Volume 2 Chapter 108 Poor military logistics department
The morning of leisure passed very quickly.
This time Xu Yi had many things to do in Anvilmar City, so naturally he didn’t have as much free time as he did this morning.
After having lunch with Still, Xu Yi and the people sent by the military headquarters brought Xu Yi to the military training ground not far to the west of Anvilmar City.
Actually the army headquarters wanted Xu Yi to come, but Xu Yi was always busy and found it hard to find time to come to Anvilmar City. Since Xu Yi finally had the time to come, the army headquarters wouldn’t miss this chance and had set a time with Xu Yi long ago.
When Xu Yi passed through the strict checks, he found an acquaintance waiting for him.
Of course it was major MacConley.
When he saw Xu Yi, major MacConley came forward with a smile.
“Hey, chairmanh Xu, you’re finally willing to visit, that really fills me with joy.”
Xu Yi shook his head with a smile, “Major MacConley is being too polite. Actually I wanted to come a long time ago and this is a good opportunity, so of course I wouldn’t miss it.”
After the two of them exchanged greetings, major MacConley introduced Xu Yi to some other people on the training field.
Other than some officers, there were some instructors and a total of twenty normal soldiers.
After meeting Xu Yi, these people were very friendly to Xu Yi. Although it was their first time meeting, they already treated him like a good friend.
Xu Yi was a bit surprised. Why were these people so friendly with him? It had to be known that he was just a normal merchant and it was normal for him not to get along with military people.
“The issue is that chairman Xu is not a normal merchant.” Major MacConley laughed, “Those other merchants are people who only care about money that we military people look down on, but you are different. It is because you and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce have ensured that every brother can have a set of equipment. On the battlefield now, they can ensure that they have a greater chance of survival, so why wouldn’t these people be friendly towards you?”
“That’s right, before the people of the logistics department had been worrying about the equipment our brothers had all day, but we couldn’t solve it because we didn’t have money. In the end, once chairman Xu made a move, you easily solved the biggest problem. How can we not treat you like a brother?” Another officer of the logistics department said with a smile.
“Oh? I don’t seem to have this amazing ability, right? I actually solved such a large problem?” Xu Yi said in a surprised voice.
“Chairman Xu, do you know how poor the logistics department was before? Let me tell you, before this, in the entire army, other than the northern army that had to fight with those Sack Kingdom bastards every day who had full support, for the rest of the army, one in five didn’t even have a complete set of equipment! As for weapons…..Can you believe this? The brothers of the Leica Regiment were using iron swords that were over five years old? Those swords were rusty and just by touching them, they were almost turned into short swords!”
“It can’t be that bad, right…..” Xu Yi was a bit shocked.
If the equipment of the Lampuri Kingdom’s army was really as bad as they said, the battle strength of the royal army was a bit worrying.
If they really were to fight a war, they would be completely routed if they met some powerful enemies.
“Who says it’s not?”
Once it came to going to war, those officers from the army headquarters were like recorders, incessantly saying the same thing.
The group came together and kept complaining to Xu Yi.
For a while, they talked about a conflict that had happened before where because of their bad equipment, they couldn’t beat two thousand with three thousand. Not only did they lose the battle, there were over a thousand people who died, as well as being called waste by the nobles of the kingdom.
For a while, another officer told the story of when he was ambushed as a soldier. After he woke up from his dream, he grabbed beside him and could only find an iron rod.
Because they didn’t have enough equipment, he could only use an iron rod as a weapon.
Then another officer said……
……
Hearing about the tragic stories the officers had, Xu Yi couldn’t help feeling for them and also finding it strange.
“Since our royal army is this weak, why hasn’t the Sack Kingdom ever successfully invaded us?”
Nonsense, naturally it’s because our brothers are going all out.” An officer angrily said, “Those old noble masters are calling us waste all day, but they don’t know that our brothers are fighting all out every day. Our equipment isn’t good, our brothers are going all out to stop them. In short, those grandsons from the Sack Kingdom won’t be able to charge in.”
