Chapter 438 [Tulip's War Potential]

This mercenary captain is naturally not a stupid person, and he can go south and north to get mixed up until now, of course, he can't be a fool.

But the one in front of him can be called the top slipper in the Roland Empire. What's more, this guy also holds the gold badge of the Tulip Family, and he is also a magician. It is clear that he is a noble person in the tulip family.

With such a dual identity in front of him, the captain of the Snow Wolf Mercenary Group naturally has no guard at all.

After a deep conversation, coupled with Chen Daolin's deliberate words, he even drank a few glasses of wine with the mercenary captain in the end.

The mercenary captain let go of his defense, and naturally opened the conversation.

......

The Snow Wolf Mercenary Group, as the leading mercenary group in the Tulip Family's territory, is also the top mercenary industry in the entire Roland Empire.

According to this captain, the Snow Wolf Mercenary Regiment alone has more than a thousand mercenaries.

This is just a standing number, after all, the mercenary industry is still relatively dangerous, walking outside, sleeping in the open, encountering robbers and robbers, or exploring deep in the mountains and forests, and encountering Warcraft and the like, as well as the trade route to the northwest grassland, or to the orc kingdom, many chambers of commerce will choose to find mercenaries as guards.

Especially some large mercenary groups, with good reputation and high credit, are even more favored - if it is some small mercenary group, I am afraid that the strength is not enough, and if the credit is not guaranteed, if you run to some remote place in the deep mountains and old forests, and play a black and black game, the bitter master really has no place to cry.

The Snow Wolf Mercenary Regiment has a standing force of more than 1,000 people, and this is only a number on the surface, many mercenaries will choose to retire temporarily after earning enough money - these mercenaries are adventurers from all over the world. Many people don't know how to run a business after they have earned enough money, and the result is often that they have to return to their old business when the money is spent.

Therefore, although the Snow Wolf Mercenary Group only has more than a thousand armed forces on the surface, in fact, if necessary, call on those groups such as those who have temporarily retired to pull out a team of several hundred people. It's not that hard.

In other words, just such a snow wolf mercenary group can pull out more than two thousand people alone!

That's not a small number!

Two thousand, although it seems that according to the military system of the Roland Empire, it is not the establishment of an ordinary infantry regiment -- but don't forget that these people are mercenaries! They are all real soldiers who have traveled from south to north, seen blood, and fought battles! Not those recruits who only walk through the queue in the barracks.

More importantly, in terms of individual combat effectiveness. The average combat effectiveness of mercenaries is often higher than that of the regular soldiers of the Empire!

In the entire empire, the most developed area of the mercenary industry is the northwest, especially in the territory of the Tulip family.

The general meeting of the mercenary guild of the Roland Empire is set up in Loulan City, the capital of the Tulip family.

Mercenary groups large and small. There are many of them, such as the Snow Wolf Mercenary Group, and there are also small groups with tens of people and hundreds of people. As for those adventure groups that randomly pull out a dozen people, of course, there is no shortage of them.

And the entire mercenary guild. They all have to rely on the snort of the tulip family to survive!

It can even be said that it is the territory of the tulip family, this soil. It has cultivated a well-developed mercenary industry in the entire Northwest.

Among these mercenaries, a considerable number of them are actually from the Northwest, most of them are indigenous people from the Tulip family's territory, many are retired samurai in the army, and many are elite soldiers or veterans who have retired from the Tulip family's private army.

These people, there is no doubt that they are emotionally close to the Tulip family.

In other words, if there is a war, if there is an enemy who stands on the opposite side of the Tulip family, then these mercenaries are likely to stand in the Tulip family's camp overnight.

So...... How many armed mercenary classes are there in the entire Northwest?

It may be difficult to count the exact number, but according to the mercenary captain, it is:

"It will not be less than five or six thousand, and if necessary, it will not be difficult to gather seven or eight thousand. ”

This is a civilian arm, an armed force pro-tulip. It is an elite army with a lot of combat experience and a very high proportion of samurai groups!

