“Wulang Mountain is a rocky mountain. There is not even a small stream on it, and the military rations we carried only last five days.”
Axia pleaded, “I know rescuing the young lady will be difficult, but please, sir, act as quickly as possible. Otherwise, even if the bandits do not attack the mountain, the brothers will not hold out much longer.”
“No water on the mountain?”
Everyone in the room changed colour.
“Is Qing Munlan pig-brained? She clearly saw it was a rocky mountain, yet still led people up it?”
Jin Feng was so angry he kicked over a nearby chair.
If it were just the heavy crossbows and trebuchets being seized, he would not be too worried, because in the back mountain warehouse there were ready-made heavy crossbows with even longer range.
But anyone knows that without water, people are finished in three or four days at most.
The bandits number several thousand. With the few men in the village, it definitely will not work. They must mobilise more hands.
But in three or four days, where to mobilise people from?
Even if they could find people, travelling takes time.
Jin Feng almost never lost his temper, but this time he was truly furious.
“Sir, calm down. This was clearly a deliberate trap set by Mr Feng, which is why Miss Munlan fell for it.”
Zhang Liang advised, “The priority now is to find a way to save Miss Munlan.”
“She sees the layout and just drills right in?”
Jin Feng slammed the table. “They clearly wanted to force her up the mountain. At that point, she should have concentrated forces to break out with heavy crossbows. How could she actually go up the mountain?”
But Jin Feng also understood that getting angry now was useless. He took two deep breaths and looked at Axia. “When you marched, did you bring water bladders?”
“Yes,” Axia nodded. “When I left, there was probably one bowl of water left in the bladders. If rationed carefully, it should last two or three days.”
Hearing Axia say this, Jin Feng breathed a slight sigh of relief.
That way, there was a bit more time.
“Sir, Zhao Laoshan has arrived.”
A personal guard came in to report.
Jin Feng nodded and walked out of the medical room.
In the courtyard, Zhao Laoshan stood with a man.
Jin Feng had gathered all the outsiders who came to Xihe Bay and organised them into Xihe Bay Group Two. Zhao Laoshan was the captain of Group Two.
As more people came, Group Two grew larger and its members became very diverse, but Zhao Laoshan still managed it orderly. Jin Feng was very satisfied with him.
“Sir, in our village, only Daqiang’s hometown is near Wulang Mountain.”
Zhao Laoshan pointed at the man. “But Daqiang was a hunter before and often went to Wulang Mountain, so he is very familiar with the surroundings.”
“Thank you for the trouble, Uncle Zhao.” Jin Feng nodded to Zhao Laoshan, then turned to the hunter. “Then please, Brother Qiangzi, tell me about the situation at Wulang Mountain.”
“The situation at Wulang Mountain? What situation?” The hunter scratched his head nervously, not knowing what to say.
“Er… one of our village’s bandit suppression teams is surrounded at Wulang Mountain. I want to lead people to rescue them.”
Jin Feng said, “So I want to know how big Wulang Mountain is, how high, if there are any small paths, and so on.”
“The village sent people to suppress bandits at Wulang Mountain?”
Upon hearing this, the man’s eyes immediately reddened.
He had been forced by bandits to have no way to live, heard that Xihe Bay offered a way out, and only then brought his family to seek refuge there.
Hearing that Xihe Bay’s bandit suppression team had gone to Wulang Mountain, one can imagine his excitement.
“Speak quickly, the gentleman is waiting.”
Zhao Laoshan gently pushed Daqiang.
“Oh, oh,” Daqiang snapped back and quickly said, “Wulang Mountain is a rocky mountain. The mountain is full of large round boulders. There is very little grass or trees. It is not particularly large or high, less than a hundred zhang. There are many paths up and down the mountain, at least seven or eight, but only three are easy to travel. The rest are small paths.”
“Is there water on the mountain?” Jin Feng asked.
“No, Wulang Mountain is very steep and simply cannot hold water.”
Daqiang shook his head, hesitated, then asked, “Sir, if you are going to suppress bandits at Wulang Mountain, can you take me? I can guide you.”
Jin Feng and Zhang Liang exchanged a glance, then slowly nodded.
“Group Leader Zhao, thank you for your trouble.” Zhang Liang smiled at Zhao Laoshan. “You have many matters to attend to, go ahead and be busy.”
Zhao Laoshan knew Zhang Liang was dismissing him and smiled. “Alright, I’ll go busy myself first. If there is anything, sir, just send someone to tell me.”
After Zhao Laoshan left, Zhang Liang looked at the hunter and asked, “Brother Daqiang, have you served as a soldier?”
“Yes,” Daqiang said regretfully, “but I injured my leg before. During the escort assessment, I failed the loaded cross-country run, exceeding by half a stick of incense time.”
“No problem. If you perform well this time, I can make an exception and recruit you.” Zhang Liang said.
“Captain, rest assured, I will perform well.” Daqiang’s eyes lit up immediately, patting his chest to guarantee.
Everyone now knew that escorts had high pay. Besides wages, there were various rewards. Sometimes the bonus from one mission was enough for a family to eat well for over half a year.
Failing the escort assessment had always been Daqiang’s regret.
“Did you take the official road from your hometown to Xihe Bay?” Zhang Liang asked.
“Yes, the official road.” Daqiang nodded. “From Wulang Mountain, there is only one official road.”
“You have served as a soldier, so you should be able to spot places suitable for ambush, right?” Zhang Liang asked again.
Jin Feng’s gaze sharpened. He said nothing but understood Zhang Liang’s meaning.
“Of course. I used to be a scout, eating the rice of pathfinding.
It would definitely be Huilong Mountain!” the hunter answered without hesitation.
“Let’s go. To the back mountain. Tell us carefully about the situation on the road.”
Zhang Liang put an arm around the hunter’s shoulders, and they returned to the back mountain together.
At the back mountain camp, Zhang Liang sent someone to fetch Dazhuang. Several people entered the back mountain conference hall together.
Half an hour later, they emerged from the conference hall.
Dazhuang ran to the drill ground and shouted to the assembled veteran and female soldiers, “First Company, First Platoon, Second Platoon; Female Soldiers First Company, First Platoon, Second Squad, Third Squad: second emergency march combat readiness, prepare to depart.”
As the number of escorts grew, for ease of management, Jin Feng had reorganised the veterans using the previous life’s army method, into regiments, battalions, companies, platoons, and squads.
Currently, the Zhenyuan Escort Bureau had only one regiment. The regiment commander was undoubtedly Jin Feng, with Zhang Liang as deputy.
There were four battalions: the First Battalion responsible for guarding key locations like Xihe Bay, Iron Can Mountain, and Double Camel Peak, with Zhang Liang concurrently as battalion commander and Dazhuang as deputy.
The Second and Third Battalions responsible for escorting caravans, with battalion commanders being Zhang Liang’s tall dark comrade Tie Niu and Jin Feng’s former personal guard captain Tie Chui.
The Fourth Battalion training new recruits at Cat Cat Mountain and Tiger Head Mountain, with Zheng Fang as battalion commander.
Depending on the location, each battalion had different numbers.
For example, the First Battalion now had fewer than three hundred men, while the Fourth Battalion, including recruits, exceeded four hundred.
The female soldier team was reorganised in the same way, but currently had only one battalion, with Qing Munlan naturally as battalion commander.
The female soldiers’ main task remained assisting the male soldiers. Generally, for each mission, four veteran soldiers were paired with one female soldier.
Besides combat units, there was also a medical team. For each mission, one female military doctor was assigned per platoon.
