Badge in Azure

The King of the island nations from the eastern sea was not stupid. If they did not have that many magic chariots, they would not dare to come and attack the Qin Empire. According to the expeditionary force plan, these chariots would be gathered and used to attack one city after another, to suppress the magic towers outside of Qin cities.

If there was not such preparation, the army would be suppressed entirely by the magic tower outside of the city. Although the mages hardly got involved in the nobles’ matters when there were invaders, these mages would not just look on with folded arms. The nobles had been providing for them all year long just to ensure the safety of their own manor.

To talk about the disadvantage of the magic chariot, there were a few. Unlike a magic tower, a magic chariot could only increase one of the elements’ power. The increment could be amended, but it would be quite difficult.

They realized, for instance, that there was a strong spirit of the death in Saleen’s city. To avoid large amounts of soldier injuries, the grand general let the mages transform the magic chariots in order to restrain the power of the spirits of the dead.

That was not wrong, but the mistake made was that they stayed at sea for too long and Saleen managed to rush back and sink the warship directly.

The portability of the magic chariot was also a problem. The chariot itself was huge and required eight horses or a magic beast like the walking dragon to tow it. Saleen’s solution for it was to tow it using two skeleton horses. If there were not any grade-4 death mages, that would not work though.

The maintenance of the magic chariot would be a problem too. In order for the expeditionary force to reduce its expense, magic chariot would be taken apart and stored until it was needed then it would be put together. Even so, magic chariots required the frequent expense of magic nuclei to maintain the operation of the magic array. The natural capacity of the magic chariot would be reduced over time otherwise.

The Qin Empire did not equip itself with too many magic chariots because of this reason. It was also easier to make something with fundamental material. They would not make such money draining equipment, unless the enemy invaded. Comparatively, the cost of making war puppet was higher, but it required less of an expense.

The biggest expense of a war puppet was in its material. Before making a war puppet, it would require building a huge alchemy factory first. To build such an alchemy factory, the required amount would not be little. After making war puppets, the rest of the expense was basically an intermediate level magic nucleus and it could also be transported separately. Once the war got urgent, war puppets could travel far distance themselves too.

After building a magic tower, it required almost no maintenance. A magic tower was a self healing building. The only weakness was that it was not portable.

Saleen had many materials to build a magic tower and that was amassed by Sregl Island. He could not afford to build either a magic chariot or war puppet. Now that he had ready built chariots, Saleen’s fighting power had increased by a lot.

That afternoon, Nailisi sent all the parts of the magic chariots to the temple. Gurney was called before Saleen and Saleen told him that his first army would be led by him. The scrawny man was thrilled, he knelt before Saleen and wanted to kiss Saleen’s feet.

Sika sat by the side and she immediately threw out her boomerang. Saleen’s feet belonged to her too, she would not let anyone kiss him. Gurney was shocked and took back his hands while the boomerang slashed half way through the ground. Saleen’s flooring in the temple was covered with white rocks that were gathered at the shore and had a strength parallel to iron and steel.

“Hmph, speaking will do. Do not move.” Sika walked forward to retrieve her boomerang shooting Gurney a glare.

Gurney dared not go against Sika’s instruction as he heard rumours that the Caucasus woman was Master Saleen’s lover. No matter how much Saleen trusted in him, he would not be able to win against the one who spoke over the pillow to him.

“Gurney, your underlinings, I’ve seen them. What do you think about their fighting power?” Saleen signalled Sika to leave for a while. Sika felt annoyed looking at Gurney as well, but she left Saleen’s room. Although she knew that Gurney was loyal towards Saleen, she did not like to see anyone ingratiate themselves with Saleen.

“Master, these brothers of mine could barely fight. Without skills of collaborating warhorses, they were not even heavy infantrymen on the battlefield.”

“I’m glad that you know this, but I am giving you some Barbarians. Their riding skills are similar to yours. Everyone needs to train on skeleton warhorses, it could save a lot of trouble. This month, you can stop training them mounted spearing and instead learn how to use a machete from the magic beast swordsmen. Let them practice archery as well.”

“Master, without mounted spearing skills, it would be difficult to tear the enemy’s formation apart!” Gurney read quite a number of books about war and was becoming like a soldier.

“I am not making you into heavy infantrymen. The endurance of the skeleton warhorses are good, their charging power is weak. They mainly could not bear the attack for the calvary. The cavalry would require stronger strength on the skeleton warhorse. It would be okay for the Barbarians, but you will not be able to take it unless all of you become swordsmasters.”

