With the system to forge her identity document, Wen Qing easily infiltrated the army. Would it be hard? The border has been constantly chaotic all year round and there were countless causalities. The amount of the newly replenished blood was far from the amount that came out of the hole. Going to the battlefield was equivalent to going with no return! Therefore, the common people would rather break their legs to escape the forced labor than send their lives.
The recruitment officer on the street had a handful of silvers, as long as you signed up, you would get 2 silver taels of settlement money, but no one went. Money was good, but you have to be alive to enjoy it, right? The scholar in the original book was fooled by the 2 silver taels. His mother was seriously ill, and he was in desperate need of money. He came to a dead end, so he signed up for the army. Then, he died in battle and never came back.
Wen Qing followed the new recruits of the same period into the camp and was sent to the battlefield after half a month of training. It was no wonder that Da Chen's casualty rate was so high. Some of them couldn't even hold a knife, and were sent out randomly, weren't they rushing to give their head to the enemy? They couldn't even be called cannon fodders. After all, there were no artillery weapons in this era!
It has been more than 300 years since the previous dynasty seized and established the Da Chen Dynasty. After several changes, it was no longer like its original heyday. On the surface, it looks like a prosperous scene, but in fact, it had long decayed and declined on the inside.
The royal family was extravagant, obscene, and disorderly. The imperial court was inactive and formed parties for self-interest. The military was corrupt, and the treacherous officials were in power. The people were suffering, their cries of discontent rose all around... As the proverb says, kick someone while they're down. When Da Chen was weak, the surrounding barbarian countries began to stare at them. The Man Tribe from the North, the Qiang Tribe from the West, the Yi Tribe from the South, and the pirates from the East caused disturbance from time to time. Today's Da Chen could be said to be surrounded by enemies and had become a trapped beast.
However, the borders were obviously in a critical state, but the capital was still indulged in a life of luxury with bustling scenery. The subordinates followed the example of their superiors and presented a false picture of peace and prosperity. Comparing the two, there were already signs of the fall of the country.
However, there were still some useful people in the imperial court. There were generals guarding in all directions and Da Chen would not be defeated for a while. The place where the original owner became a military prostitute was in the south, so Wen Qing naturally chose this place. Before coming, she studied some information about the southern general, General Li Ang, and she already had a plan for the future in her heart.
Li Ang was cruel by nature, addicted to killing, and had a very bad reputation among the people. With such a general who didn't take human life seriously, the death rate of his soldiers was also the highest. Wen Qing planned to take this as an entry point and take the military power in the south into her own hands. However, at the moment, she was only a new recruit who had just entered the camp, and on her way to being a cannon fodder.
The southern Yi Tribe has a complex terrain, and dense mountain forests, and there were many poisonous snakes and ants in the forest. People who were unfamiliar with it could die easily. Those native Yi's people were like fish in the water. Therefore, they did not confront Da Chen head-on, but only sent a small group of soldiers to harass and make trouble. After the fight, they would go into the dense forest, slippery like a loach.
Da Chen's soldiers were so angry that their teeth were itching, but there was nothing they could do. Li Ang led his troops to attack several times, but to no avail, lost many people. Some fell into the hands of Yi people, while some were killed because of his anger. To die at the hands of the enemy was considered a good death, but what if it was to die at the hands of their own people? Everyone was angry, but not daring to speak up. They could only admit that they were unlucky to die, no one dared to seek justice for them.
Wen Qing followed the troops this time because they found a group of the Yi soldiers nearby. The purpose of this small group of Yi soldiers was to disrupt their line of sight. They deliberately let themselves be found, and when Da Chen’s soldiers were sent over, they would run away and disappear which made them exhausted. This was a laborious and thankless job. The superior just sent out these new recruits perfunctorily.
The leader of the team was a centurion with the surname Niu, and he was a proud person. From the moment he left the camp, he had been cursing and swearing, "Damn it, it's Lao Tzu leading the team again. Do you think I'm easy to bully, huh? Sooner or later, I'll kill all of you!"
"What are you looking at? A bunch of little bastards! What kind of people did they give to me? So weak, they are just a drop in the ocean for the Yi dogs!"
Wen Qing frowned upon hearing this. Does she still need to take over this trash's job?
When they reached the place, the Yi soldiers had long since disappeared, and the person with the surname Niu was cursing while leading them back, a group of recruits followed him in dejection.
Suddenly, a sharp arrow shot out of the air, made a sharp whistle, went straight through the centurion's head, and nailed to the tree.
It turned out that the Yi's soldiers didn't go far, they just hid. Seeing that it was the new recruits who were searching this time, they were ready to take action directly. Because they all knew that the new recruits were the weakest and had almost no resistance.
The only centurion with the combat power was fatally shot, and the remaining fifty new recruits were stunned. Their legs weakened, they were in a mess, and they could hardly even hold a knife.
Seeing that the enemy army already surrounded them, everyone shouted in their hearts. I'm over. Just then, an unusually calm voice came from among them.
"Don't panic everyone, we have half more people than them, can't two people beat one of them? We're all tall, big men, don't be a coward at this time! Pick up the knife in your hand, you have to put them down even if you have to die!"
