Chapter 1 "Can you carry it?"

"Look at what you're saying, Master, I, Xue San, don't even consider this little weight to be anything."

"Tell me if you can't carry it."

"Alright, little one thanks Master for his concern."

Feng Siniang had prepared Zheng Fan's armor and some clothes, placing them in a box, which Xue San carried on his back.

There was also a knife, tied to Xue San's body.

It was clearly so heavy, but this small frame still walked with ease after carrying it.

Liang Cheng, on the other hand, wore his own armor and held a knife in his hand.

Originally, Siniang had also planned to buy a horse for Zheng Fan and Liang Cheng, but this was directly rejected by Blind Man Bei.

The reason for the rejection was simple: now that they had armored soldiers in a group of civilian laborers, they could probably pass as minor stewards, doing some guarding and showing off while transporting supplies.

But if they really prepared horses, they might be pulled up to the battlefield as auxiliary soldiers.

Although Blind Man Bei said that it would be good for his master to go out and see the world, he didn't want his master to inexplicably sacrifice himself for the great Yan Kingdom...

At the same time, the armor and weapons bought at the inn were bought as ordinary as possible, without thinking about embedding anything fancy. They wanted to be as low-key as possible under the conditions allowed.

The farewell breakfast was particularly rich. Blind Man Bei asked Zheng Fan, saying that he would take advantage of the time when Master was away to reorganize the territory of Tiger Head City, so that after Master and the others returned, everyone could officially start the first step in conquering Tiger Head City.

However, these were all things for the future.

Especially when Zheng Fan and his party of three walked out of Tiger Head City and came to the outside of the military camp, looking at the moving figures inside, Zheng Fan really had a feeling of being in another world.

Having been reborn into another world for only a few days, he was about to go to war.

Hoo...

There was a large tent at the entrance of the military camp, where scribes were responsible for counting the civilian laborers who arrived one after another.

Poor families or those who didn't have families to support had already been caught into the logistics camp when the civilian registers were counted yesterday, while those who had families or property were given a day to prepare.

It was not easy for the latter to escape. You can run away, but your temple can't run away. If you escape, your family property will be confiscated.

When registering, the scribe seemed very dissatisfied with Xue San, but when Xue San said that he could feed horses and had brought his own rations, he didn't say anything more and let Zheng Fan and his party of three enter the logistics camp.

There were soldiers guarding the entrance of the logistics camp, and a team of cavalry could be seen patrolling the periphery.

After entering, they saw three men tied to three wooden stakes behind the camp gate, their skin torn and flesh mangled.

These three had tried to escape last night and were caught back and punished with whips. Now they were tied here as a warning to others.

In fact, the Yan Kingdom had certain rules for the conscription of civilian laborers in the past. For example, for each family, one out of four or one out of three would be conscripted, and even in the most severe cases, it would be two out of one.

However, because the Yan Kingdom was full of powerful clans, each clan had its own property, its own tenants, and its own private soldiers. These clans were like leeches attached to the body of the empire, sucking the nutrients from the empire, which gradually made the taxes that the imperial court could collect and the manpower it could conscript become more and more limited. When they encountered this sudden military action, they could only use this method of draining the pond to get all the fish in a hurry to conscript civilian laborers.

No wonder the current monarch of the Yan Kingdom had been committed to centralization and weakening the power of the vassals since he ascended the throne, because this empire seemed powerful, but it had actually been hollowed out.

Fortunately, although the Qian and Jin Kingdoms were not full of powerful clans, their gentry class had long been corrupt and difficult to control. Especially the Qian Kingdom, which possessed the fertile land of Jiangnan and had developed commerce, but the Qian Kingdom's court had never been able to collect commercial taxes. Its finances had always been tight, and it often had to delay the payment of military salaries to the border troops stationed in the north of the empire to defend against the iron cavalry of the Yan Kingdom.

Because the "Old Zheng Family" had property in Tiger Head City, and Liang Cheng's appearance after wearing armor was indeed good, he was considered a squad leader in the civilian labor camp, with five people in a squad, so three civilian laborers were added.

Why were three people added? Because Xue San didn't count as a person here.

After some tossing and turning, the tent was set up and the things were put away, and it was already afternoon.

Zheng Fan and his party of three sat outside the tent, munching on pancakes.

Scallion pancakes, with a lot of oil and meat filling, tasted really good.

