I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 313: Killing multiple birds with one stone

Ye Ao, Alibaba, and some other veteran players gathered together. They stood in an open space not far from the city gate, surrounding a wheelbarrow and a corpse slumped on it.

"My friend, you've really suffered..."

Someone sighed.

"He was shot in the chest. There was nothing we could do except stop the bleeding. We could only let him hold on and continue to command the battle."

"He didn't suffer that much, did he?"

someone retorted.

"Just lower the pain threshold, isn't that enough?"

"Dude, you can lower your pain threshold, but having a bullet lodged in your lung is incredibly uncomfortable, even if it doesn't hurt. Taking a deep breath feels like a blunt knife is churning inside your lung. Not to mention the suffocating feeling of blood and foam constantly rising from your trachea, wanting to cough but unable to."

As Alibaba spoke, he subconsciously touched his chest and shook his head.

"If you don't believe me, you can try it. The feeling is really... tsk tsk tsk."

Apart from the construction worker carrying the pole, the other players were all people who knew the ropes.

While the pain level can be lowered, it's not completely without sensation. If the player's character is seriously injured, the wound will still hurt; it's just a matter of how much pain is reduced.

"Let's not get off topic. We all know that Hearts of Steel has contributed and worked hard, so they'll get a bigger share of the spoils later... Now, tell me, how many players have joined?"

"Around 1,200 to 1,300, it will be less, not more."

"That's what the player's lieutenant, who was standing next to me in Hearts of Iron, replied."

"We've been fighting all day, and we've lost at least four hundred corpses on the battlefield, plus about three hundred wounded players... Damn it, three hundred of those four hundred were caused by those ten bronze cannons. If I had a six-pound field gun, I wouldn't have let them run rampant!"

At this point, the adjutant player sighed.

"Basically, our combat power has been reduced by half. The veteran players did not suffer serious losses in the battle, but we have almost run out of gunpowder and lead bullets."

On the battlefield, we also seized a considerable amount of lead bullets and gunpowder from the enemy's corpses. However, upon inspection, I discovered that the gunpowder formula was flawed, and it was in powder form, resulting in insufficient explosive thrust. Furthermore, their lead bullets were too large; without secondary remelting, our muskets would be unusable.

"It's troublesome..."

Grandpa scratched his head.

"You've suffered such heavy losses, the Minisians will definitely come to attack us tonight... What should we do?"

"Cold salad."

In fact, Ye Ao's worries were unnecessary. The reinforcements fought a bloody battle outside the city, losing more than 500 people and injuring more than 400. How could the Minieses have fared so well?
of course not.

In fact, tonight, it is the Minieses who are starting to worry that the Bagnian barbarians might launch an attack on them tomorrow.

……

In the medical camp of the 7th Army Corps in Miniscia, Colonel Corbert stared at the battle damage report, his fingers trembling uncontrollably. Each number on the parchment, its ink still wet, pierced his heart like a knife.

"The entire Fifth Musketeer Company of the Third Infantry Regiment was killed in action."

"Twenty-seven survivors from the Second Sword and Shield Company"
"Cavalry company. Thirty-eight casualties."

Colbert slammed the report on the table, causing the candlelight to flicker. Outside the tent, groans rose and fell as medics used red-hot irons to stop the bleeding of the wounded. The air was thick with the nauseating stench of rotting flesh and sulfur.

Colonel Corbot wanted to curse, but didn't know who to blame. He had been ordered to intercept the enemy, but he was greedy and wanted to annihilate them all, which led to the battle becoming so brutal.

Winning is fine, of course. The problem is that he lost. The entire Third Infantry Regiment, plus some reinforcements from the Second Infantry Regiment, totaling five thousand men, is now down to less than two thousand who are still standing after the battle.

Of the more than 3,000 casualties, at least half died, and the remaining half, who were seriously or slightly injured, were temporarily unable to fight and could not return to their units.

"Sir, the situation at the medical station is a bit bad."

The quartermaster's voice, which was standing in front of Colonel Corbert, sounded as if it came from a great distance, making the former feel somewhat dazed.

"We ran out of bandages an hour ago, and now we can only use boiled linen. Amputation... no anesthetic... Sir, we need to request supplies from the Legion Quartermaster."

