Chapter 1354: Chapter 1354
"The kingdom’s official military goods?... Great Chief Divine! You want me to smuggle military supplies?!"
"Shh! Chief Divine bless us! Keep it down, it’s not smuggling. If it’s sent down to your camp, isn’t it yours? You give me your things, and I’ll give you ours. That’s called, oh, cooperation! Military cooperation!... We all understand, according to military rules, every camp has two or three tenths of weapons in reserve. These losses were originally normal..."
"Reserve weapons... hmm... the equipment we just received does indeed have a four-tenths reserve..."
"Great! Four-tenths? Wow, the new army from the Capital City sure is generous! When we formed the army back then, we didn’t have so much... A thousand-man camp has five companies, a four-tenths reserve means there’s two more companies... That will help us a lot!"
Red-haired leader Mique counted on his fingers and showed a sincere smile on his face. He forcefully patted the other’s shoulder, affectionately and with a hint of threat, said.
"Brother! You are going to the Chapala Lake Region in the west for war, and we are in a hurry to exchange weapons for the thousands of able-bodied men in the tribal flag teams who are following the ’Divine Monkey’ Great Chief to fight in the west. They are conscripted tribal soldiers, and need to bring their own weapons, which are always somewhat lacking and certainly not as good as those made by the Capital City craftsmen. If you exchange your weapons with us, these flag teams will remember your favor. Even if people find out, just don’t mention this mountain business, it’s simply normal... oh, support! Supporting allied forces!"
"It’s all for fighting for the God of Death Great Chief, whoever gets the equipment uses it. Our Guajili Tribe has shed much blood for the kingdom, everyone sends men to war... We all know that in war, anything can happen, and you always need help, right? That Feather Prince has quite an army, and now they have the Greatbow, their archery is formidable! When the time comes, with our flag team’s able-bodied men backing you up, it’ll be easier for you to earn merits and seize good things!..."
The sun set into the west, where the rolling mountains lie and the distant Lerma River stretches. The tribal flag team’s villages are hidden in the shadows of the mountains, extending with the rivers in the mountains.
At this moment, Woodpecker Aitz stood atop the hill, able to clearly see the fields, forests, and Cuitzeo Lake under the setting sun. He observed the distant cooking smoke, paler, thicker, and whiter on the plains. That’s from the village using corn stalks left over from the autumn harvest for cooking, which produces white smoke. The smoke among the mountains is darker, finer, and blacker. Because the flag team villages in the mountains use wooden branches for cooking, the smoke is much denser but less in quantity, as firewood is hard to come by.
This subtle difference in cooking smoke is hard for ordinary people to distinguish, but to seasoned warriors experienced in battles, it’s extremely distinct. They can usually gauge the scale of the enemy from the amount of smoke. And in this Rivermouth County’s forest valleys, the amount of smoke indicates that the settled tribes are indeed numerous, even numbering in the tens of thousands!
"Just the Guajili Tribe alone has more than ten large flag teams, tens of thousands of people, all settled in this area, connected through kinship... And now this group of one to two hundred red-haired elites, all veterans well accustomed to battles... I’m afraid it’s not something my archer camp could manage to fight off!... Moreover... these sacred ritual artifacts... I really do want them!!..."
Thinking this, Woodpecker Aitz looked around at the circle of onlookers, their simple and nervous smiles, with faintly threatening actions... He gritted his teeth heavily and spoke in a low voice.
"Chief Divine as witness! What exactly do you want? I can... spare some, to... support our allies!"
"Praise Chief Divine! Great! Brother! Good brother!..." Chapters fırst released on NoveI-Fire.ɴet
Red-haired leader Mique excitedly rubbed his hands. He glanced around again, the post station was cooking, and the Tlaxcalan bowmen were obediently gathered in the post station, waiting for dinner to be ready, none dared approach to watch the leaders’ discussion. Their longbows had their strings removed and were stored in twenty-man squads, their paper armor also taken off.
Meanwhile, the roughly two hundred red-haired hunters were fully armed, vaguely surrounding the bowmen. This cautious vigilance, the tribal bowmen had grown accustomed to throughout their journey here. However, what they didn’t know was that the red-haired hunters here were truly willing to make a move.
"Divine Chief witness! You are the archer camp of the tribe, and this is also the reason we decided to stop you after our discussion!"
The red-haired leader, Mique, scratched his head and gave a simple-hearted smile.
"Your items are just perfect for our flag team’s able-bodied men to use for archery practice! And these things, unlike Copper Armor, large crossbows, or even Hardwood Great Bows, are not conspicuous at all... Oh! It doesn’t matter about the others, mainly it’s the bow, arrows, and spear! If there are extra Leather Armors, we also want them. Especially the ones with a coating, not those Paper Armors that only last half a year and are useless in the rainy season..."
