The woman's piercing screams only fueled Tuco's animalistic desire. But within a minute, her screams ceased. Satisfied, Tuco pushed the woman off him and addressed the man standing respectfully below, "Haha, the women from the town are quite delightful! Blackthorn steward, you should send more of such women in the future!"
The man known as the Blackthorn steward quickly nodded and bowed, saying, "Yes, yes, I will definitely send more beauties like Laura Bennett for you to enjoy, chief."
"Chief, about the matter of robbing the grain transport..."
Tuco burst into laughter, interrupting the Blackthorn steward. "Thanks to your tip-off, my brothers from The Crimson Vultures succeeded today."
"My brothers not only seized five carts of grain but also captured ten people from the grain transport team. We demanded a ransom of one hundred pounds of grain for each of them within seven days."
The Blackthorn steward from Willowbrook Town was overjoyed and proud, thinking to himself, "A mighty dragon cannot suppress a local snake. I don't know who John Falstaff is, but it's still my Blackthorn family that rules in Willowbrook Town!"
In the dilapidated town hall of Green River Town, Magnus Valorion had just finished dinner. Tonight, he didn't eat porridge and pickled vegetables but rather a few wild chickens hunted by the townsfolk in the mountains. Although the wild chicken meat was tough, the soup was exceptionally delicious. Magnus drank several bowls of this natural wild chicken soup.
Just as Magnus was about to go to the night school to teach the townspeople new characters, Neil Thompson rushed in with a piece of paper in hand, flustered.
"Master, master, something terrible has happened!"
Magnus immediately thought it must be an invasion by the Altai Tribe, Sami Tribe, Tuareg Tribe, or Celtic Tribe.
"Master, our grain has been stolen."
Hearing Neil's words, Magnus's tense nerves relaxed a bit.
"Thank goodness, it's not an invasion. I still have time to develop."
But in the next second, Magnus's face changed again.
Magnus asked Neil seriously, "What exactly happened?"
Neil hurriedly handed the note from John Falstaff to Magnus.
After reading the note, Magnus's face darkened.
"What? Didn't you send guards with the grain transport this time?"
Neil wilted at Magnus's words.
Recently, Green River Town had been focusing on building new houses for everyone. Since nothing had happened during the last two grain transports, Neil had diverted the guards to help with construction.
Neil explained honestly, trembling.
Magnus scolded, "Building houses, building houses. If you had diverted people to the blacksmith shop to forge weapons, I wouldn't be so mad. But you diverted them to construction!"
Seeing Magnus's dark and angry face, Neil knelt down and begged for forgiveness.
"Master, please spare me. I was momentarily foolish and diverted the people to build houses, leading to the theft of five carts of grain."
Magnus snorted coldly, "You think I'm angry because the grain was stolen? I'm angry because your poor decision led to ten of our people being captured by The Crimson Vultures."
"If these ten people return safely, fine. But if anything happens to them, I will hold you accountable!"
Neil was stunned. He hadn't expected his master to care more about the captured people than the grain.
Given the drought this year, many areas in Fierce Lion Province, including Willowbrook Town and Greenwood Town, were experiencing grain shortages. In this situation, the five carts of grain from Green River Town could be worth thousands of taels of silver.
In these troubled times, a human life might not even be worth a tael of silver.
To Neil, those ten ordinary people were far less valuable than the five carts of grain.
But today, Magnus taught Neil a lesson.
Magnus's prioritizing people over goods made Neil realize that the value of people was far more important than that of goods.
Currently, although more people from Willowbrook Town and Greenwood Town were being persuaded by their relatives to settle in Green River Town, increasing the population from three thousand to over four thousand, Magnus still felt short of manpower for earning reputation points and building defenses.
Whether it was ten people transporting grain or even a single person or dog, as long as they were from Green River Town, Magnus would be deeply concerned.
"Go, send a message to John Falstaff and ask him to gather information about The Crimson Vultures, including how many men they have," Magnus coldly ordered Neil, who was still kneeling.
Seeing that his master wasn't continuing to scold him, Neil breathed a slight sigh of relief and quickly went to complete the task. Meanwhile, Neil prayed that those taken by The Crimson Vultures would be safe.
Magnus realized from this incident that his current military system was inadequate. Since arriving in Green River Town, Magnus had been focused on production, neglecting the management of military forces.
The truth is determined by the range of cannons. In this era, it's especially true. Fortunately, he discovered the problem early and could still correct it. If he had discovered it too late, the army he funded might be used against him.
After Neil left, Magnus's temporary secretary, William Brown, cautiously asked, "Master, are you still going to teach at the night school tonight?"
"No, you go teach tonight!"
William quickly retreated, fearing to upset Magnus further.
Once alone, Magnus angrily summoned the system interface.
Host: Magnus Valorion
Gender: Male
Reputation Points: 4313/5000 (can currently perform 1 lottery draw)
System Storage: 6/10 (upgrading storage space requires 1000 taels of silver)
Current Supplies: Rice, Korean kimchi, Yunnan Baiyao, potato seeds, water, cement.
"System, start the lottery wheel!"
The large lottery wheel appeared in front of Magnus again.
This time, the prizes were divided into three categories: fruits and vegetables, agricultural inputs, and weapons and equipment.
The fruits and vegetables category included: chili peppers, pumpkins, winter melons, and eggplants.
The agricultural inputs category included: nitrogen fertilizer, phosphorus fertilizer, potassium fertilizer, and the herbicide paraquat.
The weapons and equipment category, which Magnus was most excited about, included: the Zhuge Crossbow, Gothic Armor, Greatsword, and the Eight Ox Crossbow.
Seeing these weapons, Magnus was delighted.
The Zhuge Crossbow, invented by the Han Dynasty military strategist Zhuge Liang, could fire ten arrows at once, akin to an ancient assault rifle.
The Eight Ox Crossbow was even more powerful, like an ancient Barrett.
The Eight Ox Crossbow, also known as the Three Bow Bed Crossbow, consisted of three powerful giant bows, requiring multiple people to operate and even mechanical assistance to use. Its arrows, made with iron-tipped wood, could pierce through city walls, often used in siege warfare.
The Eight Ox Crossbow had an extremely long range, easily reaching over a kilometer. Aimed at people, it was deadly.
With twelve prizes on the wheel, Magnus believed he had a one-third chance of winning a weapon.
Any weapon, whether the Zhuge Crossbow, Gothic Armor, Greatsword, or Eight Ox Crossbow, would significantly boost the combat power of his town guards and security team.
"Start the draw."
The twelve prizes were randomly arranged, and the wheel began to spin rapidly.
Magnus silently pressed the stop button in his mind, and the wheel slowly came to a halt.
The Zhuge Crossbow passed...
The Greatsword passed...
The Eight Ox Crossbow passed...
As the pointer approached the Gothic Armor, the wheel hadn't stopped.
"Stop, stop, stop!" Magnus anxiously prayed.
The wheel moved bit by bit, finally stopping between the Gothic Armor and the next prize.
Magnus chuckled, "System, this reward should be the Gothic Armor, right?"
But the next second, a mechanical voice sounded in Magnus's mind.
"Ding, congratulations to the host for winning paraquat in this draw, now stored in the warehouse."
"What? Paraquat?"
Whether paraquat cries or not, no one knows. But Magnus was close to tears!
"Damn system, the pointer was clearly between the armor and paraquat, yet you only give me a herbicide!" Magnus cursed inwardly.
"If you were in front of me, I'd show you why the flowers are so red!"