"I will……"

A heart-wrenching scream suddenly came from outside the tent, followed by a dull thud as something heavy fell to the ground.

Without even looking, Corbert knew that another wounded soldier was undergoing amputation. The Bagnian barbarians' muskets were too deadly; if they hit the leg, flesh and blood would fly everywhere. Even if the soldier was lucky enough to survive the massive blood loss, he would still have his leg amputated after the battle and become a cripple.

Colbert couldn't stand the atmosphere in the tent. He got up and lifted the tent flap, and the sight before him made the battle-hardened veteran's stomach churn.

The open space in the medical area was littered with wounded soldiers lying haphazardly. Some of them were barely breathing, and several medics were dragging the bodies of those who had just died to a corner where more than twenty bodies covered with tattered rags were piled up.

"By the God of the Sea..."

It was only then that Corbert began to regret his actions; he was certain he would lose his military post.

"What did I do...?"

……

At 10:00 a.m. the next day, Chris learned the whole story of the Battle of Tavitsky. It wasn't because he was lazy, but because he didn't think it was worth his attention. Success or failure was not important; what mattered was that the war had broken out on the territory of the Kingdom of Minicia.

The key point is to push the war back to the enemy's country.

The player has successfully entered Tavitsky!?
Oh, that's a good thing.

Chris put down his pen, stood up from his desk, and paced by the window, swinging his arms and shaking his head to loosen his muscles.

He was getting tired of his current political work and wanted to go out for a walk, perhaps leading his troops to fight the Minieses.

However, it is not the right time yet. The weather is getting hot, and it is not suitable to send troops on a long expedition to fight. In addition, the ten newly formed corps, with 15,000 men, are all raw recruits. Their training is not yet complete, and they need to fight in rotation on the border before they can go into battle.

This timeframe is at least until autumn.

Secondly, soldiers need to be trained, and equipment also needs to be manufactured.

Chris has no shortage of individual weapons, such as muskets, swords, and armor. The craft workshop park run by the player has already started to get going, and the aforementioned equipment is being produced like a flowing river. As long as Chris pays, and the raw materials are constantly available, he can have as much as he wants.

The same goes for gunpowder; some was produced domestically, while others were purchased from the Bohemian Empire. Chris had enough gunpowder to squander.

What Bagnia lacks now is heavy weaponry, artillery.

In actual combat, the 6-pound field gun has proven itself to be a passable field artillery piece. However, according to player feedback, it is not good enough, at least not in terms of rate of fire, and does not meet players' expectations.

Chris had a professional player inspect it and came up with a report... The design and structure of the gun carriage and barrel were problematic, and secondly, the propellant charge was not good enough and was not pre-packaged.

These all need to be improved.

Then, according to reports from the battlefield, the soldiers also needed a lighter, smaller caliber, more accurate, and faster-range artillery piece to deal with the enemy's heavy infantry and artillery... most importantly, the former.

Although the six-pound field gun was good, artillerymen often used it to counter enemy artillery and field fortifications, while ignoring enemy heavy infantry such as swordsmen and halberdiers charging towards them.

The Tiger Crouching Cannon was assigned to deal with the Minesian heavy infantry, but it often felt inadequate and lacked sufficient killing efficiency.

Under Chris's command, the Tiger Crouching Gun had two types of shotgun shells. One type was a light shot, about the size of a little finger, which could be loaded with one hundred rounds at a time. These lead bullets had good lethality within a range of two hundred meters and could create a large fan-shaped kill zone, capable of taking down large groups of light infantry.

However, such light bullets cannot quickly take down heavy infantry and warhorses. The tiger crouching cannon can also raise its muzzle to fire further, but at too far a distance, the lead bullets the size of a little finger have little killing power.

Another type of shotgun shell used by the Tiger Crouching Cannon is a heavy shotgun shell about the size of an adult's thumb, with about fifty rounds fired at a time, which can travel 150 meters.

Within a range of 100 meters, it can effectively take down heavy infantry and warhorses. However, compared to light bullets, its kill radius is smaller, and it may not kill shielded heavy infantry such as swordsmen and shieldmen.

However, because the latter's breastplate is made of wrought iron and it has no back, if a heavy lead bullet penetrates it, it will often cause a penetrating wound, resulting in a double kill on the battlefield.

