Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 56: Recruiting Additional Troops and Target Shooting Competition

The energy-absorbing beetles that are raised in a concentrated manner in the underground laboratory have entered a new breeding period.

Ever since Harvey started feeding them regularly with large quantities of low-level energy magic stones, he has been able to accurately shorten the beetle's breeding cycle to once every three months.

The price to pay is of course the monthly consumption of magic stones of up to 500 gold pounds, but the monthly income from the magic network teleportation array can just cover this ongoing expenditure, and it can barely achieve a balance between income and expenditure.

Since establishing a good online cooperative relationship with the "Frost Giant", Harvey can also buy some lower quality charged magic stones from him at a very low discount.

The energy-absorbing beetles have no requirements for the quality of these magical "feeds".

This forum member who always "confronts" the "Son of Flame" with high intensity should be backed by a huge magic stone mine or magic chamber of commerce.

Asdalen walked over to the lab bench and looked at the "magic gun" that had just been taken off the assembly line. He sighed with regret, "I never thought that in just three months, we would equip an entire militia with this weapon."

Harvey reached out and pressed the switch button on the assembly line, putting all the busy working alchemy beasts on standby to recharge.

"These thirty magic guns manufactured in this batch will be equipped to the second batch of recruited militiamen in a while."

Just a week ago, he had issued a new conscription order, recruiting more than 300 militiamen to join the team, expanding the number of troops in the entire territory to 500.

With the arrival of midsummer, more and more refugees appeared in the area of Jackdaw Ridge in the Divine Spine Mountains. Many people ventured across the mountains to the human kingdom in the southern continent, but they were all ruthlessly expelled by the local noble lords.

The crops planted in the new year had not yet been harvested, and no noble lord was willing to accept these impoverished refugees, provide them with food and shelter for free, and take the huge risk of an epidemic breaking out in the summer.

Harvey took this opportunity to absorb a large number of refugees who were expelled and repatriated to the north, and successfully expanded the population of the territory to nearly 3,000 people.

The land in the Divine Ridge Mountains and the wasteland is extremely fertile, and all kinds of resources are extremely abundant. Since the territory successfully issued an independent paper currency, it has almost achieved a relatively stable market cycle.

At least for now, they have achieved complete self-sufficiency in food. Only a small amount of luxury goods such as clothing, cloth, sugar, wine, tobacco, etc. need to rely on the old partner Longshi Chamber of Commerce for import and transportation.

Harvey re-started several economic projects that he had never dared to consider when he was fighting alone in the past. He built cement factories and iron foundries, which provided jobs for the newly arrived refugees while also establishing a certain military industrial foundation.

For Harvey at this stage, firing cement is already extremely simple. A large amount of natural limestone, gypsum ore and clay under the mountains are ready-made materials. He lets the working alchemy beast build a blast furnace and firing room, and fire it uniformly at the temperature of smelting iron ore. Then, he grinds the clinker and mixes it with gypsum powder to obtain a large amount of finished cement.

Harvey also relied on the continuously produced cement to build new houses that were sufficient for his subjects to live in. Compared with the stone, brick and wooden houses built before, these houses were stronger and warmer.

Of course, these houses are not given away for free to the people. They still need to pay rent to the lord every month, which will be deducted directly from their salary.

……

"Hmph, how come those new soldiers can also touch the magic gun?" During the afternoon break, Wayne took the initiative to find Vaughn and others for the first time and expressed his dissatisfaction.

Although the two had almost no contact with each other due to previous discrimination and conflicts, since the newly recruited soldiers entered the barracks, they, as the first members to join the militia, began to unconsciously stick together.

Although Dave looked down on Wayne, he also felt unhappy and agreed, "Yeah, we don't even have a magic gun in our hands yet. It would be a waste to give it to those guys who can't even aim."

Wayne nodded and looked at the silent Vaughn. "Especially those troublemakers. They acted so arrogant during morning training. Humph, it's just that they ran a little faster and got a few compliments from Chief Pierce."

"What do you think, Vaughn? Should we teach them a lesson during the emergency meeting tonight?"

Because of Vaughn's excellent training results and the best aiming skills of the magic gun in the team, when a new threat appeared, everyone implicitly regarded him as the leader of their small group.

Vaughn thought for a moment, then slowly said, "You can't provoke a conflict with them in private, unless you're willing to stay in the confinement room next to the toilet."

"The commander said that strength comes first. Only by using real ability to suppress them can we avoid causing trouble for ourselves and keep them in peace."

The other team leaders and deputies gathered around nodded. Vaughn was indeed very steady, and his words were very convincing.

"But now the commander won't let us take the initiative to attack. We don't need to take action against the scattered evil orcs we encounter during our daily patrols. The alchemy beasts can handle them all on their own." Wayne patted his thigh, still feeling a little indignant.

