Building Up Strength / The Battle Against the Bearfolk

Although they had not received professional training, these local children often had better observation skills. Coupled with hearsay, they had a better understanding of the local nobles and city defense forces. In less than two days, detailed and effective intelligence was delivered to Ye Qian.

"Hmm, so is it possible that caravans might pass by from the south at night? It's possible that they might in this area."

Ye Qian immediately used Amia's ability to issue orders to the "bandit soldiers" lurking nearby.

No bandits were more efficient than them.

The intelligence and escape route were all planned in advance, and there were people waiting along the way to transfer the money to another route.

Ye Qian estimated that the enemy would be robbed at least four times that day.

Once everything is settled, we will be fully capable of adding another 1,000 archer soldiers in a short period of time.

With so many troops, let alone fighting the Bearman, she now even has the courage to directly attack a lord's garrison.

"Following this trend, it's not impossible for them to build connections and get involved in the kingdom's internal competition later on... Hmm, there's no need to rush. I can take advantage of the end of this adventure in the Main World and bring them to the Kalu World to help Kalu fight for supremacy."

The Main World is undoubtedly the most difficult to conquer, but completing side quests in other worlds is much easier.

This was also Ye Qian's idea.

Chapter 118 Accumulating Strength

Time flew by and it was already the 9th day.

On this day, a new batch of armor was forged and completed, totaling 500 sets.

After two days of what could be called looting, although it did lead to a significant increase in the crackdown on bandits by local lords, the overall situation was not yet hopeless.

At least 12 raids on caravans failed only once, and all three night raids on minor lords were successful.

In the end, more than 70 of the 200 soldiers disguised as bandits were lost, and the money they brought to Ye Qian was worth as much as 21,000 silver coins.

Of course, there was a price to pay for these repeated attacks. Caravans from nearby areas were less willing to venture out. When one caravan did go out, it was escorted by 200 city defense soldiers, which directly deterred Ye Qian's idea of robbing them.

If I were to defeat the city's garrison, it wouldn't just be a matter of bandits stealing things; it could lead to the Lord's Army launching a full-scale attack on me.

To ensure a steady and sustainable business, she decided to slow down here and head to more distant places to plunder caravans that hadn't yet been raided.

With such a large income, Ye Qian has been able to expand her army considerably.

As of today, the territory has 1,500 Black Shield Heavy Infantry and 2,500 Magic-Equipped Archer.

There are 4,000 silver coins remaining.

The new railway tracks have undoubtedly been laid, allowing travel between different areas. The defenses of each territory have been strengthened, with ten Arrow Tower built in each area.

In this way, even without soldiers stationed here, any Goblin tribe that dares to attack this place will suffer unbearable losses.

During these three days, Ye Qian also dispatched Skeleton patrol team to slowly patrol towards the southeast.

Along this long, desolate road, there were quite a few wild animals, but with our forces having an absolute advantage, this patrol was not difficult. We soon arrived at the southern part of the wasteland and, 30 kilometers away, saw a lake and a river that ran east-west through the lake.

Across the lake lies the territory of Eli's old rival. There is an unfamiliar city here, with a port directly connected to it. Ships depart and slowly sail downstream to the east.

"If I could build some boats, maybe I could cross the lake directly to the other side and launch an attack."

Ye Qian looked at the structure. There were city walls on the east, south, and west sides, but not on the port. Obviously, when designing this city, the possibility of the enemy attacking from the lake was not considered.

In fact, there are four gun emplacements at the port, which can be used to fire at the lake.

"It's not easy to fight with just ships, unless we can destroy the gun emplacements."

Ye Qian walked along the lakeshore for a while, then realized that she was unlikely to find any opportunities for the time being, so she left the scene.

"There's only one day left... no, two days. Is our army ready to fight the Bearman now? Or should we continue to build up our strength and wait until the next time we come to fight?"

Seeing Ye Qian return to her territory and sit down, Chen Ning ran over to her and asked.

"When you return to reality, I can also come and take a look at the Main World," Ye Qian said with a smile.

Chen Ning: "?"

"This is Amia's talent, I only found out about it recently. It's like having the right to come here all the time." For her own convenience, Ye Qian decided not to hide the truth about how she was able to come.

"Is that even possible? That's a good thing. Even when none of us are around, we don't have to worry about anything going wrong in the territory." Chen Ning was quite happy about this. "Can Lan Xinyu and I be brought over?"