These sentences were very reasonable. The new recruits were just scared that the centurion was killed in one shoot, and with someone supporting the scene, it gradually disappeared. Immediately afterward, Wen Qing took the lead in rushing up to kill a few enemies. Her swordsmanship was not flashy but was very practical, it completely kills with one cut. The recruits watched with enthusiasm, gradually regained their confidence, and rushed forward with their big swords.
Wen Qing's martial arts have already achieved small achievements, it was easy to deal with these people, and she had brought down all the nearby enemies not letting anyone get close to her.
Of the more than 20 enemies, one did not escape. Wen Qing killed more than half by herself, and the others worked together to kill the remaining small part. Except for the centurion who died at the beginning, only four people on their side suffered some skin injuries and no one died.
The new recruits looked at Wen Qing with bright eyes, both admiring and excited.
"Youde, you are really amazing! You killed more than a dozen people by yourself, I never found out that you have such skills before!"
Shen Youde was Wen Qing's current name, it was randomly chosen by the system. It was more down-to-earth and in line with her fabricated identity.
"It's all thanks to you this time. Otherwise, we would all die at the hands of those Yi soldiers!" A group of people thanked her very sincerely. Whether it was Wen Qing's reassurance at the beginning, or the one-to-ten battle later, all of them were grateful.
When they went back, these people spontaneously took Wen Qing as their leader and obeyed from body to heart. The army was such a place, the strong were respected, as long as you have the ability to convince people, you could get everyone's support.
This incident gave Wen Qing some prestige among the new recruits. And because her skills were superb, she was promoted to be a centurion with 100 people under her.
Wen Qing deliberately chose this batch of new recruits who had not yet caught the bad habits of those soldiers. It doesn't matter if the combat power is weak, they could be trained slowly. These are her team members, and their characters must pass the test.
In the Shen residence, Lady Li turned over the residence's account books while looking after the twins who were playing on the heatable brick bed. The two boys were very sturdy and had never been sick even after they were two or three years old. They were simply not as frail as the children born by other elderly women. For this, it was unknown how many times the old lady praised her for raising the children so well.
A faint smile emerged on Lady Li's face. With three sons and one daughter, her life was considered a success. Just that, her smile slowly faded when she thought of her daughter.
At this time, the door curtain was lifted, and the maid came in with a happy expression to announce the good news, "The marquis’ residence sent some news. The eldest miss went into labor this morning and gave birth to a little prince, he weighed 7.67 pounds!"
The eldest miss refers to Shen Wenshu, who married the marquis three years ago. There was no news for the first two years, it was said that the marquis was distressed that her body had not developed and could not bear to let her suffer, so she was expecting only now.
Lady Li was distracted, so she just said lightly, "It really is a happy event. Everyone will be rewarded with one month's salary as a benefit for the happy atmosphere. Send someone to inform the master and the old madam."
She told the maid to take her leave, and sighed to her dowry wet nurse, "Shen Wenshu is only two years older than Wen Qing, she married three years ago, and now she has a child. My poor Qingqing is still suffering and has not settled a marriage. Those gossip mongers even said that my Qingqing is done for, those bad-mouthed people!"
The wet nurse advised her, "Heavens stands by the good man, the second young miss is a lucky one, there's still a long time to go."
Lady Li was only asking for psychological comfort, "I don't know what happened to Qingqing. The letter always says that everything is fine, but she never let me see her. How can I put my mind at ease?"
"The second young miss is being considerate of you, afraid that you will suffer from the long journey."
"That's right, Qingqing has always been a considerate person."
However, Lady Li didn't know that her considerate little girl was now fighting bravely on the battlefield to kill the enemy thousands of miles away.
In three years, Wen Qing climbed from a small centurion to the commander of the first army step by step. Not only was she deeply supported by the soldiers, but she was also appreciated by His Majesty. Li Ang felt threatened and kept looking at her unpleasantly, but he couldn't suppress her. But who let her capture the prince of the Yi Tribe alive at one time, and captured the leader of the Yi Tribe at another time. Under the watchful eyes of the public, he could not be greedy for her credit. It could be said that most of the credit to suppress the Yi belongs to Wen Qing. Or else, His Majesty would not be able to make an exception and let her, who he had never seen face-to-face before, become a commander.
Now that the leader of Yi Tribe has been captured, His Majesty, Longyan Dayue, was going to hold a grand prisoner offering ceremony to display the might and extraordinary power of Da Chen. Wen Qing also received an order to attend. But before that, there was a celebration banquet in the barracks. It would happen this evening, it was specially organized by Li Ang for her as a celebration.
But it was hard to say whether it was a celebration banquet or a Hongmen banquet*.
*t/n: Hongmen Banquet is a banquet set up with the aim of murdering the guest
While thinking about it, Wen Qing went to the new recruit's camp. The soldiers she met on the way looked at her with both admiration and respect. Wen Qing's legendary deeds were known to every soldier by heart. She single-handedly broke into the enemy camp, as if entering a no-man land. Taking the head of the enemy's general among thousands of troops, no one could stop her. Even just her name could frighten the enemy to abandon their armor... Each one of them could make people deeply admire her and prostrate themselves in admiration.
This was also Wen Qing's intention, to create momentum for herself. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to propagate so deeply in people's hearts.
"Scholar, you have luck upon fine food, your birthday coincides with Commander Shen's congratulatory banquet, you can eat your fill!"