"The total number is about 50,000, including more than 30,000 clan rats and more than 10,000 slave rats."
The old engineer warlock quickly reported the exact number of Skulli's troops without too much care.
"Thank you, Warren."
After Esky nodded in greeting, he looked at the remaining engineering warlocks.
"Let me make it clear first, the Model clan will send out wolves, rats and rat trolls, and due to the possible threat of Nagash, we will not send out any engineering warlocks."
"Even my mana pool, which comes from divine grace and is much larger than that of an ordinary engineering warlock, cannot stop his ordinary spellcasting. Only Gray Prophet Quickwall can resolve his spell."
"This decision will cause a problem."
"If Model performs better than us, a large number of orders will flow to Model in the future, so we must be more eye-catching than Model. I have initially decided to send ratlin and artillery, and there must be a legion to protect them. .”
"My troops in the last battle were temporarily lent to me by Lord Ikrit. After my vassal clan, the Med clan, left, I still have about a thousand soldiers left."
"So, let me be clear, how many troops do you want to fight on the ground?"
Most of the younger generation of engineering warlocks did not speak. Warren looked around, and finally took his place and said.
"To protect the weapon operators, three thousand guards are enough."
"However, generally speaking, our compatriots always prefer to send troops to consume in order to avoid overpopulation."
"I think what you really want to ask is, how many of our own troops are we willing to put under your command?"
Eski was about to reply, but the old engineering warlock raised his paw to stop him and continued.
"More than 700 female rats in the breeding pit belong to Skull."
"In the next year, they will be enough to give birth to tens of thousands of rat babies. So as long as our safety is not threatened and the operation of the factory is guaranteed, I have no requirements for the number of escorts."
"It's just that, in a relationship where public and private needs to be distinguished, these clan rats will be recorded in the account at the price of each 3-dimensional coin. If they die in the future, you have to replenish us."
This request actually gave Eski a hard time, and he frowned and complained.
"I don't have enough cash flow."
As he spoke, he turned his attention to the clerk sitting at the table next to him, recording the meeting on the greasy table.
"Alsace?"
The clerk quickly opened the rat-skin satchel beside him, and quickly pulled out a piece of rat-skin paper that looked quite new from the front compartment. He handed the form on it to the engineering warlock and explained at the same time. .
"Yes, yes, according to the financial statements, you currently have 38,217 dimension coins left in cash."
"Huh? So many?"
In Esky's impression, his entire property should only be about 20,000 dimension coins stored in the magic. When did he have so much cash?
Casting doubtful eyes on the source of this question, Eski asked the clerk.
"I remember that I have already consumed a lot, right?"
Clerk Alsace rummaged through his rat-skin satchel again, muttering something in his mouth, and finally pulled out an old form from a large pile of rat-skin paper at the back and handed it to Ace. In front of Ji's eyes. ….Continue reporting.
"Among them, 15,679 dimensional coins are deposits for armor orders."
"Actually, that's not all. We also received a large number of copper coins and silver coins. Although the quality is different, the total number is 3,182,391 copper coins and 102,140 silver coins."
"The subsequent balance payment can probably increase these figures ten times."
"Since the profit you set is only 20%, only more than twice this number will be our profit."
Seeing the engineering warlock's puzzled look, the clerk casually pulled out a pile of rat-skin paper that he had already turned over.
, handed it over.
"Most of these orders were signed during the ten days or so that you were away, because you said that as long as they didn't care about the construction period, they would sign."
"Most of the orders come not from the underground fortress, but from many surrounding clans, and even the clans of several slave traders from Stinky Peak."
"The total order quantity is more than 116,000 sets."
"How many?!"
Eski's voice rose an octave, almost wanting to eat the scribe.
"Don't worry, my master, their envoys have said that they don't care about the construction period, as long as it is delivered within the next ten years."
The clerk waved his hand.
But this did not make Esky suppress his anger. Bai Mao's face was twisted, his teeth were broken, and a little blood flowed out. These scars were quickly repaired by the wind of life.
"Before signing an order next time, you'd better write me a letter."
Esky lowered his voice.
When the clerk saw his master's appearance, he immediately exposed his neck to show his submission, while expelling the smell of fear and whispering.
