When Gastens entered Strandwood with his daredevils, it was already the third day after the Battle of Fragrant City, and the regular troops who had entered the city in advance had completed the cleanup, control and looting of the city.

"Head, where are we going?"

Ivan? Warren was wrapped in a thick bandage around his chest and walked with a slight gasp. His injuries were not light, and they might be fatal enough on ordinary people, but in his mouth, it seemed that it was just a small wound bitten by a mosquito, and it was not worth mentioning.

"You're all like this, where can you go? Still looking for a chick to make a shot? Beware of dying on the belly of the! ”

Walking on the other side of the Gastens Zink? Warren laughed and mocked, causing the group of daredevils who followed them to laugh. Only 11 of them were veteran members of the Gastens team, the rest were survivors of the regiment's death squads, and they were also given the right to go into the city to rest, this time with their new company commander Gastens, into the city to relax.

"Let's go find a factory, a machine shop, or a big blacksmith's workshop."

Gastens wasn't smiling, he was recalling the specious history in his head. As far as he remembers, Ankenrein's year-long war against the Republic of Negru ended in victory, and Ankenrein received two provinces of the Republic of Negru close to Ankenrein. In this battle, both sides were extremely inferior in weapons and combat ideas, and Ankenrein relied on his cavalry and numbers to defeat the army of the Negru Republic. Judging from the fighting situation in the previous days, the armored spearmen and artillery cavalry, which should have appeared five years later, had already appeared in advance, and the enemy's combat effectiveness and sense of resistance seemed to be stronger than he remembered. In this case, continuing to use the unreliable Type 27 rifle in your hand will inevitably put you at a disadvantage in the face of the soldiers of the Negru Republic, who also have steam rifles. He used to be with the division commander Danny? Carey and the regimental leader, Charlotte? Did Findley report his thoughts, Danny? There's nothing Carey can do about it. At his level, he could not influence the design, production, and supply of weapons to the front line in the empire. As for the regimental commander Charlotte? Findley, the guy didn't want to talk to Gastens.

Therefore, Gastens must find his own way to increase the combat effectiveness of himself and his team.

"Head, what are you doing in the factory? It's all iron lumps, let's go to the residential area, go to the school, there are girls there, and there is money. ”

Hearing these words from the soldier behind him, Gastens turned around and looked at the team behind him with a serious expression.

"Now that I've talked about it, I, Gastens, will officially tell you that today you will enter the city and rob me, but you are not allowed to kill or rape. The people you can bully in this city are the same people as you, and they have parents, families and children just like you. If you still have a little conscience, just fucking listen to Lao Tzu and don't fucking touch things you shouldn't touch, understand? ”

"It's all hanged people, is it interesting to pretend to be a good person?"

Someone in the group muttered in a low voice, but the loud voice was heard by everyone. Gastens frowned and looked in the direction of the speaker. The surrounding soldiers subconsciously moved out of the way, revealing the person who was still complaining just now.

"What's your name?" Gastens took a few steps forward and stood across from the man, his voice was not loud, but cold. Behind him, Ivan and Zink stood together, looking at the grumbling man with the eyes of a dead man.

"What's Lao Tzu's name, can you control it?"

The man was not tall, but muscular and muscular. Even though it was autumn, he was still shirtless, revealing bulging muscles and a blinding death row inmate's brand.

Gastens snorted and punched the man in the side of the face. He threw a heavy punch that knocked the man staggering. The other party obviously didn't realize that Gastens didn't agree with each other and went straight to work, shook it twice on the spot and then rubbed himself and pounced, and then was forced back by the bright scimitar in Gastens's hand.

"You don't play with knives!" The man's voice was a little empty, obviously frightened by the fierceness of Gastens who used his knife without saying a word.

"Give him a knife."

Gastens tilted his head, and Ivan stepped forward and gave his scimitar to the guy who dared to speak out against Gastens.

