Protect Our Patriarch

Book 2: Chapter 89: Troll! Shotgun

Indeed, Wang Shouzhe didn't understand the livestock industry.

However, he was clear about the fundamentals of the livestock industry, which was to convert plants into meat, milk, wool, leather, draft horses, war horses, and so on! Therefore, he just needed to grasp the root, increase the quality of food while reducing its cost.

The rest would naturally be managed by the clan members and old herdsmen.

For Wang Shouzhe, he had begun to suspect ten years ago that the disaster of that year had the handiwork of the Heavenly Human Clan.

Therefore, while he started his investigation, he had already begun to specifically study the industry characteristics and weaknesses of the Heavenly Human Huangfu's Clan and the Heavenly Human Lei's Clan.

To deal with the Huangfu's Clan, the best method was to start from the bottom of the livestock industry, which was the most crucial forage in the livestock industry - the alfalfa purple flower grass. An increase of just ten percent in its yield would have a significant impact on the livestock industry.

Moreover, Wang Shouzhe had been specifically cultivating the alfalfa purple flower grass in his spare time over the years, gradually increasing its unit yield by seventy percent, and it was more palatable.

If it was to deal with the Lei's Clan, naturally there would be a set of methods to deal with the Lei's Clan. However, now that the truth has been revealed, the incident of that year had nothing to do with the Lei's Clan, so naturally, those methods against the Lei's Clan could only be retained.

"Zongwei, don't celebrate too early." Wang Luotong said seriously, "A centipede dies but never falls. Not to mention that the current situation of the Huangfu's Clan is just that Ancestor Huaye is restrained by his injuries. Their family foundation accumulated over the past five hundred years is still there, this battle is bound to be a protracted one."

"The current head of the Huangfu's Clan, Huangfu Jinhuan, is not very capable, but he has many tricks up his sleeve." Wang Luotong said with a look of disdain and seriousness, "Recently, he has been making small moves in several of our major ranches."

"Fourth Aunt is right." Wang Zongwei also sighed when he mentioned this matter, "After the spring, our new alfalfa grass has been growing vigorously, which has attracted many wolves. They are all a bunch of ruffians and rogues, acting separately, sprinkling a kind of poison called 'grass killer' in our fields. This poison is extremely vicious, once sprinkled, all the grass withers and nothing grows for many years."

Wang Shouzhe was already aware of this.

The geographical location of Qianma Town is very good, it is the transportation hub between Changning Guard and Anyuan Guard. To the north is Anyuan Pass, to the south is Qianma Fort. Over a mountain range to the east is the territory of Donghai Guard.

Only the west side borders the Huangfu's large ranch of the Huangfu's Clan, with no barriers between them. Moreover, the border line is twenty to thirty miles long, it is impossible to prevent infiltration from there.

In this world, rogue cultivators are the least valuable, willing to take risks for a little profit. As long as the Huangfu's Clan is willing to pay, there are countless desperadoes they can hire.

Those people all act secretly, each time they sprinkle the 'grass killer', they run away. By the time Wang Luotong and other experts rush to the scene, they have long disappeared.

Guangtian Hong Ranch alone has a full thirty thousand acres of grassland, how can it be defended?

Losing dozens of acres of pasture every now and then is undoubtedly a very disgusting thing. If this continues for a long time, it will not only cause huge losses to the Wang's Clan, but also make the ranchers panic and fall into a slump.

The Wang's Clan also dispatched clan soldiers to patrol the edge of the ranch. Each patrol team has ten people, all fully armed and equipped with crossbows.

But most of the rogue cultivators are very slippery, and those who dare to take risks are all old hands with good agility. The patrol teams are all low in strength and can't keep up with their dazzling agility, and the crossbow arrows often miss.

To deal with them, only the capable family generals and clan members, or hiring a large number of rogue cultivators. Wang Shouzhe has always had a bad impression of rogue cultivators, which can easily lead to a situation where it's easy to invite gods but hard to send them away.

And the manpower of the family generals and clan members is already insufficient, if they are all transferred to defend Qianma Town, other places will be short of manpower.

"Fourth Uncle~" Wang Zongwei cautiously suggested, "I have also thought about this problem, there are currently only two solutions, one is to borrow family generals and clan members from other clans, but this faces a long-term confrontation process, maybe ten or twenty years, it is not a long-term solution."

"The second, can we appropriately absorb some rogue cultivators? I know that Fourth Uncle, you have been bitten by a snake once and lack trust in rogue cultivators. However, as long as we have a stake in their interests, it will be fine."

