Unlike in the past, when there was a bumper grain harvest, the grain was sold at a low price. After a year of hard work, the grain merchants took advantage in the end.
Because of this, Aslan's prestige has been greatly improved again, especially the hidden secret agents of the ANBU who have jumped out to publicize everything Aslan has done, just to make the people live a good life.
For a time, the people of Merox Province were filled with gratitude to Aslan.
"The combined army still maintains a size of 500,000. The Tax Police Knights were merged into the Knights of the Rose. With additional expansion, the size of the Knights of the Rose has reached 20,000. The Tax Police Corps has 50,000 people and the Merlot Knights have 20,000 people.
Ten thousand people, the Merlot Legion has 80,000 people, including 5,000 heavily armored guards, for a total military strength of 670,000."
"There are 1,053 people in the Aviation Magic Brigade and 3,786 people in the Alpha Operation Team." Natal said calmly, feeling prouder than ever before.
The Air Mage Brigade and Alpha Operation Team are independent of the United Army. Without the transfer orders from Duke Medea and Aslan, even Natal, the military commander-in-chief, has no right to transfer them.
Alpha Action Team is the original Billy City Magic Legion, consisting of at least mid-level magicians. Their main equipment is tactical vests and rifle staffs. They don't even have tactical helmets, knee pads and elbow pads, let alone flying combat boots.
After all, they are all magic equipment and cannot be mass-produced industrially for the time being. Naturally, they will be given priority to the Aviation Magic Brigade.
The biggest difference between the Alpha Action Team and the Aviation Mage Brigade is that there are no other alien races, and they are basically all composed of humans. It is not that Aslan is unwilling to allow other alien races to join, and the conditions do not allow it.
Nowadays, many industries need magicians. The middle and low-level magicians of alien races are the key productivity in the production of these magic equipments. Engraving magic circuits is not something that magic apprentices can do.
In this aspect, the elves have unique conditions.
Although the Alpha Operation Team cannot maneuver as quickly as the Aviation Magic Brigade, it is better at defensive warfare and positional warfare in an environment with abundant supplies.
"Billy's Magic Legion has also expanded to ten thousand people, but its strength has dropped slightly. After all, the magicians in the Magic Legion are mainly junior magicians."
When Natal talked about the Magic Legion, she couldn't help but show a look of regret on her face.
Once upon a time, the Magic Legion was the pride of Billy City.
Nowadays, there are more and more magicians in Merlocks Province, but the importance of the magic army is getting weaker and weaker.
The role of the magic legion is to cooperate with the magister to speed up the casting speed of top magic and even forbidden spells, and at the same time, it also moves the magic source to reduce the magic power consumption of the magister.
The quality is not enough, so we have to make do with quantity.
Nowadays, the magic force is divided into three echelons. The first echelon of the aviation magic brigade has a minimum standard of senior magicians. As long as someone in the Alpha Operations team breaks through and is unwilling to stay in the Alpha Operations team as an officer, they can be promoted to aviation on their own.
The same goes for the Magic Brigade and the Magic Legion.
There are nearly 700,000 troops, and all of them are retired professional soldiers. The annual salary expenditure alone exceeds 400,000 gold coins, which is almost enough to cover a year's head tax.
If Aslan hadn't recently added a vehicle and ship tax and road maintenance fee, it would have been impossible to maintain the infrastructure of the huge Merox province based on the commercial tax alone.
As for the commercial tax and vehicle and vessel tax, they will not be collected until the next quarter, so Watini did not say anything about it.
"The reserve troops have not stopped training because of this. All people over the age of 18 must participate in ten hours of military training every week. Today, the number of reserve militiamen who have completed recruit training reaches 490,000." Natal said this.
At that time, he also had a look of disbelief.
The so-called recruit training is the regular military training of the United Army. However, the reserves do not last for three months like the recruit training of the United Army. Instead, they train intermittently for 300 hours, which also ensures a certain combat effectiveness.
The key point is that the reserve militiamen only need to ensure that they have enough food and meat during training, and they do not even need to pay military expenses.
It's totally a waste of money.
"The reserve militia is related to the future, and there is no room for error!" Duke Medea rarely added. She knew Aslan's ambitions well. These militiamen can quickly transform into professional soldiers at critical moments.
"By the way, I almost forgot that the Valkyrie Troops still maintain a strength of ten thousand people and are stationed in Changfeng City." Natal finally added.
The others nodded. They had always had a non-questioning attitude towards the Valkyrie troops.
Although the Valkyrie troops have not fought many battles, their combat effectiveness is still quite good. They have not expanded their troops in the past six months, but have strengthened their training and practice, and their strength has not declined but increased.
When others wanted to continue to propose motions, a huge explosion suddenly sounded, and Aslan stood up suddenly.
After all, the explosion came from Merlo City.
Aslan had just rushed to the balcony and saw the fire splashing from the explosion.
That's the industrial area behind Fort Novo Merlo.
"Could there be a spy sneaking in?" Aslan muttered subconsciously, jumped up and flew in the direction of New Merlot Castle. Accompanying him was the aviation wizard brigade stationed on Copeland Mountain.
The explosion happened in a glass factory, and the furnace responsible for firing glass exploded. However, the explosion was a bit powerful, killing three workers in charge of the furnace and injuring several ordinary workers outside.
Aslan looked at the glass factory that was already in flames, his face was ashen.
"The first squadron rescues people, and the others are responsible for putting out the fire." Aslan shouted loudly.
"yes!"
Jakeli of the 1st Squadron quickly led his men to swoop down, put up a huge magic cover on his body, and rushed directly to the fire scene. The magic soldiers of other aviation magic brigades used water magic one after another, and the glass factory was destroyed in a few minutes.
The fire was brought under control and many employees were rescued.
Aslan did not pay attention to them, but walked to the furnace on his own, quietly observing the furnace, hoping to find the cause of the explosion.
"The furnace exploded from the inside, and the explosion was so powerful that it directly opened the furnace." Aslan took a look at the situation of the furnace and made a quick judgment.
The furnace is engraved with magic circuits and blessed with magic runes, which not only speeds up the operation of the furnace, but also greatly enhances the strength of the furnace. Even if it is hit with a pyrotechnic bomb, it will not explode for a while.
"What happened?" Olga was the first to arrive and asked curiously.
Neither Vatini nor Natal came, and their respective assistants Olga and Kattar were sent out.