"Divine Chief witness! The bamboo longbows from the Capital City’s craftsman camp have the Priest’s divine power blessing, and they work wonderfully! But the ones we make ourselves are less forceful and tend to break easily. We’ve looked closely, and besides excellent craftsmanship and materials, it seems that those made by the craftsman camp are also coated with some sort of stuff, oily... like resin, also like paint, and feels a bit like wax, presumably a mixed coating, something we’ve never seen before!..."
"Besides these, the best is the Hardwood Long Copper Arrow from the craftsman camp! We all call it the ’Murderous Arrow’! Making such good arrows is labor-intensive. The old hardwood needs to be processed and carefully carved uniformly, and it needs to have excellent arrow fletching... It requires specialized craftsmen and tools to produce them in large quantities, which makes it convenient. Doing it individually is too laborious... When we fought in the East, to save resources, we rarely used these large arrows unless we encountered hardened Warriors... They’re too wasteful and there’s no need to shoot that fiercely... We usually used Bone Arrows with luwei stalks or softwood shafts, half draw is enough!..."
"As for the final Copper Spear, it’s mainly about the wooden shaft! Those made by the craftsman camp are generally top-notch with oak, walnut, and heartwood, far sturdier and durable; they probably soaked it in oil. If tribal archers reach a point where they use spears in combat, it’s life or death with a single strike, it must not break!... We actually save quite a few copper spearheads from each battle... Now, each village at Rivermouth can assemble a few dozen Copper Spears. But the wood is actually not good; if you stab someone with force, it snaps easily if it gets stuck on bone..."
"Divine Chief bless! You’re right! The arms coming from the Capital City’s craftsman camp are indeed the best!..."
Listening to the tales of this seasoned veteran, Woodpecker Aitz wholeheartedly agreed. In fact, since he had always been in the Capital City and was a military merit nobility from the Holy City, he knew far more than the red-haired leader standing before him.
Everything in the Kingdom is for the sake of war, and as the producer of weaponry, the craftsman camp naturally becomes one of the most important institutions of the Kingdom. Nominally under the direct management of Xiulote, Your Majesty, it is actually grasped by the Divine Revelation Director Talaya, who can prioritize all resources to produce the finest weaponry with the best technology and materials!
In recent years, the craftsman camp has expanded into a massive organization with one or two thousand official craftsmen, thousands of apprentices, and tens of thousands of civilian laborers! It can produce bronze Cloth Armor, bronze cannons, and various bow and crossbow, arrows, axe and spear, and Cotton Armor in large quantities, supporting and maintaining the Kingdom’s eight armies! It’s safe to say, half of the citizens of the Qinchongcan Capital directly or indirectly serve the craftsman camp. And the large smelting sites around the Capital City, with their endless rise of black smoke day and night, are a true reflection of the Divine Revelation branch’s real power!
"The Kingdom is founded on agriculture and warfare, and military equipment is the lifeblood of war. The Capital City’s craftsman camp is thus extremely rewarded, and penaltied harshly! The status of craftsmen is second only to Samurai, and far above merchants and farmers. Military equipment craftsmen in the craftsman camp are directly under the Kingdom, a level higher!"
"The Kingdom’s craftsman levels are divided into four levels: apprentice, ordinary, senior, and Master, each with upper and lower ranks. The core senior craftsmen are equivalent to the veteran warriors of the Kingdom. As for the rare Craftsman Masters, they are akin to military merit nobility! They might even be inducted by the Divine Revelation Place, becoming an honored Divine Revelation Priest..."
Thinking of this, Woodpecker Aitz licked his lips, his face showing anticipation. Although he was a military merit nobility, he did not let his young brother serve in the military and carve a path on the battlefield... Instead, he sent him to the craftsman camp, where he is now a Second Level ordinary craftsman. He never expected the other to become a Craftsman Master; as long as he endured another ten years without error and smoothly became a senior craftsman, it would be enough to support the family to live a decent life!
"Of course, the Divine Revelation Place values creativity and new technology, always providing substantial rewards!... If favored with divine grace, and can invent or improve any craft... the promotion time will be greatly shortened! Just like the ordinary craftsman who researched the bow and arrow coating a year or two ago, she suddenly became a Craftsman Master! It’s said that he was personally rewarded with estates and fields by Director Talaya on behalf of His Highness, and was allowed to independently form a dedicated craftsman group for researching and manufacturing coatings, able to recruit apprentices... even the young brother was envious..."
"Earlier this year, my young brother mentioned that this coating can not only strengthen bows and crossbows but also Leather Armor, making the Leather Armor several times tougher! Although the specific formula and procedure are top secrets, it should involve resin, paint, wax, some difficult hot and cold processes... and most especially, rubber!... Coincidentally, rubber forests have been planted around the Capital City..."
"And the name of this coating was personally named by the esteemed Director Talaya, calling it Olmec Coating!... It’s the name of the Jiao people’s ancestors, and it’s truly an honor!... Under the attention of the ancestors of various tribes, we are destined to unify all tribes under heaven and reshape the descendants of the Jiao people!..."