Snowflakes came with the wind, draped in silver for Pinghu Town.

"It's a terrible two-headed dragon, with a head the size of a hut that can swallow a cow in one bite!"

The Goat Hotel was noisy and noisy, with people huddled in the hall and talking enthusiastically about the recent dragon slay. A well-informed person seemed to be the center of attention, he spat there, and every time he talked about the wonders, he always caused an exclamation, and from time to time he sold a pass, and someone would ask for a glass of warm purple cane wine, and his eyebrows fluttered and danced to finally attract jealousy.

"The dragon's two heads have been hanging on the pillars of the square for a long time, how do you know that they are the legendary two-headed dragons? I have heard that they are two earth-walking dragons......

"What do you know?" the well-informed retorted, his eyes widening, "Can a terrain dragon have wings?" I saw a few fragmented membranous wings come down from a carriage. ”

"Yes, I saw it too, it was like a bat's flesh film, loaded with a whole wagon...... Only dragons have wings like that, right!"

"I have heard that the two-headed dragons are cruel and greedy, and they will burn towns, rob all their treasures, and eat a pure virgin every day. I didn't expect us to get so close to a dragon...... Fortunately it was killed, praise be to the Merciful Most High. ”

"Thanks also to the great master, who summoned the knights to get rid of the dragon!"

"Cheers to Father Miller, to Father Conley!"

"For the sake of the master, for the sake of the Randall family, cheers!"

The crowd applauded and raised their glasses. A young man excitedly asked, "Dragons have names, what is the name of this evil dragon that the master killed?"

"Ugh. The well-informed person burped and said with a flushed face, "Itus...... It has two heads, each with a name!"

"Yes, yes, yes, itus, Gotus the dragon!"

"Itus, Gotus! Itus, Gotus!"

Wine glasses tapped on the table, and the atmosphere in the tavern was pushed to a climax.

Itugos is not a dragon, but it is about the size of a dragon. It is not easy to carry such a giant beast in the swamp, and there is a complex process for dealing with alienated flesh and blood, and there is no room for sloppiness. Just in case, Sylvia personally sat in Silvermoon Manor, mobilized 1,200 fanged soldiers, more than 300 craftsmen and scholars, and first built a strong camp near Itugos's corpse, and the two great knights were responsible for guarding it, and dismembered the priceless alienated dragon lizard on the spot, and then transported it to Pinghu Town in batches for fine processing, and the processed alienated flesh and blood were personally escorted back to Jinshui City by the other two great knights. The work lasted for 28 days and was not over.

The alienated war beast is related to the future of the family, and the knights and scholars of the House of York are busy with this matter, and the church will certainly not miss a good opportunity to promote the doctrine and inspire the people. The public display of the head of Itugos in the church square for half a day completely ignited the enthusiasm of Pinghu Town, and the people cheered and vied with each other, even more joyful than a harvest celebration.

The grand celebration is nothing more than free food and drink, and more rewards, and witnessing the deeds of dragon slaying is enough to boast of the glory of a lifetime.

In this case, Itugos can only be a dragon, it must be a dragon. According to word of mouth, its head was inexplicably doubled in size, its bone spurs were used as dragon horns, and its pelvic fins were like wings, and anyone who dared to question the dragon's identity would be ridiculed and besieged by others.

The rumors of the dragon slaying actually strengthened the relationship of protection, redemption and consecration, which was conducive to strengthening the influence of the lord and the church, as well as the people's sense of belonging to the Randall family, and Victor naturally did not come forward to clarify the truth, and while the people were reveling, he was testing a new weapon with Master Edwin.

"Bang"!

The iron oak target wrapped in the steel armor trembled, and a guard stepped forward to check the fine iron crossbow bolt that pierced through the wooden target, and shouted: "100 meters away, the armor in the middle, completely penetrating!"

Victor removed his shooting stance, holding a pitch-black military crossbow in his hand, and nodded with satisfaction, with his eyesight, he had already seen the test results, and the guards were actually calling out to Master Edwin.

"I'm not mistaken, this pedal crossbow made of keel steel has an effective range of 280 meters, and it penetrates the standard steel armor within 100 meters, which is already more than you require. Master Edwin dusted off the snowflakes from his cloak and complained, "Actually, the pedal crossbow is not a new thing, its rate of fire is not as fast as the crossbow, and its power and range are not as good as military heavy crossbows......"

