"Our village killed 41 Yellow Turban bandits. The remaining Yellow Turban bandits fled. We got a total of 4 warhorses, 51 taels of silver, 15,417 coins, 17 long swords, 20 spears, and 11 single wooden bows. Plus, five wooden shields and seven usable leather armor."
Elder Li was in charge of counting the trophies, and his face was red with pride. This was a rare victory. They managed to win four warhorses; they had never had warhorses in Xia Village before.
Only the four war horses and the sum of money satisfied Chu Tian. He felt that this small group of Yellow Turban soldiers was very poor, so poor that they did not even have a single iron armor. The best armor they had was leather, and more commonly, clothing.
There really wasn't much money found on them. It was reasonable to assume that after this small group of Yellow Turban soldiers had ransacked nearby villages, they should have had a few hundred taels on them. The only explanation: they had placed the spoils elsewhere.
They should have kept a prisoner alive.
"Elder Li, how much would a warhorse like this go for, if we sold it at Langya City?"
Chu Tian didn't really know the prices in 'Feudal Lords' yet. Warhorses, as necessary provisions for training the cavalry, were probably not cheap.
"These four horses are only the most ordinary warhorses. If we sold them, each one should have been around 20000 coins."
"20000 coins..."
Chu Tian took a deep breath. Indeed, lords who could afford a cavalry were major lords.
In 'Feudal Lords', one tael of silver was 1000 coins. One ordinary warhorse was about 20 taels of silver.
In a word: expensive.
To have 10 thousand cavalries meant one needed 200 thousand taels of silver to just buy the horses, which did not consider the expenses of raising horses.
Chu Tian didn't dare to think about it at this point.
Chu Tian looked at the warhorses' attributes.
[Name]: Ordinary Warhorse (Bronze Level)
[Weight-Bearing Capacity]: E
[Speed]: E
[Endurance]: E
[Impact]: E
[Feed]: 3 units/year
[Description]: Very ordinary warhorse, good for light cavalry, not for heavy load-bearing.
"With these attributes... they really are ordinary warhorses."
Chu Tian couldn't even find the energy to complain. He said to Hua Mulan, "Pick one, any one, among these four horses."
Although they were ordinary war horses, Chu Tian had no intention of selling them for money. If they were sold for 20 taels of silver each, one would need to pay more to buy them back. If you kept them for yourself, there was no middleman to mark-up the difference.
"I can pick myself?"
"Of course." Chu Tian mumbled to himself: "They are just bronze-level war horses."
Soon, Hua Mulan picked a white horse.
Chu Tian found that Hua Mulan's Loyalty had increased from 85 to 87, and the Level of Favor increased from 50 to 51.
He had seen official information before the public beta. Different heroes preferred different treasures. Giving the correct treasure would increase Loyalty while giving the wrong treasure would not increase but in fact, reduce Loyalty. This prevented players from messing around.
It was apparent Hua Mulan liked boys' stuff more than girls' stuff. Giving her fighting equipment would increase her loyalty.
"Village Chief, here is a drawing that we found on that little leader."
Elder Li gave a special kind of war spoil to Chu Tian.
Chu Tian's eyes lit up as he accepted the drawing.
It was actually a construction drawing for a barracks-type building.
[Name]: Barracks for Level 1 Yellow Turban soldiers (Bronze-Level)
[Purpose]: For recruiting Yellow Turban Soldiers (Level One Foot Soldiers)
[Construction Materials]: 100 pieces of wood, 10 taels of silver
[Construction Time]: 2 days
[Training Duration]: 7 days
[Number of People Trained]: 100
Yellow Turban soldiers?
Chu Tian had just killed off a small group of Yellow Turban soldiers, he didn't expect that a drawing of the Yellow Turban barracks would be revealed. Moreover, looking at the name, this was only a first-level barracks, were there more advanced barracks for the Yellow Turban soldiers?
Right, Chu Tian remembered that Yellow Turban soldiers were divided into high-level soldiers, Yellow Turban commanders, and Yellow Turban strongmen.
So, this Level 1 Yellow Turban barracks could only recruit the lowest level of Yellow Turban soldiers.
Yellow Turban soldiers were also Level 1 foot soldiers, but they probably had better attributes than the local soldiers.
Should he go for these Yellow Turban soldiers?
Chu Tian hesitated. He looked at the Yellow Turban soldiers' attributes via the drawing.
[Arms]: Yellow Turban Soldiers
[Grade]: Level 1 Foot Soldiers
[Attack Power]: 7
[Defense Power]: 5
[Speed]: 5
[Skill]: Low-Level Raiding (Can earn more war spoils while raiding villages and towns)
[Characteristics]: The sky is dead, and the yellow sky stands (E-Level Characteristic. When the commander is a Yellow Turban hero, all attributes +1)
[Salary]: None
[Description]: Peasant rebels in the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty. When there are Yellow Turban soldiers in the territory, it could reduce Popular Sentiment.
The names of these Level 1 soldiers were too domineering. The characteristic of local soldiers was 'those who win the hearts of the people win the world'. The characteristic of the Yellow Turban soldiers was that 'the sky is dead, and the yellow sky shall stand'. Unfortunately, both are quite useless.
The characteristic of Yellow Turban soldiers: When the commander was a Yellow Turban hero, all attributes +1. Early on, this could have been amazing.
But for Xia Village, which didn't have any Yellow Turban Heroes, this characteristic couldn't be used.
Yellow Turban soldiers had 2 more points in Attack Power than local soldiers, with a trade-off in reduced Popular Sentiment.
Chu Tian remembered that before the public beta, many players discussed which routes to use for their military strategy. There were posts summarizing different routes.
The Cao-Wei Route: All kinds of arms were fully developed, suitable for Central Plains' players.
The Shu-Han Route: Emphasized infantry and despised cavalry, considered a resigned choice for players not in horse-producing areas.
The Dong-Wu Route: Emphasis on water battles and despised cavalry. Top choice for players in southern areas with many bodies of water.
The Grassland Route: Emphasis on cossacks' skills, with a major building of cavalry. Represented by the Kingdom of Mongolia. Suitable for players with ranches in grassland areas.
There was an even more exotic route, the Peasant Rebel Army Route, which used up a large number of low-level Yellow Turban soldiers in the early stages and also recruited Yellow Turban Heroes and Heroes from peasant rebel armies of other dynasties, such as Song Jiang, Fang La, and Rebel King Li Zicheng.
While using up soldiers with the Peasant Rebel Army Route was an option, but...
As the Xia Village was growing well, there was no need for such a dangerous route. Nine out of ten peasant rebel armies always imploded in the later stages, or they would be destroyed by the nearby NPC princes.
Tao Qian, the governor of Xu Prefecture, was watching them from Xiapi.
"See if you can sell it to other players, and then go to Langya City to buy a regular infantry battalion drawing at a high price."
Chu Tian wanted to go for the Royal Route.
In addition to the actual war trophies, Chu Tian realized that he had gained 41 points of Military Merit because of the elimination of the Yellow Turban soldiers.
Titles had 20 levels in Eastern Han: First is Public Officer, second is Shangzao, third is Zanniao, fourth is Bugeng, fifth is Daifu, sixth is Official...
To be promoted from Public Officer to Shangzao required 100 Military Merits.
Titles were rather useful. One could use them to get jobs in government, raise Public Sentiment, and maintain commanders' Royalty. Most importantly, after one reached Level 20 in title, one could name themself as a duke, king, or emperor.
Chu Tian also picked a warhorse for himself. After he upgraded Xia Village to a second-level village, then he'd leave for Langya City to buy some supplies. He could also establish diplomatic relations with other villages on the way.