Chapter 182: Military Merits Secured; Can Farming Even Yield a Marquisate?

"Your guess is spot on." Zhao Xing smiled and nodded.

"So it really was snatched?!" Han Bing's usually expressionless face clearly showed shock.

"How could the defense of a Seventh-Rank General Ming Yan warship possibly be breached?" Wang Ji was also greatly surprised.

"Zhao Xing isn't stupid; how could he possibly fight head-on? Of course, he ambushed them while they were unprepared... that's what he's best at doing," Han Bing said.

"Han Bing, how can you slander someone's integrity out of thin air?" Zhao Xing protested. "How can the Military Granary be called an ambush? Their spell range isn't as wide as mine; you can't blame me for ambushing."

"Exactly, do you even understand the Military Granary!" Wang Ji said indignantly. "See, Brother Zhao, that's exactly how he just slandered me."

"..."

"What are you chatting about that's so lively? I could hear your voices from far away." Long Xiao jumped down from the General Ming Yan warship.

"We pay our respects to Captain Long."

"We greet my lord Long."

Han Bing and Wang Ji bowed together.

Facing Long Xiao, they were clearly much more polite.

"We were guessing how this General Ming Yan warship came to be here."

Long Xiao said, "As for that, on the way here, Zhao Xing discovered a group of aliens ambushing a city of the Zhenhai Army, so he and I followed them."

"They were a group of Sand Clan people, but they were wiped out by me and Zhao Xing."

Wang Ji asked in confusion, "Such a huge General Ming Yan warship; did the defending general of the Zhenhai Army just hand it over?"

Long Xiao snorted, "The defending general of the Zhenhai Army... never mind, let's not mention it."

He recalled that Zhao Xing had already become sworn brothers with Chen Lu, so it wasn't good to say much more, but in Long Xiao's heart, Chen Lu was simply an incompetent person.

"In any case, he suffered heavy losses; without us, his corpses would have gone cold, so he wasn't even in a position to share the spoils. Zhao Xing, being kind-hearted, forcibly gave him ten percent."

Zhao Xing shrugged: "In a war zone, having more friends means more paths."

Without Chen Lu, it would have taken who knows how long for his General Ming Yan warship to arrive; mobilizing people back and forth involved too many accidents.

Giving Chen Lu ten percent was merely ten percent of the storage room, not ten percent equity of the General Ming Yan warship itself.

The current Zhao Xing could be considered somewhat successful; he had also started to learn from Old Chen and become an angel investor.

Chen Lu was just a side project.

The Great Campaign against the Barbarians had attracted many powerful geniuses from Great Zhou to this place; he also planned to invest heavily in those geniuses who would rise in the future, which was a very important part of his future planning.

"Let's go; let's talk inside first," Long Xiao said.

"Wang Gong, arrange some personnel to take over the General Ming Yan warship; this thing will belong to us from now on," Zhao Xing said. "Additionally, for the people sent by Chen Lu, give each of them some compensation according to their official rank."

"Good." Wang Ji rubbed his hands together. "I'll go personally."

He had been unable to hold back for a long time; a Fifth-Rank warship, he had only sat in once, and he had never even entered the internal core cabin.

When Zhao Xing said he would let him use it, he was happier than if he had just married a wife.

The General Ming Yan warship was even the exotic foreign version!

Wang Ji had seen everything, but he truly had never seen this.

"Be careful once you board; if you break a single component, I'll eat it!" Wang Ji shouted, noting that replacing missing parts on this thing was far more difficult than on Great Zhou warships.

"City No. 92 was built according to county-level specifications."

"Previously, only half was built, but yesterday they began expanding the outer city, planning to designate the original part as the inner city."

"Here is the list of chief officials for each department; the Engineering Department has the most personnel, followed by the Military Granary. The Martial Department originally had quite a few, but due to Liao Liao Rulong's continuous transfers, the number of people in the Martial Department is now actually less than the Military Granary; the Priests and Strategists are the fewest."

"This is the list of officials for each department."

On the way to the City Lord's Mansion, Han Bing was also introducing the situation of City No. 92 to Zhao Xing.

Although the city was small, all five departments were complete.

The five departments combined had around five thousand personnel.

Among them, Artificers and the Military Granary accounted for seventy percent, Martial artists twenty percent, and Priests ten percent.

Strategists were only a few, negligible.

As for strength, it was neither good nor bad.

On the list Han Bing provided, there were training records for officials of each department.

Those who completed training with an A-grade evaluation, excluding Wang Ji and Han Bing, there was not a single one.

There were thirty-five people with a B-grade evaluation, among whom ten were B-plus, but they were not from the same cohort as Zhao Xing.

