Chapter 82 - Mixed Unit
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
After Shi Xiong left, Shi Hu, who was just mentioned, walked out and said respectfully, "Great shaman, you arranged me to go to Shanhai Town, do you have any other orders?"
"Shi Hu, don't overthink it. When you go there, you must treat yourself as a part of it. You must be loyal to your lord. I have a feeling that this lord will be the ruler of the entire Lianzhou Basin. This is an opportunity for our people." The great shaman did in fact kept some things away from Shi Xiong.
"Shi Xiong is too conservative that it hinders progress. You are different. You are smart and adaptive. This time, going to Shanhai Town is an opportunity. Do you understand?" The great shaman said.
"I understand!" Shi Hu nodded his head.
"That's good. Go make your preparations, pick your best warrior, and don't lose the honor of Xuanniao tribe."
"Yes!" Shi Hu turned around and left.
In the front yard meeting room, Shi Xiong told Ouyang Shuo the decision of the great shaman. Upon hearing the decision, Ouyang Shuo was very pleased; the results of the cooperation had exceeded what he had expected.
"Big leader, let's have a good cooperation!" Ouyang Shuo laughed.
"Good cooperation!" After agreeing to cooperate, Shi Xiong released Zhang Daniu and the other men.
After being locked up for the day, the village protection squad had undergone some hardship and were dirty beyond belief. They looked nothing like members of Shanhai Town army. All of them were embarrassed when they saw Ouyang Shuo.
Zhang Daniu led the squad and kneeled down. "I made a mistake, ruining the name of Shanhai Town, sire please punish me!"
The other members of the village protection squad echoed, "Sire, punish us!"
For this village protection squad, Ouyang Shuo didn't have anything good to say, coldly saying, "Get up, you still haven't lost enough face? I'll deal with you all later."
"Yes!" Under Zhang Daniu's lead, they all backed out of the mountain stronghold and gathered with the infantry squadron outside.
As it was already close to noon, Ouyang Shuo accepted Shi Xiong's invitation to stay for lunch. As compared to Shanhai Town, the food here obviously couldn't compare. But eating smoked meat, pickled vegetables, wild animals, and various bugs had a different kind of flavor.
After lunch, the selection of the 200 warriors had also been completed. Sihu led them and lined up at the mountain stronghold square. As they knew that these warriors were going far away, their family members all came out to send them. Regardless of the one being sent or the one sending, everyone had a sad expression on their face. The leader said that the family members of the warriors would have priority for food and to them, nothing was more important than food.
"Sire, Shi Hu has gathered 200 warriors, please take a look!" Seeing Ouyang Shuo, Shi Hu said loudly.
Ouyang Shuo nodded his head, instantly having a good impression of this little mountain barbarian. "Brother Shi it has been tough, this trip to Shanhai Town, I promise it won’t disappoint any of you."
Before leaving, the leader Shi Xiong brought out a wooden box and ran over, "The great shaman couldn’t send you all off because of her health, so she ordered me to bring this for lord."
"Thank you for her gift, hopefully there will be another chance for me to see her."Ouyang Shuo laughed and said as he received the box.
"Ok, I will tell her what you said."
"Goodbye!" Ouyang Shuo did not waste any more time and said goodbye to the leader before leaving. After meeting with the squadron which was gathered outside the mountain stronghold, he ordered everyone to rush back to Shanhai Town.
At 4 PM in the afternoon, they returned to Qiushui Village. When the village chief Zhao Dexian saw them return, he heaved a sigh of relief.
Ouyang Shuo's first action upon returning was to announce the punishment of the village protection squad: Zhang Daniu had a half year penalty, the sergeants 3 months, and all the soldiers 1 month.
"As what they say: Every mistake is a learning opportunity. Hopefully you will learn your mistake and train hard to change class and protect Qiushui Village well."
"We won’t let sire down!" After this failure, the village protection squad was more motivated to prove themselves.
Ouyang Shuo did not have plans for them to rest and ordered Zhang Daniu to search for raiders around the village. If they find them, they couldn’t hold back, and if they found a giant raiders camp, they must call for help from Shanhai Town.
Originally, Zhang Daniu had expected to be fired and didn’t expect that Ouyang Shuo would let him off so lightly. He still trusted him so much and that caused him to be very grateful.
Settling the issue with the village protection squad, Ouyang Shuo spent 100 gold at the intermediate market at Qiushui Village and bought 10,000 units of grains. According to their agreement, Xuanniao tribe will send people down to collect these.