When the two of them were drunk, Chen Daolin deliberately chatted with the mercenary captain about the likely war......

The mercenary captain replied with a sneer: Those who dare to provoke our tulip family will die a miserable death!

...... How many armed forces does the Tulip Family really have?

On the bright side, Chen Daolin is no stranger.

The Tulip family is known as the number one wealthy family in the empire - this is recognized, and no one naturally has any doubts.

The Tulip family's private army is also recognized as an elite. On the surface, there are a few armies:

Chen Daolin is most familiar with the Northwest Independent Division, which sits in the Northwest Fortress, is the border of the country, and is responsible for the northwest section of the Kaspersky Line. The total number of troops is more than 30,000, of which about 20,000 are soldiers.

In addition, the Tulip family has the strength of two divisions.

One is the first family guard division in Loulan City. In fact, the strength of this division is not very large, with a full strength of only 25,000 men, and if the auxiliary troops with heavy logistics are deducted, the number of soldiers is even less than 20,000.

However, this division is recognized as the strongest and most elite of the Tulip family, although the number is a little smaller, but they are all selected by the family, the most loyal fighters to the family, and they are stationed near Loulan City all year round, responsible for defending the family's base camp and deterring the Quartet.

In addition, there is a division, which is called the "Garrison Division" in Tulip Family territory.

This division is scattered in various parts of the family territory, in fact, to put it bluntly, it is similar to the police force in the real world, maintaining local order, similar to the security force, similar to the local garrison in other parts of the Roland Empire.

The total strength of this garrison division is 12,000 men. Because it was not a standing army and there was no assembly station, the logistical burden was shared among the various garrisons, and it did not cost much auxiliaries.

If you depict it. The 12,000 people were sprinkled evenly all over the tulip family's territory, which was the size of a province.

In addition, the Tulip family has two small troops.

One was the "Air Cavalry Regiment" - the predecessor of this force was said to be called the "Decepticons".

Well, as soon as he heard the name, Chen Daolin concluded that it was the first Duke Tulip who did a good deed.

It is an air force that is said to have a lot of flying equipment such as hot air balloons and broomsticks.

The number is not large, and it is said that the standing establishment is only more than 1,000 people. Moreover, this unit has rarely appeared in the eyes of people in these years, because there is no war in the Empire, so this army most of the time. It is said that they are hidden in a secret place of the family. The face is mysterious.

The other independent force was the cavalry.

That is, the 1st Guards Cavalry Regiment of the Tulip Family.

Yes, Darlingo heard it right, cavalry, and...... There is only one regiment.

This cavalry regiment was stationed in the capital city of Loulan, and the establishment was only about 3,000.

Speaking of which, I'm afraid many people will be shocked!

As the first wealthy family in the empire that has been famous for many years, the Tulip family has the strongest private army among the wealthy families of the empire. Among the armies, this is recognized as the strongest class of the era: cavalry. The family actually has only one standing establishment of a cavalry regiment!

If you exclude the small cavalry units and scout patrols of other divisions and garrisons...... The dignified Tulip family actually has only 3,000 cavalry standing regular troops!

Only three thousand regular cavalry troops!

And it's also in the northwest region, which is rich in war horses!

In other words, it is known as the first aristocratic family in the empire. The Tulip family of the First Private Army has a total standing strength of only 70,000 or 80,000.

If you deduct the logistics system, baggage, auxiliary troops, etc., the pure combat power is full of calculations. There are only more than 50,000.

This number can only sound like "good", but ...... It's a mere 50,000 figures. It's hard to feel "powerful".

Judging from this figure purely on paper, the so-called No. 1 legendary family in the empire, the No. 1 strong army among the giants, seems to be a little reluctant and a little unworthy of the name.

But...... The situation is far from simple.

The armament of the Tulip family took an extremely special route.

......

The northwest is a vast and sparsely populated area.

Even today, one hundred and forty years after the Tulip Family has taken root in the Northwest, even the powerful Tulip Family has been operating in this land for one hundred and forty years, bringing unprecedented prosperity here.

But there is still no way to get rid of a bottleneck in development: population!

