Chapter 024 - The Secret Position

Wanfu Chief An Jipu was happy and said with a smile, ''Oh, so you're Ye Xia who discovered an ambush by enemy scouts today! Good performance, keep up the good work. By the way, if you have any suggestions, just say so, I won't blame you."

Receiving an affirmative reply that Antip would not be blamed, Ye Xia bravely spoke out his suggestion, "The fact that we found suspicious personnel today and that they killed the villagers with ruthlessness means that they don't want to expose their whereabouts. I can't think of any reason why they would cross the border engagement zone and cross the heavy town of Porna to come this far back to harass our march. If their target is you, Wannabe, the supreme commander of our column, then, for example, tonight, with our side in the open and the enemy in the shadows, there is no way to defend against them, and I would suggest that you ..."

When Ye Xia finished speaking, the captain of the guards said angrily, ''How can you, a small soldier, make such a suggestion? How can our honorable Wanfu Chief do such a thing as you suggest? Men, blast this little soldier out!"

Two soldiers rushed into the tent and set up Ye Xia to leave.

"Slow down!" Antip glared at the captain of the guards in a slightly angry manner, "People have said that it's just a suggestion, and I've promised that even if I don't accept the suggestion, I won't get angry and blame him. You're so acute, I'm not even angry, why are you in a hurry?... You two guards, let go of him, get out, get out."

The two soldiers let go of Ye Xia, stood upright, bent over, and said, "Yes!" Then they lifted the curtain and went out of the tent.

An Jip smiled and said to Ye Xia, ''Ye Xia, ah, you are worried about your officer's safety, and you are brave enough to make a suggestion, this is a good performance, and this is something that should be encouraged. As for whether the suggestion is feasible or not, I will consider it from my side. You go back first. ... All of you, what with the ten commanders, centurions, and thousand commanders, go back as well! Remember, no one is allowed to blame Ye Xia, he is a soldier with potential and should be cultivated properly. Let's go, let's go!"

Ye Xia, the decapod, the centurion, and the thousand, the four bent over and saluted, and withdrew from the tent ...

In the middle of the night, the night was quiet. The column's bivouac was a multitude of small and medium-sized tents, extending outward in a circle with the large central tent as the centerpiece. Around the empty wagon frames in a circle, the handrails on the frames, tied one by one torches. The soldiers on night duty, using the wagon frames as cover, stood guard at three paces and five paces. In the camp, several main roads between the gaps in the tents were patrolled back and forth by several teams of ten men.

Not far outside the camp, a group of men lay motionless on the ground under the cover of night, the three leaders talking in whispers:

"The defense of this column's camp, which is still so densely guarded by so many people in the middle of the night, is not like the other troops we saw earlier in the south! You see, there are still so many patrols in the camp."

"Looks like the decapitation plan won't work."

"So we'll just have to go with the alternate second plan?"

"It'll have to do. You guys, take the men into the woods and get the stuff out and implement plan number two!"

After a while, three piles of flames suddenly flared up from them, and then the three piles of flames immediately turned into thirty points of fire that shot up into the air and, after a parabolic course of flight, landed in the large tent in the center of the column.

The group had just fired their fire-bearing bows and arrows and immediately retreated quickly toward the woods behind them; they didn't wait to watch to see if the bows and arrows landed on target.

A few soldiers on night duty facing this direction from the Holy Kingdom had just seen a fire lit up and immediately shouted, "Something's going on!"

Someone started banging a gong.

Meanwhile, they watched uncertainly as the dozens of fire spots rose into the air, grew smaller, traced a parabola, gradually grew larger, and crashed down toward the center of the camp. It was only then that someone woke up and shouted, "It's a kerosene bow and arrow!" ...

The soldiers were on their hands and knees, carrying water back and forth to put out the fire.

Wannabe Antip came toward the center of the camp, protected by a guard of forty men.

