Chapter 143: Archers

‘Relatively close contact? Although there is no direct evidence here pointing to the fact that the other party definitely played a role in the last event. However, the scope of the suspects really matches my previous guess! The Kingdom of Lucia? It seems that if there is a chance in the future, I will have to test the troops of Viscount Bernadette Blackwood Bar and Baron Eagle Cloudt Boutflower.’ Having thought of this, George said something that did not match his heart: “This is indeed a clue that points out the direction of the investigation. Although relying solely on this information is not enough to determine who the final enemy is! But it should be able to help us save a lot of time! So what type of guards do you need?”

With the shift in George’s tone and the meaning of his words, Bodina Garick’s face followed with different changes. He really didn’t look like a leader who led a Caravan walking the Continent all year round! But immediately after, George thought of Thomas, that guy was always in this situation too, which made him wonder if most of the Gnome race were the type who couldn’t hide things on their faces. But thinking about it again, he found it seemed wrong. If that were really the case, wouldn’t these Gnomes have been sold off by others?

‘Could it be that the ones I met are all top-quality ones, or they are simply acting. But making such a performance in suitable situations usually earns favorable conditions for oneself while misleading others. Such misleading can play a certain role when needed later.’ George always liked to think of a matter in the worst direction possible. At the same time, he also liked to start with malice when speculating about others.

Bodina Garick did not immediately make a decision regarding the selection of personnel. He lowered his head, stroked his beard, and fell into deep thought. It seemed he was pondering the weak points in his team’s defense capabilities, preparing to make specific optimizations and improvements.

Indeed, regarding the defense work of a Caravan, nothing could be let slip carelessly. This related to the lives and property of Garick and his group! It needed to be based on the existing personnel sequence of the Caravan, everyone’s specialties, and the roles they could play in defense, combined with existing and easily obtainable weapons, equipment, props, and vehicles, taking into account multiple factors to reach a final conclusion. The kind of leaders who made decisions by patting their heads before transmigrating would definitely not be seen in a Caravan here. Because those guys didn’t need to pay any price themselves no matter what they did wrong in this regard.

“Can you spare a few good Archers for us here?” Bodina Garick asked tentatively. Of course, his words could be said to be very cautious, containing quite a lot of uncertainty.

In the era of cold weapons, Archers in the army definitely belonged to the technical branch. Generally, strong soldiers with strong upper body strength were selected, their upper body strength was constantly strengthened, and they were trained to constantly draw bows. On the battlefield, the greatest role of Archers was not precise shooting but volley fire in formation. The elevation angle of the volley determined the distance covered by the arrows. Cultivating Archers took quite a number of years to achieve stable formation and movement according to command. The trained Archers had a single function, and years of training caused the lengths of their two arms to differ, resulting in deformity (the most obvious being English Longbowmen). The mounted archery of Mongolian herders had no regular training method; it was a survival skill naturally mastered in nomadic life.

Simply training a farmer into an Archer would take at least 6 to 7 years. And training a mounted archer would take more than 10 years. Among them, just the strength to continuously draw a high-pound war bow was not something that could be practiced in a day or two. Throwing arrows or flat shooting within a certain range was not an easy thing either. Relatively speaking, the difficulty of hitting prey with an arrow while hunting was lower.

Take the famous British Longbowmen from before the transmigration! At that time, English yeomen had the obligation to serve in the military, thus creating many high-quality Longbowmen; and using a Longbow required training for a long time, so even if other countries wanted to equip Longbows, it was impossible.

In England, Archers would be encouraged and funded. Because when fighting European countries, Britain was usually at a disadvantage in population size. Although the number of British troops was often much lower than the enemy’s, when they learned how to apply large numbers of Longbowmen, they began to win on the battlefield.

For this reason, the British would hold archery competitions everywhere to encourage the use of Longbows. Every British county was required by law to provide a certain number of Longbowmen annually. On Sundays, all sports except archery were banned, so the army could recruit a large number of well-trained Longbowmen. This recruitment campaign usually had no shortage of applicants, because the salary of a soldier was higher than other jobs.

In fact, in ancient wars, Archers in many countries were directly recruited from ethnic minority soldiers who were good at shooting or Mercenaries. If they trained them themselves, the time was too long and the cost was too high, so it was better to recruit directly with money. Countries like Burgundy and Sweden had records of hiring English Longbow Mercenaries.

