novelraw Chapter 520: Six Thousand-man Commanders
Chapter 520: Six Thousand-man Commanders
In the blink of an eye, over two months had passed since the end of the Battle of Karndorf Fortress.
The outside world was quiet and peaceful, presenting a picture of tranquil years.
During this period, Fieldsvae Fortress to the north and Siyuan Keep to the south were successively completed. Both sides sent invitations asking Li Wei to attend their banquets, with a specific request that he must bring Viscountess Scorpion along.
Li Wei politely declined all of them. He just bided his time in Liwei Keep, completely ignoring the changes and banquets outside.
Internally, the two Mage Towers were successively built. Following that, Hathaway successfully broke through; she utilized two Double Rare Six-star Profession Cards to successfully forge a Dawn Mage Card, officially advancing to a Rank 3 Caster.
At this point, Li Wei's territory effectively had two Rank 3 Casters, two Tier-1 Mage Towers, and four Second-Tier Casters.
In addition, the defensive system composed of Liwei Keep's outer city walls and fortresses was basically completed.
A city wall with a total length of fifty miles, plus two large fortresses, seven Medium Fortresses, and twelve Small Fortresses, along with the deployment of enchanted giant ballistae and enchanted trebuchets, barely managed to give people a sense of security.
And over the past three months, the supply of 3-Star Quality food twice a day had temporarily alleviated the lifespan issues of those veterans.
Li Yue temporarily set aside her duties as the Legion Commander of the Blazing Legion and transformed into a 5-Star Tailor, weaving semi-finished Magic Crests day and night. Hathaway then enchanted them and produced the finished products. Sequence Two protective magic was no longer sufficient, so the starting point was now Sequence Three Defensive Magic.Li Yue only rested three or four hours a day, yet she could only produce three pieces daily. If they wanted to supply all the Main Legions—namely the six hundred Blazing Cavalry, the five hundred Frost Legion Heavy Infantry, and the Guard Legion—she would have to toil for three to five years.
But in reality, they could at most produce five hundred pieces before the raw materials and various rare magical items would be exhausted.
As for Tucker, he led Chekhov, Liu Huan, Kidman, and Hank to produce Sequence Three Gargoyles. With the five of them working together, plus the assistance of the Tier-1 Mage Tower, they could only produce three units a month. At most, they could only make five hundred before similarly falling into a state of depleted raw materials.
In short, this was the war potential of Li Wei's territory.
It exactly echoed what Li Yue had said back then: the easy battles wouldn't fall to them, and the hard bones to chew had no meat on them!
If they didn't figure out a way to break this stalemate, their foundational wealth would slowly be drained away sooner or later.
However, for the time being, facing the overall situation, Li Wei could only choose to bide his time. While increasing their foundations and improving their internal strength as much as possible, everyone was grinding their Destiny Grids.
Additionally, based on the fact that mana in the current Mid-Magic World was very abundant, they decided to smelt and reforge the equipment of all the soldiers in batches.
They aimed to ensure everyone was equipped with Five-Star Enchanted Heavy Armor, accumulating advantages in every aspect.
In this regard, with Zhao Xuanxuan present, things actually went very smoothly. Leading over three hundred 4-Star Blacksmiths and adopting an assembly line model, they could newly forge ten sets of Five-Star Enchanted Heavy Armor and five Five-Star Enchanted Weapons every single day.
Then, it was time to grind Destiny Grids.
This was a tedious and lengthy process.
For example, Li Wei ate and lived with the five hundred Guard Legion soldiers every day, training for twelve hours a day.
Yes, the Guard Legion had expanded.
The two hundred Frost Legion Heavy Infantry who had been training with them previously were transferred over to form the Mountain Guard Legion. Their daily training primarily focused on mountain warfare, with shields, spears, long sabers, greatswords, and bows as their main weapons.
The results were quite striking. Currently, after nearly three months of training, these five hundred Royal Guards had basically all ground out a Scout Card.
Possessing a Scout Card didn't necessarily make one a qualified scout, but it was absolutely essential for mountain combat.
To achieve this, Li Wei had to find Hathaway and Tucker. Having these two Rank 3 Casters work together, they used a decent alternative method to erase the fourth Profession Card of these five hundred guards and replace it with a One-Star Scout Card.
This matter could be considered Li Wei's fault, but fortunately, the loss was still acceptable.
"From now on, the Guard Legion will focus primarily on mountain warfare."
"The Blazing Legion will focus on plains warfare, and the Frost Legion will primarily focus on assault operations or city defense."
"You all saw the Battle of Karndorf Fortress. Against the backdrop of a Mid-Magic World, the fact that Mages dominate the battlefield is indisputable."
"In the future, aside from cultivating our own Mages and building Mage Towers to counter them, we only have two paths to take."
"One path is to not besiege cities—avoiding sieges as much as possible, depleting the enemy's main forces on field battlefields as much as possible, and then assassinating the enemy Mages."
"The second is to increase the magic resistance of our equipment and elevate the purity and height of Destiny Resonance, thereby comprehensively upgrading the quality and frequency of our Legion Skills."
"He Yibo, I am handing the Frost Legion over to you. Currently, there are 1,800 heavy infantrymen. You need to disrupt the current formation order and select the five hundred strongest heavy infantrymen from among them. In the future, we will find a way to elevate all of them to All-Attribute Level 3 Awakening, and everyone must forge at least one Dark Moon Warrior Card."
"Then, they can be divided into ten squads of fifty men each, and every squad must be guaranteed to continuously release the Defensive Legion Skill three times on the most intense battlefields. Defense is the mission of the heavy infantry! Only by preserving yourselves first can you talk about anything else."
