Total War: I'm building up an army to rebel against the Qing Dynasty in a heavily modified vers

Chapter 95 The Ingenious Use of System Buildings and the Salamander Unit

The deep lava cave, if placed in Rock's current system, can produce a total of 400 gold coins per month. After the system roughly converts them, these 400 gold coins are converted into 4,000 taels of silver, which is 48,000 taels of silver per year.

This output is no small number. If the small gold mine that Rock previously occupied hadn't had the help of the ratmen to mine it, its annual output probably wouldn't even be this much. At least in the entire Kaiyuan region, very few gold mines can achieve such an output in a year.

In addition, this building can also produce 100 boxes of obsidian for Rock every month, although Rock doesn't know the exact amount of these 100 boxes.

What are the uses of obsidian?

This thing can barely be used to make jewelry or something, but it won't be very valuable.

Besides jewelry, obsidian can also be used to craft some special tools, but although these knives are sharp, they are generally not suitable for use on the battlefield because obsidian is too brittle.

Regardless, these 100 boxes of obsidian are freebies. We can just keep them for now and maybe they'll come in handy later.

There was one last thing about this system that Rock was somewhat satisfied with: it could provide him with two teams of dwarven miners equipped with detonators as a garrison, totaling 200 people.

The Dwarf Miner is a pretty good unit. According to the system, this unit seems to be rated as level four, but Rock feels that if used well, this unit is actually no less effective than a level five unit.

Dwarf miners are heavily armored units, and they also have armor-piercing properties. In addition, this unit can throw explosive charges at the enemy.

A single throw of the explosive charge could instantly obliterate a whole host of monsters and demons. Especially since most of the enemies Rock was facing now didn't have the physique of the high-ranking infantrymen from the Warhammer world, the power of this explosive charge was even more astonishing.

Unfortunately, this garrison does not equate to unlocking new units, and Rock will not gain the option to recruit dwarf miners as a result.

He studied it and found that because both teams of dwarven miners had the attribute of being garrisoned, their daily activity range could not exceed the area of ​​the Kaiyuan map. They could only move around the county town and could not leave the Kaiyuan region.

Therefore, Rock could only use these two groups of dwarven miners to fight a defensive battle. It was impossible for him to use this force to launch an expedition, which he deeply regretted.

The good news is that since both groups of dwarven miners are part of the garrison that comes with the system building, Rock doesn't need to pay any expenses for these miners.

Moreover, every month, the two teams of dwarven miners would automatically receive replenishment from the system.

Even if Rock wiped out all the dwarf miners in a previous war, these 200 dwarf miners could reappear from the system building a month later.

If it weren't for the fact that they couldn't leave the area where the system building was located, Rock would have wanted to pull them directly into his own army and use them as pure cannon fodder.

Rock casually placed the building behind a small hill outside the city. When he started setting up the building, it felt like he was busy building in Red Alert, and a small map where he could place buildings instantly appeared in his mind.

As the building was selected and placed, in the blink of an eye, a huge lava cave suddenly appeared behind the small hill in the distance, with a series of mining devices below and many dwarf miners coming and going inside.

"—By the way, where did this enormous, flowing lake of lava come from?"

Looking at the enormous cave, and then taking a closer look at the lava lake, Rock couldn't help but wonder to himself.

He didn't know whether the lava lake was generated out of thin air by the system or whether it was simply a channeling of nearby lava, but he knew one thing:

He felt that Kaiyuan City could develop hot spring tourism when the opportunity arose. With such abundant geothermal resources, how could hot springs not form?

It's not just the hot springs; this place can even become a wonderful warm spot in winter, potentially creating some unique new landscapes.

Putting everything else aside, all Rock needs to do is cultivate the land around that small hill, and with the abundant geothermal resources, he can grow vegetables in the winter.

Meanwhile, the residents of Kaiyuan City soon discovered this strange phenomenon that had suddenly appeared.

They had no idea where the lava lake came from, but they knew it must belong to the Po Lu Army, because their flags were already flying over it, and people were mining inside.

Because of this sudden phenomenon, many residents of Kaiyuan City felt that it was the manifestation of some City God or Earth God, and they rushed to worship, even organizing a temple fair for it.

They didn't really understand these things, but they had heard that when great historical figures did great things, there were always various celestial phenomena, such as the story of Emperor Gaozu of Han slaying the white snake. These stories are very famous.

Therefore, many people simply regarded this as divine approval for Luo Ke's uprising, believing that God was using His own means to endorse the cause of the Po Lu Army.

As for whether anyone might think that this strange lava lake could be a warning or rebuke from heaven for the actions of the Po Lu Army?

Such people do exist, but they are ultimately a minority. Moreover, even if they think this way in their hearts, they certainly wouldn't dare to spread it around outside, after all, the Po Lu Army had just chopped off a batch of heads in the city.

