When afternoon arrived, André wondered why he was so busy. Well, there was no one to whom he could delegate the work.
So the matter he was currently working on was of the utmost importance.
He was writing educational books for the new school. Two days earlier he had published a new regulation that allowed not only the nobility to study.
For now, an area of the mansion would be set up to function as a temporary school. In the meantime, André ordered the construction of a school on the northern side of the mansion, which would be ready within a month.
"Mario, how are the school registrations going?" André asked Mario, who had just entered with some documents in his hand.
"My lord, I was about to inform you of that. Currently, 37 children have been enrolled, of whom 25 are children of nobles and 12 are from commoners."
"In addition, for the night classes we have 58 people, and all of them are commoners."
André listened to Mario's reply and frowned slightly while thinking about what the problem was.
Very few common citizens had enrolled their children in the school, and the nobles who had done so had mainly done it to show goodwill toward their lord—some of them knights of the viscounty.
The problem with the civilians was that they saw no benefit in studying. They believed it was a luxury that only the nobility should have and that it would be of no use to them, so they preferred that their children help with work or with household chores.
After thinking for a moment, André said:
"Mario, publish my new ordinance. All civilian children from 6 to 12 years of age are obligated to attend school one month from now. And adults who learn to read and the basic mathematical operations will have 10 copper coins added to their monthly salary."
"My lord, I am afraid many nobles will not be happy."
"Tell them that those who do not comply with the regulations will be severely punished."
"Yes, my lord. Additionally, I am afraid we will not have enough teachers to conduct the classes."
"Currently we only have the daughters of Baron Grey—they are the twins you met at the presentation ceremony. And we have another five teachers; they are well-educated civilians."
André thought for a moment and said:
"I will ask my mother and my grandmother Lucrecia to help by giving classes in the morning. In addition, Rose can also teach in the morning."
"With that we can barely get started."
"Yes, and my sister and my two cousins will arrive next month. I believe they can be assigned as teachers," André suggested.
According to his grandmother Lucrecia, his sister Alicia and his cousins Sofía and Grace, all seven years older than André, had just finished their studies in the capital of the Kingdom of Antares (Green City).
According to history, it had been called Green City since its founding because in winter, at night, the sky was painted in many colors, especially green. Thus, King Antares the First asked his queen, with whom he was madly in love, to name the city, and she called it Green City.
Personally, André believed that what they were seeing was the aurora borealis, since to the south of the kingdom there was a vast mountain range whose end no one knew.
Coming out of his internal thoughts, André added:
"In addition, the militia must study on a mandatory basis."
"Yes, my lord. With your permission."
André nodded and dismissed Mario. He was thinking about the formation of his army. Currently the viscounty had 300 landless knights who were completely loyal, and around 5,000 militiamen who only trained once a week; the rest of their time they dedicated to cultivating the land.
André thought of having an army corps of at least 30,000 troops, which would be divided into three military divisions of 10,000 soldiers each. The military divisions would be divided into three brigades of at least 3,000 soldiers, which would in turn be divided into three battalions of 1,000 soldiers. The companies would be of 200 soldiers, the platoons of 25 soldiers, and the squads of 8 soldiers.
For now he would concentrate on recruiting soldiers and training them. The high positions would be occupied by the knights for the time being, and they would be reassigned according to military merit in the future.
---