The territory of the Tulip family is very large, there is a province in full swing, and it is a province in the northwest. In terms of land area alone, it was much larger than the interior of the empire and the provinces in the south.

But the problem is that the vast majority of the land here is ...... Wilderness and even the Gobi!

Dry climate, hot in summer and cold in winter.

Also, the actual arable land here is much less than in other provinces!

Now it seems that the total population of the entire Tulip family's territory is still only three million. In recent years, it has slowly hovered around this number, and there has been no significant increase.

This total population is indeed a bit shabby, not to mention the Celestial Empire in reality where Chen Daolin comes from, there may be so much population in a prefecture-level city...... Even in the Roland Empire, compared to the provinces in the south and inland, the population was only a fraction of the number of people.

For example, the Rollin family is only an earl, and the territory area is less than one-sixth of the Tulip family. But the population has exceeded two million.

Although this number has doubled compared to when the Tulip family was established here.

According to the general law of the Roland people, an ordinary family is about five or six people, that is, there are only more than 600,000 households in the entire Tulip family's territory.

The establishment of 70,000 or 80,000 standing troops is already a not very light burden relative to the population base! That is to say, for every seven or eight households, one household has one soldier! This proportion is not low.

That is, the wealth of the Tulip family can rely on such a small population base to have the strength to make tens of thousands of standing troops.

Maybe the Tulip family has enough financial resources to feed more troops, but a huge problem that plagues the Tulip family is the population base!

A sensible leader would never be reckless, and if he really made all the people in his territory soldiers, it would only stir up public anger and rebellion.

But the Northwest ...... There is no arable land!

This is the biggest constraint that limits the population growth of the Tulip Family's territory.

At that time, Du Wei didn't know what method he used, but he showed a miracle in the northwest and made a Loulan Lake. Irrigated a large area of land near Loulan City, and made a small plain in the northwest - but this is already the limit!

In fact, to this day, the Tulip family needs to import some food from outside every year to meet the needs of the population in their territory.

The limitation of the population base made it impossible for the Tulip family to produce too many standing professional troops.

So...... The Tulip family took a different path:

Reserve!

......

In the territory of the Tulip Family, there is a decree unique to the Tulip Family, called the Military Service Law.

The law stipulates that all men born in the Tulip family's territory must enter the reserve after the age of sixteen.

All men who have attained the age of 16 are required to obey this law. This is the natural obligation of every Tulip family.

Every man who serves in the reserve begins at the age of sixteen and trains in the army twice a year.

This is because it is necessary to avoid spring ploughing in the spring and the autumn harvest in the fall.

Therefore, the reserve training twice a year was chosen in the summer and winter, and the training was carried out in the army once, and each training lasted for one month.

One month of training in summer and one month of winter training, and receive a certain intensity of militarized training.

This reserve was not until the man was thirty years old. Those over the age of thirty do not need to serve in the reserve anymore.

Two months of militarized training twice a year, or semi-militarized, were enough to ensure that the Tulip family accomplished what seemed to be a pioneering achievement of its time:

Hide the soldiers in the people!

Two months of militarized training per year. Perhaps there is no guarantee that a person being trained will become a truly qualified soldier. But at least it is possible to turn a person into a "half-finished" soldier.

And once a war really breaks out, then these large numbers of "half-finished" soldiers, who are hidden in the people, only need to be assembled. Give them weapons and equipment, and then train and straighten them out a little, and you will be a qualified army!

And the whole tulip family territory. How many men between the ages of 15 and 30 are there?

More than half a million!

The Military Service Law is a very strict law in Tulip Territory!

Anyone who refuses to obey the reservists will be severely punished, ranging from a fine to a revocation of the family register and expulsion from the family domain - since you refuse to serve the family, there is no need to continue to be a member of the family!

Of course, the people who created this military service law back then...... Du Wei also thought of a lot of questions.

For example, in peacetime, how to make the common people willing to obey the military service law and participate in reserve training without resistance.