In short, compared to the Yun City period, although the total number of people had doubled, the number of geniuses had decreased.

However, this was normal; the strong ones had all been pulled to the front by Liao Liao Rulong to fight.

Of course, this did not mean the Supply City was weak.

The overall strength level was higher than the Yun City period; after all, the grade was set here, and the combined number of Seventh-Rank officials from each department exceeded fifty people.

Although Liao Liao Rulong's fighting style was aggressive, he was not a brainless fool; even if Zhao Xing had not come, the defense level of the Supply City was much higher than Chen Lu's city.

If the Sand Clan people had chosen to ambush City No. 92 of the Shenwei Army, they might have been driven away without Zhao Xing or Long Xiao needing to act.

Now Zhao Xing was the commanding general of City No. 92, but there were actually not many things he needed to consider.

"The outer city expansion, follow Wang Ji's plan; no changes needed," Zhao Xing said. "Call the chief officials of the other three departments over to meet; a simple summary of task progress is enough."

"But the tasks of the Military Granary Supervision need to be adjusted."

"Fine, tell me how to change it."

Changing the direction of the Military Granary Supervision right from the start was equivalent to saying that Han Bing, as the chief official, had not done his job properly before; that was Zhao Xing; if it were anyone else, Han Bing would have cursed.

"Let's talk about it after the meeting later; I still need to deal with the things on the General Ming Yan warship," Zhao Xing said. "You'll know later."

"Alright, I'll go arrange it." Han Bing stood up and left.

Long Xiao sat on a chair eating fruit, watching Zhao Xing make arrangements.

He did not belong to the general sequence of City No. 92; after a brief rest, once the Yin Spirit from the temple transmitted the frontline's location, he would go to join Liao Ru's main force.

The mountain cat stood on the table, chewing with relish; it ate even faster than Long Xiao, nearly swallowing one piece per bite.

After finishing, it meowed at Zhao Xing.

"You certainly are comfortable." Zhao Xing waved his hand, unrolling a plate of fourth-tier fruit from the bamboo case. "We came to fight a war; you came to enjoy life."

"Ao Tian, ignore him and eat." Long Xiao smiled and fed the fruit to the mountain cat.

Zhao Xing shook his head and took out his Earth Mirror to check his military merit.

Since General Ming Yan's warship had entered the interior of City No. 92, it was already within the temple's coverage area.

Furthermore, on the Zhenhai Army's side, Chen Lu had already used the temple to report the situation to the Military Realm.

Therefore, the Military Realm had already rendered its judgment on this battle.

Chen Lu and all surviving officials, according to the size of their official posts, had varying amounts of military merit deducted.

Among them, Chen Lu suffered the greatest loss; after more than half a month of effort accumulating over thirty thousand military merit points, twenty-two thousand were directly deducted!

Chen Lu's superior, namely 'Li Que', the main general of the Zhenhai Army fighting on the frontline, consequently had ten thousand military merit points deducted as well.

Why? Because Li Que had deployed too much combat power to the frontline to attack alien tribes, neglecting the defense of the rear cities.

If he had not deployed so many... even without Zhao Xing's arrival, City No. 109 of the Zhenhai Army might not necessarily have fallen.

Thus, how fierce a main general can be depends on whether the rear is stable; if it is unstable, you earn merit with your front foot and lose it all with your back foot, which equals Bai Da, or could even result in a bloody loss.

"Chen Lu and the others had military merit deducted, while Long Xiao and I gained military merit."

Zhao Xing looked at the information in the Earth Mirror.

Since they were inside the city, the Earth Mirror could also receive messages from the Military Realm through the 'Heavenly Workshop' base station.

【Shenwei Army Equalization Officer Zhao Xing, on the twenty-first day of the sixth month of the seventeenth year of the Jingxin Era, you crushed a surprise attack by the Sha Tribe, killed one seventh-rank enemy, and saved City No. 109 of the Zhenhai Army; you have obtained 15,000 points of military merit.】

Killing an unranked alien uniformly yields 1 point of military merit.

Killing a ninth-rank yields 10 to 40 points, corresponding to four tiers: ninth-rank proper, ninth-rank auxiliary, upper, and lower.

Killing an eighth-rank yields 100 to 400 points.

Killing a seventh-rank yields 1,000 to 4,000 points.

Killing a sixth-rank yields 10,000 to 40,000 points.

The above represents the normal statistical standard for military merit; sometimes there are fluctuations, and special circumstances may even cause these limits to be breached.

Capturing, subduing, or obtaining intelligence also yields military merit.

However, at present, the military merit granted by the Military Realm for such situations is relatively low.

This is because the current level of warfare is relatively low, and the primary objective is to sever the basic combat power of the Southern Barbarians and reduce the probability of them spawning high-end combat power.