"I'm your chief, you have to listen to what I say, if you don't listen, say it to your face, what's the point of the fuck talking about a pussy behind your back? Now the knife is in your hand, if you don't accept it, let's fight, you will bear the consequences, you win what you want to do, how about it? ”

The man was startled by Gastens's words, and he froze for two seconds, caught in a dilemma. Gastens moved his body in place and prepared his fighting position.

"What, scared?"

"Who's the fuck afraid of who!!!"

The man was obviously not a man to be messed with, he seemed to have a violent temper, and he was obviously not to the point of being humiliated in front of him and indifferent. He scolded and pounced, fighting for his life. The corners of Gastens' mouth twitched, and he greeted him.

Gastens was not afraid of battle, even with cold weapons, and in the early days of the Great War in his first life, he used the same scimitar to kill many people. If these death row inmates were outlaws in a peaceful society, then Gastens could have become a killing machine during the war years if he wanted to. The reason why he was able to become a major in his first life was not because of his lip service.

Even with his left hand wounded, Gastens had an easy time fighting against the unnamed death row inmate. This man has a lot of strength and is ruthless, but his use of the scimitar and his fighting skills are still not as good as Gastens. The two had been fighting for less than two minutes before Gastens took a moment to slash his knife-wielding arm, knocking him to the ground.

"What the—"

The man covered his injured arm, as if to curse something. But Gastens didn't give him a chance. He stepped forward and slashed the man to the ground with one slash, breaking his neck with a second slash. Bright red arterial blood spurted out of the wound on the side of the man's neck, splashing Gastens.

Gastens stretched out his foot and kicked the man's still twitching corpse twice, looked around at the death squad soldiers who were looking at him with inexplicable eyes, tilted his head, and gave the order.

"Two people, drag them to the side of the road and throw them away."

Two people unknown to Gastens carried out his order. The atmosphere in the air was somewhat solemn and oppressive, and Gastens lectured as he wiped his knife with his clothes.

"Who am I, you may not know, it doesn't matter if you don't know, you just need to know that my team is the death squad with the highest survival rate, there is no one! This battle is not over yet, if you want to fucking live, listen to Lao Tzu honestly, and Lao Tzu promises to do his best not to let you die! If you don't want to, give me the early, let's have a good get-together, do you hear? However, who wants to say strange things behind his back like this idiot, don't blame Lao Tzu for being polite! Did you hear it?! ”

The team was silent for a while, some nodding, others agreeing. Gastens hung the knife back on his belt and continued, "I'm going to find the factory, there is something to do, if you want to enter the city, go to the city, remember my words, don't kill, don't rape, you know?!" ”

The death squads who followed Gastens were still silent, and they weren't sure if Gastens was joking or serious. Gastens spoke twice more before he let most of his soldiers into the city. He took six or seven of his old team members and went straight to the factory.

——————————

Because of the blockade and restrictions imposed by the Negro Republic on the steam weapons of Tulucas, Gastens knew that he could not find a factory for steam rifles in Strandwood. However, the city, as the capital of the country, certainly has a certain production capacity in terms of civilian steam equipment. Gastens led the team around the city for more than an hour and found a repair plant for Slote Power Equipment in the Republic of Negro.

Perhaps because of the war, the factory has been shut down. Most of the workers also disappeared, leaving only two guards to watch the factory. When Gastens entered the door with his old team covered in blood, the two guards tried to stop him, but he was chased away by Ivan.

"Head, what the hell are we doing here?" , Big Ivan asked a question while looking around curiously. Compared to the rest of the city, the factory was largely undisturbed by Ankenrein soldiers, and appeared to be intact.

"Let's see if we can make a gun," Gastens said, pushing open the door of one of the workshops, and then he froze in place.

One, two, countless pairs of eyes looked at him in the twilight light, and in the dim light, the figures in the workshop were full of shadows, all of them were workers and their families who had taken refuge in the factory after the defeat. They were equally surprised by Gastens' arrival, their eyes wandering over the scimitar on Gastens' waist and the blood on his body, and then fell silent. In silence, they squeezed the young women back from the front row, blocking the view of Gastens and his soldiers with some middle-aged men. Leaning slightly, a big man who seemed to be the leader walked out.

