industrial lord

Chapter 516 New Soldiers
“A-choo…A-choo…A-choo!!!”

Frederick didn't expect that he would sneeze even in his warm bed.

The temperature outside is now close to minus twenty degrees Celsius, the temperature in the long house is around ten degrees, and it is over twenty degrees inside the box bed.

"Did you catch a cold?" Jin Li, who was watching "Detective Fox Holmes and the Bloody Footprints" for the third time, was a little nervous. "Do you feel dizzy?"

She said as she climbed on top of Frederick and put her forehead against his to check if he had a fever.

On the other side, He Li put down the book and said, "I don't think it's a big problem. I'll cook some food that makes you sweat. After eating, you can just go to the steam room and steam it for a while."

This is the method for treating colds, and it is quite effective.

Jin Li said to He Li, "It's your turn to go to the steam room today, so you'll naturally feel like staying longer."

He Li laughed, "Hehehe."

Frederick continued to mark the places where iron ore was discovered on the map. During these days, he found a main vein and more than 20 small veins in the Grouse Forest. The ore was of high quality and had high mining value.

There are only four hours of daylight now, and polar night will come soon. Outdoor activities will basically stop and everyone will start to stay in the winter.

But in the Duchy of Wessen, the army still has to train even in the snowy winter.

Metzger was wearing a blue-black double-breasted officer's dress uniform, with a medal on his left chest that was slightly larger than others. He looked at the more than 100 soldiers of his company in front of him with great energy and spirit.

He should have been a platoon leader now, but Eugene specifically asked for him when he formed a new team and gave him the position of company commander.

According to the military system of Wesson's army, the company commander already belongs to the aristocratic class, has the title of knight, has no fiefdom, but has a high salary.

There were not many nobles in the Duchy of Wessen originally. Later, Frederick established his own noble management agency, the Heraldry Bureau, based on the Heraldry Academy, and this department was led by himself.

Metzger's canonization paperwork went through the process quickly because his resume was so perfect.

He is a genuine old Wesson man. Before the Wesson family came, his ancestors raised and slaughtered pigs in the countryside near the city of Wessonburg.

He had made outstanding military achievements, having killed a count and an emperor successively. In the Battle of the Trade Route, with the help of Hoffmann, he captured a group of minor nobles who had fled the battlefield.

Moreover, he has good grades in the military academy and has a promising future.

So after arriving at the new unit, Metzger became a company commander with three infantry platoons, a pea Gatling squad, two communicators and four medics, a total of more than a hundred people.

Now, with more than a hundred people standing neatly in front of him, he felt very pressured.

This company has some new recruits, and others are drawn from other units. The platoon leaders are all familiar faces who experienced the Six-Day Battle. The squad leaders have at least followed Frederick to defeat 100,000 troops at the Elbe River, and the veterans have all participated in the Battle to Recover Constantinople.

What Metzger has to do now is to convince those veterans. They are the backbone of the company. No matter how many muscles they have, it will be useless if there is something wrong with the bones.

"You..." He looked at the three platoon leaders, "Is there anyone who disagrees with me being the company commander?"

The three platoon leaders and more than half of the squad leaders all stood straight, looking straight ahead, not daring to breathe heavily.

Zopel was standing next to squad leader Krom, and seeing his squad leader like this, he became very nervous.

Metzger seemed very satisfied. The first thing they did today went well. He nodded and continued, "From today on, we are half-brothers. Now everyone come to the front and introduce yourselves to the brothers."

"I'll start with myself. I met Metzger, who is 32 years old and from Weissenberg. He was a pig butcher before he joined the army..."

Starting with him, one soldier after another came forward to introduce themselves.

"My name is Zopel." He is the largest of the recruits. "I am 20 years old. I am from the Wesson-Bockner Shipyard. I was a shipyard worker before I joined the army."

A tall, thin young man came forward after him. When he stood up, his head was covered with sweat. He said stutteringly: "My name is Zikel, I am... 18 years old, from the cliff village in Putz, and I used to... collect herbs."

Metzger had previously looked at the information of everyone in the company. Among dozens of recruits, only Zicker was from New Jersey. He was good at climbing cliffs, and it was said that climbing up and down a cliff hundreds of meters high was as easy as climbing a tree.

This military camp is home to a regiment, which, together with its affiliated units, has a total of 3,000 people. It has facilities such as a live-fire shooting range, a football field, an obstacle course, and a teaching building.

Today is the first day that the company was officially established. After everyone introduced themselves, Metzger led the entire company to tour the military camp, and finally gathered in front of the cafeteria to prepare for lunch.

The recruits had undergone two and a half months of recruit training and had become accustomed to singing before lunch.

Zikel followed his class in line to get his lunch.

The main dish for lunch today is noodles. A ball of 500 grams of noodles is placed in a mesh spoon, and when cooked, it is poured into a bowl. Then there is a spoonful of about 150 grams of minced pork, a large spoonful of red tomato sauce, a spoonful of 30 grams of oil, and various additional ingredients.

Zikel found something in the bowl that he had never seen before, a golden piece that looked like it should be edible.

He picked it up with a fork and observed it for a while. Zopel, who was sitting next to him, saw it and said to him, "This is fried bean cheese. It's delicious."

"Beans can be made into cheese?" Zikel was surprised. This was something he had never heard of before. "You people outside the mountain are really omnipotent. I wouldn't be surprised if you could fly in the sky one day."

As Zopel ate, he said, "I flew into the sky."

The squad leader, Krom, who was sitting on the other side of him, smiled and said, "You are going to Nanhu Park to ride a hot air balloon. Zikel, don't think he can fly very well. I will invite you to go flying once when you are on vacation."

But Zopel said, "Captain, I'm not talking about a hot air balloon or a hot airship, I'm talking about something else."

"It's a confidential military project, and the commander personally took charge of it. Master Psyche often went to see it, and I helped with the production. If it weren't for the military camp, I wouldn't have told anyone about it."

"Alas, it's a pity that I'm overweight, otherwise I would have joined the Air Force, where there are so many beautiful female soldiers."

He said and finally sighed as he looked at his thick arms.

The shipyard itself was profitable, and as a skilled worker who graduated from a technical school run by the Carpenters' Guild, his salary was not low. Moreover, one man's food could feed the whole family, so after work he spent his money on fitness and food.

Krom looked at him carefully for a while and said with certainty: "You must have fallen in love with a female soldier in the Air Force. Tell me who it is and I will help you find out who her boyfriend is so that you can give up."

Zopel replied angrily, "Sergeant, if you do this on the battlefield, you will be shot from behind."

Zikel, who was standing by, felt that he couldn't understand what they were saying.

(End of this chapter)