Therefore, killing is the priority; capturing and subduing are not the main objectives, so the military merit granted is naturally low.

As for intelligence, with battlefield personnel not exceeding the sixth rank at most, what important intelligence could there possibly be?

With the Existence Creation Disk present, the value of military merit obtained from intelligence gathering is also very low.

"Killing a seventh-rank yielded 4,000 points; some of the small soldiers killed by Long Xiao were credited to me because I provided cover for him; the value of those alien foot soldiers was roughly this much."

"Saving the city yielded 10,000 points. It is essentially taking a portion of the military merit deducted from the various Zhenhai Army officials and shifting it onto Long Xiao and me," Zhao Xing thought silently.

The military merit Long Xiao obtained was slightly over 20,000; regarding kills, he had slain considerably more.

However, for the item 'Saving the City', Long Xiao, like myself, also received 10,000 points.

The amount deducted from Chen Lu's side far exceeded the military merit Zhao Xing gained; this was done to prevent operations aimed at farming military merit.

"If I were to hand over General Ming Yan's warship, my military merit would skyrocket, even allowing me to leap into the top one hundred of the seventh-rank leaderboard."

"However, handing it over is not cost-effective."

Keeping General Ming Yan's warship held greater utility for Zhao Xing; as for military merit, he had many opportunities to earn it.

For instance, military merit missions.

The logistical forces possessed a dedicated system for measuring military merit.

One did not necessarily have to kill enemies to earn merit.

For example, Wang Ji led people in constructing cities.

Completing a first-tier city yielded one hundred thousand military merit points.

Completing a second-tier city yielded two hundred thousand military merit points.

Currently, City No. 92 was a third-tier city under construction and not yet fully completed.

If completed, it would yield five hundred thousand military merit points.

However, the Military Realm would also settle accounts in stages, with every participant receiving a share.

Having been here for half a month, Wang Ji had already accumulated fifty to sixty thousand military merit points; among seventh-ranks, he had already ranked within the top ten thousand.

Mechanism masters constructing cities counted toward military merit, and defending cities did as well.

If enemies attacked and the defense succeeded, military merit would be calculated; but if it failed, military merit would be deducted, and deducted heavily.

Additionally, forging equipment for frontline troops and repairing equipment also yielded military merit.

Missions were divided into 'Primary Missions' and 'General Missions'.

Killing enemies recorded merit by headcount and rank; mechanism masters could also kill enemies to earn merit, which fell under extra General Missions.

If you performed them, you gained merit; if you did not, it was fine.

If Primary Missions were assigned and not completed within the deadline, military merit would be deducted.

Certain missions could be repeated, such as the mechanism master's 'Spirit-Breaking Crossbow Bolts' and 'God-Breaking Crossbow Bolts', as well as items like the Heavenly Net and Realm-Breaking Glazed Pearls.

These belonged to consumables!

At the current stage of Great Zhou, with the rapid advancement of city sieges, all armies had a huge demand for these things; they could essentially be farmed infinitely.

Even if what you produced was already sufficient for your own army, provided it did not affect your 'Primary Missions', you could still continue manufacturing them to exchange for military merit.

Because of the existence of the 'Transport Commissioner', military resources are allocated reasonably.

When the Transport Commissioner's warship arrives, excess treasures can be directly hauled away to supply other armies.

In different periods, needs differ, and missions are not unchanging.

The Ministry of Agriculture is the same.

"Current daily missions all involve 'Vitality Supply' food."

"Soldiers need large amounts of food to replenish stamina and restore vitality."

"But as time passes, the Insect Witches, Poison Witches, and Blood Witches of the Southern Wasteland will act, causing a surge in demand for antidote and blood-replenishing medicinal materials!"

"Additionally, entering extreme regions of the Southern Wasteland, such as the 'Purple Cloud Swamp', where the air is filled with deadly miasma, even ordinary Tier-4 antidote pills cannot last long; only pills made from 'Heart-Heaven Grass' can sustain for a long time."

"Then there are the Fire Demons attacking the Purple Long Wang Ting. The environment where the Fire Demon people live is saturated with fire poison. They have grown accustomed to surviving there, but the soldiers of Great Zhou suffer from acclimatization issues."

"Fire-Resistant Robes made from Earth-Fire Lotus have become the most cost-effective Tier-4 battle armor... The general and basic missions generated in the Military Realm for the Ministry of Agriculture are all about this stuff, and the military merit awarded is incredibly high."

Zhao Xing recalled scenes from his past life when analyzing the 'Emperor Jing's Pacification of the Barbarians' case.

"Such items will inevitably be in short supply; I must prepare in advance."

