John Ringo - There Will Be Dragons

If they thought the previous marches had been brutal, Gunny quickly disabused them of the notion. Instead of staying mostly to the Via and some of the better graded roads around it, the Gunny took them on long marches by tracks that only he seemed to know. At one point Herzer realized that they had never gotten more than twenty miles from the town, but it was impossible to recognize that from the terrain and the distances they had marched. They marched on traces along the ridgelines where hawks flew beneath their feet and narrow trails through marshes. They marched along the edges of cliffs where one slip would mean instant death and across rushing streams cold from spring water. And all of it at a clip that made the previous marches seem like nothing. Gunny wasn’t as much into setting up camp; he seemed to think that movement was the key. They would awake in the morning and eat as they marched; for five days they ate nothing but parched corn and monkey washed down with water. For the last two days, before they met up with a packtrain in the middle of no-where, they were at half rations.

Every morning there was an inspection of their gear. Woe betide the person who had so much as a spot of rust on armor, pilum, shield, helmet or sword. If he did, the gunny loaded up the whole decuri’s rucksacks with rocks until they could barely stagger. And then took off at full speed, fully expecting them to catch up.

After the second time that happened, people could be seen by the fires late at night, scrubbing at their gear.

When they did make a full camp, Herzer noticed that it was always in a tactically viable spot. The other sergeants seemed to just care about finding somewhere reasonably flat. Gunny always set up on a hill, generally one that commanded a view of the trail that they were using and generally at a chokepoint in the terrain. The Gunny never pointed that fact out and sometimes Herzer wondered if it was a subtle lesson or simply that the Gunny had been doing this for so long that he always chose a defensible spot.

Finally, after two weeks of marching, with a few limited tests of their pilum throwing ability but no training with sword or shield, they found themselves back in camp.

There was a new building among the tents and Corporal Wilson was set up outside it. Herzer noticed this as the gunny brought them into the parade ground and called them to a halt.

“TRIARI, LEFT, FACE!” he called, then “STAND-AT, EASE.”

Herzer lowered his shield to rest against his left thigh, spread his feet shoulder width apart and placed both hands, overlapped, on top of the shield.

“By squads, on my command, fall out and turn your weapons in to the armory,” the Gunny said, pointing at the new building. “Then fall back in on your positions.”

They filed off and turned over their swords, still in the sheathes, and pilums, then fell back in on the Gunny.

“Tomorrow we’re going to start training you to use that sword you just gave up as well as more training with the pilum. We’re also going to show you that a shield is a weapon as well as something to keep weapons off of you. But that is tomorrow. Tonight, get a good solid meal and some rest. Because if you think the last couple of weeks have been tough, you’ve got another think coming. FALL OUT.”

Sheida looked at the document in front of her with a frown. She had used far too much power to assure a full “virtual” gathering of the various delegates of the proto-Free States because this was the last chance they would have to amend the document. Tomorrow copies would be made and circulated to the various states over long and in many cases dangerous paths. She was frowning because the final document, in her opinion, contained far too many compromises.

“I would like to make a comment before we go on,” she said, raising the document. “I agree with Edmund that the long-term consequences of keeping the changes permitting local laws on bound service and the universal creation of an aristocratic class are severe. The only question I have is whether we will have an immediate civil war or one sometime in the future. I would like one more discussion on these points. The Honorable Representative from Chitao.”

“The people I represent are unwilling to join if we do not have the provisions for bound service,” he said, standing up. There had apparently been a bit of a power struggle in Chitao, because they had changed representatives twice, each time getting more and more determined to have the changes enacted. Chitao held a central trading location and it had already begun to expand its power base so that two other representatives from the area had joined it in its position as well as a smattering from throughout Norau. The split was not geographical but seemed to center around areas that had been major cities in the former North American Union. None of the representatives from “new” city-states, such as Raven’s Mill and Warnan, were in favor. But the total population, still concentrated in the northeastern tier and the far west, favored permissive laws on bound service.

“When the Fall occurred, many people were unable or unwilling to recognize that work was a necessity. Those who did are quickly becoming prominent citizens. But they are attaining that prominence through their own hard work. Those who choose not to work as hard have been seeking to return to the days when the Net gave them all they needed to survive. But the Net is no more. They must learn to work under qualified overseers. Too often in our area they have worked only hard enough to fill their bellies, to the detriment of the whole society. They think nothing of the future, of the coming winter, when there will not be food in plenty but only what has been stored by the thrifty.

“Giving full vote to such people means that they can vote themselves bread and circuses, surely the greatest danger that any democratic society can face. Furthermore they will vote to take from the ‘rich’ during the lean times, the rich who have by their own hard work prepared for the lean times.

“By… filtering those votes through those who recognize the necessity for hard work and devotion to duty, the danger of social service voting is reduced. We of Chitao, and the societies of Mican, Io, Nawick and Boswash steadfastly refuse to join this union if we are to be placed at the mercy of those who think that charity is their right. If or when they learn the value of work, or if their children recognize it, provisions are in place for them to rise to the level of full citizen. But, until then, the ant, who prepares for the winter, is not going to be ordered about by the grasshopper who spends his time in frivolity.” He nodded at the group and sat down in his virtual “seat.”

Sheida nodded unhappily and then gestured to the representative from Westphal.

As always, the representative was dressed in armor and he rose to his feet with a creak of rivets.

“I have heard the debates on the subject of an aristocratic addition to the upper house. There are those who would argue against any such house, saying that all power should devolve to the people and the states. But I direct you to the history of democracies. Always, they have fallen in time to the passions of the mob. It is this moment-to-moment passion that such a body seeks to mitigate. Further, simply having representatives from broad geographical regions who have a longer term of service has been proven to be insufficient. Still, they are playing to the cry of the mob. They must keep one eye over their shoulder to its passions lest they be thrown from office. But, often, such moment-to-moment passions are not in the best interests of the society. Democracies seem to work the best when they are well filtered. This is simply a very strong filter, not a rejection of democracy.