"Fourth Brother, Zongwei is right." Wang Ruotong also advised, "Admittedly, most rogue cultivators are old hands who go with the flow. But given enough price and opportunity, they are still willing to take risks and fight. In addition, we can also recruit a large number of rogue cultivators to work for us, to observe and assess them over a long period of time, if there are really those with good character, they can gradually be incorporated into the family generals, or the guest system."

Wang Shouzhe sipped his tea and began to ponder. Ruotong and Zongwei's suggestions were all based on reality. The current situation faced by the Wang's Clan was that the territory and wealth were expanding rapidly, but the clan members and family generals couldn't keep up.

Due to the past experiences of the Liu's Clan and the Zhao's Clan, Wang Shouzhe didn't trust rogue cultivators. But hiring a large number of rogue cultivators and selecting some quality ones to serve as guests was still possible.

"Ruotong, then you can try to operate this." Wang Shouzhe said after thinking for a moment, "For rogue cultivators, even if it's a profit cooperation, we can't bring in any riffraff. The current crisis, our Wang's Clan has a way to solve it. You see~ this is a new weapon developed by our Science and Innovation Research Room some time ago - the shotgun!"

As Wang Shouzhe spoke, he swiped on his storage ring, and a long, strange-looking object appeared in his hand. Its structure was somewhat like a bird gun, but the muzzle was flared.

"Fourth Uncle~ what kind of weapon is this?" Wang Zongwei's spirit was lifted, he knew that Fourth Uncle's moves were always extraordinary.

"Just test it in the yard." Wang Shouzhe took Zongwei and Ruotong to the yard, ordered the family generals to set up some wooden stakes.

Then he raised the shotgun, without even aiming, he casually fired in that direction.

"Boom!"Like the sound of thunder and lightning, countless tiny steel balls sprayed out in a diffusing trumpet shape, enveloping the wooden stakes several feet away. Several stakes were blasted and sent flying, their surfaces pitted and uneven.

"This..." Wang Luotong's eyes tightened, shocked by the scene. Her cultivation had now reached the eighth level of Qi Refining, making her a minor expert.

However, she found that if she were closer, even if she pushed her Willow Catkin Body Technique to the extreme, it would be difficult to escape the attack range of the shotgun in an instant.

"I brought a hundred of these shotguns," Wang Shouzhe said, "and also ten trained clan soldiers. They will train and defend with the patrol team, which will greatly deter those rogue cultivators."

"Fourth Uncle, isn't this weapon too terrifying?" Wang Zongwei wiped his cold sweat, "If a patrol team of clan soldiers fires together, even a high-level Qi Refining cultivator would undoubtedly die."

"It's not too terrifying," Wang Shouzhe shook his head, "This shotgun has good close-range power, and ordinary clan soldiers can quickly master it. It can pose a great threat to ordinary Qi Refining cultivators. But there are also many drawbacks, such as having to reload black powder and steel balls after each shot."

As a transmigrator, how could Wang Shouzhe not think about firearms? However, the difficulty of manufacturing firearms is not small, starting with gunpowder. Fortunately, this world is prosperous with alchemists, and gunpowder has long been invented.

But gunpowder is usually used in alchemy furnaces and mining. It is said that some weapon refiners have tried to make it into firearms, but they soon gave up, mainly because the power was too small.

Wang Shouzhe also wanted to create weapons like long-range sniper rifles, but any high-tech equipment requires too much prerequisite technology. Good firearms must use more precise lathes, and Wang's Clan's Science and Innovation Research Lab has only just begun to develop basic water-powered lathes.

Therefore, he could only make a simple shotgun for the clan soldiers to use, to improve the combat power of the lower ranks.

As for technologies like steam engines, Wang Shouzhe had long wanted to develop them. The principle seems very simple, and the craftsmen in the research lab also understand it, but every step in the actual development process is a hurdle.

It is estimated that it will take decades to develop a basic steam engine.

In terms of scientific research, many things take a lot of time to tinker with and accumulate.

Even a small steel ball is very difficult to mass-produce.

The shotgun can only use iron balls, which are easy to rust and come in all shapes and sizes. This is because the production process is very crude, involving melting iron into a slurry and spraying it out, then quickly cooling it with air and water to make iron balls. The overall quality can only be good by luck.

Only those of the right size are selected, and then the craftsmen finely polish them for use in ball bearings.

The majority of the steel balls can only be used as shotgun bullets.

Moreover, in the absence of a large amount of basic industry, even the hundred crude shotguns, which required the development of flintlock technology, consumed a lot of time and money from the craftsmen.

On average, each one cost more than ten Top Gold.