"These are my requirements."
"As for A Su, you are a 4th-Tier Ranger. Originally, I should have had you act as a scout, but I think you should be a Ranger General instead. You're older now, and there aren't many opportunities left for resurrection, so stay on the frontal battlefield. Those five hundred archers are also a precious asset because their Destiny Grids are also basically full. This means that while they might not become the best scouts, they will absolutely be the most qualified rangers!"
"Therefore, I plan to form a Ranger Legion, with damage output as its primary goal. We will also adopt the fifty-man squad model. You won't need to worry about the battlefield environment, enemy attacks, or defensive damage, because you will coordinate closely with the Frost Legion. They will provide defense, and you will provide damage."
"This way, on the premise of ensuring maximum survival, you can also heavily wound the enemy forces as quickly as possible."
"Of course, everything I've said above is just a general concept, a general direction. The specific details still need to be studied by you, He Yibo, and A Su yourselves. Furthermore, I hope you can cultivate more Centurions with commanding abilities, because on complex battlefields, there are too many times when talents capable of independent judgment are needed."
"As for the Blazing Legion, to be honest, the current growth of the Blazing Legion is the best, and it is the legion that has always received the most resources. Currently, its twenty Centurions and two Thousand-man Commanders are all very good. I won't go into the details; you understand cavalry combat better than I do."
"In the last battle, you made the greatest contributions. My cheap father-in-law still hasn't shown me any appreciation to this day, but I cannot fail to show mine."
"So this time, I plan to promote four more Thousand-man Commanders within the Blazing Legion: Javier, Duan Bowen, Victor, and Chang Wei!"
Speaking up to this point, Li Wei took out the Troubled Times Pioneering Card and marked the names of these four as Thousand-man Commanders on it.
The Troubled Times Pioneering Card currently had a restrictive effect on everyone, because this truly belonged to his core foundational base, regardless of who it was.
Without the Troubled Times Pioneering Card, if they died and resurrected, they wouldn't be able to find a respawn location.
The higher the rank, the greater the resurrection benefits brought by the Troubled Times Pioneering Card, reaching up to 10%, unless they encountered an enemy with a title like Wolf Walking a Thousand Miles.
Among these four Thousand-man Commanders, Javier and Duan Bowen were veterans who had followed Li Wei from early on.
As for Victor and Chang Wei, they were two highly prestigious heavy cavalry veterans.
Thus, counting Jocelyn and Li Yue, the Blazing Legion effectively had six Thousand-man Commanders.
Of course, Li Yue herself concurrently served as the Legion Commander of the Blazing Legion.
Each Thousand-man Commander could personally lead one hundred cavalrymen; this was direct management.
Six Thousand-man Commanders for six hundred Blazing Cavalry; there was nothing wrong with that.
As for Centurions, Li Wei promoted ten more in one go, bringing the total to thirty. But this time, they were uniformly selected from the heavy cavalry veterans, because in terms of tactical skills and Destiny Grids, they were the most outstanding and exceptional.
Each Centurion could directly lead twenty heavy cavalrymen.
The reason for such a reorganization was precisely because the Blazing Legion was currently too strong.
Li Wei needed to strengthen his own influence within the Blazing Legion, and also to avoid the possibility of Li Yue having sole authority and dominating alone.
Although Li Wei absolutely trusted Li Yue, the establishment of systems and rules was to eliminate all possibilities from the source.
This included Li Yue taking the initiative last time to upgrade Five-Star Warhorses for Javier, Seth, Victor, Chang Wei, and others; her intention was also exactly this. Outstanding cavalry commanders like her were not non-existent. Like Jocelyn, like Javier, like Duan Bowen, or even those heavy cavalry veterans—as long as they had a Five-Star Warhorse and could grow, replacing her wouldn't be a difficult task.
She held a 5% basic share in Li Wei's territory, including a 5% share of the current Troubled Times Pioneering Card.
No matter who betrayed Li Wei, she never would!
This was equally true for Zhao Xuanxuan, Thomas, Second Aunt, and Hathaway.
But when she managed the strongest Blazing Legion, rumors and gossip would naturally arise. Even Mountain Eagle Parker's group was thinking of sowing discord in her relationship with Li Wei.
She cherished everything she currently had very much, so naturally, she wouldn't put Li Wei in a difficult position over these matters.
Of course, she wouldn't back down when she needed to argue on the basis of reason either.
Li Wei was completely clear about all of this in his heart.
Therefore, he had to establish rules and systems while his faction was still weak.
He didn't want a situation in the future where, when fresh blood joined, they would fall into endless bickering over the distribution of interests, putting all their energy into internal conflicts.
Take Falcon Karl, for example. Li Wei didn't believe he was unaware of what was happening here, but he probably truly couldn't spare the time or effort to come and make arrangements. With the establishment of the Wyre Duchy this time, on one hand, he had to fight for interests with allied forces of his same rank under Duke Wyre, and on the other hand, he had to settle the interest demands of his own subordinates.
Li Wei, this cheap son-in-law and newly joined vanguard, was naturally left hanging here.
Wasn't this a major problem that would lead to people being divided in heart and mind?
I, Li Wei, have strength when strength is needed, and military merits when military merits are needed, and you just brush me off like this?
Although Li Wei understood Falcon Karl's situation and his difficulties, it didn't mean he didn't have complaints in his heart. Moreover, he had to use Falcon Karl as a cautionary tale.
It would be best if this scene in the future did not happen between him and his newly joined subordinates.