plumnovel Chapter 41 Even if they outnumber and outdo each other, they are still a rabble.
Chapter 41 Even if they outnumber and outdo each other, they are still a rabble.
Rock's troops set off, while in the already annihilated Xiaoshi Village, the bandits of Lianyun Village and other bandit gangs that had gathered there were still arguing over the distribution of spoils.
Faced with this extremely complicated situation, Hong Tong, the head manager of Lianyun Village, was at a loss for a moment. He had never dealt with such complicated negotiations before, and he had never thought about how to divide the spoils with these bandits after gathering them all under his command.
He had previously summoned other bandits to help him fight, but generally speaking, those bandits he summoned were usually just doing things for money. After they robbed the silver, they would divide it up, and that would be the end of it.
But not now. Now a bunch of bandits want Luo's army's foreign guns and horses, and many people are speculating about how much silver Luo's army actually has.
Even if they thought that the Luo family army was likely supported by Tsarist Russian forces, the Tsarist Russians weren't there to do charity; these things definitely required real money to buy.
Therefore, they all speculated that the Luo family army might have at least tens of thousands, or even more than 10 taels of silver. The bandits had no idea that the Luo family army actually had very little cash on hand, because most of the money had been deposited into the system by Luo Ke.
To be honest, Rock was a little worried about the fact that this system was swallowing up real money when he recharged.
It may not be apparent in the short term, but if this continues in the long run, and the system keeps consuming real gold and silver, then the amount of gold and silver circulating in the market will eventually decrease, and deflation will occur.
But then he thought about it again and realized that he didn't necessarily need to worry so much. As long as he controlled his spending, the impact of his recharge on the market wouldn't be as big as he imagined.
On the one hand, aside from the money he spent recruiting troops or purchasing equipment and supplies from the system, the remaining money he spent cannot really be said to be gone.
His system of troops does indeed need to be paid and needs to be maintained, but these military salaries that are paid out will be spent by his own soldiers and then circulate back into the market.
Rock had previously studied that although all his soldiers were branded with loyalty and obeyed his orders almost unconditionally, as long as he didn't issue any outrageous or absurd orders.
But apart from that, his system soldiers are no different from ordinary people. They also need to eat, drink, relieve themselves, and have emotions and desires. He even heard some Cossack cavalrymen shouting that they wanted to find a chance to go into the city to visit brothels!
In the early stages, he seemed to have deposited a lot of money into the system, but compared to the gold and silver circulating in the market, this amount was actually nothing.
All in all, he hasn't deposited more than 10 taels of silver into the system. And for some wealthy landlords, 10 taels of silver might not even be as much as the silver stored in their family treasury!
If the amount of money circulating in the market has indeed decreased for this reason, and if he has the opportunity in the future, he can find a pretext to raid a few wealthy households and take out all the gold and silver that these guys have buried in their cellars, and the amount of money circulating in the market will immediately return to normal.
Don't underestimate the gold and silver these wealthy families have secretly hoarded. If you really calculate it carefully, it will be a terrifying astronomical figure!
As for the future, when he conquers the world or establishes a regional power and has enough capital to spend a lot of silver to unlock and recruit higher-level troops, he feels that he can try to promote fiat currency at that time.
He could temporarily use the gold standard to stabilize the situation, then establish banks and gradually transition to a modern monetary system. As long as he controlled the pace, he wouldn't cause his own currency to collapse.
Moreover, whether during the Qing Dynasty or in other dynasties before that, China has always maintained a trade surplus, with silver flowing into China from all over the world.
When he starts industrializing, the trade surplus will only become more abnormal, and even more gold and silver will flow in.
As long as he doesn't end up as pathetic as those Manchus, or like some old empress dowager who ends up spending all his money on war reparations, he really can't imagine how he could lack money.
After figuring these things out, Rock felt much better.
With such a large army marching, it was impossible for the bandits to keep it a secret, especially since some people were willing to tip him off, while others were equally willing to tip him off.
No matter when, there are always a bunch of cowards who want to be lackeys. Therefore, when Rock's troops had crossed the border of his territory, crossed a small ditch, and were advancing towards Xiaoshi Village, Lianyun Village and other bandits also learned of Rock's dispatch of troops.
