Li Canglai : "M'lord."
Zhu Feng : "Captain Canglai. How did it go?" The young-Baron was standing next to the chief-organizer of the logistics plan and the leader of the rear, provisions, supply and reserve-detachment plus being Li Canglai's own son... the famous genius-captain... Li Konglai in the flesh! spread in front of them on a wide table there's huge piece of leather that have a very detailed map of the Yan Kingdom, on the other side of Lord-Feng there's the only Yan-born and the only person familiar with the safe pathways and roads within this foreign land... the ex-bandit and one of the ten-leaders of the mist-bandits... that no-longer exists.
The battalion-commander cupped his fist before saying : "As per your commands m'lord, the tailor managed to assemble eighteen fitting-sets of full-body attire of the ZhuQing material for all the platoon-captains and seventy-two more for the squad-captains for a total of ninety full-sets, captain Konglai can collect his full-set of ZhuQing attire on his way out of the tent. Out of the one-thousand and eight of the soldiers, each squad-captain recommended the best three in accomplishments and ability within their squad for a chance to be granted priority in receiving a fitting-set of full-body attire of the ZhuQing material, among these two-hundred and sixteen soldiers one-hundred and eighty-seven received a fitting full-body outfit that matches their measurements, the rest of the soldiers number twenty-nine and all of them still lack one or two pieces to complete the set but, all their vitals are covered. The rest of the ZhuQing material was distributed among the seven-hundred and ninety-two soldiers through the method of trial by circle, when a certain piece is moved between all the soldiers one by one without a fitting match it gets distributed to the closest fit, if there's more than a fitting match then whoever was lucky to trial it first becomes the rightful-owner while the choice of relinquishing that certain piece for another soldier or trading it for a much more desired piece was left available for them to decide it by themselves however, under no circumstances should there be a fitting piece that's left or neglected for whatever reason then all those who chose not to wear it would be punished by martial-law." Li Canglai took a breathe to let his young-lord process these numbers before continuing to say : "Five-hundred of our soldiers are wearing at least two pieces to cover their vitals namely the head and upper-body save for the forearms, one-hundred and fifty are wearing nothing other than long-sleeved gloves and trousers, forty-two are wearing boots and upper-body attire."
The Baron did the math and understands that now plus himself he does have two-hundred and eighty-seven fitting-sets of this wonderful material, when working as a single unit Zhu Feng and his men should be able to confront ten times their number without losing a single step or being pressured at all, while having the ability to make a quick work of that force before meeting another force of similar size then annihilating them which means... given enough time these men are more than capable of meeting an army of about thirty-thousand on their own, decimating it even! this is just... a concept that's nonsensical and blistering-mad.
That doesn't mean that the rest of his men are just going to be standing-by and watch in such scenario, twenty-nine more men are just a step or two away from joining that meat-grinding detachment, there's also five-hundred more who could join the fray and contribute greatly while being slightly careful not to receive any heavy-strikes on the vulnerable and unprotected parts of their bodies.
The rest could be back-up and hold the rear or protect the supply-train of carriages, the civilian craftsmen, and the warhorses.
Zhu Feng : "Well, we gave it all we could and there's nothing else to do about it."
Li Canglai : "There's also some left-over pieces which might complete eight full-sets but the sizes are a bit small and would match someone who's too thin, too young, or a... woman!" The battalion-commander completed his report before standing to the side when Lord-Feng nodded to express his understanding.
The young-lord scratched his chin for a few seconds while looking at the map of the Yan Kingdom especially the southern-territory before saying : "Send a soldier to fetch me these sets, for now... I'll be keeping them with me, if there's a need for them? then, just notify me and I'd make a decision according to the situation," Afterwards Zhu Feng looked towards Li Konglai and Xi Qiqiang who didn't give him a clear answer yet, "Gentlemen. I have twenty-nine more days before my head goes flying, which road are we going to take now since that bloody volcano choose this shitty timing to erupt and block the only pathway in the center with freaking molten-lava." The Yan Kingdom isn't only backed-against beast-mountains from the west, it's territories have the highest number of active-volcanos in comparison with all the other Kingdoms and Empires in the area! despite how the logistics-team kept planning for every step of the way during the earlier month, despite taking countermeasures in-case such situation happens, this was the shortest road to the general's silver-guard which is according to the scouts... currently stationed at a mountain-pass after taking it as a temporary-base.
