ATPnovel Chapter 50: The Popularity of the Luo Family Army
Chapter 50: The Popularity of the Luo Family Army
Upon hearing Lu Xiong's words, Rock was slightly taken aback.
Immediately afterwards, he patted Lu Xiong on the shoulder without any hesitation and said:
"Look at what you're saying, what kind of talk is that?"
"You've already made a great contribution by protecting me and teaching those soldiers martial arts. Now, all I'm giving you are two new guns. What's that?"
"Besides, once you get the new gun, won't you be able to protect me better? All things considered, I'm the one who benefits in the end!"
After hearing what Luo Ke said, Lu Xiong felt that what he said did make sense.
Yeah, why think so much? He'll continue to protect the commander even if he gets two good guns. Since that's the case, he can take the good guns the commander gives him, just make sure he doesn't mess things up later!
So Lu Xiong stopped worrying and excitedly stroked the two brand-new revolvers. He couldn't wait to find a place to test them out when he got back.
In the following time, Rock divided his team into several groups and swept through all the bandit strongholds in the vicinity. Without exception, every single one of the bandits who sent personnel to participate in the battle was killed.
Some of the bandits were rather cunning. They somehow got wind of the battle at Lianyun Village and learned that it had ended in a crushing defeat. So they quickly fled.
Rock once thought that these bandits relied on the strategic terrain of the mountain strongholds for defense, which made it very difficult for the government troops to suppress them.
But once the fight started, he realized that these bandits were not as willing to defend themselves as he had imagined. Once they realized that the situation was not good, their first reaction was to run away!
As for those who escaped, Rock simply sent troops to occupy their strongholds, without bothering to continue searching for them.
If he really wanted to search the mountains for someone, even ten times more troops wouldn't be enough.
Anyway, these guys can't possibly live like savages. As long as they want to return to the civilized world, they'll have to show themselves sooner or later. And if they show themselves and are discovered by Rock, their fate is obvious.
If these guys could really hide in the deep mountains and forests for the rest of their lives, or if they really had some unknown way to escape right under Rock's nose, then Rock would accept it, since it was indeed beyond his capabilities.
When Luo Ke destroyed these bandit strongholds, apart from finding some treasures in Lianyun Village, the remaining bandit strongholds were all extremely poor.
He realized that these petty bandits couldn't really save up any money, let alone create a treasure like Ali Baba in the stories.
The reason is simple: most petty bandits don't manage to steal much money in total, and that money is barely enough for their daily expenses and the occasional luxury.
For them, being a bandit meant living a life of uncertainty, with no guarantee of where their next meal would come from, and they never knew when they might die.
Since they were already living hand to mouth and most of them hadn't really settled down and started families, they naturally spent as much money as they had on hand, living for the moment.
In addition, if these small bandits wanted to get closer to the big bandits, they would have to pay tribute to them from time to time, which was a disguised form of protection money.
If you don't align yourself with them, that's fine. But if you rob them on their turf and they come after you, that's a big problem.
After all that fuss, Rock discovered that those who actually accumulated wealth were mostly powerful bandits; only they could amass enough money for themselves.
Of course, they'll definitely have to spend all that money they've saved up.
For these big bandits, they had to find ways to cultivate relationships and purchase large quantities of food, supplies, and weapons. Otherwise, how could they grow big and powerful?
During this process, the money was spent like water flowing through the air. Even a military leader like Rock, who had the support of a system and could buy all kinds of cheap equipment, felt that he spent money like water on a daily basis. Not to mention this group of helpless bandits.
What a pity, what a pity!
Rock had initially thought he could amass more wealth by robbing these bandits, but in the end, he discovered that there wasn't much to be gained from them.
Even if the bandits don't have much loot, Shui Luoke still has to fight them, otherwise they'll turn around and attack him instead.
For someone like Rock, his stance is completely hostile to the bandits. If the bandits want to rob as much as they want, they must destroy the Rock family army, which is willing to truly protect the villagers. If Rock wants to establish his own base, he must treat these villagers well.
When the villagers in a large area nearby learned that the bandits had all been wiped out by Luo's army, many of them were as happy as if it were New Year's Day.
No, to be precise, we are currently in the Lunar New Year period!