Therefore, after discovering this situation, some players are now researching a type of arrow-shaped shotgun shell that can be fired from the Tiger Crouching Cannon. They plan to sell it to Chris as an arms supplier once the research is successful.

That's a good idea. If it succeeds, Chris is willing to spend money to support him.

Overall, however, both the player and Chris's infantry regiment really lack a type of heavy firepower designed for enemy swordsmen and shieldmen.

At the same time, it lacks firepower against cavalry. Light cannons like the Tiger Crouching Cannon are suitable for fighting large groups of light infantry, but they are not very effective against light cavalry that move like the wind. At a distance, the firepower is insufficient, and at close range, they can only fire two shots before having to retreat.

This was proven in the battle outside Tavitsky. Ten tiger-squat cannons from nearly two thousand players were placed at the front of the line to bombard the enemy musketeers. When the cavalry charged from the flanks, the flintlock musketeers changed formation to deal with the attack, instead of the cannons going forward to bombard them.

Iron Heart, this player isn't well-known to Chris, but judging from his approach, he's quite skilled. He clearly knows the strengths and weaknesses of the Tiger Crouching Cannon, and he has the air of a master strategist who doesn't boast of achievements.

However, this is a matter of lacking tactical cover equipment, and Chris needs to solve this problem.

Chris had no idea how to solve it, because he was by no means a military or arms genius; the problems with the six-pound field gun proved the situation.

So, after some thought, Chris launched a public tender for military equipment some time ago, and today is the day the tender begins, taking place in the military camp outside Wattradnoy.

Chris looked up at the mechanical clock hanging on the wall.

"Yes, it's time for me to set off."

……

When Chris arrived at the military camp located outside Waterladnoy, which was guarded by three new recruit infantry regiments, with his retinue of over three hundred men and guards, it was already noon.

On the vast training ground for firearms, hundreds of players gathered together, laughing and joking around more than twenty makeshift display stands. The smell of gunpowder and the metallic tang of metal filled the air.

When Chris arrived at the scene, a group of workshop owners and warband leaders who had signed up for the military weapons tender swarmed over, all trying to sell Chris their murder ideas.

Seeing this, Chris didn't hesitate and waved his hand.

"Stop talking, get your stuff. We'll know if your equipment is up to par after we put it on the firing range and fire a few rounds!"

At Chris's command and under the urging of the other players, the first player to confidently step onto the shooting range to showcase their masterpiece appeared.

Little Knife from the Overlord Tigers squad strode excitedly, personally pushing a rectangular wooden crate with two wheels to Chris. He let go of the crate, and the support behind it touched the ground, bringing it to a steady stop at the firing position. Little Knife wiped the grease from his face and grinned.

"Your Highness, please look! This is a masterpiece from the Overlord Tiger Arsenal: the Hundred Tigers Charging Rocket!"

As he spoke, Xiao Dao ripped off the white cloth covering the wooden box, revealing a rectangular box covered with a dense array of rhomboid arrows.

Chris could tell what it was just by looking at its structure and the gunpowder smell in the air... a rocket propelled by gunpowder!

"Once this fuse is pulled, a hundred arrows will be fired continuously from this box after one second, and the firepower will last for sixteen seconds..."

As Xiao Dao spoke, he reached behind the box, which startled Chris, who quickly raised his hand to stop him.

"Wait, wait, let me go a little further away first!"

Chris didn't want to swear, but now he felt that Knife was really a bastard... This wooden box, the size of an office desk, was filled with highly explosive and flammable gunpowder. If nothing happened, it would be fine, but if something did happen, this thing would be a giant bomb!

Chris quickly led his entourage back fifty meters away, hiding behind an earthen wall before daring to let Xiao Dao continue his demonstration. Xiao Dao skillfully pulled out the fuse, and with a forceful tug, sparks hissed from the end of the box. The latter immediately took off running.

Obviously, even a brute like Xiao Dao knew that his "Hundred Tigers Rushing Arrow" was dangerous.

"Swoosh... Whoosh whoosh whoosh..." The first rocket roared out, trailing white smoke, followed by the second, the third... In the blink of an eye, the entire wooden box spewed flames, and hundreds of rockets rushed towards the target range like a swarm of bees.