The shameless general would periodically take his men and leave that base to raid the cities on the central-territories of Yan Kingdom or ambush any nearby army or major-force of the Yan-nobles once his scouts deliver solid news before leisurely retreating to his base without suffering any retaliation, the hesitation from both Li Konglai and Xi Qiqiang is because the detour they're forced to take would either take them through the east or west around the Obsidian mountains, that mountain-chain that's tightly belting and blockading the area between the central and southern-territory of the Yan Kingdom is very steep, Obsidian-mountains are also very famous of containing a lot of pseudo demonic-beasts plus many low-grade demonic-beasts of different species.
Going through the eastern-road would mean crossing through the war-zone between the aggressively-pressing western-armies of the Hai Kingdom and the passively-suppressed eastern-armies of the Yan Kingdom, going through the western-road would mean having to sneak-past the demonic-beasts on the outer-belt of beast-mountains then force their way through the western-borders of the Yan-kingdom and quickly send these supplies to general Lian Laoci at the fiery-abyss mountain-pass by entering Obsidian-mountains from the north instead of the south.
In the eastern-pathway there's a chance to suffer attacks from the Hai and Yan armies after being suspiciously considered a disguised-detachment seeking to sneak-attack one of them, in the western-pathway there's a much greater risk of encountering a beast-horde or the much more dreaded beast-wave and they're certainly getting attacked on-sight by any demonic-beast of any grade and species however, there's also the chance of a much lax armies on these parts of the Yan Kingdom or a much more concentrated force if they're expecting the Shi Kingdom to attempt to sneak any armies into their central-territory from this part of their borders.
Right after Zhu Feng ordered for his army to move-out, he and him men barely moved a few kilometers north of Obsidian-City when the scouts delivered the news, the Baron immediately ordered for their entourage of carriages to halt and formed an emergency-meeting with Li Konglai and Xi Qiqiang to take their opinions.
Li Konglai : "If I may speak plainly m'lord."
Zhu Feng : "Go ahead and speak your mind freely, just... try to be specific and on-point."
"Will do m'lord, this subject recommends the eastern-pathway, the land there is flat and much easier to traverse for our sturdy and quick carriages which would allow our scouts to clearly spot any armies of large-numbers who might threaten the supply-train in-case our main-force is forced to engage in combat." The genius-captain said before looking towards the battalion-commander next to him and waited to hear his opinion.
Xi Qiqiang : "It's also the longer road, being spotted by the enemy or entangled by the Hai or Yan's armies might delay us behind schedule, almost every noble-house in the Shi Kingdom already know about the young-lord's mission and news travel fast between Kingdoms and Empires, it's been a month... the timing of that volcanic-eruption is already dubious enough and I wouldn't be too surprised if it was intentionally done by someone after receiving orders from the crown's strategist or someone from the royal family of Yan Kingdom to sever the supply-line and isolate the general and his men in their temporary-base! believe me, that fiery-abyss mountain-pass is treacherous and hard to conquer but the surrounding area is just the same, there's already far too less food-sources, towns, and villages north and south of it before the war, now that the war has certainly wiped the ones north and the volcanic-eruption removing all chances of any villages or towns existing south of the fiery-abyss mountain-pass... at least for the foreseeable-future, then the general and his men has to either raid territories further north and way from their base or forage for food within Obsidian-mountains. Being too far from their base means having to risk losing it while they're gone, venturing into Obsidian-mountains means risking falling to demonic-beasts or falling from extreme-heights towards uncertain fate. Not to mention that the general and his men must be in an immediate need for armaments more than rations after having to undergo warfare for three months without enough replacements of their gear or their tools undergoing proper maintenance and care." The baldy just shook his head and explained his opinion which caused the Baron and Li Canglai to gawk while feeling extreme shock, meanwhile Li Konglai nodded and began to scratch his chin.
Li Canglai : "Is the sun rising from the west today?" The other battalion-commander muttered before looking towards his young-Baron then back at his colleague before looking back at the young-lord.