"However, the commute from Side 1 to the factory alone will take more than three days. You haven't left a strong enough messenger. I sent out several messengers, but there was no news."
"Esky, so, the issue of compensation..."
"Warlock Warren is right when he says that public and private matters cannot be separated, so I will not use my cash as compensation."
The green electric light cleaned the fallen broken teeth, and Eski laughed and said.
"But, as it happens, during this time, I plan to build the tax system on the front line."
"It is calculated as a percentage of real estate and transaction volume every year."
"Tax all Skryre members including Clanrats and Engineer Warlocks."
"The Chief Engineer Warlock has promoted my position, and I think I am still qualified to do so."
Regarding Eski's last words, almost all the young engineering warlocks could not sit still.
"Chief Engineer Warlock?! When."
They looked directly at the engineering warlock who was already much taller than them, but still younger than them, trying to find a little doubt in those red eyes. .
"The clan rat who brought the order should still be on the way."
"Then this kind of order."
Warren's eyes were twisted and pulsing with wrinkles.
"I will leave it until after I am officially promoted, but I can guarantee now that I will give you enough compensation after the war."
Eski shrugged, matter-of-factly.
After patting the greasy dining table and handing the batch of old forms to the clerk to put away, Esky continued. ...."If there are no objections, the matter will be settled."
"Then there's the question of how many troops we need to leave behind."
"I have about six thousand workers. In order to guard them, my one thousand troops cannot be moved. I have to leave more than a thousand clan rats to replace the workers who can no longer be used."
When all the engineering warlocks wanted to say something more, the clerk asked the slave rat to bring new recording paper and sent the document back to the prison originally used to imprison humans.
After those things were corrupted by Slaanesh and killed, the original prisons were used to stack new files that could no longer fit.
Hearing the sound of the rat-skin paper being turned over again, even though the engineering warlock was quite reluctant, but on the principle of not wasting time, he started the next topic.
After several flurry of speeches and the clerk's furious writing, a summarized form was handed into Eski's hands.
"Then to sum up, you need to keep more than 6,000 clan rats as guards and substitutes, about 9,000 more for transportation, and more than 5,000 slave rats for other work."
Esky looked at the form and said to the engineering warlocks.
between
During the break, he paid a little attention to the clerk on the table next to him. This inexplicable clerk named Alsace seemed to be a pretty good secretary.
It's a pity that he is too weak, otherwise he can be taken with him wherever he goes. But why didn't he find him so useful last time?
However, the engineering warlock... seems to be missing one person here.
"Wait, where is Vitrik? I remember that he was in charge of the construction of the railway."
Only then did Eski remember that the last time he came to the Skryre clan, he left Vitrik with the railway construction project between the underground fortress and Side 1 and stopped taking care of it.
Hearing this, Warren was stunned for a moment, and quickly took out a shaking bell from his chest pocket. With his paws with green light, he moved it and touched the inside of the bell. A sharp ringing sound started. .
"Yes, wait a minute, Vitrik Engineer Warlock will be back soon to discuss it in detail."
Esky's eyes remained on the strange magic device. Warren's possession of this device seemed to have made his position clear.
Shaking his head, Eski patted the table again and put a circle of grease on his paws.
"Then let's put this issue aside for now."
"I'm not sure how effective Ratlin is, so now I have to confirm, how many artillery pieces do you have?
"I provided you with the technical documents of the cannon casting workshop three weeks ago. How much did you cast? How much gunpowder did you make?"
The cannon casting workshop does not involve overly complex technology, it is just a special masonry structure that is not difficult to manufacture for engineering wizards with magic.
Eski believes that three weeks is enough time to have some finished product.
"Three-pound cannon, four, seventy pounds of gunpowder."
"One three-pounder cannon, twenty pounds of gunpowder."
As the data was reported one by one, Esky became more and more unhappy.
"Are they all of such a small caliber?"... If it were a three-pounder, it wouldn't even need the structure of the gun-casting workshop he provided.
"The cost is relatively low. We are going to test the water and see if anyone will buy it."
Warren explained that the fact that he had not even produced a single piece of artillery offered little credence to his claim.
