roccoschili Chapter 73 The bandits are enraged and join forces at one location.
Chapter 73 The bandits are enraged and join forces at one location.
Chapter 73 The bandits are enraged and join forces.
After recruiting these three squads of slave rats, Rock's population quota was almost full again, which made him slightly disappointed. However, considering his current economy, it seemed that he was indeed not suitable to recruit more troops.
He doesn't have much money left in his system. If he can't quickly recover the funds, he might not even be able to pay his soldiers' salaries in less than two months.
But it doesn't matter, this is a ready-made gold mine, and there's a large amount of already mined gold ore that hasn't been transported away yet.
This is a good opportunity to see if his system can directly swallow the ore?
Led by several soldiers, Rock quietly arrived at the place where the ore was piled up. Looking at the mountain of black gold ore, he silently recited "system recharge" in his mind.
[Congratulations, player! You have received 1 taels of silver!]
In the blink of an eye, the pile of gold ore in front of him had almost disappeared, replaced by a system notification sound.
Upon seeing this, a smile immediately spread across Rock's face.
"Ha, that's great! It seems our system doesn't have such high purity requirements for precious metals!"
Rock couldn't help but laugh. If that were the case, he felt that he would have a lot more room to maneuver in the future. At least for the gold mine in front of him, by skipping a smelting step and simply mining the ore, Rock would save himself a lot of trouble.
Moreover, although his actions only allow him to absorb the system funds into the system and he cannot take them out again, from another perspective, these system funds will be distributed to his soldiers in the form of military pay.
When the time comes, these soldiers will naturally not keep all the money they receive. After they spend the money in the future, Rock will use various means such as business and taxation to eventually get the money back.
As for whether or not to use some clever or forceful means to take this money from the soldiers?
After thinking it over, Rock decided to drop the idea.
Although his soldiers are extremely loyal to him and would not betray him because of this, doing this will definitely have a significant impact on their morale, because the system will judge it as insufficient military pay.
As for exchanging other things for their gold?
If it's land or something else of value, that's fine. But if it's military rank or official position used to block them, it will inevitably affect the combat effectiveness of the troops in the future!
He doesn't only have system troops under his command. Especially as the scale expands in the future, Rock will definitely have to recruit more ordinary troops, and these ordinary troops will not be as stable in combat power as the system troops.
If the atmosphere in the army is allowed to become chaotic and corrupt at such a time, and even the selling of official positions and titles occurs, how will he be able to fight battles in the future?
If things were really done like that, he felt that it wouldn't be long before his troops would all become like the bald-headed principal!
"Hehe, but then again, there is still a chance to make some extra money. If nothing unexpected happens, those three bandit groups that originally controlled the gold mine should find out about its fall soon."
"I want to see what choice they will make when they receive this news."
According to Rock's estimation, given the bandits' character, once they learned that the gold mine had been seized, they would immediately muster their forces and rush over without much hesitation, even in the dead of winter.
On the one hand, it's because the profits from this gold mine are really tempting, and on the other hand, it's because the gold mining operators are not just a bunch of bandits!
If they were even a fraction slower and another bandit group managed to take back the gold mine first, how could they possibly retain their original share?
These bandits don't follow any rules. According to their logic, since they've conquered this gold mine, even if they can't keep it all for themselves, they should at least increase their share!
So, to prevent their own money from being swallowed up by others, those bandits will definitely act quickly!
So Rock simply led his troops to garrison there, and even set up camp on the spot.
Although there aren't many places to stay here, his team can still squeeze in if they're a little cramped. If the bandits still don't make a move after a few days, then Rock will consider leaving only a small number of troops to garrison the area, and then withdrawing the rest of the troops back.
During his free time, Lu Xiong couldn't resist the urge to spar, so he went to find one of Rock's greatsword warriors and they had a friendly exchange.
After the fight, Lu Xiong was secretly shocked because he realized that the strength of these giant swordsmen was truly formidable. Without a doubt, these giant swordsmen had reached the level of Ming Jin masters. Although they were not as good as him, who was about to break through, he could at most fight against two giant swordsmen at the same time when he was unarmed. He would be defeated if he faced a three-on-one attack.
This astonishing discovery caused Lu Xiong to immediately abandon his arrogance and stop considering himself the top expert under Luo Ke. Instead, he couldn't help but speculate:
The commander he served was truly unfathomable. An army would frequently appear around him to join him, and he even had a force composed entirely of Ming Jin masters!