Some of the city's residents, with their active minds, even went to the gate of the Po Lu Army's camp to inquire whether there were any jobs available there.

They have no interest in mining deep into the lava lake, but they would be very interested in providing some service industry opportunities for the miners there, such as opening a snack stall or selling some souvenirs.

Rock didn't pay much attention to the situation at the lava lake. He simply let the dwarves mine slowly in the cave, and the residents were free to come and visit whenever they wanted. After all, the residents' visits wouldn't affect the operation of this system building, nor would they reduce his monthly income.

When Rock heard that someone wanted to sell merchandise, he immediately thought of the obsidian that the cave produced every month, but he didn't know how to use it.

"Don't even mention it, if we have the dwarves make some kind of idol out of this obsidian, and say it was blessed by the magma god, I bet some suckers will be willing to pay for it!"

"It's hard to say exactly how far it can be sold, but at least for locals, as long as the price isn't too high, they'll likely be very interested!"

Thinking of this, Rock's eyes lit up.

Outsiders might think this story is made up and sounds unreliable, but locals have witnessed this lava lake forming out of thin air.

After all, there was no lava lake in that place before the arrival of the Po Lu Army!

Given this, how could they not be awestruck and become superstitious after witnessing the miraculous phenomena firsthand?

Thinking about it this way, at least for the short term, it seems that Rock doesn't have to worry about what to do with those obsidian stones.

Once the market becomes saturated, he'll then research where to sell the obsidian or what strange things to use it for.

After finishing with the system buildings, Rock checked the battle results from the previous siege.

Perhaps it was because the Qing dynasty used some strange type of troops in this siege, or perhaps the siege itself brought Rock a huge bonus, so his gains in this battle were quite substantial.

[Congratulations, player! You have achieved a glorious victory in the previous battle! You have been awarded 10,000 taels of silver and a random five-star unit!]

[You and your troops have gained a total of 1500 experience points. You have successfully met the upgrade requirements. Do you wish to upgrade?]

upgrade!

Because he had enough experience points this time, plus the extra experience he had gained from previous leveling up, Rock managed to level up two levels in a row, bringing his personal level to 12.

After leveling up to level 12, Rock received a reward of 4,000 taels of silver and two randomly selected three-star units. However, Rock sold these two three-star units directly to the system and got another 4,000 taels of silver for himself.

The three-star units aren't much help to him right now, and he's currently facing a cash shortage with expenses everywhere. In that case, he might as well exchange all these cannon fodder units for silver!

By this calculation, he gained 18,000 taels of silver from one battle, which was equivalent to robbing two more wealthy households in the city, so it was quite a haul.

As for the five-star unit he acquired this time—to be honest, Rock doesn't really know what to say about this five-star unit.

[Congratulations, player! You have obtained a five-star unit: Salamander Hunting Squad (from Total War: Warhammer)]

[Equipment for this unit: None. Recruitment price: 1000 taels of silver per unit or 30,000 taels of silver per squad (32 units). Requires 5 population slots per unit.]

Hmm, a lizardman faction unit has appeared out of nowhere.

Unfortunately, despite the name "fire salamander," this unit is actually a large, real fire salamander, not the formidable Astartes army composed of the Nocturne black men from Warhammer 40k.

If he could bring out the Salamander Legion, that would be awesome! It's a pity that the Total War: Warhammer 40 before he transmigrated hadn't been released yet!

As far as Rock is concerned, the fire salamander is actually quite good, especially since it looks even more frightening in reality.

Wouldn't it be terrifying to see a giant lizard, larger than a bull, covered in heavy scales, and capable of shooting fireballs, on the battlefield?

Especially when these lizards appear in large groups, sometimes dozens at a time, charging at the enemy while breathing fire, the scene is absolutely terrifying for the enemy army.

However, what troubled Rock was that the style of these giant lizards seemed to be out of place with his team. The lizardmen seemed rather strange in his human army.

"Forget it, why bother with all this? Even cultivators can create Beast Taming Sects, so why can't we try a Beast Taming style in this battle for supremacy?"

"And most importantly, this giant lizard doesn't seem to require any extra maintenance costs. It just needs to eat more meat to survive, what more could it want?"

It must be said that the fact that there were no maintenance costs was what truly impressed Rock.

Putting aside the Warhammer game, in reality, these giant lizards obviously don't need silver. After all, what use would silver be to them? Could they possibly use it to go shopping?

As a result, they will naturally appear in the system to require no maintenance costs.

Although this thing looks like it can eat a lot because of its size, it probably eats at least a whole sheep in one meal.

Regardless, for Rock, who is now almost broke, as long as the giant lizard doesn't cost him any money, it's definitely a good comrade!

Which boss wouldn't want subordinates who don't need a salary, just meals?

