activa-t Chapter 23 Further Expansion of the Army
Chapter 23 Further Expansion of the Army
"...Well, we have enough money now, and the population quota in the system has reached 225. The three villages we've initially captured have also provided us with 10 population quotas. It seems like it's time to expand our army!"
Sitting in the head seat, Rock muttered to himself, staring at the system interface, somewhat lost in thought.
Currently, only 102 of his population quota has been used, leaving 123 population quotas available. These 123 population quotas are enough for him to raise another powerful army!
"But don't rush, let's buy another 100 population quotas first! Anyway, the first purchase only costs 1,000 taels of silver, which is quite a good deal!"
As he spoke, Rock purchased 100 population quotas from the system shop. Even after spending 1,000 taels of silver, he still had more than 20,000 taels of silver left!
As for the remaining 223 people, after some deliberation, Rock made the following arrangements:
First and foremost, he needed cavalry, because cavalry had a significant advantage in mobility, and when the enemy's firepower was weak, cavalry had an overwhelming effect on infantry. Therefore, his first priority was to recruit a large number of cavalry.
He directly spent five thousand taels of silver to recruit a whole team of 60 hunters, consuming 120 population quotas in one go.
These cavalrymen had performed very well in the previous battles, and in addition to being able to fire their guns while running on horseback, they could also be used as good infantrymen even when dismounted.
Although to the actual French infantry, these dismounted cavalrymen would certainly seem unprofessional, given Roque's current situation, they were already considered quite good infantry.
He assembled a full squadron of cavalry, and Rock assembled a full squadron of Hojo Shockwave, consuming 40 population.
Although the weapon in Hojo Kintenrai's hand does look somewhat abstract, it is, in any case, a rather strange little cannon.
In the current situation, having cannons and not having cannons are two completely different things. Moreover, the recruitment price for Hojo Shockwave is not expensive; a team only costs 3,500 taels of silver.
In addition to these men, Rock spent an extra 1,500 taels of silver to recruit a total of 30 Cossack cavalrymen for himself.
Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that Rock's current population quota is insufficient and cavalry consumes a lot of manpower, he would definitely have recruited a whole squad of Cossack cavalry as well, since these Cossack cavalry are fierce and cheap.
In terms of close-quarters combat, Rock's cavalrymen were no match for these Cossacks. If it weren't for the fact that the cavalrymen could continuously fire from horseback and that they were more organized and disciplined, they would actually be no match for the Cossacks in individual combat.
As for these Cossack cavalrymen, on the one hand, he planned to have them take charge of patrols within his territory, and on the other hand, he planned to have them act as a caravan, and incidentally use them to intimidate certain unscrupulous individuals at crucial moments!
To this end, Rock specifically chose to remove the Chinese localization MOD effects from these Cossack cavalrymen, turning them into the original Russian Cossacks, each one a genuine Russian barbarian!
Of course, what pleased Rock was that even though the Chinese localization mod was removed, they could still speak Chinese.
This prevents them from being scammed due to unreliable translations when interacting with people in their daily lives.
"Hehehe, when we get back, we'll see where there are rich, foolish landlords who are short of firearms, and then we'll send these Cossacks to trade with them!"
"Hand the guns to the Russians when you sell them. If you need to buy anything else later, have other people organize the caravans so those guys don't specifically target foreigners to rip you off!"
Thinking of the enormous profits in the arms trade, Rock couldn't help but chuckle.
In fact, for Rock, selling guns might not be a very profitable business.
Compared to the European powers, the price of guns produced here was undoubtedly much higher.
If calculated according to the cost of production in Europe at this time, the cost of producing an ordinary flintlock musket would only be about 3 to 5 taels of silver.
But when they sold these things to the Manchus, they could increase the price several times over by going through official channels, allowing a flintlock musket to be sold for 10 to 15 taels of silver!
And this is just through official channels. If we're talking about smuggling channels, the price is even harder to say, since smuggled goods can fetch anywhere from a few hundred dollars.
Moreover, money isn't the key point; the key point is having a channel to buy this thing. If this thing is in the right hands, it can be a deadly weapon. During this period, foreign guns were a major weapon of mass destruction for the Qing Dynasty!
"Ah, what a pity. It's a shame that all the troops I have are still using Napoleonic-era flintlock muskets. I haven't gotten my hands on anything like the Minié rifle or breech-loading guns. If I had those, that would be truly awesome!"
