Less than a week later, no one talked about the duel anymore. When they did, it was because they felt that even though Claude had defeated someone stronger than him, his tactics were wretched and his courage in a dignified battle wasn't worthy of praise.
In addition, his tactics might be suitable for small groups of people to practice, but they would be useless on the battlefield.
After all, wars nowadays were fought with tens of thousands of soldiers. A single clash between two armies could often decide the outcome of a battle.
If Claude's tactics were to be used, tens of thousands of soldiers would be forced to crawl on the ground and Bluefeather would be reduced to a maggot army, just like Kelmundo said.
So, when Claude returned to camp, he didn't become the focus of attention due to his victory in the field drill.
The only good thing was that Most and Carlos no longer complained about the amount of gunpowder used by Claude's squad. They had already witnessed the power of accurate shooting and agreed with Claude's words that the soldiers' accuracy could only be improved through long periods of live firing.
What troubled Claude the most was that while the aubass mark 3 was a new model developed by the kingdom's firearms research institute for precision shooting, its accuracy wasn't as good as he wanted it to be.
Claude found that accuracy was still manageable at a distance of a hundred metres. It wasn't difficult for him to hit the bullseye on the ten-ring bullseye.
But at a distance of 150 to 200 meters, the difference between aiming and shooting was about the width of a palm's length.
This wasn't a problem with the soldiers. Most of the muskets were smoothbore muskets, and the projectiles were made of iron and lead. Other than human factors and environmental factors, the trajectory of the projectiles would change after firing, and this wasn't something that could be mastered by the soldiers after a long period of live firing.
In other words, whether or not one could hit the bullseye at a distance of more than a hundred meters depended on luck.
Back in the wood, Claude's main purpose for modifying his gun was to use it for hunting. Most of the range was within a hundred meters, so he didn't notice the problem.
It was only after the actual combat exercise that he realized that accurate shooting at a range of two hundred meters was still a little difficult for the soldiers.
If he had the Alchemy Rune Circle with him, he might have thought of trying to make it himself. He remembered that the problem could be solved by carving rifling in the barrel and using Mini Bullets.
Even though he wasn't a firearms expert in his past life, he had seen some relevant posts on the forum.
However, Claude didn't have that luxury in camp.
Even though Bluefeather had a small firearms repair shop in Gourneygada, Claude found out after a visit that the shop's specialty was reassembling guns. They would remove the good parts from the broken guns and reassemble them. Usually, it would take four to five broken guns to make a new one.
As for modifying guns, it was impossible for the firearms repair shop to even think about it.
Apart from that, for some reason, Claude was praised by many of the officers in the camp for being good at training soldiers during the actual battle.
The fact that Claude was able to train a bunch of soldiers who had been kicked out of the training camp into obedient and accurate shooting soldiers in a short two months was something they acknowledged.
Even if the soldiers couldn't march in formation and fire in unison, they could still carry out sentry and patrol duties.
So, a week later, Claude received another mission to train sixty to seventy new recruits who had been kicked out of the camp. The requirements were the same, to train them to the level of the guards in the infirmary.
It was said that the deputy head of the training department, Lieutenant-Colonel Leonkro, was the one who came to watch the actual combat exercise. He believed that throwing the new recruits to Claude for training would be like throwing scrap metal back into the furnace. Perhaps he might be able to train some decent guards.
That would be much better than sending them to the logistics department to do hard labor.
He grumbled to Most about how he had become a babysitter. Also, if he were to take in the new recruits, he would have two platoons under his command. The problem was, who would be the jarl of those two platoons?
The chief sergeant of a company would be the jarl and a non-commissioned officer would be the deputy. They would take over from the chief sergeant if he were to die on the battlefield.
However, a second lieutenant would be appointed as the jarl of a company. A company would have four companies with four chief sergeants and four deputies.
Currently, Claude's infirmary guards had seventeen soldiers, ten idiots and mental patients as stretcher-bearers and four nobles as sergeants.
Coupled with the new recruits who had been kicked out of the camp, there were close to a hundred of them, enough to form two companies.
It wasn't that the more soldiers he had, the better it would be. It took Claude a lot of effort to train the seventeen guards and he was trying to figure out how to turn the ten idiots and mental patients into stretcher-bearers.
Now that he had to take in so many useless people, he felt rather troubled. So, he went to Most and insisted that he wouldn't take the blame.
It was fine for him to train them, but he had to get a proper second lieutenant to protect him from the wind and rain.
Most was in a difficult position. There was nothing he could do about it since it was what the higher-ups wanted.
However, he couldn't do what Claude said and send two second lieutenants to be platoon jarls.
All the second lieutenants knew what kind of people Claude wanted to train. None of them would be willing to take on the position of jarl if they were to be kicked out of the infirmary.
Seeing that war was about to break out, the second lieutenants who hoped to gain more merit on the battlefield weren't willing to waste their time at the infirmary guards.