"I'm not sure, maybe in the future, but that depends on Amia growing up." Ye Qian said, then suddenly remembered something and added, "In reality, level 20 seems to be the threshold for advancement, right? Do you have a way to get the information for advancement?"

"No, unless I choose to join a secret organization." Chen Ning's expression turned serious as he said this. Suddenly, an idea struck him, and he looked at Ye Qian and said, "No matter what, you must keep your abilities a secret in the real world. Don't let anyone know about your strength. Also... don't get involved with any secret organization. Protecting yourself is the most important thing."

"Yes, I will be careful." Ye Qian nodded immediately.

Honestly, perhaps because she looks too cute and delicate, Chen Ning can't help but worry about Ye Qian every time he thinks of her. Ye Qian has an excessively beautiful face, and when paired with a white silk dress, it's easy for someone with slightly malicious intentions to take advantage of her.

Chen Ning didn't believe there were many good people in reality. He knew the dangers of the supernatural world and had heard of a very special sect that specifically sought out innocent and beautiful girls like Ye Qian, using their desecration to enhance their own power.

Of course, that sect was later taken down by the Shadow Bureau and the Light Prayer Church because it went too far, but this incident also made Chen Ning no longer have any illusions about the beauty of the Hidden World.

"Ye Qian... it's better to live a carefree and happy life, and not to get involved with that circle." Thinking this, a smile appeared on his face as he looked at the carefree girl in front of him.

The three people relied on each other in their home, and over time they inevitably became good friends.

At least Chen Ning himself had no selfish motives; he hoped that the group could survive stably as a team.

"Mother."

Little Amia suddenly flew over and jumped into Ye Qian's arms.

Holding the soft little dragon girl in her arms, Ye Qian kissed her on the cheek and then smiled, "I'm going back to rest now. Let's keep working hard tomorrow."

"Good night."

After waving goodbye, Ye Qian returned to the wooden house, closed the door, and took out a few pastries she had bought from the human city, handing them to the little guy.

"Want to eat?"

Who knew that the little loli dragon shook her head, then hugged Ye Qian's leg and started prpr.

"Emmm..."

She was both amused and exasperated, but she didn't stop the other person.

Because of the Power of Purification within Ye Qian, the little loli dragon always liked to lick Ye Qian's little hands or legs.

If it were anyone else, Ye Qian would have definitely given them a good whack, but if it were little Amia, she definitely wouldn't have any objections.

"The 300 Intermediate Rank blacksmiths assigned to us more than a week ago seem to be qualified enough. We can let them try tomorrow and see if they can forge some basic weapons using the collected ores."

Ye Qian felt that she could already start a forging business in Europe.

Not many players train so many blacksmiths at once. Beginner blacksmiths are easy to train, but it takes a lot of time to turn them into Intermediate Rank blacksmiths.

Holding the little one, Ye Qian silently closed her eyes.

The next morning, she felt her feet were ice-cold. When she got up, she found that her legs were completely soaked.

Her soft, white silk-clad little feet were already glistening with moisture. Looking at the little loli dragon hugging and licking her legs, Ye Qian sighed.

"Is this really necessary?"

The little guy rushed up and bit Ye Qian's chest.

"Okay, I'm going to rinse my feet."

Ye Qian walked out the door in her slippers without saying a word, then rinsed her legs with the water she had stored.

Just then, two freight trains were coming from a distance along the tracks, and in the first train sat a farmer who was driving.

He jumped out of the car, opened the back door, and then had people start unloading the ore.

Yes, two trains, a total of 20 carriages, were loaded with minerals collected last night.

The number of farmers in Ye Qian's territory has increased again. She has specially trained nearly a thousand of them to become workers, engaging in jobs including mining, smelting, and construction.

The entire village is very busy right now. The farmers have endless work to do, and the number of stones piled up in the warehouse has exceeded 5,000 units.

Iron ore, as a raw material, is being smelted batch after batch, and after coming out of the boiler, it can often be forged into various iron utensils.

For example, there are now nearly 300 Iron Hammer in the territory, most of which have been given to the miners.

In less than 10 minutes, a large group of farmers had unloaded all the ore from the two trains.

