The First Order

“Bro, can I go and see the Wolf King in the mountains?” Yan Liuyuan asked. “It somehow feels like it knows me.”

Ren Xiaosu had already told Yan Liuyuan in private of the dealings he had with the wolf pack. So Yan Liuyuan was also privy to the fact that Ren Xiaosu and the wolves were cooperating in some way. They had even joined forces to hunt and kill the nanosoldiers. While it might sound bizarre, Yan Liuyuan was used to the strange things that happened with Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before saying, “Sure, but you have to stay behind me.”

Although he had been working with the wolves for a long time, Ren Xiaosu was still a little worried. What if the Wolf King suddenly went crazy and decided it wanted to hurt Yan Liuyuan?

With that, the both of them decided to head into the mountains. But all of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu saw the headlights of a vehicle speeding up the mountain. He frowned and said, “Go back into the house first. Wake Li Qingzheng and get him out here.”

“OK.” Yan Liuyuan went to wake Li Qingzheng up.

Shortly, Li Qingzheng walked out of the house wearing a military overcoat. “Xiaosu, you called for me?”

“Someone’s heading up the mountain. It should be the Li Consortium’s people.” Ren Xiaosu said.

“It’s the New Year now. Who has the time to head up here into the mountains?” Li Qingzheng was surprised to hear that. The two of them stood at the entrance of the outpost and waited. An off-road vehicle came to a stop at the outpost entrance. Then a soldier got out and tossed a manila envelope to them. “We’re massing the private troops. This is the paperwork stating that you all must gather by 0700. Anyone who turns up with less than a full platoon will be investigated and held liable as deserters.”

The punishment for deserters was extremely harsh within the Li Consortium’s military. Not only would the person be arrested and charged with a crime, but their families would also get implicated as well and lose their eligibility to receive their portion of potable water as refugees of the town. In this era, not having a source of potable water meant certain death.

Some people might be able to find water in the wilderness, but there were still risks attached to that.

The soldier who came to send the documents got ready to get back into the vehicle to leave. But Li Qingzheng calculated that since it was already 2 AM, that meant they had five hours to gather and report to the outside of the stronghold. Otherwise, they would be treated as deserters.

He looked at that soldier and said, “We’re guarding the outpost here. What will happen to it if we leave? Can’t you make an exception for

us?”

The soldier sneered as he got back into the vehicle. “It’s useless telling me that. If you don’t wish to assemble, you can choose not to.”

Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Qingzheng. “Do you have any family in town? If you don’t, you can choose to run away.”

Li Qingzheng said bitterly, “How can I? I might not have any family left, but more than a dozen people in our platoon still have family members living in town. If a single person runs away from our platoon, the entire platoon will be subjected to the same punishment.”

This was the Li Consortium’s cruel way of meting out punishment. It was done this way to make comrades watch over each other so that they wouldn’t run away. As long as a single person ran away, the entire platoon would be done for.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Li Qingzheng in surprise. Even though he knew they were going to end up as cannon fodder, he still chose not to run away for other people’s sakes.

Hu Shuo had already said before the reunion dinner that they all might end up becoming cannon fodder in the war.

Everyone also had their own verdict regarding this. What other reason could there be for sending private troops to the front line? Could they tackle the tough situations? No, they would only be fit enough to serve as cannon fodder.

But this Li Qingzheng was also quite a strange one. Before getting to know him, he would look to take as much advantage of someone as possible. But once they became friends, he became someone who was extremely loyal and dependable.

The regular officer status Hu Shuo had gotten for them was basically a permanent role. If Li Qingzheng made use of this status to run away, it wouldn’t take any effort at all.

In fact, Ren Xiaosu had initially planned on bringing Yan Liuyuan and the others into the stronghold with him. After all, it would be incredibly easy to get that done with his status as an officer of the Office of Special Investigations.

But from the looks of it, the platoon would be done for if he brought his family into the stronghold and hid with them.

Ren Xiaosu thought for a moment before sighing, “Then let’s wake everyone up. We have to set off now, but let me send my family back to town first. After that, we’ll go and assemble.”

“Deal,” Li Qingzheng said.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something. “Can you teach me how to drive?”

If they were to leave the Li Consortium’s territory in the future, whether it be for Stronghold 88 or Stronghold 178, driving there would be the most comfortable option. So Ren Xiaosu started thinking about learning how to drive.

Besides, after the troops assembled this time, they would definitely have to head north. If it were only Li Qingzheng who could drive, he would definitely be worn out driving all the way there.

Ren Xiaosu thought that since he couldn’t master the bicycle, why not just jump straight to learning how to drive a car.

It wouldn’t be worth wasting a Skill Duplication Scroll to learn a life skill like that. Moreover, he did not have any Skill Duplication Scrolls right now either. Even if he had one, he would definitely be better off using it on someone like Hu Shuo.

Li Qingzheng was taken aback. “Sure, I’ll teach you along the way. We still have enough time! Driving isn’t difficult at all, although you shouldn’t drive on the mountain paths. Once we descend down the mountain and get onto the straight roads, you’ll pick it up very quickly.”

That was exactly how it was. For driving, if you didn’t need to follow the traffic rules like within the stronghold, you could quickly understand it if you just drove around for a bit.

The people at the outpost all looked bleary-eyed when they got awoken. Li Qingzheng shouted at the top of his voice, “Stop fucking sleeping. Hurry up and pack all of the supplies we have at the outpost into your personal field packs. Don’t load them up onto the truck. If they discover we’re carrying all that cured meat during an inspection, we’ll bear consequences.”

Someone asked, “Lord of Wolves, what are we packing up for?”

Li Qingzheng swept his eyes over them and said, “To get ready to join the war…”

Everyone was stunned. “Now? Aren’t we going to wait until the Spring Festival is over?”

“As if a war would wait for you to celebrate the New Year first.” Li Qingzheng sighed and said, “Go and pack your stuff. We’ll gather out here again in 15 minutes.”

The outpost’s troops’ faces fell. Everyone had been getting on with each other like family recently and talking about living at the outpost from now on. But all of a sudden, they were about to be sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder.

“Can we not go?” someone asked. “It’s much better here at the outpost.”

When they first got here, everyone felt working at the outpost was a really tough job. But as time passed, they discovered it wasn’t difficult living here at all. In fact, it was even more comfortable than living in town.

Li Qingzheng turned strict at this moment and said, “If we don’t assemble, some of our comrades’ families in town will not survive. Moreover, the Li Consortium will definitely arrest us, so we won’t be able to run away.”

Ren Xiaosu was observing this group of people from off to the side. There were only a total of 11 automatic rifles in the entire outpost and not even a single grenade, much less improvised mortars, anti-personnel mines, etc. They also did not have the most basic radio set for communication purposes. If they actually fought in the war, they wouldn’t even be able to call for support in the large battlefield that could span two mountain ranges.

At that time, their enemies on the battlefield would learn these private troops were the weakest point where they could easily breach the defense.

Of course, if the enemies thought the platoon that Ren Xiaosu was in would be the same as the other private troops, Ren Xiaosu alone would be enough to teach them all a lesson.

Ren Xiaosu wondered if the wolf pack would follow as well. He turned around to look at the top of the hill and saw that the Wolf King was no longer there.

At this moment, Chen Wudi came over to Ren Xiaosu and said, “Master, are we also going to join the war?”

“Let’s observe the situation before deciding whether to take part in the war or not.” Ren Xiaosu said, “Go and help everyone carry their belongings. I’ll go and get ready as well.”

“Sure!” Chen Wudi replied.