Chapter 39

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation

Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

In the military campsite of Xia Town, there was currently a Level 1 cavalry camp, a Level 2 infantry camp, and a Level 3 archers’ camp. Apart from that, there were also constructions such as a Level 2 arsenal and a Level 2 drill ground.

As the client village, Xiaozhu Village had moved over a hundred local soldiers to be trained into professional soldiers.

The Level 3 archers’ camp could recruit three types of soldiers, namely archers, elite archers, and Xu Prefecture’s archers.

Among them, the Xu archers were Grade 3 soldiers.

For all the thirteen prefectures of the Eastern Han, their Level 3 armies were named using the prefix of that particular prefecture. Not only were the names different, the strength of the Level 3 armies varied from one prefecture to another.

For instance, the cavalry of You Prefecture was more powerful than that of Xu Prefecture, yet the infantry of Xu Prefecture was more capable than that of You Prefecture.

Chu Tian compared the cost performance of the three army types.

[Name]: Archers/ elite archers

[Grade]: Grade 1/ Grade 2

[Attack power]: 6/10 [Defense power]: 3/4 [Speed]: 5/5

[Skills]: Low-grade accuracy, low-grade armor penetration, low-grade rain of arrows/ Mid-grade accuracy, low-grade armor penetration, low-grade rain of arrows

[Salary]: 1.25 units of silver/ 2 units of silver

The salary of archers was even higher than ordinary infantrymen.

However, Chu Tian was more concerned about the Grade 3 army, the Xu archers.

[Name]: Xu archers

[Grade]: Grade 3

[Attack power]: 13 [Defense power]: 5 [Speed]: 6

[Skills]: Mid-grade accuracy, mid-grade armor penetration, mid-grade rain of arrows

[Characteristics]: When the wind blows, the horn bows cry (Level D characteristic, when heroes of the archers’ line take command, attack power +2, defense power +1)

[Salary]: 3 units of silver

[Mandatory equipment]: Bows and arrows

[Additional equipment]: Blades and swords, leather armors, light armors

[Training duration]: 30 days

When the labor forces of the village were in shortage, Chu Tian was more inclined to select an army of higher grades. Although high-grade armies required a higher monthly pay rate, it only occupied one labor force, just like low-grade armies did.

The training duration of Xu archers seemed rather long, taking 30 days to train the first batch of Xu archers.

Chu Tian allocated 50 local soldiers to be trained in the Level 3 archers’ camp, which directly changed their occupation to Xu archers.

Chu Tian was already heavily in debt, so he didn’t mind having more filibusters. As long as he could gobble up the nearby villages with his army and recover from that war with another war, the financial burden could be mitigated. Hence, he trained 50 more elite light infantrymen. The training duration of elite infantry was a fortnight.

That way, he would have 30 light cavalrymen, 50 Xu archers, and 120 elite light infantrymen a month from now.

All the soldiers of Xia Town were of the ordinary type. The grades of special armies would usually be above Grade 3, which also included special armies with lower grades, like the Yellow Turban leaders or peasant soldiers.

The Grade 6 special cavalry, the Iron Hawk Reconnoiters, could be unlocked with Hua Mulan’s presence, but the precondition was to have a Grade 6 cavalry camp within the territory. Throughout the entire Xu Prefecture, Xiapi was probably the only place with Grade 6 cavalry camps.

“August is coming soon. If we wait till the Xu archers finish their training to obliterate the water bandits, I’m not sure if we can make it in time.”

Chu Tian knew that he had to try his best to own four client villages before sowing season began in October, and also wipe out threats like mountain thieves and water bandits in the vicinity of the town. Sowing had to be carried out in October, and after October, the historical warfare event would begin.

The first historical warfare of the Eastern Han was the Riot of the Yellow Turbans, which the citizens were most familiar with. By then, all the feudal lords would be transported to the battlefield where the soldiers of the Eastern Han had obliterated the Yellow Turban soldiers and be faced directly with heroes of the Yellow Turban camp, such as Zhang Jiao, and countless swarms of Yellow Turban soldiers.

There would also be coupled warfare among different civilizations. Even beta-testing players in the guilds were clueless as to what the coupled warfare of the civilizations really was, so they could only speculate based on their knowledge.

For example, the Vatican region, the Egyptian region (the Mamluk Dynasty) and the Dashi region (Empire of Saudi Arabia) might have Crusades warfare. The Eastern Han and the Goryeo region might have an attack on Goguryeo during the Sui-Tang period, whereas the Imjin War could happen between the Eastern Han and the Dongying region.

