A Peaceful Land of the Orcs (6.1)
Spring was gaining strength day by day, driving away winter, and the trees were budding.
Soon, the sunlight became dazzling, the clouds white, and the leaves lush green. The year 876 of the Star Calendar had reached July.
The provisional Dark Elf Brigade, now renamed the Anfaughlia Brigade, had completed its formation.
Initially, even Dineluth Andariel, with her indomitable spirit, had been at a loss as to how to proceed. However, by around May, when the allocation of personnel was finally completed, the work began to progress rapidly. The necessary weapons, supplies, and equipment started arriving one after another from various regions.
Although Dineluth and the brigade's officers were once again overwhelmed with the task of managing these arrivals, it was clear that their efforts were now bearing more tangible results compared to the previous hardships.
Amidst the chaos, a glimmer of hope emerged. Their hard work no longer felt in vain, and a clear path forward began to take shape.
First, the clothing supplies were sorted out.
The most challenging task had been the mass procurement of military boots, the most expensive item in the uniform, which had to be issued to every single soldier. The Orcsen Ministry of War had even imported leather from abroad, and considering the difference in physique between the Dark Elves and the Orcs, orders were also placed with local leather craftsmen. As a result, the boots delivered were of even higher quality than those produced by the domestic uniform factories.
Next to arrive in Walderberg were the rifles.
The high-performance Ehrhardt Gewehr 74 series rifles, packed in wooden crates of ten each, arrived continuously, though not all at once, on military wagons.
Each rifle was freshly manufactured in the armory, with the brass plates on the stocks bearing newly stamped serial numbers. This was an extraordinary privilege.
The Gew74 had only been adopted two years prior.
The two domestic rifle manufacturing armories had the capacity to produce 120,000 rifles annually, but this was still insufficient to replace the previous generation of rifles in the entire Orcsen army. The fact that over 8,000 of these rifles had been allocated to the brigade suggested that some decisive action had been taken at the highest levels of the military.
Cavalry carbines, short rifles for hunters, engineers, and artillerymen, or rifles awarded to those with exceptional marksmanship skills...
With the arrival of the rifles, the training of raw recruits—so-called basic training—began to progress rapidly with a newfound sense of realism.
Up until then, the training had focused on building basic physical fitness, drilling, marching, and other fundamental soldiering skills. However, the recruits had been using wooden rifles or even sticks due to the shortage of real weapons, with only a few of the previous generation Gewehr 61 rifles available. Thus, every time a crate of new rifles was opened, cheers erupted across the training grounds.
Next, mountain guns and field guns arrived from Wissel, Orcsen's largest steel and steel products manufacturing company. The Wissel 57mm Mountain Gun M/72, the 75mm Mountain and Field Gun C/72...
Of course, it wasn't just the guns themselves. Artillery observation equipment, ammunition caissons, ammunition wagons, spare parts wagons, and Orcsen-style neck collar harnesses for the horses to tow these items were also delivered in full.
The harnesses had to be slightly modified and newly manufactured specifically for the Anfaughlia Brigade, as the standard Orcsen army harnesses were too large for their horses.
The arrival of these artillery supplies was a tremendous relief.
Artillerymen cannot train without guns.
Although they had been studying observation techniques, gun handling, and other theoretical subjects, they had previously been borrowing reserve guns one at a time from the 1st Grenadier Division stationed in the capital, taking turns to practice and hone their skills.
The duties of artillerymen are not limited to firing guns.
They must also handle the towing, deployment, repositioning, and daily maintenance of the guns.
Training in these practical aspects only began to progress rapidly once the necessary equipment was fully assembled.
Supply wagons and field kitchen wagons also arrived.
The heavy supply wagons and large field kitchen wagons of the Orcsen army were too cumbersome for the Messara breed of horses, so all the wagons were lightweight models, completing the brigade's deployment. Medical wagons with the red cross emblem based on the Leman International Medical Treaty were also included, along with reserve vehicles and spare parts.
The last items to arrive in full were the Messara breed riding and draft horses.
This was largely thanks to the efforts of the Fahrens Company, Orcsen's largest general trading company and a military supplier, which successfully imported a large number of Messara horses from the neighboring human country of Lovarna to the east.
Lovarna was one of the leading horse-breeding nations among the Star-Euro countries, and the region along its border with Orcsen, where Low Orcish was spoken, was deemed the ideal place to raise these horses.
Horses are intelligent creatures.
They can distinguish between languages.
It was crucial that these horses were raised in a linguistic environment similar to the one they would be using in the future.
Of course, Lovarna alone couldn't supply all the horses needed, so some were also brought in from the neighboring country of Growal to the west and even from Camelot across the sea. These horses were also carefully selected for their intelligence and were sure to adapt to their new units in no time.
The soldiers assigned to the cavalry regiments immediately began training with their new mounts.
This training was not only for the soldiers' benefit but also for the horses. Horses are naturally herd animals, but some, even among their peers, are proud and reluctant to work with unfamiliar companions. These horses had to be gradually acclimated.
First, they trained in platoons.
Then, in squadrons, the basic combat unit for cavalry.
Only once the squadrons were functioning smoothly did they move on to battalion and regimental training.
The Dark Elves were skilled in handling horses, but individual riding prowess does not necessarily translate to collective proficiency.
They worked diligently and with affection to build mutual trust and refine their skills with their new equine partners.
Indeed, cavalry is only truly effective when rider and horse become one.
---In any case.
The Anfaughlia Brigade had finally taken shape as a fully formed unit.
Three cavalry regiments, one mountain hunter regiment, one mountain artillery battalion, one engineer company, one bridging platoon, one ammunition company, one supply battalion, one field medical unit, and one field hospital. Total personnel: 8,310; horses: 4,902; 57mm mountain guns: 12; 75mm mountain and field guns: 18; various military wagons: approximately 300.
It was an overwhelmingly large force to be called a brigade, possessing independent operational capabilities more akin to a small division. In terms of composition and scale, it would not be out of place to call it a cavalry division in other nations. It was a combined arms unit, fully equipped and highly capable in terms of readiness, mobility, and combat strength.
Dineluth signed the completion report for the brigade's formation and sent it to the Ministry of War, the General Staff, and King Gustav Falkenhayn.
Though, as she would say, their training was far from complete.
---Organization, formation, training.
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