However, due to the harassment by bandits, most villages dared not have a proper New Year. Even if they had enough surplus grain, they dared not show it.
Otherwise, if they see that other villages are poor and dilapidated, while they are celebrating the New Year in a joyous and prosperous manner, who else would the bandits in the area rob if not them?
After clearing out these bandit strongholds, Luo Ke naturally sent his men to visit each of the villages, explaining to the villagers the purpose of Luo Family Army's visit and discussing the issue of security fees.
Almost exactly as Luo Ke had predicted, after he dispatched his troops, all the villages, without exception, expressed their willingness to pay security fees to Luo's army. Several villages even took the initiative to ask for more, hoping that Luo's army would give them priority protection in the future.
These villages had already inquired about the situation and knew why Luo's army had come to their side.
I never expected that the Luo family army would actually do their job after taking the money!
When bandits came to harass the villagers, they immediately ran to wipe them out. Even though Xiaoshi Village had never paid security fees to the Luo family army and had never met them before, the Luo family army was still willing to avenge them.
Before anyone knew it, Commander Luo had acquired a reputation for benevolence and righteousness. To many villagers, someone like him, who was willing to lead troops to protect them and fight bandits, was definitely a guardian deity and should be worshipped!
Even though Rock was protecting the villagers while also charging them security fees, they didn't feel that the money was wasted at all; on the contrary, they felt that it was well worth the money.
In fact, if someone is truly willing to protect them, the villagers are quite happy to pay.
But the prerequisite is that those people are genuinely willing to put in the effort to protect them, instead of taking their money and then exploiting them again, treating them purely as ATMs.
Rock felt it was only natural to do things for money, but for most of the villagers, after witnessing how barbaric those armed men were, they felt that Rock, who actually did things for money, was incredibly noble!
It has to be said, everything is afraid of comparison!
Besides these newly controlled villages, the villages that were originally within the Luo family army's territory were all extremely grateful to Luo Ke after learning that a bandit force of several hundred people had invaded, but the Luo family army had taken the initiative to attack and wiped them out.
In many villages, people even set up a memorial tablet for Luo Ke in their ancestral halls, because they knew very well that if it weren't for Luo Ke's troops, those bandits might have wiped out all their villages, and who knows how many people would have survived!
Don't ever say that these bandits came to seek revenge on Rock, which is why they gathered together.
Even without Rock, what if these bandits find another excuse to gather together and rob again?
As a result, Rock found that almost all of the villages he had previously controlled had entered a stage where the people's hearts were with him.
Even in the villages he newly controlled, half of them were in a state of popular support, and the remaining villages were all under effective control, with not a single village showing a preliminary occupation status.
For this reason, Rock's current population has suddenly experienced a surge.
His population quota was almost full from his continuous recruitment of soldiers, but suddenly, his population quota increased by more than 800!
Furthermore, as the newly controlled villages gradually realize that the Luo family army does not commit any offenses against them on a daily basis, and witness the benefits that the Luo family army protects them and brings them, it is believed that these villages will inevitably become popular and the population quota of Luo Ke will increase further.
"Hehehe, with so many population quotas, shouldn't we recruit a bunch of soldiers?"
Rock chuckled to himself as he thought about it, but suddenly he realized that before he could recruit soldiers, he seemed to have to solve a very important problem first: the food crisis!
He had already recruited a lot of soldiers, and in order to get revolvers, he also acquired a lot of horses when purchasing revolver cavalry equipment. Both the soldiers and the horses needed to be fed!
Although these soldiers are recruited with enough dry rations to last seven days, after seven days they will have to rely on Rock to provide them with food, or Rock will have to buy it from the system.
The system's food prices are ridiculously high. Buying a unit of food and ammunition costs the equivalent of one-tenth the price of recruiting troops. Even if his money came from a whirlwind, he couldn't spend it like that!
So there's no other way but to buy food first, and buying enough food is the most important thing!
Thinking of this, Rock quickly instructed his soldiers to find opportunities to contact grain merchants and purchase a large quantity of grain first.
It was fortunate that he had just finished robbing these bandits and hadn't had time to recharge all the remaining wealth they had. Otherwise, if all his money was in the system, he wouldn't have any cash on hand, and he wouldn't have been able to buy grain from outside to sell.