xymnovel Chapter 87: Preparing for War and Obtaining the Dwarven Crossbow!
Chapter 87: Preparing for War and Obtaining the Dwarven Crossbow!
Chapter 87: Preparing for War and Obtaining the Dwarven Crossbow!
Fortunately, Rock was satisfied that his transaction went smoothly this time. The caravan that traded amethyst with him didn't do much trickery and paid the full amount of silver.
The caravan paid Rock a total of 30,000 taels of silver for the batch of amethysts he had previously sold, part of which was converted into gold, making it even more valuable.
This surprised Rock, because he thought that these merchants who traveled all over the country would have to give him, a "country bumpkin" from beyond the Great Wall, a good beating, right?
However, Rock didn't know that the caravan had actually given this matter considerable thought.
At first, some of them did suggest trying to take advantage of Rock, such as deliberately lowering the price or trying to get some benefits.
However, the head of their caravan strictly prohibited such behavior and criticized the men who came up with the idea.
After cursing these guys, the caravan leader couldn't help but shake his head inwardly, thinking that these fools were really short-sighted.
If they insist on lowering the price, they might be able to do so because other caravans haven't contacted Luo's army. But if that happens, how could Luo's army possibly continue to consider them once they've made contact with other caravans?
He had previously studied the situation and, judging from the performance of the Luo family army, he knew that they had a considerable amount of amethyst in their possession, and might even have secretly found an amethyst mine.
Since that's the case, they will definitely continue to do business with the Luo family army in the future. If possible, it would be best to simply monopolize all of the Luo family army's amethysts, so that it would be easier for them to compete in the market in the future.
It should be noted that, due to unequal treaties, the Qing government opened many ports for trade.
Meanwhile, a huge amethyst mine was discovered in Brazil, and the foreigners brought a large amount of amethyst to the mainland for dumping, which immediately drove down the price of amethyst, which was originally quite expensive.
Because they couldn't get such a large supply of goods, they had to rely on foreigners in this regard, resulting in foreigners taking away a large portion of their profits. To put it bluntly, they were simply working for foreigners.
In this situation, if the Luo family army could suddenly produce a considerable amount of amethyst, and of very high quality, enough to compete with those foreigners, how could they not value the Luo family army as a partner?
Besides planning for future business, the caravan leader was also wary of the guns and cannons in the hands of the Luo family army.
He had heard quite a few rumors about Luo's army in the past.
Although the Luo family army seemed to have a very good reputation among the common people, almost as if they were acting on behalf of heaven, this did not prevent the Luo family army from being a warlord. In essence, they were not much different from those bandits; they were just local armed forces that roamed around.
That is why the caravan host dared not gamble with General Luo's temper.
If Commander Naro feels he has been tricked and ruthlessly kills the entire caravan, then they will have no recourse!
Even if their masters reported it to the imperial court, the court would probably just pass the pressure down to the local Green Standard Army, letting them symbolically suppress the bandits, and in the end, nothing would come of it.
So, for the sake of his own life, he dared not cheat this guy who had a lot of guns. He was afraid that the guy might get angry and shoot him dead!
After receiving this sum of money, Rock's daily expenses were resolved for the time being, and he also managed to exchange 200 Chasebo rifles from the system.
These 200 Châtebo rifles, along with the bullets, cost him 25,000 taels of silver. After all, buying equipment from the system is equivalent to recruiting at half price, while recruiting a French Marine Corps soldier costs a full 250 taels of silver!
So Rock dressed his 200 young guards in military uniforms and also distributed the 200 uniforms to them.
Give them the rifles and let them practice their new shooting skills at the range.
Immediately afterwards, Rock named this unit his new Imperial Guard, after all, they were indeed completely different from the previous units.
Although their military pay in the system will not change as a result, since according to the system's classification, they are still the Young Guards, only with a different outfit and equipment.
However, Rock still increased their pay. On top of their original pay, Rock would give them a batch of grain, meat and cloth every month as an extra boost to their pay.
In addition, Rock also reformed the pay system for other units.
From now on, their military pay will not be paid in silver, but will be halved, with the remainder used to pay various daily necessities and food. This is largely based on the current standards for paying military salaries.
Although this approach didn't fundamentally reduce expenses much, at least he wouldn't have to allocate all the gold and silver from the system when paying military salaries in the future. This would allow more gold and silver to circulate in the market, preventing a potential silver shortage.
Moreover, the daily necessities and food he is distributing now don't seem very cheap, but once he has the opportunity to build up the corresponding industry and develop his own animal husbandry and planting industry, the prices of these things will definitely be driven down.
