Chapter 208: Warlord Sergeant Qin Ming

Typically, soldiers don't dare to defy their officers.

The principle of "a higher rank suppresses a lower one" applies universally, both in the military and elsewhere.

Ordinarily, soldiers would never oppose their commanding officers, let alone the frontline commander, for fear of being court-martialed.

If they were labeled as rebels, it wouldn't just cost them their careers—it could cost them their lives.

Even if they weren't branded as rebels, just having a black mark on their record would end any hope of promotion. Nobody would dare use them in the future.

That's why, in most cases, when a commander is stripped of power, their soldiers quietly surrender. After all, what does it matter to them? They'll just move to another unit and continue being grunts. It doesn't affect their rations.

But that's only true for regular soldiers.

Qin Ming's soldiers were anything but ordinary.

In fact, his troops were very different.

Because Qin Ming paid them extra wages out of his own pocket!

These wages didn't come from standard military salaries—they came from the spoils of war.

Military pay? What's that worth?

Qin Ming would take the loot his unit collected on the battlefield, combine it using his synthesis ability, and distribute it among his men. The value of those items was far beyond anything standard military wages could offer!

Not to mention the highly sought-after advanced rations—the kind that could restore a soldier's physical condition.

These high-tech consumables were worth a fortune on the market, and Qin Ming handed them out like candy.

He supplied his soldiers with their weapons, paid them their wages, and managed them himself.

To put it politely, this was an "independent regiment."

To put it bluntly—this was a private army!

Take away Qin Ming's authority, and his soldiers would be more than willing to take your life!

As the long rifles and heavy machine guns aimed their way, and Qin Ming's men closed in aggressively, the expressions on Collins' and Jamie Foss' faces turned rigid.

Jamie Foss, in particular, looked utterly dumbfounded, as if he'd just seen a ghost.

In all his years in the military, he had never imagined such a thing: inside Collins' camp, surrounded by tens of thousands of regular soldiers, someone dared to openly point guns at him—a five-star general!

How was this not outright rebellion? Did they all have a death wish?!

While Jamie Foss was still processing his shock, Collins was no longer capable of being surprised.

All he felt now was bitter resignation.

After all, it had only been a few days since this unit—originally just a few hundred men—had expanded to over 4,000 soldiers!

What's more, these 4,000 troops were unbelievably loyal.

They didn't just follow orders—they were utterly fanatical. If their leader pointed at someone, they would pummel them into submission without hesitation.

And if that wasn't bad enough, they were frighteningly capable in battle.

During this time, as the regular army launched missions to clear out small remnants of the rebel forces, the results were painfully obvious:

The Hound Unit chased down and annihilated the rebels.

The rebels chased the regular army.

The contrast couldn't have been clearer.

At first, Collins had refrained from acting against Qin Ming for the sake of preserving his own reputation.

He didn't want to create internal strife at such a critical moment, fearing it might draw criticism from higher-ups.

But now? It wasn't about what Collins wanted anymore.

He simply didn't dare make a move.

With 4,000 soldiers under Qin Ming's command, if a fight broke out, Collins feared his 20,000 troops might not stand a chance!

What terrified Collins even more was how fast Qin Ming's forces were growing.

It didn't matter who joined—once they became part of his unit, they suddenly became elite soldiers, ready to tear through enemy lines.

Realizing this, Collins finally issued an order forbidding Qin Ming from recruiting any more soldiers.

The reasoning? The camp needed to preserve its manpower to replenish other units' losses.

When Qin Ming heard the order, he surprisingly stopped recruiting—at least on the surface.

But what Collins hadn't accounted for was this:

Soldiers were now defecting to Qin Ming on their own.

Faced with a unit offering better treatment, superior weapons, and higher pay, how could regular grunts not be tempted?

Qin Ming's soldiers could go out for a mission and come back with spoils worth an entire year's salary.

Since the risk was the same, why wouldn't they switch sides?

If Collins hadn't ordered strict measures to block defectors—including the execution of two soldiers caught trying to leave—the entire camp might have joined Qin Ming's ranks by now.

Now Qin Ming didn't just have over 4,000 soldiers under his command—if this continued, the entire camp might as well belong to him!

At this point, Collins wasn't worried about how to deal with Qin Ming anymore. After just two days, he no longer had the ability to do anything about him.

Now, his biggest concern was how to avoid being sidelined entirely.

If he mishandled the situation, he might wake up the next morning to find that all his soldiers now answered to "Hound" instead of him!

This was also why Qin Ming's expression had been so strange earlier, when Collins was yelling at him.

Who gave Collins the authority to yell at him like that?

Who dared not take his rank as a sergeant seriously?! Did they not understand how important his position was?!

Realizing that the situation was spiraling out of control, Collins' face froze in a painfully stiff expression.

Meanwhile, the patrolling soldiers who had rushed over after hearing the commotion stopped in their tracks.

Having seen with their own eyes over the past two days just how absurdly well-equipped the Hound Unit was, they quickly turned and backed away with their rifles.

In the end, just as the tense standoff was about to erupt into violence, Kasamoto Eri stepped forward and quietly tried to mediate.

"Boss, don't be impulsive. That's a five-star general."

Hearing this, Qin Ming, who had fully embraced the perks of being an officer, curled his lip in disdain.

"Five-star general? So what? How many divisions does he command? How many cannons and tanks does he have? Let him bring them out and show them off!"

"No, Boss, he's also Feio's father."

"Feio's father? I don't care whose dad he is! It's not like he's my… wait, what? Feio's father?!"

Mid-sentence, Qin Ming froze.

He turned to look at Feio, whose awkward smile barely hid her embarrassment. Then he glanced back at the stubbornly defiant "old leek" standing across from him.

Finally realizing what was going on, Qin Ming's demeanor instantly changed. He grinned broadly and waved his hand.

"Oh! Turns out it's a misunderstanding! We're all family here—the Dragon King's temple flooded its own halls, huh? Everyone put your guns down! Guns down! Feio's dad, right? Hello, hello! I'm Feio's friend, Sergeant Hound. Let's get along from now on. If you run into trouble around here, just mention my name—it'll work wonders!"

Seeing Qin Ming cheerfully extend his hand for a handshake, then glancing at the soldiers quickly lowering their weapons, Jamie Foss' face darkened like a stormcloud.

With a frosty expression, the five-star general made no move to shake Qin Ming's hand.

Instead, he snorted coldly, turned on his heel, and left without looking back.

As he walked away, his voice rang out in disdain:

"Damn military thugs! I hate military thugs the most!"

Jamie Foss never thought, not in his entire life, that he would one day have to rely on his daughter's connection to someone else.

Watching Jamie Foss leave, Qin Ming's smile gradually faded.

"Tch, fine. Don't shake hands, then. It's not like I care. Does being a five-star general make you so special? Is your rank higher than mine?"

With a casual wave of his hand, Qin Ming signaled his soldiers to head back into the camp.

Then, turning to Kasamoto Eri, he paused for a moment before suddenly asking:

"Eri, let me ask you something—do I really look like some kind of military thug?"

Hearing the question, Kasamoto Eri turned to look at him.

There he was, with his belt undone, his uniform jacket casually draped over his shoulders, and his military cap perched crookedly on his head.

She fell silent for a moment.

There was something she didn't have the heart to say out loud: Qin Ming didn't look like a thug at all.

He looked more like a collaborator in a puppet army...

(End of Chapter)