Chapter 149: Terracotta Soldiers

In the Western Region...

“Bro, where do you intend to head to next?” Miazova asked.

Shu Yichao had neither the skills nor the interest to govern a city, so he stationed a portion of the ghost horsemen there to work with the rebels to manage Shule.

The effects were shockingly good.

These ghost horsemen used to be part of the Tang army, so they unhesitatingly chose to adopt Great Tang’s system of governance. All of a sudden, it felt Shule had gone back in time.

Those from the other races also joyously welcomed the return of the Tang soldiers. They supported the reinstatement of Great Tang’s system of governance.

Both feudalism and slavery were viewed negatively in the modern era, but Great Tang still remained a beacon of hope for those living in this era. Feudalism might not be terrific, but it was much better than being enslaved!

Between two terrible choices, Shule’s populace unhesitantly chose the lesser evil.

After dumping all governance issues on the ghost horsemen, Shu Yichao, as the newly-appointed Anxi Protectorate General, only had one last thing to do—waging war!

He would continue fighting until he drove all the barbarians away.

The only problem was whom he should target next.

So far, the Anxi Protectorate had only occupied Shule and Kucha. It was still surrounded by enemies.

“Karasahr? Khotan? Or the Pamir Mountains?” Miazova asked.

Karasahr was east of Kucha. Khotan was south of Kucha. The Pamir Mountains were west of Shule.

There were different benefits to conquering these cities.

Karasahr had a sizable Tang population, being located close to the Western Region, so taking it down could bolster their forces.

Khotan, as one of Anxi’s four cities, was prosperous, and the people there had feelings of nostalgia for Great Tang. They could provide valuable aid to the Anxi army.

The Pamir Mountains were an important trading route to Central Asia. There was great value to conquering it.

Faced with this dilemma, Shu Yichao’s answer was:

“I want it all! I’ll make a huge profit if I can bring them down, but even if I fail, it’d still be a huge profit!”

Shu Yichao had lost a huge number of his skeletons due to the Tibetan nobles and soldiers’ fierce resistance during his invasion of Shule, thus allowing to get by the week. But as soon as the new week arrived, he activated Soul Summoning and reanimated more skeletons.

Moments later, he realized that he had summoned too many skeletons again.

“Don’t ask me how!” Shu Yichao grumbled.

He had, in a spur of itchy fingers, reanimated all the corpses.

“Tsk tsk tsk!”

I know there’s a lot of retort about this mod, but when did terracotta soldiers become a part of the undead army? Oh well, it doesn’t matter...

Shu Yichao’s eyes lit up.

This was a massive upgrade.

Powerful troops pride themselves on having few weaknesses, whereas cannon fodders were evaluated based on their unique traits. Terracotta soldiers had long-ranged armor break, melee critical attacks, and they could even mount steeds.

What else could one ask from a cannon fodder?!

“Let me try upgrading a few first.”

Miazova watched in bewilderment as a few skeletons were suddenly cloaked in mud. The mud morphed into clay bodies, covering their skeletons entirely except for their faces as if replacing their missing flesh and blood.

Shu Yichao looked at the freshly-baked terracotta soldiers.

Not only were they armed with a crossbow, a spear, and a short sword, but they were also mounted on clay horses.

“How considerate!” Shu Yichao exclaimed.

His biggest gripe with the skeleton soldiers had been their abysmal movement speed. They were so slow that he could only rely on the ghost horsemen whenever they needed to pursue enemies.

But now, he simply had to upgrade more skeleton soldiers to terracotta soldiers, and he would have platoons of crossbowmen, spearmen and cavalrymen.

The only problem was the cost. Upgrading a million skeleton soldiers would incur crazy costs.

“Argh! I want the terracotta soldiers, but I don’t want to pay for them... What should I do?”

Shu Yichao fell into deep thought, but an idea soon came to mind.

“I should exploit that bug.”

Beacons of the Otherworld had provided players with ten slots for commanding troops, with each type of soldier usually taking up just one slot. This meant that a player could have only ten different types of troops at once.

Miazova took up a slot. The ghost horsemen took up a slot. He still had eights slots left.

Shu Yichao first released all the skeletons soldiers amidst puffs of smokes before splitting the terracotta soldiers to take up the eight remaining slots.

Then...

“Soul Summoning!”

There were no slots left for summoned skeletons to occupy, so they were automatically upgraded into terracotta soldiers at a reduced ratio instead. Just like that, he managed to turn his skeletons into terracotta soldiers without spending a single qian.