Chapter 507: Personnel Arrangements, Reinforcing Hard Cowhide Armor with Metal Armor Plates

Jier used the wooden bowl he had finished eating from to represent the village buildings, laying out the various situations within the village on the ground.

"After we formally breach the village, I will immediately head straight for the enemy's residential stronghold on the north side of the village. My priority is to rescue the captured female villagers on the third floor of that stronghold. The rest of you will concentrate all your manpower to attack and secure the grain warehouse on the south side of the village! I have already snuck into the grain warehouse tonight, killed the enemies standing guard inside, and sealed the main entrance and exit from within. You all need to kill the enemy guards outside the grain warehouse and do your best to repel enemy reinforcements, occupying the grain warehouse and the surrounding villager houses to prevent the enemy from setting fire to this important place."

"You must all hold firm, waiting for me to rescue and temporarily settle those female villagers, and once they are safely protected, I will immediately rush over to support you all. I will then crush the enemy's main counterattack force in the south of the village and suppress the total number of enemies, forcing them to hold only the Nongshen Church in the center of the village and the enemy stronghold on the north side."

Everyone listened to Jier's explanation and arrangements with focused attention; no one made a sound to interrupt.

"Afterward, I will ride out of the village again to intercept any potential enemy messengers, as well as the soldiers who will most likely scatter and flee. At that time, I need you, under the leadership of Priest Bata'er, to avoid the church in the center of the village and rely on the houses within the village to move under cover, attacking that enemy stronghold on the north side of the village first. Kill all the enemies and thoroughly rescue the female villagers there."

"Once that place is also taken, we will then deploy our team to surround the center of the village, concentrate all the strength we have, and under the leadership of myself and Priest Bata'er, attack the church in the center of the village! For the entire battle, take no prisoners; refuse any enemy surrender!"

"In tomorrow's battle, the enemy will outnumber us, with at least thirty-some people, and they occupy a favorable defensive position. But I ask you all: do you have the guts to take down the enemy? And the courage?"

"Of course we do! With you here, Jier, we aren't afraid no matter how many enemies come!"

Xueya Siter was the first to express his stance.

With this good partner taking the lead, the others immediately answered enthusiastically: "We will definitely take down the enemy tomorrow!"

"Although the enemy has many people, they are no match for me." This was Weier's reply.

"I have confidence!"

"I'm not afraid of anything; tomorrow I'm going to charge the fastest!" Aoni, the captain of the warriors, also shouted out.

"I am an archer; tomorrow I will definitely be the first to kill an enemy!" An archer who had swapped to an enemy soldier bow also patted the weapon in his hand, full of confidence.

"Haha, bullshit, didn't you hear what Lord Jier just said? He already killed the people in the enemy grain warehouse tonight; the battle has already begun, and Lord Jier has already killed the first of the enemies!" someone retorted.

"Then I'll be the second!" that archer immediately retorted back.

Priest Bata'er said with a smile: "I am currently filled with the thought of defeating the enemy; I won't let anyone take second place!"

The atmosphere among the group was heated, and everyone looked ready to spring into action.

But Jier felt it wasn't enough. He called over Yongqi Maomao, who was looking at the night sky overhead with worry, and said to it: "Since you two have been worried about the situation at night these past two days, I've found a big job for you during the day!"

Jier spread his hands wide, making a gesture to show how big it was.

"Big job? Reward, metal, plenty!"

Yongqi Maomao was clever after all and immediately understood Jier's meaning. It did not fear battle; it was only worried that the Maomaos would have nothing to do, leading to an inability to acquire enough metal items, which would be hard to answer for to the tribe.

It had taken a great risk bringing the tribe's most elite warriors out this time. If it couldn't bring back enough metal items, it would be a total failure. But fortunately, it had been lucky enough to latch onto Jier's team. Along the way, not only had it acquired many human metal utensils, both openly and secretly, but it had also gained basic respect from this human, Jier. Aside from asking it to handle tasks, he rarely bothered the Maomaos, which meant the Maomao warriors didn't have such great mental pressure from interacting with humans.

After all, although humans were not considered tall among the various races, they were still several times larger than the long-haired cat beastmen, and they were a numerous, alien race.

Seeing that Maomao understood his words, Jier nodded with satisfaction. He pointed at Priest Bata'er and the warriors' captain, Aoni, and said to Yongqi Maomao: "Tomorrow morning, you will provide the Maomaos capable of ranged attacks to support him, this warrior Aoni who wears armor. Let these ranged-attack Maomaos assist them in battle. As for you, lead the remaining Maomaos to follow Priest Bata'er and assist them in the battle to attack and defend the grain warehouse. Do you understand?"

