Chapter 19- Beginner
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Levs
Ouyang Shuo headed back to the Lord’s Manor, tying Blackfang back up before he entered the office. Just as he sat down, Gu Xiuwen, his clerk and household registrar, came in with two tall men.
One of the men was about thirty years old, and unarmed. He had an evenly spaced face, wide and open under his thick eyebrows, with a pair of shrewd, deep eyes flashing as they looked him over. He had an extremely developed physique, particularly in his shoulders and arms.
The other man was in his early twenties, armed with a spear, and with a knife at his waist. His face was exceptionally attractive, with carved facial features looking like a sculptor had carved them, definitely a lady’s man.
Giu Xiuwen asked Ouyang Shuo about his well-being, and introduced the two men. “Sire, these two heroes are two special talents that have just arrived in the village. They are a pair of brothers. This good man is Lin Yue, excellent at unarmed combat, an Advanced Martial Arts instructor. His good brother is a Basic Officer called Lin Yi.”
The Lins took the opportunity to come forward, theirs hands clasped, bowing slightly. “Lin Yue (Lin Yi) pays respects to the lord!”
An Advanced Martial Guru and a Basic Officer? Ouyang Shuo was definitely interested in this, and was pleased to respond. “Two heroes, welcome, welcome! Today we welcome two very talented men, it is Shanhai Village’s fortune!” He gestured for them to sit before proceeding. “Since both of you have such great skill, will you be willing to fight for our army?”
Hearing this, the younger man, Lin Yi, revealed an eager expression, obviously quite willing to do so. But the older brother was quiet, not showing his inner thoughts. Seeing the older brother not displaying anything, Ouyang Shuo suppressed his emotions inside. Obviously this wasn’t an easy man to win over, and Ouyang Shuo nodded in approval.
Lin Yue hesitated a moment, then spoke slowly. “Your lordship, I will not lie to you. I have the ability to teach fist fighting and some footwork, but I am not suitable for the military. I suffered a serious injury in the past, and its effects haunt me still, I fear I could not live up to your expectations. My brother, although stubborn, is also skilled in martial arts. If the lord is willing, he can be set up in your army, and some strict discipline will be good for him. He will serve you well for both of us.”
Ouyang Shuo nodded slightly. This Lin Yue was an honest man through and through, he’s not just a simple instructor. At this moment, Ouyang Shuo wasn’t going to delve deeper into his history. “Master Lin has an illness in his body, it would not be good to force you. The village has an advanced doctor, I will ask him to render a diagnosis and treatment for you. In addition, the village is about to establish a martial arts dojo. When you have the time, I will have to ask Master Lin to sit down with the villagers and arrange classes to teach martial arts to them. This will help them get more physically fit and would let everyone learn some self-defense. With the wilderness nearby, a little protection could go a long way! I hope that Master Lin will not refuse my request!”
For such a noble purpose, Lin Yue could naturally not decline. Moreover, the establishment of a dojo was exactly in line with his desires. “I thank the Lord for his consideration, I would not dare to disappoint you!” He replied quickly.
Ouyang Shuo laughed, and then said, “As for Younger brother Lin, I think you will be excellent material for the militia group’s leader! I think that with your ability, you will fulfill my trust!”
Master Lin again bowed. “Thank you, lord! We will not disappoint you!”
Ouyang Shuo took the opportunity to check the stats of the two brothers.
Name: Lin Yue (silver)
Identity: Shanhai Villager
Occupation: Advanced Martial Arts Instructor
Loyalty: 75 points
Feature: Proficient in Fist Fighting (Enhances the Fist Martial Arts of the territory by 10%)
Evaluation: Mysterious origin, once a famous fighter. Due to residual injuries, forced to leave.
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Name: Lin Yi (black iron)
Identity: Shanhai Village Militia Third Sergeant
Occupation: Basic Officer
Loyalty: 75 points
Command: 30
Force: 40
Intelligence: 20
Political: 15
Internal Power: Lin Family Spearmanship (a total of twelve types)
Equipment: Fine Iron Spear, Belt Knife
Evaluation: Has studied the art of war, practices spearmanship. However, his temperament is unruly and unconventional.
The brothers were definitely a bit different from one another. Master Lin was evaluated by the system as a fist style master, helping to raise the fist fighting ability of the entire territory. Such an ability was simply a great help for the whole village.
Ouyang Shuo guessed that if he could cure Master Lin’s injuries, he would become at least a Master Martial Arts Instructor. For this, he could only lay his hopes on Dr. Song and pray, but he didn’t have high hopes as he didn't think an advanced doctor would be able to solve the problem.
Lin Yi was definitely not so simple, either. Although only a black iron character, he came with his own technique and equipment. He had great potential and opportunity for growth. Putting him in the army under the command of General Shi and with a little luck in the future, he would become a major asset.
Through these last few days, Ouyang Shuo had slowly noticed that the system seemed to have revised its rules for generating immigrants. First, the closer to the start, such as an upgrade or starting the village, the more likely it was for the system to bring in some special talent. If the village had reached the required special talents to upgrade, the system would basically just send more farmers his way and rarely would there be special talents.
Another thing he’d noticed was that as the characteristics of the village rose it could also attract higher level talents from time to time. One must know that a grade 1 village focused on basic elementary talents and Shanhai Village already had three high class advanced talents.
If the other lords knew this, they’d die from envy. For a lot of lords, an intermediate talent was not something they have yet, advanced talents were just utterly ridiculous luxuries.
