The First Order

Li Qingzheng was in a joyous mood. Not only did they upgrade their gear, but they were also given a resupply of rations. More importantly, Ren Xiaosu had immediately promoted him to commander of the reinforced company after being appointed major. As such, Li Qingzheng had even more soldiers under his command now.

180 people used to be in the reinforced company. But after the battle, the entire reinforced company had nearly been wiped out by the Qing Consortium.

That was mainly because Ren Xiaosu had deliberately arranged for the reinforced company to follow close to him and made them the main fighting force in that battle. How could there be no casualties in a war? After all, bullets are blind!

At the time, everyone realized that Ren Xiaosu had also rushed out furthest to the front. So why had all the people around him died, yet he was left unscathed?

After the battle ended, Ren Xiaosu even led everyone to mourn for their dead comrades. He said with a very sorrowful look, “Our brothers in arms led a great life and died such a glorious death. Some of them fought bravely, and others even died saving me…”

How could those soldiers from the reinforced company possibly give up their lives to save Ren Xiaosu? The others might believe it, but Li Qingzheng and Jiang Wu’s students were not convinced.

But nobody minded. In this era, the living had no time to grieve for the dead.

Besides, it wasn’t like they had a foundation of friendship with them to begin with.

This time, they were under orders of command headquarters to head northwards and had been requested to join up with the garrison at Position 313 where a large group of the Li Consortium’s combat troops were also stationed.

Usually, private troops would not get deployed to important strategic locations like Position 313 to provide support. But the situation with the Heroes Battalion was a little different. No one could say for sure if they were still considered as private troops or not.

After all, none of the battalion commanders in the private army had been given official appointments before, and no private army had ever defeated any of the Qing Consortium’s combat troops either.

Let alone the private troops, not even the Li Consortium’s regular troops were a match for the Qing Consortium’s regular troops.

On their way there, they passed two forward operating bases. The treatment they received when they entered the FOBs was different this time. The commanders of the FOBs even welcomed them with great hospitality when they arrived, and they were served good food that included delectable meat dishes.

Not only did they have food to eat when they arrived, but they also found it unnecessary to pack some buns to take with them on departure. The people from the FOBs would load up baskets of buns onto the vehicles and even gave them beef jerky to bring along!

This made Ren Xiaosu feel somewhat uncomfortable. There was no room for him to make use of his street smarts!

When the commander of the FOB sent them off, he said with a smile, “I wish you all the best going forward. When you get to Position 313, we hope to hear about the glory of our Li Consortium’s combat troops again…”

He took 20 minutes just to bid farewell to them. It was undeniable that he was fawning upon them.

Actually, this was just how the Li Consortium’s system was structured. When a new star rose, the sycophants would always think this would be a good opportunity to pander to those above them. If they did not do it now, it would be too late when the new star reached the top!

But after they resumed their journey, even Li Qingzheng noticed something was off. “Xiaosu, I’ve realized that everyone seems to know we’re heading to Position 313. Something doesn’t feel right.”

The movement of a fighting force was generally kept confidential, and it was the same even for the private troops. Friendly forces were not allowed to ask about each other’s battle plans without authorization from the higher-ups!

But it was really odd this time. It seemed that someone was deliberately telling everyone that the Heroes Battalion was headed for Position

313!

Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “What do you think is the reason for that?”

“Are they using us to bait the Qing Consortium?” Li Qingzheng wondered. He was taking a shot in the dark as he wasn’t certain about it either. After all, his views were the same as any other refugee’s. It was very sharp of him that he was able to guess this.

Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, “So that’s how the Li Consortium treats their heroes. I suppose they’re too smart for their own good.”

“What do you mean?” Li Qingzheng asked curiously.

Next to them, Chen Wudi piped up, “What my master meant was, how could anyone not have guessed it when even you were able to think of it?”

Li Qingzheng was speechless.