“Ai……But fighting like this is tragic.” Major MacConley said with a sigh, “The northern army’s casualties are no less than five thousand each year. I think that if we keep fighting like this, the northern army will be crippled. At that time, who can withstand those fellows from the Sack Kingdom?”
The officers looked at each other in blank dismay and after a while, an officer spat out, “Pei, let those noble masters fight them!”
Everyone knew that he was just saying empty words. After pausing for a bit, major MacConley said with a forced smile, “Alright, let’s not talk about these disappointing things. Today is chairman Xu’s first time here, we can’t just let him listen to everyone complain, right? Then again, chairman Xu has already solved a large problem for us. I believe that everyone has seen the fifty thousand sets of armour, right? Let me tell you all, for these fifty thousand sets of armour, chairman Xu only charged me less than five hundred thousand gold coins!”
“Only five hundred thousand?” An officer looked at Xu Yi in surprise and he couldn’t help asking, “Chairman Xu, does your Frestech Chamber of Commerce have too much money? If we were to buy these armours from the Jole Family, they would cost at least thirty gold coins per set of armour. Fifty thousand sets of armour would cost one and a half million gold coins.”
“That’s right, wouldn’t you not only not make money, wouldn’t you also lose money? Although we as soldiers hate merchants who only care about making money, we still know that you need to make money. If you do this…..wouldn’t it be bad?”
Xu Yi looked at those doubtful gazes in front of him. These officers might not be part of the logistics department, so they don’t understand the situation, but major MacConley already knows about this. Could it be that he didn’t explain it to the other officers?
If it was like this, what were these officers here for today?
Seeing Xu Yi’s doubtful gaze, major MacConley clapped his hands and attracted the attention of the officers. He said in a loud voice, “Alright, brothers, whether chairman Xu earns money or not I think isn’t a problem that you really care about and it’s not something you need to care about. The reason why chairman Xu was invited today was because there’s some technical problems that we need his consultation on, so we need to make the best use of this time. Chairman Xu is very busy, so if we miss this opportunity, it will be hard to get this opportunity again.”
The officers all revealed looks of understanding and separated. After a while, there was someone who pulled one of the soldiers who was currently training over.
“Chairman Xu, look, the armour that he is wearing is one of the sets of armour from your company. I feel that there should be a change to the back. It would be better if the part there could be a bit thicker.”
“Chairman Xu, this is also the armour from your company. I feel it’s best if the joints are flexible, so the brothers can move their weapons more easily.”
“Chairman Xu, look at this, this is the spear from your company. I felt that although it’s sharp and firm, it should be a bit more lighter. I’ve heard that you use that whatever alloy thing and although it’s very good, there are many brothers who say they can’t use them. Moreover, the force behind this isn’t perfect, so there isn’t enough force, can you change it?”
“Chairman Xu……”
……
Xu Yi looked over the soldiers one by one and heard the suggestions of the officers. He recorded everything down in the little notebook that he brought along and then he used the rulers and other tools that major MacConley had given him to take other measurements.
After the suggestions of the officers were taken down by Xu Yi, they left satisfied. Then with major MacConley’s instructions, the officers had the twenty soldiers perform a small scale engagement in front of Xu Yi to let Xu Yi see if there was anything that could be improved on.
Xu Yi watched this exercise while asking major MacConley beside him in a small voice, “For these kinds of problems, you just needed a few specialists from our company to come, so why did you have me come here?”
Major MacConley had the same smile on his face as he casually replied, “The brothers heard that we’ve solved the equipment problem of many years because of your Frestech Chamber of Commerce, so they were very curious about you and wanted to take a look at you,”
“They only wanted a look?” Xu Yi asked.
“You have to know that we soldiers have straightforward personalities. You are helping us all, so everyone supports you. The help that your Frestech Chamber of Commerce has given can let less of our brothers die, so naturally everyone is treating you as their closest brother. Having you come here is to let you meet everyone and get to know them, it will be much easier to do things in the future.”
Xu Yi thought for a bit before saying in a soft voice, “I don’t want to do anything, I just want to simply open my business.”
Major MacConley looked over at Xu Yi and there was a deeper meaning to his smile.
“Chairman Xu, whether you’re willing or not, there are some things that you’ve already done.”