Capítulo 23: The Yellow Turban Catastrophe (3)
Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"Ding! Player, you have just killed Level 20 Yellow Turban soldiers and received 75 points of experience."
"Ding! Level of completion of achievement 'Ten Thousand Strikes': 37/10000."
"Ding! Player, you have just killed Level 20 Yellow Turban soldiers and received 75 points of experience."
...
Chu Tian's blood was boiling in his veins and his heart was ablaze. Although his strength was just slightly past 20, he led his team of local soldiers and charged forward to the frontline, driving the Yellow Turban soldiers out from the entrance to the outside of the village, spilling blood all over the place.
After the chief of the Yellow Turban soldiers was killed, the morale of the Yellow Turban troop suffered drastically, the whole army fell into distress and disarray.
An iron blade slashed Chu Tian's leather armor, leaving a blade mark on his armor and sending excruciating pain shooting through his arm. Although the ability of players in Feudal Lords to sense pain had decreased marginally, the wound still caused a heart-piercing pain.
He had nearly been killed by the Yellow Turban soldiers.
"Lord village chief, are you alright?"
A longsword penetrated the chest of the Yellow Turban soldier.
The wandering fighter of the Three Kingdoms, Wu Shang, had killed the Yellow Turban soldier.
"Still alive..."
Chu Tian checked his own status. Much to his surprise, he was severely injured and his total attribute was -80%. His strength wasn't high to begin with, leaving him with a pathetic single digit at the moment. Worse still, it caused him to bleed.
"Li Lan, come and help the village chief put a stop to his bleeding!"
"Coming!"
Li Lan carried a wooden first-aid kit on her back and hurried over to Chu Tian's side. She opened the kit and tended to Chu Tian's wound with hemostatic herbs, then bandaged his wound.
"Zhao Qi is injured too!"
The bronze-level hero Zhao Qi had been injured by the Yellow Turban soldiers in the midst of the fight.
The small-scale skirmish developed into a wild battle as it progressed. At least 80 Yellow Turban soldiers were killed at Xia Village, the remaining soldiers fleeing in a thorough defeat.
Due to the treatment provided by doctor Li Lan, Chu Tian's injury did not get worse. Scars would not be left behind in the world of Feudal Lords, as it would be too cruel to male players with OCD or female players who valued their beauty.
"This time, we managed to capture 11 horses and 23 Yellow Turban soldiers. Rewards include 10 taels of gold, 237 taels of silver, about 10,000 copper coins, and about a hundred weapons. There's also a special construction drawing," Elder Li reported to Chu Tian, his eyes shimmering with happiness at all these gains. As far as Xia Village was concerned, this was a grand victory, worth being jotted down in the feudal lord's journal.
Although all they did was obliterate 80 Yellow Turban soldiers and capture 23 of them…
In Feudal Lords, there were several ways to deal with prisoners of war. Varying from mild to serious in terms of options, there was release, submission, slavery, or execution.
Being faced with a shortage of manpower, Chu Tian chose to enslave the 23 Yellow Turban soldiers.
Apart from the normal population of Xia Village, they had gained 23 coolies, who would be allocated to productive activities like logging, mining, and farming. The only difference from freemen was that almost all the fruits of the coolies' labor would be owned by the feudal lord. In other words, these captives were contributing their manpower for free; he only had to ensure that they did not starve to death.
The drawback of opting for slavery, however, was that it reduced the public security of the village, because the coolies posed a threat due to potential insurgence.
However, if the group of Yellow Turban soldiers were offered surrender right away, popular sentiment among the villagers, who had just bred enmity with them, would decline.
Chu Tian took over the special construction drawing ransacked from the chief of the Yellow Turban soldiers, which turned out to be a drawing of a Level 2 prison.
It happened to be useful for imprisoning the captured Yellow Turban soldiers, who then could be enslaved for labor.
"Wars are the quickest way to make money, indeed."
Chu Tian couldn't help but heave a sentimental sigh when he saw the weapons and gold, silver, and copper coins piled on the ground. In the past, the Mongolian Empire had strengthened itself through relentless wars and conquests, amassing tremendous wealth.
Placing too much importance on military affairs and neglecting agriculture and commerce had its shortcomings as well. Once you were defeated, the economy of the entire territory would collapse at a very fast rate, suffering rebellions, betrayals, and division soon enough.