He didn't know how many troops this master commanded at his peak, but judging from the troops he had now, Rock was already a powerful figure in his own right, and these troops were probably just the tip of the iceberg.
Thinking of this, Lu Xiong suddenly felt a sense of anticipation, and even couldn't help but fantasize in his heart:
Could it be that this General Luo can really fulfill his grand ambitions, namely, to expel the Manchus and restore China?
If he could really do that, wouldn't Lu Xiong have made a great contribution to the rise of a new emperor? That would be an immense fortune!
Although Rock is still far from being a hero, and hasn't even conquered a single city yet, spending his days wandering between bandit strongholds and surrounding villages, Lu Xiong has a feeling that it's a sure thing that Rock will one day change the world!
Only a day had passed when the three bandit groups simultaneously dispatched their elite cavalry to investigate the area. They soon discovered that the gold mine had been occupied and the pass had been destroyed.
These horse teams dared not delay at all; they quickly ran back to their respective villages before dark and then reported the news to their respective leaders.
"Fuck you! You son of a bitch!"
"Damn the Luo family army! I've always been lenient with you, never personally causing you trouble, and yet you dare to attack my gold mine? Are you truly lawless?"
Upon hearing this news, Tie Liancheng, the leader of Black Flag Ridge, was so enraged that he kicked over the table in front of him and began to curse loudly at the Luo family army, whose whereabouts were unknown in the distance.
It's quite rare to see someone who usually prides himself on being a lawless bandit, actually starting to curse others for being lawless.
However, from Tie Liancheng's perspective, he did feel that the Luo family army was really going too far!
Since the establishment of the Luo Family Army, he has never sent his own bandits to plunder the Luo Family Army's territory. He has always maintained a policy of keeping to himself and has no intention of provoking these people.
Although he did indeed have people stab him in the back, the main idea at the time came from Black Whirlwind of Erlong Mountain; he was just following the trend and joining in the fun.
Moreover, while bandits like Luo's army were sweeping through the surrounding areas, they didn't harm the local people at all, which even led to people in his territory starting to flee!
In his view, this was clearly Luo Jiajun stabbing him in the back. So what if he stabbed Luo Jiajun in the back in return?
"Damn it, muster the troops and get them with me immediately! Tell the foreign gunners to come out here!"
"I refuse to believe it! All the Luo family's army has are a few foreign guns, right? What gives them the right to be so arrogant?"
As soon as Tie Liancheng finished speaking, a group of bandits around him roared in anger, because they were also furious with Luo's army!
Although they couldn't directly take gold from the mine like the boss, if the boss didn't have any gold in his hands, where would they get the money to buy weapons and equipment, and where would they get the rewards to give to their men?
Just panning for gold underground was enough to take up a fraction of their entire bandit stronghold's income; no bandit could afford to ignore such a devastating loss.
Fortunately, the second-in-command of Black Flag Ridge was still quite intelligent and didn't lose his head in anger like their leader.
He quickly ran over, grabbed the leader who was so enraged he wanted to kill someone, and advised, "Brother, don't be impulsive. The Luo family army is not weak. If we simply let our family go up against them, even if we win, we will suffer heavy losses, and the gold mine might just end up falling into someone else's hands!"
"Anyway, this gold mine doesn't belong to just one family. Let's quickly contact the other two gangs, join forces with them at their mines, and raid the gold mine together!"
"When the time comes, all three of us will contribute, share the risks, and advance and retreat together. No one should try to scheme against anyone else!"
Hearing the second-in-command's advice, Tie Liancheng gradually calmed down. After thinking about it carefully, he realized that it made sense.
The Luo family army is not easy to deal with. Although he did not know the soldiers that Luo Ke had just recruited, even if we count the original soldiers of the Luo family army, they must have more than 300 elite foreign gunmen. The scale of their firearms far exceeds that of their Black Flag Ridge foreign gun team.
If they were to encounter such an armed force, Black Flag Ridge might end up suffering heavy casualties in order to win, or they might simply lose.
Since that's the case, let's all join forces. That way, we can avoid them fighting to the death with Luo's army while others go and raid their hometown!
So Tie Liancheng quickly organized his troops and set off, while also writing to the remaining two bandit groups, asking them to send troops to come with him!
If they don't honestly send troops to fight together, but instead have ulterior motives, then Tie Liancheng doesn't mind dragging things out with them. At worst, they can just part ways and neither of them can have the gold mine!
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