Chapter Seventeen Down the Mountain

  The Han army men were all delighted and returned to their camp, laughing and chatting, without any discipline. What Ruan Yi had said about the only reliable troops being Mao Youjun's direct subordinates now seemed not exaggerated at all. Only within the direct subordinates would military law and regulations be strictly enforced, with a ban on fires and closed doors at night. It was impossible to see something like Long Chen calling out his men for a "picnic" in the evening. If you remove Mao Youjun's direct subordinates from the Iron Mountain Department and hang a sign at the camp gate that reads "Certain Village, Certain Great King", it would be an exact bandit den. A troop cannot form a stable and strong combat effectiveness without strict military discipline.

  "What's this bunch of fools making a racket about at this late hour? Can't they let us get some sleep?" A soldier, woken up by the noise outside, complained with his head covered in a blanket.

  "Who knows, they're dragged around like fools during the day and still laughing at night, I really can't understand what's going on in their heads."

  "Four Dogs, you have some good connections over there, why don't you go ask what's going on and why they're so excited?" a soldier suggested.

  Those four dogs were also very curious, seeing someone propose it, they were happy to go out and investigate. After half a catty of tea time, the four dogs returned, shrugged their shoulders at the surrounding curious soldiers: "They went to eat on the back mountain stream after dark."

  "Nonsense! You're so happy just from eating a meal?" Military Han immediately didn't believe him.

  The soldiers all thought so, to know that in peacetime the kitchen only issued some cold leftovers and coarse fried noodles, and even during holidays, they would only give everyone a bowl of thin soup with a few drops of oil to drink. Everyone's mouth had long been tired of eating, and when it came to eating, no one had any enthusiasm.

  "We're having meat, snake meat is enough, and there's fish soup to drink too." The four dogs said, their mouths seemingly savoring the deliciousness of the fish soup.

  "Really?"

  "What's the point of cheating you? When they coughed, that meaty smell came straight out." Si Gou said with a solemn oath.

  "Who stirred up the trouble? The creek water in the back mountain does have fish, but without a net it's hard to catch them. As for catching snakes in the middle of winter, that's quite an accomplishment."

  "It's not their new flag yet." The fourth dog was afraid that others wouldn't believe him, so he quickly added: "A while ago, Hu Meng and a few others went to the back mountain to eat fish, which was also arranged by someone with the surname Long."

  "Those silly kids, they're quite lucky, they can still eat meat at night. That Dragon guy may be a bit of a troublemaker, but if he can let everyone have some good food every now and then, even if he drags me over to scold me, so what?"

  The various Han armies heard this and deeply agreed with it.

  ……

  Last night, everyone ate and drank to their heart's content, feeling very satisfied. They lay in bed savoring the delicious meat flavors, and slept very soundly. However, this morning before dawn broke, a similar scene unfolded again, with all the small flag officers waking up ahead of time, urging their subordinates to get out of bed and prepare for drill practice. Unlike yesterday, although the soldiers grumbled about being disturbed from their peaceful sleep, they all cooperated and got out of bed to dress and tidy up, still muttering complaints, but moving at a speed that was not one bit slower.

  At this time, the schoolyard was still only these people under Long Chen's command. The not-so-large schoolyard had a hint of "emptiness" against the backdrop of these few individuals.

  Everyone saw the military officers arrive and were stunned when they saw the person standing in front of the formation. Isn't this our former commander? Although Ruan Yi was a bit lazy and didn't like to get involved, he had been the commander for a long time, so people still had some fear towards him. Even though Long Chen had taken over Ruan Yi's position, no one dared to be disrespectful to Ruan Yi, nor would anyone ask: "Ruan brother, why are you standing here today? Where is Commander Long?" Asking this question was just asking for trouble.

  However, it would be better to ask Hu Meng, the newly appointed general's confidant. Let this kid ask, it's most suitable. Everyone started looking around for Hu Meng's figure, but after searching for a while, they found something was off. All the soldiers under Hu Meng had arrived, so why wasn't Hu Meng himself anywhere to be seen?

  Standing in front of the crowd, Rong Yi's heart couldn't help but feel a little empty. In the past, no matter how lazy he was, he was still a general officer, and it was natural for him to lecture the crowd. But now that his official position had been stripped away, speaking felt like his waist was stiffening up. However, since he had promised Long Chen last night that he would train these guards today, he had to take charge of things. It was unclear whether it was due to the effect of Long Chen's "sweet date" yesterday, but today the crowd arrived much earlier than they did yesterday.

