Academy Genius Commander

7 – First battle (1)

“Cadet Platoon Leader Peter Yeager! I was ordered to transfer to the 4th company of the 3rd battalion on June 8th, 220th year of the imperial calendar. Loyalty!”

As I saluted like that, the company commander who looked like he was in his 40s in front of me looked at me with an annoyed expression.

Anyone who graduated from the academy will be promoted to captain in their early 30s at the latest, and if they are promoted to major before 40, or if they are pushed out of the promotion, they will be discharged and become a mid-level administrative officer…

It must be a company commander from an executive officer.

“I am Captain Simon Werner, commander of the 4th Company. Welcome to transfer. Since I am an executive officer, all the officers in our company are former executive officers except for you.”

If you look at his expression, you can tell that he doesn’t welcome moving in at all, but I can fully understand how he feels with that expression.

Because having a platoon of cadets deployed on the front line is like saying to train new recruits in a situation where the company is so busy that they have to work overtime.

So, it’s common sense that a cadet platoon is usually deployed as a supply unit or, if you’re lucky, as a second-class unit, allowing them to experience even a little bit of real combat before coming out to the front line.

As the novel goes, Major General Stefan von Coser, the commander of the 8th Division, who oversees the Rhineland Front, wants to impress His Highness the Crown Prince.

It was because he called the student platoon to the front line and ordered the company commanders, who were already fighting like crazy, to fight together on the front line along with educating newcomers.

As a newbie platoon leader with no military experience in the true sense of the word, I would go mad if I were told to fight the enemy by joining forces with ‘a unit that can’t even get hit when marching, and can barely unite by relying on individual spearmanship’.

In a battlefield where lives come and go, the student platoon leader brought a soldier who had only been training for a month, so it can’t look nice.

If such a guy is also a company commander who welcomes him, it must mean that he is an irredeemable unit commander on the level of the Dark Independence Army.

It’s because their unit is already trash, so it doesn’t matter much if a new recruit who can’t play their role comes, so they’re reacting that way.

Still, I thought I was lucky because the company commander under my direct command was not an aristocrat from an academy, but an executive officer.

I myself am from a commoner, so I won’t find fault with my background, and it’s all the better because I’ll have a lot of practical experience.

Meanwhile, the company commander said with a sigh this time, as if he thought that the new load had arrived.

“If we met in another rear unit, or if it were peacetime, I would teach you how to command a platoon and how to deal with soldiers as company commander, and I would accompany you as you go. It’s different here. We have to fight the Francois Republic Army from tomorrow. Therefore, without such a process, we should immediately start with the strategy meeting with each platoon commander. Are you ready?”

Usually in a novel or movie, the main character says, ‘Yes, I’m ready!’ If you give a lively answer, it becomes a kind of cliché that people like company commanders look at you favorably.

War is a cold place where a kid like me is given a chance to learn something calmly, and it is not regarded as immature.

What if the student platoon leader with no real experience in such a place showed a lively figure with a confident expression…?

On the outside, you will receive compliments saying that you look good for being motivated, but a commander like a company commander may be branded as a low-ranking officer who doesn’t know what to do because of his motivation or heroism.

Because the scariest thing in war is not a powerful enemy, poor supply, or inferiority in troops, but a friendly commander who is drowning in heroism.

So I said in a cold voice that calmed my excitement as much as possible.

“Yes that’s right.”

Perhaps he rather liked it, the company commander said with a slightly more relaxed expression than before.

“Then don’t wait. Go straight to the company headquarters barracks. The other platoon commanders will be waiting. I will be leaving soon.”

**

Upon entering the company headquarters barracks following the company commander’s instructions, the platoon commanders of each platoon were eagerly exchanging opinions.

“Lieutenant Commander, the condition of our platoon members is not very good. I don’t know what to say, but they’re being mobilized for war these days. Even if I can’t send them to the rear by giving them a vacation, I think I should give them a drink.”

“Platoon leader, there is alcohol in stock, but isn’t your platoon on guard today? Also, don’t you know that if you pour alcohol once, you have to pass it to everyone in the company?”

“Lieutenant Parker, not only the guys from the 2nd Platoon, but the other guys are all scammers right now. I’d rather ask the company commander to let me drain the water once I’m free after the battle. Isn’t the public money sufficient?”

“Mage chief, how are the three wizards under you? A new girl is coming in, so I don’t think it’s going to work well.”

Even in the Middle Ages and early modern times, it was a daily routine for merchants to accompany the troops and provide various kinds of meat, alcohol, and prostitutes.

In fact, it was really shocking to see the commanders talking so openly.

In particular, when I was in the academy, I thought that the only female enlisted in the army were officers educated at the academy…

As a mage who doesn’t need that much stamina, women are also entering.

Shocked by these new findings, I looked at the other officers, and a man called the vice-captain came up to me and asked:

“I am Vice-Captain Wagner. So, are you a newcomer?”

“Yes that’s right! I’m Peter Yeager, the student platoon leader!”

“Is that so? Welcome to the 4th company, kid. Now that you’re here, make sure you memorize the names of the other officers.”

Unlike the company commander who treated me very coldly and as a burden, the deputy company commander treated me like an insider I had seen in Korea, which made me feel unfamiliar.

If even the deputy company commander had been a cold person, it would have been really difficult.

After taking a deep breath, when I remembered all the names of the officers around me, the company commander came in and looked at me and asked.

“You must have remembered all the names of the officers?”

“Yes that’s right.”

“Okay, then, from now on, we will discuss how to execute the strategy delivered by the battalion commander. Lieutenant Commander, bring me the map.”