Chu Tian thought of the unused golden recruitment order in his hand, a reward for having upgraded to a town. The golden recruitment order could be used to recruit golden-level ordinary heroes, with very low chances of recruiting historical heroes.

Would he be able to recruit another historical hero?

Chu Tian had used one of the golden recruitment orders to recruit Hua Mulan previously, so he couldn’t help but expect it this time too.

“Ding! You have used a golden recruitment order. Congratulations! You have received the loyal service of the golden-level commander, Liu Sandao.”

An ordinary hero with a huge knife in his hand showed up.

Chu Tian knew he wasn’t a historical hero just by looking at the name “Liu Sandao.” It was obviously a random hero given to him by the system.

Theoretically, the probability of recruiting historical heroes with golden recruitment orders was lower than winning the lottery. There could be hundreds or thousands of feudal lords in the Eastern Han who had received silver and golden recruitment orders, but the historical heroes that appeared through the recruitment orders were few and far between.

[Name]: Liu Sandao

[Talent]: Golden-level (ordinary commander of the archers’ line)

[Rank]: 40

[Experience]: 0/1000000

[Role]: Retired general of the Eastern Han

[Loyalty]: 75

[Command]: 51 (upper limit 61)

[Strength]: 55 (upper limit 65)

[Intellect]: 47 (upper limit 57)

[Politics]: 30 (upper limit 40)

[Charisma]: 62

[Equipment]: Refined iron bows (silver-level weapon, attack power +3, very low chances of causing armor penetration), fine leather armor (silver-level armor, defense power +3)

[Characteristics]: Military spirit of the Great Han·minor (Level C characteristic, total attribute +1 while taking command of the Eastern Han armies)

Chu Tian was moved as he read the attributes of Liu Sandao.

Despite being an ordinary hero, whose characteristics were far behind those of special heroes, such attributes were quite impressive during the early stages. A strength of 55 could allow him to walk with pride at the beginning, and both his command and strength would be 60+ upon attaining the highest level. He would be useful during later stages as well. 

Besides, with his Level C characteristic [Military spirit of the Great Han·minor], the total attribute would be increased by one point for any type of the Eastern Han army that he led, which was also a practical characteristic.

Liu Sandao happened to be suitable to command the troop of Xu archers.

Having gained another considerably powerful commander, Chu Tian thought of conquering the Level 3 villages nearby.

He summoned Hua Mulan. Hua Mulan was a commander of the cavalry line, now leading the meager number of thirty light cavalrymen from Xia Town. 

Hua Mulan arrived at the feudal lord’s office with a Han knife dangling from her waist, asking, “Master, any orders for me?”

“Take a troop of cavalrymen with you and go investigate villages within 40 miles from here. Take special note of the locations of Level 3 villages.”

“Yes.”

A small troop of light cavalrymen left Xia Town with Hua Mulan in the lead, searching for targets to attack.

Chu Tian checked Hua Mulan’s attributes once again. Hua Mulan had reached Level 36, and her current command was 75, strength was 84, and intellect was 78, which would probably enable her to dominate in the vicinity of Xia Town.

Hua Mulan had been busy training the light cavalry recently, and the average grade of the light cavalrymen of Xia Town was Grade 30.

The two heroes, Wu Shang and Zhao Qi, trained elite infantry and local soldiers respectively. The average grade of the elite infantrymen was Grade 25, while that of the local soldiers was Level 17.

The average grade of a troop was equivalent to the degree of eliteness.

The saying “it takes a thousand days to nurture an army, but just one moment to use it” had emphasized the importance of training armies in normal times.

The army-training efficiency was related to the command of the commander.

It took quite a lot of time for a new soldier to grow into a seasoned one. High-command commanders like Han Xin, Wu Qi, Li Jing, and Qi Jiguang had the upper hand in training soldiers.

Apart from training armies, the soldier could collect more experience if he had been in wars, which made him a veteran who had been through a hundred wars.

“Conquer the nearby villages first, then exterminate the water bandits.”

Chu Tian waited until Hua Mulan returned from her expedition, and then dispatched troops to turn the nearby Level 3 villages into their client villages.

At that moment, Elder Li hurriedly looked for Chu Tian and reported nervously, “Lord mayor, a miner has arrived in our town. He said that some nearby villages have discovered gold ores…”