The First Order

The lengthy winter in the Northwest was finally coming to an end. Ren Xiaosu saw some plants sprouting along the river, and the insects hibernating in the soil started waking up as well.

The spring floods were approaching, and the snowy mountains that stretched for thousands of miles in the Northwest would gradually start melting. The sunlight would turn the snow into tens of thousands of rivulets, and they would then flow east and merge to become a raging river.

Someone once said this water was from the Heavens and that it always flowed east without stop.

The valley that had been dry for many months would receive an abundant source of water by spring. This was the best time for them to farm and irrigate. When the time came, the massive source of water from the river would fill up the irrigation ditches and turn the dusty channels into a riverbed.

Ren Xiaosu and the bandits had to make enough clay bricks before the spring floods arrived.

When the tree trunks were sent floating downstream by the spring floods, it would be time for them to start firing bricks.

Someone remarked that they shouldn’t have to work so hard to fire bricks. It would be good enough to just build some mud huts. Hadn’t everyone always lived like that?

However, Ren Xiaosu said, “Why should the stronghold residents get brick houses to live in, but not us? And we’re not just going to build houses, but defenses too.”

When a refugee asked if he was planning to build a new stronghold here, Ren Xiaosu was surprised. He smiled and said, “Isn’t it better to live in the wilderness? Why do we have to wall everyone up?”

When he said that, the refugees fell silent. However, they started working more diligently after that.

The bandits put down their guns and dug for silt in the riverbank barefoot. After digging up baskets of silt, they got back to dry ground and made them into clay bricks.

The idea of digging for silt sounded easy, but it was much harder when they did it. The bandits had only brought guns with them to this settlement and did not have any shovels. If they wanted to dig for silt, they had to do it barehanded.

The weather was frigid. Although the fierce bandits were freezing their balls off, they still insisted on working.

“If you keep pushing them like this, won’t they give up?” Yang Xiaojin asked.

“No.” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “The more tired they are, the more they’ll believe that all of this is real. The more relaxed they have it, the more they’ll suspect that things might not be what they seem.”

“But they’ll surely find out someday,” Yang Xiaojin said.

Ren Xiaosu turned to Yang Xiaojin and said in seriousness, “I wanna build a home here. In the past, it was just a blurry idea in my mind. But when I saw them working, the idea became much clearer over time. When the time comes, I’ll give them a proper explanation.”

This was also the first step Ren Xiaosu would be taking to train these bandits. He wanted to change the habits of these bandits who were used to being lazy and robbing others of their possessions. By making them go through all kinds of hardships here, he would build a peculiar feeling called camaraderie.

After a tiring day, the bandits were grumbling endlessly, and even Jin Lan started to waver. He was so tired he felt like crying when he looked at the mud on his hands and feet. “Why don’t we just go back to being bandits instead of trying to get into fucking Stronghold 178? This is way too tough!”

“Yeah.” Someone slumped down on the edge of the riverbed and looked up at the sky in a daze. “What are we really after?”

Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng were currently the leaders of the 1st Squad and 2nd Squad, respectively. When the others saw the leaders starting to waver, their conviction was shaken even more.

At noon, some of the refugees from the settlement suddenly came over carrying baskets and placed them down on the ground. Curious, Jin Lan asked, “Hey, mate, what’s that?”

A good-natured refugee smiled in embarrassment and said, “We have yet to thank y’all for helping us dig the ditches. We made this cornbread ourselves. If they taste bad, we hope y’all won’t mind it.”

Jin Lan was stunned. He did not know how to react to this situation. When he finally managed to speak, his speech was filled with expletives. “Why are you being so fucking polite? You don’t have to be so fucking polite with me. Just put the damn cornbread down. Feel free to yell for me if you need any fucking help with anything.”

Jin Lan made it sound like he was just doing his work, not because he wanted to help the refugees. That shocked the refugees.

At this moment, someone asked Jin Lan, “Boss, why don’t we escape this place tonight?”

However, Jin Lan hesitated for a moment before saying, “Let’s endure it for another two days and keep an eye on things. It won’t be too late to run away by then! Our fellow villagers have made us some cornbread, so we should at least build houses for them first!”

After work at night, everyone lay on the ground and did not want to move. Ren Xiaosu came to the riverbank and saw the clay bricks stacked on wooden planks. “Get up and come over here to collect your bullets. You should only report the number of clay bricks that you made. Every ten bricks get you one bullet in exchange.”

Humans were very strange beings. These bullets were theirs to begin with and were not worth anything at all. Even though they did not seem to care much about it when they were working, everyone was still quite happy when they knew they could trade the bricks for bullets.

Jin Lan got up and said, “Me! I made 30 clay bricks today. I could’ve made even more if it was easier to dig out the silt!”

Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Mhm, you get three bullets in exchange.”

Looking at the three brass-colored bullets in his palm, Jin Lan felt a sense of accomplishment was inexplicably touched.

But these were clearly just three normal bullets, so why was he feeling that?

This was the idea that Ren Xiaosu had come up with. If they just focused on working hard, the bandits would get depressed because they could not see their “progress” or the “end” of it.

But by breaking down the progress into a 100 bullets and letting the bandits measure their own achievements, they would have an objective to work towards.

At this moment, Jin Lan started calculating. If he could earn three bullets in one day, he might be able to earn up to five bullets a day once he got the hang of it. Then he could find salvation in less than a month.

How long was a month at most? Thinking of it this way, Jin Lan suddenly felt he could endure this a bit more. At worst, he would just leave after the month if things didn’t go according to plan. That would not cause much of a delay anyway.

At this moment, he looked at the others. When he saw Zhang Yiheng with only two bullets in his hand, he laughed and said, “Buddy, you don’t seem to be doing well. You only managed to receive two bullets?”

Zhang Yiheng was so angry his face turned red. “I just haven’t gotten good at the work yet, but I’ll definitely get more bullets than you tomorrow.”

Then Zhang Yiheng looked to his side and saw someone without any bullets at all. He also laughed. “I’m still not the worst here!”

Ren Xiaosu did not say anything. He did not criticize those who had done less work nor praise those who did more.

Jin Lan laughed and went up to him. “Boss, what do you think of me? I did the most work today.”

Ren Xiaosu said noncommittally, “Y’all have to understand that I’m only giving you a chance because you want to pass the test. It’s not like you’re helping me with anything.” Then Ren Xiaosu turned around and left.

Jin Lan was stunned in the wake of Ren Xiaosu’s words. He said in shock after snapping out of his daze, “Boss, thank you for giving us this opportunity!”

“Gratitude received from Jin Lan, +1!”

Suddenly, Jin Lan turned around and roared, “It isn’t dark yet, but y’all can go back first, I still want to work a little longer!”

The bandits looked at each other. They were already very tired, but they suddenly gained a little more motivation when they heard that. But at this moment, Yang Xiaojin came up to them and said, “Stop working. Everyone, wash your hands clean and prepare for class.”