Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 582: Forming an Elite Heavy Commando Team

A week later, Guo Kang gathered the soldiers he had recruited according to the plan and began to prepare for formal training.

As usual, on the day of assembly, the Ministry of War will come to award the flag, and this unit will change from peacetime status to war status. Under normal circumstances, the establishment of this kind of organization is top-down. The court will first estimate the size of the army that needs to be mobilized, organize a field legion, and then go down layer by layer to recruit and mobilize troops.

However, Guo Kang's identity and situation are quite special, and he himself wants to gather his troops in advance for formal training. Because quite a few of my subordinates lack military knowledge and related skills, I can only hope that they will be exposed to more formal training for a period of time, so that they can at least understand what they should do in the army.

That day, a large group of family acquaintances, officials, and guests from all walks of life came to the training ground outside the city. Although everyone knows that this is to support Guo Kang for the sake of the Guo family and the war commander, Guo Kang also feels that this is actually an observation. Therefore, he hopes to seize this opportunity and show it as much as possible. At the very least, they can’t do it so badly that others will feel that their skills are too low and they will lose confidence.

Early in the morning, Guo Kang and Theodora arrived at the camp and first met with the soldiers from his hometown. At the gate, his two cousins ​​were already waiting.

"Hello, brother!" Guo Xianwen greeted him from afar and said anxiously: "Brother, we have all the armor and other items you want. Do you want to give them to me now?"

"Hello, brother!" Guo Xianliang also shouted: "The delivery person has been waiting for a while, when should we start?"

"Don't be anxious, don't be anxious, wait for me to go and take a look." Guo Kang had no choice but to reply.

The two of them did not continue to press, but just looked back and forth, becoming curious.

There was a group of people waiting at the entrance of the warehouse. Baihu Lu Yougong, the chief of the brigade, Ma Wanjun, the flag bearer, and others were all sitting there. They came here not long ago. They only received the order from the Ministry of War two days ago. They were so busy that they had no time to rest. Fortunately, these people are veterans who are used to long-term combat, and are used to this level of fatigue.

"We came here yesterday." Guo Xianwen told Guo Kang on the way: "Yesterday afternoon, a caravan sent several carts of armor, saying that you and Officer Xiao Zhu ordered it and would use it today. But you two were not there at the time. I was wondering if I should tell you, but the eldest sister said that she could just go back and tell you, so we didn’t bother."

"So busy?" Guo Xianwen said in surprise: "We were only busy enough to have dinner yesterday..."

"Time is limited, let's go take a look quickly." He said.

"Oh, that. We have checked it several times before, and there is no problem." Guo Kang said, "Just let everyone try it later."

"Ah?" Guo Kang said in surprise: "You didn't tell me..."

"We're here again today." Guo Xianwen said, "I'm waiting over there in the warehouse. I said I need my eldest brother to personally inspect and accept it."

"It's okay." Guo Kang replied: "I was at the Ministry of War all day yesterday. I originally wanted to come in the evening, but I had something to do, so I had to postpone it until now. But this time it is just for a guard of honor, so it won't have much impact."

Guo Xianwen and Guo Xianliang looked at each other in confusion, and they didn't seem to understand what was going on. It was Theodora who urged everyone to get down to business. So, a few people stopped worrying and entered the camp.

They said as they rushed over.

On the other side, Joanna was still dressed in a dress, carrying a gorgeous girl's bag, standing next to a truck, looking back and forth nervously, when she spotted Guo Kang and his entourage, she hurriedly came over to greet them.

"Uh..." Guo Kang couldn't explain to them, so he could only talk and talk.

"Yes, didn't you come with eldest sister?" Guo Xianliang asked: "Didn't she say that she would come with you to review today?"

"Brother, did you come here in the princess's car?" Guo Xianwen asked.

Of course, this batch of armors did live up to their expectations and attracted attention.

"Why did you attack her? I've met that girl a few times, and there's nothing wrong with her. Why are you taking it out on her..." Theodora shook her head: "Where is she now?"

"We have already tried it on, and the large size can be worn." Guo Xianliang also said: "I'm not sure about the other ones. The eldest sister didn't like the Italian woman very much, so she kicked her away not long after. I originally wanted to Please ask more..."

In fact, they are not the only ones who are busy these days, Guo Kang is also very busy. Moreover, he may be traveling far away, so in addition to the daytime, he also has to work overtime at night, which is like taking a day off. Fortunately, everyone was more interested in the armor than in his schedule, so the situation didn't become too embarrassing.

"What's the problem..." Guo Kang couldn't remember what happened to the businessman. However, Theodora looked very calm and was probably fine. So, he decided not to care about so many things and just get down to business first.

He didn't go home at night these past few days. He stayed in the palace overnight, so he didn't meet Guo Ponu. Thinking about it, it shouldn't be a big deal.

"Are you too pressed for time today?" She didn't even bother to say hello and said straight to the point: "Is there still time to use it?"

In this world, due to the existence of internal power, the upper limit of armor has become higher. Although different cultures have different understandings and names for this, all humans will obviously immediately think of using this power in war. Therefore, trained soldiers will also have some skills in this area. As for the masters among them, because of their extraordinary strength, they can first afford to wear heavier armor in order to gain greater advantages. The same is true for Guo Kang.

This armor was specially prepared by him for his elite men. Because time was too tight and there was no time for the Ministry of War to make arrangements, I went directly to Joanna and asked her to help contact merchants and craftsmen to speed up the production of some.

Whether it is the Eastern Roman Empire or the Purple Horde Khanate, they traditionally like to use armor pieces to weave complete sets of armor. However, there are also new design ideas now. Italian armor dealers are selling this kind of armor composed of one piece of armor, and they have been iteratively upgrading it for decades. Now the entire industry chain is relatively mature. Guo Kang is quite interested in these. However, in his opinion, today's armor design is still immature and has a lot of room for improvement.

