Descending On France 1780
Chapter 93 - 087 New Troops

Chapter 93: 087 New Troops

After receiving his assignment, Anning left the Parliament chamber directly to visit the barracks and inspect the two thousand men assigned to him.

Lafayette also accompanied him.

Upon arriving at the barracks, a troop could be seen lined up in the courtyard.

Lafayette: "It seems the troop prepared for you to command is already in formation, go and meet them."

Anning: "You don’t need to tell me that."

Saying this, he walked towards the troop formation while observing the lineup.

The National Guard was always enthusiastic, but undisciplined. Anning could see several slackers even before he reached the lineup.

When he got to the front of the formation, the Sergeant at the very front shouted: "Attention!"

The troops responded to the Sergeant’s command in a scattered and sloppy manner.

Anning couldn’t help but hold his forehead; his own Artillery troops, meticulously reorganized, at least had some semblance of discipline, but this Self-Defense Army was just a rabble, with apparently no military discipline at all.

Anning: "Sergeant, are you the highest-ranking officer in this unit?"

"As you can see, yes," the Sergeant said with a helpless expression, "Officers don’t want to come to the National Guard, thinking we’re just a bunch of do-nothings and second-raters."

Someone in the troop said loudly: "And that’s indeed the case!"

Anning turned to look at the formation: "Who just said that?"

Everyone exchanged glances until all eyes converged on one person.

The man looked nonchalant; while everyone else stood at attention, he stood sideways.

Anning: "Introduce yourself."

The man said: "My name is Sheridan Wendell. I’m a carpenter from the Saint-Antoine district. At that time, Paris was chaotic; there was no work for carpenters, so I joined the army."

Anning: "Now that public order has been restored, you can go back to being a carpenter. We are about to march on Conte to suppress a rebellion and will face extremely dangerous battles; a carpenter doesn’t need to go through all this."

Wendell: "Go back now? Being in the National Guard pays better than being a carpenter, and it’s not nearly as hard, plus I get to wear a clean, handsome uniform—I don’t want to go back to carpentry."

Anning: "Didn’t you know? We are about to confront the Rebel Army in Conte, ruthless killers who slaughtered the National Guard in Liberville. The National Guard will be undertaking more and more missions to fight the Rebel Army. You’ll regret staying in the army with that mindset."

The carpenter hesitated for a moment, then said: "If you also pay out this month’s Military Salary, I have no problem leaving."

Anning turned to Lafayette who had followed: "Who should I talk to in order to pay his Military Salary?"

Lafayette: "Clerk! Pay this carpenter his Military Salary for the month."

Anning: "Who else wants out? Take your Military Salary and leave. I only want those who are willing to struggle for a better France!"

After these words, soldiers exchanged glances, then about a hundred or so people stepped out from the formation.

Anning: "Is this all? Are the rest willing to shed blood on the battlefield for a better tomorrow? Let me tell you, the Rebel Army in Conte is very ferocious; our mission to suppress them could very well be a one-way trip!"

With those words finished, Anning scanned the lineup.

Another group of men broke ranks.

Anning: "Any more? I need to be sure that everyone left is willing to sacrifice themselves for a better tomorrow!"

After Anning finished speaking, the drill ground fell silent.

Suddenly, someone shouted loudly: "We are the brave warriors you seek!"

"Indeed!"

"We are!"

"The heroes of the Bastille, take us with you!"

Anning nodded, then turned to Lafayette and said, "The soldiers who are leaving, I’ll leave them to your care."

Lafayette: "I won’t fill the gaps for these men, you know."

Anning: "That’s fine, I’m just carrying out a preliminary reconnaissance mission after all."

Lafayette nodded, then gestured to his adjutant, who stepped forward and said to those leaving the ranks, "Follow me, you will be paid a month’s Military Salary as Mr. Frost promised."

Anning watched as Lafayette’s adjutant led the "deserters" away and breathed a sigh of relief.

This at least ensured that his own troops were filled with patriots brimming with revolutionary fervor.

Anning turned to Lafayette again: "General, could you lend me that Lieutenant from Liberville?"

"What do you want him for?" Lafayette asked, perplexed, "To fill him into your unit? A single Lieutenant won’t make much of a difference in the discipline of the entire unit."

Anning shook his head repeatedly: "No, no, you misunderstand. I want him to tell the soldiers about the cruelty of the Rebel Army, to prepare them mentally."

Lafayette raised an eyebrow, then turned to his subordinate and said, "Go call over Captain Bell."

Moments later, the survivor from Liberville arrived on the parade ground.

Anning invited him in front of the soldiers: "Captain, tell us about the brutality of the Rebel Army."

Bell’s mouth twitched, evidently pained by the memory.

"I... I really don’t want to remember again. It’s my nightmare, visiting me every day, waking me up in a cold sweat!"

Anning patted the Captain on the shoulder: "These are the troops just assigned to me; we’re about to quell the rebellion in Conte. We need you to tell us how cruel the enemy is, to get them mentally prepared."

The Captain was shocked, then took a look at the troops on the parade ground: "What? Such a small force is going to suppress the rebellion? This number of troops is almost the same as the Self-Defense Army from Liberville; going to quell the rebellion is like marching into the tiger’s den!"

Lafayette looked embarrassed: "They are just the advance team, paving the way for the main force of the National Guard."

Captain Bell looked at Lafayette, then at the soldiers gazing intently at him, and sighed heavily: "The Rebel Army, wearing black uniforms, as if dressed in mourning attire. They stormed into Liberville, slaughtering everyone wearing the tricolor..."

As Captain Bell began to recount with a pained expression, Anning saw the faces of the soldiers assigned to him turning solemn.

Very good, very well done.

His approach actually took a page from my own during the early days of building an army.

Ensuring that the soldiers know who the enemy is, why they are fighting—this could somewhat compensate for a lack of training and discipline.

As for other matters...

Anning at this time actually had a new idea.

To execute this idea, he would need to return to his small troop’s station at the manor.

He planned to divide his small Artillery unit into two. After all, with only a few cannons, a hundred men were sufficient to man them.

Anning had trained with the thought of later expanding the unit once additional cannons were supplied, but now there was no additional artillery, so there was no need for that many gunners.

Thus, he could split the unit he personally trained into two, half to man the cannons, and the other half to augment the over a thousand infantrymen he had just acquired, to serve as the non-commissioned officers at the base level.