The clever Tommy suddenly rushed in from outside the barracks, shouting excitedly.

"Brothers, now's your chance to teach those new recruits a lesson!"

"what?"

"Stop talking nonsense and speak!"

Tommy sat carefree in front of the team leaders, crossed his legs, leaned over and whispered, "Uncle Rooney from the logistics department told me that the Lord will be holding a magic gun shooting competition in a few days. Each team can select one person to sign up, and the winner will be awarded a prize by the Lord himself!"

"Wow!" Everyone let out a low exclamation, then gathered together and began to discuss in a low voice.

"I must make them pay this time!"...

Two days later in the afternoon, in the civic square in front of the lord's castle.

Many residents had already learned from the notice board what kind of shooting competition the lord was going to hold today, so they came to the square early after work to try to get a good front-row seat to watch the fun.

Although no one knew what a shooting competition was, there were almost no entertainment activities in the territory, so it was always nice to have something exciting to watch.

Harvey sat on a makeshift platform, with Asdalen and Reiner standing on his left and right, like two huge metal statues in front of a throne, making people dare not look directly at him.

Pierce led the militia into the square. All the soldiers were wearing black cotton uniforms, with bayonets on their waists and long-handled iron spears on their backs. They marched in unison to the center of the square and stood in a row to block the crowd at the periphery.

Every soldier tried his best to straighten his chest and back, looking straight ahead with a serious face, which made the onlookers unconsciously feel the solemnity of the atmosphere and stopped making noise.

"Contestants, step out!"

Ten soldiers in black uniforms walked out of the team with their heads held high. However, the silver five-pointed stars depicted on the left chest of their uniforms showed that these ten people were squad leaders or deputy team leaders of the militia.

After all, ordinary soldiers do not have the strength and courage to compete with a group of team leaders. If they lose, they will bring shame to the entire team, and they may be bullied by the team leader and deputy team leader one day.

Fifty meters away stood a tall flagpole with a strange round ball painted bright red hanging on it. It should be the target of this competition.

Pierce returned to the podium and used the Phonograph Magic Stone to loudly announce the rules of the shooting competition.

In the preliminary round, each contestant needs to shoot ten times in a row at the flagpole target within the specified time. Half of the contestants will be eliminated based on the number of hits. If the scores are the same, an extra round will be held.

The bright red ball on the flagpole exploded with a bang, spraying out a cloud of thick red smoke, causing the people who were watching in the distance to let out a series of exclamations.

Hit it again!

Although no one knew how these soldiers used the strange iron pipes in their hands to hit the ball so accurately from a distance, perhaps it was some mysterious bow or crossbow hidden weapon. After all, the lord and the several adults around him were all powerful spellcasters.

"Ten shots, seven hits, shooting complete, next contestant out!"

Wayne put away the magic gun in his hand, returned to the team of contestants, and winked at Vaughn.

Vaughn finished shooting before him, with an excellent result of eight hits, and is currently ranked first. There are still two rookie captains who have not shot yet, but at least four of the top five positions are occupied by veterans, which is already a warning to this group of newcomers.

Entering the final stage, Captain Pierce suddenly announced that the shooting difficulty would be increased.

They now needed to shoot at a moving target, aiming at the newly hung ball on the flagpole that was shaking violently and irregularly.

Even a veteran like Wayne felt a little tired now. He barely made four hits and retreated in sweat.

The two veterans who followed were even worse off. One missed the target completely, and the other only hit the target once. Amid the boos of the people outside, they returned to the team with red faces.

The only remaining team leader among the newcomers suddenly had a burst of luck and hit the target three times in a row. After replacing the gun that had run out of energy, he hit the target three more times, reaching a score of six hits and temporarily ranking first.

Low cheers could be heard faintly from the new recruits, which stimulated the veteran squad leaders to the point that their faces turned darker than the bottom of a pot.

Vaughn was the last to appear. He completely ignored the whispers of discussion behind him and calmly picked up the magic gun and began to aim.

Three shots in a row, three hits!
Change guns and keep aiming!
Another three shots were fired, all hitting the target! The crowd erupted in enthusiastic cheers.

"Vaughn, come on!" The orc didn't look back, but he could hear that it was Wayne, who had always been at odds with him, shouting at him.

He couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth slightly, and calmly changed the gun again and repeated the aiming.

This time three shots missed the target, but the last shot hit the target reliably.

His final moving target shooting was an excellent score of seven out of ten. The militia could no longer suppress their cheers. Several veteran squad leaders rushed out, lifted him up and threw him high into the air.

Vaughn turned his head in the chaos and saw the onlookers also giving him thumbs up.

Commander Pierce was smiling with satisfaction and nodded slightly to him.

The lord stood up from his seat on the dais, holding a glittering badge in his hand, and was smiling and waving at him, motioning him to come over.

(End of this chapter)