So Rock gritted his teeth and spent five thousand taels of silver to get himself five fire lizards, which he would use as a special force.

As for why he didn't recruit more, it's because Rock didn't have that much meat on hand, and he was worried that releasing so many large lizards to hunt would disrupt the ecological balance here.

Anyway, these things look so ferocious and ugly, and they can even breathe fire. Even if only a few of them appear, it is enough to give the enemy a great shock effect. Rock doesn't need to bring too many fire lizards if he doesn't need to launch a swarm charge.

When he recruited the five fire lizards and then had them escorted by soldiers into the city, the citizens of Kaiyuan, whose spiritual lives were already lacking, were truly amazed.

When they first saw the five large lizards, each about four meters long, they were indeed startled by them, and many citizens panicked as a result.

However, when Rock rode one of the salamanders in the procession and waved to the citizens, personally telling them that as long as they did not provoke the salamanders, they would not eat people, many citizens began to believe him.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Rock pressed his advantage further.

He told the citizens of Kaiyuan City that these fire lizards all came from the newly appeared lava cave. They were divine beasts bestowed by the heavens to help the Polu Army achieve great things. They were earth dragons that lived by fire.

The citizens believed Rock's statement almost without much thought, because what Rock said did seem to make a lot of sense.

They had never seen these fire lizards before, but why had these fire lizards appeared in the Po Lu Army's ranks so soon after the lava caves had just appeared?

Moreover, this thing looks so ferocious, yet it completely obeys the will of the Polu Army. Look at those soldiers standing right next to the fire lizards, yet these giant lizards didn't attack them. This is clearly a divine beast with intelligence!

After a few days, everyone in Kaiyuan City and the surrounding villages knew about the existence of the fire lizard. Countless curious people even came to see what the fire lizard looked like, and they were all amazed.

Rock also made a point of including the fire lizards in his patrol teams, so that the cavalry could take the fire lizards with them on their daily patrols, which would also serve as a way to parade them through the streets.

So in these days, the fire lizard quickly became a new symbol of the Po Lu Army. Whenever people saw this thing, they knew that the Po Lu Army had arrived.

Even the Manchus who had previously sided with Rock and expressed their willingness to join the anti-Qing forces were intimidated by the fire lizard and became even more fanatical towards Rock.

Because for them, they are the ones who most hope that Rock is truly the one destined for greatness.

They have already betrayed the Manchus and there is no way they can return to the Manchu ranks. After all, traitors are more hateful than enemies, no matter what.

That's why they care more about Rock's career. If conditions allowed, they would love for Rock to become the ruler of the world tomorrow, so they could get away with the credit for his rise to power!

Seeing the fanatical appearance of these Manchus, Rock felt a sudden tightness in his anus. He felt that if he let these guys continue to develop, they might even give rise to some kind of strange cult within their organization.

But in any case, their fanaticism for themselves is ultimately a good thing.

If they weren't fanatical enough, how could Rock use them as high-quality cannon fodder?

With this series of tricks, Rock has now almost won over most of the people's hearts in Kaiyuan City. Although the system shows that Kaiyuan City has not yet reached the stage of winning the hearts of the people, it has already reached the level of effective control.

This level of effective control adds approximately 400 to the population cap of Rock, since the total population of Kaiyuan City is around 12000.

This surge in population made Rock's mouth water. If Kaiyuan City could eventually win the hearts and minds of the people, then things would be really great.

When that time comes, Rock can easily pull out another infantry regiment!

Just as Rock was pondering how to expand his forces in a more cost-effective manner, suddenly, a man on horseback rushed in and ran all the way to the gate.

The man on horseback was in a hurry, his face filled with barely suppressed anxiety. He grabbed a soldier from the Imperial Guard who was standing guard at the gate and said urgently, "Quick, something bad has happened! Quickly inform the commander-in-chief! A group of Mongols is rapidly approaching from outside the city!"

"Our Feng family's cavalry encountered Mongol cavalry outside!"

Upon hearing this, the soldiers guarding the door did not dare to delay and quickly informed Rock.

"What? Mongol cavalry? How did the Mongol cavalry suddenly get here?"

Rock stood up from a grand chair, his eyes filled with disbelief. The house he was living in now belonged to Wan Fu, the garrison commander of Kaiyuan. After he killed that old man, the house was naturally confiscated by the Po Lu Army.

Of course, most of the original servants and maids in the mansion had been dismissed by Rock and freed from their slave status.

The reason for dismissing these servants and maids was partly because Rock didn't trust them enough. Who knew if there were any loyalists among them who wanted to avenge their former masters?

On the other hand, Rock didn't have the inclination to keep a large number of servants, and his requirements for quality of life weren't particularly high.

Normally, he simply stationed his personal guards in the house to handle security and assist them.

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