The Tulip Family's military service law stipulates that all men in the reservists who obey the military service law, join the reserves, and undergo militarized training twice a year, can receive military pay - or salaries and subsidies during the two months of military training each year.

That is, training in the barracks, and getting a salary. And don't forget, the Tulip family is very rich! The salary paid to the reservists is not low! At least not less than the normal monthly income of ordinary people in the Tulip family's territory.

The entire 500,000 people of appropriate age are half-finished soldiers who have undergone militarized training every year...... These people are familiar with discipline in the army, with all kinds of weapons and equipment used in combat, and with the orders of the platoon......

If the Tulip family is fully mobilized in the event of war...... These 500,000 semi-finished reserve forces can be assembled, armed, and reorganized in a very short period of time......

And then there is a 500,000 qualified army!

This amount, just thinking about it, is enough to make people's scalps tingle!

500,000!

The main battle legions of the entire Roland Empire don't add up to so many!

This is also an important reason why the Tulip Family has always been a pivotal position in the empire!

That's probably the same ...... An important reason why Shiloh is so jealous of the Tulip family and desperately wants to weaken this family!

It is probably difficult for any emperor to tolerate a certain courtier under him, and he can mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops that do not belong to the emperor himself at any time......

......

A day later, in the morning, Chen Daolin got up and walked out of the tent, and saw that the mercenaries were already sitting nervously in the morning training.

The mercenary captain who drank with him last night and was red-faced. He was also energetic and trained with his subordinates.

This made Chen Daolin a little impressed by him - these snow wolf mercenary groups were really strong.

Anicee got up early, and the child's snooze did not seem to be visible in the little girl. The life of the steppe herdsmen was very hard, and Anicee got up early, and ran to the people in the caravan, took the basin, fetched a basin of water from the pond in the oasis, and burned the fire outside the tent.

When Chen Daolin came out, there was hot water to wash.

The little girl was born cute, with big black eyes and delicate and snow-white skin. It's like milk.

In addition, after following Chen Daolin, Chen Daolin is a person who loves cleanliness very much, and he didn't care about anything else along the way, but forcibly made a series of strict personal hygiene rules for Anice.

The little girl's original clothes of a grassland herdsman were thrown away by Chen Daolin - those clothes that were tattered and full of grass clippings, and they had not been washed for many days, Chen Daolin threw them away directly - he didn't want to bring back a body of lice.

Now Anice, wearing a robe that Chen Daolin helped her change to a smaller size - this was originally a short shirt of Chen Daolin's own, but after putting it on Anice, because she was still too short. The blouse also turned into a robe on her.

The little girl came out of the tent early in the morning and timidly asked for help from the people around her.

Although she didn't speak Roland, she was more than a gesture, and the little girl had big innocent eyes. That weak and lovely appearance is always impossible to refuse.

Anicee was careful not to say a word—not a word of the prairie.

She seemed to instinctively have a sense of vigilance, in this group of Roland people, although Chen Daolin did not specifically explain her. But she took the initiative to hide the identity of the steppe people.

Anyway, she is very young, and her appearance is a little special, with big black eyes. Especially the skin as white as milk, which is very different from most grassland people, plus Chen Daolin had already changed her hairstyle, and she didn't tie the pigtails that those grassland girls often have, so it is difficult to judge her grassland ancestry from the appearance.

In fact, when Anicese was busy, Chen Daolin woke up very early and noticed it.

He just sat in the tent, thinking about one thing.

"If war does break out...... So ......"

There was a strange glint in his eyes: "So...... What benefits can Lao Tzu reap?"

When she walked out of the tent, she saw Anice's eyes wide and her face full of eager expression, and the little girl tiptoed and carefully handed a hot wet towel to Chen Daolin.

"Old, teacher......"

The word was in Roland, the only Roland language Aenise had known so far.

Chen Daolin looked at Anice, looking at her eager expression, and then wiped his face with a towel—though he didn't like the smell of the river when it was hot.

......

The team continued to rest in this oasis for another half day.

After all, after a fierce battle, after escaping from the grassland, this team also needs to rest and recuperate.

