“All right, Milo,” the woman replied. “I’m sorry, I should have known after all these years that you had it all planned out. We’ll set sail as soon as the tide rises enough to allow us deep water over the bar and the shoals. How far is it from the southern coast of Karaleenos to where you want us to be, do you know?”
“Roughly twelve hundred nautical miles,” he answered. “Unless you follow the coast, which I’d prefer you not do.”
“Well, Milo, with favorable winds, we should be standing into this fleet-anchorage in six or seven days … maybe even less. Will that be good enough to your purposes? And we wouldn’t coast-hug, anyway, not as frequently as sand shoals form and disappear along that coast.”
“Fine,” was Milo’s reply beaming. “In seven days, wherever I am on the march, I’ll try to farspeak you, probably in late afternoon or early evening.”
At an informal meeting held later that day in the headquarters of the army, Milo told his audience, “I ride at dawn, gentlemen, along with my guards, two hundred Horseclansmen and Captain Bralos’ squadron of lancers. Thoheeksee Grahvos, Sitheeros and Vikos have all indicated a desire to ride with me, as well, and they and their guards are more than welcome … just so long as they all understand that I make it a usual practice to travel light—no wheeled transport, nothing that a mule’s back can’t carry easily. Everything else will have to follow with the army and baggage-trains.
“The army will march west in three or four days under command of Strahteegos Thoheeks Tomos Gonsalos. It will consist of the scouts, the remainder of the brigade of cavalry under sub-strahteegos Thoheeks Portos, the Keebai pikemen, the light infantry, the foot-bowmen, the dart-men and the slingers, the artificiers and all other specialists that the commander thinks will be of need.”
“How many elephants, my lords?” asked Captain Nathos respectfully.
“What point in taking along any?” asked Captain Ahzprinos, adding, “After all, we’ll be marching into the very Land of Elephants.”
“Quite so,” agreed Nathos, “but you still had best have a few of mine on the march for emergencies. Else, how are you going to get a wagonload of grain out of a mudhole without unloading it, eh?”
Tomos Gonsalos nodded. “There is that, of course; you’ve a good head, Nathos. How many would you recommend?”
“For the projected numbers of troops and baggage, my lord Strahteegos,” replied the elephant-captain, “a minimum of four, but six would be better, that there always be one available in need and that they none of them be worked too hard or for too long.”
Gonsalos nodded again. “So be it, Nathos. Six elephants will go with me and the army. Will you command, or will one of your lieutenants?”
Captain Nathos grinned. “Turn down a free visit home? Not me. Yes, I’ll command the contingent that accompanies your force, my lord.”
“All right, gentlemen,” said Milo, “now that that is all settled, we come back down to another reason we are met here this day. Soon, your army will be melding with the Army of the Confederation. Before it can, we must standardize your systems of ranks—which is archaic, clumsy, repetitive and most unwieldy in practice.
“The lowest and the highest and two median ranks in your current usage will be retained, but others will be added between them. Your lowest rank of officer, ensign, will stay just where it is and keep its present meaning and function. Junior and senior grades of the rank of lieutenant will be eliminated and the one rank of simply lieutenant substituted for them; furthermore, lieutenants will no longer command troops of horse or companies of foot, only platoons or sections. Captain will henceforth be the rank of commanders of troop or company.
“Above that, there will be no more senior captains, captains-of-squadron, captains-of-battalion, captains-of-regiment, captains-of-brigade and the like. Commanders of squadrons of horse and battalions of foot will bear the rank of major, and regimental commanders will bear that of colonel. Brigade commanders will be called brigadiers. As I earlier said, the two grades of strahteegos will stay in both name and responsibility.
“When once a complete blending of the armies has been accomplished, there will never again be any selling of ranks within it. Promotions, thenceforth, will be predicated upon each officer’s ability, not upon his individual or family wealth and aspirations, nor even upon his civil rank. Thus, you will not be burdened with the risk of valuable troops to the command of some wellborn, wealthy, titled ninny who looks very good on parade but who lacks the brains that God gave a boar-hog and cannot find his arse with both hands and a pack of dogs.
“Amongst what you now call the common soldiers, you are going to witness and hear of even more changes, gentlemen. In this army of yours, your rankers are designated only as soldier or trooper, sergeant and a few ambiguous specialist titles. Within the Army of the Confederation, on the other hand, there are no less than some fourteen gradations of soldiers’ ranks, running from recruit up to army sergeant-major, each higher one denoting increased responsibilities, increased privileges and higher pay. This is what the future holds for your army, too, like it or not. It has worked well for me, since I reorganized the army of Kehnooryos Ehlahs, half a century ago, and it will work just as well for you.
“You see, gentlemen, when well and properly led, after being well and thoroughly trained, your so-called common Ehleen soldier is easily the match of any Middle Kingdoms professional soldier extant, as I discovered a half-century and more ago in the north. The two main reasons that he has served you and other Ehleen states so poorly in times past have not been his fault in any way. One of these has been a stubborn application of hidebound, pigheaded traditional practices—crowded, inflexible battle formations; officers’ reflexive assumption that all common soldiers are thickheaded and childish and respect only raw force; an almost total lack of care for the common soldiers, as illustrated best by failure to provide more than the bare rudiments of protective clothing or armor for them or to provide them and to train them in the use of auxiliary weapons. The other principal reason has been their leadership, their officers, notably on the level of junior officers.
“Gentlemen, simply because a man happens to be nobly born, trained from boyhood in arms and the hunt, has never meant that he is therefore automatically a born leader of fighting men, tactician and strategist all rolled into one. Such men have existed, do exist at present, but they are and always have, been exceedingly rare. An army cannot expect to have good units without good officers, and in order to have good officers, candidates must be very carefully selected, well trained in the beginning and subjected to continual training and periodic quality evaluation throughout their active careers with the army.
“Immediately this current campaign is done, all of these changes will gradually be put into effect in your army. You know, many of the changes I have outlined were also thought of and seriously contemplated by your late Grand Strahteegos Pahvlos, too.”
“Pahvlos the Warlike?” chorused Grahvos, Portos and not a few more.
Milo nodded. “I’ve read that old man’s journals, you see. Shortly after he took over your army and saw the strengths of Guhsz Hehluh’s pikemen, the Confederation-style cavalry of Portos and Pawl Vawn’s Horseclansmen, he began to first question, then stringently criticize blind Ehleen traditionalism in his own mind, think things through, then set down conclusions and work out solutions to existing problems. Had he gone further along those lines of thought, had that satanic Witchmen’s agent Ilios not appeared and begun to twist his mind, then you might be very much farther along the way to a truly effective, well-organized, really modern army. It’s a pity.”