Gurney kept his head low as he knew that his pirates brethren would not be suited to horse warfare.

“With the Barbarians on hand, we could turn them into heavy infantrymen and calvary could be chosen from the Caucasus people. You can train the hussar for me.”

Gurney could not hide his disappointment, but he nodded in agreement.

“Gurney, do not belittle the hussar. If a hussar had strong marksmanship, they could be the main force of the battlefield. In the past, when the human body was strong, they could ride on high level magic beasts.They could even ride dragons, then the heavy infantrymen and calvary in the air were the main character on a battlefield. Now, the hussar rely on bow and arrows and will be able to bring about strong damage.”

“Master, I understand.” Gurney was completely convinced of his view. He understood the theory, but the most important part of the army would be heavy cavalry and infantrymen. The hussar could only be used for auxiliary purposes. At first, he was unwilling. He understood that not only was his background not as good though, his foundation was also poor. To be able to lead the hussar for Saleen was already considered a decent position.

Saleen did not continue to speak, but he started thinking all of a sudden. He had never thought of taking cities and seizing territories, so he thought highly of heavy infantrymen and the hussar. The two had better defence compared to heavy cavalry, especially heavy infantrymen. Carrying steel armor that weighed fifty pound or more and forming a human wall that even heavy cavalry would have trouble taking advantage of were excellent defences..

The thick steel armor made the normal arrow lose its function. Even if it was an alchemy crossbow, it would need to be middle sized or above to shoot through the defence of heavy infantrymen. The smaller alchemy crossbow would not be able to kill heavy infantrymen at all.

He had Barbarians and Caucasus people. They could withstand the power of more than ten thousand heavy infantrymen. In the future, there would be more Caucasus people to come over and that was not just a dream. Did he really not want to expand his territory? If possible, he could take over Phoenix and build a country. With a country’s power, he could provide for far more mages.

Saleen thought about the palace of the Qin Empire, the enviable storehouse. The royals of the Qin Empire gathered equipment and information. Even to Saleen then, it was really enviable. It was an Empire’s thousand years of accumulation.

There were not many mages among Qin Empire’s army. If the royals wanted, they could expand their mage group anytime as the Grukos family could afford to.

Such a tempting idea. If he were to prepare to do so, how much time would he have to practice magic? Saleen shook his head and gave up on the idea temporarily. Before he turned into a sorcerer, he did not want to waste too much time.

Looking at Saleen shaking his head, Gurney hesitated but asked, “Master, what is there about me that you are not satisfied with?”

Now that Gurney and Saleen could converse, their communication was not one sided anymore.

“That is not the case, I am thinking about my own affairs. Gurney, you must do the things that I tell you to properly. Lex will be back and bring more people into the city soon. By then, I need someone to control the situation.”

Gurney seemed to be awkward. If he were any other pirates, he would be patting his chest and telling Saleen that he would not disappoint him. Gurney read a lot of books and gained quite a bit of knowledge, he knew that the few hundred people that he trained would not be on par with Lex’s elites.

Training a group of crack troops would required at least five years time. How long had Saleen held them captive for?

Saleen smiled and comforted Gurney, “I know that without a few years time, you wouldn’t have ways to turn these people into crack troops. We can use equipment to fill in the gap. Although Lex is rich, I am not that poor either. Among the five hundred people, I would make magic equipment for each and everyone of you.”

Gurney’s eyes lit up, even though the hussar’s position was not as good as the other soldiers. If they were wearing magic armor, they would be magic calvary and their ranking would not be lower than heavy cavalry!

“Master, I won’t disappoint you,” Gurney replied respectfully.

“Mm, during this time, I will send Daniel and Kredian to train with you. You pick a hundred Barbarians and train them like heavy infantrymen. By then, the hundred Barbarians will be in charge of protecting the mages.”

“Master, I..”

“About fighting in the war, you would still be the commander. Daniel and Kredian won’t follow you all the time. I will send you low level mages in the future and they will be with the army all year long.”

Gurney was thrilled. Even an army with a grade-3 mage, increased the possibility of them surviving by one fold. Sometimes, an arrow injury would be able to take one’s life. Even if it did not shoot onto vital parts, the worsening condition of the cut might. To a mage, that was just something that could be healed with restorative water.

A troop with mages would definitely be under direct control of a faction. Saleen said that he would send mages for him in the long term and that affirmed his hard work. Although Daniel and Kredian had strong fighting power, Gurney was really self abased in front of them. He would not dare to command the two grand mages.

Although it would not be easy to command a low level mage, he could at least secure his decisive rights in an army.