The military system under Rock's command had no complaints about the military pay reform; on the contrary, they felt that it was more reasonable to do so.
As before, they were all given silver, but they still had to find opportunities to buy daily necessities themselves. However, due to their status and the fact that the place was too desolate, it was very inconvenient for them to buy daily necessities.
When they go into town to shop, they have to disguise themselves, and they can't go in with too many people at once.
Otherwise, even if the defenses of Kaiyuan City were lax and few people paid attention to those entering and leaving the city, they would not have ignored a group of tall, fierce-looking men in uniform.
During these days, besides reorganizing his troops, Rock's main task was to continue suppressing bandits in the surrounding area.
After he wiped out the three major bandit families in the vicinity, the remaining bandits were basically no longer a threat. Even some of the bandits next door moved away overnight after hearing about the movements of Luo's army.
Even several powerful bandit groups further away dared not send their men to invade again after learning that the Luo family army had completely occupied the area.
These bandits were very sensible; they even brought Rock a batch of gifts as payment for their goodwill.
Of course, Rock did not accept these gifts, because in his view, he would definitely have to deal with these bandits in the future. If he accepted the gifts now, it would be somewhat illegitimate to deal with them later.
As the saying goes, "He who takes a man's gift is bound to be obliged." Even Heshen had three rules for refusing gifts from his subordinates, so it was impossible for Luo Ke to accept just anything.
Meanwhile, the other major bandit groups outside were getting anxious when they saw that Rock was unmoved by either soft or hard tactics. Even though they were getting impatient, they were powerless to do anything about Rock.
After all, they knew that these three major bandit families around Kaiyuan City were already the limit of the local bandits; the other major bandits were not as powerful as these three families!
Now that even these three bandit families have fallen, what can they do next?
If we were to lead our men to fight Rock, wouldn't that be just asking for death?
Rock ignored the larger bandits who were further away and currently in a state of unease; he simply eliminated all the smaller bandits within his own territory.
Many of these bandits fled overnight after learning that Luo's army had occupied the area, which greatly reduced the success of Luo's bandit suppression efforts.
Besides, some bandits, for reasons unknown, suddenly decided to bring their men to seek refuge with Rock, seemingly intending to pay homage to him and pledge allegiance to him!
Rock had no intention of accepting these guys who came to him; instead, he simply arrested them all.
Under Luo Ke's orders, the Luo family soldiers first interrogated them and found all their hidden savings. Then they threw them into the mine for labor reform, making them mine with the big rats.
As for their feelings about mining with the giant rats, and how their labor protection issues should be resolved.
"I'm sorry," Rock said, indicating that these matters were not within his purview and that he had delegated them entirely to the rat-man overseers in the area.
If they want to discuss these issues, they should go and talk to the Poison Wind Grenadiers who are in charge of supervising them. If these bandits can really persuade those Poison Wind Grenadiers, that would be a testament to their abilities!
After dealing with the bandits who had defected, Rock and Luo Ping discussed the bandits' future mining careers. Rock casually asked Luo Ping, "Luo Ping, aren't you curious why I refused to accept these bandits who volunteered to join me?"
Luo Ping shook his head, saying nonchalantly, "I'm not curious. They're just a bunch of bandits. The commander can do whatever he wants with them! The commander has his reasons for making this decision, and since you've made your choice, I will naturally support you unconditionally!"
Rock nodded in satisfaction. This was exactly the kind of subordinate he wanted—not only capable, but also very good at getting things done.
He had previously wondered if anyone would ask him about the bandits, but it seemed that Rock was being presumptuous; he didn't actually have any subordinates that clueless.
From the very beginning, he never considered recruiting these bandits into his team, because he knew what kind of people they were.
When it comes to the full-scale invasion of the great powers, there might still be some righteous bandits in the Kwantung region who specialize in fighting against the great powers, or some relatively progressive armed forces, but none of these bandits at this time are good people!
The idea of robbing the rich to help the poor and acting on behalf of Heaven was simply nonexistent for these bandits.
After all, in a place like the Northeast, wealthy lords also have guns. Those fools who only have money but no guns are already three feet old and overgrown with weeds. None of the survivors are easy to deal with!
In this situation, compared to the thankless task of robbing wealthy households or powerful clans, it was much easier for bandits to rob villagers, because these villagers had no ability to resist.
They may not have much money or food, but they can manage to make a steady living and ensure that they don't offend anyone they can't afford to offend, lest they accidentally meet a gruesome end.