This price could buy a high-quality warhorse, or two pretty young maids.

The only two advantages are that it can make up for the lack of manpower in the lower ranks of the Wang's Clan, and lay a solid foundation of basic technical knowledge for future firearms.

...

Soon, the clan soldiers brought by Wang Shouzhe integrated into the ranch patrol team. The other members of the patrol team, after simple training, quickly mastered the shotgun.

This thing is simpler than a crossbow, just pull the trigger in a general direction, but it's very troublesome to reload after a shot.

Time hurriedly passed by more than ten days.

As the spring became more intense, two spring rains fell.

The thirty thousand acres of pasture in Tianhong Ranch were already lush and promising, the "endless" grassland, contrasting with the blue sky, was pleasing to the eye and refreshing to the heart.

Wang Feng!

As a seventeen-year-old female housekeeper, her ancestors for several generations were loyal housekeepers of the Wang's Clan. Coupled with her low-grade C-level talent from a young age, she has been carefully cultivated by the Wang's Clan since childhood.

Her cultivation treatment standard is almost based on the direct disciples of the Wang's Clan, and she has been allowed to practice the Wang's Clan's Xuan Yuan Jue and other family techniques.

And she has been hardworking since she was a child, not only cultivating quickly, but also performing well in the clan school.

At this moment, she was wearing a soft but defensively strong beast leather armor, riding a big red horse, with a hunting cloak on her back, looking quite heroic.

Behind her followed eight carefully selected clan soldiers, all fully armed, with the recently issued shotguns slung on their backs.

This day, as usual, was sunny.

The ranch patrol team led by Wang Feng was carrying out a security patrol mission, mainly driving away rogue cultivators from the direction of the Huangfu Ranch.

Normally, those rogue cultivators would come to make trouble under the cover of night, and leave under the cover of night. In broad daylight, unless they had special reliance, they would not dare to come and seek death.

The Murong brothers.

They were a famous pair of brothers among the rogue cultivators.

They were less than forty years old, but they had reached the seventh level of Qi Refining, which was considered outstanding among the rogue cultivators. Most importantly, this pair of brothers had a special opportunity and cultivated a special body technique called Xun Wind Flash.

Once they used this body technique, their speed was extremely fast like a gust of wind, not to mention rogue cultivators of the same level, even those one or two levels higher could not catch up with them. Just a few months ago, they had come to Tianhong Ranch to make trouble.

They even played with Wang Luotong, who had a higher cultivation level.

Although Wang Luotong's cultivation had reached the eighth level of Qi Refining, and she had practiced the family's Willow Catkin Body Technique, this technique was more about being elusive and hard to grasp, which was quite effective in face-to-face combat.

However, when used in a chase, its speed was far inferior to Xun Wind Flash.

One day, they brazenly crossed the border, as intelligence indicated that Wang Shouzhe had already left. The Ancestor Wang Xiaohan, who was guarding the front horse town, would also be restrained by the loose cultivator invited by the Huangfu's Clan at a cost.

Their goal was not as simple as destroying a few dozen acres of farmland, but to injure a group of herdsmen who had already started cutting the first crop of grass, creating panic in the Tianhong Ranch, and making the herdsmen too scared to work.

At the same time, there were six or seven groups of loose cultivators acting. However, the Murong brothers were considered the main force to complete the task.

At the edge of the tens of thousands of acres of pasture, the Murong brothers unexpectedly encountered Wang Feng's patrol team.

"Hehehe, it's that pretty little lady." Facing the patrol team, the Murong brothers didn't retreat but advanced, preparing to play around with their impressive body techniques.

Their speed was extremely fast, it was difficult for ordinary crossbow arrows to hit them, and they always moved freely.

The two of them displayed their body techniques, like a gust of wind blowing through the field, their speed was faster than a galloping horse, accompanied by a sinister laugh: "Miss Wang Feng, we meet again. Come, come, come, play with your brother Murong~"

"Murong brothers!"

Wang Feng's expression condensed, and she shouted angrily, "You really have the guts, offending my Wang's Clan like this, aren't you afraid of our Wang's Clan's revenge?"

"Hehe, revenge?" The Murong brothers quickly approached, brazenly stopping a few meters in front of the patrol team, and kept laughing strangely, "No matter how strong your Wang's Clan is, it's just a small overlord in Changning Guard. This time, we brothers can get two thousand Top Gold for the task. After that, the world is so big, where can't we go?"

This is one of the reasons why Wang Shouzhe has always disliked loose cultivators. They have no roots and no foundation, and all they think about is the idea of going to other places if things get too tough, how can they be trusted?

……