"And you?"
Esky looked at the last engineering warlock who did not report the data. The rat who seemed to have some strong muscles was timidly trying to hide his body behind his back.
After waiting for a while, the engineering warlock, who avoided Eski's eyes, slowly spoke.
"Twelve three-pounders, twelve six-pounders, twenty-four 12-pounders, more than thirty tons."
"But most of them are already on the orders of other clans, so I can't take them out."
The sturdy engineer warlock immediately added.
The engineering warlock next to him immediately screamed, and the rat's chirping echoed in the restaurant.
"What! You told me the day before yesterday that you were at a loss and shouldn't have built a cannon casting workshop!"
"Wait a minute, where did you get so much gunpowder? More than thirty tons, is it gunpowder, right?"
Esky's dimensional force field blocked the vocal channel of the engineering warlock who had quarreled, and continued to ask, while an ominous premonition arose in his heart.
You know, he has always believed that as long as he controlled the output of saltpeter, he could control the expansion of the Skry clan's combat power.
"You all know that dirty alleyways are full of feces and urine stains. After scraping off the layer of soil on the mountain walls on both sides of the place, you can get saltpeter with a little treatment."
"But it's not just that kind of place. These waste things like to dump feces in the river. When I went to clean the water tanker before, I found that both sides were covered with this kind of stuff."
"Plus I have more water bath crystallizers."
The more he spoke, the more erratic the muscular rat's eyes became, and Eski's soul tongue also tasted the lie.
I was hit by a dimensional force field just now
The engineer warlock who barely controlled it immediately jumped up and grabbed the fur on his chest.
"Do you think I'm a fool?! Of course I've been to that kind of ghost place! Even if it's all scraped off, there's no way it would yield thirty tons of gunpowder!"
Eski's dimensional lightning was also aimed at his throat at this time, and the smell of fear spread throughout the restaurant.
Under the threat of death, he told the truth.
"Of course there are others. When I was in the big city, I ran a tannery. Not only can you use manure to make saltpetre, we already need a lot of it to process leather."
"As long as the magic is correct, we can get enough nitrate from the air through alchemy."
Eschi suddenly felt his eyes go dark.
Ratmen can use nitrogen to make nitrate! This means that the balance between the rat people and other species has been broken. To maintain the dynamic balance, the enemies of the rat people must be strengthened.
For example, after defeating Big Bone Man, lead the greenskins in the direction of Skaven City, or something like that.
However, that will be after returning. Now it is more realistic to fight off the damn big guy first.
"What do you want from me, Eski!"...A voice full of anger came from a distance.
"Wittrick?"
Before Eski could even react, he was lifted up by the powerful dimensional force field. The two dimensional force fields repeled each other and erupted into a dense lightning stream.
"Esky! I was looking for you."
Below, Vitrik's eyes could almost burst out with fire as he shouted angrily at Eski.
"What?"
"Project money!"
Vitrick roared angrily, and the bloodshot eyes that appeared through the red light, as well as the messy fur, already showed how haggard he was.
"We just repaired less than six kilometers, and the 4,000 dimensional coins you gave us last time were all spent!"
"We'll talk about the project funds later."
Esky burst out with a burst of dimensional lightning, got rid of Vitrik's control, walked up to him and shouted loudly.
Any engineering magician should know that compared with trivial matters such as arrears of project payment, the war is more important.
"What we are discussing now is how many troops need to be left underground for this ground battle."
"Don't you have three thousand Mede clan? Transfer them to guard the workers of those damn small clans, and give me another two thousand troops."
As if by magic, Vitrik took out his staff from his bag and pointed it at Eski.
"Because there was no wages, a large number of people deserted their jobs! I'm going to capture those damn things and turn them into slave rats! Hurry!"
"Then I'll leave you four thousand. So, we need to leave a total of twelve thousand infantry, and the rest can be sent to the ground."
As he spoke, Eski's will was used as a sharp blade to scrape at the souls of other engineering warlocks.
"Go and select the troops you need. Let the remaining two Horned Rats gather at the gate of Skull's station later. You can personally inform the warlords who I don't know whether they are loyal to you or not."
.
How can Tao survive when things perish?
