Sorry for the inconvenience
After 6 whole months of hard work, sitting for entrance exams after entrance exams, I am finally accepted into the best business school in my country. All praise to the Almighty. Sorry for all the inconvenience till now.
My schedule is still filled with exams courtesy to my parents' pressure (obviously). But I am much more free from before and hopefully, I can shift to regular updates like before.
Thank you. Stay tuned.
********
I grew up in an orphanage. When I first arrived there, I was afraid I would be shunned like my classmates back at school. The silver of my hair and eyes apparently made 'different'.
But contrary to my expectations, the Holy Crescent Orphanage, known to be one of the more polished orphanages at that ti showed sothing different.
The children flocked around , as if they discovered sothing exotic. They scanned head to toe with utmost intrigue. I though they would have their mont and then start avoiding .
But nothing such happened. They stepped forward to befriend . I clearly rember their nas faces even now, even though two whole centuries passed. Estan- the trickster, Martha- the elder sister, Tobey- the clown, Simon- a rare silver eyed boy like , Christopher… heh… Chris even said that I was the 'Chosen one', pointing at my hair and eyes.
That day, I realised sothing. Nobody is born evil. Children are blank canvases upon which their parents or guardians can draw whatever they want. Depending on their wishes and efforts, the end results can either be a masterpiece, or sothing unwanted by everyone.
And those children I t at the orphanage, those canvases were far from being misused. That day, I smiled for the first ti after her… my mother's death.
Years passed. I grew up there, surrounded by my friends and the ever-caring orphanage staff. I was 16 in no ti. And Simon, who just turned 18, attracted the attention of a generous couple. He was on the verge of being adopted.
The entire gang celebrated. Martha was a great chef. She baked us a cake using the ingredients we bought with our allowance. The night was supposed to be great.
But that evening, a notice reached us—a notice that wiped the smile off our faces. The Sistine Imperium declared war on us. And every abled male—18 and above were required by the law to join the army.
The mont we heard that, everyone turned to Simon. He was supposed to be the one with the brightest smile on the face. But all that was left on his countenance was shock and horror.
After 18 whole years, he was finally going to have parents—a family. But no, he was going to join the army and go to war.
The gang set up a eting; our objective—protect Simon from joining the war. Crazy ideas were proposed, which included breaking his limbs. But it was soon rejected because the governnt wouldn't care as he was an orphan. He would just be a cannon fodder. Finally, I proposed the craziest idea of them all.
"Let's replace him," I said.
The cara wasn't invented yet. With our similar builds, if I dyed my hair black, and his—silver, nobody would arouse any suspicions.
Of course, they vehently rejected, especially Simon. In the end, it was the sa, they said. But my argunt silenced them all.
"I have nothing to lose, while Simon—everything."
Soon, the day ca. I bid my friends and my little siblings… Did I tell you about my little siblings? I had 27 little brothers and sisters back at the orphanage, and I loved them all. Anyways, I bid them farewell and joined the recruitnt party that ca to fetch .
I, 'Simon Walkford', was the only eligible recruit from the orphanage. Though Martha was older, thankfully won were not forced to join.
They brought to a training camp just outside Aramon. Warfare was evolving fast. They handed a musket and told to shoot the dummy a dozen tre away.
It was already loaded. I glanced at one of the instructors teaching older recruits and copied his form, pushing the musket's butt against my shoulder and aligning the sights with the dummy's head. I anchored my feet to the ground, took in a deep breath and pulled the trigger.
The recoil pushed two steps back, but I held my balance. I lowered the smoking musket. My shoulder was hurting bad, and my ears were still buzzing from the gunshot, but the first thing I focused on after opening my subconsciously closed eyes was sowhere else—the target.
I missed. The bullet grazed past the dummy's cheeks and hit the wall behind.
Before I could express my disappointnt, soone hit on the back of my shoulder. I remained sturdy and turned back. It was the lieutenant in charge of my conscription. I still rember his tanned skin and bald head.