The four great Wang Tings of the Southern Wasteland are not without fighting strength, but their initial step-by-step retreats were intended to use the Southern Wasteland's environment to hinder the enemy.

The Ministry of Agriculture planting crops is linked to almost all professions; the Ministry of Works manufacturing equipment requires various types of wood without exception.

The yellow paper and incense for sacrifices, as well as the materials for the Weaver's magical robes, are the same.

It can be said that the Ministry of Agriculture is the upstream source for most professions.

"I recall that during this Pacification of the Barbarians war, several officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, relying on their keen judgment of frontline battle reports, cultivated large quantities of urgently needed materials, and by cultivating and cultivating, they found themselves ennobled as Marquises."

Zhao Xing muttered, "Perhaps I can also follow the path of my teacher's ancestor."

Tian Shan's title of Tian Hou was inherited from his ancestors.

Back then, his ancestors followed the Taizu into battle and cultivated fields so well that after founding the nation, they were ennobled as Dukes.

Why did Zhao Xing, upon arriving at City No. 92, tell Han Bing to adjust the direction of the Ministry of Agriculture Supervision?

Because he remembered clearly what materials would be lacking at what times; when deducing the 'Emperor Jing's Pacification of the Barbarians' case in his past life, these were things that had to be memorized.

If one cannot remember these things, the win rate will drop significantly.

"Besides farming, there are many ways to earn military merit, even including robbery."

Zhao Xing stood up and went outside the mansion gate.

At this moment, on the square, General Ming Yan's warship had already flown into the territory of the Heavenly Workshop.

However, the spoils of war in the storage room were all left behind, and Wang Ji was leading people to sort and categorize them.

"Among the stolen items, there are large quantities of medicinal herbs, food, and equipment crafting materials."

"Once these are submitted, I can gain quite a bit of military merit."

Zhao Xing smiled.

Much of what the Sha people stole were materials listed in the mission queue.

With ready-made materials here, submitting them naturally completes the missions immediately.

These Long Xiao did not want, giving them all to Zhao Xing.

First, because he was too lazy to want such trifles; killing a single Tier-7 opponent could yield one thousand to four thousand military merit.

Second, the 'General Missions' for martial artists are relatively few; even if he took the spoils to submit, there wouldn't be much military merit to gain. If converted to military merit based on 'spoils of war', the value would not be high.

So he simply gave them to Zhao Xing to handle.

"Zhao Xing, everything is processed." Wang Ji ran over, "Among the items stolen by the Sha people, there are a total of fourteen thousand five hundred and thirty-two finished battle armors and equipment, mostly Tier-2 and Tier-3, with only about ten Tier-4 pieces."

"Various medicinal herbs, ores, equipment materials, magical robe materials, and other semi-finished products total fifty-three thousand four hundred and sixty-two units. Tier-3 is dominant, with very few Tier-2 and Tier-4."

Zhao Xing looked at the list and nodded, saying, "Set aside ten percent of these items and send someone to deliver them to Chen Lu of the Zhenhai Army; this is what I promised him."

"The rest, the finished goods go into the internal treasuries of each department for emergency use. If any department encounters a very difficult 'Core Mission' and faces an urgent shortage, they can use these to make up the difference."

Wang Ji nodded, his admiration for Zhao Xing increasing by another degree.

These were Zhao Xing's personal spoils of war, yet he was willing to put them into the internal treasuries of each department for reserve; his vision was truly grand.

"The remaining semi-finished materials, anything involving the Ministry of Agriculture's Core Missions and General Missions, allocate them to the internal treasury and transport treasury of the Divine Might Army, to submit for my personal military merit. I've been absent for nearly a month; let me grind all the military merit missions I can." Zhao Xing said.

Regarding those related to the Ministry of Agriculture, he would not take them for reserve; he must satisfy his own needs first.

"Understood." Wang Ji immediately acted according to Zhao Xing's request.

Zhao Xing then opened the Earth Mirror, looking at his Military Realm mission regarding the Equalization Decree.

When Wang Ji sent someone to archive the records.

Multiple mission completion notifications came from the Earth Mirror:

【Divine Might Army Zhao Xing, you completed the 'Planting Sweet Spirit Grass' mission (three thousand units), gaining 6000 points of military merit. This mission cannot be submitted again this month.】

【Divine Might Army Zhao Xing, you completed the 'Planting Aconite Fruit' mission (one thousand units), gaining 1000 points of military merit. This mission cannot be submitted again this month.】

【Divine Might Army Zhao Xing, you completed...】

There will be one more update today, expected at 2 o'clock. Additionally, recommending a friend's book, 'Mythical Heavenly Workshop', the portal is below.

Everyone can go take a look and leave a paw print.