Struggle in the Steam Age

"That's because I want to live." After Lawrence expressed his wonder why so many people came to choose to be directly subordinate to him, Safiel explained to him directly, "For ordinary people, It is too difficult for them to carve out more territory in a place that is basically full now, it is better to follow a strong man and give something to get everything for a living."

Speaking of this, Safiel gave Lawrence a strange look and then said: "Isn't this how the earliest nobles were born? As strong men, they led the people to overcome many difficulties and seized living space for the people from the wilderness. And the people exchange this protection for the goods and labor they produce."

"You're right." Lawrence nodded. After all, this was not the case where humans dominated the world in the previous life. Therefore, the relationship between nobles who are extraordinary people and ordinary people cannot be mechanically applied to many things in a world.

Also, this kind of real nobility has become less and less with the development of the world. More nobles have degenerated into the rentier class who rely on various etiquette and so-called luxury goods to flaunt their status. Or get together with a lot of the same kind to monopolize certain benefits or grab more things that shouldn't belong to them.

Because of this situation, Lawrence did not immediately think of this direction when this group of ordinary people proposed to become their own direct subjects. After all, most of the nobles in this era have forgotten what a real noble should look like, which led to him not being able to remember this in the first place.

"I feel that the burden is a bit heavier." Lawrence said with emotion. After all, with the progress of the times, the direct subjects of the personal attachment relationship in the past no longer exist, and the so-called direct subjects at this time are actually similar to the present Only workers with long-term contracts.

In other words, Lawrence can indeed command them now. But the corresponding thing is that Lawrence needs to pay corresponding compensation for doing things according to the order. Fortunately, Safir said that these people's requirements are not high, as long as they are provided with the necessary food and daily supplies before the first crop harvest.

At the same time, the reason why these people who are willing to follow Lawrence are all strong men is to show their value in this war. So as long as they are given weapons, they can also become a very good militia.

"Can these people also become militias?" Lawrence was skeptical about the last point Safir said. Because in his opinion, although this group of people is in good spirits, they look a little too thin. He had some doubts whether these people could really complete the combat tasks that the militia should complete.

"Don't underestimate them." Safir glanced at the group of strong laborers who were taken to the camp for dinner by the members of the guards, then retracted his gaze, and then said. "If you think about it, you will know that most of the families who are willing to take the risk to come here have average conditions, so it is normal for their physical fitness to look a little weak."

"But because they are relatively poor, they often only live on the outskirts of the town. Considering that it is basically inevitable to encounter monsters in this kind of place, they have enough courage and experience to face those monsters in the wilderness us."

"More importantly, in order to protect themselves in that environment and get enough resources. They basically each have a homemade arquebus at home to drive away those monsters and go hunting around town to get meat and fur to feed the family. .”

"That would be great." Lawrence nodded in satisfaction. As long as they had experience with guns, it would be much easier for them to use those modern rifles. At least it would be no problem to stand in the fortifications and fire guns.

The fact is exactly the same. In the next three days, those people quickly learned the use of new rifles and some simple military common sense. After all, compared with the kind of arquebus that is extremely difficult to load and fire, this kind of military rifle with a drop bolt is much easier to use, and there is no such thing as a matchlock falling or extinguishing after the matchlock is fired. trouble.

At the same time, for Lawrence, this also means that he has twice as many armed personnel on hand. A group of armed men who originally needed to guard the camp could be replaced to hunt down as many goblins as possible after the battle.

In addition, these people also provided enough labor for the guarding of the camp and surrounding defensive positions. So six days later, when Nora detected that the goblins had gathered more than 50,000 people to prepare to attack, Lawrence and the others had successfully established a series of defensive positions with the camp as the core.

"There are more goblins than we thought, not the 30,000 to 40,000 we deduced in advance, but more than 50,000." Standing on the wall of the camp, Lawrence said to Joseph Knight. "It seems that they are really planning to push us into the sea at once, so now we need to face not only the goblins on this plain, but also the warriors of dozens of goblin tribes around."

"It shouldn't be a big problem." Knight Joseph looked at the zigzag trenches under the city wall and the barbed wire fences in front of the trenches and said, "With the fortifications you designed, goblins with cold weapons will definitely not be able to take them down." Our position."

"Speaking of cold weapons, 1/10 of the goblins in this group of goblins should be elite troops. Because Nora found that they were wearing armor made of animal leather and bark and metal weapons." Lawrence continued to add the investigation results, although in Prior to this, the guards and the local aborigines organized a scout for many times, but these goblins still successfully blocked the battlefield.

According to the analysis, these goblins are likely to have the clergy of the goblin god. Therefore, with the help of extraordinary power, it is possible to properly block the scouts' in-depth investigation every time.

After the scouts failed to return, Nora volunteered to take over the task of scouting the battlefield. And this just hit the weak point of the goblins: the divinity carried by Nora itself can just avoid the detection magic set by the priests of the goblin god, and the construction doll as a non-flesh creature makes the goblins The life detection magic that the shamans are proud of has completely failed.

Therefore, after Nora entered the battlefield, information about the goblins was continuously poured into the headquarters of the camp. After analyzing the information, Lawrence and the others were surprised to find that these goblins had simple organizational skills, at least they looked more like an army than a group of wild beasts.

Obviously, after the addition of the caster goblin. These goblins are no less than ordinary humans in at least many aspects, so the difficulty of cleaning them up has increased by at least an order of magnitude.

"It's not a big problem. Although such an army of wilderness creatures is much more difficult than fighting wild beasts. But it's not too difficult for us to hold here and drag them down." Joseph thought for a while Said, "Because they don't have any heavy equipment, their numerical advantage in front of fortifications is easily wiped out."

According to the pre-discussed plan, Lawrence's tactic is still the traditional defensive counterattack tactic. That is to say, first build a strong camp to lure the goblins to attack. After the goblins smashed their heads in front of the fortifications, humans rushed out of the fortifications to kill as many goblins as possible.

The previous pioneers also did the same. If the goblins in this area had not had a mountain cave where they could hide, they would have been cleaned up in the previous pioneering operations.

"It's fine if that's the case." Lawrence nodded and said, "You will be in charge of this war. If there is any new information, I will notify you as soon as possible."