Yongqi Maomao hopped around and repeated Jier's order: "Ranged Maomaos, follow, Aoni! Armored Aoni. I, lead, other Maomaos, follow, Bata'er! Battle, assist, attack, defend, grain, grain warehouse!"

Jier nodded with satisfaction, and generously took a gold coin from his own purse, held it high to shake it, and then placed it into Yongqi Maomao's hand.

Yongqi Maomao couldn't wait to repeatedly stroke and sniff the glittering little thing in its hand, letting out satisfied meows.

"This is the deposit for tomorrow's battle. After the battle ends, there will be another gold coin for you. How is this price?" Jier asked.

Yongqi Maomao held the gold coin high with satisfaction, hopping and skipping to show it to the other Maomaos, but only allowing them to look—no other Maomao was allowed to touch it, for fear that one of these Maomao warriors might have dirty little hands and make the gold coin disappear.

"Lord Jier, the warriors, and even these Maomaos have battle assignments, but what about us drivers? We can fight too, and we want to participate in the battle!" The drivers who had previously been leaning against the wagons and had not approached the campfire spoke up at this moment.

Seeing that these commoners, who had been the first to defect to him from the refugee team, also wanted to fight, Jier stood up happily.

He walked over, patted the drivers on the shoulders, and said to them: "This is different from before. The enemy consists of professional soldiers; their methods are vicious, they have no morals, and their weapons and equipment exceed ours. Wanting to fight them is not easy. Are you truly prepared to fight these enemies?"

The drivers looked at each other; some retreated slightly, but more of the drivers truly wanted to participate in the battle. After all, the subsequent fighting would surely enter the mountain forests, and at that time they would be of no use. If they wanted to make a contribution, they had to seize this opportunity now.

"Yes, my lord, we want to participate in this battle, even if we aren't fully prepared." One driver stood out and said.

Jier nodded. He thought for a moment and then said: "Then, how about this: tomorrow, except for those staying behind to guard the temporary camp, everyone else will sit in the wagons the warriors usually ride in. After the battle begins, you will drive the wagons and circle through the farmland outside Changmai Cunzi. If you encounter enemies trying to flee Changmai Cunzi, go straight for them, first using the wagons to ram them, then everyone get off and swarm them, working together to take down a single enemy."

The drivers looked at each other, feeling that Knight Jier looked down on them, actually wanting everyone to bully one enemy soldier together.

Seeing their thoughts, Jier explained: "It is not that I look down on your combat strength, but the enemy soldiers' level is not low, their will to fight is also high, and they have full sets of weapons and equipment, so fighting them is still quite tricky. Therefore, I suggest that not only should you all swarm them during the fight, but you must also use more methods to fight. For example, before the battle starts tomorrow, fill your water bottles with hot water; when fighting, splash the water first to make the enemies scream in pain, then take more rope and make loops to throw at the enemies from a distance. Once you snare them, pull and restrain the enemy, and finally move in to kill the enemy."

Jier added at the end: "Don't think about taking prisoners, or going easy if an enemy begs for mercy; kill the enemy directly. For tomorrow's battle, I want no prisoners!"

He repeated it once more for the other warriors: "Tomorrow's battle, I want no prisoners! Do you understand?"

"Understood, Knight Jier."

"Understood, Jier."

"Warrior Jier, I understand."

"Lord Jier, we understand!"

Seeing that everyone had responded, Jier told everyone to rest as soon as possible; the state one is in before a battle greatly influences the battle's outcome.

Many warriors were so nervous and excited about facing a strong enemy tomorrow that they couldn't sleep, but at this time, having them practice martial arts again seemed like a waste of stamina, so many warriors could only lie on the ground, backs to the campfire, twisting left and right, sometimes hugging their weapons and shields tightly, other times putting them down, repeating this over and over.

The Maomaos were much more efficient. They were all tribal warriors who lived by fighting year-round. Although humans were considered powerful enemies to the Maomaos, these warriors of Yongqi Maomao had fought against even more formidable enemies, and they did not fear fighting humans.

In fact, they were somewhat looking forward to fighting humans, because unlike the wild monsters in the mountain forests that relied on fur and claws to fight, humans possessed a large number of metal items that were important to the Maomaos, and because human claws and teeth were not sharp, humans even specially prepared metal claws to replace their own.

Defeating one human enemy would at least result in the harvest of one human dagger, and the Maomaos understood that the human enemies in tomorrow's battle were even more extravagant—wealthy enemies who wore metal armor plates like thick fur. They were somewhat similar to the even more extravagant human Jier, though slightly inferior to him.

As long as they defeated one such human, it would be a huge harvest for them. So at this moment, all the Maomao warriors were excitedly wagging their tails, meowing at each other, and discussing how to break those human enemies tomorrow.

