A Torturous Wait

The good news was that since the lunar snowfall had started, it was unlikely to let up for another month. In the past hundred years during this period of the year, the North West would see very heavy snowfall. Even if there was any fighting going on, it would have to be halted. It was fruitless for both sides to fight if they were going to be buried in the snow.

So we still had at least another month to move the camp. This camp was massive, hosting a few hundred thousand soldiers. Moving this camp was not going to be easy. Moreover, moving it further away from the border would make traveling to curb an invasion in time difficult. It was a very difficult task. However, we had no choice but to get to it.

I stayed in my tent, doing my usual things while the military leaders discussed what to do. The exhausted convoy rested. Soldiers were sent out to the outpost to inform them that due to heavy snowfall we would not be visiting for a while.

I was briefly called to the main tent to explain my Molotov Cocktail and to contribute any more weapon suggestions I had. Scouts were sent into the endless desert to find us a new location. After a week, they finally came back and we consolidated the information. It was time to move.

The hundred-thousands of troops moved stealthily, in small groups while scouts circled the desert to ensure the Rouran weren't here watching our movement. At any rate, the outside of the desert was a waist-length amount of snow. It was quite impossible for them to come and look for us. Numerous times, the scouts had found and killed Rouran hiding in the desert to ensure they didn't report back.

Once we were all settled in, a month later, it was time to make the weapons. One primary issue of fighting in the North West was that it was either very hot and with nowhere to hide, or it was very cold and snowy such that fighting was impossible.

When it was hot, as long as the Rouran knew our location, they could surround and ambush us in the middle of the night, and there was no clear strategy as to how to run or hide or to regroup afterward. In the snow, the Rouran having lived here all year round had much bigger builds and larger lungs than us, and were used to the snow.

Other than the heaviest snowfall of the year, they were more mobile in the snow than the Huaxia soldiers, making fighting them in the snow disadvantageous for us. However, my avalanche idea that saved us gave the Huaxia soldiers a new strategy to try. I didn't have any knowledge of how to make weapons from the modern time apart from measly homemade devices, but it was enough.

The key here was that they could be made using everyday objects. Objects found anywhere. They would implement my ideas. Molotov Cocktails (I now named then Solitaire Cocktails, to promote my new upcoming subsidiary) were easy to make.

Alcohol was a common pastime of soldiers and it was all over the camp. Empty alcohol bottles were even more common and we already had difficulty disposing of those. It was a task to convince the soldiers to give up their alcohol, but the leaders managed to do it, promising them twice the amount after they won the battle.

In this era, gunpowder was only used to fire cannons or firecrackers. The North West camp of course possessed cannons (though cannons were very hard to transport), but there were a limited number of cannon shells. There were no proper explosives in this era. No one had any idea we just needed a flammable liquid, or that alcohol was very flammable.

Around the barriers of the camp, piles upon piles of Solitaire Cocktails were stocked up. It was quite scary to see the sight. There were probably half a million Solitaire cocktails around the perimeter just waiting to be used. However, Solitaire Cocktails could only be used at relatively short distances. We needed a more long range deterrent that didn't exist yet.

I suggested the pipe bomb. We had pipes here for main infrastructure, but this was an era where pipes were still not everywhere. So again, we turned to the many empty alcohol bottles. We also had lots of rope (for putting up tents, and just sitting in the warehouse for no good reason). I had them unwind the ropes to make them thinner, since we didn't need very thick ropes, cork the bottles full of alcohol, with one end in the bottle and the other very long end trailing out.

Once that was done, I gave a demonstration just outside the camp. I buried the bottle underneath the sand so it couldn't be seen, and held the rope in my hand. The rope was just poking out the other end and neither bottle nor rope could be seen at all. Then I lit the rope. 5... 4... 3... 2.... 1.... boom!

A loud explosion followed by a lot of glass erupted into the air, pulverising that spot. "And what do you call this... explosive?" General Shui, the main general of the camp asked. I grinned. "A Solitaire Landmine." I said shamelessly. I explained how to make it more damaging.

We could use the empty alcohol bottles or glass shards and position them around the main bottle. The main impact of the landmine was due to the sharp glass and the explosion. When I managed to do something with the "electricity", I was sure I could make a very deadly connection of landmines.

General Shui was never particularly impressed by my sudden appearance at the camp. He was a surly, battle hardened old man, as expected of someone who spent years defending the most war-torn border of the empire. There were also no women who ever came to the North West came. At least, I was a burden. At best, I was an eyesore. But now, he came to me for proper suggestions of his own will. I considered this progress.

I worked in the main tent as we quickly drew a map around the camp where we wanted to place the explosives. We had to work quickly since we never knew when the Rouran would eventually show up. After the whole camp participated in making the landmines, quick witted soldiers with navigational abilities were again sent out... to bury the mines.

Other soldiers dug a very narrow canal - barely the size of a fist under areas of the fence for all the ropes. Under every canal at every interval of the fence, there was a tightly knotted bunch of ropes sticking out of the hole. Whenever we got word of the incoming invasion, we would light all the landmines.

The mines were placed at strategic areas and at around 5m interval in a radius around the camp. The next row of mines would then be shifted slightly but still at 5m intervals. After 5 rounds around the camp, it was guaranteed there would be a mine nearly anywhere you stepped.

There were also a lot placed randomly to ensure the Rouran wouldn't get smart and start monitoring the pattern of the mines. Coupled with the half a million Solitaire Cocktails, there were now half a million more hidden landmines right outside the camp.

Considering that the Rouran were experts at navigating the camp, it wouldn't take long before they managed to find our location again after seeing that we moved our camp. We sat and waited for a month, slowly moving supplies from the North West towns to our camp to stock up.