Descending On France 1780
Chapter 45 - 45 041 Military Academy life begins!

45: 041 Military Academy life begins!

45: 041 Military Academy life begins!

Anning asked the two senior students, “Do the noble young ladies stay in the dormitory or…”

“Most of them should be staying in the dormitory, because they all come from poor noble families,” the senior students said, pointing to the tree-lined path next to the auditorium, “That road leads to the ladies’ dormitories, but you better not get any funny ideas.

The dormitory matron is a fierce tigress, and she will send you to the whipping post.”

Anning frowned, “Just for mistakenly going near the girls’ dormitory, one would be sent to the whipping post?”

“You can try and see,” the senior student shrugged, “Last year, a son of a Marquis didn’t believe it and intruded into the girls’ dormitory.

As a result, he was whipped twenty times with a saltwater-soaked whip, and his skin and flesh were torn open.”

— Why is it always the Marquis’ sons causing trouble?

Anning asked, “Didn’t the Marquis himself come to the school to make trouble?”

“This is the Briena military school, under the Emperor’s orders to train future officers for France.

Could a Marquis be greater than the King?” the senior student retorted.

The other senior student said, “Of course, not every school rule is enforced so strictly.

There are ten rules in the school that can lead to whipping, but besides the one about not entering the girls’ dormitory, I haven’t seen anyone whipped for violating other rules.

“Of course, it’s probably because those who break the rules are noble offspring.

You, a commoner, can try and see.”

Anning replied, “No, I won’t try.

Are there many commoners in this school?”

The two senior students laughed together, “How could there be a lot!

Have you ever seen a commoner become an officer?”

“Eh, I know that most officers are nobles, but I thought the non-commissioned officers…”

The two seniors laughed even harder, “What are you thinking!

Non-commissioned officers need to at least be literate.

How many commoners can read?”

Anning couldn’t help but frown; he remembered that in this era, the literacy rate in France was not low, and in big cities like Paris, newspapers and various pamphlets had many commoner readers.

But in the eyes of these two nobles, commoners were still illiterate.

Anning shook his head, “I remember there are quite a few non-commissioned officers in the army, a single infantry battalion has more than a dozen sergeants.

Does France have that many nobles?

And not every noble becomes a soldier…”

Senior student replied, “Don’t think too much.

There may be commoner non-commissioned officers, but at this Briena military academy, you won’t find many peers.

To my knowledge, this year you’re the only commoner who got in with a noble’s recommendation.”

Oh, so it’s like that.

Anning originally thought that since he was able to attend the military academy with the Duke’s recommendation, others should not have any problems either, that there should be quite a few commoners with recommendations.

No wonder later at the beginning of the great revolution, the French Army had problems; the revolution targeted the army starting from its non-commissioned officers.

It’s no wonder their combat effectiveness was questioned.

Senior student said, “Enough chit-chat, here’s your uniform.

The size might not be exact, and if it doesn’t fit, you can take it to a tailor to have it altered.”

“Need to alter it myself?” Anning was somewhat surprised.

“Of course, actually many people have their uniforms made by tailors.

But you, a commoner, probably don’t have your own tailor.”

Anning replied, “That I certainly don’t.

My maid is also loaned to me by the Duke.”

Technically speaking, Vanni was indeed loaned to Anning by the Duke, but given the Duke’s attitude, he probably would not care much about a maid and is unlikely to ask Anning to return her.

Anning took the military uniform that the senior student handed over and put it on right away.

The French Army uniform of the Kingdom Era is in grey and white, which from a distance looks white.

Thus, later during the Royalist revolt, people referred to the Royalist Party as the White Party.

Anning asked, “Isn’t this white uniform easy to get dirty?”

The senior student shrugged, “Then it depends on the skill of your maid.

Ensuring the master’s clothes are clean is her duty.”

Anning glanced at Vanni, who immediately assured, “Don’t worry, I won’t let you go out in dirty clothes.”

Anning was about to reply when a carriage drove by him.

The wheels splashed mud onto his white stockings.

