Order

As they drove down the mountain, Ren Xiaosu realized Chen Wudi was a little sullen. Actually, whenever such betrayals happened in the past, Chen Wudi's inner world would always be rocked to the core.

He was like a naïve, kind, and innocent child who was more than happy to help others. But slowly, he discovered that the kindness he had for this world was just like a triangle within his heart. Whenever this triangle turned, it would hurt his heart and cause him a lot of anguish.

Until the triangle's edges were milled round.

Ren Xiaosu did not try to enlighten Chen Wudi anymore. He had to experience for himself his inner demons and think it through before he would be able to step out of his predicament.

The military transport truck did not head straight for town after it arrived at the bottom of the mountain. The journey to town would only take three hours, or even two and a half hours if they drove a little faster. They still had about two hours or so now to burn.

Ren Xiaosu took them by another route, to which Li Qingzheng wondered, "What are we doing?"

Ren Xiaosu gave him a look. "You'll know when we get there."

On the side of the road, Ren Xiaosu had Li Qingzheng set up an ambush. He also requested that Li Qingzheng change into his Li Consortium military uniform and have his Office of Special Investigations identification with him.

At this moment, a military transport truck drove over from afar. Ren Xiaosu calmly walked to the middle of the road and blocked the path of the vehicle.

When the people in it saw Ren Xiaosu in his Li Consortium military uniform, they came to a stop. This truck was filled with the full platoon of another outpost. Their platoon commander jumped out and said with a fawning smile, "Sir, what is the matter?"

Ren Xiaosu flashed his ID and said, "The Office of Special Investigations is conducting an investigation. I suspect that there's a spy in the truck. Get everyone out."

The platoon commander was startled. He hurriedly claimed innocence and cried out, "Sir, could there be a misunderstanding? We're only soldiers of the private army."

"Don't fucking bullshit me!" Ren Xiaosu said with a cold expression, "Don't tell me you're the spy?"

The platoon commander immediately shut his mouth and beckoned for the other soldiers to get out of the truck. "Hurry up and get out. Cooperate with this officer's investigation."

After the group of soldiers stepped out of the vehicle, Ren Xiaosu asked, "Who still has family back in town?"

A man raised his hand weakly. "Sir, my family is still in town."

Ren Xiaosu said to that platoon commander, "It's him, come with me!"

Li Qingzheng led a group of soldiers over and tied that man up before taking him back to their own truck.

Li Qingzheng was startled when he realized that Ren Xiaosu's so-called plan was to actually kidnap someone into their group!

Actually, the Li Consortium was only worried that there would be deserters. As long as they showed up with a full-strength platoon of 30 soldiers, they would definitely not say anything about it. However, Li Qingzheng never expected that Ren Xiaosu would come up with something like that!

How ruthless!

But better you than me! As if Li Qingzheng and the others cared about the life and death of another platoon. In these times, it was already great to survive. It didn't matter how they did it!

When the platoon commander saw the uniforms of the soldiers beside Li Qingzheng, he felt that something was wrong. Why were some of them dressed in casual wear and others dressed in the uniform of the private army?

The platoon commander asked suspiciously, "Sir, are your men in the private army?"

Ren Xiaosu hesitated for a moment. "That's right, I've been hiding with the private troops for a very long time to find the spy!"

The platoon commander did not dare say anything. After all, the Office of Special Investigations had a reputation. Without any blood relations to the Li Consortium, no one would dare to offend the Office of Special Investigations.

Ren Xiaosu cast him a glance before saying to Li Qingzheng, "Set off!"

After he said that, their military transport truck turned around in the direction of town and drove off. Ren Xiaosu was looking at that man who had been tied up. He said to Chen Wudi, "Untie him"

The man nearly cried from fear. "Sir, I'm really not a spy."

"Mhm." Ren Xiaosu nodded. "Starting from today, you're now a part of this platoon."

That man was stunned. "But, sir, I'm not from your platoon."

All the private soldiers next to him pointed their guns at him. Ren Xiaosu said, "You are now!"

It was also at this moment that the dazed platoon commander behind them managed to react. "Fuck, they were here to steal our people! What fucking Office of Special Investigations? How despicable!"

The soldiers beside him were panicking a little. "Platoon Commander, what do we do now?"

That platoon commander clenched his teeth. "I doubt we'll be able to chase after them. Besides, I also can't be sure whether his Office of Special Investigations identity is real or not. Let's… go and steal someone from the other platoons!"

There were several dozen outposts around the area, which meant there were several dozen platoons as well.

Ren Xiaosu was still unaware of what he had sparked. All of these platoons were about to tussle trying to steal soldiers from each other to fill up their rosters.

Some of the platoons were at full strength and did not consider the possibility of something like this happening. But there were a lot more platoons that had a person missing just like Ren Xiaosu's platoon. All of them were still wondering what they should do, but with Ren Xiaosu doing what he just did, it was as though a new world had opened up for them.

