ATPnovel Chapter 38 The villagers never lacked courage.
Chapter 38 The villagers never lacked courage.
After relaying the order to the Cossack cavalry, Rock opened his system shop. After all, another week had passed, and it was time to refresh his system shop with a few new troop types.
As usual, several Warhammer behemoths appeared, each one ridiculously expensive. Rock could only look on the system interface with envy, unable to afford them at all.
But just as he was about to close the system interface, he saw a special offer item.
Just like the random four-star unit that only sold for 1,000 taels of silver before, this time he saw a random five-star unit that only sold for 5,000 taels of silver.
Five-star units are great! He's never even seen what five-star units look like!
Without the slightest hesitation, Rock immediately bought the random five-star unit.
[Congratulations, player! You have obtained the five-star unit: Vampire Coast Swollen Walker (from Total War: Warhammer)]
[Equipment for this unit: None. Recruitment price: 2,000 taels of silver per unit, Population requirement: 5 population per unit.]
Rock raised an eyebrow, realizing that he seemed to have recruited some strange new type of soldier.
The bloated zombie is a rather abstract unit in the Vampire Shore faction of Total War: Warhammer.
This thing has a very special way of attacking. Basically, it is a giant zombie that has been soaked into a colossal shape and is completely rotting. When this kind of zombie gets close to an enemy, it will suddenly explode, just like a whale's corpse explosion.
Of course, the corpse explosion power of this thing is much greater than that of a whale. After all, this thing was specially modified to be used as a unit to blow up enemies, and it contains a large amount of death wind.
Back when Rock had just finished playing Total War: Warhammer, he didn't understand many of the game's mechanics. When he first saw these bloated zombies, he didn't really take them seriously.
He didn't know that this thing could explode and thought it was just an ordinary monster unit, so he didn't hesitate at all. He gathered a squad of Bretonnian Kingdom Knights and charged straight at it, ready to use the Knights' Charge to wipe it out on the spot.
Then, the scene was beyond description; heaven knows how this thing exploded so violently that it instantly wiped out most of his team of knights.
It wasn't until later that he realized the best way to deal with the bloated zombies was to use long-range fire. If you were to use ordinary melee units to fight them head-on, you would be at a disadvantage no matter what you used, unless you used some cannon fodder units.
Looking at his newly acquired unit, Rock immediately thought of a series of wicked uses. He wondered what kind of damage it would cause if this thing suddenly appeared and exploded in the bandit group.
Putting aside the explosive power of this thing, it is comparable to a large-caliber howitzer in later times, or even stronger.
In reality, if such a corpse suddenly exploded in the middle of a crowd, the sheer stench alone would probably be enough to cause people to lose their composure.
At least Rock couldn’t imagine how those bandits could maintain their morale when they were drenched in countless pieces of flesh and bones, corroded by all kinds of corpse poison, and surrounded by the screams of their companions and the dismemberment of limbs.
If they could maintain their morale under such circumstances, the Qing Dynasty wouldn't need to do anything else; they could simply recruit these bandits and send them to fight against the foreign powers. After all, their morale would probably rival that of the old Imperial Guard.
Although Rock really wanted to find a unit to unleash such a devastating attack, he didn't recruit that unit immediately. Instead, he planned to recruit it slowly when needed on the battlefield.
It's very simple. This corpse, which has been soaked to the point of being gigantic, contains a bunch of random things and could explode at any moment.
How can he maintain the morale of his other soldiers if he has such a terrifying creature by his side or mixed in with his army?
He wasn't leading an undead army. Those undead had lost their sense of smell and weren't afraid of corpses, so they naturally wouldn't feel disgusted or afraid of bloated zombies. But what regular army could stand this thing?
As Rock prepared for the upcoming battle, he also gathered the militia he had previously recruited and gave them a pre-battle speech.
Looking at the militiamen lined up on the drill ground, each holding a flintlock pistol and already able to form a neat ranks, Rock nodded in satisfaction.
Although these hundred or so militiamen are not a very strong force at present, they will surely become an important backbone force in the future as he recruits more and more troops from this world.
In other words, these militiamen are the seeds for him to eventually have a strong army.