With his efforts, everyone had conducted many experiments to improve the shape of the armor. The final design product optimized the structure, added shell-like supports, and strengthened the mechanical structure by folding the corrugated structure and adding reinforcement ribs.

To make this kind of armor well, it requires a large number of excellent craftsmen, and the work cost is very high. But Guo Kang is not short of money now, and he doesn't need much of this stuff, just enough for his elite men. For him, as long as it is easy to use, it can meet the requirements. With Joanna's help, he first ordered a dozen sets. The rest will be added slowly.

The better situation now is that more craftsmen are arriving in Dadu. Guo Kang initially wondered whether the chaos in the city would have a negative impact and scare away businessmen. Later I discovered that they didn’t even care.

In fact, no one was interested in thinking about this at all - not even a moment of mourning for the murdered Italian businessmen, and soon more Italian businessmen arrived. Not only are they not afraid that the business environment here is not good, but they are making various claims and maneuvers, trying to take advantage of the opportunity of the reshuffle of the original forces to get a piece of the pie.

In order to help Guo Kang, Joanna spent a lot of effort and even advanced money herself. Fortunately, after these people were organized, their efficiency was quite high, and these efforts were not in vain.

At this moment, she had already directed her men to lay out a thick black breastplate and show it to Guo Kang.

"The specifications of these armors are based on the previous requirements." Joanna introduced: "This batch of designs has some accessories added, so it is heavier, but the defensive performance is definitely much stronger. I will give you Give it a try.”

"Okay." Guo Kang nodded.

Joanna then took out a musket from the car next to her, opened her handbag, took out a small bag, poured the grains into the gun chamber, compacted it with a stick, and then stuffed the lead bullets into it.

"This is the gun used for the last test. I asked for it from His Highness the Prince." She said, and asked the attendant to insert the match rope. After lighting it, she aimed at the breastplate not far away and pulled the trigger. , fired a shot. The recoil of this musket was quite strong, and she heard a loud bang, pushing her back. But the bullet still hit the target, making a harsh collision sound.

Guo Kang and others came forward to check and saw that the lead bullet was completely deformed where it hit, spread out on the carapace, and the breastplate was slightly dented. But the huge cavity left a lot of room for deformation, so no direct damage was caused.

"It's okay." Guo Kang turned the armor over, looked at the back, and said.

"Everything about this suit of armor is good, but it's too heavy. I estimate it weighs a hundred pounds." Joanna introduced: "Most people really can't wear it."

"It's okay, this is specially prepared for the selected masters." Guo Kang had already planned: "I am going to select an elite hundred-man team and prepare special heavy armor for them to carry out assault missions. With our current situation The scale, the quantity, is enough.”

"That's no problem." Joanna nodded: "His Royal Highness tells me about mass production and mass production every day. I thought it was going to be distributed to the entire army. At present, those Russians under you still don't have this. Physically.”

"He likes to think about these things, and sometimes he develops a habit of thinking. I even suspect that he treats armor as an iron pot..." Guo Kang scratched his head: "Let's just leave it like this this time. I think we can continue production. There should be no problem. However, you should send this test product to Xiao Zhu for a look. I don’t know the position of these reinforcements. "

"Okay." Joanna responded, looking very happy.

She put the gun back, put the bag away, and ordered the man to start unloading the truck.

Guo Kang asked his two cousins ​​to help him and wanted to try it on himself. Theodora chatted with Joanna.

"You seem to be very busy recently." Theodora said proactively: "I often hear people mention you, especially during this period. Thank you for helping us."

"Princess, you're welcome." Joanna said, "I should feel honored that you can safely leave your work to me. Mr. Guo has also given me a lot of help, and I should try my best to help him."

"This is indeed what it should be. It is through unity and cooperation that both parties can achieve more benefits." Theodora nodded: "Did you spend your own money on these armors and the like before?"

"Mr. Guo and His Highness the Prince paid part of it first." Joanna replied: "The rest can be regarded as my active funding. This is also a common method over there."

"I heard that you have sponsored them a lot before, and this time you have mobilized a lot of funds and connections. I still want to thank you on behalf of my family and Constantine." Theodora said politely: "However, in general You can’t keep doing things at a loss.”

"Actually, it's not a loss of money. These are normal business practices." Joanna thought for a while and explained seriously: "In fact, most customers will not pay the full amount at once. We often don't. With so much spare money, I usually choose to pay in installments and often borrow money.”

"For example, if there is a big customer who wants to buy two thousand pieces of armor, his first deposit may only be enough for three hundred pieces. But he will find multiple merchants to pool the money through loans. Many times, Simply open it on credit with ourselves. In fact, their collateral is generally not of such high value, but everyone knows that investment for kings and lords is like this. "

"If a businessman doesn't even want money, he must have encountered a scarce product that is worth more than money." Theodora smiled and said, "Is that so?"

"Actually, it's hard to have something more scarce." Joanna shook her head and said seriously: "We would like more, such as the status of aristocrats and the respect of other upper-class people, but these things... to be honest, experience After learning so much, I don’t expect that these can really be bought with money.”

"So, most of the time, we simply bet that they can win and gain enough wealth to repay at least part of their debt. Because the risk is high, the interest rate is also high. As long as part of it is recovered, we will not suffer a loss. My family is a banker, so I have a lot of experience in this kind of business. I will definitely make estimates in advance, predict the possible profits and risks, and then make the decision appropriately, so you don’t have to worry about losing money. It’s part of the investment.”

"That's right." Theodora nodded: "However, I don't dare to bet with you on the profits of this business. Let me help him with the money. In the future, I will help him settle the expenses." "

(End of this chapter)