After the platoons from the outposts got out of the mountains and headed for town, there were only two or three major roads that they could take. As such, this scenario would probably be best described with the saying, "The brave win when rivals cross paths."

As Ren Xiaosu's group sped towards town, the sun was rising. Then they were surprised to see several military transport trucks of the Li Consortium driving in the direction they had come from.

When those vehicles saw Ren Xiaosu's group, they stopped. One of the drivers in the Li Consortium group rolled down his window and shouted, "Are you all the private troops that came from the outposts?"

Li Qingzheng was taken aback. "That's right."

"Did you see any groups fighting on your way here?" the driver asked.

"No, we set off very early," Li Qingzheng said calmly.

The driver cursed as he rolled the window back up, "Fuck, I heard a riot broke out over there! It's so troublesome to have to go out there to look at what's happening!"

Ren Xiaosu and Li Qingzheng sat in the front of the truck without saying a word. However, they could guess what had happened.

Li Qingzheng asked softly, "It should be fine,

right?"

Ren Xiaosu also felt a little guilty. "I guess it won't really be much of a problem…."

Ren Xiaosu sent Yan Liuyuan and the others back to town and instructed them to be cautious of the circumstances before heading to the assembly point to report in.

In the morning, Hu Shuo had just finished a short meeting at the Office of Special Investigations when he received a satellite call from a deputy of his. "Lieutenant General, the commanding officer of the private army forces is looking for you."

Hu Shuo was taken aback for a moment. "Why's he looking for me?"

Hu Shuo then answered the phone. "This is Hu Shuo speaking."

As a result, he was met with a barrage of complaints on the other end of the call. Although the private troops were made up of refugees, their commanding officer was still a family member of the Li Consortium. The person on the other end of the line was complaining so much that it made Hu Shuo unhappy. "Why the fuck would I want to meddle in the affairs of your private troops? Even if you gave those lousy troops of yours to me for free, I wouldn't take them in. Stop trying to accuse me of something!" And with that, Hu Shuo hung up.

However, he immediately got a headache over this matter. He was quite certain Ren Xiaosu caused trouble for him again!

Ren Xiaosu had thought there wouldn't be too many soldiers in the private troops, but he was wrong. After assembling, the soldiers even outnumbered a combat brigade of the organization. Li Qingzheng asked around and discovered that all of these private troops were actually gathered from the various Li Consortium strongholds.

The private troops of the various strongholds were currently under the command of an officer named Li Anjun. He was a family member of the Li Consortium and was also concurrently serving as the overseer of Stronghold 107. And the officer in charge of Stronghold 108's private troops was called Liu Taiyu.

By this moment, the private troops of the other strongholds had fully assembled. Liu Taiyu was looking disconsolately at the sole platoon in front of him that was made up of Ren Xiaosu's group. The rest of his soldiers were nowhere to be seen.

Liu Taiyu looked at Li Qingzheng. "Did anything happen on your way here?"

Li Qingzheng stood to attention and answered, "Sir, there were no incidents along the way. Our Eighth Platoon of the Iron Second Battalion has assembled on time. Awaiting your instructions, sir! I—"

"Alright, that's enough." Liu Taiyu waved his hand in frustration and dismissed him. "Do you think it's not chaotic enough? Just stand right here and be quiet!"

With that, Liu Taiyu left. No one knew where he went.

Someone in the platoon whispered, "Did everyone else that was behind us get into a

spat?"

"Seems so. They're probably stealing from each other's platoons," Li Qingzheng said in embarrassment.

Ren Xiaosu was amused. "That could turn out to be a good thing. As y'all should know, they can't enforce the law on us if everyone is a criminal. If a fight breaks out between all of the outposts, there won't be a need for any punishment."

Actually, the soldiers from other outposts only dared to do so because they also understood this fact. Since the Li Consortium needed people to fight the war now, surely they wouldn't waste their efforts to hold them all accountable, right?

At this moment, someone looked at Ren Xiaosu and said, "Platoon Commander, could you have expected this too? So you only wanted to create chaos that would lead to a situation where the law would not apply to all those in the wrong?"

Ren Xiaosu cleared his throat. "Not bad, right? Everything is well within my control."

But at this moment, Chen Wudi said, "My master is not that smart."

Ren Xiaosu looked at Chen Wudi speechlessly.

Actually, the management of the private troops had always been a mess. It became even more chaotic now that the private troops had recently expanded.

Ren Xiaosu and his group had never been to other outposts before. If they had, they would know that many of the outposts did not have the required full strength. The platoon commanders of the platoons would even deliberately lie about the number of soldiers under them as they wanted to freeload off of the consortium's supplies. But in the end, they were all caught off guard when they were suddenly requested to assemble for war.