"Transport all the war profits back to the village. Take an inventory and keep them in store, we'll allocate them later."
Chu Tian had the villagers take care of the precious horses and handed the bows and arrows to the elite infantrymen to use. The infantrymen in the front rows were responsible for fending off the enemy's assault, whereas those in the back rows would fire at the enemy with bows and arrows.
"We lost 4 elite infantrymen and 35 local soldiers in total. Many have sustained injuries as well," Hua Mulan reported the losses suffered by Xia Village in the battle to Chu Tian.
The death ratio almost hit 1:10! The soldiers with long spears led by Hua Mulan fought the attack by 20 Yellow Turban soldiers face to face, only losing 4 people in the fight. In comparison, the loss of the local soldiers was disastrous, but Level 15 local soldiers were weaker than Level 20 Yellow Turban soldiers, so that made sense.
The ideology of elite route was manifested incisively in Feudal Lords. The grade of a troop of elite soldiers certainly wasn't low and the declining speed of morale was slow. In comparison, new troops quickly collapsed due to a fast decline in morale.
In the meantime, a good command-type hero was particularly valuable. Despite being a strength-type hero, Hua Mulan still managed to contribute 25% of contribution. Just imagine!
"Send condolences to the families of the deceased local soldiers. Their tax rates will be reduced where appropriate from now on."
Chu Tian realized that despite their victory, popular sentiment would still inevitably be affected. If a family lost a capable member in the battle, their livelihood would be in crisis, and popular sentiment would decline.
"Endless calamities and misfortunes! When will the world ever be peaceful?" Elder Li sighed. "I'm sending my condolences to those families right now."
While Elder Li was comforting the people, his daughter, Li Lan, brought doctors and apprentices and went to work, treating the injured local soldiers and helping them recover their fighting capacities.
Chu Tian's status changed from severely injured to mildly injured, as he had received treatment already. This was another disparity that still existed between Feudal Lords and reality. Chu Tian would have to be bedridden for a year or two to recover if he had been struck across the armor in real life.
The Yellow Turban soldiers would make a comeback anytime soon. The villagers of Xia Village were racing against time to repair the wooden gates at the entrance of the village, burying dead bodies at the same time. The seized weapons, bows, and arrows were distributed to the infantrymen and local soldiers in order to enhance their combat capacities.
No Yellow Turban soldiers came to attack that afternoon, but Chu Tian received a request for help from Xiaozhu Village. Xiaozhu Village did not possess professional military camps. All they had was a camp for local soldiers, which wouldn't necessarily be able to fend off the Yellow Turban soldiers, like Xia Village did. It was apparent from the large-scale deaths of local soldiers in this battle that the combat ability of local soldiers was worrisome, not to mention that Xiaozhu Village had no royal heroes.
Hua Mulan alone contributed half of the military score of Xia Village.
"The neighboring village is our ally; they are willing to hire our troops as auxiliary forces with money. It is only 5 kilometers away, so we can reach there soon with our forced marches. Zhao Qi, Wu Shang, the two of you will be guarding the village with the local soldiers. Do not launch a battle. Hua Mulan, we will go provide aid with our infantry."
Upon learning about the plight of their ally, Chu Tian took an inventory of his soldiers and went forward to aid Xiaozhu Village.
He made this decision not only because Xiaozhu Village was willing to pay the price, but Chu Tian had his own personal bias as well. When the function of conquering other players' territories was activated in the future, Xiaozhu Village, which was only 5 km away from Xia Village, would very likely become Xia Village's appendage, or even merge with Xia Village. If Xiaozhu Village got destroyed now, it would be such a waste to lose Xiaozhu Village's several hundred villagers, rice stores, commerce centers. and mulberry fields.
Hua Mulan assembled the 46 remaining elite infantrymen and followed Chu Tian to aid Xiaozhu Village. He also utilized the 11 captured horses and 4 original horses of Xia Village, forming a team of 15 riders.
Infantrymen would not turn into cavalrymen just because they had horses, the horses merely served as substitutes for walking.
Chu Tian, Hua Mulan, 2 light infantrymen, and 11 elite infantrymen formed the first auxiliary troop. At the speed of lightning, 35 elite infantrymen formed the second auxiliary troop and arrived right after the first.
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