone became more and more angry: "What he couldn't see was that our entire army of 100,000 people was in dire straits just because of several raids by Horace Bright Star, and the supply lines we tried our best to maintain were in a hurry, and we couldn't even besiege the fortress.
Don’t stop.”
"He also couldn't see how much time we spent after getting rid of the Butcher of the Stars. Amidst the excuses of the nobles and the perfunctory efforts of various forces, we re-allocated manpower, arranged routes, raised food and grass, and struggled to reorganize the logistics and supplies for the front line.
Delivering the nourishment of war.”
"He couldn't even see that at the same time, taking the Star Legion in the south as an example, the star people who were in dire straits still arranged the army's subordinates in an orderly manner under high pressure through ordinary officials who had been specialized in this all year round.
One supply, the next replenishment, the next resting place, the next meeting point, quickly and efficiently regrouping scattered deserters and defeated generals, stragglers - this is the truth of 'Eternal Star'!"
Lumba exhaled sharply from his nose, as if he wanted to exhale all the resentment of the past twelve years: "King Nun still kept complaining that we were holding him back in the war: just because that boy Perfit spoke openly.
With a big mouth, Nunn even ordered his grandfather to abdicate as punishment - I sometimes think: maybe compared to the opponent, we did hold him back."
Lecco's face was heavy. He looked at the square table blankly, thinking deeply.
"If this is what you want to say," Ronnie frowned: "The Star People have a good legion logistics operation... it is still far from enough to be used as a reason to convince us."
Lumba curled up the corners of his mouth and sneered lightly.
His laughter was full of disdain, contempt, ridicule, and faint anger.
Lumba slowly stood up from his seat, his figure projected into the center of the hall, like a glacier bear that had just woken up.
"You think this is all?"
"None of your territories are closer to the stars than me," Lumba pressed his sword, his eyes fierce: "Do you know what I have seen in the past ten years?"
Trudida narrowed her eyes.
A faint uneasiness arose in his heart.
Olesio breathed out a deep breath.
Ronnie endured the urge to interrupt loudly and waited quietly for Rumba's words.
"No," the Duke of Black Sand said with a ferocious face and a terrifying tone: "The immortal starlight is just a scale of the giant dragon, a corner of the galaxy's light."
"I don't know when it will start..."
"Their entire kingdom operates like this."
Grand Duke Lecco stared at Lumba's face, listening to his words, feeling an inexplicable panic in his heart.