  Ran Yi still had the long gun on his back, his eyes scanned the crowd of Han soldiers, and he said in a deep voice: "Today, Dragon General's flag is led by Hu Meng with something urgent to attend to, so I'll be leading the exercise. The rules are the same as yesterday, if you don't want to train, that's fine, but if we win, I can leave!"

  With the experience of yesterday, the crowd didn't seem to be surprised at all, and they started turning around and running in columns. As they ran, they found that Rang Yi was actually following them again, just like yesterday.

  "What are you looking at? Who dares to slack off and fall behind me? Today, I'll personally take care of it!" To intimidate the crowd, Ruan Yi brought out his iron-blooded old soldier side. After all, he was a veteran who had survived the Battle of Sarhu, and it was more than enough to intimidate these soldiers.

  Everyone's heart skipped a beat, before they all thought that the former General Flag was although not in charge of anything, but still quite gentle, could it be that after staying with the new General Flag for a long time, his temper has also become violent?

  ……

  On this side, Rong Yi led the crowd to start training, and on that side, Long Chen took Hu Meng from the back mountain along the stream to the place where they met Song Gang yesterday.

  Upon arrival, Long Chen stopped in his tracks and waited where he was. He had previously noticed that the grass and trees were swaying against the wind, indicating that the soldiers hiding there had gone to report back.

  In just a moment, Song Gang came over with two soldiers, one of whom was Xu Cheng, who had caught snakes with Long Chen yesterday. From a distance, Song Gang cupped his fists and shouted to Long Chen: "Thanks for the snake meat yesterday, Lord Long! Haha, I haven't had a good meal in ages!"

  "We're all brothers from the same family, what's the need for courtesy?" Long Chen wouldn't put on airs either, as this chief flag officer was probably nothing in the eyes of the small flags under someone else's direct command.

  Seeing Long Chen still had a soldier behind him, Song Gang understood that he was going down the mountain. Otherwise, it wouldn't be possible for him to come over so early just to wait for himself and say "thank you".

  "It looks like it's going to rain."

  "It's all right, I hope you can give your brother some convenience."

  "Look at what you're saying, what's convenient or inconvenient about it? Aren't we all our own people? Xu Cheng, come over and take the adults down." Song Gang beckoned Xu Cheng over.

  "Then thank you, brother." Long Chen thanked him again and followed Xu Cheng as they continued walking downstairs.

  The back mountain of Tieshan is different from the front mountain. The mountain road becomes narrower as you go down, and at the foot of the mountain, it's just a small path that can only accommodate two people passing through. A small camp gate was built here, and twenty soldiers were stationed here, which was enough. If you bring more people over, they won't be able to deploy. The front mountain has an open road leading up the mountain, so a large camp gate was built, with heavy troops stationed there.

  "Is there another checkpoint below?" Long Chen had thought that after passing Song Gang's checkpoint, he could directly leave the mountain, but unexpectedly, after walking a few steps and turning a corner, he saw a fort gate.

  "The adults don't know, our little flag is a secret signal, the one in front of the gate is an open sentry." Xu Cheng explained as he walked.

  When they arrived at the entrance of Xiaozhai, Long Chen and his two companions were stopped by the soldiers on guard. A small flag walked out from among the soldiers, and Xu Cheng went forward to whisper something in its ear. The small flag's gaze swept over Long Chen's body, then nodded its head.

  "Brother Chen Hu, I've seen Lord Long." Chen Hu was a small flag of Ming Gang, and after Xu Cheng's introduction, he knew which character was in front of him. After all, Long Chen's name had already spread throughout the direct military.

  "Brother Chen is good." Long Chen also returned a fist bump as a courtesy.

  "Open the gate for Lord Long, and be quick about it." Chen Hu ordered his soldiers to open the camp gate.

  "Sir, do you want a horse?" Chen Hu asked as he stepped forward. For the convenience of traveling, there were usually stables set up at the entrance of each camp, but since Chen Hu's place was in the back mountain, nobody usually came here unless they had business to attend to, although there were two horses available.

  "No need," Long Chen smiled and declined. He could drive tanks and helicopters, but he had never trained in horse riding.