I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 67: Confused Expedition
"Dang Dang Dang..."

The sound of the wooden hammer hitting the bronze bell was dull and loud, powerfully penetrating the entire street.

In the first rays of morning light, the quiet town of Beach came alive. Men and women dressed in linen clothes, holding hoes, shovels, and shoulder poles, walked out of their low houses.

There are very few tall houses in Beach Town, and even one-story houses are rare. Most of them are half-story dog ​​kennels built with a mixture of earth and wood.

Doghouse, this is a metaphor that even the people of Beach Town admit to, because it really is similar.

The houses of the Biqi people are all half-story houses with low walls because the main body of the house is underground. When building a house, the locals first dig a pit and then fill the pit with wood, stones and other things.

After laying the foundation, they sprinkled it with limestone powder or sulfur powder mined from the top of a nearby mountain.

The working people did not know the properties of lime powder and sulfur powder, but they knew from practical experience that sprinkling some of these things on the ground when building their own houses would be beneficial.

After laying the foundation, the locals will use stones and wood to build houses. Because it is a semi-underground nest, the walls of the house do not need to be built too high to build a nest that can accommodate people.

The benefits of doing this are obvious: it saves materials and reduces costs, but it does not save time.

Digging a hole is not an easy task, but it really saves money because wood and stones are the property of noble lords.

The advantages are prominent and the disadvantages are particularly obvious, so there is no need to describe them in detail here.

Fortunately, the rainfall in Beach Town is neither too heavy nor too light throughout the year.

Because of the obstruction of the Kasso Mountains, the storms blowing from the east cannot spread, and the entire country of Bagnia is not humid. Except for the fact that it is a bit cold in winter, it is not very hot in summer.

Generally speaking, such half-story houses are very popular among the poor, while the rich dislike such buildings and call them doghouses.

Bruno's house is also a doghouse. Although it is a little bigger and a little higher than the doghouse next to it, it is still a doghouse, not a decent one-story residence.

When Bruno went out, there were already many people waiting outside the door. They were wearing simple black military uniforms, with belts on their bodies, muskets in their hands, and daggers on their waists, looking extremely impressive.

These people were all militiamen from Beach Town. When they saw Bruno, they saluted and greeted him enthusiastically.

"Captain, good morning!"

"Captain, have you eaten? I have a pancake here, baked by my wife. Would you like to try it? It's delicious..."

"Captain, captain..."

The tall Bruno smiled at them innocently, did not take the cake from his subordinates, waved his hand to refuse, and walked out of the town first.

Bruno's chest injury hasn't healed yet, but that didn't stop him from knocking down ten of his rivals for the captaincy with one hand during the captaincy selection competition held yesterday.

Bruno, who is about 1.9 meters tall and has a strong skeleton, has basically recovered his previous peak strength and become even stronger after a month of recuperation with good food and drink.

In the past, he didn't have the opportunity to eat as much as he wanted and stuff himself with carbohydrates and fats.

After a month of eating heavily, Bruno now weighs nearly 100 kilograms. In cold weapon combat, almost no one can be his opponent...except for the old players.

So, Bruno won the game rightfully and became the captain of the 200 militiamen in Beach Town again.

A month ago, Bruno still thought that he should keep an observant attitude towards Chris, but after eating and drinking the latter's food for a month, Bruno changed his attitude.

As the saying goes, a man who eats from a friend is grateful for what he has received. Bruno is a man who eats and takes things from others. Now he feels that he should help and do something for Prince Chris.

Prince Chris must be a good man, because apart from him, Bruno had never seen any other master who was willing to provide free food and drink to everyone in Beach Town for more than a month.

Whether they are nobles or republican officials, they only take things from others instead of giving things.

As for Prince Chris's announcement of land redistribution, Bruno was also very happy to see it... because after becoming the captain of the militia, he could get fifty acres of land.

Bruno has the title deed to the fifty acres of land.

