"Eric Flint - 1635 - The Cannon Law" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Eric)

The World Turned Upside Down
 With Ryk E. Spoor:

Mountain Magic (with David Drake & Henry Kuttner)
Boundary



The Epic Struggle for Freedom and Justice Continues!

Sequel to the New York Times Bestseller
1634: The Galileo Affair




Part One

January 1635


Chapter 1
Naples
Don Vincente Jose-Maria Castro y Papas, Captain in His Most Catholic Majesty's Army in the Two
Sicilies, tried sneering at the stack of paperwork and the books and ledgers of the company he
commanded. It was of no use. The wretched things remained there, sneering back at him.

Somehow, the filthy business of bureaucracy was everywhere nowadays, and the profession of arms was
no refuge. Especially not in a newly augmented tercio dragged from its depot and filled out by a small
horde of militia men and new recruits. And especially not when the arms he was supposed to profess
were light muskets.

Certainly, they were an excellent weapon, compared with arquebuses, and far more wieldy than the
heavy muskets they were replacingтАФhad replaced, in some armies. A damnably expensive one,
compared with just about anything, which was the reason Don Vincente's company had gotten so few,
thus far. But the exploits of Turenne had been noted in Madrid, and the weapons had been identified as
central to the small morsels of pride he had salvaged from France's shame. The exploits of the Swede
with the lighter weapons had also been noted.

In times past, Spanish soldiers were expected to buy their own arquebuses. But the rapid changes
brought by the Americans who had arrived in the Ring of Fire had altered military practices as
wellтАФindeed, perhaps military practices more than anything.

And so, throughout the Spanish army, which remained the best equipped and organized fighting force
west of the Turk, companies and tercios that would otherwise have been unable to afford such equipment
were receiving unexpected bounties.

For which they were expected to account. In triplicate. On top of all the utter, utter crap that was
catching up with them after three moves in as many months around Spain before they had, with hardly
any warning, been shipped out from Spain, filled out at the last minute with a collection of recruits whose