As a second lieutenant himself, he couldn't make decisions for the others.
Most could only tactfully say that he would ask for instructions from the higher-ups on Claude's behalf.
But if the higher-ups didn't make any arrangements, he would have to let Claude take over as a temporary jarl.
As for arranging for the other sergeants and sergeants, Most said that he was short on manpower. Since Claude was going to be a temporary jarl as a sergeant major, the four nobles could also act as squad jarls as well.
As for their deputies, Most could transfer a few corporals or sergeants over. Due to the expansion of the army, most of the sergeants were promoted to sergeants. Given Most's authority, he could only give Claude a few corporals and sergeants.
However, the remaining 72 aubass mark 3 muskets were all given to Claude with a wave of his pen. He also promised to provide him with an unlimited supply of gunpowder. He knew that Claude's live ammunition training required a lot of it.
Seeing that Claude was still dawdling in his office, Most finally lost his temper and warned him that the most important thing for a soldier was to follow orders and carry out his superiors' orders to the letter.
You're not a peddler. You can't haggle with your superiors because of the difficulty of your mission. Remember, you're a soldier and following orders is your duty.
Claude had no choice but to take over the eliminated recruits and bring them back to the infirmary to figure out how to train them.
Time passed quickly. While Claude was busy training the new recruits, a piece of news reached the camp at the end of the fifth month.
War had broken out. Aueras had declared war on the anti-Aueras alliance, and the alliance had declared war on Aueras. The clouds of war hung over the eastern part of Freia. The flames of war had already been lit, but no one knew who would be burned to ashes.
Cheers erupted in the camp. Many soldiers and officers rushed to the field, shouting slogans like "Long live the kingdom", "Long live Stellin X", and "Down with the five anti-Aueras alliance". They sang Bluefeather's military song and other battle songs in high spirits. Perhaps in their eyes, victory was just around the corner, and it would be effortless for them to do so.
Claude was training the stretcher team outside the camp. There were 38 stretcher bearers, none of whom were suitable to be soldiers.
What Claude had to do was train their reflexes. He tossed the scarecrows in Bluefeather uniforms into the wilderness and had the stretcher-bearers carry them back.
In order to let the stretcher bearers get used to the atmosphere of the battlefield, Claude had someone get pig's blood, intestines, heart and lungs from the kitchen and place them on the scarecrows.
The stretcher bearers who brought the scarecrows back could rest and drink water. They could even be rewarded with a piece of fruit or a bun.
Those who didn't would be whipped and had to turn around and carry the scarecrows back until they brought back a scarecrow.
Claude had no choice but to train the stretcher bearers the same way he trained his hunting dogs and try to improve their reflexes.
As for the rules about saving officers first, Claude felt that it was too complicated. The stretcher bearers wouldn't be able to tell the difference at all.
In a month's time, Claude accepted three batches of eliminated recruits from the main camp, totaling 121 people. He then formed a 60-man garrison unit and a 38-man stretcher team. The truly hopeless idiots were thrown into the logistics department as coolies.
Two of the recruits used to be local thugs. After they were forcefully conscripted, they pretended to be idiots and were kicked out of the new recruit training. Even after Claude saw through them, they still refused to change.
So, Claude reported it to Second Lieutenant Most and the two idiots were beheaded in front of all the recruits. Their heads were sent to the main camp as a warning to all the new recruits.
The news of the outbreak of war was delivered by Perunt in a carriage. He said that the camp was in chaos and the officers were cheering and shouting about trampling on the anti-Auerian alliance.
As for the soldiers, some of them were celebrating with the officers, but most of them just watched quietly. The atmosphere was rather tense.
After all, the outbreak of war meant that they had no choice but to enter the battlefield as cannon fodder. That wasn't good news for the clear-headed.
Claude had nothing to say. He was just mentally prepared for it.
Even though he was a sergeant major, he was the deputy garrison jarl of the infirmary. His safety was much better than that of the soldiers in the main camp.
At the very least, he didn't have to charge into battle. Even the infirmary had to follow the battalion to the back of the battlefield.
"Are we going to move out?" Claude asked.
Perunt shook his head. "I don't know. The main camp hasn't given the order yet. I don't know what order our 11th Battalion will receive.
However, I heard that the 3rd and 7th Battalions have already received orders to move towards Sidins.
I think our main target is the Sidins Duchy … "
Claude sighed. The war broke out too suddenly. He thought he had a month's buffer time and could at least train the new batch of soldiers who had been eliminated.
Most of the recent news in the newspapers was about the kingdom sending special envoys to visit the anti-Austrian alliance, hoping to resolve the conflict between them and not start a war so easily.
Claude didn't think that the war would start so soon. Not to mention, it was the kingdom who took the initiative to declare war on the alliance. He couldn't understand what happened to force the kingdom to start a war.
Claude felt a sense of helplessness as if he was caught in the tides of history.
His words carried little weight and many things were out of his control.