Chapter 47: CH 41

The next day, I went to the palace early in the morning. Usually, I will be attending the academy around this time but I can’t skip this meeting so I don’t have any choice.

I feel like I worked harder in this life compared to my past life where I was a working adult. Well in this life, my boss is the royal family so who knows what will happen to me if I didn’tdon’t do my work. Compared to my past life where there were people who didn’t do anything but still get their salary…ahem let’s stop there.

“Viscount Zeavert has arrived.”

“Let him in.”

The palace’s guard announced my arrival and then opened the door after I was permitted to come in. This is the procedure. Today I will be having a meeting with knights in a room exclusively used for discussing military affairs.

Still, the palace is huge. There are also meeting rooms exclusively used for discussing financial affairs and for discussing judicial affairs. I don’t think the palace is this huge in the game. I guess creating a huge ass palace is a waste of data, plus as a player having a uselessly huge map is also annoying.

“I am Welner von Zeavert.”

“You may sit.”

Duke Seyfart is probably in his late sixties, or he might already be in his seventies. His appearance fit the image of a stubborn old man in the rumor but I can see the trace of his handsome figure when he was younger.

Besides the Duke, there’s Count Engelbert, his current second in command. The Count is probably around his forties. Different from his stern appearance, I heard the Count is a rather calm person. He’s also handsome and is an excellent person. Frankly, I’m bad at handling people like him.

There are around 30 chairs and 30 sets of meeting materials prepared in the room, including civil officers’ share. For a meeting about military affairs, this is a lot. Will the problem of refugees also be discussed here?

In any case, I’m glad a youngster like me isn’t the last person that came to the meeting room. I sat on the lowest seat while secretly sighing in relief.

There are many civil officers that are busy walking around the room to prepare the meeting material but there are also some children of elementary school age in the room. These children are heirs of various noble houses.

They have no right to speak in the meeting, but they still participated as secretaries or as servants. This kind of thing also happened in other meetings such as financial affairs meetings or diplomacy affairs meetings. They are here for a kind of practical training.

Not only that, but they are also here to learn about the manner of speaking and the correct order of speaking in a meeting.  After all, it’s easier to understand these kinds of things when you see them yourself. Before I enrolled at the academy, I also participated in several meetings like them. It’s close to how students of military academy become orderlies to gain actual experience.

Other than studying politics and diplomacy, young nobles from a count or higher house also need to learn manners like this, so we have many things to do other than enrolling at the academy. Despite that, idiotic young nobles still popped out. Is it because they are pampered by various privileges that nobles have?

“It seems like everyone has gathered,” In the palace surrounded by many chairs, Duke Seyfart says so.

It seems like while I was lost in my thought, everyone had gathered. We all stand up, put our right hand on our chest, and bowed lightly. This should be enough since it isn’t His Majesty that attended the meeting.

Personally, I quite liked this kind of salute in my past life. With that thought in my head, Duke Seyfart waved his hand and everyone sat down.

As usual, my surrounding is all people older than me. Well, I’m Father’s representative and age-wise, it’s not unnatural for Father to be here.

“Well then, I’m sure everyone here had heard that Triot was destroyed.”

“Is that really true?”

One of the nobles that sat in the upper seat asked the Duke. In this part of the meeting, generally, the people seated further than the middle like me have no right to speak. It’s not like I will just silently listen the whole time but now is the time when I need to listen to the higher-ranked people.

“As there have been reports about refugees entering the kingdom’s territory, that news is definitely true,” answered Count Engelbert. It seems like Count Engelbert’s position is like the chief of staff here.

“Of course, not only do we need to comprehensively discuss how to handle the refugees, but also the state of Triot, how to protect the peace at the border, how to maintain the public order, and how to prepare for a possible attack. Unfortunately, we don’t have much time,” continued Count Engelbert calmly

At first glance it might look like everything that needs to be discussed according to the Count is the same but in reality, they are different. A discussion regarding the state of Triot also includes a discussion about preparation in case there’s a second wave of refugees, a discussion about how to protect the peace at the border includes a discussion about trouble brought by the current refugees. Technically Triot no longer existed but we still need to use diplomacy.

As for maintaining public order, it includes things like how to take care of the groundless rumor among our citizens and to protect the refugees from bandits. Bandits will gather in a place with plenty of prey. They love to make use of the chaos for their own benefit.

