Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 203 Steam Rifle
"High power? How powerful can something driven by steam be? Isn't it just an air gun? I've seen that thing before. It's okay for shooting rabbits." Hughes muttered softly, but this was not a good opportunity to talk. Seeing that the battlefield was almost cleaned up, he let Alexi lead the team back.

Many murlocs escaped, and Ash took the Banshee Squad to harvest them. The murlocs couldn't run at all and were just fish on the chopping board.

Xiu specifically instructed to capture a few alive and send them to the Fire Moths, as interrogating them might yield some results.

Alexei took the soldiers back. This battle had shocked him so much that he felt that he was not taking the soldiers to the battlefield, but taking them on an outing.

Walk to the designated location, load, shoot, load, shoot, and win.

How could the battle become such a simple thing?

Before, Alexei admired the knight commander who served with Her Majesty the Queen the most. He could lead his team to disperse enemies that were several times larger than his own, and no one could be his match.

He might be able to fight off a group of enemies by himself, but could he lead this group of recruits to win a battle like they were on an outing?

Rifled rifles and Minié bullets can.

Alexei still had the scimitar given to him by Hughes hanging around his waist, but until the end, it never had the chance to be unsheathed.

Alexei studied the latest combat tactics at the Imperial Army Academy, but after his first battle, he felt he was still out of touch.

Technology is advancing faster than he can adapt, which makes him feel at a loss.
Alexi glanced at the corpses of the fishmen scattered all over the ground. Well, the opponents were even more uncomfortable than him, and there was no chance for them to adapt.

So he took a deep breath and began to issue orders one by one. After cleaning up the battlefield, he had to lead the team back. He still had a lot of work to do, including summarizing the performance of the battle, organizing the next step of training, rewards and punishments, and improving tactics.

For example, Alexei felt that the drummers in the army were not very useful. The tactic of firing in a line where soldiers marched in unison to the beat of drums could basically be thrown into the trash. He had no idea what to replace them with or how to conduct future battles.

He just went to consult Hughes, who was very interested. He proposed setting up the position of political commissar to be responsible for boosting morale.

To boost morale? It does seem to make sense. In the past, drum beats were the source of the soldiers' morale. If there were no drum beats in the future, what would they rely on?

Holy Scripture? Political Commissar?
These all need to be figured out slowly.

Alexei felt that he had endless energy all over his body. The battlefield had become something he didn't recognize, but he was still a young man. The infantry drill manual of the Army Academy had not yet become an unchangeable dogma in his mind. If there was something better, why not give it a try?

And the tactics he formulated might be named after him, Alexi Array, Alexi Codex. It's exciting to think about it.

The soldiers were also excited. They had just experienced their first battle in their lives and won it easily. They were all islanders and did not even have Alexei's concerns about gains and losses. They could wholeheartedly embrace the victory that belonged to them.

People did not cheer, but the glances they exchanged with each other were full of excitement and joy, and their gazes towards Hughes gradually became fanatical and admiring.

Elsewhere, Hughes and Chloe traveled through the underground webway to the warehouse where the steam rifles were stored. Chloe's description still made him feel a little excited. Although the words steam and rifles didn't have much in common, it couldn't hurt to take a look. Guarding the gate were several Skitarii. They saluted Hughes excitedly, looking over at him expectantly.

"Don't worry, the battle was won, and your comrades successfully killed the murlocs." Xius said with a smile.

"Yes, really? That's great! I'd love to go to the battlefield too, but it's my turn to be on duty. Are they brave enough to fight?"

Hughes thought about the soldiers who had peed their pants, the few who were lying on the ground trembling, the unlucky guy whose gun had been stuffed with extra bullets and exploded, the cleaning rod launcher, and the record of seventy people shooting at two people in a volley.
"They are very brave and live up to the name of the Skitarii."

Hughes said this solemnly. Several soldiers looked at each other and laughed. He entered the warehouse under the soldiers' gazes.

He wasn't speaking nonsense; weakness is human nature; no one is born brave and fearless. Faced with explosions and enemies, those soldiers, even when frightened to the point of peeing their pants, didn't flee. They truly deserve the reputation of bravery.

Chloe looked at the soldiers, then at Hughes, smiled, and walked in with her hands behind her back.

The warehouse was filled with supplies brought in yesterday. Ever since Castel had undergone strange changes, Xiusi had become extremely cautious. He would rather seal these things temporarily before finding out the price he would have to pay for them.

Chloe brought Hughes to a wooden box. After Connor found the steam rifle, he still had to find Chloe to recognize what it was. Connor had decades of experience in the Duke of Cohen's mansion and still didn't recognize this thing, which was enough to show how rare the steam rifle was.

"I've seen this kind of thing in the Mechanical Temple. Although they don't have any extraordinary people, when combined with all kinds of weird machines, most extraordinary people would have a hard time dealing with their mechanical priests."

"Are their Mechanic Priests covered in all sorts of mechanical components, gears, and stuff?"

"Yes, have you seen those crazy people?"

Not only have I seen it, I've also killed it—although I was killed, Hughes thought to himself.

"Do their priests wear Candlelight robes?"

"How is that possible? Are you crazy?" Chloe gave him a puzzled look. "Who would wear clothes from another church? This is the most serious blasphemy. It's common for people to be attacked directly after being discovered."

Hughes glanced at the nun's uniform on her, his eyes twitched, and he said nothing.

"This is a personal hobby. Look, this is a steam rifle." She took out a huge iron lump from the box, picked it up and gestured with it a few times with shining eyes.

"This thing is the treasure of the Mechanical Temple. I spent a lot of effort to get it before but couldn't. Can you give me a set? As long as I can fire a few shots, even if it is contaminated, it will be worth it."

Chloe looked at the steam rifle with fascination, but Hughes frowned. The barrel of the rifle was forged from brass, but the body was made of steel. The joints were connected with rivets, and blued steam pipes were arranged on it. The pipe wall was inlaid with a transparent glass observation window, so you could see the steam surging inside when using it.

(End of this chapter)