novelhk Chapter 142 The Army Starts Business
Chapter 142 The Army Starts Business
Doug's encirclement and suppression became more and more frequent, but the number of resistance troops increased. Every time the resistance troops jumped out of the encirclement, what was left behind were a group of brave villagers carrying weapons. They usually produced and farmed honestly, but as long as Doug's troops wanted to exploit and plunder like before, this army would be harassed by guerrillas until they left this area.
Moreover, the local villagers basically already have their own intelligence network. Since Doug's army entered this area, all their actions have been seen by the villagers.
When Doug's army actually entered the village, all the armed soldiers disappeared, leaving only the old people guarding the houses and farming.
The common people have become more militarily literate and more like soldiers than Doug's army.
As for chasing Isa, Doug's army usually just gave a symbolic pursuit. After all, there were merchants, farmers, and even lords along the way who constantly provided intelligence to the resistance army. Moreover, every time they were about to catch the opponent, the opponent was always able to escape danger or even fight back on the spot. After a few times, no one was willing to really pursue.
However, Isa kept in mind that she had to fight a mobile war. Even if Doug did not send troops to encircle and suppress, Isa would not stay in one place for a long time.
After discussing with Leighton, Isa left some people in these villages and then left with the resistance.
Although Isa felt that she was blessed by the goddess, she couldn't always count on meteorites falling from the sky. Just like the governor said, she had to do her best before she could leave the rest to fate.
After the resistance army left, this group of villages became quiet again as usual, except that there were a few new faces who helped the strong villagers with their exercises every day.
Because the resistance army gave some food, and some small merchants followed the resistance army to this place, the village that had been exploited to death by Doug's army began to regain its former popularity.
The Doug army that came to encircle and suppress the rebellion sensed a familiar feeling as soon as they stepped into this land.
"General..."
A soldier cautiously approached the general on horseback.
"There were people in quite a few houses far away, watching us."
"Just pretend you didn't see it."
The general on the horse yawned. He came here to suppress the resistance army because he was ostracized, and he had the mentality of giving up everything.
Not only have the resistance forces not been wiped out, but there is a trend of more and more of them. Some military personnel with connections are unwilling to come and suppress the bandits, and have all been assigned to deal with those thieves in the East Border.
After all, there are no muskets in the East Territory, and there is no way to buy them from the Gray Collars and the Royal Capital. There is not even a way to smuggle them. If there are no professionals in the army, they can only take the beating.
As long as the generals on Doug's side are normal people, adhering to the basic principle of defending if the opponent's high-level professionals come, and fighting if they don't come, it is basically a man-machine difficulty, and there is even a hint of the resistance army's guerrilla style in the process of advance and retreat.
Of course, recently, various strange muskets similar to those in Doug's army have begun to appear in the East Territory, but the installation rate has always been low, and there are various problems. They are far less sturdy and durable than the muskets produced by Gray and White Collar.
He was still being suppressed by Doug.
The generals on Doug's side also tasted the sweetness of the advantage of weapons. No wonder the resistance army could rely on a group of civilians to break through the encirclement time and time again.
These generals are now rushing to fight with the East Territory. That army, which is not much stronger than Doug's army, is much easier to deal with than the villagers in the North who have become like mad dogs in order to protect their land.
In the end, the people with stronger connections will want to go to the East Territory to gain military merit, and these people with stronger connections will take away more equipment and professionals, so there will be fewer military professionals and equipment left to suppress the resistance.
The fewer professionals and equipment there are here, the more difficult it will be to wipe out the resistance, and the less willing people will be to come, forming a vicious cycle.
Everyone knows that the Resistance and the Gray-Collar are the biggest threats, but no one is willing to work for Doug. Everyone just wants to use their neighbors to improve their performance to numb themselves. It's not that they are weak, but that the Resistance and the Gray-Collar are too strong.
Doug inherited most of Lars's territory, so he certainly has no shortage of people who are willing to work for him, but perhaps those who are willing to work for Doug have been thrown into some unimportant towns by Doug.
The general who came to encircle and suppress the guerrillas this time was also planning to treat this encirclement and suppression as a spring outing, just coming out for a stroll. As long as his own soldiers did not allow looting, the guerrillas in this area would not take action.
It has to be said that in this era, he was able to restrain his soldiers and make these soldiers of diverse composition obey military orders and not plunder. Even if we do not rule out that they were afraid of the villagers with weapons in their hands, it can be said that this general had some level of ability.
“Is the cargo ready?”
The general glanced at the soldier who had just come to report.
"Be ready General, the brothers are watching."
"Well, when we get to the next town, you must control your brothers. Don't treat us as bandits. Treat us as businessmen. Do you understand?"
The soldier nodded in agreement, then trotted to the back and informed the knight officers below one by one.
If we don't rob, the opinions of ordinary soldiers can be suppressed, but how can we satisfy the professionals in the team? The general referred to the wisdom of his predecessors and started doing business with the army. We can make money together. If I don't rob, I can make money by myself. Anyway, Doug has no rules that the army cannot do business.
Moreover, every time the resistance army left a place, they would leave some things for the local civilians to trade, such as sugar, grain or other specialties of the gray and white-collar workers, so some small and medium-sized vendors especially liked to follow the resistance army.
After arriving at the villages and towns, the army did not start looting or conscripting men as they had done before. Instead, they began buying and selling things on the spot and doing business. The army directly became traveling merchants.
After a few days of business, the general found that the musket on the back of a soldier beside him was missing, and asked hurriedly: "Where is your musket?"
The soldier hesitated and refused to speak, so the general swung his whip and shouted, "Answer me!"
The soldier saw the horse whip hitting him in the air and then he knelt down and said, "General, I'm sorry, I gave the musket to the villagers here as compensation?"
"Why are you compensating them? What did you do?"
"General, I was possessed by a devil and stole a young chicken from a family. My brothers and I cooked and ate it. We were caught in the act and had to pay for my musket."
Hearing the soldier say this, the general felt relieved.
"It's not a big deal. It's good that there's no conflict. Anyway, the muskets left outside have been everywhere. It's okay as long as they didn't fall into the hands of the dogs in the East. Go and accept the punishment yourself."
When the soldiers heard this, they were punished as if they had been pardoned.