"This is a lot more than 300 people." Monty tells me, I just hum as I observe all of the people standing in the field in front of me, There must be 1,000 at least. I had expected something like this to happen, the census takers did cut off the admissions when they reached 300 names but people probably followed them or heard about where we were meeting. In any case, a larger group to draw recruits from means I have a better chance of finding better skilled individuals.
"It's alright, We'll just have to adapt." I tell him, Monty just grumbles about the increase in administration work he'll have to do. I order one soldier from my increased Lannister escort, father thought that there would be too few Redcloaks to police such a large amount of people, to stand in just a few metres to my right.
Once they had done as I'd ordered, I turn to address the crowd "RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE FIGHTING" I shout out, trying to project my voice across the field to the few at the back. I would say around a quarter of them raised their hand, however the number could be fewer as some might be lying. "THOSE WITH THEIR HANDS RAISED, LINE UP IN FRONT OF HIM." I point to the soldier I had just given an order to.
As those people move to form a decently long line I turn towards the couple of census takers I had next to me. "I want you to go down the line and document their name, age and occupation, just like what I had you do before. However I also want you to put a star next to their names if they are a Sellsword or a circle if they are a Hedge Knight." They all nod and and start making their way down the line.
If I was being honest, I didn't want too may experienced fighters in my personal guard. Sellswords killed for coin and I will always have to look over my shoulder if the men I trust with my life would kill me the second someone willing to pay them more than me contacts them. Hedge Knights were better, however due to a lack of income many turn towards banditry and become Robber Knights. My idea is that If my guard is mainly comprised of the poorer and less fortunate in life, they might feel more loyal to me if I help them and give them a better life.
Spies are also a problem, I have no doubt that agents of Littlefinger, Varys and other players would see this as an ideal opportunity. Chances are that those spies would guess that they have a better chance of joining my guard if they said they had experience.
"What about the rest of them Cerion?" Monty asks me, I look over the rest of the men gathered around. "Split them as equally as you can into 8 groups. I want you to take a different group to a different station and then rotate, similar to what we had planned before. Stop the tests when there is only one man left, have the census takers tell the recruits that only those in the overall top 20 of each group will be able to join my personal guard." I tell him, he just nods and delegates the other administrators to a different station each.
I had decided that I wanted to test their endurance and strength as I thought they were most easy and basic to evaluate. I had set up eight different stations around the field during these last couple days, each station had a different exercise: push-ups, sit-ups, the plank, pull-ups, burpees, loaded carries, tug-of-war as I couldn't think of anything else and finally the bleep test. As these exercises didn't exist or weren't invented yet I had to teach a few of my soldiers them in order for them to instruct the recruits on how to do them.
Only having the top 50 eligible to join my personal guard is a lie. I thought that it was a good measure to encourage people to not quit when they are on their last few stations. "Cerion" Monty said my name as he came back from informing the administrators of what to do, "What should we do when they have finished documenting the experienced fighters?" He asked me, "Have them do a few laps of jogging around the field, then split them up into groups and place them on stations once the others have done a full circuit." I tell him, before heading off to observe the bleep test station.
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