Seeing that Ouyang Shuo had kept his promise, Shi Hu and the other men became more relaxed. These grains would help solve the problem in the tribe and their families would not need to starve.
After which, Ouyang Shuo brought his troops back to Shanhai Town. Before leaving, he left Zhao Dexian with 50 gold to use to let the village protection squad undergo a class change.
Fan Zhongyan had brought all the officials and had waited for Ouyang Shuo. After meeting, he laughed and said," The two days that sire had left, the territory felt like it lost its spine. Finally you returned."
"Haha, with you covering, I have no worries." On the way back Ouyang Shuo told the three directors about the deal with Xuanniao tribe. Following which he said to Tian Wenjing, "As for the precious ore agreement, I will need the director to handle it. We can think about sending a few miners over to their tribe and help them out. In this aspect we are a bit more professional!"
Tian Wenjing nodded his head," Don’t worry sire, I will get this done!"
After returning to Shanhai Town, Ouyang Shuo let everyone go their own way, he brought the unit back to the barracks, changing the class of the mountain barbarians to infantry. The high-rank class change chamber no longer needed to go through the militia class change face and could directly class change to soldier.
After the class change, Ouyang Shuo only had 75 gold left, becoming a poor man once again. He took the chance to convene a meeting with everyone that was a lieutenant and above. "I will first announce a few personnel changes. Shi Hu will be the deputy captain of the 2nd squadron, and Wang Feng will be the deputy captain of the 3rd infantry squadron.
Shi Hu and Wang Feng stepped out and shouted, "Thank you sire, we won’t let you down."
As the representative of the mountain barbarians, Shi Hu's promotion was to be expected. However, Wang Feng, who was promoted to sergeant when he entered, now after a few days was promoted to deputy captain. This wasn’t that Ouyang Shuo was being biased but as the disciple of Lin Yue, he did have that ability.
Ouyang Shuo could also imagine that once Wang Feng became a basic rank general, he would be stronger than Zhao Sihu. Wang Feng had obtained the real Bajiquan. Definitely, martial arts was only a small part of being a leader, but one must admit that it added extra points.
"The two squadron sergeants will be recommended by the captains and approved by General Shi." With regards to the sergeants, Ouyang Shuo hadn’t been bothered by it. Last time when he’d arranged Lin Yue's 5 disciples to the infantry was a special situation.
"We understand!"
"Hu Yibiao!"
"Present!"
"You are to be promoted to infantry 1st squadron captain!" Hu Yibiao was a 25 year old who’d performed exceptionally in the water stronghold battle. This was considered a late reward.
"Thank you sire, I won’t let you down."
After settling the infantry, Ouyang Shuo was going to deal with the cavalry.
"Li Mingliang!"
"Present!"
"I order you to be in charge of forming the second cavalry squadron. When funds are enough, change your class straight away.”
"Yes sire!"
As one of the earliest sergeants, Li Mingliang's ability was unquestioned, and asking him to build the second cavalry squadron was the same as appointing him as the captain of the squadron.
"Liao Kai!"
"Present!"
"You are the vice captain of the first cavalry squadron and lieutenant of the first platoon!" As the second generation sergeant similar to Zhou Feng, Liao Kai's promotion was to be expected.
"Thank you sire, I won’t let you down."
"Ge Liang!"
"Present!"
"You are the first squadron second platoon lieutenant!" Ge Liang was similar to Hu Yibiao, and had performed well in the water stronghold battle.
The six people who were promoted were all elite soldiers which had not changed class. They needed to change class to basic rank general, which would solve the current Shanhai Town general shortage.
After settling the issues with the cavalry, Ouyang Shuo tossed out one last bomb. "The above 3 infantry squadrons and the 2 cavalry squadrons will act as the foundation for the establishment of Shanhai Town's infantry-cavalry Mixed unit, General Shi will be the major in charge.”
General Shi had finally walked out of the dark shadow of the raider camp failure, obtaining Ouyang Shuo's trust once again and leading the strongest military force in Shanhai Town, he said emotionally, "Thank you sire for your trust!"
Following the rules that he had set, and to maintain the normal running of the territory, the number of militants could not exceed a tenth of the territory population. This is to say that at the grade 2 town, one unit was already the max and the military would not be expanded.
As the Lianzhou basin was a flatland, it was more suited for a large-scale army battle. The current arrangement was just a power play. In the end, they still would need to build an infantry unit and a cavalry unit.