The drivers who had decided to participate in tomorrow's battle were not idle either. Following Jier's suggestion, they collected the ropes from the wagon train and made them into individual active loops. Besides this, they also used linen cloth to prepare bags of fine dust and ash, and collected water bottles that could be carried with water. One sturdy driver even took the two-handed felling axe used by the wagon train to collect firewood and held it in his hand, preparing to use it as his primary weapon tomorrow.

He would be the main attacker, and the other drivers would assist him in the fight.

Additionally, in order to utilize their advantage in driving, some drivers planned to gather the extra horses that wouldn't be used tomorrow, so that the wagons they would ride in tomorrow would be pulled by four horses, and they would also cover the horses' chests with tent fabric that had slight protective properties, using the horses to ram and trample the enemy first upon encounter, then dismounting to fight.

Jier didn't pay much attention to all that; he went straight back into his own tent, his body flashed, and he disappeared without a trace.

In the lady's dream.

Jier returned to his camp by the pond. He looked coldly at the Mushroom Boys around him who had returned to normal, still having vivid memories of how drunk these mushrooms had been before.

That old fairy was also sitting on its large snail shell, cheekily flying around Jier, curious, because Jier was currently in the camp, busy dismantling the captured soldier armor's metal armor plates and then installing them onto his Hard Cowhide Full-Coverage Armor.

At first, the old fairy couldn't tell what this young human was doing, but it was clever after all, and soon it was pointing at the metal full-coverage armor Jier had placed on the armor rack nearby, babbling about something.

"Yes, yes, yes, that's right, I'm preparing a new set of armor." Jier kept busy without raising his head, dealing with this noisy 'partner'.

But the old fairy flew to Jier's original metal armor, stood on tiptoe, patted the metal armor that Jier couldn't yet repair after it had been damaged, and then gave a thumbs up.

It flew to Jier's side again, jumped onto Jier, pointed at the Metal Armor Plate in Jier's hand, shook its head, gave a thumbs down, and gestured a few times.

"What do you mean? Looking down on me, are you? Or are you looking down on my technique?" Jier squawked.

He reached out to grab this old sprite that looked down on him, but it vanished with a *pop*, only to pop its head out from the ground nearby a moment later.

Unable to catch it, Jier gave up on such futile actions and continued to focus on the work in his hands.

He first used a sharp Dagger to carefully drill holes along the edges of the hardened cowhide; after opening one hole, he used a rough metal rod to pass through the small hole in the hardened cowhide Armor, rubbing it back and forth to widen the hole.

Afterwards, he took out a large amount of leather cord; these were scraps from the wild boars from the previous few days. Although they had a smell and had not undergone further processing, the material was quite sturdy and had to be cut with a sharp skinning knife, as ordinary swords and blades could not slice through them.

Therefore, Jier used these leather cords to thread through the intact Soldier Metal Armor Plates, two at a time, passing them back and forth through the round holes at both ends of the plates to tightly assemble them one by one, and finally passed them through the holes in the hardened cowhide to secure them onto it.

After working for half a day, Jier finally finished reinforcing the armor for one arm, allowing an extra layer of Metal Armor Plate protection to be hung over the original hardened cowhide Armor.

Although it lacked design and reasonable planning, which made the armor look ugly after the forced addition of the plates, Jier tapped on his set of armor and found that while it was indeed ugly, the defensive capability had clearly improved significantly.

Furthermore, because it was fixed onto the original hardened cowhide Armor rather than being a separate set of plates hung on the outside, there was not much additional hindrance to the armor's mobility. As for the increased weight of the armor, that was no longer a concern for Jier now.

Although he had spent half a day of effort just to finish the armor for one arm, he had plenty of time in the Lady's dream, so Jier was not in a hurry. He realized that the reason he was working slowly was mainly because he lacked a suitable workbench; sitting on the ground made it hard to exert force, and the posture was awkward.

Therefore, Jier immediately put down the Armor, intending to first create a workbench that would make the work easier.

Needless to say, there were plenty of the elves' Silver Plates here; Jier stacked dozens of Silver Plates together, which formed a heavy and sturdy shiny metal table. He laid a wooden board on top and used a wooden bucket filled with water as a wooden chair, and this simple workbench was complete.

Sitting on this, Jier felt it was much more convenient; he moved all his things over and continued working, finishing the armor reinforcement for the other arm in even less time.

Jier ate and slept here, and upon waking up, he would reinforce and process the hardened cowhide Armor. It took him about three days to finally upgrade the Hard Cowhide Full-Coverage Armor, whose defensive power could no longer keep up with the intensity of combat, into a new set of armor that used a cluster of Metal Armor Plates strung together as the core of its defense over the hardened cowhide, with the original hardened cowhide Armor serving as the foundation, providing reinforced protection all over his body.

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