From this, you can imagine how rare Archers in a real army were. In fact, although the physical ability of people in this world was much stronger than before the transmigration, which made the cultivation of Archers relatively simpler, there were only about 100 full-time Archers in the Bolerum Territory. Of course, there were also about 50 sniper crossbowmen using specially made iron-frame Crossbows. Of course, among those retired veterans, the number of these personnel was not large either. However, the Archers here wouldn’t become physically deformed like before the transmigration, so they were also very good light infantry when necessary.

Although George thought Bodina Garick was unlikely to know the specific number of Archers in the Bolerum Territory. But having done business on the Continent for so many years, he surely understood how precious they were! Of course, this also led to good shooters among ordinary Adventurers and Mercenaries being quite scarce.

Most of those who really had this skill probably went to serve in the Lord’s army. The salary and treatment should not be less than going out on adventures. The most important thing was that life was much more stable than when being an Adventurer. Of course, after reaching the Red Iron Rank, due to the brutalization of muscles and the significant improvement in body coordination, one could learn the use of bows more easily. However, such guys were far rarer than full-time elite Archers, and they were definitely the objects that major forces competed to take in. It could be said to be the minimum standard for being able to sell to the imperial family.

“You need Archers?” George really didn’t expect the other party to open their mouth like a lion.

Bodina Garick said very embarrassedly: “I know this makes things very difficult for you, but we really lack effective long-range strike capabilities. We Gnomes have small bodies and can’t pull weapons like Longbows. We can only use smaller Crossbows. And those hired Adventurers in the team can wave big swords to hack people, but it’s too difficult for them to play with long-range shooting.”

Although he understood that what the other party said was all the truth and had some reason. But George still refused to let go on this point: “Even if those Adventurers are no good, if you equip them with Heavy Crossbows, it should be enough as a long-range strike force!”

“You also know that if a Crossbow hasn’t undergone special training, the speed of stringing it is very slow. And if attacked, it might not be possible to prepare in advance. The time for both sides to engage in combat can’t be said to be too long either. The efficiency of the Crossbow in this aspect is really insufficient!” Bodina Garick spoke and lowered his head, muttering, “Besides, we are also afraid that those Adventurers will shoot their own people!”

‘Afraid that Adventurers will shoot their own people? Thinking about it, that really seems possible! Based on my understanding of those Adventurers, even if it’s not a tangled state, as long as the distance between the two sides is relatively close, that is very likely. If it really gets to a tangled state, then who the shot arrow flies towards really depends on Tymora’s will.’ George expressed understanding of Bodina Garick’s worry in his heart. But this time he didn’t need to pretend at all, he said with real embarrassment: “This is my first year garrisoning the border! Other veterans might be able to spare some for you given the huge transaction we are conducting. But Archers are too important for the place I’m going to after winter begins. Can you see if you can change to something else?”

George didn’t speak on this point. After all, to minimize troop casualties as much as possible, the Northern Fortress spent most of its time in city defense. If the other side really launched a siege, the role of Archers here would be very significant. And Nohan’s Archers not only had excellent shooting skills but also strong melee capabilities, so they could stand on their own on the city wall during defense.

“Please help us! We don’t need too many people in this regard, just 3 to 5 people will be enough. It shouldn’t have much impact on the northern garrison work you are going to do this year. Of course, we still need ordinary melee fighters. It would be great if 20 of them could come.” Bodina Garick was so anxious that sweat was raining down on his forehead. He had been wiping his forehead with his handkerchief since who knows when.

Seeing the other party suddenly so anxious, and at the same time preparing to add so many guards to his team at once, George asked tentatively: “Mr. Garick, did you suddenly notice something! Your performance now is too different from before.”

“This is still the reminder you gave me! To be honest, why didn’t I think before that the behavior of those damn Goblins might all be smoke bombs? Now thinking about it, I realized that their real target could be Caravans like ours! This can not only hit the city-state’s economy and order but also obtain a large amount of Loot to boost their morale. At the same time, as you said, the difficulty is much lower than attacking a city.” Bodina Garick poured out all his thoughts like beans from a bamboo tube.

As for the smoke bombs mentioned in these words, it wasn’t a slip of the tongue. In fact, in this world, the three life-saving treasures for Nobles or wealthy teenagers who yearned for adventure after hearing many Legends—Smoke Bombs, Thunder Stones, and Tanglefoot Bags—were still very popular Alchemy products. But on the real battlefield, only Tanglefoot Bags could play a slightly larger role. Actually, it wasn’t much bigger. On the contrary, the relatively cheap Burning Glue mixed with oil was more useful.

Hearing this, George showed a hesitant look. It could be said that he gave the other party a little hope. But he didn’t let the other party’s hanging heart drop at all.