"Well, well, well... I'll be damned! there's actually some working brain-cells within that "cue-ball" of yours, I'm impressed battalion-commander Qiqiang, really impressed. Now... let me tell you how I see it. In the east we know what to expect, namely Hai and Yan-armies both big and small, we also expect to be delayed behind schedule. In the west we expect a formidably-huge Yan-army, we don't know what to expect from demonic-mountains on the outer-belt and how many demonic-beasts or how strong they'd be, being entangled and delayed by an army of humans is nothing like being entangled by a beast-wave and the same could be said when the number of beasts is the similar to the human-army. Even if the circumstances forces us to arm the civilians, the number of our combined force would still be less than one-thousand five-hundred strong, that's not even a smallest-sized brigade of two thousand, at best we could consider ourselves two medium-sized battalions! once the supply-train is put to the torch... even if we manage to reach the general in time before the deadline, my head would most-likely decorate a rusty-spear, a softer-form of punishment would be the confiscation of my wealth, territory, severe-demotion in title, redistribution of my men among the armies and nobles, probably my fate would be slavery and my wolves would be either captures or sold to the highest-bidder. So, the most critical-question here is... do we prepare ourselves and face the expected head-on in full-force? or... do we attempt to predict the unexpected and risk venturing the unknown? that's the million-dollar question right here." The young-lord complimented the muscular-baldy before giving the men his opinion of this situation.
Li Konglai : "Dollar?" The young-captain frowned and looked towards his father seeking an explanation however, his old man just shrugged while rolling his eyes which seemed to say : 'The fuck would I know! just be a good lad and gloss-over it, that's just how the Baron is.'
Xi Qiqiang : "We go east, the west is too dangerous we can't accept the risk, if it means that each and every one of us is going to do more and give it ten-times the normal-effort to deliver these supplies safely in time? then, so be it... the Baron is already putting his life, wealth, and reputation at risk, we can't allow anything to endanger his life or the safety of his noble-family." The tall and hairless battalion-commander ruffled Night's black fur roughly while saying that.
Li Canglai : "Bloody Yans better think a hundred-times over before crossing our path, we're going to slaughter them all." The other battalion-commander balled his fist before tightening his grip on the handle of his sword, he received this sword from his Baron during his promotion and it's a sword that was personally forged by the best blacksmith in Sword-Villa and the highest-paid instructor of that craft within the Light-House Institute, the one-handed Saint-Forger... Da Donghai himself, Xi Qiqiang received a pair of special-gauntlets which have hidden-compartments that enable this ex-bandit to cause a pair of short-swords to extend from them or three short nails from each gauntlet, despite being used to using a sword and many different weapons now after spending a lot of training-sessions being forced to use them in various mock-battles, the baldy is more effecient and naturally more lethal when he's wearing knuckles or gauntlets, of course there's still a long-sword and a dagger hanging from the belt on the waist of this very tall and muscular battalion-commander.
Brigade-commander Ba Tusai received an extremely heavy glaive and a two-parts spear which the powerhouse could use one while mounting his warhorse or the other if the situation forces him to dismount, battalion-commander Niu received his most preferred weapon of choice which is a great-axe that he can now crush or send any opponent in his path flying with it, Fu Liwei is a swift-blade type of person and the Baron specifically instructed the Saint-forger to create a "Katana" for him and that bored captain immediately fell in love with guard-less weapon! when it comes to the "drawing-speed" of their weapon... the captain of the "special-unit" is matchless among the whole army, before Li Canglai and Ba Tusai could react during that trial they discovered the tip of that shiny and sharp guard-less blade resting on their throats.
'How do you like my "IAI"? it's the sword-technique our young-lord taught me, within the range of my sword I'm now able to dispatch any enemy before they're able to reach for their weapon! now I can protect the Baroness, lady Biyu, and the noble-family much easier. But I better improve my mastery of it quickly otherwise, the Baron wouldn't teach me the sword-technique that could help me overcome the weakness of this IaI! this sword-technique is perfect at close-range, and slightly above-average at medium-range but, it's clearly put at a clear-disadvantage at long-range.' That's what the captain of the special-unit said after sheathing his long, three-finger wide, and slightly curved blade back into its scabbard in a quick and fluent-motion, despite saying it with some regret in his tone of voice Liwei was clearly feeling smug and very proud of himself like a peacock that's strutting between a group of chickens.
Zhu Feng : "Let's save all that energy for the time we actually make contact, Konglai."
"This subject is awaiting orders m'lord."