The best order of priority will be first, preparing against any attack and maintaining public order. As for discussing the state of Triot, the country itself had been destroyed so skipping that is fine, then protecting the peace of the border can be done in tandem with preparing against possible attack.

This kind of priority needs to be decided and maintained. Understanding that requires you to properly experience the meeting yourself so do your best, young nobles!

Technically, I’m also one of the young nobles though.

“First, let us talk about the number of refugees. After putting together the information we have, the total number of refugees including men, women, young, and old are around 5000 people or possibly more.”

The room becomes noisy. I was also surprised. 5000 people? That’s too many.

(Info dump warning! here to skip.

Summary: If 5000 people of refugees are compared to a roman army legion composed of 6000 people, then the amount of grain needed a day is around 8000 kg and water is around 12 liters. If you include warhorses, cattle, and carriage horses, the amount of food per day is about 18000 kg. Then there are also other necessities like medical supplies, tents, rain gears, cooking utensils, alcohol, firewoods, winter gear, tools like saw and nails,  and consumables like arrows. Magic bags did exist but even that is limited since it’s a rare item.

You also need to calculate the excretion of urine produced by 5000 people of refugees, around 5 tons per day.

This is all calculated based on an adult need in an army, for the refugees, it will be around 70-80% of this.)

If I looked at this world as a game world, 5000 people might seem not too many but in reality, it is a huge amount.

Even if I said that it might be hard to imagine that number so let’s make the Roman army an example (They really love to make a system for everything). A legion in the Roman army is composed of 4000-6000 people. For it to be dispatched an enormous amount of provision is needed.

Let’s say this legion has 6000 people. First, the amount of grain needed is 18000 pounds. It’s a Roman pound so converting it to a kilogram will be about 8000 kg. After that is water. If we say that an adult will need 2 liters of water per day, then the amount of water needed in total for 1 day is 12000 liters. This is the minimum amount. It will increase depending on the season and the climate where the legion will be dispatched. Plus, usually, the legion will bring a surplus of water so the total amount of water is probably around 15000-18000 liters. This is not including food and water needed by the horses and the cattle. If we included that, that number will easily increase 2 times.

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Adding to that if the legion has cavalries, then the amount of food and water will increase. The total amount of food including the food for cavalries horses and for the horses and cattle that will bring the provision, there will roughly be an additional 40000 pounds or 18000 kg of food. All of this is to be consumed in just one day.

That’s right. One day. Food for 6000 people for just one day alone is about 8 tons. It’s the same weight as 40 or so water-filled drums. That much food will be gone in just one day.

If the legion is dispatched for 10 days, that will be 80 tons of grains. That’s as heavy as a D51 steam locomotive [1]. Just food alone is the same weight as a locomotive that can carry humans, horses, and cows. Just the food.

(T/N: A steam locomotive built by the Japanese. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JNR_Class_D51 )

That 3000 tons of grains for a year. The amount was so huge that even I who have the memory of my past life can’t begin to imagine it. 6000 tons. There’s even a ship that weighs that much.

Not only food and water, but the legion also need medical supplies, tent, rain gears, cooking utensils, and common groceries… frankly, also alcohol. Tablewares is each soldier’s responsibility but stuff like a cooking pot is something the legion needs to provide.

After that, in preparation for the time when there’s no firewood the legion needs to bring some firewoods, and winter gears, depending on the season. Also, in case a bridge suddenly collapsed tools like saws and nails are also needed. The legion also needs to bring consumable things like arrows and medicines.

Then, the supply also needs to include blankets. 6000 blankets. If 1 blanket is 1 kg then it’s 6 tons additional provision. The legion also needs to prepare extra blankets so things used by injured soldiers won’t be used by healthy soldiers. For a long-term dispatch mission, then horses carriages, and oxcarts to transport the provisions are also needed.

Essentially, there’s no battle where the country won’t think about needed provisions. Only idiots will think something like ‘no need to bother about provision!’ Plus, horses eat more than humans.

When I began to think about provisions, it was a mystery how Hannibal [2] feed his soldiers during the Second Punic War [3]. There’s no supply line considering he fought deep in the enemy’s territory so how did he feed tens of thousands of soldiers? It’s a mystery of military history.