Chen Daolin was not in a hurry to leave—he seemed to be thinking about something very important.

And all morning, the people in the caravan saw an interesting scene:

The young man in the robe had been sitting leisurely by the tent, drinking water and closing his eyes leisurely.

And the little girl, who was just the same, was running up and down and busy, she ran to fetch water, she ran to make a fire, she ran to collect leaves, and then she made a fan, and she knelt beside the man, and carefully fanned him in the cool breeze.

The little girl's expression was stern and cautious, as if she was doing the most pious and sacred thing.

And Chen Daolin ...... This guy really thinks of himself as an uncle, so he leans lazily there, closes his eyes and recuperates, as if he is shamelessly enjoying the service of this little girl.

Even when eating, the leader of the caravan took the initiative to bring lunch, and the little girl also took it, knelt beside Chen Daolin, picked out the meat and bones with her own hands, and then broke the dough into small pieces, carefully soaked all the dough with the soup, and then blew hot air with her mouth, and when the temperature was blown to lukewarm, she respectfully brought it to Chen Daolin and invited him to enjoy.

When Chen Daolin was eating while he was distracted, the little girl sat down beside him honestly, with a sweet smile on her face, and looked at Chen Daolin blankly......

waited until Chen Daolin had eaten all of them, and the little girl took the tragedy, and then served Chen Daolin with a hot towel to wipe his mouth and hands, and brought hot water to Chen Daolin to rinse his mouth......

When you're done with all the qiē...... The little girl took another piece of food that was already cold and ate it quickly.

After completing this qiē, the little girl jumped back and sent back the tableware, and then knelt down beside Chen Daolin again, and seriously fanned this guy......

...... It's just fucking shameless!!

Many people in the caravan couldn't help but cast a disdainful look at Chen Daolin!

A big man has hands and feet, but he wants a small child to serve back and forth?!

And...... It's still so cute, so spicy and beautiful!

If it weren't for the leader of the team, everyone would have warned everyone that this guest was extraordinary...... I'm afraid that there are some unsightly heroes who are going to come and teach this child abuser a lesson.

......

"Anice?"

Chen Daolin finally opened his eyes, as if he had just recovered from his contemplation.

"Teacher, I'm here, what do you command?" Anicee straightened up and widened his eyes.

Chen Daolin sighed, gently stroked her hair, and said softly, "Actually...... You don't have to serve me like that. ”

"But...... Immortal, I like to serve you like this. You are an immortal, an omnipotent immortal, and immortals should be served by mortals!" said Anicee cautiously.

"Oh?"

Chen Daolin thought for a while, and suddenly grinned: "You like to work so much...... So, in the afternoon, you go to the pond and fetch fifty basins of water. ”

Anicee blinked, and there wasn't even the slightest hint of displeasure or suspicion on her face. She just nodded vigorously, and then looked at Chen Daolin with those big black eyes, which seemed to be still shining: "Teacher...... Fifty pots, is that enough?"

......

In the afternoon, the people in the camp saw the lovely and beautiful little girl, who kept going back and forth between the camp and the pond, fetching water one by one, carrying a heavy basin of water, and staggering back and forth.

The most hateful thing is...... The water that was fetched was all looked at by Chen Daolin, and then it was sprinkled casually in the grass on the side.

Didn't this guy mean to torture people!!

Finally, some young mercenaries with a strong sense of justice couldn't stand it anymore. Some people have already begun to rub their hands, and even tried to slash the knife, and their gaze at Chen Daolin became more and more unkind......

And Chen Daolin just looked at Anice, looked at the beads of sweat on the tip of the little girl's nose, looked at the flushing on her face, and then listened carefully to the frequency of Anice's gasp, occasionally pulled Anice, reached out and pinched the pulse of her wrist.

"You're too slow!

"Yes, teacher!"

`

[For the benefits of readers, please add my prestige~. Please search directly for my Wei signal: Dancing. You can find it~~Welfare is being broadcast~~~ This benefit is my finished old book "Heavenly Fire Plain" free of charge!]

`

`

(To be continued......)