Chapter 123 – Military Grain Pills
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Levs
2 PM, Shanhai Council Chamber.
“Everyone, we will now officially start the discussion for Battle of Zhuolu. First thing, I would like to know how many soldiers will each and everyone of you bring along.” Ouyang Shuo was the first to speak.
Everyone proceeded and reported their ranks. Mulan Yue and Gong Chengshi were third viscounts, each could bring 100 men. Xunlong Dianxue was a second viscount with 200 men. Bai Hua was the highest among the 4, she was a first viscount with 300 men. The four of them can bring a total of 700 men, lesser than Ouyang Shuo alone.
After they finished counting the number of troops, Ouyang Shuo continued saying, “The battlefield, namely the Battle of Zhuolu, according to the historical data, it would be split into two factions- The Yellow Emperor, Huangdi and the God of War, Chiyou. Regarding to which faction to select, what thoughts do all of you have? Notice beforehand, I will join the faction of Huangdi the Yellow Emperor.”
Gong Chengshi made a speechless face and said: “Brother, you had already chosen the faction, then why still ask us?”
Ouyang Shuo too was a little embarrassed, he faked a cough and said: “*cough* Well, there are no obligations for allies in the alliance to choose the same faction, I am just telling you what faction I selected, even if we choose opposite sides, it will be completely alright. Moreover, when each of the alliance members have their own interests in the future, it will be inevitable for them to choose different factions.”
Xunlong Dianxue nodded understandingly, smiled and said: “Brother Wuyi is correct. If one day in the battlefield, you want to subdue this faction’s general while he would like to subdue the other faction’s general, then it will be necessary to choose the opposite factions, this is very normal. Plus, choosing opposite factions might not be a bad thing at all, we might be able to acquire intelligence and information from each other.” Xunlong Dianxue was worthy of his name as the “Mission-madman”, he was able to grasp the idea of the game easily and better than the others.
Mulan Yue was the first to choose, with a sweet voice she said: “Since brother Wuyi had chosen Huangdi, then I will follow him as well. I only have 100 men and I am relying on brother Wuyi for protections.”
“No problem!” As for Mulan Yue, Ouyang Shuo had a good impression of her. Moreover, Mu Guiying alone was worthy of over hundreds of men.
“I too, will join Huangdi’s faction.” Bai Hua next.
“So will I.” then following by Gong Chengshi.
Only Xunlong Dianxue grinned and said: “I instead find Chiyou’s faction more interesting, as the defeated party of the battle in the history, there might be a few missions and rewards worth exploring.”
“Alright, so this will be it.” Shuo said.
As the reincarnated one, Ouyang Shuo decided to disclose a few small tips to his allies. Of course, in order for them to not speculate too much, his choice of words were filled with euphemism, he said: “For the battle to come, I have a few guesses, let us discuss all of it.”
“Please speak!” The four answered in unison.
Ouyang Shuo nodded and said: “Firstly, it is about matters regarding logistics. Have all of you ever thought of it, the era of Huangdi and Chiyou still belongs to the slash-and-burn historic era. The lord players that will participate in the battle will probably be numbered around 100. In average, every lord will bring 200 soldiers, that will accumulate to a total of 20,000. When split into 2, that will be 10,000 per faction. Do you think, that Huangdi’s Youxiong tribe and Youchi’s Nine Li tribe can afford the food for such a large army?”
Xunlong Dianxue shook his head and said: “Definitely not, it will only be good enough for them to feed their own mouths, they wouldn’t have enough foods for us. Brother Wuyi’s meaning is, the expeditionary team will have to bring our own food? But it will be a problem to transport such an amount of food. We only have a limited amount of space, we can’t save some for the logistics squad. Otherwise, how could we go to war? One would rather do nothing at all.”
Bai Hua suddenly thought of Shanhai’s military parade this morning, Shanhai had prepared a full thousand of soldiers, yet there weren’t any sign of the logistics squad at all. Her heart was cleared of doubts, she smiled and said: “Brother Wuyi has a way to solve it?”
Ouyang Shuo looked at her with praiseful eyes and said: “That is right, while I was in the market, I saw a special item named ‘Military Grain Pills’. Out of curiosity I acquired one and took a look at it. It was actually a kind of food, small and round in shape. One small military grain pill can sustain the energy needed by one soldier for a day.”
“What’s the selling price?” Xunlong Dianxue eagerly asked.
“Of course it would not be cheap for such a magical thing. A military grain pill is priced at 1 silver. A soldier normally will require 2 units of foods, equivalent to 20 copper. While the military grain pill is 5 times the price of the former.”
“That will still be worth it, at least much better than a squad of logistics following behind. Heihei, but brother Wuyi, you will be awful as you have so many men, the amount of pills needed would not be little.” Xunlong Dianxue gloated at Shuo.
Ouyang Shuo smiled and said nothing, how could Xunlong Dianxue know, for Shanhai’s financial situation, what burden would he have to attain the pills.
