Chapter 1338 Corrupt Official El

The reason why El asked Vasili for 2,000 elite crossbowmen from the Central Guards was to train them into qualified musketeers who could skillfully use muskets and develop new tactics.

The training effect of the first training of these 2,000 musketeers was not to El's surprise - it was very bad.

They are simply not used to this way of marching forward in unison to the beat of a drum.

And that band was just a small band that Ailian Muya was relatively famous for.

It was Vasili who offered them a huge reward that they could not refuse, and they dared to join the army and assist El.

This was their first time cooperating with the army, so it was difficult for them to cooperate with the 2,000 musketeers.

In contrast, it was difficult for the Musketeers to cooperate with the orchestra.

No one cooperated well with anyone, and the musketeers were not used to advancing in time with the beat of the drums, which resulted in extremely poor training results for the first training.

But El was neither discouraged nor anxious.

After all, he had already guessed this outcome.

After telling the musketeers to keep working hard, he asked them to continue practicing marching.

The first day the Musketeers stationed in this remote military base ended with continuous practice of walking in unison.

This military base has been abandoned for a long time. Before it was abandoned, a full 30,000 troops were stationed here.

In other words, the activity space of this military base is quite wide for these 2,000 musketeers.

As night fell, El announced that today's training was officially over. After letting them disperse and rest, El and Gabriel could finally rest.

…

…

Returning to the room, El immediately began to unbutton his armor.

While explaining, he smiled bitterly and said to himself:

"I really can't get used to wearing this armor..."

El's previous identity was a quartermaster.

Quartermasters are civilian officials in the military who are responsible for managing the military's baggage. Therefore, they who engage in civilian work wear their own uniforms instead of armor.

So naturally El doesn't even have his own armor.

El's current identity is marshal and commander-in-chief of the Far Eastern Front.

As the commander-in-chief of the Far Eastern Front, it would be outrageous if he didn't even have his own armor.

Therefore, Vasili gave him a set of white and red armor - the armor that El is taking off now.

After removing the armor from his body one by one as fast as he could, El let out a sigh of relief and then lay down on the bed beside him.

"It's better not to wear armor..." El lay on his back on the bed and moved the joints of his body while sighing at the hardship and pain of wearing armor.

At this moment, El suddenly noticed Gabriel who had entered the room one after another and was looking at him with a complicated expression.

There was a serious look of hesitation.

He looked like he wanted to say something to El, but didn't know whether he should say it or not.

"...Gabriel."

El slowly sat up from the bed.

"As early as a few days ago, I noticed that you were weird."

"It feels like you have something to ask me."

"If you have any questions to ask me, just ask. Don't worry so much."

At this point, El paused.

Then he put a faint smile on his face and changed into a half-joking tone.

"Based on our friendship, if you are too polite to me, I will feel sad."

El's words seemed to give Gabriel courage.

Most of the hesitation in Gabriel's eyes disappeared.

"...El."

Gabriel said solemnly to El.

"Answer me honestly."

"Where did you get the money to develop muskets and manufacture such a large number of muskets?"

Several years ago... Gabriel remembered that it should be the year when the Britannia Empire launched the "Aurora Offensive" and launched a large-scale attack on their Holy Hiran Empire.

El suddenly obtained a large amount of research and development funds for the musketry department.

In the years since then, El has always been able to get large sums of money from time to time to invest in the research and development of muskets.

It is precisely because El can always get a lot of money from time to time that the Musket Department always has sufficient funds to hire better craftsmen and have more sufficient research materials.

Where did El's money come from? Gabriel had never looked into it before.

He knew El was a very smart man.

Therefore, he took it for granted that El should have made so much money by relying on his own intelligence, such as starting a small business.

Until—a few days ago, Gabriel finally discovered something was wrong...

On the day that El was promoted to marshal and packed his luggage, El took him and a dozen rented carriages to Poggi Town.

Gabriel was stunned before and after arriving at Poggi Town...or rather arriving at the warehouse door of the Poggi Town Musketry Department.

The warehouse door opened wide, and what caught Gabriel's eyes were "hills" made up of slender wooden boxes.

The items contained in these wooden boxes are all brand new flintlock guns.

According to Earl, there are nearly 2,500 of them.

Box after box of brand new flintlocks were shipped from the warehouse, loaded onto El's rented carriage, and shipped to the remote military base where they would be used to train musketeers.

It was only then that Gabriel realized something was wrong.

Gabriel only came to the musket department to help occasionally.

When he came to the musket department to help, the work he did was also some odd jobs such as moving things and cleaning.

How the musket development was going, how many new muskets were made - these things, Gabriel never asked.

It was not until El brought him to the musket department to transport the muskets that Gabriel knew that El's musket department had made more than 2,500 new muskets.

More than 2,500 flintlocks - Gabriel couldn't imagine how much money it cost to make such a huge number of muskets.

The purchase cost of steel alone is an astronomical figure.

Although Gabriel didn't pay much attention to the development of muskets, he still knew some common sense about muskets.

The flintlock is a new weapon made of steel.

And it has a large number of complex parts.

It takes a lot of steel to make a flintlock.

At the same time - the few craftsmen in the musket department alone would definitely not be able to make such a large number of muskets.

El must have secretly hired a large number of craftsmen to help him build flintlocks.

And the hiring fee for these craftsmen is a large sum of money.

Where did El get so much money?

Where did the money for the musket department to develop muskets, hire craftsmen, and manufacture muskets come from over the years?

Gabriel could no longer ignore this question with a clear conscience.