"David Weber - In the Navy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weber David)

population to support a big enough army whatever he does?"
"Yes, it was. But I didn't say anything about army size just now. What I said was that it came down
to the effectiveness of his army. There's a difference between sheer size and combat power. In a way,
you've already acknowledged that by using Jackson and his troops to give Gustav a qualitative edge at
places like the Wartburg and the Alte Veste. But doing it that way wastes our most precious resource.
What we have to do is to make that qualitative edge integral to Gustav's own forces. He's got to get his
manpower requirements down, and the only way for him to do that is for us to take up the slack by
providing him with superior weapons and the training and techniques to use them properly, so that his
men make up in individual effectiveness what they lose in numbers."
Simpson paused and snorted suddenly with genuine humor, and one of Mike's eyebrows rose
questioningly.
"I was just thinking about the presumptuousness involved in 'teaching' one of the greatest captains of
history his trade," the industrialist explained. "But that's exactly what it comes down to, in the end. We've
got to give him the tools and show him how to use them in a way which will ease the pressure on his
population. Give him smaller armies, with the sort of waterborne logistical support your young Mr.
Cantrell is advocating, and the superior weapons to let him defeat larger forces, and he'll have a genuine
chance of surviving and holding this empire of his together. But the only way we can do that is to divert
however much of our own resources and capabilities it takes to support those smaller armies. What it
boils down to, is that we'll have to help him downsizeтАФ" his eyes glittered with undisguised amusement
as Mike stiffened in automatic resistance to the most hated verb in managerese "тАФand that will mean an
inevitable slowdown in how quickly we'll be able to build up other aspects of our infrastructure."
Mike started to reply quickly, then stopped himself. Nothing Simpson had just said came as an
actual surprise to him. God knew he and his innermost circle had spent enough time grappling with the
same problems and the same limiting factors themselves! But no one else, not evenтАФor perhaps,
especiallyтАФFrank Jackson, had laid out the points Simpson had just made in such implacably logical
order.
And he was right, Mike realized. It was a bitter admission, and only the tiniest edge of its bitterness
came from the fact that John Simpson had elicited it. He turned his eyes back to Jessica Wendell's prints,
and his lips tightened as he stared at them sightlessly.
He didn't want Simpson to be right. He didn't want to divert still more precious resources, and skill,
and knowledge to the military. What Europe needed was medicines, a textile industry, steam or internal
combustion-powered farm equipment. It needed steamships, railroads, oil wells, and telegraphs. It
needed widespread electricity, light bulbs, refrigeration, sanitation, sewage plants, and a food canning
industry. There were so many things it neededтАФso many whose mere existence would undermine the
aristocracy-dominated excuse for a civilization which was about to turn all of Northern Germany into one
huge abattoir.
But to introduce those things, the up-timers and their seventeenth-century countrymen somehow
had to survive long enough. And surviving had its own cold, uncaring imperatives. Imperatives, he told
himself with what he knew was an edge of pettiness, perfectly suited to John Simpson Chandler.
"You're right," he admitted, and heard the reluctance in his own voice as he did so. "We've already
been discussing possible weapon upgrades with Gustav and OxenstiernaтАФmore 'building down' to
something we can produce in quantity instead of trying to use our own weapons as some sort of magic
wand."
"I'm relieved to hear it," Simpson said. "But it's going to be just as important to show them how to
get the most out of whatever we can provide for them."
"I'm sure it is. Unfortunately, aside from a few youthful enthusiasts like Eddie and his buddies, we're
awfully short on people who understand how to do that."
"I'm not surprised." Simpson drummed on the tabletop for a few moments, and Mike surprised an
expression on his face which might almost been one of hesitation. If it was, it vanished quickly, and
Simpson looked directly back at him.