Herald of Steel

The three days rest periods set by Alexander for the soldiers went by in what seemed like the blink of an eye.

And during this time, under Alexander's order, Remus made sure to spend every second asking around and studying the various tactics and command structure of the Helvati, to better integrate the two forces.

"This is no army. This is just an armed mob!" And at the end of it, this was the judgment he gave about them to Alexander.

It was currently night, and inside Alexander's study, only three men were present, sporting three very different expressions.

Standing in front of Alexander, the young, brash Remus looked very pissed while delivering his report as if greatly dissatisfied at the low quality of the reinforcements.

While the calmer, black gaint Metztil sitting opposite of him had his brows furrowed as if greatly worried by his colleague's statement.

As for Alexander, he simply kept a placid, attentive look and with a small nod, only signalled Remus to continue to elaborate,

That was all the encouragement the young general needed to go off on his tirade,

"Alexander, nine out of ten of these 'barbarians' are basically peasants with a stick. I tried asking them about one or two things about the military…. You know the most basic things like what signals they use to turn and what kind of battle formations they typically used, but less than half of them even knew what I was talking about. They have not been taught anything."

"Rather when I questioned them, they looked at me like one would look at a madman!" Remus ground his teeth in rage as he said this, finding the native's lack of training maddening.

If not for fear of causing a diplomatic incident, he might have even marched up to Metztil and outright declared him a fraud who was trying to swindle Alexander of a great deal of land by disguising handicapped farmers as soldiers.

Remus seriously doubted whether these men could even fight or would simply run at the first hint of trouble.

And if the latter were to truly happen, morale among the legionnaires would undoubtedly fall to a nadir.

Worst comes to worst, the legionnaires might even follow suit, because typically when one side fled, others rarely wanted to stay behind.

This was almost an instinctive thing to want to do because individual soldiers and even mid ranking officers rarely had any idea how well the overall battle was going.

Their sight would be fully obstructed by the whipped up cloud of dust and the shoulders and heads of their nearby comrades.

So it might seem to them that they were doing very well, pushing the enemy to his death, whereas the reality could be that both of their flanks had been defeated and the entire army in the midst of being encircled, all completely unbeknownst to them.

Hence whenever the fighting soldiers saw a part of them running, they usually assumed the worst and ran to save their lives.

It was something training could rarely account for.

Not to mention, not all of Alexander's nearby 20,000 men were well trained men, a lot of them were hastily raised levies, sent here by Cambyses as fast as she could get her hands on them.

Perhaps the only difference between them and the native peasants was that they were better equipped and had a greater number of well trained officers to lead them.

Other than that, it was likely their knowledge of military doctrine and formations was as good as the natives.

In fact, these past three days, Menes was busy exactly teaching them these things, drilling the men on the basics from sunrise to sunset.

Sure this was not going produce any well trained army, as basic training was supposed to last six weeks, but at least with this, the newly added legionnaires would know which direction to point their swords at.

And as Menes was overseeing this, the matter of 'espionage' had fallen onto Remus.

This was also why Remus remained oblivious to his own army's faults.

Rather, further adding fuel to the flames, Remus finished his report with great vehemence,

"Not to mention almost all of them are basically naked… they have no armor! And when I asked them about it… those bastards actually had the gall to sneer at me and call me a coward for wearing 'metal coffins'. Bastards! Bastards! No wonder they got slaughtered like pigs by the Sybarians. Idiots….

they deserved every bit and more!"

Remus very loudly telegraphed his annoyance at the subpar quality of his allies, stomping his leg in frustration.

The legionnaires were perhaps the most heavily armored infantry in the world at the moment, and so for them to ally with a force who were basically bare chested men in Remus's eyes, incensed the man to his limits.

He was not mad at them for calling him names or disparaging, he was not that petty.

Nor was he truly mad at the men being poorly equipped. Not everyone had the same circumstances.

But what seemed to truly piss them off was but more so over the attitude these men had towards their own force quality. Even when they clearly lacked the proper equipment, they were not bothered by it, and neither did they show any desire to acquire it.

Clearly, such a force would prove to be the most brittle section of their army.

Hence to him, Metztil's men were beginning to appear more like handicaps than helpful additions.

"......." Alexander first let Remus have a bit of time to cool down following his indignant outburst, before chirping up to first congratulate for his hard work and frank opinions.

Then he revealed his own thoughts on the matter, z

"What you saw today is nothing to be surprised about Remus." Alexander claimed, "I had already suspected these barbarians to be in such a state. If they were rich and powerful with the ability to field powerful, fully equipped armies… well they would not have to bear the shameful moniker of 'barbarians' in their own home lands, would they?"

"In that same tune, if they could easily change and adapt to changing circumstances… well, then also they would have never been pushed this far. Their lack of armor could be more religious and societal in nature than mere incompetence."

"But whatever the case may be, since they have already made their decision, that's it, isn't it? What more is there to discuss? If they die that's their problem… no need for us to get riled up over."

Alexander's chilly words starkly contrasted the gentle way he flashed his palms, cooling the excited Remus down.

Then turning to Menes, he additionally opined to reassure the man of the reinforcements,

"I have also taken a few glances at Metztil's forces. They might not be as good as ours, but I do not think they are not as bad as Remus fears them to be."

"It is normal for nine tenths of the forces to be made up to untrained levies. Armies are usually a herd of sheep led by a few lions. And it is normal for these poor tribes to have little more than a shield and spear. Not everybody is rich like us."

"I also believe Remus has overlooked a few things when it comes to armor. Sure the majority of the Helvati might not have armor, but that does not mean they are naked. I believe the thick woolen jackets and fur coats they came wearing would be able to soak in a surprising amount of arrow fire and prove deceptively hard to pierce or slash through."

And here Alexander was not simply saying this to make his allies seem more competent to his skeptical general.

He truly meant it, cloth was surprisingly a good armor.

And it was really not that unbelievable once you remembered where clothes came from, they were basically bunched up wood fibers that had been treated using various artificial processes.

So things like gambeson and linen thoraxes had been used as armor since ancient, even though they were just a few layers of clothes stitched or glued together with some kind of stuffing like hay, bird feathers, and once it was discovered, cotton, stuffed in between.

It was a very cheap yet effective way of stopping spears, swords, arrows, and even heavy pike thrusts.

Plus it was not like all of Metztil's men were equipped so bared boned, as Alexander went on to add,

"Also, the nobles and rich Helvati are equipped almost as well as us. They might not have the best bronze armor and leather greaves like Metztil was wearing, but I saw a lot of them wearing at least scale armor. That's not too bad."

"They will likely be the commanders and as long as they stay alive… the peasants shouldn't break. And that's all we need. To stay on the field and not run. Winning will have to depend on us. That's only natural."

In this way, Alexander subtly hinted at the way he planned to conduct the war.

And quickly picking up on the hidden meaning, Remus frowned a bit to chimed, "You want to use them in the front lines as meat shields while we try to flank the Heeats? Will these armorless idiots even be able to hold on?"

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