Ren Xiaosu had thought there wouldn’t be too many soldiers in the private troops, but he was wrong. After assembling, the soldiers even outnumbered a combat brigade of the organization. Li Qingzheng asked around and discovered that all of these private troops were actually gathered from the various Li Consortium strongholds.
The private troops of the various strongholds were currently under the command of an officer named Li Anjun. He was a family member of the Li Consortium and was also concurrently serving as the overseer of Stronghold 107. And the officer in charge of Stronghold 108’s private troops was called Liu Taiyu.
By this moment, the private troops of the other strongholds had fully assembled. Liu Taiyu was looking disconsolately at the sole platoon in front of him that was made up of Ren Xiaosu’s group. The rest of his soldiers were nowhere to be seen.
Liu Taiyu looked at Li Qingzheng. “Did anything happen on your way here?”
Li Qingzheng stood to attention and answered, “Sir, there were no incidents along the way. Our Eighth Platoon of the Iron Second Battalion has assembled on time. Awaiting your instructions, sir! I—”
“Alright, that’s enough.” Liu Taiyu waved his hand in frustration and dismissed him. “Do you think it’s not chaotic enough? Just stand right here and be quiet!”
With that, Liu Taiyu left. No one knew where he went.
Someone in the platoon whispered, “Did everyone else that was behind us get into a
spat?”
“Seems so. They’re probably stealing from each other’s platoons,” Li Qingzheng said in embarrassment.
Ren Xiaosu was amused. “That could turn out to be a good thing. As y’all should know, they can’t enforce the law on us if everyone is a criminal. If a fight breaks out between all of the outposts, there won’t be a need for any punishment.”
Actually, the soldiers from other outposts only dared to do so because they also understood this fact. Since the Li Consortium needed people to fight the war now, surely they wouldn’t waste their efforts to hold them all accountable, right?
At this moment, someone looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, “Platoon Commander, could you have expected this too? So you only wanted to create chaos that would lead to a situation where the law would not apply to all those in the wrong?”
Ren Xiaosu cleared his throat. “Not bad, right? Everything is well within my control.”
But at this moment, Chen Wudi said, “My master is not that smart.”
Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi speechlessly.
Actually, the management of the private troops had always been a mess. It became even more chaotic now that the private troops had recently expanded.
Ren Xiaosu and his group had never been to other outposts before. If they had, they would know that many of the outposts did not have the required full strength. The platoon commanders of the platoons would even deliberately lie about the number of soldiers under them as they wanted to freeload off of the consortium’s supplies. But in the end, they were all caught off guard when they were suddenly requested to assemble for war.
If the higher-ups knew they were freeloading off them, they wouldn’t be let off with just a simple punishment. Perhaps some people would even get executed as a warning to the others. So some people deliberately continued stirring up the pot even further amid the chaos.
While Liu Taiyu personally went to bring the rest of the private troops back, the other strongholds’ private troops set out. Only Stronghold 108’s platoons remained behind.
They were supposed to assemble and report at 7 AM, but it was almost evening now.
During this period, no one bothered with Ren Xiaosu and his group. Their entire platoon was allowed to roam freely like grazing sheep. Ren Xiaosu even had time to take everyone to town where he bought an egg-stuffed flatbread for each of them. This was a treat from Li Qingzheng.
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In the evening, Liu Taiyu returned with a large number of troops. These private soldiers all had bruised and swollen faces. But the most shocking thing was that several of the established platoons had completely disappeared.
Many of them had their clothes torn, and some even lost their shoes. Only Ren Xiaosu’s platoon was still looking somewhat dignified.
Ren Xiaosu’s group was the Eighth Platoon of the Iron Second. There should have been seven platoons ahead of them. However, the Sixth Platoon ceased to exist, with all of their soldiers stolen away by the other platoons. Even the platoon commander himself had been taken away.
At this time, Liu Taiyu no longer talked about meting out punishment. On normal days, he would also do all he could to embezzle everyone’s provisions and never really cared about his military responsibilities. This time, he was getting a taste of his own medicine.
Ren Xiaosu did a rough count. Currently, there were still 33 full-strength platoons of the private army remaining. In effect, the number of soldiers here was around 1000 or so.
Liu Taiyu stood before everyone and said, “You’ve all been taken care of by the organization during peacetime. As the saying goes, armies are trained for a 1,000 days only to be used for a single battle. Now is the time for you to serve the organization. We’ll advance to the front lines at Mt. Tantou, Mt. Fengyi, and Mt. Shuanglong where we’ll construct bases on the high ground to prevent an invasion by the Qing Consortium’s troops.”
Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. Getting the private troops to construct bases on the high ground? They really intended to send them to their deaths.
Although there were still huge advantages in selecting the right terrain to fight on, artillery shells that could impact with extremely high accuracy over a very long range were a problem. Even if they managed to occupy the high ground, their enemies could simply bombard the entire area with artillery shells if they had enough funding.
In a time like this, anyone guarding the high ground would surely die.
Generally, such situations required the construction of extremely strong defensive fortifications that would help play a strategic role on the high ground. But was there time for Ren Xiaosu and the others to build any defensive fortifications?
Everyone in the private troops burst into an uproar since no one was willing to give up their lives for nothing. But even as they protested, no one dared to run away.
Liu Taiyu was surrounded by a reinforced company made up of his trusted troops. There were 180 of them in total, and their weapons and equipment were much better than those that Ren Xiaosu and the others carried.
But these troops were not used to fighting in battle. On one hand, they were responsible for the security of Liu Taiyu. On the other hand, they were to supervise the platoons of the private troops and ensure that they carried out their orders properly.
Liu Taiyu said with a smile, “However, there’s a big reward for taking on a responsibility as great as this. Those who perform well at the end of the war can gain direct entry into the Li Consortium’s troops. Not only that, but you’ll also be handsomely rewarded as well. At the very least, you’ll be ensured the status of legal resident and get to live in the stronghold.”
Some of the soldiers became excited and eager on the spot. “We can get into the stronghold and be recognized as legal residents?”
“Are you serious?”
Liu Taiyu smiled and said, “As the commander of the Iron Second, would I make such jokes with you? The higher-ups of the organization have already issued an official notice. You can rest assured.”
A lot of people were moved by the thought of that as most refugees were not knowledgeable. Historically, this group of people were always cheated by others. Now that they were in a group together, it was even easier to fool them all.
But Ren Xiaosu knew exactly why Liu Taiyu dared to make such a grand promise. It was because he thought that none of these close to a 1,000 private soldiers would make it back alive!
Many others among the troops were well-aware of this too, but they did not dare speak out. They could only leave their comrades to discuss it excitedly.
Suddenly, Liu Taiyu clapped his hands and signaled for everyone to be quiet. “Get into the trucks. It’s time to set out!”
Liu Taiyu’s off-road vehicle and the reinforced company’s military transport trucks did not drive at the front but stayed in a supervisory role at the back of the convoy. They were watching to see if anyone would try to escape midway.
Ren Xiaosu was watching this through the rearview mirror of the truck and said to Li Qingzheng, “That Liu Taiyu is a coward. When the time comes, he’ll definitely be too scared to get onto the battlefield personally. Since that’s the case, we’ll have more leeway to do what we want.”
Li Qingzheng was taken aback. “What are you playing at? Xiaosu, don’t be rash.”