For this reason, in order to ensure the purity of his team, Rock had no intention of recruiting bandits. Otherwise, they would only corrupt the good men in his team and ruin his reputation, eventually turning the whole team into a mess, just like the Kuomintang in the past.
When ambitious people were purged one after another, those who survived were either cowards who clung to life or a bunch of thugs and hooligans. The cause that Mr. Sun had built up in the past was completely wiped out.
After clearing out the bandits for a long time, Rock still couldn't get any artillery units for himself. The main reason was that the bandits were too weak, and fighting a battle could only bring him a two-star or three-star unit.
In the end, Rock sold all the low-star units that he no longer needed to the system store, thereby obtaining a considerable amount of system funds to alleviate his immediate crisis.
Fortunately, perseverance pays off. Although Rock didn't get an artillery unit from the bandit-fighting segment, he successfully obtained a decent artillery unit in a subsequent system shop refresh.
[Congratulations, player! You have obtained a five-star unit: Dwarven Ballista (from Total War: Warhammer)]
[This unit is equipped with: a dwarven-made heavy crossbow. Recruitment price: 2500 taels of silver per unit or 18000 taels of silver per team (eight units), occupies 10 population per unit.]
Hmm, how should I put this unit?
When Rock first drew this unit, he felt a little embarrassed because he wanted a cannon that could fire solid shot or some more advanced artillery units, not this crossbow that looked a bit old-fashioned.
However, after careful analysis, Rock felt that the actual effect of this unit was quite good.
In Total War: Warhammer, this dwarven artillery unit is very powerful in many ways. Although it is a cannon designed to counter large units, it can also be very effective against infantry because it can fire in volleys.
In addition, the recruitment price for this ballista in the game is cheap, and a squad has a total of eight cannons, so it naturally becomes a very cost-effective artillery unit among the dwarves.
In reality, Rock felt that if we disregard the area-of-effect damage and only consider penetration, this cannon might not be weaker than a regular cannon, and could even be stronger than a typical small-caliber cannon!
After all, this thing is crafted from the Warhammer world, not some ordinary ballista!
This ballista was originally designed by the dwarves to deal with the various behemoths in the Warhammer world. Many of the behemoths in Warhammer have incredibly thick scales and defenses, and with the addition of some magical properties, they may be more durable than city walls!
So how could the penetration of the dwarven ballista be low under such circumstances?
Needless to say, this thing is not only made of metal specially smelted by the dwarves, but it also contains dwarven runes, and even the crossbow string is made from the sinews of various behemoths from the Warhammer world.
Stacking these materials together, although the ballista still looks like an ordinary ballista, it has actually undergone a complete transformation.
It's like comparing two swords: one is an ordinary iron sword made in a medieval blacksmith's shop, and the other is an iron sword made in modern society using special steel. Can their quality be the same?
Even from a materials science perspective, this thing is incredibly advanced!
That's why Rock spent all 30,000 taels of silver to buy this artillery unit, thus spending all the money he had earned from exchanging amethyst.
If it weren't for the fact that the unit was half-price when he saw it in the mall, he probably wouldn't have been able to afford it!
Because he was short of money, Rock couldn't recruit a whole squad of dwarven ballistae directly; he just recruited two ballistae for himself to try them out.
But after some testing, he found that his money was well spent!
Because the performance of these two ballistae far exceeded his original expectations!
During the test, as long as the angle was adjusted, both ballistae could easily shoot bolts more than a kilometer away, which was no less than that of small-caliber cannons.
As for penetration, since Rock couldn't get any particularly suitable targets, he couldn't get any particularly good results for the time being.
But after he bought it, when he used it to attack other bandit strongholds, no matter what kind of stronghold the walls were, they could not stop the crossbow bolts. The thick wooden walls would be pierced through from head to tail in an instant, leaving a hole as big as a bowl on the spot!
Not only that, this thing can also penetrate to a depth of about 30 centimeters even when shot at a large rock!
With such penetrating power, this ballista was sufficient for siege warfare, and in field battles, it could easily take down ordinary cannons.
More importantly, the dwarven artillerymen operating these ballistae were all highly skilled masters, and the accuracy they displayed when using these ballistae was far greater than Rock had initially estimated.
Within a distance of 300 meters, they can basically hit any target they point at. Even if Rock just randomly points to a small sapling, they can easily hit it. This accuracy is much better than it looks in the game!
At a distance of 500 meters, their aiming becomes a little more difficult, but it's still generally fine for shooting objects the size of a person; they can hit the target most of the time.
That is, they only start to miss when they are more than 800 meters away, and they need to fire repeatedly to hit the target.
With such accuracy, they could easily suppress ordinary enemy artillery!
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