章 26: Prepare for War
Ouyang Shuo went to the Basic Market, and opened the Material Trading Platform. He first looked at the prices. A roll of linen was priced at 10 silver coins, fine silk at 50 silver coins.
In this case, 42 rolls of linen and a silk roll totalled out to 470 silver coins, less than 5 gold coins. This reflected how tough it was to build up gold, and its purchasing power.
The materials arrived in the hut, and Yingyu came over with her Material Reserve Division workers to take the cloth away.
Taking this opportunity, Ouyang Shuo also cleaned up the beast furs in storage. The most precious were no doubt the four pieces of quality 8 king boar skin and the two quality 6 mutant boar hide.
In addition, there were 30 pieces of damaged beast fur at quality 1, 40 quality 2 ordinary furs, and 10 quality 4 perfect furs. He took all the fur out and along with the cloth, had it all delivered to Little Sister Mu.
After dealing with the cloth supply, he was ready to go to the blacksmith shop, and check on the production of arrows. Arrow consumption was very fast. They had seized 1000 arrows from the raiding camp, which when divided up among the soldiers was only 20 arrows each. That was barely enough to meet daily training requirements.
In order to deal with the upcoming beastwave, Ouyang Shuo had told blacksmith Li Tiezhu to make only arrows. He walked into the smithy, which was in full swing.
Coincidentally, Sergeant Zhang Daniu of the First Militia Squad was leading four men to the shop to retrieve the completed arrows. Seeing Ouyang Shuo, Daniu hurriedly saluted, “Sire!”
“How are you adapting after the class change transformation?” Ouyang Shuo asked him directly.
“Sir, after the class change, everyone was very happy, very ready to go fight! General Shi has been assigning us to strict training and work details, and we are all eager to show our strength!”
“Very good.”
Ouyang Shuo turned around and looked to Smith Li. “Master Li, you’ve been working hard these past few days. How many arrows have you crafted?”
“Ever since receiving my lord’s orders, we have managed to make 1500 arrows. In accordance with this progress, before the expected arrival of the beastwave, we should be able to make another 1600 arrows.”
“Excellent, that is very efficient,” Ouyang Shuo nodded in satisfaction. Three thousand arrows should be enough to cope with the incoming beastwave. “Daniu, pass these words to General Shi when you return to the barracks. Tell him that his defense plan is excellent and have him start making the preparations to implement it.”
“Yes, sire!”
“Good! Seeing that arrow production is proceeding smoothly, I will leave you to your work!”
Heading back to the manor, Gu Sanniang was preparing lunch. Ever since the advanced chef had moved into the manor, the food cooked in the manor had been increasingly delicious. Thus, as long as they weren’t busy with work, the people living in the manor would return to eat there.
The only exception was General Shi. Since establishing his crossbowmen cavalry, the General’s enthusiasm for training had completely taken him over. Since then, he had been living with the soldiers in the barracks, returning back to the courtyard less and less often.
With Ouyang Shuo there, there was no such rules at to keep quiet while dining. With this opportunity to sit and eat together, it was easy to talk about what everyone was doing in their respective divisions. This kind of cross-talk was a good thing, sometimes they could eventually solve problems while eating at the dinner table.
Seeing Ouyang Shuo eating two mouthful of food, little sister Mu smiled and said, “Big brother, you are so bad!”
Ouyang Shuo blinked in confusion. “How is that so? Did I bully you?” Everyone was curious to see what would pop out of this young lady’s mouth.
“Big brother, you sent me those beast furs, and some of it was actually quality 8! You did not tell little sister, and they were mixed in with the other skins!
If I had not seen them, they would have been thrown to the apprentices! Such a terrible waste! You were truly bad, big brother!” Sister Mu was obviously proud of herself for catching his mistake, and making trouble for him.
Ouyang Shuo was a little embarrassed, as it was indeed his mistake. “I forgot to tell you when I had the idea to include them. It is good that little sister has such keen eyes and I did not make an irreversible error.” Of course, he knew Sister Mu liked to hear compliments, and so praising her was easy.
Sure enough, she grinned so hard she was squinting. “Hee hee, there is such a high quality leather hide, little sister can sew it up for big brother!”
“Well, then, big brother will thank his little sister in advance for her work!”
Lunch ended to much laughter all around. Ouyang Shuo did not go out that afternoon, opting to stay in the office and concentrate on reading. In the game, although there was no reading skill in one’s stats, a certain degree of reading would increase the inherent value of his comprehension.