The vehicle quickly turned a corner, circling onto another railway track, and headed away towards the Mining Area. The iron ore, transported to the ground, was soon sent to the boiler room via separate carts, where it underwent a complex process to be transformed into useful materials.

Ye Qian arrived at the blacksmith's shop.

"How is it?"

He looked at the 300 farmers who were learning forging techniques and asked with a smile.

"Your Excellency, they have done a very good job."

The Intermediate Rank blacksmith in charge of the training walked up with a smile, clearly very satisfied with the farmers on Ye Qian's side.

"Thank you for your hard work. I'll treat you to barbecue for lunch today."

"No need," said one resident. "We eat very well every day in your territory. And it's clear that your territory is thriving, and everyone is very motivated."

Although they were subordinates of other lords, it was clear that these Intermediate Rank blacksmiths liked Ye Qian very much.

Unfortunately, they ultimately belonged to other players, so Ye Qian could only let them continue working. He then specifically tested 300 blacksmiths, having them collaborate to forge 100 iron scimitars.

The final result was not bad. At first, these people could barely cover their costs by selling the weapons, but now they can even make a small profit.

The 100 scimitars brought Ye Qian an income of 50 silver coins, which is 50 copper coins per scimitar. Although they sold slowly due to their relatively poor quality, they were still considered weapons that met the required standard.

"It seems that at this stage, the Player System is still constantly bringing in new players. I guess it's training ordinary people. I wonder how efficient this thing is."

Ye Qian still doesn't know the details of this system.

Her own Dusk was always the same: once someone reached level 20, she would put the promotion method in the exchange area, and whether or not the member wanted to be promoted was up to them.

In comparison, the system for players really doesn't care about anything. It gets stuck at level 20, and players can only rely on their own efforts to find ways to advance, but most people don't have that ability.

Take Bai Yun, whom Ye Qian knew, for example. She was stuck at level 20 and couldn't advance at all. If she hadn't met Ye Qian, who knows when she would have been able to advance.

After a day of some commotion, and then sending out a bandit squad to risk their lives to raid two more groups, wiping out one squad, they still managed to bring about 5,000 silver coins into the territory today.

After a moment's thought, Ye Qian decided to spend the money and recruit an additional 500 archers.

"Let's go. 1,500 Elite Black Shield Heavy Infantry, 3,000 Magic-Equipped Archer, plus 3,000 Skeleton. I refuse to believe we can't defeat the Bearman."

According to the Treant, the Black Shield Infantry were stronger than the Bearman as a whole. Now, with ranged support, Ye Qian felt that even if they couldn't completely crush the Bearman's regular army of 10,000, the outcome would definitely be in their favor.

"Ready to set off? Let's leave 1,000 Skeleton at home," Chen Ning suggested.

"Okay, 250 Skeleton are enough to guard each of the four sub-territories. Anyway, this battle with the Bearman won't last more than a day."

Ye Qian immediately ordered Italin to assemble the troops.

The total size includes 6,500 soldiers.

The actual number of elites is far more than 4,500, because there are more than 10% elite units among the Skeleton.

"The slime mobilizes 200 green ones and 100 other colors."

The entire force quickly assembled at Outpost No. 2.

The warriors were densely packed, one side clad in uniform black armor, armed to the teeth, exuding an imposing aura. The other side consisted of elite Magic-Equipped Archer.

After Chen Ning gave a brief pre-battle speech, the main force, led by Ye Qian, began to advance.

As the strongest unit, Amia naturally set off with the main force. Holding the Dragon Loli's hand, watching the majestic army advance in an orderly fashion, Ye Qian couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement.

"You could only see scenes like this in movies before, right?" she couldn't help but exclaim.

"Yes." Chen Ning nodded.

He looked even more excited.

Such a powerful force quickly and smoothly entered the forest.

Not long after, the main force arrived at the forest where the Treant were, and Ye Qian saw the three familiar big trees again.

"You have come, humans."

"Hello, Mr. Treant." Ye Qian stepped forward and extended her hand with a smile. "I have brought my army and am ready to join you in attacking the Goblin ... and the dangerous Bearman. I hope Treant will keep your promise and fight alongside us."

"We will not go back on our word. It is you humans who are surprised that you are actually willing to bring an army. It seems that these soldiers have all undergone rigorous training."

"That's natural. We can discuss how to deal with the Bearman."

Chapter 119 The Battle Against the Bearman