"Chillax a little man, you're too tense all the time, come-on... loosen-up will'ya!" Lord-Feng sighed after seeing the uptight-attitude of this genius-captain, "Before you go I want you to hear me out and think well about what I'm going to say now, I know that this is your first mission, I know that you're under a lot of pressure being required to handle the rear, the supplies, the reserve, and the logistics! your focus and concentration must be already spread too thin and all of us here understand this difficulty however, let me clearly inform you of this simple fact... we all make mistakes, sooner or later at some point of our lives we all do. Honestly, your current-attitude means that you're likely to make or fall in these mistakes if compared to the other attitude where you accept the fact that you're probably going to make mistakes, at least... in the second-scenario you're going to think or try to come-up with solutions much faster! the second thing that I want you to understand is... we don't expect you to do everything, we expect you to do your job, just your job and nothing more, if you do it? then, good. If you do a better job? then, very good! if you do a great job? then, excellent... now it's us who needs to do better than you else we lose face after some rookie puts all of us to shame. Point is... is the sky falls, your old man is here to save your ass! as for me? of course I'm going to make a quick run for it and ditch your useless bums, kekeke... nothing could catch-up with the speed of my Shadow, you all know it." The young-Baron smirked like the devil at the end before clapping the genius-captain who's one year older than himself, Li Canglai nodded and patted his son's shoulder since he really wanted to say similar words earlier but was afraid to be misunderstood by his kid since speaking his mind isn't something that he's good at! then the battalion-commander thought that maybe his eldest-son would learn from experience however, this is a really sensitive-mission and the risk to the life of their Baron made him hesitate whether or not to say anything yet his fear of overcomplicating things or adding more pressure on his kid caused him to try and wait for the right timing.
Thankfully Zhu Feng talked it over with Li Konglai in a smooth manner which didn't diminish the genius-captain's confidence or add any pressure on his shoulders, the young-lord is about the same age with the logistics-team's captain and maybe that's why his words which came from the heart cleared all confusions and doubt from Konglai's heart then removed all anxieties or anxiousness from his chest, while unravelling all the overexaggerated-expectations from the mind of the genius-captain and keeping everything within the borders of reality... the young-Baron mentally-prepared this young-captain for the frustrating moments when mistakes happen! that way Konglai could bounce-back quickly and adapt himself to the situation or at least work on fixing things before complications happen.
Li Konglai : "Y-yes m'lord. I promise to do my best and try to put you all to shame." The genius-captain balled his fists and nodded while feeling like he's been juiced with an extra dose of motivation, he looked towards his father and battalion-commander Xi Qiqiang then muttered these words while doing his best not to laugh instead!
Li Canglai : "Tsk. Big talk, walk the walk first lest you embarrass both of us."
Xi Qiqiang : "I'm actually looking forward to when it happens, having an expert in logistics has always been somewhat of a headache for me back in the days and I had to do a lot of things myself, now I can focus on fighting instead."
Zhu Feng : "Man... talk about being a traitor, you're willing to slaughter your own countrymen." Lord-Feng puckered his lips while muttering these words and gave the ex-bandit a side-glance.
"What do you expect? my mother was a slave from the Dou Empire north of the Yan Kingdom, my father was a lord who forced himself on her and when she died after giving birth to me I was treated like no-different from a slave, until an army of the Hai Kingdom raided his land and made me a complete and helpless orphan, thankfully my luck was good since I'm blessed with strong physique after working the fields from an early age, and because I always swam at the eastern-sea to hunt fish or I would've starved because nobody cares whether I live or die! I was able to swim until I almost drowned before escaping south and arriving at the Shi Kingdom after following the shore-line to the northern-borders, it was then that I met mist-hand and was given the choice of either joining his bandit-group or die since I happened to witness them smuggling some merchandize into the Shi Kingdom after slaughtering some merchant-caravan," The baldy suddenly retorted and Zhu Feng, Li Canglai, and Li Konglai listened without saying a single comment, "Yes... I mainly operated within the territories of the Hai Kingdom to repay them back for trying to kill me in the past however, the main-wife of my father and her family attempted to have me killed a few times! I still have a few siblings alive in that disgusting land, my old man never wasted a seed and desperately attempted to make connections with every single noble family, two of my half-sisters are married into noble families one being married to a Baron and even fortunate enough to be the first-wife and Baroness... that bitch really hated my guts she paid a squire to break my arm when I was seven because she found me displeasing to her eyes. The other is married to a Count but she's just the seventh wife, she's a poor gal who never talked much and like me got bullied a lot by our siblings before being shipped-away to warm the bed for that old and fat count, four of my half-siblings were away of the estate when the raid happened and I know for a fact that three of them are knights under nobles from the northern-families! the last one is called Xi Qilong... he was personally recruited by the Seventh-Prince Yan Xitong about two years before my father died, among all my family-members you all better be careful if you ever meet him someday, that brother of mine is a snake. He's strong, cunning, shameless, and a very scheming-person! either kill him at once or... keep looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life, the Sixth-Prince Yan Xibai shamed him once and died two days later yet the royal-investigators couldn't find any relation or connection between my brother and the death of that Sixth-Prince, two months later the Third-Princess Yan Xian which lost the support of the Sixth-Prince and his faction met my brother at a banquet of some noble and likewise had an argument with my brother, you can go ahead and guess what mysterious fate happened to her two weeks later." Finally the tall and muscular battalion-commander shook his head and kept hugging the thick neck of his black wolf seemingly seeking comfort from him.
