Thinking and doing straight away, that afternoon Anning returned to his own estate, gathering his artillery troops.
As soon as the alignment was completed, his personally chosen deputy, Russell, asked, "Mr. Frost, I heard you've been promoted to Legion Commander?"
Anning: "Who said that?"
"This afternoon, an old farmer who went to the city to deliver food came back and told us that you've become the Legion Commander overseeing a large legion."
Anning was astonished: "What Legion Commander? They gave me less than two thousand men. I lead nearly five hundred, and a bit more than a thousand remain."
Russell: "That's still a force, though. Now the troops you command have expanded ten times."
Anning: "Shut it, don't make it sound like it's something good. I see it as Lafayette deliberately setting me up, seeing that my reputation is too high. He is sending me with such few troops to suppress Conte's rebellion; it's clear he wants me to be soundly defeated."
