Chương 65: Mutiny

After resting for a night, Li Qinwu found Iron-Orc again. The musket design was finalized, but the bayonet—the musket's loyal companion—was still nowhere to be found. However, this small bayonet stumped Iron-Orc. Li Qinwu wanted to create a bayonet about 30 cm long that could be fitted onto the barrel. He drew a diagram, and the general appearance was that of a socket bayonet active in the 18th century. Iron-Orc looked at the drawing and shook his head like a rattle.

"No, it's too long and too thin. Forcing the production will make it break easily, and the circular socket at the end of the bayonet is also very difficult to process!" He showed Li Qinwu a sword.

"Look, My Lord, this sword can be made this long because the blade is wide enough for sufficient strength. The bayonet you need is too thin." The sword's blade was about 70 cm long, weighed 2. 5 kg, and the widest part of the blade was about 5 cm. Li Qinwu understood immediately. A sword can be long because the body is thick enough, but a bayonet is just a small iron strip. Making it so thin and long was impossible with current smelting technology. Li Qinwu sighed and stopped pushing.

He recalled a news report he had seen before, where a major nation couldn't manufacture qualified bayonets and had to adopt the single-function triangular spike bayonet (Type 63/56 style). Triangles are stable; the structural strength of a triangular spike is definitely stronger than a flat sheet bayonet. Its only drawback is its single function—it can't perform slashing or sliding cuts, nor can it serve as a tool knife. It was a choice born of necessity.

Li Qinwu said helplessly: "Since long bayonets can't be made, then make short ones. If the socket is hard to process, making it thicker is fine too!" If the material wasn't up to par, the structure would have to compensate. At least it would give the musketeers melee capability; once alchemy technology improved in the future, they could switch to longer and better bayonets. The two engaged in a long discussion, sketching and drawing on the blueprints.

Finally, a bayonet with a blade length of about 15 cm and a clumsy, thick socket at the tail was born. The bayonet was hammered out by Iron-Orc strike by strike, quenched, and then fitted onto the musket. A 1. 3-meter musket with a 15-cm bayonet attached resulted in an overall length of 1. 45 meters. For melee function, it was barely qualified. Li Qinwu turned the musket over and over, inspecting it.

He smacked his lips—it was better than nothing, at least it was sturdy and solved the problem of whether they had one at all. Li Qinwu ordered Iron-Orc to start production as soon as possible. The steelworks began producing day and night. The blast furnace never stopped pouring molten iron, and five adult Ogres acted like human power-hammers, duang-duang-duang smashing the gun barrels.

On the first day, due to lack of experience and insufficient worker coordination, only 4 muskets were produced, and 2 were judged by Li Qinwu as defective. On the second day, 8 muskets were completed, with 3 judged as defective. Because their skills had improved, Li Qinwu gave the workers material rewards—a round of Magic-Beast meat and Wood-Rat combos. This greatly boosted worker motivation. On the third day, musket production rose directly to 15, with only 1 defect.

For a long period after that, the workers became more mature, and the speed of musket manufacturing became faster and faster, finally stabilizing at around 20 per day. This output was already high, but Li Qinwu felt it wasn't enough. To equip a 1, 000-man force, it would take two months. He couldn't wait that long; heaven knows when the Hero Party would arrive. He thought of the system-certified Gob-Fort. If a blade is forged in the blacksmith shop there, it appears in the Mount & Blade warehouse.

Transferring gun manufacturing there would yield double productivity! Li Qinwu moved the blacksmith factory to Gob-Fort overnight, leaving only 50 Goblin blacksmiths at the tribe to melt iron. Five days later, the workers and a large amount of raw materials arrived at Gob-Fort and expanded production at lightning speed. When Iron-Orc informed Li Qinwu that the first musket was finished, he excitedly opened the Mount & Blade town management page. Sure enough, he saw a musket in the warehouse page.