A thousand soldiers plus warhorses would only cost him 15 gold. Even if the war raged endlessly for a month, that would only be 400-500 gold. Comparing it to the rewards he could plunder from the battlefield, it would be totally worth investing in the pills.
“Other than military grain pills, there was another one, the military tent. The military tent is detachable and foldable, it could accommodate 5 soldiers at once. Of course, what is good is not cheap, a military tent like this sells at a price of 1 gold.” Ouyang Shuo continued his little tips.
“Alright, with these two “God-level” items, logistics will not be of concern anymore.” Gong Chengshi said in great excitement.
Even Bai Hua looked excited, her beautiful eyes stared at Ouyang Shuo, trying her best to see through this man. She really couldn’t understand, how could Qiyue Wuyi understand the game so well, was it only because he was attentive to details? Or was it because he was really gifted with gaming talents that he could spot those that others can’t. Taking the military grain pills and military tents as example, the system had been publicly selling it in the market, yet no one knew how to utilize their values.
Ouyang Shuo nodded and continued on: “In truth, there are more special things than you can imagine in the market, you can explore them when you have the free time to, there might be one or two surprises waiting for you. Small things like signal flares, I don’t have to remind all of you right?”
“All I can think of was mentioned above. As for strategy and tactical planning, I will like to listen to Mr. Gongyu’s opinion.” Ouyang Shuo smiled and said while he looked at Ju Shou (aka Gongyu) who was standing behind Gong Chengshi.
Of those who were present, Ju Shou was the best in strategy and tactics.
Yesterday, Ouyang Shuo was planning to have Ge Hongliang to plan the tactical arrangements. But when Gong Chengshi arrived with the famous strategist of the Three Kingdoms, Ju Shou, Ouyang Shuo immediately cancelled his plan. He did not want to display Ge Hongliang’s slight skill before the expert Ju Shou.
Bai Hua, Xunlong Dianxue, and Mulan Yue were not idiots too, the three agreed on Ouyang Shuo’s decision, and they looked at Ju Shou together.
Even while being stared at by so many, Ju Shou wasn’t nervous at all, he stood up calmly, bowed and greeted everyone, he then said: “I am grateful for the opportunity given, I will then proceed with my opinion.”
“Please mister!” Ouyang Shuo sincerely said.
“According to historical records, the Battle of Zhoulu was a protracted war, it lasted three years with nine battles. During this period, small-scale tentative battles could happen anytime. Therefore, in order to survive and benefit the most from it, we have to expect not only the final war but also small-scale battles. Therefore, I suggest we choose units of high mobility and strong combat capability. In addition to the help of the military grain pills and military tents, we will have a headstart in the battle.” Ju Shou said.
*Pak pak pak* Ouyang Shuo was the first to clap his hands and the others followed. Ouyang Shuo smiled and said: “Mr. Ju you are indeed extraordinary!”
It was already 4 PM when the discussion meeting was finished. As of now, Shanhai Alliance’s first ally meeting had officially ended.
Before leaving, Ouyang Shuo sent everyone a little gift. Qin Qiong was given a jug of Three Flower Wine; Ju Shou was given the tea leaves of the special white tea; Gong Chengshi and Xunlong Dianxue were each given a Tang sword of high-quality.
As for the three Bai Hua sisters and Mulan Yue, they were given rainbow silk cloth of top-quality, suitable as materials for women’s clothings; Lastly, after some serious considerations, Ouyang Shuo had gifted Mu Guiying a Dark-gold level horn bow, it was the product of the Bow and Crossbow Division’s hard-work, the one-and-only horn bow that was made.
The only reason for Ouyang Shuo to give out such valuable gift was because he took into consideration that Mulan Town and Shanhai Town were both located in Lianzhou Basin, there existed plenty of opportunities to cooperate in the future. Showing his goodwill to the other party now was necessary, who knew, in the future Shanhai and Mulan might be one.
After he sent his allies off, Ouyang Shuo started preparing for the battle.
For the first half of the month of May, Langshan mining field had fully delivered a total of 4000 gold to the territory. Which from the 4000 gold, 500 gold were needed for the Beihai navy to form the second navy unit.
Walking into the Advanced Market, Ouyang Shuo started his shopping spree. His storage bag had been upgraded twice and now had a capacity of 100 cubic-meters. If he alone used the storage bag, it would be more than enough. But if he was to bring the military goods along, then 100 cubic-meters would be insufficient.
Having no choice, Ouyang Shuo grit his teeth and spent 1000 gold purchasing a large space stone, upgrading his storage bag into a capacity of 1000 cubic-meters, which was sufficient enough. As for the higher grade, giant space stone, it wasn’t sold in the market. Even if it was, with Ouyang Shuo’s financial status at the moment, he couldn’t afford the giant space stone which cost at least 50,000 gold.
The storage bag itself challenged the ancient nature order of physics, it could be counted as a bugged-item and was at the same level as the God-level items. Hence, in order to upgrade it, one would naturally have to pay a huge price.
