Chapter 334: Apology
After last night's accident and the snow, Zhou Xu didn't expect to do anything in the remaining half day, so the whole village should take a good rest first.
And he himself undoubtedly needs to sort out his thoughts.
In this battle with the Lizardmen Dragoons, the importance of vine armor was undoubtedly fully demonstrated.
The presence of rattan armor can greatly increase a soldier's survival rate.
If all the forty soldiers under his command could be equipped with vine armor before fighting with the Lizardmen, the situation would probably be very different.
Of course, this idea is not realistic.
The advantages of rattan armor are very obvious. Not only does it have excellent defensive capabilities, it is also very light and will not add too much weight to soldiers and horses.
But relatively speaking, the production process and several steps of processing raw materials are very time-consuming.
What is even more troublesome is that once protective gear such as rattan armor is severely damaged, it is generally useless and there is basically no possibility of reuse.
Take this battle for example, a lot of rattan armor was lost.
This is also one of the main reasons why rattan armor could not be popularized and produced on a large scale in the original history.
In comparison, although iron armor is heavy, it can be repaired if it is broken. Even if it is smashed, it can just be melted down and recast, so the loss of material is actually not that great.
Whether from the perspective of resource loss or time cost, it is only a matter of time before armor finally becomes mainstream.
Anyway, after their weapons and arrows have completely been upgraded from copper to iron, he will have to consider casting iron armor.
Of course, this is easier said than done. If Zhou Xu wants to implement it, he estimates that it will take until the second half of next year.
Don’t forget that at this point in time, Tieshan Village was just beginning to take shape, the mines there had not yet been developed, and iron ore had not yet been mined on a large scale.
From this point of view, this project has a long way to go...
Zhou Xu, who had just woken up, could still feel that his body was tired and had not recovered completely, but if he lay back down and continued to sleep, he obviously couldn't fall asleep.
Zhou Xu simply sat at his desk and thought about the two major problems they needed to face at this time.
They are 'How to increase the population and expand the military' and 'How to deal with the lizardmen?'
After winter, they mainly consume grain harvested in autumn and winter food prepared and processed in advance, so the work pressure of relevant departments will decrease in winter, which provides certain conditions for his conscription.
After all, training soldiers takes time. He can't wait until the population is in place before starting to recruit soldiers, as that would be too late.
Thinking of this, Zhou Xu immediately summoned a messenger and asked him to take the conscription order and go to various villages to deliver the message.
Although it was snowing on the grassland at this time, it did not have much impact on the messenger on horseback.
When riding a horse in the snow, as long as you pay a little attention, there will be no problem in carrying out the message work.
As soon as the messenger left, there was a noise outside the door again.
"Chief, Lieutenants Zhou Chongshan, Ye Jinghong, and Li Ce are outside the door asking to see you."
Hearing this, Zhou Xu seemed to have guessed something and spoke quickly...
"Let them in."
After getting permission, the three of them quickly dusted off the snow on their bodies and walked into the house.
"Everyone was seriously injured. It was snowing, and they didn't even use an umbrella."
Looking at the expressions of the three people, Zhou Xu was speechless.
If the three were seriously injured, wouldn't he be the one who would be in trouble? In response, the three of them knelt on the ground.
"Three of my subordinates come here to plead guilty!"
Zhou Xu was not surprised at the actions of the three people. He had guessed it when he knew that the three of them were asking for a meeting outside the door.
This battle can be said to be the one with the heaviest losses since he became leader.
When the casualty statistics came out last night, everyone was stunned.
At that time, I was so upset. What the hell was this? I might as well flip the table! But after calming down and talking to Chitose about the pressure and letting her release it, I had to face the reality.
After all, from the very beginning, he didn't want to fight the Lizardmen!
He had been doing well in farming and was leading a very comfortable life.
If he continues to farm at that pace for three to five years, he will be able to lead the entire village to a well-off life in this primitive world.
Isn't it nice to live a peaceful life? He is not sick, he is just bored, looking for a fight that will kill people? Who would have thought that these lizardmen would suddenly chase Drogo and his men to kill them? All in all, this peaceful life lasted for about half a year before something happened again.
Looking at the three people kneeling in a row in front of him, Zhou Xu was not in a hurry to comfort them.
"Tell me, what exactly happened at that time?"
He only learned a very general idea from Zhou Chongshan last night.
He actually had no idea what had happened at that time.
Without figuring out these issues, he has no idea whether to punish the three people in front of him.
In response to Zhou Xu's questions, it was Li Ce who mainly explained the situation at that time.
After all, among the three, only Li Ce led the troops to fight throughout the whole process. Apart from him, both Zhou Chongshan and Ye Jinghong arrived later.
On the way here, Li Ce had undoubtedly sorted out his thoughts, and when he explained it now, he was not vague at all.
From Li Ce and the others' perspective, Zhou Xu was also listening and thinking the whole time.
After patiently waiting for Li Ce to finish explaining the situation at the time and some of his thoughts, Zhou Xu slowly spoke...
"Judging from the situation at that time, you have indeed made the wisest choice. How could the Lizardmen's Speed Dragon Cavalry still burst out with such combat power in that state? This is really incredible."
According to Li Ce's plan, they should have easily defeated the exhausted Swift Cavalry, and then use the cavalry against the infantry, and things would be simple.
As a result, the sudden outburst of the Speed Dragoons during the battle became the biggest surprise in his plan!
It can even be said that it destroyed his entire plan.
In the end, they were able to fight to the death with the opposing dragoons thanks to the great skills of Zhou Chongshan and Drogo, as well as the outstanding combat effectiveness of the elven cavalry led by Silk.
Otherwise, according to the situation at that time, they might have been the ones to be destroyed.
Zhou Xu didn’t think there was anything wrong with Li Ce’s plan at the time. If it were him, there probably wouldn’t be much difference.
But this time they suffered heavy casualties. As the commander-in-chief, it would undoubtedly be unjustifiable for Li Ce not to punish them at all.
"Li Ce, you will be fined for half a year. Ye Jinghong, as a commander with the same command authority, was meritorious for rushing to the rescue in time, but did nothing afterwards. You must also bear part of the responsibility for Li Ce's mistakes. You will be fined for three months. Both of you, go back and reflect on your mistakes."
"Finally, it's Zhou Chongshan..."
Zhou Xu's gaze fell on Zhou Chongshan.
"Although you are a military commander, according to the system, Li Ce and Ye Jinghong have higher command authority than you. The main responsibility for tactical command issues is not yours."
"In addition, you have made great contributions by shooting and killing the pterosaur before, and you also turned the tide by leading the fight and annihilating all the dragoon cavalry. Afterwards, you were injured and asked for help, saving the lives of all the wounded soldiers, including Li Ce and Ye Jinghong. You have made great contributions."
Having said this, Zhou Xu paused.
"A reward of one thousand coins, and promotion to captain."
(End of this chapter)
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