However, Ren Xiaosu was also aware that this was a very obvious move. The Li Consortium was openly telling the Qing Consortium that the private troops who had humiliated them would be at Position 313 and was challenging them to go there.

If they did not dare to go, it would also be considered a blow to the Qing Consortium’s morale. But if they did, they would have a fierce battle on their hands.

Actually, the Heroes Battalion was only a pawn on the overall battlefield. They were a drop in the ocean.

Position 313 was located on the sunlit slope of Mt. Shuanglong. Tens of thousands of the Li Consortium’s combat troops were garrisoned on the front lines that stretched all the way from Mt. Tantou to Mt. Shuanglong, passing through Mt. Fengyi in the middle.

Meanwhile, the front line at Mt. Qingsheng in the west that faced the Yang Consortium was even more heavily garrisoned with soldiers. Just at this location alone, tens of thousands of soldiers were traveling to and from the front line on a daily basis.

So their 500-strong battalion was nothing compared to that!

But fighting a war would never be as simple as solving an equation. The generals needed to play every move carefully and fight for every point that was up for grabs.

But the general who made this strategic decision could never have expected that Ren Xiaosu had already discussed matters with the Qing Consortium.

Li Qingzheng was getting extremely worried, but Ren Xiaosu was not one bit worried. He acted like he was just heading north for a holiday getaway.

Li Qingzheng looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, “Xiaosu, aren’t you worried?”

Chen Wudi corrected, “It’s ‘Battalion Commander!’”

Li Qingzheng snapped, “You’re really worthy of being your master’s lackey!”

By now, everyone knew that Chen Wudi was a little mentally ill. He called himself the reincarnation of the Great Sage while Ren Xiaosu was the reincarnation of Tripitaka.

However, they did not have any issues with him. If anyone in the troops had any difficulties, Chen Wudi would definitely help them as long as they were sincere in asking for help.

It was really rare for a good person like that to appear in a world like this.

When they thought about it sometimes, it was really ironic how only those who were mentally ill were willing to be good people.

Ren Xiaosu, who was resting next to Li Qingzheng, opened his eyes and looked at him. “You can rest easy. With me around, nothing will happen.”

He could not just say to Li Qingzheng, “Don’t worry, I’m the Qing Consortium’s head spy planted in the Li Consortium. They won’t attack the place I’m at.”

He could only beat around the bush.

Although Li Qingzheng admired Ren Xiaosu a lot, he still could not help but ask, “What if they focus their forces on attacking us for the sake of getting revenge?”

Ren Xiaosu got impatient. “If you let me drive for a while, I’ll answer you right away!”

Li Qingzheng immediately gripped the steering wheel tight. “In that case, I don’t want to know.”

Ren Xiaosu was annoyed.

Suddenly, a hawk skimmed over their vehicle at low altitude. Ren Xiaosu looked out of the window and saw the bird probably had a wingspan of more than four meters. What an awe-inspiring sight!

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These days, it would be challenging for any air forces to engage in aerial activities with those ferocious flying beasts up in the skies. The main difficulty laid in taking off since they would easily be targeted by these flying beasts.

Wars between humans in the past were a little more diverse than this current era. Then was a time when “those that could fly were not necessarily birds, and those that could swim were not necessarily fish.”

But now armored brigades and artillery units were the keys to victory since only land battlefields were left to fight on. Meanwhile, nanomachines had become the most significant variable in current wars.

The Yang Consortium’s armored brigade quietly arrived at the front line of Mt. Ping at this moment.

In the Yang Consortium’s battle plans, the armored brigade would work with two infantry brigades to tear apart the Li Consortium’s defensive line with a 40-kilometer-wide breach within three days once the war broke out. That would leave all of the Li Consortium’s defensive anchor points at the front line of Mt. Qingsheng ineffective.

But of course, the Li Consortium were not sitting ducks either.

Since everyone still had their trump cards hidden, no one would know what the outcome would be until after the curtain was lifted.