Their welcome meeting finished, Ouyang Shuo told Gu Xiuwen to arrange comfortable accommodations for Master Lin. He would take younger Lin to the barracks. As a basic officer, Lin Yi did not need to change his class.
The fundamental difference between a soldier and an officer was the number of troops they could command. According to the military system, a soldier could only be promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, leading a platoon of 50 soldiers.
With 10 platoons, 500 soldiers, an unit is formed, led by a major, which requires at least a basic officer.
Five units formed a regiment, a total of 2500 soldiers, led by a colonel, which requires at least an intermediate officer.
Five regiments formed a division, with another 1000 people under the major general, for a total of 13,500 people, which required a advanced officer.
4 divisions formed a legion, with 10,000 people under the commanding general, a total of 55,000 people. This was a massive army, and only special officers could possibly command them. If you put a number of legion together in an army group, then only a lord or lord-appointed marshal could do the job.
Therefore later on, the demand for officers in any territory would be very high. It was unrealistic to hope that your officers would be of great quality, if you didn’t have the forces to attract them to service...unless there was a powerful territorial draw such as Shanhai Village, a gold-level village.
Most officers were being class changed from soldiers. The Intermediate Class Barracks’ Class Change Chamber could transform level 10 militia into rank 1 soldiers. The soldiers had 9 ranks to climb. Ranks 1 to 3 were normal soldiers, 4 to 6 were the veterans, and 7 to 9 were elite soldiers.
Ordinary soldiers need to advance all the way to rank 9 elites, before they could go through an Advanced Barracks’ Class Change Chamber and change into Basic Officers.
It was because of this that Ouyang Shuo was paying so much attention to Lin Yi. When the two of them came to the barracks, General Shi had just came back. After Lin Yi had reported to his new commander and spoken of his history, Ouyang Shuo was ready to leave.
General Shi stopped him suddenly, saying seriously, “Lord, I have something to report!”
Ouyang Shuo stopped, a little puzzled, and asked, “Oh? What’s happened?”
“One of the scouts had just reported back to me. They just came back from patrol, and when they scouted the territory, they accidentally discovered a raider camp!”
Ouyang Shuo was momentarily surprised by this development. Raider and bandit, the two scourges of the wilderness. “Had the patrol alerted them?” He asked urgently.
General Shi shook his head, saying, “They were not alerted. The patrol was led by San Gouzi, and they were quite clever. They saw the camp from afar, and have set down to monitor the larger force from a distance, sending a runner to return here and report!”
“Excellent, they have done well, and we must be careful! With our strength now, without knowing the strength of the enemy, we must maintain calm and restraint. General, find out two things, the size of the enemy and their general strength. If necessary, go there personally. The other thing you need to do is to seize the opportunity to pick troops for the militia as rapidly as possible. The selection of the troops will be our main priority in preparing for this fight. I will communicate with secretaries of the village to make sure this is done,” Ouyang Shuo said with great caution.
General Shi was very excited, loudly saying, “Please rest assured that the patrol will return tonight to their camp. I would like to see what ability these raiders have.”
Since General Shi was going to personally act, Ouyang Shuo was at ease. The discovery of this temporary camp could actually be a good thing for the territory. He could train up the militia team. Killing the bandits will help them level up faster than killing monsters. After destroying them, there was a high likelihood of getting some much-needed building blueprints!
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The next day, Ouyang Shuo came online and hurriedly called General Shi into his office, eager to inquire about the results of the investigation the night before.
General Shi’s ability was high, and last night he had snuck directly into the camp of the enemy, carrying out a detailed scouting mission. “My lord, here is the summary report. The whole camp numbers about a hundred people. The fighting population numbers about 60, the rest are some women and children.”
“The fighting force is divided into 3 categories. 1st is the ordinary bandits, poorly equipped, and unmounted, their strength is about equal to our militia.
“The 2nd category is the elite bandits, well-equipped, with bows, spears, and horses. From looking at their stables, I estimate there are about twenty of these elites.
“The 3rd category is their leader. There is one commander with a lieutenant, the strength of their leader is about equal to that of Lin Yi from yesterday.”
Ouyang Shuo’s face turned solemn and said, “The strength of this group of bandits was beyond my expectations. Even the ordinary bandits were as strong as our militia. In a head-on fight, I am afraid we will suffer greatly. The elite bandits with bows and arrows are, for us, a greater threat. It seems that this time we will need to be clever, and not simply storm them.”
General Shi said with some disapproval, as if admitting to cowardice, “This is the end of my report, but I do not agree. These bandits are nothing in my eyes. If I drove into their camp, I could likely kill more than half of them…”
Ouyang Shuo smiled wryly back at him. “My brave general, I know this. However, as the saying goes, the ants can also kill the elephant. You going alone is far too risky. If you failed, it would not be worth the loss. Although you have the courage, the militia team, with their simple equipment, cannot help you in such a fight.”
General Shi smiled. “Then, by the lord’s meaning, how should we do this?”
Ouyang Shuo calmly and confidently said, “At this stage, the most important thing is to accumulate the militia’s team training and whip them into shape. We will keep the status quo and quietly accumulate strength, wait until the right time, and strike! Of course, we need to keep up our surveillance, and alert the others. Let us make arrangements for the staff in case the bandits move. In addition, we need to get the defenses of the village working, so as to avoid any accidents!”
“Yes!” Finished with the meeting, General Shi promptly left to arrange the defense of the village.