The master named Alibaba said that according to the defense law promulgated by Prince Chris, as long as Bruno is still a soldier, even if he dies, as long as his son is willing to inherit the militia position, the fifty acres of land will belong to his family.

Militia land cannot be traded, and any sale will be invalid. This law will remain valid as long as the defense force is still there and Prince Chris and his descendants are still alive.

So, Bruno is grateful to Prince Chris.

Although it was not very good, with these fifty acres of land, Bruno was qualified to be called the master in the town of Beach.

This is also one of the reasons why the militias are so flattering to Bruno today.

Today is Captain Bruno's first day in office, and it is also a busy day.

Bruno had just arrived at the training ground with dozens of militiamen who were going to train today. Before they could start the usual formation training, he found that there were many strangers in green military uniforms in the barracks next to the training ground.

After a month of living together day and night, Bruno had become very familiar with the defense soldiers under Prince Chris. Although he could not call out every one of them by name, he had basically met all of them and had a basic impression of them.

But the people he saw today were strangers to Bruno, but he also found that the familiar nobles and gentlemen around him were chatting and laughing with the strangers, and it was obvious that the latter were also his own people.

Bruno didn't think much of it.

"Captain Bruno, is the captain here?"

The messenger, who rode to the edge of the training ground with a flagpole behind him, shouted, and Bruno hurried out of the militia.

"I'm Bruno, and this is my captain ID."

Bruno said this, pulling out a stainless steel dog tag from his neck and showing it to the messenger.

After the latter leaned over to read the information clearly, he reached into his pocket and took out a scroll. Before handing it to the former, he asked a question.

"Are you literate?"

"I'm taking night classes and I haven't mastered all the Chinese language yet."

Bruno answered honestly.

Giving the militiamen night classes to learn Chinese was a benefit Chris gave to them. Originally, he planned to have them learn the Bagnian language, but when he asked, he found that most people in Beach Town didn't know it.

The confidants who followed Chris from Inner Malaysia were basically all educated, including Isaac. Some of them could speak Baghna and Bohemian, but none of them could understand writing.

It was even impossible for Chris to select literate people from within the company to serve as teachers.

Chris can read and write both Bohemian and Bagnian, but we can't ask him to be a teacher and teach these illiterate people.

It’s not that it’s impossible, but Chris doesn’t have the time.

After much thought, Chris made up his mind to use reputation as a reward, allowing interested players to take on tasks and become temporary teachers in night schools, and let the militia learn Chinese characters and language, and use Chinese as a special military language.

Chris had no idea what this would lead to, and he couldn't really care less, so he just had to make do with it. This also led to an interesting twist: the commands Chris wrote were currently only understood by the messenger and a few other people besides the player, and Bruno wasn't one of them.

The messenger also knew this situation, so when he jumped off his horse and handed the order to Bruno, he also spoke loudly.

"Prince Chris ordered Captain Bruno to select one hundred militiamen within one day and to gather at the barracks before ten o'clock the next morning. At twelve o'clock, the militiamen will follow the army.

Militiamen who are willing to go to war with the army will be responsible for escorting food. Each person will enjoy wartime benefits, and each person can receive a combat allowance of five silver dollars and three food coupons per month.

If a battle occurs, those who die in battle will receive a pension as stipulated in military regulations, and the militia land will not be reclaimed for eighteen years until the time passes or there is a new militiaman in the family.

Did you hear the command clearly? Do you need to repeat it?"

Bruno perked up, and he quickly reached out to take the military order, while asking nervously.

"I understand, Bruno, I accept the order... Are we going to fight?"

"Yes, there's going to be a war."

"Who to hit?"

"I don't know. Don't ask me. I have military duties. I'm leaving now."

As he spoke, the messenger jumped on his horse, galloped away with the clatter of horse hooves, and sped away into the distance.

Bruno waited until the messenger was far away, then turned and growled at the militiamen behind him.