After leaving the box, in addition to the sound of gunpowder ejection, these rockets also emitted a sharp, whistling sound. It's not a big deal if one rocket makes such a sound, but the key is that when more rockets are launched later, the sound becomes dense and ear-piercing.

Even standing fifty meters away, Chris could feel the intense pressure, as if the entire firing range was covered by the dense rockets and the air was thick with the smell of gunpowder.

Chris stood there, peering out from inside the earthen wall, but he couldn't see anything... There was no way around it, the smoke was too thick.

Have you ever seen a rural village in southern China collectively setting off 10,000 firecrackers during the Lunar New Year?

The shooting range is now like a firecracker field, with white smoke everywhere, choking and pungent.

Chris, fifty meters away, was choking on the thick smoke, sneezing repeatedly. His eyes were also stinging from the smoke, and tears were streaming down his face. He could only cover his nose with a towel and rub his eyes.

Players near the shooting range scattered like mice seeing a cat.

It took quite a while for the smoke from the burning gunpowder to be dispersed by the wind.

As Chris stepped away from the earthen wall and headed towards the shooting range, he saw the remains of a still-burning wooden crate, with Knife standing beside it, chin in hand, deep in thought.

"...Too much additive was added; the smoke is three times greater than expected..."

What kind of smoke?

Chris asked.

Xiao Dao snapped out of his reverie and explained.

"It's smoke to drive away warhorses. Didn't Your Highness want a weapon that could deal with enemy cavalry? My Hundred Tigers Galloping Arrow is designed specifically for cavalry. Its maximum range is 450 meters, and when fired horizontally, it can reach 100 meters."

If cavalry attacks, place this thing in front of the army formation, adjust the angle, and fire horizontally or upwards. Pull the fuse, and it will fire forward on its own. The arrows have whistles that will make a sound to scare the warhorses during the firing process. After firing all the rockets, it will catch fire and create smoke.

The smoke contained a trace of tiger droppings, making it extremely frightening to warhorses; the smell would drive them mad.

Chris didn't speak immediately. He looked up at the dozen or so straw men and straw horse targets wearing lamellar armor, which were being targeted by the Hundred Tigers Galloping Arrows. They were distributed within a circle with a diameter of ten meters, and now they had a few arrows stuck in their bodies.

Of the hundred rockets launched by the Hundred Tigers in unison, half landed within a ten-meter diameter circle, while the other half landed outside. The range of these rockets was simply too large, and their accuracy was clearly insufficient. The sheer size of their scattering caused Chris to frown.

Chris raised his binoculars and carefully examined the distribution of the arrows... Some scarecrows had three or four arrows stuck in them, while others hadn't been hit by any of them, and some rockets even landed seventy or eighty meters away without falling into the circle.

The 100-meter range that Xiao Dao mentioned is indeed possible, but only a portion of the rockets can reach that distance; more than half of the rockets cannot.

To be precise, the distance for a hundred tigers charging and firing horizontally should be around seventy to one hundred meters.

Overall, the Hundred Tigers Galloping Arrow is a weapon with many flaws: low accuracy, medium range, and its lethality... well, it's hard to say.

"Could the accuracy of this thing be improved?"

Chris asked Xiao Dao, who scratched his head and chuckled.

"Your Highness, this thing is not meant for precision strikes, but for creating chaos. Just imagine, a hundred rockets launched at the same time, the sound is deafening, the smoke is thick, and it smells like tiger dung. When the enemy cavalry charges, their warhorses are suddenly startled and run wild, and their formation will be completely disrupted."

And the more you use it, the better it works.

Okay, Chris thought about it seriously. This thing is indeed useful, but how useful it is depends on its effectiveness in actual combat.

"Anything else?"

"Have……"

Xiao Dao perked up and waved for others to bring the items up.

Next up is a rocket that Xiao Dao calls "Ten Tigers Emerging from the Forest." As its name suggests, ten rockets are housed in a wooden box that can be held in one's arms. Pull the fuse at the back, and all ten rockets will shoot out at once with a terrifying whistle.

These ten rockets have a range and destructive power similar to the Hundred Tigers Galloping Together, capable of penetrating chainmail, leather armor, and even plate armor made of wrought iron within a range of 100 meters and 50 meters.

