Summoning Total War - Chapter 39

Chapter 39: This is War! (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

It was starting to drizzle, but the group of people outside the town of Athens quietly stood at attention in the rain nonetheless. They all held up their spears and formed into two phalanxes. They stood quietly without even saying a word, and their eyes were fixed on the man who was standing on an elevated platform.

In contrast, the contingent that had been formed by the slave traders was much more disorganized.

The mercenaries were holding all sorts of different weapons and were scattered into several groups. They were all whispering quietly amongst themselves, and from time to time they looked at Murphy, who was standing right in the center of all this.

They were surprised and shocked to see how young the lord of these Greeks was!

Their scattered formation and casual manner of talking gave the impression that they were a disorganized mob. Even though they were holding weapons, it was highly unlikely that anyone would feel afraid of them when they saw them.

This was a perfect example of the importance of discipline!

“Clang!”

Murphy pulled out the sword at his waist. He looked at the two Greek infantry phalanxes directly in front of him and spoke about the mobilization before the battle: “People of Greece! Today we shall take the initiative and attack! Use your sharp blades and show those beasts that we’re not weak lambs! Make them learn to fear us through bloodshed!”

The battle this time was pretty much a must-win, so Murphy didn’t make his speech too incendiary.

He pointed his sword ahead of him and said in a deep voice: “Head out!”

The two Greek infantry phalanxes, a total of 160 people, marched forward. The General Guards were made up of 32 people and were spread out into two columns. They rushed toward the front of the contingent. After which, Murphy rode his horse and led the 11 members of the Spartan Berserker Mode Heavy Warriors right behind him. They were traveling right in the middle of the contingent. This time around, with the mercenaries gathered by the slave traders, some of the pressure had been lifted off of him. Hence, Murphy only brought two groups of Greek infantry with him. However, just to err on the side of caution, he also brought the 11 surviving members of the Spartan infantry, which were now Spartan Berserker Mode Heavy Warriors and had immense fighting power!

With the Spartan Berserker Mode Heavy Warriors, Murphy was sure that if there was an unexpected mishap, they’d be able to deal with it.

The middle army went ahead first, and the mercenaries from both sides also caught up. Their contingent was disorganized, and some basic military training wouldn’t be enough to make them understand the importance of discipline. In the process of moving forward, some fell out of rank, forming a long, crooked snake-like formation instead of an organized line of troops.

This time around, Lady Elizabeth was in charge of the collaboration with the six slave traders and a contingent of 572 mercenaries.

Of course, the actual number of people wasn’t just this.

In actual fact, there was a small team made up of more than one hundred adventurers and scattered mercenaries. They were following right behind this large army and were prepared to see if they could catch some straggling gnolls that managed to escape.

One living gnoll was worth 20 silver coins. This money alone was enough to tempt someone to try and capture one.

Perhaps using silver coins to describe how tempting it was isn’t enough. We can change and use a different, more convincing viewpoint to explain this.

In the southern plains, the ratio of gold to silver was 1:8, which meant that 1 pound of gold was equal to 8 pounds of silver. However, since the majority of the gold lay in the hands of the nobles, not much gold currency was circulated. Hence, in most scenarios, the currency used for any sort of trading or exchange of goods was carried out using silver. The weight of a silver coin was roughly around half a tael, but, of course, in actual fact, it wasn’t even half a tael. This was because silver coins were molded based on the standard that 20 pieces of silver were equal to one pound.

Twenty silver coins were one pound, so one hundred and sixty silver coins were 8 pounds, which would be equal to 1 pound of gold!

This conversion ratio meant that having just eight normal gnoll slaves was the same as having one pound of gold!

How could those mercenaries not salivate at such a tempting profit?

(For easier calculations when it came to the specifics of molding silver coins, the council of nobles reduced the volume of gold. Although the ratio of gold to silver was 1:8, in terms of value, ten silver coins were equal to one small gold coin.)

. . . . . . . . . . . .

The Greek infantry marched in rows of four divided into twenty columns, and they moved forward in this formation. They marched along at a neat pace and with strict discipline, and didn’t make a single sound.

However, the mercenaries couldn’t do the same. As they moved forward, they constantly swayed from left to right, and from time to time you could hear the sound of teasing laughter and shouting from the contingent. This carried on until Murphy couldn’t help but frown when he heard all of this racket! Some undisciplined mercenaries were even complaining about having to head out to attack on a rainy day, lamenting why they couldn’t just wait for a sunny day before they went to deal with the gnolls.

At that moment, when he heard this, Muprhy almost felt like whipping those idiots to death!