After seeing the envious gazes of the other three people in the squad, Zheng Fan gave each of them a pancake. They happily accepted it and thanked him repeatedly.

Liang Cheng didn't express anything about this. He just sat there silently observing the Yan Kingdom cavalry that occasionally passed by around the camp.

"What are you looking at?" Zheng Fan asked.

"I'm looking at our future opponents."

"............" Zheng Fan.

He hesitated for a moment but didn't say the words "you're a psycho."

Although Zheng Fan didn't have any sense of belonging or goodwill towards this great Yan Kingdom, he wasn't so obsessed with rebelling just a few days after coming to this world.

But obviously, these demon kings under him had already made calculations in their hearts.

In short, today was like a picnic for Zheng Fan. He went to the countryside to set up a tent, and after nightfall, he looked at the stars and went to sleep.

However, when the bugle sounded the next morning, the original leisure was instantly shattered.

Soldiers came with whips to urge everyone to get moving quickly. The chaotic civilian labor camp began to move chaotically and then... chaotically set off.

The main army should be in front, while the civilian labor camp was responsible for transporting supplies in the rear. The main army had set off a day earlier.

Except for stopping for a quarter of an hour at noon to rest, the whole day was spent escorting supplies.

The further they went into the desert, the greater the wind and sand became. What surprised Zheng Fan was that he originally thought he wouldn't be able to hold on, but who knew he would grit his teeth and persevere, without letting Liang Cheng and Xue San help at all.

When it came to setting up camp at night, Zheng Fan even had the strength to help Xue San collect firewood and light the campfire.

The small iron pot was set up, water was boiled, and Xue San took out the flour he had brought and began to knead the dough to make noodles.

Feng Siniang had made the most complete preparations for logistics. After all, no one really felt that it would be a waste of money on Zheng Fan.

At the same time, including Zheng Fan, everyone didn't really have the idea of "saving money for retirement," especially after determining the route. The ending for that kind of person was either to get rich on the road to doing things or to get themselves killed on the road to doing things.

The three random passersby in the same squad knelt down beside them, drooling.

When the noodles were put into the pot, and they saw Xue San take out portions of precious spices, the three random passersby became even more excited.

"It's ready!"

Xue San shouted, first serving a large bowl to Zheng Fan, then serving a bowl to himself and Liang Cheng, and then pointed to the remaining noodles in the pot, saying:

"You guys can divide it."

The three random passersby immediately went up to start scooping noodles, and in the end, they drank every last drop of the noodle soup.

After dinner, his body felt lazy. When Zheng Fan was about to go back to his tent to rest, he was called over by Liang Cheng.

"What's wrong?"

"There's a problem," Liang Cheng said, looking around.

"What problem?"

"Master, today when escorting the supplies, I checked the supplies we were escorting."

"What about it?"

"There's a little less."

"Less?"

"Also, logically speaking, the main army should be in front of us, but when we walked over today, we didn't see any traces of the main army's march."

The civilian labor camp didn't have the right to know. In fact, even ordinary regular soldiers rarely knew what the real strategic goal was when fighting a war. As for the civilian laborers, they only needed to be responsible for escorting supplies and helping to build the camp. If the situation was bad, they might even be forcibly driven up to be used as cannon fodder.

"Most importantly, Master, this is too hasty. From the conscription of civilian laborers to the army's departure, there was no prior warning or preparation at all."

What was the target of the attack? He didn't know.

What was the size of the army in front? He didn't know.

What was the size of the enemy army? He didn't know.

Was it a blitzkrieg or a war of attrition? He didn't know.

At this time, Xue San leaned over and lowered his voice, saying, "How about I catch a tongue?"

When others said "catch a tongue," they meant to catch someone from the other side to ask questions, but Xue San was clearly planning to attack the officers of the civilian labor camp on their side.

There were two centurions in the civilian labor camp, one responsible for commanding the camp and marching, and the other was in charge of leading a cavalry unit to patrol nearby.

Two hundred regular soldiers were enough to watch over two or three thousand civilian laborers.

Liang Cheng shook his head and said, "Let's wait a couple of days and see."

Zheng Fan was just a novice in this matter and didn't express any opinions. Most importantly, he trusted Liang Cheng and Xue San. If there were no accidents, it would be good if everyone could go back safely after the war, but if something unexpected happened, he would have to rely on them to survive. Zheng Fan still had this much self-awareness.