"He's a natural," he told his colleague. "Send him to the 3rd regint," he said.
I was confused at first. Hadn't I just missed? But I ca to know later that these training muskets lacked accuracy.
They trained for a month. It was rigorous, forcing a 6 month course onto us in just one. It only ant the war was too close.
Nevertheless, I t other new recruits there. For the first ti in years, I was reminded of my school days, when I was ostracised due to my silver traits. Though I had dyed my hair black, my eyes still drove people away. However, there were exceptions—ones who I would call my brother in arms soon after.
We marched northwards. Steamliner weren't invented yet, and we foot-soldiers were not worthy enough to board a carriage.
After three weeks of hellish march—through mud, rain and heat—we reached the war front. We barely had ti to prepare, as we received news that the imperial army was fast approaching.
Uneven lands divided our borders. We force marched to take as much high grounds as possible. But before we were done, the enemies ca into our sight.
The Sun was already on its way to setting down, but our intuition said there would be no ceasefire tonight. Our legs were still lanky from the march, our back aching from carrying the ration filled backpack. We could hardly hold onto the wooden muskets, which seed to beco heavier each and every second.
But we had no choice. The enemy charged.
*************
A bit of history lessons:
Line infantry:
Line infantry was the type of infantry that composed the basis of European land armies from the late 17th century to the mid-19th century. Maurice of Nassau and Gustavus Adolphus are generally regarded as its pioneers, while Turenne and Montecuccoli are closely associated with the post-1648 developnt of linear infantry tactics.[1] For both battle and parade drill, it consisted of two to four ranks of foot soldiers drawn up side by side in rigid alignnt, and thereby maximizing the effect of their firepower. By extension, the term ca to be applied to the regular regints "of the line" as opposed to light infantry, skirmishers, militia, support personnel, plus so other special categories of infantry not focused on heavy front line combat.
Line infantry mainly used three formations in its battles: the line, the square and the column.
With the massive proliferation of small arms (firearms that could be carried by hand, as opposed to cannon) in the infantry units from the middle of 17th century, the battlefield was dominated by linear tactics, according to which the infantry was aligned into long thin lines and fired volleys. A line consisted of 2, 3 or 4 ranks of soldiers.
The soldiers were supposed to fire volleys at the command of officers, but in practice this happened only in the first minutes of the battle. After one or two volleys, each soldier charged a musket and fired at his own discretion, without hearing the commands of the officers. This brought confusion to the system, and the smoke interfered with accurate shooting. Such a shootout in a puff of smoke could occur for a very long period of ti and the result was unpredictable.
In addition, at the ti of the "hot" shootout, the soldiers were so busy and focused on shooting that they could not notice the attack of cavalry from the flank. Therefore, experienced troops tried to avoid such costly shootouts and restrained their soldiers from premature firing, in order to get as close to the enemy's line as possible to deliver several crushing volleys at a short distance. In so cases, it was possible to overturn the enemy with just one volley at a short distance. The line was considered as the fundantal battle formation as it allowed for the largest deploynt of firepower. Troops in skirmish formation, though able to take cover and use initiative, were highly vulnerable to cavalry and could not hold ground against advancing infantry columns. Line infantry provided an 'anchor' for skirmishers and cavalry to retreat to if threatened.
Against surrounding enemy cavalry, line infantry could swiftly adopt square formations to provide protection. Such squares were hollow (consisting of four lines), unlike the piken's and old-style musketeers' square.
Movent in line formation was very slow, and unless the battalion was superbly trained, a breakdown in cohesion was virtually assured, especially in any kind of uneven or wooded terrain. As a result, line was mostly used as a stationary formation, with troops moving in column formations and then deploying to line at their destination. Usually, columns would be adopted for movent and lee attacks.
Line infantry was trained in the manual of arms evolutions, the main objectives of which were fast deploynt of a line, rapid shooting and manoeuvre.
Reviews
All reviews (0)