One of the senior students clicked his tongue, “An unseen crest, must be some poor noble’s daughter going to the dormitory.”

“Not bad, this morning I saw a young lady’s carriage without a canopy, hard to imagine a noble family being so poor they can’t even afford a covered carriage.

However, that young lady was quite pretty, quite voluptous.”

Anning clicked his tongue, it seemed there were more daughters from noble families at this military school than he had imagined.

Perhaps in the future he might really get to see a ceremonial cavalry troop made up entirely of noble daughters.

He turned and asked Vanni: “Christina doesn’t stay in that dormitory, does she?”

“Of course not, the miss stays in a lovely little estate in the suburbs which the Duke specifically bought.

You’ll see when you attend the ball this weekend.”

Vanni’s words excited the two senior students: “A ball!

That’s fantastic, usually we only get to attend those tasteless and boring balls organized by country nobles, but a ball held by the Duke’s family is definitely of Parisian standard.”

Anning: “Of course, the Duke has also brought along a Parisian chef, so there will definitely be the trendiest desserts from Paris at the ball.”

Senior student: “How do you know?”

“I came here with Miss Christina,” Anning shrugged and then dumped all his military uniform and such in Vanni’s arms, “Well then, brothers, we shall take our leave.”

Senior student: “Ah, goodbye.

Remember not to be late tomorrow; don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

And so, Anning’s life at Briena Military School officially began.

**

Originally, Anning thought that Briena Military School would be like military training in future China, beginning with several months of drill training.

However, this did not happen.

There was indeed drill training, but it only took place each morning.

During drill training, students were rotated as orderlies, responsible for organizing the troops.

When it came to Anning’s turn to be orderly, his noble classmates deliberately aimed to make him look foolish, only Napoleon would obey his commands.

Yes, Napoleon was a fellow classmate of Anning’s.

Because only Napoleon and he had a good relationship, the two of them were called by their peers the ‘pauper duo’; one was a poor noble from Corsica, and the other a commoner.

The nobles subjectively considered commoners as paupers, and if Anning was fairly generous with money, it was because he was supported by the Duke.

Back to drill class.

Faced with insubordinate noble classmates, Anning used his ultimate skill: he took off his glove!

Throwing a glove at someone’s face meant challenging them to a duel.

These classmates all knew that Anning was a “Noble Killer,” a ruthless man who had cut down three nobles.

Coupled with Anning’s undefeated impressive record in swordsmanship class thanks to his automatic defense moves, not one dared to accept Anning’s challenge, risking their lives.

So, as soon as Anning took off his glove, the classmates immediately complied with the command and arranged themselves into a proper formation.

With the school’s drill training, Anning finally understood how the formation of firing squads in this era was developed.

It turned out that during the formation, the common foot soldiers were sandwiched by officers on all sides; in a line infantry formation, the officers would stand respectively at the head of the ranks on both sides, and then in the middle at the front and the back.

So the line infantry, in essence, was led into battle — quite literally — at the behest of the noble officers.

No wonder, once the line was broken, the morale could not be sustained.

In the mornings, in addition to drill training, various military techniques also had to be trained, such as two swordsmanship classes and two firearm training classes, plus one riding class every week.

As for why the infantry officers learned riding, it seemed to be for the sake of becoming future orderly officers.

The afternoons were mostly reserved for academic classes, where the military academy would teach officers French and mathematics.

Napoleon was as adept at mathematics as biographies of later centuries would describe, but in Briena of this timeline, his brightness was eclipsed by Anning.

Anning used the mathematics knowledge from later centuries to tackle the mathematics of this era, sometimes calculating faster than the teachers.

Fortunately, mathematics was already quite advanced in this era, and Anning deliberately restricted his problem-solving approach, not using the knowledge he had learned in university calculus classes, otherwise, he could have created a work worthy of publication in the proceedings of the French Academy of Sciences.

Honestly, Anning didn’t mind getting published; it’s just that he had forgotten most of his calculus content and wasn’t sure he could manage it well when facing the real mathematical experts of this era, fearing to give himself away.