The situation in Scochenya was still stable. The Tanggulas Cavalry couldn't invade due to the mountainous border. But what was worrying was that Scochenya wasn't involved in the war, so the mercenaries took the opportunity to enter Garoulan.
The Tanggulas Empire had hired many low-level mercenary groups to guard their castles. The empire's regular army was gathering at Garoulan's border. In other words, the mercenaries saved the Tanggulas Empire a lot of troops and could focus on Qin Yin.
Mercenaries and merchants were one. They didn't care if the Tanggulas Empire would turn against Scochenya after the victory. So, the Tanggulas Empire had obtained a lot of resources from Scochenya. They could transport them to Garoulan's border in less than half the time.
Stupid people! Salin thought to himself. Scochenya was his hometown, but he still scoffed at the shortsightedness of the Scochenians.
But Ainphent's worries shouldn't happen. Sacred Rock City had hired more than ten thousand mercenaries to the Red River area. These five thousand mercenaries should be fine in Qin Yin's territory. Who could attack such a large group?
Julian was forced to stay and eat before returning to the camp.
The Purple Smoke Mercenary Band didn't cause trouble for Salin. A mercenary band of five thousand didn't have to worry about a group of less than a hundred people. Plus, there were two sixth-level casters and a dozen low-level ones. They were a powerful force.
Sue returned from outside the camp. After observing for a while with an alchemy telescope, he said to Salin, "Master, these mercenaries are very strong!"
Salin was interested. "How so?"
"We killed tens of thousands of bandits with less than a thousand people, but we can't beat these five thousand mercenaries." Su's eyes were full of vigor. After coming to the main continent, he had only seen Rex's army, but he also knew how expensive it was to nurture Rex's army. The mercenaries he saw now were obviously not as well-equipped as Rex's swordsmen, but they were very strong.
"If you charge in alone, can you kill Dennis?" Salin recalled how the Silver Sword Saint charged at Rex's camp.
"I can't. They have two sixth-level casters and many swordsmen. The camp is set up very well. I can't force my way in. I might be surrounded after killing a few hundred people.
"How many people can you defeat this mercenary group?"
"If the Lord is with us, I'll need 2,000 to 3,000 soldiers of the same quality. If it's soldiers like Princess Rex, I'll only need 1,000. If they're all wearing Spirit Snake Armor … I'll only need 100 people to defeat them."
"Only 100 people?"
"My Lord, those 100 people are all Advanced Swordsmen. When they put on the Spirit Snake Armor, they have the strength of a Sword Saint. Even so, I couldn't completely wipe out the enemy. I could only say that I completely defeated them. "
That was more like it. Ordinary nobles only had swordsmen as their personal guards. Even someone as wealthy as Ainphent could only gather fifty swordsmen. The cost of equipping 100 Advanced Swordsmen with the Spirit Snake Armor was very high.
Although he was unable to forge the Spirit Snake Armor, he had already grasped the principles behind it. If he went to the Frozen Sea a few more times, he would be able to gather enough materials to form a banner. There was no point in expanding his own army for the time being, but it was still necessary to train a team of a thousand people.
These one thousand people could be used as ten thousand.
"Su, when we return to Metatlin, I'll let you form a banner to fight with me. In this banner, everyone has to be at least at the level of a Advanced Swordsman. They'll all use magic equipment. Five companies will have a Magician. In addition, there will be 5,000 auxiliary soldiers. The standard for auxiliary soldiers will be based on this Purple Smoke Mercenary Group. "
Su smiled. The Lord was still very generous. She was willing to spend so much money to equip the army. This was the magnanimity of a ruler. Yes, the Lord was a Magician, not a ruler, but it was the same. Although he couldn't return to the subcontinent, it wasn't a bad choice to build a career here.
Salin was thinking that the real danger would come a year later. No matter how weak Qinyin's army was, they wouldn't let the Tanggulas cavalry break through the defensive line in a year. In a year, Rex's metal Titan would be able to recover. At that time, even if the Tanggulas people had large-scale siege equipment, they would still be destroyed by the metal Titan.
As long as they didn't have large-scale equipment, they wouldn't be able to break through Metatlin with simple tools like ladders. Moreover, Faka had said that the Holy Church's emissaries wouldn't help the Tanggulas Empire attack Metatlin. The Holy Church was fighting on multiple fronts. They couldn't send a large number of Divine Masters to their own city.
The longer it took, the better it would be for him. Two years later, the Magicians from Seriger Island would arrive. Thirty-six Magic Towers would be built, and Metatlin would be impregnable. In the year between, he could hire the Scotia mercenaries to help him defend the Phoenix Duchy's defensive line. As long as the Scotia mercenaries could hold out for a year, he wouldn't have to worry anymore.
The Scotia mercenaries, sigh …
The caravan set off at noon the next day. The entire caravan was in the middle, while Salin's group was at the back. They were accompanied by people from the caravan. Dennis specially sent a company of two hundred people to team up with Salin's group.