Upon hearing that Luo Ke had sent troops, Hong Tong, the leader who had been busy arguing with the bandits about the distribution of spoils for several days without being able to resolve the issue, was immediately overjoyed.
He took out a pistol and fired a shot into the sky, silencing the bandits who were still arguing around him.
Seeing that his gunshot had startled everyone and drawn their attention to him, he nodded in satisfaction, then roared:
"You sons of bitches, shut up! Look at the pathetic bunch of you!"
"The Luo family army has already attacked, they're practically shitting on my head, and we're still busy arguing? Let's grab our weapons and come with me, fight the Luo family army, and then we can argue all we want!"
Then, he swept his cold gaze over the bandit leaders present, and said in a gruff voice:
"Before the war begins, don't blame me for not warning you. We might argue and even fight at the dinner table, and I don't care. But when the real battle begins with the Luo family army, don't let me see any of you betraying us!"
"Anyone who dares to stab you in the back during a battle, deliberately sabotaging others, then don't blame me for showing no mercy and leading the brothers to wipe out that idiot who's causing trouble!"
After Hong Tong finished his rant, all the bandits present actually fell silent.
Although many of them were not truly convinced of Hong Tong's authority and were unwilling to be subordinate to him, the current situation forced them to bow their heads and give face to the leader of Lianyun Village.
Otherwise, if this guy really used the righteous cause to gather other bandits to attack him, none of the other bandits present would be able to stop him; no one could withstand such a large-scale attack!
So these guys stopped arguing and instead gathered their own teams, bringing all the bandits together and dividing the entire bandit force into infantry and cavalry units.
The cavalry was the most mobile and also their most valuable unit. Therefore, Hong Tong insisted that he personally lead the entire cavalry and would not allow anyone else to interfere or give orders.
As for the infantry, they didn't care much, because most of the infantry were made up of a bunch of poor bandits. These guys didn't even have good equipment. They just came to join in the fun and boost the morale of the crowd.
Therefore, the command of this infantry force was quite chaotic.
Dozens of bandit leaders were mixed in with the infantry, each in charge of their own men. Apart from standing together, they showed no signs of unity and did not resemble a unified force at all.
Unfortunately, Rock can't see the bandits' clumsy performance right now. Otherwise, if he could, he would definitely laugh at them mercilessly.
This rabble is just a rabble. No matter how well they organize themselves, they will never amount to anything!
In addition to the allocation of troops and cavalry, Hong Tong also gathered the four top experts from Tieling, whom he had hired at great expense, as well as two Ming Jin experts from other bandits, to form a powerful martial arts team.
These Ming Jin masters don't usually need to participate in the battles of the army. Their task is to follow Hong Tong and charge together at critical moments, like a sharp knife, directly attacking the core of the Luo family army.
Hong Tong had analyzed this before. Although the Luo family army seemed to be more tightly organized, their entire team was still tied to Luo Ke alone, and they didn't even have a successor or a second-in-command.
This also means that once they kill Luo Ke, the entire Luo family army will instantly be leaderless and thrown into chaos.
After gathering these martial arts masters together and using them as his trump card and personal bodyguards, Hong Tong specifically sought out the Taoists of Dilong Temple.
It's unclear where these Taoist priests came from. Because the methods they practiced were against the natural order, they had almost no contact with other Taoist priests. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been ostracized to this harsh and cold place outside the pass.
But it didn't matter; Hong Tong didn't care about any of that. He only cared about the various spells that these Taoist priests possessed.
He doesn't care about anything as long as these spells can be used to his advantage and make him invincible in battle.
Even if these Taoist priests want to use living people to refine elixirs or use living people as medicinal ingredients, so what?
It's as if they, as bandits, don't kill people!
"Haha, fellow Taoist priests, the outcome of this battle will depend on your performance!"
"If you are truly exceptionally capable, then not only will I give you all the corpses from this battle, but I'm also willing to hire you again in the future to provide you with even more corpses!"
Upon hearing this, one of the Taoist priests bowed to Hong Tong and said:
"Boundless Heavenly Venerable of Salvation, if Benefactor Hong is willing to continue supporting my Earth Dragon Temple, that would be wonderful!"
"Please rest assured, we will certainly demonstrate our true abilities to satisfy you!"