Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 10 Night Service

   Swordsmanship classes are held once a week, starting after lunch, depending on how late the sun sets.

  Summer is long and the swordsmanship class is long. In winter, the days are short, and the swordsmanship class is short.

   In principle, one hour is reserved for the officers and students to eat before it gets completely dark.

   This leads to a problem: the last hour of the summer swordsmanship class, everyone is hungry.

   Going to the equipment room to return the training armor, Winters and Ike didn't even have time to change their uniforms, so they ran all the way to the school cafeteria to devour them.

   After they had dinner, they went to shower, and when they returned to the student dormitory, the sun had already set.

  The oil lamps were lit in the dormitory, and those military cadets from non-uniform provinces had already started to pack their bags and prepare to leave for their hometown tomorrow.

  Axel's home is in Guitucheng, which can be reached on foot, so there is no rush at all.

   He was about to wash his armor, but found Winters lying on the bed and motionless.

   "This is going to bed?" Ike gave Winters a slap in the back: "Don't pack your bags?"

   "Let's talk tomorrow." Winters was so full that he was exhausted.

   Tiredness, pain, and sleepiness hit Winters, and he just wanted to sleep at the moment.

   "What about your armor? If you don't wash it, it will be rotten until tomorrow." Ike asked with a frown.

   Winters weighed "getting up and doing laundry" and "going to sleep", choosing "going to sleep" without any suspense.

   "No, throw it away." He buried his head in the pillow hard: "Who wants to give it to who."

   "A good set of clothes, if you say you throw them away. You also say you need to practice swordsmanship when you get home..." Axel picked up his friend's armed clothes and threw them into his laundry tub.

   But Winters couldn't hear what Ike was saying, and his friend's voice came in from his left ear and out from his right.

   A second before he was about to lose consciousness, Winters suddenly remembered that there was something else going on tonight.

   He jumped out of bed, causing Ike to take a big step back.

   "I remember." Winters frowned and said, "I'm still on duty tonight."

   He took a deep breath and let out a groan from the deepest part of his chest.

   "Don't you sleep when you arrive at your post?" Ike asked rhetorically, holding the laundry tub.

   Winters didn't have time to answer, grabbed his shirt and hurried out of the dormitory.

  There are three gates in the Army Officers Academy located in the southeast of Guitucheng.

   There are two shifts a day for each department. There are six people in each class, two from each of the first, second and third grades.

   The Lu Academy has three disciplines: cavalry, infantry and artillery, and each discipline fluctuates between 55 and 60 students per grade.

   Therefore, on average, military students are required to be on a day shift and a night shift every month.

  Winters ran all the way to the north gate. The officers and students on duty at Rigang had not left yet, and the first- and second-year students who came to change the guard were already waiting in advance.

   "Hello, monitor." The junior students saluted when they saw Winters.

   It is the tradition of Luyuan to call the senior seniors the monitor.

  Because when freshmen enter the school, the second grader will be their deputy monitor and the third grader will be their monitor, leading the freshman training.

   Therefore, in the Military Academy, junior officers and students, regardless of whether they know each other or not, are called monitor when they see seniors.

   Winters returned the salute and hurried into the duty room. Another third-year officer on the night watch was waiting for him.

   "You're here, Bud." Winters greeted.

  The officer named "Bud" was about 1.7 meters tall, a sturdy young man with thick shoulders and big hands, a wide mouth and a broad nose, and thick eyebrows and big eyes.

  In Winters' eyes, all the physical features of the other party showed that he was a gentle, simple and tolerant person.

  Bud saw Winters coming over, punched Winters lightly on the shoulder, grinned and smiled with two rows of teeth.

   Winters sucked in a breath of pain from the bruise he left when he touched the sword today.

   "What?" Bud didn't understand how a light punch made Winters react so strongly.

   "Today I was in a swordsmanship class, and I was hit **** the shoulder. It's no big deal."

   "Master did it?" Bud asked with a smile, and he understood all at once.

Wentesla passed a chair, sat down with a golden knife, and said proudly: "You didn't see it, I forcibly scored 17 points in Ike's hands today. Ike was beaten so badly by me. It's a pity that I'm not physically strong, or I'll break Ike's unbeaten record today."