"Master Bing, we are all workers, every day and night, and we don't have much money, we want to live in the war, so we hide here, I didn't expect you to be as wise as a torch, even this can be found, we don't have much money, please accept these, let us live."

The soldiers standing behind Gastens took out their scimitars, and two of them with steam rifles began to pressurize their rifles. There are at least more than 100 people hiding in the workshop, and if they are really desperate, they will have to explain here.

Gastens looked at the worker standing in front of him, his skin dark, his body smelling of sweat, and his clothes were shabby. In his raised hand was a wad of the currency of the Neglo Republic, named Tru. Gastens took the money and flipped through it, all of them were small coins of one or two dollars, and the largest face value was only ten dollars. He thought about it for a while, and knew that these people would be unsure in front of him if he didn't accept the money. He handed the money to Ivan behind him, and continued in a soothing tone.

"Don't worry, I'm a man of my word, and if I take your money, my brothers and I won't touch you. However, we are not the only ones in this city, if the soldiers outside know about this place, you will still suffer, and we will not say it outside, and you should not seek death by yourself, okay? ”

"Don't worry, Master Jun, we won't look for death by ourselves, there are still some metallurgical pyroxene in the factory, which is very valuable, outsiders don't understand, do you want to take it away?"

"Your metallurgical pyroxene is still there?" , Gastens was overjoyed, but on the surface, he was still silent, "That's it, I won't take metallurgical pyroxene, any of you know more about smelting and forging, come out a few people, do me a favor, okay?" ”

Hearing Gastens' request, the leader paused. However, he quickly reacted that if he wanted to survive this time, it was best to meet some strange requests from this military master. He was a veteran worker of the factory and the president of the factory's union, and he knew very well which people met Gastens's requirements, so he ordered a few people, asked Gastens about his requirements, and took him to the small parts workshop.

The small parts workshop is the workshop where the factory has full production capacity. As a maintenance factory, it is mainly repaired, and occasionally it is necessary to manufacture some parts or something, which will be used in a small pilot workshop. From smelting to forming, cooling, and forging, there is equipment here. Gastens probably checked that the equipment here was not as advanced as the equipment at the headquarters of The Paper, but it could meet his requirements. He unloaded the steam rifles of the captured armored gunners from Zink's back and placed them on the table.

"I want to make a modification to this gun, I will draw the specific design later, I hope you can help me make it in three days, in exchange, I guarantee that you are safe and sound."

"That's great, thank you, Master Jun", the leader of the workers smiled, and the expressions of the workers with him were a little more relaxed.

"Haven't asked yet, what's your name?" Gastens took a piece of drawing paper and chatted as he made it.

"Thomas? Gurakos, I'm the union president of this factory, so you can tell me something. ”

It was then that Gastens realized that almost all factories in the Republic of Neglo had unionized themselves. He glanced at Gurakos and whispered.

"Very good, how many levels of metallurgical pyroxene do you have here?"

"We only have grade 7, and the maximum temperature can reach about 2,000 degrees, and the better metallurgical pyroxene is too expensive, and the company has not provided it."

"Level 7 is enough," Gastens said as he left the drawing table and walked over to the furnace. At this time, the furnace had not yet been lit, and the four metallurgical pyroxene arranged in a ring were fixed at the bottom of the furnace by a black heat-resistant card holder, emitting a characteristic reddish glow. Gastens moved the switch next to the furnace and nodded in satisfaction as he watched as the four metallurgical pyroxene stones were lit up and the fiery jets gushed out of the furnace.

"That's enough, I hope you don't let me down."

"Don't worry, Master Jun, we at Slote Power Equipment never disappoint."

Thomas? Gurakos spoke with a hint of pride, much to Gastens' surprise. He nodded and got back to work.

With only four days left for the troops to make corrections at Strongwood, he had limited time and had to complete his plan before leaving.