Chapter 180: Chapter 143, Rubbish Town Adaptation_2
It seemed like a significant expense, but in reality, the costs weren’t as high as imagined.
It was just Alliance currency, and much of it was just promissory notes.
What’s the use of issuing Alliance currency? If adventurers spend it immediately, they’re spending the savings that Gu Hang pulled together from various places in Rubbish Town. If they hoard it without spending, it represents future redemption.
Truthfully, if one wanted to be nasty, it would be easy to talk about integration into the Alliance system and converting to work points in the future; for those who want to leave and cash out their Alliance currency, you don’t get to set the price of goods anymore.
Of course, Gu Hang wouldn’t do this unless absolutely necessary, as it would be quite damaging to his reputation.
Gu Hang still hoped that these people would be able to stay in the future.
Even if they didn’t remain soldiers, transforming into workers would still mean a population of a hundred thousand.
And among these people, Gu Hang valued the Beast Slaughter Group the most.
After they retreated for rest and reorganization, Gu Hang called for a meeting with the leader of the Beast Slaughter Group, Lucy Lee Ko Xi.
Faced with Gu Hang’s proposition of integration, Li Kexi ultimately chose to accept.
On the way back, he had a thorough discussion with his brothers. From the team leaders, to the mid-level commanders, even the lower-ranking soldiers, he asked for many opinions.
The words they used were different, but the sentiment was nearly the same: they were willing to be integrated.
What more was there to say?
Ever since the Beast Slaughter Group was formed, they had been fighting for half a year. Constant death, constant sacrifice, living conditions harsh beyond measure…
Hatred was what drove them, but another fact could not be ignored. They were originally a group of adventurers who, aside from this, didn’t know what else to do.
Revenge was a motivator, surviving on just that, perhaps an even greater one.
What was so bad about being integrated?
Life could be better, the future more secure, and it wouldn’t impede their fight against the Green Skin Orcs.
As for maintaining independence… It was indeed one of the initial tenets of the Beast Slaughter Group, only accepting sponsorship and not orders, but that was for the sake of focusing on fighting Green Skin Orcs, to avoid being sent on private jobs by the agents in Rubbish Town.
Now, Rubbish Town had been turned on its head, the situation completely different, continuing to hold on to that old principle was unnecessary.
Since that was what the brothers wanted, and Li Kexi himself had been more or less persuaded in his previous conversation with Perbov, accepting the personal overtures of the Governor was met with little resistance.
However, he did make one additional request in the end.
“I want to retain our name ‘Beast Slaughter Group,’ as a separate designation. I heard from Perbov that the Alliance Army allows for this,” he said.
“Hahaha!” Gu Hang laughed heartily, “Of course, I can agree to your request, but not right now.”
Then, seeing the puzzled look on Li Kexi’s face, Gu Hang contained his laughter and spoke seriously, “You want to preserve the name ‘Beast Slaughter Group’ as the designation for your troops, then you must show corresponding performance. Go kill those Green Skin Orcs. Once you’ve killed enough and truly upheld the ‘Beast Slayer’ trait, I will grant you that designation.”
Li Kexi took a deep breath, his expression resolute, “Then it’s a deal.”
…
The adventuring group known as the Beast Slaughter Group completed their reorganization in the following days.
Five thousand sets of G9 individual weapons were equipped, and they also received a new designation: the 3rd Independent Regiment.
Gu Hang had spent fifty points of grace on them.
After they completed their training and became T5-level troops, they also activated the combat experience accumulated within them, turning them into infantry with the ‘Beast Slayer’ Trait.
The transformed 3rd Independent Regiment then returned to the battlefield.
Although they were only equipped with many individual weapons, lacking regimental artillery and with not many mortars—largely just a significant number of rocket launchers—their G9 rifles were much better than their previous equipment. Moreover, the training conducted under the direct supervision of the Governor over the past few days had made them feel a huge change in themselves.
These changes were directly reflected on the battlefield.
With the support of concentrated artillery firepower from the rear, the Independent Regiment could hold a defensive line of more than ten kilometers on their own, with at most some help from ‘Militia Regiments’.
Those so-called Militia Regiments were the original, other adventure groups.
Over these past few days, it wasn’t just the 3rd Independent Regiment that was reorganized. All other units also underwent reorganization while rotating into the Alliance Army camp for rest.
Their willingness was also asked.
Those who wished to stay as soldiers were reformed into garrison divisions. Although Gu Hang didn’t have enough individual equipment to supply them all at once and did not intend to train all of them to T5 level right away—without enough equipment, the combat effectiveness wouldn’t be sufficient, so there was no point in wasting effort.
But reorganization was still necessary, otherwise, command would be too chaotic.
In the end, after seeing the treatment offered by the Alliance Army, the number of people willing to embrace change reached over seventy thousand.
Just by comparison, one could understand that even just starting as privates in the Alliance Army offered them better conditions than their previous scavenging at Rubbish Town.
Out of these seventy thousand, besides the Beast Slaughter Group, which was reorganized into an independent regiment of six thousand troops, the remaining sixty-three thousand were formed into six garrison divisions and assigned numbers four to nine.
There was no major change in the weapon equipment; just promises of better treatment and a revision of the command hierarchy.
Officers for the division and regiment levels were either transferred from the 2nd Division or from Perbov’s camp or were promoted from among the leaders of large adventure groups or highly respected adventurers.
Moreover, it was impossible to extend political commissars down to the company level due to the massive scale of the reorganization. Currently, they could only be placed within division and regiment levels, where they were to develop loyalty to the Empire and to the Governor from within, nurturing political instructors at the company and battalion levels.
Additionally, more than twenty thousand others did not wish to transition to soldiers but preferred to become ordinary civilians or to leave the Alliance structure. Gu Hang did not let them go but temporarily employed them for combat at the pay grade of privates.
They were formed into ten Militia Regiments without specific numbers but just sequential ordinals, with their internal structures and command levels based on those of the original adventure groups.
When garrison divisions rotated back to the front lines for combat, they would also be assigned some of the main tasks, while those Militia Regiments would be basically doing hard labor, like building fortifications.
There was no need to use people as cannon fodder; Gu Hang did not do such things.
It hadn’t come to that.
After reorganizing into six garrison divisions, if all the equipment is issued and the soldiers’ training is completed, Gu Hang would have nine division-sized units, which should be essentially sufficient for military power.
With an army of nearly one hundred thousand and critically with higher-quality equipment, future military expansion should not be too worrisome about the lack of troops.
After all, besides fighting, the army also needed to be stationed locally. Recently recaptured areas, whether to retain or relocate populations, needed military presence to suppress resistance for policy implementation.
Of course, that is a use for later. For now, the priority is the war against the Green Skin Orcs.
Gu Hang planned to hole up here for two months, fighting a defensive battle for that duration.
In two months’ time, the reorganization of the nine division-sized units, the training requiring grace points, and the production and distribution of all light and heavy equipment should all be completed.
Afterward, it would be time for a counter-offensive.