Therefore, since the office had shelves of books, Ouyang Shuo liked to stay in the office there and read. At the same time, he was also looking forwards to increasing his comprehension. It had been proven in the game, reading here or in reality was the same. You had to actually read word by word with the intention to learn, not just turn pages and look like you were doing so.
************************************
_Gaia 1st year 25th day. It was a sunny day, a day to travel, finish planting, open market, and avoid migrations._
Ouyang Shuo began to preside over the weekly meeting. “Everyone, there is only one theme for today’s meeting. That is, in five days, the beastwave arrives. We are going to be talking about the plan of defense for Shanhai.”
General Shi rose after the introduction, beginning his talk by focusing on the need to explain the matter with the Secretaries. “First, we need to check the household registration for any hunters. The layout of the trap defense chain requires cooperation from the hunters, especially any that are good at arranging traps.”
Gu Xiuwen stood up and smiled. “There is no need to worry the general. I was about to report to sire, two special talents have appeared among the new immigrants, and one of them is an intermediate hunter.”
General Shi laughed as he heard this. “Just the right time, indeed! Where is he now?”
Ouyang Shuo waved his hand. “General Shi, no need to be anxious. With Xiuwen on the task, we are assured it will be done right. Xiuwen, why not take this opportunity to tell us about these two special talents?”
The hunter is called Yang Zhui, a young man of twenty-five years. The other person is an old man called Fan Jin, and he is a Scholar,“ Xiuwen said concisely.
“Oh?! This is twice the joy!” Ouyang Shuo was not interested in getting deeper into this matter right now, however. After all, the theme of the meeting was the beastwave. He looked back to General Shi. “General, please continue.”
General Shi went on,” Since we have a hunter, then I hope the construction division can help with the work of digging the traps. In addition, we will need to mark the edges of the traps, and explain clearly to the villagers to pay attention to their feet and not step into them.”
“That is definitely something we need to pay attention to. Xiuwen, make a notice about the traps, clear and concise, and have it posted in the village,” Ouyang Shuo said to Gu Xiuwen.
“Yes, sire!” Of course Xiuwen was not going to decline such orders that protects the villagers. “In addition, I have a proposal. We can mobilize the strength of all the villagers for participation in the defense of the territory. I suggest that the logging field make a number of wooden javelins. General Shi could arrange some of his cavalry to organize the villagers for javelin training.”
He hadn’t thought Gu Xiuwen had such a military mind behind his scholar’s facade. Ouyang Shuo nodded and praised him, “Yes, this is a good idea, Xiuwen. I very much agree.”
General Shi glanced at Xiuwen and said, “I agree also.”
“We have no problems in the Reserve Division, and estimate that we should be able to make around five thousand simple wooden javelins over the next five days,” Cui Yingyu said smartly.
“As for the Construction Division here, we have completed all the buildings except the private school. They should be able to help that hunter Yang with digging traps,” Ouyang Shuo said, turning to Zhao Dewang.
Zhao Dewang also agreed readily to this.
At this time, Reclamation Secretary Zhao Dexian stood up, and said solemnly, “Sire, I have something to say.”
“Please speak up!”
“Sire, I worry about the beasts during the siege. If they intrude upon the farmland, will it cause the planted potatoes to go bad?” This batch of potatoes, considered as the hope of the territory, was something he attached great importance to.
“This is a problem, do we have any solutions?” Ouyang Shuo asked.
“The farms are located on the edge of the river and at the edge of our territory. We can speculate that the animals will be directed towards the village and will not wander around, so the farms and fields should stay fairly clear,” General Shi said. “At the edges of the fields dig a trench, perhaps sprinkle some dung in there. By and large, the beasts should avoid the farmland. Even if there are some random stragglers straying into the farmland, the loss will not be much, and can be remedied.”
Hearing this, Zhao Dexian laughed. “The general’s words are very good, and digging the trenches will not be a waste, they can be integrated into the irrigation system. Wonderful, wonderful!”
General Shi just smiled. He had not considered that point, having looked at it strictly from the military point of view.
Seeing everyone talking about the event, Ouyang Shuo took advantage of the moment to end the proceedings. “We all want a lot of good countermeasures to defend our territory. I hope everyone performs their duties as we prepare for war. In addition, Dr. Song has moved his quarters to the hospital, please make temporary accommodations for scholar Elder Fan in the courtyard.”
“Yes, sire.”
*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes
*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap
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