Conscription Order

It was nearly dawn, yet the sky had not brightened. The drill ground was already abuzz with chatter, lively beyond measure. Before Wang Hong even approached, he heard Lu Jingou's voice, like a duck's rasping quack. "Hua Wenjue, with such great news, you've got to treat us brothers to a meal."

Only after Wang Hong drew closer and listened for a while did he understand. Hua Wenjue had broken through to the Houtian Stage. Hua Wenjue was a year older than Wang Hong, seventeen this year. Reaching the Houtian Stage at seventeen was enough to count as a genius.

"Brother Hua truly is a martial arts genius—a seventeen-year-old Houtian Realm Martial Artist. There aren't many like him in the entire academy." Li Xiaoya clenched her fists, her face full of admiration.

"If everyone keeps praising me, I'll have nowhere to hide my face. Wang Hong reached the Houtian Stage at thirteen and never called himself a genius. If I called myself one, people would laugh their teeth out when word got around." Hua Wenjue hurriedly defended himself modestly.

"I only reached the Houtian Stage because I took an Immortal Elixir. That doesn't count." Before Wang Hong could finish, the drill ground rang with the mournful blare of horns. The entire field fell silent in an instant.

After three horn blasts, Old Demon Feng appeared before the formation, as punctual as ever. Once the roll call was complete, Old Demon Feng announced an important notice.

Ten years ago, Qin State dispatched one hundred thousand troops and destroyed Wei State. From its kings and nobles down to its common people, all of Wei State's people were reduced to slaves.

Five years ago, Qin State sent one hundred thousand troops to attack the border of Great Chu State. Great Chu State sent General Qu Wu with one hundred thousand soldiers to face the Qin Army at the frontier. During that time, countless large and small battles took place, with victories and defeats on both sides.

Half a year ago, Qin State suddenly reinforced its forces with five hundred thousand troops. After Great Chu State's border forces bitterly held out for five months, the defenses were finally breached, causing tens of thousands of military and civilian casualties in Great Chu State.

Therefore, Great Chu State issued a Conscription Order, calling upon all those above fifteen years of age from martial arts academies across the nation to enlist. They were to reach the border within three days and join the war against Qin.

The crowd erupted in uproar upon hearing the news. Some rubbed their fists and flexed their palms, some were eager to give it a try, while others were heavy with worry.

The people of Great Chu State had always been fierce and warlike. They rejoiced at the sound of battle, took pride in earning merit on the battlefield, and regarded cowardice and fear of war as shameful. Even if one died on the battlefield, one's family could receive a large pension, enough to ensure they wanted for nothing for the rest of their lives.

Besides, the academy students were all hot-blooded youths in the full vigor of life. Before long, their spirits soared, and they all declared that they would join the army, kill the enemy, and earn merit in battle.

Wang Hong had originally planned to cultivate for another two years before heading to Qingxu Mountain in search of Immortal Destiny. But now that the Conscription Order had been issued, refusal to obey would mean being treated as a deserter, wanted throughout the nation. If caught, he would face death.

With Wang Hong's current strength, if he fought someone one-on-one, there would scarcely be anyone in the entire Great Chu State who could match him. But two fists could not defeat four hands. If he encountered a well-trained army, merely one or two hundred men would be enough to surround and kill him.

If he fled, he would never reach the foot of Qingxu Mountain before being intercepted and slain along the way.

Moreover, Great Chu State was his homeland, and Qingyang Academy had nurtured him for three years. Now that the nation was in peril, everyone had the responsibility and duty to fight for it. If he simply left like this, his heart would never be at peace.

Besides, with Wang Hong's current strength, so long as he did not enter an enemy formation alone, ordinary people could not kill him.

Though he thought so, he still had to make thorough preparations. If he overturned his boat in a gutter and died on the battlefield, it would not be worth it. He still had a splendid life ahead of him and intended to cultivate the immortal path in the future. He had no desire to perish together with a bunch of nameless soldiers on the battlefield.

Wang Hong went once more to the same distillery and bought a thousand catties of wine. Over the past two years, he had brewed medicinal wine bit by bit, using some of it along the way, and still had several hundred catties left in his space. With this additional thousand catties, it should be more than enough. He picked some seventy- and eighty-year-old Ginseng and Purple Ganoderma from his space to brew medicinal wine.