   "Really?" Bud laughed.

   At present, no one can beat the sword master Axel, and there are not many people who can get 17 points in Ike's hands.

   Winters is confident: "How can I brag? So many people in the class are watching."

  Bud switched to Winters' other shoulder and punched hard: "Seventeen points! Great! It's a pity!"

   A head came into the door, a first-year student.

   Junior raised his hand to salute and reported in a low voice, "Monitor, the instructor on duty is here."

   Winters and the two arranged their appearances and walked out of the student duty room.

  The night shift post is different from the day shift post. The day shift post has no patrol duties. Six people are on duty for the whole day, and one group is on duty for four hours.

   Arrive on duty before duty, and leave after duty.

   But the night shift is more complicated, and there are patrol tasks. Therefore, the duty process of the night shift post is that each group of people stands on duty for four hours, patrols for four hours, and sleeps for four hours. This ensures that one group of people is patrolling at the same time, one group is on guard, and the other group is sleeping.

  The night shift post cannot go back to the dormitory to sleep, so two small brick houses were built beside the gate and on the inner side of the wall, which were used as the duty room for students and the duty room for teachers, for the staff on the night post to rest.

   The guards resting in the duty room can also play the role of "support at any time in case of emergencies".

  Why is there a faculty lounge? Because the teachers also take turns on the night shift. The school believes that the night shift situation is complicated, and there are not enough students. In the event of an emergency, it must be safe to have an active duty officer present.

   In theory, all teachers, from the principal to the lecturer, are obliged to work night shifts.

   But in reality, only poor young instructors need to work the night shift, and their common characteristics are: "new recruits, low rank, living in staff dormitories, and bachelors."

   But the teachers don't need to stand guard, just sleep in the teachers' lounge.

   It was a short weapon class instructor with flushed cheeks, and the button of his jacket was also unbuttoned to the third under the neckline, apparently drinking.

  The two people from the day shift post and the six people from the night shift post, a total of eight people stood in a horizontal line under the leadership of Winters.

  Everyone stood up in good spirits, and the teacher on duty nodded his head expressionlessly—people on night shift were not in a good mood—he picked up the duty table and began to roll the call.

   "Winters Montagne!"

"arrive!"

   "Gerald's Bud!"

"arrive!"

   Bud's name is odd because Bud doesn't have a last name.

  Gerald is his hometown, calling him "Gerald's Bud" to distinguish him from other "Budds".

   Maybe one day, Bud will take Gerald as his last name. But now he's called Bud, officially Gerald's Bud.

   After that, the teacher called the name, picked up the quill and dipped the tongue, and ticked on the scrapbook.

   "Have you ordered weapons?" he asked again.

   Winters just chatted with Bud and didn't count the weapons.

   But Bud touched Winters lightly, and the latter understood immediately - Bud tapped it.

   Then Winters answered loudly: "Six halberds, six muskets, all counted."

   "Okay, disband! I have something to call." The teacher on duty nodded again and went to sleep in the teacher's duty room.

   The two students who were standing at Sun Post said goodbye and hurried to the dormitory.

   Winters and Bud start their last night watch.

   Surname is a very interesting thing. The surname, surname and given name of the Celestial Dynasty are three independent things. Before the Qin and Han Dynasties, the common people had names and no surnames.

The Roma also have a strict naming system of their real name, clan name, and family name, but the "barbarians" who have replaced Shirom are not so particular. For a long time, they have a name but no surname. be differentiated.

   In fact, in other places, there is a joint naming method of father and son, that is, real name·father name. The meaning of this nomenclature is A's son, B. Because the society is relatively small, as soon as the son of a certain hero Laozi is mentioned, the listeners will understand, for example, Odin sson is the son of Odin. Iceland still retains this nomenclature.

   Later, many titles of "son of so-and-so" were directly used as surnames.

   In other areas, there are also the naming methods of real name, father's name, family name, and the naming method of real name, multiple ancestor names, and family name.

   In short, compared with the more inherited meanings of Eastern surnames, Western European surnames are the product of pragmatism, and it was the census that made surnames popular.

   (end of this chapter)