“Sometimes help would arrive from unexpected sources.” - Old folk saying.

“I have to admit that this is far beyond even my most optimistic expectations, councilors,” admitted Reinhardt the next day. After the previous day’s emergency session, Bernd had publicly announced a call for volunteers to leave the city and meet the enemy under the leadership of the mercenaries. The call was for all willing volunteers, be they members of the militia, reservists, or volunteers from amongst the citizenry to gather by noon the next day.

They had expected a few hundred, maybe a couple thousand volunteers at best, but were instead greeted by a throng of nearly thirty thousand.

A good chunk of the volunteers were from amongst the second batch of trainees that the Free Lances were in the midst of training, but there were a good five thousand or so who were just regular citizens instead. The number of volunteers definitely surprised Reinhardt, and it visibly surprised Bernd as well, with only the old councilor next to them looking like she already expected this sort of scene.

“Let’s just say that after the civil war… we have had many occasions where we had to voluntarily defend ourselves from outside predations, captain,” said the old woman with a faint – yet clearly prideful – smile on her lips. The old lady was named Miriel Cavanaugh, and was the senior-most of the council members that represented the militia. She was also the de facto head of the militia forces left in Levain at the moment.

While the woman was no longer as physically fit as she used to be – as could be expected by her advanced age – she was by far the most experienced military commander in Levain, as she was a half-elf who had a two and a half century long career in the former Empire’s military. Granted, she had already retired for a whole century by the time the civil war broke out, but her experience and knowledge had not suffered much.

“I could definitely appreciate the enthusiasm… but I’m afraid I’ll have to pick and choose from what we have here. Having too many is just as bad as having too few people in the sort of plan I have in mind,” replied Reinhardt after some pondering. “I will be taking around… a third of the people assembled here, at most. They have all been made aware of the risks involved, yes?”

“Everybody who gathered here has been made aware that they are volunteering for a dangerous assignment under your leadership where there is a significant risk of death, captain,” replied Bernd with a nod of his head. “I made sure to stress those points on the announcement we made.”

“Very well, then,” nodded Reinhardt. He already noticed that most of the few militia trainees from the first batch of training that were left in Levain had also mingled amongst the crowd of volunteers by that point. “Madam Cavanaugh, I would have to trouble you to ask the volunteers from the militia to group together according to their assigned squads and platoons up to their cohort as best they could. Also I’d like to ask all the scouts to gather together from one side. Same with the citizens who work as hunters or rangers for a living.”

“Simple enough,” noted the old woman before she yelled out a series of commands that swiftly had the gathered crowd divide themselves by the unit.

Reinhardt made a quick mental note of the arrayed militia before him, as the units they formed were naturally irregular in size, though in a couple occasions pretty much the entire cohort of five hundred were present together. What satisfied him more was the sight of over two thousand militia scouts – they were typically attached to the various cohorts as needed – and over a thousand local hunters and rangers lined up to the side.

He quickly made his decision.

“All right, all of you, move to the right,” he said to the gathered scouts, hunters, and rangers. Those people were all used to living in the wilderness, and were the sort he needed the most for the operation he had in mind, so they were naturally his first choice. After a moment’s thought, he singled out another group composed of five hundred militiamen standing in ordered lines and also asked them to move to the right.

That second group were people he recognized as the five hundred cavalrymen who had been left behind in Levain. They likely realized that they wouldn’t be of much use in defending the walled city, so they volunteered to join Reinhardt as a unit instead. Considering the geography of the region, there was an area which was ideal for cavalry activity, so Reinhardt was all too happy to accept them to reinforce his own cavalry.

“Let’s see… you, you, all of you as well…” he noted as he picked one group after another from the assembled militiamen. It didn’t take long for the gathered volunteers to notice that Reinhardt mostly picked groups which had more people in them. While none of the groups present had much experience in the sort of warfare he had in mind, unit cohesion would still help, so he naturally prioritized the cohorts that had more members.

It was noticeable that he skipped the first batch trainees who had volunteered, though, despite their cohort being one of the most complete. Before too long, Reinhardt had picked out twenty cohorts of varying sizes, on top of the cavalry and the scouts. The number of the people he chose easily totaled over ten thousand.

“That will be all. While I greatly appreciate the willingness of everyone gathered here to volunteer for such a risky assignment, I’m afraid that I cannot afford to bring too many with me. The city still needs your help in its defense, so I ask for your understanding,” said Reinhardt after he was done. It was the main reason he had skipped on the first batch trainees other than the cavalry.

He judged that the city’s defenders would need their skills and expertise more than he would.