Artoria's Knight Academy opening ceremony was incredibly brief, yet it achieved the same effect.
Because Artoria, who had already become an idol for the new generation of young people, simply drew her sword, raised it high, and declared, "Glory be with you!"
And then the entire Knight Academy went wild.
It must be said that there was still a fundamental difference in status between the King and the Sage. This group of noble youths celebrated, offering the highest respect to His Majesty the King.
Of course, Kayal's responsibilities weren't limited to just this… Today, he had another arduous task… to rush to the Royal City for a lesson!
This lesson was not so simple!
In the classroom, there were thirty-six people in plain clothes, every one of them a renowned figure in Camelot… In the first row were twelve individuals, one of whom was Kayal's own father.
And all of them were Knights of the Round Table!
The second row consisted of the two deputies to the Knights of the Round Table, equivalent to the rank of Deputy Legion Commander. In times of war, if a Knight of the Round Table fell, they would take over.
So, Kayal had gathered them all together.
Among them, Grand Duke Andrei and Beowulf held a somewhat resistant attitude towards this lesson; Kayal's difficulty was extraordinarily high.
Of course, Kayal's assistant was none other than His Majesty the King, Artoria.
Kayal, dressed in academic attire and holding a stack of parchment, walked into the classroom.
"The reason you are all here, I believe, is clear to everyone," Kayal said, leaning his hands on the podium with a commanding presence. "So, I will get straight to the point. What is war?"
"Plunder?" Beowulf still had the air of a Barbarians. If he weren't so strong and utterly guileless, he, a Scandinavian, would have long been ostracized.
"Conquest?" Grand Duke Andrei, it seemed, had been with King Uther for a long time and possessed a keen perception for such matters.
"Casualties?" Kayal wondered why he had never noticed Gareth's compassionate side before.
"Logistics?" Gawain's answer was very mature, and although incorrect, it brought Kayal considerable satisfaction.
"Slaughter."
"Duel."
"Elite." Gareth and the others' subsequent answers were varied, but none hit the mark.
"War is the continuation of politics," Kayal summarized, meeting their puzzled gazes with a smile. "And what is politics?"
This time, he didn't ask them but answered directly: "Politics is power!"
"Power refers to all sorts of things. For example, power is military might, power is taxation, power is controlling contribution points, power is the nobility," Kayal nodded. "All of these are not impossible."
"But, power is what gives rise to politics!"
"The struggle and tug-of-war of politics lead to disputes, and the refusal to compromise in disputes leads to war." Kayal's words left them baffled. Kayal knew it was too early to discuss this, so he shook his head and shifted the topic back to war.
"War takes many forms, including mountain combat, plains combat, hill combat, swamp combat, naval combat, and so on. However, the knight as a troop type limits many battles, including siege defense, street fighting, and so forth. Do you have anything to say?" Kayal keenly sensed their defiance and asked.
"Gareth, you speak," Kayal called his name. Gareth didn't hold back, standing up and defiantly saying, "But our knights' attack power is the strongest; we can destroy all defenses! We don't need defense."
Ever since King Uther's great victory over the Roman heavy infantry, this concept had been deeply ingrained in their bones.
Seeing everyone else with expressions of agreement, Kayal, frustrated, asked, "You don't need defense, but what about the common people?!"
Everyone froze.
"Well, we will naturally kill the enemy," Gareth stammered, then argued, making a specious argument.
"What if you encounter more enemies than you?" Kayal sneered. "The Romanian Empire has 200,000 elite heavy infantry, 500,000 light infantry, and 150,000 javelin throwers. If they send 100,000 heavy infantry, 200,000 light infantry, and 50,000 javelin throwers, you'll have to run around them. You have horses to escape on, but what about the people?"
Kayal's stark revelation of this cruel problem plunged everyone present into deep thought.
It was clear that as generals equivalent to lieutenant generals and defense generals, they could not avoid such problems. What should they do?
They didn't know!
In localized battles, they might be able to use their horses to circle the heavy infantry, but when strategic-level heavy infantry charged, there was no way to stop them without large-scale cavalry.
The pressure brought by that dense line of infantry could be seen from how their five thousand men could annihilate one hundred thousand Scots. After the Battle of Sunset Canyon, no one underestimated these infantry anymore.
Under the conditions at the time, even if they had horses, at most only a dozen or so could charge simultaneously (horses are much wider than people, plus armor), and their speed would be severely limited. They simply couldn't break through the enemy's continuous resistance. If another five thousand men were deployed to block their rear, the knights caught in the middle would be annihilated.
"Therefore! As cavalry, you will no longer be an assault force!" Kayal firmly opposed the decision to use cavalry as a shock force, as was done in the past. Although King Uther was formidable, he was ultimately still limited by the thinking of his era: "You will have to leverage your mobility and the commander's art of command! I demand that you rout the enemy with the minimum possible losses!" The so-called routing and total annihilation by cavalry truly had little difference. With four legs, as long as the enemy wasn't densely packed, the field was theirs.
"And this prerequisite… requires your command qualities!" Kayal stated, "From now on, valor and strength will no longer be the mainstream of war; closer cooperation and the commander's wisdom will determine the course of war!"
For the first time, Grand Duke Andrei, who should have stood up and jumped to refute Kayal's words, was silent. He pondered, and between war and reality, he chose to learn and evolve. Kayal's two campaigns: the Red Leaf Ridge Defense and the Scotland Annihilation Battle, proved his foresight. For Grand Duke Andrei, learning was not shameful; he had transformed from a squire knight into a Grand Duke by repeatedly learning at King Uther's side. Meanwhile, many other knights from the same period could only choose to retire, die in battle, or be eliminated by time; only four individuals could become old foxes in politics and war, which was no simple feat.