Name: Sturdy Matchlock Smoothbore Weight: 4. 5 kg Weapon Type: Crossbow Damage: 300 Piercing Missile Speed: 230 m/s Effective Range: 150–250 meters Evaluation: A very sturdily built matchlock smoothbore. The 1. 1-meter long barrel provides considerable accuracy and lethality. Generally used for shooting within 100 meters, it has miraculous effects at point-blank range. The bayonet is short; melee stabbing capability is debatable. Li Qinwu was overjoyed.

With the double productivity buff, he could fill the thousand-man musket quota in one month. He thought about building a gunpowder factory in Gob-Fort to give gunpowder production the double buff as well, but considering that factory construction required massive manpower and the Hero's threat was imminent, he dropped the idea. A few days later, as muskets and gunpowder increased, live-fire training for the troops was put on the agenda. In a barren farmland, scarecrows were staked.

Opposite the scarecrows stood a row of Goblin musketeers, holding their muskets and aiming. Li Qinwu swung his sword forward.

"Present! FIRE!!" Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. The row of Hobgoblin musketeers fired in unison. White mist erupted from the muzzles, making it impossible to see if the target scarecrows were hit. Li Qinwu ordered again: "Fix Bayonets!" The Goblins pulled out short bayonets from their waists and fitted them onto the guns.

"Charge! KILL!!" With Li Qinwu's roar, the Goblins shouted and charged forward, thrusting their bayonets into the scarecrows! New weapons required new training. To exert the power of the musket, higher requirements for discipline and obedience were needed! Especially the volley fire; the training process was fraught with difficulties. Because the Goblins were unfamiliar with muskets, someone would always inexplicably fire early, causing other Goblins in the queue to fire as well.

If this were on a battlefield, firing early would cause the unit to lose the best timing for a strike, likely leading to defeat! To teach the Goblins discipline, Li Qinwu broke 10 military canes—to be precise, each of the 10 company commanders broke 10 canes. Only then did the volley fire start to take some shape. After three more rounds of volleys, Li Qinwu looked at the darkening sky and ordered: "Everyone! Back to barracks! Clean your guns! Company commanders, check them!

Those with dirty guns will have their dinner cancelled! Dismissed!!" The Goblins were led back to the barracks in a unified manner by their commanders. Gobu-Bow walked up to Li Qinwu alone.

"Boss, I found a problem. A company has 100 men. Stretched into a line formation, the furthest person is over 200 meters away. The soldiers at the far end can't hear the commanders' orders at all. When orders to advance, retreat, or fix bayonets are given, the furthest soldiers are a beat slower. Especially after a few rounds of fire, the soldiers' ears ring, making it even harder to understand orders!" Li Qinwu nodded repeatedly, his eyes full of admiration for Gobu-Bow.

As expected of someone with 15 Intelligence; he was smarter than other Goblins and could find and raise problems.

"Very good, Gobu-Bow. You are doing very well. Keep up your observation and thinking! I have already considered the problem you raised. I had Iron-Orc make a batch of military whistles. I've developed a whistle command system. I'll give a whistle to all company commanders. The next focus of training will be on whistle commands!" Gobu-Bow was full of admiration; the Boss thought much further ahead than he did. The two began to chat about how to train musketeers to maximize their combat power.

As they talked, Gobu-Bow brought something up.

"Boss, has the training intensity been too high lately? I think the soldiers can't take it; they are very restless. I feel like something will happen if this continues." Li Qinwu froze for a moment, then shook his head.

"A powerful enemy is coming. We must race against time to get stronger. If the soldiers' training is hard, then increase their food. Once we get through this wave, the training intensity can be lowered a bit." Because he didn't know when the Hero Party would arrive, Li Qinwu always felt a sword hanging over his head. This pressure translated into hellish training for the musketeers. They had to train for 12 hours a day—they were either firing or preparing to fire.

If the guns got too hot, they practiced standing at attention, running, or doing push-ups. When the guns cooled, they continued firing. This training load would tire out Rambo. The Hero Party was too strong, killing Goblins like cutting vegetables; he was training them this hard now to improve their survival chances. Gobu-Bow had nothing left to say.

