Chapter 542: Chapter 82
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Sui Xiong was not familiar with history, but that didn’t matter that because netizens understood history.
When chatting with netizens, he once heard a story. In ancient times, a tribe called “Miao” or “You Miao,” Sui Xiong couldn’t recall, did not obey the orders of its emperor. At that time, the emperor was Shun, but there were other leaders, Yao and Yu. Together, they were the three most famous tribe leaders in ancient China. He had sent a group of big men with axes and s.h.i.+elds to a place near the tribe and conducted an armed exercise. After that, the tribe began to obey his orders.
The reference to this matter was called “Xiuwen de.” Sui Xiong still did not understand why the armed exercise was called “Wen” virtue. If an armed exercise could even be called “Wen” virtue, then what kind of killings could be considered “Martial” virtue?
When Sui Xiong heard the story at that time, he felt that the emperor’s practice was too pretentious, but he also thought this practice was a good way to make all the other tribes listen to him. Therefore, he had been wondering about how to implement this practice in his own kingdom. Hearing what Palin had said at the moment, Sui Xiong couldn’t help but think of this story and laugh.
After laughing, he supplemented Palin’s plan.
“We will not only display fine weapons and armor near the portal, but we will also send troops to train and exercise in the portal square… Oh no! The portal square is too small. Well, let’s put up a large projection there and show everyone the scene of our exercises!”
Palin was stunned for a moment and asked, “Exercise? What does that mean?”
Sui Xiong just remembered that there was no concept of “exercise” in this world. If someone wanted to train their armies, they could train them very hard in barracks. One could also find Magic Beasts or robbers and ask his armies to fight with those beasts and robbers. Of course, if conditions permitted, large-scale hunting could also be organized and used as a military exercise.
Generally speaking, their military concepts were quite backwards!
However, Sui Xiong didn’t know that in ancient times, similar military exercises were also used. The only reason why it seemed backwards was because there were not enough resources to afford military exercises like in modern times.
In military exercises, some people were inevitably injured. Ancient medical standards were far behind modern ones. The death rate of soldiers who were injured during military exercises was very high, so no one would conduct a military exercise.
But this was not a problem for the Northwest Republic because they not only had enough medical teams but also had Sui Xiong’s full support. Even if their soldiers were badly injured, Sui Xiong could cure them. With Sui Xiong’s help, it was not easy for the soldiers to die accidentally.
With reliable security guarantees, the Northwest Republic could certainly conduct military exercises. So Sui Xiong called together the military officials of the Northwest Republic and announced that he wanted to conduct a military exercise.
“No problem,” said the evil G.o.d Leonard. He was almost the chief military officer. “But it takes some time to mobilize and a.s.semble troops from all over the country and to change their equipment. Until they are fully adapted to the new equipment, they can’t receive the relevant training. After training them for a period of time, we can conduct a military exercise.”
Sui Xiong frowned and asked, “How long will that take?”
“If we have sufficient equipment, it will take about two months.”
Sui Xiong certainly understood that Leonard was right, but he could not help but sigh.
It would take two months… Mortal armies were really inconvenient!
If they were Oracle troops, they would not need much time to prepare; they could receive training tomorrow. If Sui Xiong was really in a hurry, once he gave the orders, those Oracle troops would be able to start the exercise immediately.
But Sui Xiong also knew that the Oracle troops were totally different from mortals. Essentially, they were just the manifestations of magic power. It was not very meaningful to train those Oracle troops. For the Oracles of the elite level, the training would have some effect, but for those ma.s.s-produced Oracles, any training would be meaningless.
Therefore, in a G.o.d’s kingdom, no one had ever wasted the time and energy to train them; they could die at any time.
In fact, in terms of efficiency, it was faster and better for a G.o.d to send out a large number of Oracle troops to fight in human wars. But this would not only consume a lot of magic power but also easily anger the public. Everyone would be training mortal armies; how could one send out an Oracle army to fight against those mortal soldiers? Did that really show off your strength?
It was like a rich man with lots of money and silver-lined clothes going to a slum, laughing and shouting, “I’m very rich.”
Well, the rich man would definitely be beaten by the poor people.
Sui Xiong certainly did not want to do such a stupid thing, so he had to wait patiently, waiting for the mortal armies to be trained and well-equipped.
Fortunately, before that, he could find something else to do. For example, he could improve the technology of the armor.
He went to Palin’s Metallurgical Research Inst.i.tute and asked them about their progress. He also visited their new armors that had been made recently.
Compared to traditional armor, the new armor was a little too simple. There were almost no decorative patterns on it; the armor was connected simply by solid leather and metal ropes.
Sui Xiong could see from several samples that the new armor looked really simple, not only in its style but also in its color. Its color was gray because Palin had performed an anti-rust treatment on the armor in order to prevent rusting. The color was not beautiful, but the treatment worked very well to prevent any rust.
Sui Xiong looked at the armor carefully and experimented on them in person. He was very satisfied with those samples.
Of course, that armor wasn’t as good as the fine armor made by Divine Powers or spells, but they were much better than the fine armor made by ordinary craftsmen. If they were used to arm soldiers, they would be strong enough to make any army in the world feel jealous. After all, many knights did not have a complete set of heavy armor!
However, he carefully looked at the armor for a while, and suddenly he felt that it was lacking something. He could still make further improvements.
What could possibly be missing?
Sui Xiong did not bother Palin’s research work. Facing the new, gray, ma.s.s-produced armor and the s.h.i.+ning breastplates, he just stayed quiet and wondered where this new type of armor could be further improved.
He thought about it for a long time and finally came up with an idea.
The new armor looked bare, just like a fresh sheet of white paper. With such a blank sheet of paper, why couldn’t he draw something like magic patterns on them?
He told Palin and the others about his idea, but Palin and the rest simply looked at each other. Finally, they said that they had thought about it, but they did not know how to do it.
“Why? Is that so difficult to do?” Sui Xiong was somewhat surprised. “It shouldn’t be difficult to engrave magic patterns on such smooth and glossy armor…”
“The point is… we don’t know how to engrave,” Palin laughed bitterly and said. “A magician’s technique of instilling magic into a certain weapon needs to start from the process of armor production. If you want to engrave magic patterns in after the armor is finished, you have to ask advanced mages for help or you can find a Rune Mage to engrave the runes. The former is too costly while the latter is… Where can we find a Rune Mage?”
Sui Xiong then understood the truth, and he slapped his chest, saying that he could find them a Rune Mage.