"Phew!... and here I was just making a joke! your Yan Kingdom is so fucked-up mate, same goes for your fucked-up family, they're even more fucked-up than mine." The Baron massaged his forehead before clapping Qiqiang on the shoulder while smiling then continued to say : "Let's us focus on the mission at hand for now, Konglai... you go ahead and order your men to ready themselves and prepare them for the worse that might happen and tell them to quickly disassemble this tent, Canglai... you and Qiqiang go ready the men. Uh! by the way... where's Niu at?" Zhu Feng ordered before suddenly remembering that this meeting is missing a battalion-commander.
"He'd be useless in here so I told him to take some men and scout around the area." Li Canglai said while shrugging since it's widely-known that Niu is more muscle than brain, sometimes he just think with his third-leg and overdo it! Lord-Feng himself was once the victim of that extreme-behavior.
Zhu Feng : "Sigh. Go then, I want us so be on the move in one hour."
"Right-away m'lord." The three men left after giving the chest-thumping salute then cupping their fist, now the young-lord is all alone with Harmony inside the tent.
*****
"Awoo'oo..."
"AWOO'OO..." About ten-minutes after his two battalion-commanders and logistics-captain left his tent, while the young-Baron was overseeing the civilians who're disassembling or gathering everything from inside it and arranging them neatly, Zhu Feng heard Thunder's loud howling and Harmony's pair of ears perked-up... Night on the other hand bolted towards the direction of his brother!
"Let's go check it boy." Lord-Feng quickly sat his butt on Shadow's back and patted him while saying so to calm the anxious Harmony.
Within a nearby forest the young-lord found his muscular and young battalion-commander Niu sitting on his horse next to one of his company-captains, both of them are watching two platoon-captains which are currently leading eight squad-captains and fifty-six elite-soldiers to surround a group of young-men and women... mostly women... who number about a hundred or so! Zhu Feng is already familiar with two people within this group, one of them is famous for having a very wide fan-base within Obsidian-City, a very annoying and confident character, a very... very unreasonable handsomeness, a very unfair charm, and a very strong ability to influence both genders... especially the opposite one.
The other person have the unique-characteristic of having a very revealing and seductive-attire plus very long and colorful nails on both of her hands.
The rest of the faces on the group of nervous people behind these two are vaguely remembered by the young-Baron since a lot of them relished in the pathetic-joy of making fun of the Baron everyday after suffering his losses to this devilishly-handsome and sword-talented young-man who clearly managed to shed-away some of the immature-looks since he last met him almost two years ago.
Zhu Feng : "Attention! nobody makes a move against them, this Baron's orders," After shouting these words and startling both side which were about to engage in a melee, "Well, hello, hello... indeed. You foolish boy are seeking your own trouble by daring to come in here, did you forget the last order I gave Night the last time we met? I'd take a look behind me if I were you." Lord-Feng smirked while leaning forward to support his elbow on Shadow's thick and strong neck before gesturing behind Mu Chen.
Mu Chen : "Fuck! is that Night? h-hey!... I-I... I came here and brought this force to join you, is that how you treat an old friend who comes to provide help in a time of need? I'm warning you, big-sister Biyu is certainly going to hear of this... ya hear me!"
Cang Yanmei : "Hehehe... little-Chen is so cute when he's anxious, I just want to eat him all up in one bite."
"Not if this wolf does it first! y-you... don't come any closer, don't test me, I'm not the same person from before." The extremely handsome young-man tightened his grip around his sword and said while retreating step after step until his back hit something that's similar to a brick-wall and sensed a hand landing heavily on his shoulder before hearing these amused words : "Well... it's good to see you too, old friend."