He wasn't too worried that the guards from the Clyde Family would have any ill intentions. He was worried that the back of the caravan would be threatened. If these fifty people messed up, it would affect the whole caravan.
But after seeing that Ainphent's subordinates were all swordsmen, Dennis and the two hundred mercenaries were relieved. It seemed that the Clyde Family's reputation was well-deserved. A small team like this wouldn't be intimidated by bandits.
The caravan's speed surprised Salin. It could actually reach fifteen kilometers per hour, which was almost as fast as the elite infantry of the Empire. But the elite infantry of the Empire all had horses, and the carriages were also specially made. That was only twenty kilometers per hour.
But Salin immediately felt relieved. Every mercenary had a horse, and as long as the caravan of the Scotia Royal Merchant Guild did not deviate from the main road of Kein, they could advance at full speed. If they traveled at the normal speed of five kilometers per hour, these caravans would never be able to make money.
Salin wasn't in a hurry. He had never planned to fly to Holy Rock City. He wanted to learn some things along the way, such as redrawing a magic map, and so on. The flying puppets in the sky consumed a lot of magic cores every day, but it was worth it. Everything he had walked along the way had been memorized by magic, and he was developing coordinates for his own magic map.
When Salin had enough strength, he would ask countless Magicians to redraw a map of the Myers Continent. Rex's map, to be honest, wasn't very satisfactory. It was based on something from tens of thousands of years ago, and then supplemented a thousand years ago. Many mountains and rivers had changed their positions, and so had the coordinates.
Salin simply took out his magic chariot. This chariot was the one that couldn't be repaired among the ones he had seized. It wasn't good for battle, but it was still a good tool for Magicians. At least on the chariot, the elements were very stable, and there was no need to consume magic cores.
Salin called Ainphent and the others onto the chariot. Fifty bodyguards followed the chariot. Urhiya was called over for a chat. This caravan leader was very willing to get close to Ainphent. After all, Ainphent had properties in Metatlin City. If he wanted to make a fortune in the future, he would need Ainphent's guidance.
After traveling for more than half a month, Salin had even become familiar with the leader of the mercenary group, Dennis. This temporary leader only had one thousand men in the Purple Smoke Mercenary Group. This time, the leader directly gave him four thousand men and made him a substitute leader, or vice leader.
He was very happy to get close to a sixth-rank necromancer like Ainphent. After getting to know each other, he asked Ainphent to buy ten undead wolves. He had thought that it would be very difficult to buy them. After all, these fourth-rank undead creatures were very precious.
In the end, Ainphent agreed to sell him twenty just to make friends.
Dennis was overjoyed. He had a fourth-rank necromancer in his group, but because he didn't have a suitable creature to summon, and the ones he summoned from the Undead Plane weren't suitable, he hadn't been promoted. These undead wolves weren't as good as the ones he summoned from the Undead Plane, but they were of a higher level.
Since Ainphent was selling him twenty at once, he had to be grateful.
Ainphent was also very happy. These eighty undead wolves were very useless to him, and he had to use the Green Spirits to replenish his soul fire every day. He already had flesh and plant undead, and he also had good coordinates. He could summon undead creatures like the bronze zombies, so there was no need to keep these undead wolves that were of little use to him.
Salin secretly expressed that he had good magic equipment that could be supplied to the mercenaries in large quantities. Finally, Dennis started to value Salin. Remembering Julian's praise, he expressed that he was willing to buy Salin's equipment.
Salin then took out the armor that he and Rex had looted in Dragon Tooth Town. These armors couldn't be upgraded anymore because they had all been soaked in dragon blood. If Salin hadn't obtained a large amount of red krill shells, he wouldn't have sold them no matter what.
Dennis was truly surprised. The armor that Salin took out was definitely of high quality. Also, the price that Salin offered him was 40% cheaper than the weapon business. For such a large mercenary group like him, the weapon business would only give him a 20% discount even if he bought in large quantities. Salin was basically giving him an extra two percent discount.
However, Salin said that he could take out two thousand sets of armor at six hundred gold coins each, which would be 1.2 million gold coins. Dennis was troubled. Not only could he not afford it, but even his captain couldn't come up with so much cash. A level-eight mercenary group wasn't poor, but they had to deposit a million gold coins in the Imperial Bank. If the mission failed, they would have to pay the employer directly.
Liquid capital was only around two hundred thousand gold coins.
"Captain Dennis, the Purple Smoke Mercenary Group is a level-eight mercenary group, so I can exchange these armors for other goods. You can have someone send them to Metatlin. Twenty percent will be food, ten percent gold coins, and the remaining seventy percent will be my down payment."
Dennis immediately became excited after hearing Salin's words. A down payment of more than eight hundred thousand gold coins! The Purple Smoke Mercenary Group was in need of business right now! Otherwise, they wouldn't have accepted Sacred Rock City's offer.
"Tell me, where do you want us to station?"
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