Imperial Crown

Chapter 43: Making the best use of talents

The sound of neat footsteps rang out in the corridor. Eric and Simon walked into the meeting room one after another, pounding their chests with their fists and giving a standard military salute at the same time: "Baron!"

Seeing Eric coming along, Raven had a playful smile on his face. He knew what his retainer was thinking.

Raven had been too busy during this period, and the military was basically handed over to Eric. The two had few opportunities to meet and even fewer exchanges.

The latter seemed rough, but he obviously had a sense of crisis. Now of course he had to take advantage of the time when he summoned Simon to show his presence.

Raven was not dissatisfied with this. Eric's doing this showed that he was loyal to him, otherwise he would not have such a small idea.

Raven nodded and looked at Eric: "How is the training of these soldiers in Shining Gold Town going?"

"Under the guidance of your wise and superb training methods, progress is rapid, sir!" Eric flattered him first, and then added: "But it is not enough to be put into use at present."

"Still the same old problems?" Raven asked.

"Yes, sir." Eric showed a trace of shame on his face: "It's the same two months of training, but this group of soldiers from Shining Gold Town is much worse than our Eagle Town."

Raven was not very surprised by this.

The soldiers of Shining Gold Town came from towns and were used to being sneaky. Although they were smarter than the soldiers of Eagle Town, they had more ideas and cherished their lives more. They were not as hardworking as the soldiers of Eagle Town in training.

"This is not your responsibility, don't feel any pressure." Raven comforted Eric and turned to Simon: "I think you seem to have something to say?"

"Yes, sir." Simon stood up straight, his eyes looking at the sky above Raven's head: "I think there are some problems with the current training method."

Eric glanced at Simon with displeasure, obviously he had heard this problem a long time ago.

"Don't be so nervous. I won't whip you for just one or two words." Raven smiled softly: "If you have anything to say, please speak slowly."

"Yes, sir!" Simon's eyes relaxed slightly, but still bright: "At present, the biggest reason for the poor training results of this batch of soldiers is not because of their poor quality, but because they miss home."

"Miss home?" Raven was stunned for a moment, then became interested: "Tell me more about it."

Feeling Raven's attitude, Simon breathed a sigh of relief. He swallowed his saliva and said: "Sir, when we were training, although we also had night training, we had to go to the training camp every three days. I can still go home on the 5th. Since it is close to Xiongying Town, I can go back during lunch break sometimes. "

"But now, these soldiers are training in the barracks all day long, with no time to rest. You also stipulated that gambling is not allowed after nightfall, so they generally have some... resentment in their hearts."

"That's because they don't fight enough." Faced with this kind of cross-level reflection that can even be regarded as an exposure, Eric's face was a little gloomy: "Sir, this is my dereliction of duty. From today on, I will strengthen night patrols."

Raven raised his hand and motioned Eric to be quiet, and then lowered his head to think.

The reason why he didn't give these private soldiers any vacation was that he wanted to temper their will and turn around their "rich disease".

Especially gambling.

As a daily pastime, small gambling is okay, but in the army, it is the source of chaos that disrupts the atmosphere of the barracks and will greatly damage the relationship between soldiers.

As far as Raven knows, whether in the previous life or this life, it is not uncommon for large-scale fights and even deaths to occur because of gambling.

Now it seems that my approach was a bit too much.

Everyone needs entertainment and relaxation, and soldiers are no exception.

Even the army in the previous life had regular holidays, and they could have their own entertainment activities after resting, such as watching TV, reading or playing games.

Moreover, the quality of the soldiers in this world is completely incomparable to the soldiers in the previous life.

It is normal for some resentment to accumulate pressure for a long time without being released, and it is also reasonable that the training efficiency is not improved.

"It is indeed my negligence." Raven thought for a while and said, "How about this, starting from next week, give them a day off every weekend."

Eric expressed his objection: "Baron, isn't it too frequent?"

"Let's do this first." Raven did not completely deny Eric's words: "Let's see the effect. If the training results decline by then, then make adjustments."

Eric felt Raven's respect for his opinion and said respectfully: "Understood, sir."

"Simon, you did a good job this time." Raven had a satisfied smile on his face: "Mr. Gordon, remember that Simon can get double the salary this month."

Simon widened his eyes and his voice was full of excitement: "It's my honor, Baron!"

By comparison, Eric's demeanor was not so good, and he looked at Simon with a strong dissatisfaction.