Seemingly feeling that his previous act of playing the pity card had more or less worked, Bodina Garick prepared to add fuel to the fire and started the inducement: “If you can help us this time, then in our Caravan’s next trade run, we will definitely make this place a necessary trade destination. Similarly, if you need any Alchemy Items, as long as you pay, we will definitely get them for you next time. This is not just the promise of our Caravan, but the entire Gnome Bounty Merchant Guild! This is the best condition I can give as one of the six executive directors of the Merchant Guild.”

It could be said that Bodina Garick deserved to be a merchant who had traveled for many years and was very knowledgeable. On the point of inducement, he really scratched the itch in George’s heart. For a Lord who had ambitions in his heart and longed to display his talents, especially one sitting on a good port like the Bolerum Territory.

A one-time amount of money was far less than the opportunity of a trade destination for a Caravan. The latter would bring a steady stream of wealth and more diversified material circulation channels. This also had great help for the economic strength of the Territory and the safety of needed materials.

And the other party only gave one confirmed trade destination promise, which instead made the shrewd Lord believe more in the other party’s sincerity. After all, the purpose of the Caravan’s existence was to earn benefits. If this trade destination couldn’t bring enough benefits to the other party, it would definitely not last long. No matter how precious friendship or resounding promises were, they couldn’t stop merchants’ pursuit of money.

And Lords like that all attached great importance to this first opportunity. Because they had such confidence—with the situation of their own Territory, having the first time would definitely attract the other party to come a second time, just like a restaurant attracting returning customers. However, no one counted how many territories ultimately succeeded.

And the shopping privilege for Alchemy Items given along with this trade destination was not just a small bonus. This was completely a delicious fruit, at least for a Territory like Bolerum Territory which was economically prosperous and bore considerable responsibility militarily. If Gold Coins could be used to save the lives of warriors, it was still very worthwhile within a certain range.

However, even though the other party gave such sincere conditions, George didn’t immediately agree. After all, if he agreed in such a hurry, it would seem like George was deliberately waiting for the other party to make an offer!

After pretending to think for a while, George finally gave an answer amidst Bodina Garick’s trepidation: “The biggest risk you will encounter on the way back is the thief group composed of Goblins. Among them, the threat of the huge Bear Goblins and the possibly appearing Ogres is the greatest. In this situation, ordinary Archers probably won’t play much of a role. How about this, I will select an elite Archer from the Territory who can be called a Sharpshooter. Plus 3 skilled Heavy Crossbowmen who can proficiently use Heavy Crossbows, light shields, and hand axes as long-range strike forces. What do you think?”

“For these Crossbowmen, isn’t the attack speed too slow? And they aren’t too hard to recruit either. Can you change them all to Archers?” Bodina Garick still felt a bit unwilling and said.

George waved his hand and said: “Don’t be too greedy! The Archer I’m giving, if he wasn’t half a step away from the Red Iron Rank, would be a true Sharpshooter. When shooting rapidly, he can shoot 12 arrows in one minute. If not aiming, he can shoot 15 arrows in one minute. At the same time, using a fine Composite Bow, he can hit a human-shaped target from 200 yards away. Similarly, on a 70-yard target, he can even shoot another arrow that has already hit the bullseye and split the arrow shaft in two. And those three Crossbowmen have also undergone special training. At least within a range of 160 yards, they can control the area well, and within 120 yards, they can hit a human-shaped target. At the same time, their stringing and loading speed is far faster than ordinary people. When necessary, they can also serve as defensive light infantry. They can be said to be three all-rounders. One big reason I arranged for them to go is to protect that Archer, Alexander Vali.”

In fact, such an Archer could play a much greater role in ordinary adventures, conflicts, and small-scale encounters than on the battlefield. However, the fact that he had never been able to break through to the Red Iron Rank and become a true Sharpshooter had always been a regret for George. Actually, he also wanted to see if he could use this opportunity to let Alexander Vali break through his own bottleneck.

“Then thank you so much!” Bodina Garick, who had finished listening to the explanation, immediately expressed his gratitude. He knew that the other party definitely didn’t need to deceive him on such a matter.

Having settled the key issue, George then asked: “So do you have any requirements for the infantry?”

“There shouldn’t be any for this! As long as they don’t conflict with the Adventurers we hired before.” Since he had already obtained the part he wanted most, Bodina Garick naturally didn’t have any major opinions on the rest.

As the saying goes, save a person to the end, send a Buddha to the West. Since he decided to help, George gave his own suggestion: “Then I’ll arrange Shield-Axe Warriors for you! While protecting the goods, this type of fighter is relatively more effective against Goblins and Ogres.”