The First Order

The soldier sneered, “Save you? Then who will come and save us? The front line at Mt. Qingsheng in the north has already fallen. The Yang Consortium’s armored brigade and infantry division will arrive soon. We’re retreating to Mt. Guangying at the rear!”

“Then what about us? There’s someone here who has committed a crime…” someone choked out

But at this moment, an officer of the Li Consortium’s troops shouted, “Raise your guns and keep your guard up. Have you all forgotten what you should be doing just because we’ve been defeated in a battle? Ensure that no spies have sneaked into their group and forbid them from getting near us!”

The sound of guns being cocked rang out. The Li Consortium’s troops pointed their weapons at the escapees and forced them to retreat by shouting at them.

The escapees could never imagine the Li Consortium troops they had been waiting for the entire day would treat them like this!

They said anxiously, “You can’t treat the legal residents of the stronghold like this. I’m going to lodge a complaint against you!”

But when the Li Consortium troops heard this, someone laughed and said, “A complaint? Who are you going to complain to? We’ll see about that if you manage to survive!”

Then the Li Consortium’s troops continued to retreat. Some of the escapees tried to chase after them, but they heard a gunshot ring out. The Li Consortium’s troops had fired a bullet at their feet to warn them not to move!

Some of the escapees broke down on the spot. When the stronghold collapsed, their fundamental values in life had been impacted once. Now came another severe blow to them when the rescuers they had been expecting abandoned them.

Yan Liuyuan and his group had a different thought from the rest of the escapees. At this moment, Yan Liuyuan was actually more worried that the Li Consortium’s troops would take them away. The last thing he wanted was to have any contact with the Li Consortium’s troops.

After all, Ren Xiaosu’s current identity was somewhat awkward.

In the evening, Ren Xiaosu regained consciousness again eight hours after the Li Consortium’s troops had left.

This time, there was a calmness in his eyes. “Let’s head to the mountains. We should not stay here any longer.”

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu had a vague idea of retreating into the forested mountains. Of course, it was also because of the Seeds that he had the confidence to bring everyone to live in the forested mountains.

The Seeds would be enough for him to establish a simple land in the wilderness where they could live in peace and quietness.

The only bad thing was that it would require a 100 days for his injured muscles and bones to heal. Even though Ren Xiaosu possessed a physical fitness that was totally different from normal people, it would probably still take him several weeks to recover.

But suddenly, the unique sound of armored vehicles driving in the forested mountains came from the north. As the armored vehicles moved across the snowy ground, their tracks would flip over pieces of soil to expose the black layer of earth below.

Ren Xiaosu just laid there and could not move. He frowned and said with a sigh, “Too late.”

It was all because he had been in a coma for too long. It had delayed their best opportunity to get away.

They saw the Yang Consortium’s armored brigade and infantry division quickly arriving. The escapees forced themselves to calm down and said, “The Yang Consortium will not do anything to us since we’re just civilians. We didn’t even participate in the war.”

Someone said, “That’s right, the war was initiated by the Li Consortium and had nothing to do with us. Even if the Yang Consortium occupies Stronghold 108, we’re still the legal residents of Stronghold 108.”

When the Yang Consortium’s troops arrived, an officer in an armored vehicle frowned as he looked at the escapees. He signaled for the soldiers to stop. “These people should be from Stronghold 108. Keep your guard up in case they attack our troops! Send out two reinforced companies and seize all of their weapons!”

As the officer jumped down from the armored vehicle, two of the Yang Consortium’s reinforced companies rushed into the crowd. Upon meeting resistance from the escapees, they would fire off warning shots or use their rifle butts to knock them over.

“Are you all escapees from Stronghold 108?” The officer clearly knew what had happened to Stronghold 108, so he understood what was going on when he saw them.

One of the escapees replied, “Yes, we’re the residents of Stronghold 108. Sir, we will submit to the Yang Consortium’s orders unconditionally and support the Yang Consortium wholeheartedly in the occupation of Stronghold 108. But, sir, can you help us eliminate the threats in Stronghold 108 so that we can return to our homes?”

The escapees immediately switched their allegiance without any struggle. Deep down, they did not have any sense of belonging to any organization, so they just listened to whoever was in charge.

However, the officer did not appreciate it. “Return to Stronghold 108? Who knows if there are spies hidden among you people? What if you all make trouble at the rear while we’re battling at Mt. Guangying?”

Then the officer told the deputy commander next to him, “Have the two reinforced companies stay behind here. Let these escapees build a refugee camp here. Keep a close eye on them.”

Every organization required people. With people, there would be productivity. Who else would mine or be responsible for ensuring production in the factories? Therefore, people were also considered a type of resource to the organizations. So of course they would not kill them indiscriminately.

But before the war ended, none of these people would be able to leave the refugee camp.

The Li Consortium’s troops had already been defeated at the front line of Mt. Qingsheng by the Yang Consortium. They had also lost to the Qing Consortium at the front lines of Mt. Shuanglong, Mt. Tantou, and Mt. Fengyi in the east. With the Li Consortium completely defeated, they could only retreat to the farthest south point to defend their last bit of territory by relying on their natural defenses.

The three organizations would still have to fight a fierce battle at that place.

The Yang Consortium’s troops continued advancing south while the two reinforced companies armed with loaded guns remained behind to supervise the construction of a refugee camp.

The reinforced companies’ commander said, “I’ll be assigning everyone the work you’ll need to perform every day and the workload you’ll need to complete. If you can’t meet the quotas, don’t blame me for being harsh with

you.”

To build a refugee camp, they first had to chop down the trees in the area. Then they would use the harvested wood and tools supplied by the reinforced troops to construct some barracks. The two reinforced companies happened to be from the engineering battalion that was specially tasked to build roads for the armored troops.

But now the engineering battalion would not have much work to do since most of the road ahead was flat terrain. So they were able to split off two reinforced companies to remain behind here.

The Yang Consortium’s troops were extremely efficient. It only took them an hour to count the number of escapees and assign tasks to every one of them.

But Yan Liuyuan realized that even the wounded were assigned tasks to perform, and they would have to complete their share of the workload as well.

Ren Xiaosu had not recovered from his injuries yet and would still fall unconscious from time to time. How could he meet his quota in his state? If he had recovered from his injuries, they could have forced their way out of the refugee camp. With Ren Xiaosu’s armor, these normal soldiers couldn’t have stopped him. However, there were no “what ifs” to speak of in their situation.

“What should we do now?” Wang Fugui looked at Ren Xiaosu, who had passed out again.

“We can only hide here for now.” Yan Liuyuan said, “Fortunately, we aren’t wanted by the Yang Consortium.”

“But we have six injured people.” Wang Fugui said, “We won’t be able to complete all the work assigned to us.”

Yan Liuyuan frowned as he walked up to the reinforced troops’ commander and said politely, “Sir, do you know Yang Xiaojin?”

The reinforced troops’ commander barked at him, “Don’t try to slack off by pulling some random connection. I don’t know the person you mentioned. Hurry up and get to work! And those friends of yours who are lying on the ground, no slacking!”

Yan Liuyuan stared at him coldly, but he did not argue with him. Then he said, “Are we allowed to help them complete their workload?”

The commander said, “Of course you can! Why not? As long as you can complete it!”