(T/N: General and statesman who commanded the force of Carthage, settlement in modern Tunisia, against the Roman republic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal 

Three years of war between Carthage and Rome 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Punic_War )

Really, how did he do that? I mean his army barely pillaging. I really want to know his trick.

Magic bags did exist in this world even but even it has limits. Rather, the capacity of magic bags that I know isn’t that big. In the game, some random armors can fit in a magic bag, is that the reality correction?

Maybe magic bags with enormous capacity existed but I don’t know. Even if that is true, this type of magic bag must be a pretty rare item. It’s not something you can freely provide to an army.

It’s rare for even normal magic bags to be supplied to an army since they are also rare items. I also want one.

My thought deviated. For now, since the provision is not for an army but for refugees, then there’s no need to think about food for horses and cattle. Still, problems like the amount of clothing and medicine needed didn’t disappear. Then, there’s also the problem of where to put 5000 people? The capital is surrounded by castle walls so they can’t prepare enough space to host 5000 people.

There’s also the problem of their excretion. They’re living being so of course they need to go to a toilet.

An adult will excrete about 1-1.5 liters of urine per day. To keep it simple, let’s just use 1 liter. 1 x 5000 is 5000 liters, 5 m3 or 5 tons.

That’s the amount of urine excreted by the refugees every single day. That amount is not a joke. Urine is also one of the sources of diseases.

Of course, there’s no way that all refugees are adults. All of this is just an approximation. Still, that doesn’t mean the number of excretion and supply will decrease by half. At most, it will decrease by 20-30%

[Info dump end]

A group that will consume that much food and excretes that much urine is currently loitering around the borders. I can understand that if the kingdom didn’t make any move soon, it will become a huge problem. Even if the kingdom doesn’t want to, it needs to handle them. It’s definitely not the number of people that can be handled by just a marquis territory.

Furthermore, there’s a possibility that the 5000 number of refugees will increase in the future. My head hurt. Though I just feel a headache, the bureaucrats that handle finance will probably feel they want to escape reality.

“Are all refugees farmers?”

“No, there are also townspeople who lived in the Triot’s capital.”

Damn. The intensity of my headache just increased 2 times. Taking care of people that can work and people that can’t is different. Even though just taking care of women and children among the refugees is already troublesome enough.

It’s not something I need to think about though. I’m just Father’s representative. My job is only to think about how to successfully complete the mission of guarding… or rather escorting the refugees.

“How many people among them are injured or ill?”

“It is definite that not all of them are healthy, but we didn’t know the detail.”

Well, of course. I don’t know if the notion of gathering data on something like that even existed in this world. I mean, people here are generally muscle brains.

Still, if there are sick people among the refugees there’s a chance that a pandemic break out… wait, does this world has a health control system to prevent pandemic?

I’m curious about that but now is still the time for the higher-ranked people to talk. It’s a troublesome rule, but talking one-to-one just like I’ve done with His Highness is tiring. Be it a group meeting, or a one-to-one meeting, both have them has huge merit and demerit that it’s troublesome.

♦

T/N: I want to experiment using paragraphs then note rather than the usual footnotes way, which one do you guys think is better?

Anyway, I want to talk a bit about my GERD. Feel free to skip this if you want. Usually, my GERD is only a minor inconvenience. I just can’t eat and drink spicy and sour stuff, kind of like an allergy. But when it acted up, it can be real nasty. The hardest thing for me is the sleepless nights. There were times I can’t sleep because my stomach and my chest feel like it’s burning. I remember crying because I just want to have some sleep but I can’t. When this happens, usually it will be either the acid kind of died down by itself or my body can’t handle waking anymore so I fall asleep. It can take hours though.

Other than that, there was also a time when I had my body trembling and my head spinning, I even fell down like a person fainting, I just didn’t lose my consciousness. At that time it was hard for me to sit up because when I tried to, I feel like the world is spinning and I fallen down again. Thankfully, it was only that one time and it never got that bad again. As for now, the GERD has mostly died down. a little tips for me who had GERD, don’t eat too much spicy food. I heard eating too many spicy things is one of the predominant reasons for GERD and other stomach acid related problems. I’ve eaten too many spicy things back then, so I can’t eat any now

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