What did they think this was? A game?

Those idiots! This was war! People were going to die!

It was precisely because of the rain, and the fact that furry animals like the gnolls hated getting wet, that they were able to push forward toward their gathering grounds as much as possible. If it were a sunny day, with the kind of discipline these mercenaries had, they’d probably be spotted from over a kilometer away!

Murphy’s eyebrows furrowed. With the kind of discipline the mercenaries had, it was no wonder that they didn’t have any advantage when it came to fighting the gnolls. With such a disorganized formation, it would be a blessing if they didn’t trip over their own feet during a battle!

He raised his whip!

He wasn’t going to show any mercy at all!

With a backhand whip, he struck the face of a mercenary who was roughly 25 years old who just couldn’t stop complaining!

There was a “crack”!

That mercenary clutched his face and fell to the ground, screaming in pain.

The surrounding area suddenly fell silent, and the mercenaries were all shocked and stunned. They all stared at Murphy with rage in their eyes and shouted at him, but they didn’t have the courage to move an inch because of the intimidating Spartan Berserker Mode Heavy Warriors.

They belonged to the slave traders, not Murphy, so when Murphy lashed out at the mercenary, they became really angry!

“Ask those slave traders to come here,” Murphy said with his hand on the hilt of his sword, his eyes cold and menacing. The Greek infantry quickly spread out. With a total of 160 people in their ranks, they easily surrounded the hundreds of angry mercenaries!

On their horses, the General Guards dispersed, holding onto their javelins, and the mercenaries’ palms started to sweat. They didn’t even have the courage to move an inch.

Almost immediately, several slave traders, who had beads of sweat forming on their foreheads, rushed over, riding on their horses.

As soon as they arrived, they remembered the order from the noble council. They had to try their best to get along with these outsiders who claimed to be “Greeks.” From the information that they had received from Lady Elizabeth, the noble council had realized that this nation’s spirit in battle was really strong, and in this era of crisis for humans, having a human race with such strong spirit in battle would be a great ally that could be depended on!

This was why the noble council didn’t hesitate to send a bunch of equipment to Murphy just to please him.

The ability to achieve a complete victory even in the face of the gnolls, who had twice their strength, meant that this sort of might, which could match up against the heavy infantry of the human city-states, was definitely extremely powerful!

It was because Murphy understood all of this that he wasn’t polite to the slave traders.

He didn’t beat around the bush and directly told these slave traders that they had to straighten out the mercenaries. Fighting the gnolls with such a disorganized formation was pretty much the same as sending lambs to the slaughter. Soon, the slave trader guards took out leather whips and walked into the contingent. They whipped the mercenaries who had shouted at Murphy with their leather whips and only stopped whipping them after the mercenaries had stopped glaring at Murphy.

These sorts of mercenaries didn’t have much status to begin with. They had all come from low and degrading backgrounds. If they committed any sort of rebellious act, their entire family would become slaves or would be sent to the gallows!

Seeing that the time was right, Murphy rushed toward the contingent on his horse.

He raised the sword in his hand and had the General Guards surround him. An oppressive, ominous atmosphere hung in the air.

“All of you, listen up!” Murphy shouted in a loud voice. He pointed his sword at those mercenaries who were angry but didn’t have the courage to speak out.

“I don’t care whose orders you followed in the past, but today, as of right now, all of you are my soldiers!” Murphy roared, his voice full of authority. He looked at the mercenaries and pointed at the Greek infantry, who surrounded them with only a third of their numbers, and said: “My soldiers! You need to understand what discipline is!”

“Discipline! It’s the soul of an army. It’s the key to victory!”

As soon as Murphy raised his hand, the Greek infantry phalanxes roared and took a step forward. The mercenaries’ faces turned pale as they watched their neat, somber strides, and they couldn’t help but be in awe of them at the same time!

“Today, I am going to train you to be outstanding warriors! Soldiers!” Murphy said, looking around him before continuing. “But!”

“If anyone disobeys my orders and doesn’t have the courage to advance while facing the enemy!”

“Then my General Guards will personally cut off their heads!”

“Clang!”

The knights of the General Guards pulled out their swords and rode their horses around the contingent. The mercenaries’ mouths went dry, and they were speechless as they looked at the galloping horses, since they didn’t have any experience at all when it came to warfare.

Murphy withdrew his sword. He looked at the slave traders right beside him, who kept wiping the sweat off their foreheads, and said softly: “This is a war, not just trading.”

The slave traders were stunned at first, but then they nodded when they understood what he meant.