As for accuracy, "Ten Tigers Leaving the Forest" is worse than "A Hundred Tigers Running Together." Ten rockets launched at once will fly erratically more than twenty meters away, going up, down, left, right... Well, this thing is clearly meant to be a shotgun; you fire it and then discard it.

Like "Ten Tigers Entering the Forest" and "A Hundred Tigers Running Together," these are one-time use items; they become unusable after destroying the wooden box.

However, wooden items are obviously not very valuable. For example, the Hundred Tigers Rocket's wooden box is still in its original wood color and is not even painted, which is obviously aimed at being cheap and inexpensive.

It's a good product, but how good it is depends on its price.

The last thing Xiao Dao showed Chris was the Tiger-class rocket... the Tiger Descending the Mountain Arrow.

However, this "Tiger Descending the Mountain" arrow is clearly different from the previous two types of rockets.

Chris stared at the large, round bamboo tube, over a meter long, with a handle at the end, and painted entirely black, which was being held in Xiao Dao's arms, and fell into deep thought... This thing looked somewhat familiar to him.

look familiar?

It looked familiar, because soon Xiao Dao slung the thing over his shoulder, grabbed the handle at the front with his left hand, and pulled the red fuse with his right.

Half a second later, smoke and fire began to emerge from the bottom of the bamboo tube, followed by a beam of fire shooting out from the front of the bamboo tube and hurtling straight toward the three straw figures wearing lamellar armor fifty meters away.

The flames, spewing smoke and whistling, arced through the air and landed in front of the three armored straw men arranged in a triangular formation. Then, it exploded in a cloud of smoke, and the straw men swayed backward with the sound of the explosion. At the same time, Chris could see sparks flying from the armor on their bodies.

It was clear that shrapnel had hit them, and after the explosion, the three scarecrows fell backward in unison, the wooden sticks supporting them broken by the shockwave of the explosion.

The smoke from the explosion wasn't much and disappeared on its own afterward, but Chris was stunned by what he saw.

"Ah...this...this thing..."

This is an RPG!?
These were Chris's unspoken thoughts; he didn't say them, but that didn't stop the other players watching from shouting and yelling.

"Holy crap, an RPG!"

"Homemade RPG, awesome! Little Knife, you're going to be my idol from now on..."

"How much?! I'll buy it, give me a hundred rounds!!!"

The onlookers were chattering away, making such a racket that Chris couldn't hear what Knife was trying to say.

Chris didn't want to listen to Knife's nonsense anymore; he just wanted to see the power of the RPG rocket. So, he waved his hand, and the attendant beside him ran out to get the target.

Chris had thought about rockets before, and they weren't anything new. Our ancestors in the Ming Dynasty had already mastered rockets, and the formula for propellant can even be found on the internet.

The already deployed Incendiary Type II rocket is one example, and artillery units within ten infantry regiments are learning how to use them.

However, Chris just couldn't make this RPG man-portable rocket. Although he had plenty of materials and skilled craftsmen, he simply couldn't make it.

In numerous experiments, the rockets either exploded during launch or failed to follow a stable trajectory after launch.

It can fly out stably, but it won't explode. If it does explode, the power is too small, even less than a grenade made in the border area. The explosive power is comparable to that of a grenade made in the border area, but the range is very short, less than twenty meters.

Is this a materials issue?
Indeed, there are also human issues.

In short, it simply couldn't work, which made Chris give up on the idea.

Unexpectedly, a weapons and equipment tender gave Chris a big surprise... a wild RPG rocket appeared out of nowhere.

At this moment, the guard carrying the straw man returned, and Chris quickly went over to observe the destructive power of Xiao Dao's Tiger Descending the Mountain Arrow up close.

Among the three straw figures, one of them had its lamellar armor covered with dense dents on the front, completely torn open, revealing the straw inside pierced by iron plates, a very obvious and gruesome sight of it being disemboweled.

However, the other two straw figures were much less injured, with only a few scattered deformed armor plates on the front and very few penetrating wounds... Of course, if it were a person wearing lamellar armor, it would basically be considered a serious injury, requiring them to lie down. They wouldn't die, but they would essentially lose their fighting ability.