Antip stood in front of the burnt out big tent, angry as hell, the rise and fall of his chest showed that his breathing rate was accelerating. Antip remembered Ye Xia's advice in the evening, "I suggest that when you sleep at night, you should not sleep in this big tent that was arranged specifically for the supreme commander, it will become a target for the enemy's sneak attack at night. You should quietly blend into the ordinary soldiers' tents to rest, even if the enemy comes to sneak attack, they will only pounce at the big tent."

Later, after thinking it over, Antip quietly adopted the suggestion, and he and the captain of the guard quietly entered a common soldier's tent at night to lie down. When he first went to sleep, Antip smelled the tent with the stench of soldiers' feet and the sour smell of sweat, Antip regretted a little: "How can I sleep in such stinky air? I should have known better than to sleep in my big tent. Let's forget about it tonight, if nothing happens overnight, then I'll still sleep in my big tent tomorrow night." An Jip covered his nose with a pillow and forced himself to fall asleep quickly.

Antip fell asleep, but he kept dreaming that he was sleeping next to a cesspool ...

Sleeping and dreaming, in a daze, Antip was awakened by the constant sound of gongs, chaotic shouting and running. The captain of the guards had already woken up all the soldiers in the tent, all of whom surrounded Antip in a circle with their swords and shields.

A guard ran in and said sharply, "Report! There's an enemy attack, it's a long-distance attack with bows and arrows with kerosene, and the big tent has been burned almost to the ground. Thousand-Master Gorman, who was on night duty, has already led the men after the enemy!"

Antip rose haughtily and walked out of the tent. The captain of the guard followed close behind, making a few gestures to the soldiers at the entrance of the next few tents, and all at once, a guard of forty men was formed to escort Antip forward.

Antip watched as the large tent burned to pieces and the ground was covered with bows and arrows, at least two dozen of them. Behind him, one after another, seven thousand captains came and stood behind him. Without a word, Antip turned and walked a little way, got into one of the tents of one of the thousand captains, and sat down on his butt in a big chair behind a table.

Thousand-Master Gorman had led the men after the enemy, a thousand-master was directing the crowd to put out the fire, and a thousand-master was arranging security for the camp.

An Tipu looked at the seven thousand captains and captains of the guard standing in front of him and, furious, scolded, "Why don't they all say anything? Did you not expect the enemy to attack with fire? Cocking an arrow, lighting a fire, aiming, and shooting, a matter of seconds! What I'm angry about is not that they came to sneak up on me! What I'm angry about is that ten thousand captains, how many centurions and decapods, no one has given me good advice on defense, one only knows that three steps at the perimeter and five steps at the sentry post will keep the enemy away, but to no one's surprise, only one small soldier, a new recruit who has just enlisted a few months ago, has offered to let me quietly hide and sleep in a common soldier's tent at night. As it happens, I managed to avoid the sneak attack by chance, or else I would have been burned to black charcoal, or even shot to death by random arrows!"

Antip picked up the teapot on the table, poured it into a teacup, and finished the tea in one gulp before continuing to curse, "And you! What guard captain! At first you were against this suggestion, but if it wasn't for the fact that I accepted the suggestion and thought about it, would I still be sitting here now? Even if I don't die, I will be wounded by a bow and arrow, or burned by fire!"

Theodore, the captain of the guards, bent over, bowed his head, and confessed, "My subordinates know their sins!"

Antip poured another cup of tea and finished it in another gulp, continuing to curse, "Don't be glad, you thousand captains, today the enemy is going to attack me, maybe tomorrow it will be you! Starting tomorrow, within this column, all what ten, hundred, and thousand captains, guard captains, including me, will eat and live with the common soldiers, no exceptions allowed, so that the enemy can't find a chance to sneak up on you. Understood?"

"..."

"Got it?"

"Understood! Yes, sir!"

"All out!"

"Yes!"

"That whoever, Captain Guard, go, get that whoever, you personally, and apologize to the person!"

"My lord, who should I be told to call over?"

"It's that who, that, that, that recruit named Ye Xia!"