Thinking there was military law for restraint, he felt it was unlikely anything major would happen, so he didn't care much and went back to check the gun-cleaning results. However, it didn't take long for Li Qinwu to taste the bitter fruit of being too eager for success. One day at 6: 30 AM, before it was even light, Li Qinwu stood at the barrack gates, putting an iron whistle in his mouth and blowing it: Tweet-tweet-tweet!

As soon as the whistle blew, the musketeers in the barracks instinctively bounced out of bed, quickly put on their equipment, grabbed their gleaming muskets, and rushed out to line up in front of Li Qinwu. They counted off quickly, and once finished, the commanders would shout: "Company [Number] all present!" Assembly was also a matter of reward and punishment.

The company that assembled first got a larger share of Magic-Beast meat for breakfast, while the last to arrive had to run an extra lap during morning exercise. Today, the first company to finish lining up was Gobu-Spear's company. He shouted that assembly was complete. Li Qinwu nodded to him, and Gobu-Spear looked triumphant—he'd get to eat more for breakfast. Musketeers kept running out of the barracks, some fast and some slow, with commanders constantly reporting assembly complete.

At this moment, in the barracks of Company 8, the company commander—a Level 3 Goblin Warrior—was roaring for the soldiers to get out of bed quickly. He roughly tore the beast-hide quilts off the sleepy soldiers, dragging the dazed soldiers awake from their dreams.

"Get up, you lazy things! Do you want me to kick your asses with my croc-skin boots?" The Goblins scrambled up and hurriedly put on their clothes, but among them was a bald Goblin who remained lying on the bed, sleeping very soundly.

"By the wood-rat! Get up for me!" The Captain of Company 8 rushed up, ripped off the bald Goblin's quilt, and gave him several slaps. To his surprise, the bald Goblin, after being hit, suddenly exploded in rage, roaring like someone with severe morning grumpiness, and punched the commander in the chest!

"Get the wood-rat out of here! I'm f*cking exhausted! I just want to sleep, just want to sleep! AAAAAAAAH!!!!" This roar stunned the other Goblins in Company 8, and then their faces filled with pain. Goblins were chaotic species by nature and yearned for disordered freedom. Being restrained by military law was already agonizing, and now with such high training intensity and accumulated fatigue, the Goblins felt like they wanted to die. The Captain, having been punched, was in disbelief, then flew into a rage.

He rushed up and pinned the bald Goblin down, hammering him while cursing: "Do you want to die? Get up and train right now, or you'll be dealt with by military law!" Li Qinwu's military law, as it had developed so far, was relatively mild, divided into lower, middle, and upper tiers. The lower tier was breaking military canes; the middle tier was individual execution; and the upper tier was decimation (one killed for every three). Generally, once the threat of military law came out, no Goblin would dare be defiant.

But the bald Goblin was truly driven mad by the training torture. He actually shrieked: "I'd rather f*cking die now than be tired to death! AAAAAAAAH!!!" He rushed up like a madman and attacked the Captain. The Captain was a Level 3 Goblin Warrior, with stats much stronger than a Hobgoblin. In the blink of an eye, he was pinning the bald Goblin down and beating him, cursing: "Rebellion! Rebellion! Decimation! I'm going to apply to the Boss for decimation!!"

These words were like the last straw that broke the camel's back, causing the other Goblins' nerves to collapse. They looked at each other, confirming the despair in each other's eyes. Despair quickly turned to hatred and madness. As if by agreement, they suddenly howled and rushed up, kicking and punching the Captain. Before the Captain could react, he was submerged by dozens of hands and feet, beaten to the ground until he couldn't even speak. The bald Goblin crawled out of the crowd with difficulty.

He glanced at the crowd, his expression distorted and full of madness. He ran to his bedside, grabbed his own musket, and following the method he had practiced nearly a thousand times, loaded the gun with powder and a ball, and lit the match with a fire-starter. His speed was faster than any time he had practiced. He pushed through the frenzied crowd to reveal the Captain, pressed the muzzle against the Captain's chest, and without a word, fired.