After that, Lieutenant Commander Wagner put the map and some wooden horses on the desk.

The company commander started to explain by moving each piece on the map.

“Imperial forces will launch at around 7:00 tomorrow morning and attack the plains of Wellos, where the Francois Republic is stationed. The 4th Battalion, to which we belong, stands at the far end of the right wing of the division, and the vanguard of the battalion is our company.”

When I heard that I was going to be in the vanguard, I felt two conflicting emotions.

One is the anticipation of how far the unit I trained and trained for a month will be used on the actual battlefield and how great of a feat it can achieve.

Another was the tension of having to be the spearhead in a harsh and difficult war that was incomparable to mock warfare, and the fear of being the first to kill a person.

On the other hand, the deputy company commander and other platoon commanders complained and protested as if they were annoyed by this situation.

“Even if it’s the battalion commander’s order, isn’t this too much? Even if we were supported by one platoon led by Jaeger, we had more troops than a normal company. Aren’t you a kid with no practical experience?”

“Honestly, we can’t go to war while taking care of our children.”

“Squadron commander, we are not a correctional unit that trains officers who have just graduated from the rear and soldiers who have just been conscripted.”

At the academy, I was discriminated against because I was a commoner and an orphan, but I heard complaints about my lack of actual combat experience, so should I say that my situation is better?

Or should I be sorry for the reality that I am pointed out for my lack of experience here.

However, it cannot be said that the Jaeger platoon can fight at the same level as the other platoon commanders.

No matter how well I have the ability to manage a platoon, it is theoretical, and the only thing I have actually used is that I have eliminated platoon training and mock battles, and no one knows how it will work in practice.

The company commander took out a letter from his pocket and put it on the desk and said to the opposing officers.

“I protested that way too. By the way, Lieutenant Colonel Hans Webber, who is in charge of selecting platoon leaders at the academy, said this about Peter Yeager. Let’s see.”

When I heard that, my head went blank.

Because when the academy selected students to go to the Rhineland frontline, they did not say that they would be assigned to a platoon with midterm evaluations or mock battle evaluations written.

“In a period of only one month, I succeeded in training soldiers and raising the platoon’s combat capability to a level close to that of an active platoon fighting on the front. In a mock battle, a platoon of the same size won a landslide victory without a single casualty. As an evaluator, it is recorded that this unit was judged to be able to play a sufficient role even if deployed in actual combat right now. Also, this guy is a commoner, not an aristocrat. It is judged to be a more credible story because there is no need for an aristocratic evaluator to give such a good evaluation to a commoner student without grounds.”

Having said that, the mood of the officers looking at me changed slightly.

From a guy who seemed to be a burden if he stood at the vanguard until just now, to a guy who can be trusted by pretending to be deceived.

The platoon commanders here were also well aware of the status-centered thinking of the academy evaluators, so they must have assumed that an evaluator with a much higher rank than themselves would not dare to lie and arrange platoons.

I received an unexpected midterm evaluation, but I never thought I would receive help like this.

“Still, it may be a bit difficult for Jaeger Platoon Commander to do his part because it is his first battlefield. So next to Jaeger Platoon, the 1st Platoon Leader and I will command and assist the 4th Platoon Leader’s platoon who died in the last battle. How is it?”

The other officers, as if they had nothing more to say, agreed, albeit with some displeasure.

“The division commander intends to slowly push through this battle line until His Highness arrives, and then launch a full-scale attack when His Highness arrives. Therefore, the battle tomorrow will be a very local and boring battle.”

We usually expect to win or lose in a day or a few days in a battle in the plains.

Battles involving thousands or more often last from weeks to months at most.

And in that case, from what I learned in the academy, there is no need to come up with a complicated operation because the division does not launch an active offensive.

It’s my first time going to the battlefield and I’m standing in the vanguard, but I guess I should say it’s fortunate that it’s not a decisive battle where the fate of the division is staked.

“Then let’s close the meeting.”

When everyone was about to stand up like that, I thought of a method that a rookie could use to get a little more score and said.

“Company commander, I’m sorry, but I still don’t know the geography of where this unit is located. So, today I and my platoon will stand guard with the night watch, so could you please take a minute and assign a gunner to tell us what to do?”

Hearing that, the eyes of the platoon commanders who had been looking at me with a wary gaze until just now turned to ‘Uh, what is this guy?’ turned into a look of

For the person who is designated as the shooter who has to teach me, there is an additional job right now, but what if I stand on the night shift instead?

To the platoon members who were worried about their low morale, I gave them drinks and girls tonight so they could rest and enjoy themselves.

This positive attitude of a rookie to help the unit is a good attitude to win favor with seniors.

So is it?

The company commander also said, ‘Huh, this guy’s commendable?’ He put on his eyes and said that he liked it.

“I have to go to my first battle tomorrow, but there are guys willing to stand on the night watch, okay. When you stand on duty tonight, I will personally teach you, so learn well. But if you stay up all night without a wink of sleep, tomorrow will be difficult. Hurry up and go to bed and come out on time.”

“Yes, I understand!”

As a result, I was put on the night watch duty with the company commander that day.

In addition to that, thanks to my positioning as a night watch, the other members of the company other than our platoon were able to take a break without excessive drinking.

The company commander must have been quite willing to consider my consideration up to that point, so while on duty at night, he told me the right attitude as a platoon commander and his experience of fighting until dawn.

Then, around 7:00 in the morning, a mighty trumpet sounded, announcing the march to the entire army.

It is the first real experience after being reincarnated in another world.