Battle Spoils

"That question isn't all that important."

On the journey back, Gu Hang answered the question posed by Yan Fangxu.

The captain had sought him out to voice the doubts in his heart, and Gu Hang had provided his response:

"Even if it were fake, so what? The Navy needs merit, and I need a target. A heretical cult that does not worship the God-Emperor is one of the primary culprits behind why Nuxiao Planet has been unable to recover for so long. This merit will satisfy Brigadier Yelicia, allow me to gain sufficient benefits, and enable me to unite the people of this world. Therefore, this cult should be real, and that Vaughan should be a real heretic."

After a pause, Gu Hang saw that Yan Fangxu's face still held a trace of hesitation, so he smiled and patted the captain on the shoulder: "Besides, it is real. The Primal Owlbear Cult is a heretical cult, and that man named Vaughan truly does have a connection to the Primal Owlbear."

"How did you determine that he is a heretic, rather than an ordinary psyker?"

Gu Hang pointed to his own head and explained: "A psyker's power comes from within themselves, from our spirit. We have enough talent and enough spirituality to draw psychic energy from the omnipresent yet imperceptible Warp to manifest psychic powers. But a heretic's power comes from the filthy dark gods they worship, not from themselves. These two types of power are completely different, and in my perception, the distinction is clear."

Having said this, Gu Hang silently added to himself that the divine arts mastered by the priests of the Imperial Creed worked on much the same principle, but he did not say it aloud.

Hearing this, Yan Fangxu scratched his head: "I really hadn't learned about these things before. But since he is indeed a real heretical cultist, then there's no problem."

"Rest assured," Gu Hang said, "we are on the right track."

Gu Hang was quite earnest in reassuring the captain.

This man was one of the few capable individuals under his command.

He had arrived on Nuxiao Planet alone, and without having received the authority of the Alliance government, he had no foundation to speak of. The only usable people under his command were this Captain Yan.

The people of the Waste Mine Society seemed to have been won over for now, but they were a bunch of illiterates who couldn't be relied upon for major tasks; his little attendant Zhang Chao was trustworthy enough, but lacked experience—perhaps he could become a talent after long-term cultivation, but he was far from it now.

The only one left was Yan Fangxu.

At the very least, he was a Navy captain, a proper officer of the Imperial Navy.

He did not care that Yan Fangxu still belonged to the naval sequence and was not his own man, or that he only followed his orders because of Brigadier Yelicia's command.

It made no difference; as long as he was currently working for him, had the ability, and was trustworthy, that was enough.

Gu Hang turned his head, looking past Yan Fangxu at the main force.

The entire group consisted of nearly three hundred people, pulling ox carts along the road back to the Governor's Camp.

The harvest this time was bountiful.

He had left twenty soldiers from the Waste Mine Company stationed at the Mantan Valley Manor to ensure the safety of the estate while also ensuring the tenant farmers worked hard. A man named Slamu had been chosen from among the tenants to act as the manager.

The other soldiers, totaling about two hundred men, along with about one hundred tenant farmers, had set off on the return journey. Those tenant farmers were responsible for transporting the reloaded supplies to the Governor's Camp.

The so-called 'carts' were ox carts, pulled by livestock known as 'Brute Oxen'.

These Brute Oxen were likely not native to Nuxiao Planet, but a species introduced from an outer planet long ago. After the world-ending war, these creatures had not gone extinct; instead, they had developed further variations while retaining the trait of being domesticable.

In today's wasteland world, Brute Oxen were vital draft animals.

The batch of supplies transported from Revival City had originally been pulled by ox carts, and now they had all fallen into Gu Hang's hands.

After being inventoried, the supplies matched what Gu Hang had requested from Revival City.

These items could be considered returned to their rightful owner.

In addition, Gu Hang had captured nearly two hundred sets of individual weapons and equipment, primarily rifles.

The models of these rifles were quite varied, and their overall manufacturing quality could not compare to the 'Assaulter' rifles. The latter were, at the very least, standard-issue rifles for the Imperial Army and Marine Corps; although they were for cannon fodder, the basic manufacturing standards and technical levels were up to par.

As for the firearms used by these mercenaries, which were produced locally on Nuxiao Planet, it was hard to say. Not only was the quality uneven, but even the best among them were not as good as the 'Assaulter'.

But at least they were more reliable than the pipe-rifles held by the 'Prisoner-Dead' bandits, which Gu Hang hadn't even bothered to take and would have treated as scrap metal; at least these could be considered military-grade products.

Gu Hang intended to make use of this batch of equipment as well.

Counting this batch, he now had about one hundred 'Assaulter' sets and two hundred sets of local products on hand. He could arm another three hundred soldiers.

With weapons and equipment in hand, the source of troops was not a major problem.

The Waste Mine Society could provide more men, and a portion could also be drawn from the three thousand servants he had brought down from the starship.

Those servants were not originally qualified soldiers; their physical fitness was not even as good as that of a servitor. However, they certainly wouldn't be worse than the underfed people of the Waste Mine Society. Under Gu Hang's system, the Waste Mine people could be transformed into soldiers with qualified training, so it went without saying for those former servants.

If the quality of the troops wasn't high enough, it would at most limit their ability to continue upgrading, but with the system's capabilities, training them to T5 level and achieving the standard of regular troops was not a problem.

And besides the supplies that were rightfully his, and the captured weapons, equipment, and ammunition, an even greater harvest was the grace obtained after the victory in battle.

[Decisive victory, obtained 33 points of grace]

[Losses 20, eliminated 116, captured 42]

[1st Servitor Light Infantry Battalion (partial): Losses 16, eliminated 43]

[Waste Mine Company: Losses 4, eliminated 21]

[Marine Corps (partial): Losses 0, eliminated 52]

In this battle, including those eliminated and captured, a total of 158 people were dealt with, with a total loss of 20 men.

T5-level troops, combined with thirty T4-level Marines, had a comprehensive combat effectiveness far superior to those low-class mercenaries. Even though the defenders had the advantage, and even though the soldiers had adopted a frontal assault under Gu Hang's orders, the final exchange ratio still reached an exaggerated level of nearly 1:8.

Of course, without the Strider piloted by the Marines, and without Gu Hang participating as a psyker, the exchange ratio would have been much uglier.

The casualties among his own soldiers were mostly caused by machine guns and rocket launchers. The strafing of heavy machine guns hitting femoral arteries led to massive hemorrhaging, or they were directly killed by the close-range explosions of rockets. Among these 20 losses, in addition to a small number who died instantly, many were severely wounded and unable to return to the battlefield.

This level of loss was still within the range that Gu Hang could accept; one could hardly expect to fight a war without casualties.

However, Gu Hang also had to start considering the replenishment of his troops.

The losses for the Waste Mine Company were not a big issue, as he could pull replacements directly from the Waste Mine Society; pulling out four more people certainly wouldn't be a problem.

The Servitor soldiers, on the other hand, were truly impossible to replace.

In the future, the main force of Gu Hang's army could not rely on Servitors in the long run. Eventually, he would have to recruit soldiers from the local population.

But that was a matter for later.

What he needed to think about further right now was how to use the 33 points of Favor he had just acquired.

The chapter order was posted incorrectly yesterday; chapter 23 was posted before chapter 22, and those two chapters were actually supposed to be for today—I set the wrong date when scheduling them...

Just consider it an extra update for yesterday!

For those comrades who only saw chapter 23 and missed chapter 22 yesterday, you can go back and read it.