The first straw man, the one with the most severe injuries, was clearly standing at the very front, taking the brunt of most of the shockwave and shrapnel from the Tiger Descending the Mountain Arrow explosion. The two straw men behind him were standing about three or four meters away from the explosion point, with one of them acting as a shield in front of them.

Overall, the Tiger Descending the Mountain Arrow has decent firepower, but it might not be very effective against cavalry because its range is rather short, only about fifty meters, and its flight speed is visibly slow.

However, it is very useful for heavy infantry that form formations or charge, such as the swordsmen and shieldmen of Miniesia. If a company of enemies charges, you only need to shoot four or five Tiger Descending Arrows from a distance of thirty or forty meters. After the explosion, you can temporarily stop their charge.

The extent of their damage to swordsmen and shieldmen is a secondary issue; the most important thing is to disrupt the momentum of heavy infantry charges.

While Chris was examining the lamellar armor, Knife came over and handed him the empty Tiger Descending the Mountain quiver.

"Your Highness, this Tiger Descending the Mountain Arrow has a precise range of fifty meters and an inaccurate range of one hundred to twenty meters. Its explosive kill radius is three to five meters. The tube is in a single-use sealed package and can be used in rainy weather. It..."

"how much is it?"

Chris interrupted Knife's boasting. He had already seen how effective the Tiger Descending the Mountain Arrow was, and its advantages and disadvantages were obvious. There was no need for the latter to brag about it.

Xiao Dao was overjoyed. Seeing Chris's expression, his stuff seemed promising.

"One hundred silver dollars for a hundred tigers charging together, twenty silver dollars for ten tigers emerging from the forest, and fifty silver dollars for a fierce tiger descending the mountain..."

At this point, Xiao Dao explained.

"The Tiger Descending the Mountain Arrow is more expensive because it uses brown gunpowder for the arrowhead, and its outer shell and internal parts are also quite delicate, requiring craftsmen to hand-hammer it to achieve sufficient accuracy..."

"It doesn't need to be that precise. It just needs to land within a circle with a five-meter diameter at a distance of fifty meters. Could you lower the price of this Tiger Descending the Mountain Arrow?"

Xiao Dao pondered for a moment, then thought, "Don't make it so precise?"

Oh, that's easy, just reduce a few steps. It's not so simple to do it delicately, but to do it roughly is not easy at all.

"If it's not so precise... the price could be reduced to around forty dollars."

"If the price can be reduced to thirty, I can place an order for 10,000 units right now..."

"can!"

Xiao Dao immediately answered decisively. He grabbed Chris's hand and shook it, his smile as bright as a chrysanthemum. Clearly, the cost of these three items was lower than Chris had imagined.

"It's a promise, Your Highness! It's a promise, and you can't go back on your word!"

"It's a deal. I'll take 10,000 of those Tiger Descending the Mountain Arrows, which cost 30 yuan each... If the price can be lower in the future, I'll buy even more."

Chris smiled; he didn't dislike the knife now... provided the kid didn't set off a bomb next to him.

"As for the Hundred Tigers Galloping Arrow and the Ten Tigers Emerging from the Forest... send one hundred of each... no, three hundred. Complete the order as soon as possible and deliver them before autumn. I'll give you half the deposit now, and you can have the other half after you've delivered them."

"understand!"

Chris was deliberately supporting the Tiger Armory, a company specializing in knives, simply because the latter's armory was located in Oncandra. By giving the armory orders, he could support hundreds of artisans in the city, as well as the thousands of families behind them.

At the same time, a large order can also boost the economy of Oncandelaine, drive the industrial chain, and further enhance the city's economic vitality.

Purchasing military equipment can boost a region's economy and industry, which is a win-win situation.

As long as Xiao Dao's Tiger Armory products don't have any major defects, Chris will definitely buy them. He'll even support something as seemingly useless as the Hundred Tigers Galloping Arrow, let alone the Fierce Tiger Descending the Mountain Arrow.

Because of Chris's deliberate indulgence and the fact that this mountainous country has little arable land and no other options, Bagnia can only allow the army to own the country and follow a militaristic path. Its handicrafts are also more geared towards military purposes than people's livelihood.

There's no way around it. Chris isn't some economic genius. He only knows the militaristic route, and that's all he can do... There are players around. If he wants to take the route of peaceful rise, they'll be happy.
(End of this chapter)