The night passed peacefully.

The next day, the civilian labor team continued to advance. When it came to night, they continued to set up camp as they had done the previous night.

The third day was still peaceful.

On the evening of the fourth day, the civilian labor camp camped again. This time, the campsite was good, next to a river, with slopes and valleys on both sides, which could block the wind and sand.

After setting up camp, many civilian laborers went to the river to wash themselves. They had really been traveling north for the past few days, and their bodies were already covered with several layers of sand. They didn't have the conditions before, but now that they did, they had to tidy themselves up so that they could sleep peacefully at night.

The three random passersby were fetching water, collecting firewood, and setting up tents. Xue San only needed to be responsible for cooking.

There was food in the camp. After all, most civilian laborers didn't have as good conditions as the "Old Zheng Family," but the food in the camp could only be considered pig slop compared to the small stove here.

Zheng Fan took a bath in the river, and when he came ashore, he saw Liang Cheng standing on the bank.

Seeing this scene, Zheng Fan suddenly had the feeling of a princess bathing in the wild while a general was responsible for guarding and protecting her outside.

He naturally couldn't say these thoughts, even as a joke, because it would be too disgusting.

However, Liang Cheng was obviously not here to stand guard. When Zheng Fan came up, he took the initiative to walk to Zheng Fan's side and said very seriously:

"Master, tonight, something is probably going to happen."

"What's wrong?"

"What does Master think of this campsite?"

Zheng Fan carefully thought about it. He didn't understand ancient warfare, and he wasn't even a military enthusiast in his previous life. Therefore, he could only analyze it from his own perspective and thinking:

"Here, first, we can guarantee the water source. Second, camping in the valley can reduce the area of defense. If there is an enemy ambush, we can defend better, and we don't have to worry about the enemy cutting off the water source."

"Master is wise."

Zheng Fan felt that these people had learned to be bad. They were flattering him without sincerity as if it didn't cost anything. Moreover, Zheng Fan knew that this flattery was just a prelude, and there was definitely a "but" coming.

"But, Master may have overlooked one point, and that is that if the ones camping here were three thousand soldiers, even if they weren't elite field soldiers, as long as they were regular soldiers, they could rely on the geographical advantages here to achieve some defensive effect.

However, Master, there are only two hundred soldiers here at most, and two hundred more like us who brought our own armor and weapons. The rest are basically ordinary civilian laborers.

With just a few hundred cavalry, attacking from one side and then attacking from the other, the entire camp will inevitably collapse."

Zheng Fan had seen the quality of these civilian laborers. As Zheng Fan said, it was obviously impossible to suddenly transform this group of civilian laborers, most of whom didn't even have weapons, into iron-blooded warriors if there was an ambush. Instead, they would become the key to the camp's collapse, directly causing the camp to collapse from within.

"Have you told the military leaders over there about this?" Zheng Fan asked.

Liang Cheng shook his head and pointed to the cavalry in the distance, saying, "Also, one thing is very strange. It's normal for cavalry to be used to escort supply convoys, but this cavalry unit has not dispersed to act as scouts. It has been shrinking together in an organized manner these past few days. Rather than saying they are escorting the supply convoy, it's more like they are monitoring the civilian laborers."

"That's right."

After Liang Cheng said this, Zheng Fan also noticed this phenomenon.

"Have you fought in wars before?" Zheng Fan couldn't help but digress.

Liang Cheng's eyes revealed a look of reminiscence as he replied, "I fought in wars in ancient times."

"Oh."

Was it in the 《Zombie Liang Cheng》 side story?

Zheng Fan couldn't remember these details clearly.

At this time, Xue San's voice suddenly came from behind them, like a ghost.

"Master, I found something very wrong."

When Xue San spoke, Zheng Fan felt a chill directly attack him from his spine, causing him to take a breath of cold air.

But at this moment, Zheng Fan could only endure the lingering fear and ask:

"What's wrong?"

"When I was cooking just now, I was thinking of rummaging through the supply carts to get some food. After all, who knows how long it will take to go back, and we should save a little of the food we brought ourselves.

In order not to be discovered, I deliberately chose the food bags at the very bottom of the grain cart, who knew..."

Xue San spread out his palm,

One by one, pebbles fell from his palm...