"You're all here today, so I can talk to you about what's on my mind." Raven glanced over and said in a deep voice, "You should also know that I'm still very busy recently."

"I just became a magician, and I need to meditate and practice spells. In addition, I also have to take care of the product development of the workshop."

"As a baron, I now lack even more - the Elvish language, the history of the empire, the main noble families and their members in the Nord province, all of which I need to learn, memorize, and understand."

"Not to mention commercial activities, territorial development, resettlement of territorial residents, and military training, all require my energy."

Raven said sincerely, and Old Gordon and Eric both blushed a little.

Nobles have always been proud of being good at eating, drinking, having fun, and having luxurious entertainment, and they are ashamed of being pragmatic.

It's a shame that being a retainer puts so much burden on Raven's shoulders.

Raising his hand to suppress the apology that Old Gordon was about to blurt out, Raven continued to speak slowly: "I also know that you have all done a good job, but I hope you can... be more detailed."

"Just like what Simon did today, he helped me find problems in advance. Every time I find one, my pressure will be reduced, and our Eagles will get better and better."

The person with the reddest face at the moment was Eric, who was currently in charge of the military camp. It turned out that the biggest problem was discovered by Simon. Although Lei Wen didn't mention him in a word, there was no doubt that he was taking advantage of it.

"Lord Baron, I have indeed been a little neglectful recently. I often go home at night." Eric straightened his body: "Don't worry, from today on, except for routine meetings, I will never leave the military camp for even half a step. What are they doing?" When will I have a holiday? When will I have a holiday?"

There is no need for a heavy hammer to play the drum. Raven is very satisfied with Eric's attitude: "You don't have to do it to that extent. Just pay more attention to it."

As he spoke, he looked at Simon: "How are you doing with your equestrian skills recently?"

"Still working hard, sir!" Simon said: "Currently I can only run on a horse, but I haven't been able to skillfully use weapons on a horse yet."

Raven asked: "How many soldiers can reach your level now?"

"Besides me, there are four in total." Simon reported the names of four people one after another.

"That's enough." Raven nodded: "How did you finish this week's 'homework'?"

Hearing this, Simon opened the belt on his waist and handed over a folded piece of parchment.

The paper is spread out on the table, with regular squares clearly outlined with ink marks. There are also various ink dots and lines in the squares.

The four directions of east, west, south and north are marked with cross arrows in the upper right corner.

In the center is Eagle Town, occupying 1 square.

A slightly curved line was drawn in the east, and after spanning 4 blocks, the location of the riverside workshop was marked.

The south is a curved double-dashed line, running from northeast to southwest, spanning almost the entire parchment, representing the Jinsha River.

To the west is a slightly curved double solid line representing a road, which extends to Goldshire after a distance of 10 blocks.

Three blocks to the north is Eagle Castle.

This is a map, regulated by Raven, a map of the current Eagle Territory drawn by Simon himself, and it is already the 8th map.

The double solid lines represent roads, the double dotted lines represent rivers, the mountains are represented by big rocks, the woods are represented by trees, the circles represent cities and settlements, and the squares are drawn and set by Raven in advance to replace the scale. , a square represents a range of 200 meters by 200 meters.

As early as in Goldshire, Raven realized that ordinary maps of this world were too rough to be practical, so he created this trick to cultivate Simon's ability to draw maps.

Although it does not have the necessary contour lines of modern maps, it does not prevent it from being practical to a certain extent.

Eric had known about this for a long time, but when he saw the finished product Simon took out, he couldn't help but exclaimed: "Sir, this can almost be used as a marching map."

"Well, it's indeed very good, Simon, you did a good job." Raven said happily: "It seems that I can safely leave this task to you."

As he spoke, he took out a stack of parchment paper from the drawer, all of which had already been drawn with grids: "Here are 10 blank maps with grids drawn on them, 3 of which have smaller grids, 1 grid represents 1 kilometer; 7 The larger the square grid, 1 grid represents 200 meters.”

"I need you to lead the four equestrian masters, one person and two horses, with enough food and water, to the bloody highlands for reconnaissance, and draw me a complete map of the route; the big one will draw the overall terrain, and the smaller one will draw Detailed terrain, the more detailed the better, can it be done?”

As if he didn't know what fear was, Simon beat his chest: "Your will will be carried out, my lord!"