Victor carefully looked at the new crossbow in his hand, and said with a smile: "Its power is not much worse than that of a military heavy crossbow...... Hearing this, Edwin blew his beard and glared, "That's because of the keel steel! This pedal crossbow consumes enough keel steel to make four stronger military heavy crossbows." Victor, the keel steel pedal crossbow is too expensive to manufacture and cannot be popularized. In fact, since the technology of military heavy crossbows matured, foot crossbows have been eliminated. ”

Sylvia's proposed dual-military system made Victor deeply realize that the Church of Radiance is a huge organization with strict self-discipline, they are one and the same as the lord, and as long as they do not touch the bottom limit of the Radiant Code, the clergy will not interfere with the army building of the Randall family.

Putting aside political concerns, Victor ambitiously began to perfect his mercenary army. However, the races in this world are all strange, and they all have their own talents, and it seems a little anachronistic to copy the ancient military system of the earth, but Victor is not willing to just let mercenaries serve as auxiliaries.

Victor has an alchemy tower and top-notch soldier training methods, as well as an efficient production and construction system. Randall's war potential is staggering, and mercenaries should play a greater role, including engaging in high-intensity combat. In short, Victor has to embark on a different path from the dual-service system.

The greatest advantage of ordinary humans over the physically strong alien races is the ability to build fortifications and the use of sophisticated weaponry. The basic strategy of the dual military system is to fight while building fortifications, first gaining a foothold, and then slowly encroaching, and Victor's mercenaries want to further expand this advantage. In his vision, mercenaries can attack and defend and build, and at the same time have the ability of movement warfare and positional warfare, and when they encounter a weak enemy, they will go down in a drum, and when they encounter a strong enemy, they will form a formation to protect themselves. To do this, in addition to the personal qualities of the soldiers, military equipment is extremely important. For example, military carriages that can carry supplies and quickly form a strong formation, small ballistas that can be assembled, bows and crossbows of various types, and so on.

With this equipment, a mercenary army of a thousand men could move to favorable terrain and, relying on the chariot formation, digging trenches, setting up horses, cutting wood, erecting arrow towers, and building strong fortifications. Under the guidance of the Alchemy Crow, the elite commandos first eliminate the opponent's logisticians, retreat to the camp when they encounter a strong enemy, and use a dense number of crossbows to repel the invading enemy, continuously weakening the enemy's strength, and finally completely defeating it.

Whether the tactic can succeed or not, and how to improve the details, can be discovered and solved one by one through the actual combat of the bear regiment, but the preparations that should be made before the departure of the bear regiment still need to be done.

Better tools make good work.

It happened that the craftsmen and scholars of the York family gathered in Pinghu Town, and with their help, Victor took the lead in solving the design problem of military carriages and small ballistas, and the alchemy auxiliaries had mastered the production methods of these special equipment, as long as the corresponding materials were collected, the alchemy auxiliaries of the bear regiment could copy the carriages and ballistas. Then, Victor took out the keel steel given to him by Viscount Negus and asked Master Edwin to help design a new military crossbow, and made two requests: first, to be able to shoot through the brute skin of ordinary ogres at a distance of 80 meters. Second, the new military crossbow does not need to be wound with a winch, and the parts are detachable and replaceable.

The Yorkist family's craftsmen took only two days to produce a prototype of two foot-operated crossbows, and their performance and construction were exactly what they were looking for. Victor was pleased with the pedal crossbow, but Master Edwin said that the crossbow had been obsolete with the military heavy crossbow.

The secret of the power of the military heavy crossbow lies in its material, the alloy bow arm forged from keel steel and 100 steel can withstand 1,200 pounds of tension, the crossbow string made of ferocious animal tendons does not break, and the soldier must use a winch to pull the heavy crossbow.

With an effective range of 350 meters (flat fire) and 150 meters through fine iron armor, the keel steel heavy crossbow is currently the strongest individual ranged weapon. It's like a small ballista, theoretically capable of shooting ogres. Of course, in practice, those monsters with extremely tenacious vitality will hardly be directly killed by military heavy crossbows, and even if they are seriously injured, they can often fight for a while.

An adult ogre can cover a distance of 150 meters in about 10 seconds, while it usually takes 40 seconds for a military heavy crossbow to be rewound. Therefore, mercenaries need to be equipped with a military crossbow with stronger firepower and faster rate of fire, from quantitative to qualitative, if a few arrows can't kill large monsters, then shoot a few more arrows and shoot them all into hedgehogs.

The 700-pound pull of the foot crossbow, which a strong soldier steps on with one foot and winds both hands, can be fired in just 5 seconds, and it is not as powerful as a winch heavy crossbow, but it is enough to penetrate the armor within 100 meters. In order to achieve the effect of rapid fire, the craftsmen had to significantly increase the proportion of keel steel in the alloy, thereby reducing the tension of the crossbow arm, and use spider silk as a string.

