The Minotaur recruits a large army, so the cities behind him can only farm to ensure a sufficient supply of food. Not to mention, he also has to send out two scouts every turn, leaving very few actions for other plays.
Besides food supplies, the army also needs money, so the Tauren can only trade for the remaining opportunities.
Jiang Ran is different. Without the burden of the army, the country's consumption of food and money is not as high, allowing him to dedicate more time to scientific research!
Scientific research will randomly provide some new tools. If they are entertainment products, they can improve people's happiness; if they are agricultural tools, they can increase food production; if they are weapons, they can improve the army's combat effectiveness. In short, they are all beneficial.
Jiang Ran invested all the extra money into scientific research. After two phases, although Jiang Ran lost four border cities, the Minotaur would probably not be able to catch up with him in scientific research for a while!
With four neutral cities blocking the way between the two countries, Jiang Ran wasn't in a hurry to recruit an army. In this game, doing scientific research was more like gambling, betting that he would definitely be able to develop some powerful tools!
However, although it is a gamble, it is not entirely a gamble, because scientific research does not repeatedly invent the same thing, so theoretically, as long as research continues, the probability of producing something good will become higher and higher.
It's like the lottery; even though it's gambling, you at least have to buy a ticket.
The minotaur snorted coldly. Don't think he's helpless when it comes to loyalty tactics. Don't forget he still has Homer!
As long as Homer goes to war with the army, at least one city can be stabilized, and then we can proceed slowly!
The third round has ended.
Jiang Ran drew another Great Man card.
[General Bai Qi: When fighting alongside the army, the army's combat strength increases by 20%, and upon victory, he gains an additional 2 points of loyalty]
General's Badge? To be honest, Jiang Ran needs a great scientist more than a great general right now. No matter how powerful the bonus of the General's Badge is, it's useless if there's no war.
"Well, things can't always go as planned."
Scientific research provided Jiang Ran with more and more effective farming tools. The increase in grain production meant that what used to require four cities to farm and feed the entire nation now only needed three, which was equivalent to having an extra opportunity to act.
In this round, the Tauren first moved Homer into the army, and then launched a massive attack on one of the neutral cities. The neutral city, of course, could not withstand such a fierce attack.
Currently, the Minotaur control 13 cities, Jiang Ran controls 8 cities, and 3 other cities are independent.
The fourth round has ended.
Jiang Ran drew another Great Man card.
[Great mathematician Archimedes: The city where scientific research is conducted is more likely to develop more powerful tools]
Two rounds passed just like that, and the Minotaur had two more Great Men cards in his hand.
Soon, the fifth round of climate change occurred, and drought struck!
A sharp decline in grain production leads to a decrease in people's sense of happiness and a corresponding decrease in loyalty!
"I knew there would be natural disasters."
Natural disasters are reciprocal, meaning that both of their cities will be affected by the drought. The minotaur frowned. He could only choose more cities to cultivate in this round to increase food production, while also spending money on disaster relief. He could only choose one city per round, and after alternating between the two, he had no more action points left. He had no choice but to give up the attack in this round.
However, the minotaur wasn't particularly worried about the drought, because both of them had the same problem: he had a headache, and Jiang Ran had a headache too.
Both made their choices, and the fifth round ended.
Including the Great One drawn in the fifth round, the Tauren now possess a total of five Great Ones.
Homer, the great writer
Commander-in-Chief Alexander
General Li Jing
[The Great Mathematician Zu Chongzhi]
Marco Polo, the Great Merchant
The Minotaur wanted to gather an army to conquer Jiang Ran's city in one fell swoop, but unfortunately, the two great men who followed had little to do with the army, and the fifth drought also caused him to almost stop developing for one round.
An army also needs a certain amount of money to support it. Now that Marco Polo has arrived, the Tauren want to develop the economy a bit. As for the army at the front... keep advancing!
Jiang Ran, how could you possibly stop my iron army?!
Instead of continuing to attack another neutral city, the minotaurs launched an attack on Jiang Ran's central city immediately after breaching the neutral city's defenses!
"You want to take my capital before I've fully developed?" Jiang Ran chuckled and shook his finger. "Too bad, too bad. What if I've already developed?"
As the two armies clashed, the minotaur suddenly realized something was wrong!
"No way! How could you possibly have an army?!"
Wait a minute... Because of the drought in the last round, the Tauren didn't send out any scouts, and in the round before that, there were neutral cities blocking his way, so he couldn't send out any scouts either! So without realizing it, he had already lost control of Jiang Ran!
The minotaurs have only occupied one central city, so if they want to attack, they can only continue to advance or continue to attack neutral cities. But Jiang Ran believes that they will not do such a pointless thing.
There is indeed a drought, but Jiangran's grain production is now vastly different from what it used to be. There is no need for the entire country to go to the fields to farm, because science and technology are the real productive forces!
The Minotaur's attack route is set. All we need to do is have the opposing city recruit troops in advance and defend in this turn, while the two adjacent friendly cities recruit troops in advance and provide support in this turn. In this way, a large army will be born!
"So what if you have an army? My army is just as good!"
With the combined might of Alexander and Li Jing, plus an army with near-maximum loyalty, the Minotaur were confident they could take the city by force, even in a head-on confrontation!
But Jiang Ran was also accompanied by two great men!
【General Bai Qi】!
[The Great Commander-in-Chief, Li Shimin]!
After several battles, the minotaur army no longer had an absolute numerical advantage. In that case, Jiang Ran would drop another bombshell!
Heavy crossbow!
This is the power of technological development!
"Heavy crossbow...?"
The minotaur felt a chill run down his spine. Just how much had Jiang Ran accomplished in those few short rounds?!
His strategy of using war to sustain war suffered its first setback.
Normally, once a city is captured, it becomes yours. So, when the Minotaur took Jiang Ran's four cities at the beginning, it created a gap of eight action opportunities per round for both sides. If that's the case, then it's definitely not a loss!
The problem is that Jiang Ran cleverly used Su Qin's ability to make the four cities independent, which means that the Minotaur's gains from investing a lot of troops were directly halved, which indirectly affected his subsequent development speed!
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Actually, there were already a lot of requests for updates in the previous two days. If just a couple more people had requested updates yesterday or the day before, we might have been able to add more chapters sooner. Let's keep working hard, and the next bonus chapter will be 500 words!
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