"Fellow villagers and soldiers, I am Luo Ke, the commander-in-chief of the Luo family army! I think you have already heard the news that the bandits from Lianyun Village are coming to attack, right?"
"Heh, we cleaned up all the gangs around here before, stopped paying them security fees, and stopped letting them bully us. Sure enough, those thugs couldn't sit still anymore!"
Rock paused for a moment at this point.
He then abruptly raised his voice and asked the crowd:
"Gentlemen, I don't want to lecture you with complicated principles. You only have two choices now!"
"Either lay down your weapons and gamble on whether those hundreds of bandits from outside will be willing to coexist peacefully with you on your territory, or whether they'll just take a little money and supplies and leave?"
"Either you take up your weapons and join the Luo family army to defend your homeland, and use your bullets to tell those bandits that times have changed, that you no longer need to bow down to anyone, and that you no longer need to let those bandits rape and plunder you!"
"Fellow villagers, what is your choice? Are you going to be a bunch of obedient citizens, obediently gambling that those bandits will suddenly have a change of heart, or are you willing to take up arms and fight alongside us as warriors?"
As soon as Rock finished speaking, the militiamen began to shout indignantly.
"Lord Luo, we must fight!"
"I'm going to kill those bandits! I don't want to be bullied by them anymore! My sister was killed by them a couple of years ago!"
"My family was the same; those bandits were utterly heartless, they left us no way to survive!"
Many villagers thought about their past experiences of being bullied and abused by bandits, and then looked at the guns in their hands and the Luo family army in front of them.
At that moment, many of them suddenly changed their mindset.
Yes, they used to be a bunch of submissive fools who didn't have guns and didn't dare to fight the bandits. They could only let them slaughter them.
But now, they have all become soldiers of the Luo family army, they have guns, and they have strong comrades fighting alongside them. They even receive a lot of money from the Luo family army!
If that's the case, then why do they still submit to their fate as before? What are the guns in their hands for?
Provoked by Luo Ke, the militiamen's fighting spirit and anger surged, especially since they had witnessed Luo's army brutally defeating various bandits, which gave them enough confidence in Luo's army.
So what if the bandits outnumbered and outgunned? Were the Luo family army any worse than the bandits?
Moreover, they had no way out. If those bandits were to attack, they knew very well what a force of several hundred outsiders meant to them. If they failed to resist, the villages within a hundred miles would probably be burned to the ground in an instant.
Seeing that he had successfully ignited the passion and anger in these people's hearts, Rock nodded in satisfaction.
To be honest, he was a little worried before. What if these guys were really like the Qing Dynasty people in many places, used to being obedient subjects all day long, and didn't even know how to resist when a knife was held to their necks?
But clearly, these people haven't lost their fighting spirit; they just lacked the opportunity and the one thing that truly pushed them to the brink.
When they realize that laying down their guns will only lead to their death, the fighting spirit they unleash will be beyond imagination.
The villagers, who had ventured all the way to Northeast China and started their lives from scratch, were never lacking in courage. They simply lacked someone who could unite them and arm them.
After inspiring the villagers' fighting spirit, Luo Ke immediately led a team to patrol the area controlled by the Luo family army with him, and distributed muskets to each village.
After killing the bandits, he collected more than 200 homemade guns of different types. Although most of these guns were of very poor quality and Rock didn't care about them, it was still fine to distribute them to the villagers for defense.
However, when he distributed the muskets, he made it clear to the villagers that they were only being lent to them, not given as a gift.
Once this crisis is over, they'll have to return the muskets and gunpowder.
Rock did not want all the people under his control to be armed, after all, the United States in later generations had already demonstrated what it would be like if everyone were armed.
Under normal circumstances, it would be enough for his soldiers to protect these villagers. Moreover, for these villagers living in the harsh and cold Northeast, having a gun and not having a gun are two completely different things.
When they didn't have guns, most of them were obedient and compliant citizens. But if they were given a whole bunch of firearms, it's hard to say whether they would still be as well-behaved as before.
After all, where did all these local bandits come from? They couldn't have just sprung up out of thin air, could they?