Spider silk is very valuable, and keel steel is a scarce resource, and it is not something that can be bought with money.

If it can't be popularized, why reduce the power of the crossbow?

Edwin doesn't understand Victor's thoughts, he doesn't know that Victor has Thoryin. Not to mention the pedal crossbow, even the 1200-pound winch crossbow Victor can be popularized. The elastic purple shirt and hibiscus wood can be used as bow arms, and the sisal string or ordinary ox tendon can be used as a crossbow string, and in front of Thoryin, the keel steel of the Duoduo Kingdom is simply not enough.

Victor only wanted a standardized design solution for the foot-mounted crossbow. Although it is not yet time to reveal the Thorsilver equipment, it is always good to prepare some weapon drawings in advance, who let Randall lead not have the ability to develop it.

Victor shook his head and sighed: "Knights are usually either busy giving birth to children or training soldiers, polishing their fighting spirit, and they don't ask about anything...... Sylvia created a dual-military system, and I have to figure out the specific things......"

Edwin stayed for a long time, and said viciously: "Boy, you are off topic!" Then, he couldn't help but laugh again: "That's not wrong at all! The affairs of the family depend on us scholars, you see your mouth move, I will design a carriage for you, improve the ballista, and take out the outdated pedal crossbow...... Can you toss me less, old man?"

"In the future war, logistics is king!" Victor continued: "With 3,000 elites and 10,000 auxiliary soldiers, it is still very difficult to ensure the food, clothing, shelter and transportation of so many people, not to mention the war? The production, transportation, and deployment of all kinds of materials will become very complicated, and any problem in any link may lead to the collapse of the auxiliary troops, and they do not have a firm will." So, this is a huge test of the family's logistical ability. ”

"Luckily, we can try and deduce before we go to war, even if we fail a lot of times, as long as we can find the best logistical solution. For example, this crossbow ......" Victor raised his crossbow and said, "It may be outdated, but it is not worthless. The winch heavy crossbow is powerful and complex, and it is difficult to repair once damaged, while the new crossbow has a simple structure, the parts can be interchanged, and even repaired on the fly in battle, ensuring that the combat effectiveness of the army is not damaged. Now, by improving its texture, we can get a new weapon that surpasses the crossbow and fires faster than the winch crossbow, and can be used by all outcast auxiliaries. ”

"It is not an obsolete pedal crossbow, it was born for future wars, and it should be called a standard crossbow. ”

Master Edwin pondered for a long time and muttered, "This is the standardization you've been talking about?"

Victor nodded: "Standardization is the most important principle of logistics in the future. It can not only improve production efficiency, reduce production costs and transportation costs, but also improve the combat effectiveness of auxiliary armies. Elite soldiers have been practicing martial arts since childhood, and they are skilled in using all kinds of weapons, but the homeless auxiliaries cannot, their training time is too short, and a longer or shorter spear can affect their performance, and they may not even have the right head to change a bow and crossbow. Therefore, standardized weapons are important for the homeless auxiliaries, and they can complement each other with standardized armaments and materials between corps. ”

Master Edwin looked at Victor for a moment before he sighed, "Victor, if I didn't know you, I would have thought you were a student that the master secretly taught. ”

Victor's heart moved, and he said modestly: "Master, I'm still far behind." Actually, I've always admired the Silver and White Tower, and I really wanted to go to the Tower to study. ”

A flower smiled on Edwin's old face, and he shook his head regretfully: "It's a pity that the lord can't leave the territory for a long time, I'm afraid you won't have the opportunity to study in the White Tower." ”

"Knowledge is wealth, it is power, it is the jewel in the crown. The White Pagoda is a place where wealth, power, and precious stones are stored. The motto of the Marquis Bastern has always inspired the children of the nobility of the court, including me. Victor saluted solemnly: "Master Edwin, as the lord of the Randall family, I cannot go to the White Tower to study, I still implore you to write a letter of introduction for the Randall family, and I will send family members to the White Tower to study history, pharmacy, and blacksmithing." ”

"Of course!" Edwin nodded, "However, the tuition fees in the White Tower are not cheap. Each subject is paid 2,000 gold soles per year, and the tuition fee is calculated separately, and the fees vary from scholar to scholar, but the three disciplines also cost an average of 10,000 gold soles per year, and it takes at least seven years to learn advanced potion formulations such as energy potions. ”

"This ...... That's too expensive, isn't it?"

Master Edwin said solemnly: "Child, knowledge is a wealth that can be passed on, so the silver and white tower is both high and noble. ”