If the higher-ups knew they were freeloading off them, they wouldn't be let off with just a simple punishment. Perhaps some people would even get executed as a warning to the others. So some people deliberately continued stirring up the pot even further amid the chaos.

While Liu Taiyu personally went to bring the rest of the private troops back, the other strongholds' private troops set out. Only Stronghold 108's platoons remained behind.

They were supposed to assemble and report at 7 AM, but it was almost evening now.

During this period, no one bothered with Ren Xiaosu and his group. Their entire platoon was allowed to roam freely like grazing sheep. Ren Xiaosu even had time to take everyone to town where he bought an egg-stuffed flatbread for each of them. This was a treat from Li Qingzheng.

In the evening, Liu Taiyu returned with a large number of troops. These private soldiers all had bruised and swollen faces. But the most shocking thing was that several of the established platoons had completely disappeared.

Many of them had their clothes torn, and some even lost their shoes. Only Ren Xiaosu's platoon was still looking somewhat dignified.

Ren Xiaosu's group was the Eighth Platoon of the Iron Second. There should have been seven platoons ahead of them. However, the Sixth Platoon ceased to exist, with all of their soldiers stolen away by the other platoons. Even the platoon commander himself had been taken away.

At this time, Liu Taiyu no longer talked about meting out punishment. On normal days, he would also do all he could to embezzle everyone's provisions and never really cared about his military responsibilities. This time, he was getting a taste of his own medicine.

Ren Xiaosu did a rough count. Currently, there were still 33 full-strength platoons of the private army remaining. In effect, the number of soldiers here was around 1000 or so.

Liu Taiyu stood before everyone and said, "You've all been taken care of by the organization during peacetime. As the saying goes, armies are trained for a 1,000 days only to be used for a single battle. Now is the time for you to serve the organization. We'll advance to the front lines at Mt. Tantou, Mt. Fengyi, and Mt. Shuanglong where we'll construct bases on the high ground to prevent an invasion by the Qing Consortium's troops."

Ren Xiaosu was stunned for a moment. Getting the private troops to construct bases on the high ground? They really intended to send them to their deaths.

Although there were still huge advantages in selecting the right terrain to fight on, artillery shells that could impact with extremely high accuracy over a very long range were a problem. Even if they managed to occupy the high ground, their enemies could simply bombard the entire area with artillery shells if they had enough funding.

In a time like this, anyone guarding the high ground would surely die.

Generally, such situations required the construction of extremely strong defensive fortifications that would help play a strategic role on the high ground. But was there time for Ren Xiaosu and the others to build any defensive fortifications?

Everyone in the private troops burst into an uproar since no one was willing to give up their lives for nothing. But even as they protested, no one dared to run away.

Liu Taiyu was surrounded by a reinforced company made up of his trusted troops. There were 180 of them in total, and their weapons and equipment were much better than those that Ren Xiaosu and the others carried.

But these troops were not used to fighting in battle. On one hand, they were responsible for the security of Liu Taiyu. On the other hand, they were to supervise the platoons of the private troops and ensure that they carried out their orders properly.

Liu Taiyu said with a smile, "However, there's a big reward for taking on a responsibility as great as this. Those who perform well at the end of the war can gain direct entry into the Li Consortium's troops. Not only that, but you'll also be handsomely rewarded as well. At the very least, you'll be ensured the status of legal resident and get to live in the stronghold."

Some of the soldiers became excited and eager on the spot. "We can get into the stronghold and be recognized as legal residents?"

"Are you serious?"

Liu Taiyu smiled and said, "As the commander of the Iron Second, would I make such jokes with you? The higher-ups of the organization have already issued an official notice. You can rest assured."

A lot of people were moved by the thought of that as most refugees were not knowledgeable. Historically, this group of people were always cheated by others. Now that they were in a group together, it was even easier to fool them all.

But Ren Xiaosu knew exactly why Liu Taiyu dared to make such a grand promise. It was because he thought that none of these close to a 1,000 private soldiers would make it back alive!

Many others among the troops were well-aware of this too, but they did not dare speak out. They could only leave their comrades to discuss it excitedly.

Suddenly, Liu Taiyu clapped his hands and signaled for everyone to be quiet. "Get into the trucks. It's time to set out!"

Liu Taiyu's off-road vehicle and the reinforced company's military transport trucks did not drive at the front but stayed in a supervisory role at the back of the convoy. They were watching to see if anyone would try to escape midway.

Ren Xiaosu was watching this through the rearview mirror of the truck and said to Li Qingzheng, "That Liu Taiyu is a coward. When the time comes, he'll definitely be too scared to get onto the battlefield personally. Since that's the case, we'll have more leeway to do what we want."

Li Qingzheng was taken aback. "What are you playing at? Xiaosu, don't be rash."