Conrad has committed himself to defending Poland against the Mongols, the largest and most competent army that Europe had ever faced. He knows that he can only do this if he has a large, well trained, and well equipped army. He sets out to build one.

To equip a large army with weapons, armor, and the ability to get them to the battlefield, he will need a good factory system.

One of the things that I tried to emphasize throughout this series was that every engineering problem has hundreds, even thousands of practical solutions. There are a lot of ways to skin a cat. Which one turns out to be 'best' depends on the political, economic, and technical situation of the time and place that you are in.

Conrad knows about gunpowder, for example, and about the advantages of putting the bullet and powder charge into a brass package. When his 'inventor teams' are unable to come up with a suitable primer cap, he uses something like a firecracker wick to ignite the charge. Armored riverboats start to be built, and railroad tracks, not for trains, but for war carts drawn by his soldiers.

But the best equipment in the world isn't worth much without men trained to use it. Needing a huge army, fast, Conrad builds the basic training camp from Hell.

If I had know about my Partner, Lt Col Dave Grossman's book "On Combat" , before I wrote this section, I would have done better. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, it is now mandatory reading in every military academy in the Western World. If you haven't read it yet, you are simply behind the times, and likely don't know what war is all about. Get on the stick!

When somebody handed me a copy of it, I spent the next two days feverishly reading it. It was like a vast Zen moment of enlightenment! I read all of the footnotes, all of the acknowledgements, and all of the forwards.

And then I found myself being quoted! This guy, who had written the most amazing book I'd ever read was quoting from one of MY books?

Of course, I was immensely flattered, but all the same, it is customary to contact someone before you quote him in a book!

I wrote him a friendly complaint, a friendship grew, and eventually we became partners, of a sort. It is good, pleasant, and mutually profitable. "

The Radiant Warrior" contains the usual amount of bloody battle, romance with the fair young ladies, and dumb luck on the part of my heroes.

It looked like there was some direct intervention by God, as well. Enjoy.