novelraw Chapter 106: The Plan
Chapter 106: The Plan
Ch 106: The Plan
Night, Vig and Herigifu were counting accounts under the bright candlelight.
Due to building the castle and mass-producing military supplies, the fiscal surplus of the territory has been largely consumed in recent years, leaving only 30,000 bushels of grain piled up in the granary.
Thirty thousand bushels?
Vig quickly wrote down a formula, assuming that 4,000 men would be mobilized next year to capture the Northern Border, with the fighting lasting eight months—spring campaign, ending in early winter. Given that marching and fighting severely consume stamina, soldiers need at least one kilogram of grain per day. This converts to a military rations requirement of 42,000 bushels.
“Continue buying grain during this period, and incidentally purchase a batch of oats as feed for the warhorses. Also, before the Northern Border reacts, have Micham quickly purchase their pig iron; buy as much as possible.”
Besides grain, there are currently 1,200 pounds of silver in the accounts, all from the spoils of war over the past two years.
（Last year’s Mercia-Wessex war, Vig gained 200 pounds of silver. This year’s Frankish war, he gained 600 pounds. After conquering the Welsh region, Ragnar additionally rewarded him with 400 pounds of silver, totaling 1,200 pounds.）
Hearing her husband’s request, Herigifu turned her head, “A large purchase in the short term will inevitably cause prices to skyrocket. Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Yes.” Even a lion hunting a rabbit uses its full force. Vig planned to invest the entire 1,200 pounds. Besides military rations and iron ingots, he also planned to employ knights from within Britain to help.
“Hmm, let me think, three pounds of silver as an appearance fee for each knight. When dividing the spoils of war, it’s equivalent to the share of five ordinary soldiers.”
“So expensive?” Herigifu’s tone suddenly rose, almost waking their son sleeping soundly in the cradle.
“Expensive has its advantages. You haven’t witnessed a cavalry mass charge. Sigh, times have changed. Future wars largely depend on cavalry. The more cavalry, the greater the odds of victory.”
Based on the experiences of the past two years, Vig divided the cavalry he had encountered into four tiers.
The original Anglo-Saxon riders lacked stirrups, essentially equivalent to mounted infantry, only possessing scouting and order-giving functions. Their combat power was the worst, ranked fourth tier.
Viking/Norman riders equipped with metal stirrups and riding Anglo-Saxon warhorses ranked third tier.
Frankish knights ranked second tier.
After obtaining Frankish warhorses, Gunnar and his subordinates gradually explored the couched lance charge tactic. Equipped with improved high-bridged saddles, the charge power increased significantly, surpassing the combat power of Frankish knights equipped with longswords and chain hammers, ranking first tier.
In the historical records of posterity, in the 11th century, a group of Norman knights passed through Constantinople and demonstrated the couched lance charge tactic to Emperor Alexios Komnenos. With their unstoppable momentum, they gave the Eastern Roman spectators a great shock.
Many years later, Princess Anna Komnene wrote a biography for her father—《Alexiad》—in which she highly praised the bravery of the Norman knights, claiming that their lances could even carve a hole in the walls of Babylon.
After hearing Vig’s explanation, Herigifu was half-believing, half-doubting. Since she didn’t need to lead troops into battle, she temporarily put aside this issue and continued to discuss war expenses.
Vig ruffled his wife’s hair and comforted her, “Don’t worry, if necessary, we’ll borrow money from others. Ragnar, Bjorn, Theodulf, Pascal, Ulf, each can borrow tens or hundreds of pounds. We’ll use an absolute advantage to crush the enemies to the north.”
Among the above borrowing targets, Ivar was the only one missing. The reason was simple: the situation in Ireland was still turbulent, and this guy simply couldn’t spare a hand to assist Tyne.
After a short three-day holiday, Vig returned to work. After visiting the marketplace, he came to the school to check the teaching results of these years.
It is now late September AD 848, four years since the Raven Speaker opened the school. The elementary school stage is a total of five years, and next year the first batch of students will graduate.
Arriving at the office, Vig flipped through the roster of fourth-grade students and their past results, and then personally set questions, roughly examining three aspects.
First, Norse. Students were required to master basic commonly used vocabulary. The most crucial question was to give some key information and ask them to write a tax report to Tyne as tax collectors.
Secondly, arithmetic. Vig found transaction records from the livestock market and asked them to calculate the taxes due for each item and then summarize them.
Finally, elementary natural science. This examined some rudimentary physics and agricultural knowledge, such as designing pulley systems for lifting heavy objects, planting times for various crops, and how to care for sick livestock.
After drafting the questions, Vig asked the teachers to help copy the exam papers and gathered the students for the first exam.
On the podium, looking at the students’ thoughtful expressions below, he suddenly felt a strange sadness, then immersed himself in memories of many years ago, until the exam ended.
Seeing that his boss had not reacted for a long time, the Raven Speaker thought that he was dissatisfied with the students’ performance and cautiously approached him:
“Sir, should we proceed with the arithmetic exam?”
Vig awoke from his memories, “Good, distribute the exam papers.”
At noon, Vig asked the teachers to grade the papers. The performance of the forty-five students varied, but they would barely be usable once the Northern Border was occupied.
“Students I personally cultivated are still more reliable. In contrast, Ragnar used a large number of Anglo-Saxons to handle clerical work, which caused many problems. Besides the most common embezzlement, it is also easy to leak intelligence. Not surprisingly, his palace has long been infiltrated by Wessex and West Francia like a sieve.”
Thinking of this, Vig decided to allocate an additional twenty pounds of silver, on the one hand to improve the treatment of the forty teachers （Shamans） and two hundred and sixty students, and at the same time to buy more paper and ink.
“Is anything else missing?” He looked at the teachers and students.
“Uh, clothes, grain, and charcoal are in sufficient supply, and there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly urgent needed.” The Raven Speaker pondered for a long time and requested to borrow a batch of scrolls newly obtained by the Lord.
“Did you finish reading the last batch of scrolls?”
Vig didn’t say much, taking the Raven Speaker, Caemi Wildfire, and other Shamans back to Tyne, allowing them to enter the collection of books on the fourth floor of the main building to select scrolls.
“Wait, 《British War Chronicles》 and 《Frankish War Chronicles》 cannot be borrowed!”
“Why?” The Raven Speaker was quite surprised. He intended to encourage the children to learn about the Lord’s illustrious military achievements to further increase their loyalty. Could there be some secret hidden inside?
He guessed right.
When Vig wrote his battlefield diary, he occasionally interspersed a few complaints about his colleagues, such as someone taking credit for advancement, someone indulging the soldiers leading to lax discipline, and some people unable to keep their mouths shut, easily leaking secrets.
Obviously, the contents should not be spread. Seeing Vig’s firm attitude, the Raven Speaker left with a puzzled look on his face.