Rock sighed. Although he felt regretful, there was nothing he could do.
To acquire these weapons, he would have to rely on luck and see if he could draw more advanced firearms from Total War: The Fall of the Samurai.
Many of the firearms there were at the peak of their time, including even Gatling guns. If he wanted to get his hands on some more advanced firearms, he might have to rely on some strange mods or Total War: Warhammer.
"Speaking of which, I remember before I transmigrated, it seemed like Total War: Warhammer 40 was about to be released?"
Rock muttered to himself, a pang of regret creeping into his heart:
Damn it, he time-traveled too early!
If only there were Total War: 40k, that would be amazing! If we could bring over the equipment from Warhammer 40k, he could sweep through the enemy in no time, right?
"No, that doesn't seem right. There seem to be some unscientific things about this world. I don't even know how abstract this world really is!"
Thinking of the corpse plague he had witnessed before, and other rumors he had heard from other places, Rock shook his head.
During these days, he heard from many villages that people seemed to be buying people in large numbers, and that many bandits would run down the mountain to kidnap people, but he did not know where these people who were bought went or where they were assigned.
To be honest, he found this matter rather strange.
If they were simply human traffickers, how could they possibly have such a strong organizational capacity?
Besides, if they really wanted to buy people, they wouldn't need to do it from outside the Great Wall, since there wasn't much serious land annexation there, and there weren't that many farmers selling their children.
Often, it's because there are too many people and not enough land, and poor families have no choice but to sell their children. Otherwise, relying solely on trafficking and kidnapping would be far too inefficient!
Unable to figure out the problem, Rock could only put these things aside for the time being, while praying that he would be able to acquire some good units next.
That's right, a new week has passed, and his system shop has refreshed with three new troop types. However, when he saw the level of these three troop types, he realized that he really couldn't afford them!
The cheapest unit is the Gatling gun that Rock was talking about before, but the unlock price for this six-star unit is already 30 taels of silver, which is almost as expensive as the Heavenly Dragon Guard!
As for the remaining two units, they made Rock extremely envious after seeing them, but he had absolutely no chance of recruiting them.
"Damn, is the price of a nine-star Khorne Bloodthirsty Berserker really that high? Thirty million taels of silver! That's almost twice the indemnity paid under the Treaty of Beijing!"
Upon seeing the price, Rock felt a wave of dizziness.
But then he thought, if the Qing Dynasty had the same resources as him, and could really afford to spend 30 million taels of silver to create a bloodthirsty tyrant like Khorne, how could they possibly have signed the Treaty of Beijing?
So, Rock finally understood: it's better to invest all the money in military equipment and engage in a war of attrition than to hoard money!
If you hoard it all, it will eventually become war reparations to be given to others! When someone extends a knife, it will be nothing more than a piece of fat meat to be slaughtered!
Besides the Khorne Bloodthirsty Berserker worth 30 million taels of silver, another unit that spawned made Rock extremely envious: the Human Empire's steam tank.
If he can unlock this thing, he can start the blitzkrieg ahead of time!
Unfortunately, unlocking this thing costs ten million taels of silver, which is truly ruthless.
"...Wait a minute, what's this now?"
Just then, Rock suddenly noticed that another discounted product had appeared in his system shop:
For just ten thousand taels, he could randomly learn a spell from Total War: Warhammer, with one chance to use it each day. Rock checked his system balance and found that he seemed to have exactly ten thousand taels of silver left.
"No need to hesitate, buy it!"
Rock clicked the buy button hard, a smile of excitement spreading across his face.
This is a good thing! Although he doesn't have much money, he's not going to skimp on this!
Unless he's extremely unlucky, a typical Total War: Warhammer spell is enough to turn the tide in a small to medium-sized war.
He didn't know the extent to which the Inhumans and martial arts masters of this world could achieve, but he did know that the spells in Total War: Warhammer were all kinds of anti-army spells, and the effects were all incredibly cool!
The special effects are top-notch; in a sense, this can also be considered to have maximum power.
After all, in war, soldiers are naturally afraid of attacks with amazing special effects. Just like the damage from cannons is far more demoralizing than that from muskets.
[Congratulations, player! You have obtained the Death Spell: Zereth's Purple Sun]
Rock: Hmm?
Meow meow meow?
How did he suddenly acquire a death-related spell?