John Ringo - There Will Be Dragons

Herzer felt that was within his capability. He grabbed a leather apron and examined the bellows. There was a convenient stool so he sat down and started pumping.

“Not so hard,” Edmund muttered, turning the steel. “You’ll get the fire too hot.”

Herzer slowed down the rhythm until he saw the smith nod, then stopped when Talbot pulled the steel, now glowing a low cherry-red, from the fire.

“Different types of steel form at different temperatures,” Edmund explained. “Right now, I’m just working the surface carbon into the bar.”

Herzer nodded as if he understood, wiping his face with his hands. Edmund wordlessly passed him a cloth and the jug.

“What are you making?” Herzer asked, drinking deeply. The water was cut with wine, very lightly, just enough to give it a bite. It felt refreshing after the plain water he’d been given for the last few days.

“Just a knife,” Edmund replied, an irritable expression on his face again. “It was come out here and bang on some metal or take the hammer and bang heads.”

Herzer watched in companionable silence as the smith hammered the metal out and then thrust it back in the fire.

“Pump,” Edmund said, glancing at him. “Although you look as if you’re already tiring out.”

“I am,” Herzer admitted. “But I don’t know why. All I’ve been doing is lying around.”

“A hard blow like that takes it right out of you,” the smith replied, turning the metal in the coals. “Daneh thought you should lie abed for another three or four days. I disagreed, but I wasn’t going to tell her.”

“I think at this point I need exercise more than rest,” Herzer gasped. The bellows were strongly sprung and his arm was already growing tired.

“Enough,” Talbot grunted, pulling the steel back out. “Do you know why the apprentice pumps the bellows?”

“No.”

“Pumping bellows is a very similar motion to hammering. It builds up the apprentice’s strength in specific muscle groups. Besides just being weak from your injury, you’re not used to using those muscles.”

“Well, great, another group to work out,” Herzer said with a wry grin, and took another sip of water. “So is the knife to stick in anyone in particular?”

“No,” Edmund said with a chuckle. “Although I can think of a few I wouldn’t mind handing it to point first.”

Herzer recognized it as an oblique negative reference, but not anything specific.

“Although,” Talbot said after a moment, banging on the steel a trifle harder, “most of them wouldn’t get the hint.”

Herzer nodded, not admitting that he didn’t either.

“Pump,” the smith said. “So, you heard we’re speeding up the deployment of the guard force?”

“Dr. Daneh told me,” Herzer said. He had caught his wind and in a way it was getting easier to pump than it had been at first. It was still hot as hell, though. “She said something about Fredar?”

“A group of brigands, I suppose you’d call them, hit it. I’d been out there just a couple of weeks ago. They had gotten the preliminary pronouncement of the Norau reformation and were making noises about the ‘violent nature’ of the proposals.”

“The defense requirement?” Herzer asked, stopping the bellows as the smith drew the steel out.

“Aye,” the smith admitted. “Their town council had taken a strictly nonviolent position; some of the reenactors who had stopped there moved when they did that and told me. I went over and tried to talk them out of it, the fools.” He slammed the hammer down twice, hard then stopped, setting it down and putting the steel back in the fire. “Get some more charcoal, would you?” he said, gesturing with his chin at a bucket in the corner.

Herzer got the charcoal and then looked at his hands. Not only they but his arms were covered in soot. “Going to be hard to get past the doctor like this.”

“We’ll wash you up, don’t worry,” Edmund replied, taking another drink. “Anyway, the… brigands killed most of the men, including the few skilled artisans, damnit, ran off with most of the women and left the children behind. Oh, and they burned everything down on their way out.”

“Rape, loot, pillage and burn,” Herzer said with a frown.

“Oh, yeah, they got it in the right order,” Edmund said, sticking the steel back in the fire. “Pump. It’s actually odd. Quite often raiders got the order out of sequence. Burning things down is quite fun under the circumstances; it’s keeping people from burning that is tough.”

Herzer looked at him sideways his brow furrowing. “That sounds like the voice of experience.”

“So we’ve moved up the schedule for the guard force,” Edmund said, ignoring the implied question. “You going to go for soldier?”

“Yes,” Herzer replied.

“Which kind?” Edmund asked.

“I don’t know what there’s going to be,” Herzer admitted. “I have sort of been out of the loop.”

“It’s going to be small,” Talbot replied. “We don’t need much right now. But I want it to be a good cadre for a larger force, so it’s going to be brutal training.”

“I’m up for it,” Herzer said as the smith paused.

“That’s what you think now,” Edmund snorted. “The main force will be two groups, archers and line infantry. The archers will use longbows and the line infantry will be modeled, lightly, on the Roman infantry.”

“Legions?” Herzer said, with a grin. “Now that’s more like it!”

“Well, with your arm you’d make a hell of a bowman.” Edmund frowned.

“Fine, if they tell me I have to be an archer, I’ll be an archer,” Herzer replied. “But if I have the choice I’ll take the legions, thanks just the same.”

“Why?” Edmund set down the steel and really looked at the young man for the first time.

Herzer turned his face away from the regard and shrugged, his face hot. “I don’t know,” he temporized.

“Okay, tell me what you think.”

Herzer hesitated for a moment then shrugged again. “Legions… well archers . Archers sit back and hit the enemy at a distance. They don’t… close with them. They don’t get a grip on them. I… I trained with a bow, and, yeah, I’m even pretty good, but I always preferred to close with cold steel. I call it ‘iron hand.’ It’s just… my thing. Sometimes it was the wrong thing to do. But… it’s what I preferred.”

Edmund nodded again, an inscrutable expression on his face and picked up the steel. “Pump. The term you’re groping for is ‘shock infantry.’ There’s effectively two types, disciplined and undisciplined. Undisciplined is the Pict screaming forward with his axe raised overhead. That works, sometimes, against other undisciplined infantry. The other model is the phalanx, which advances in a steady force to take and hold ground. Iron hand… and I’ve heard the term before although you’d probably be surprised where it came from, iron hand is more about the screaming Pict. Can you grasp the difference?”

“Yes, sir,” Herzer replied. “But I’d still prefer the legions. The legions… well…” He paused and shrugged.

Edmund smiled at him and nodded. “Again, I’ve got the advantage on you. I’ve had years of reading, consideration and studying to define what you’re groping for. The legions are ‘where the rubber meets the road,’ another term that’s hard to define. They are what will, ultimately, decide the tide of battle.”

“Yeah,” Herzer breathed, glad that someone could explain the… feeling that was in him. “I want to be where the rubber meets the road.”

Edmund laughed at that and shook his head at the young man, who was looking embarrassed. “Don’t worry, it’s just… when you get out of basic, if you pass, I’m going to let you read a book. Hell, I’ll make you read so many you’ll hate me. Clausewitz, flawed as he is, Fusikawa, Keegan, Hanson. So you’ll be able to define the terms. Knowing the lingo is half the battle in learning. But shock infantry isn’t all that is needed. Long term I want a balanced combined arms force. Bow, ballista, legion, heavy and light cavalry.”