White Jade Ganoderma, which was now rarely seen in the outside world, grew in a vast patch within his space. The earliest batch he had propagated had already reached fifty years of medicinal age. Wang Hong harvested some and made a Healing Medicine called the "White Jade Life-Extending Pill."

He also harvested some White Jade Ganoderma with twenty to thirty years of medicinal age and prepared some White Jade Powder. As for Dragon Tiger Elixir and other medicines, Wang Hong prepared some of everything that might prove useful.

Wang Hong had originally wanted to acquire a suit of armor as well, but there was too little time, and he could not find one.

A mighty force of more than a thousand people arrived outside Jingzhou City in the north of Great Chu State. After three months of arduous travel, the party from Qingyang Academy had finally reached its destination.

Of the thousand-plus people in his group, only half were fighting soldiers—just over eight hundred men. Another eight hundred civilian laborers had been temporarily conscripted from Qingyang County to transport provisions, build bridges, pave roads, and handle other miscellaneous duties.

Eight hundred laborers might have seemed like many, but their burden was in truth enormous. If every soldier consumed one catty of grain a day, then three months' rations would amount to nearly a hundred catties. Soldiers could not possibly carry a hundred catties of grain onto the battlefield. Adding the grain consumed by the laborers themselves, each laborer had to transport nearly two hundred catties of food on average, while also being responsible for moving all kinds of other supplies. Such was war: a tremendous drain on either side.

They had originally been meant to head to the border to fight, but halfway there, they received word that several border cities had already been captured by the Qin Army.

In the cities taken by the Qin Army, all defending soldiers had died in battle. Whenever the Qin Army captured a city, it slaughtered the city for three days. The remaining people were all turned into slaves. Cries of grief filled the land, and countless wives and children were torn from their families.

Wang Hong and the others received orders midway through their journey to change their original route and gather with other reinforcements at Jingzhou City.

Yet there were not many troops stationed outside Jingzhou City at that moment. It was not because they had arrived too early. According to what they had heard, the Qin Army's offensive was ferocious, and the reinforcements that had arrived earlier had all been sent to other cities to assist in their defense.

Their leading instructor, Feng Li—Old Demon Feng—had already entered the city to meet the general. Once Old Demon Feng returned, they would likely be assigned to other cities to defend them as well.

Taking advantage of the brief respite, the troops hurriedly set up their pots and cooked. Wang Hong now held the post of Ten-man Squad Leader, with nine ordinary soldiers under his command. A Ten-man Squad Leader's position in the army was not particularly useful; he had no authority of his own and was little different from an ordinary soldier.

At that moment, Wang Hong and several soldiers each held a bowl of porridge, with two steamed buns speared on their chopsticks, squatting on the ground as they ate. After three months on the march, the last time they had eaten their fill had been on the day they set out. Martial artists had enormous appetites. Even an ordinary entry-level martial artist could eat a dou of rice in a day. The scant food currently issued was far from enough for martial artists.

After eating, Wang Hong sat alone in a corner and took a piece of dried meat from his robes, slowly tearing off bites and chewing them. He had made this dried meat himself as travel rations. He steamed Fierce Beast meat together with ingredients for medicinal cuisine until soft and tender, mashed them together into a paste, added salt and spices, pressed it into palm-sized slices, sprinkled them with cooked sesame seeds, then baked away the moisture until the dried meat turned golden.

Eating one slice a day, once it was refined, could provide the cultivation power of ten days' practice. It was delicious and filling as well. Unfortunately, time had been short, and he had not made much of it.

Before long, Old Demon Feng returned. Old Demon Feng had received the rank of military commandant. He had originally come from the army and had some connections there.

The general ordered them to join four other academies and head together to Huju City, a hundred li away, to assist in defending it.

That very day, the army set out for Huju City.

Huju City was not large, with only fifty or sixty thousand soldiers and civilians combined. Yet it stood between two mountains, occupying a strategic and perilous position, like a gateway to Great Chu State. So long as Huju City fell, the Qin State army could drive straight into the heart of Great Chu State from there.

Such a strategic location should have been reinforced with more troops. However, Huju City's terrain was steep and dangerous, easy to defend but difficult to attack. Moreover, the city was too small; no matter how many troops were sent, they could only be fed in piecemeal.

What Wang Hong and the others did not know was that more than five thousand people had already been sent to Huju City before them. The Qin Army had attacked day and night, inflicting such heavy casualties that Wang Hong's group had been dispatched as reinforcements.