"You all heard what I just said. A war is about to begin."

After hearing what Captain Bruno said, the militiamen looked at each other. After a while, discussions buzzed in the training ground.

Some people were clearly resisting the war; they were not very happy about it in their words, and even complained a little. Others felt that this was a good opportunity and were eager to try it out in the discussion.

Bruno listened for a while and generally felt that the militiamen were still reluctant to leave their homes, so he stood up and asked people to gather around him.

"We are going to fight. We must fight hard in this battle and make Prince Chris win. No matter who we fight, Prince Chris and we must win."

"why?"

Someone asked.

"Why do we have to go to war? Aren't we living well here?"

"Because we need to eat, and if we don't fight, we won't have anything to eat."

"what!?"

Bruno asked the militiamen who had formed a circle, loudly and forcefully.

"Do you remember how much food we ate after Prince Chris came?"

"I don't remember. I don't know..."

"Yes, Captain, how do we know this?"

"I know."

Bruno said loudly and decisively.

"After I became the militia captain, I went to the granary last night. There was not much food left. It was basically impossible to support the harvest of the crops we planted."

"How could that be? We haven't missed any meals these days..."

"Yes, that's why there's not enough food. Prince Chris only has more than 200 people. How could they possibly bring so much food?
We must fight this battle, just like our previous tradition. When there is not enough food, the masters will take us outside the mountains to fight. If we win, we can grab enough food.

If we lose the fight, people will die, and then there will be enough food at home."

Bruno's simple speech seemed to make sense to the militiamen, because that was how their fathers had lived, and now they were just repeating their previous lives.

The militia quickly eliminated their resistance to war and agreed with Bruno's words.

Yes, when will there be enough food?
Now is a time of war and famine, and it is normal to have insufficient food.

Since there is not enough food to eat, let's go to war. Prince Chris said he needs people, so let's follow, just like before, the masters ride horses and the serfs set off barefoot.

Prince Chris provided them with full meals for a month, and also distributed land to the militiamen. The militiamen were willing to follow him to the battlefield.

……

Chris began mobilizing for war in the town of Beach.

Four hundred new beta test players have been released. They appeared as Barbarian recruits and excitedly set off a day in advance under the leadership of veteran players.

Chris didn't dare to keep these new players in the town. He was really afraid that some of them would go crazy and imitate the heroes in traditional RPG games, breaking into the townspeople's homes without permission, rummaging through drawers, and doing things that even demon kings would not do.

Old players will definitely not do this, it will lower their status.

Chris is worried about those young people who have just become adults and have been playing non-stealth games before. Before they understand the game environment, they will definitely try to operate in a single-player game out of habit.

Even if Chris adds these rules to the player ban, there will always be people who find ways to exploit loopholes.

In peacetime, Chris has the energy to deal with the outrageous actions of individual players. In the preparation stage for the impending war, it is better to deal with less of this kind of thing.

Let new and old players bring enough food for three days and set off early. The large grain transport team composed of militia and farmers will set off tomorrow. It is a good thing that the two sides take staggered actions.

Although doing so goes against military common sense, it's a player's business, so there's no big deal if there's any violation. If there are any problems, most of them are caused by the players themselves, so they're not a big deal.

Chris formulated an attack plan, but he didn't know what strategic purpose it was intended to achieve.

Well, Chris wasn't even sure who to fight this time. Was it the Restoration Army, the Republican Army, or both? Or would he be beaten by them? Chris didn't know.

In short, send the troops out first, and then attack whoever they like or dislike, just like the ancient mountain barbarians who went out to plunder the grass and valleys. There is no strategic goal at all.

The only thing Chris knew was that Isaac came back last night and brought back a lot of saltpeter, enough for Chris to have people process it overnight and make enough black powder for a big war.

In addition to saltpeter, Isaac also brought back a request.

"Popoli needs more sugar..."

(End of this chapter)