Eric suddenly thought of Raven's previous crazy plan:

Counterattack on the Bloody Heights.

He thought it was just a joke, but he didn't expect that Raven had already started making preparations. The reason why he trained Simon's drafting ability was for this purpose.

Old Gordon also noticed something was wrong: "Lord Baron, please think twice. There are too many uncertain risks in the bloody highlands."

"Everything is risky, and the bandits in the bloody highlands will not come just once." Raven said: "Now that we have taken back Gold Town, there are more places that need to be protected. We can map the terrain in advance and plan for the future. There are also benefits to defensive operations.”

This reason was so high-sounding that Old Gordon had no room for refutation, and even Eric was speechless - because from a military perspective, this was indeed what should be done.

Seeing that the two of them no longer objected, Raven's eyes fell on Simon again: "This time, you have to remember that you are not allowed to reveal your purpose to anyone, nor your identity, so for this trip, only Can wear leather armor without the Griffith family logo."

"I don't care how you achieve your goal, but everything must be based on the map. The more detailed the better while ensuring safety."

"Have I made everything clear? Are there any questions?"

Simon shook his head and said: "No problem, I completely understand!"

Raven walked up to him and patted his shoulder hard: "Very good, then go and get ready. Have a good rest today, report to Eagle Castle early tomorrow morning, and then set off."

With firm steps, Simon saluted and turned to leave.

Although this mission was arduous and accompanied by life danger, he was not afraid because he knew that even if he really died in this mission, the Baron would never treat his family badly.

It wasn't until Simon's back disappeared that Eric asked in a low voice: "Sir, are you planning to train Simon to be a scout?"

Raven sighed: "Yeah, I haven't made up my mind yet, but now it seems that this is the best development direction for him."

"Lord Baron, you really know people well." Eric said sincerely: "Simon is smart enough and loyal enough, but his nature is still too... weak."

"It's not so much weakness as untimely kindness," Raven corrected.

Simon must have been unable to withstand the entreaties of his soldiers, so he went over Eric to report the problem to him today.

As the saying goes, kindness cannot lead an army. This does not mean that a general must be cold-blooded, but that a person in charge of an army must have the consciousness to allow a strong man to cut off his wrists and let his soldiers die when necessary.

And Simon couldn't help but sympathize with the soldiers' complaints, and even ignored Eric's majesty, which shows that he is still too soft-hearted.

This is a person's deep-rooted nature, and it cannot be changed by one or two words or one or two things.

If he is allowed to continue to be in charge of the army, sooner or later he will be in trouble, causing harm to others and himself; but his qualities are excellent in all aspects, so it would be a pity to abandon him, which will also damage morale.

After much thought, only scouts were the most suitable for him.

"Next, transfer Mosingan to the new military camp and let him temporarily take over Simon's position. The salary should also be increased."

"Understood, sir." Eric said, "Then I will go back to the military camp first."

Eric turned and left, Raven leaned on the chair and rubbed his neck: "Mr. Gordon..."

Seeing that the old retainer did not respond, Raven asked again: "Mr. Gordon?"

"Oh, sir, I'm sorry." Old Gordon came to his senses and saluted quickly.

Raven didn't care, waved his hand and asked: "Mr. Gordon, what were you thinking about just now, so absorbed in it?"

Old Gordon was thinking about a series of things that happened today.

Simon went over to Eric to report the problem, which was like a crisp and loud slap on the latter's face. No matter how upright the retainer was, he would still have some knots in his heart.

But unfortunately, the problem Simon raised did exist, and it was impossible for Raven to punish him for this.

In this way, if Simon continues to stay in the army, as the incident unfolds, it will continue to damage Eric's majesty in the army, and it will also create a gap in Eric's heart.

And Raven sent Simon out and ordered someone to take his place, which actually excluded him from the army's commander sequence.

The soldiers didn't know Simon's whereabouts, and they would definitely think that this was a punishment for the latter.

In this way, the soldiers will know the importance of Eric in Raven's heart, which will make them more in awe of Eric and make Eric more grateful to Raven.

"Lord Baron, I was just thinking that Eric said that you know people well and are good at handling them, which is not accurate." Old Gordon said with sincere admiration: "In my opinion, you have simply achieved 'making the best use of people's talents'."

"Ha, you praise too much for 'people making the best use of their talents.'" Raven said with a smile, "But if that's the case, shouldn't we...

‘Make the best use of everything’? "

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