“Isn’t that deceiving people?” Banbuer had his heart set on joining Xichuan’s regular army to fight enemies and achieve merit so he could find opportunities to avenge his mother. Now he became anxious too.

Seeing that these children were all only fourteen or fifteen years old, the man smiled and said, “How could that be considered deception? General Yan is Xichuan’s nation-defending general and also the Grand Marshal of all military forces. It wouldn’t be wrong to call the entire Xichuan army the Yan family army.”

Banbuer and Nakedo looked dejected and very disappointed. Hearing their conversation, Qing Xia couldn’t help but turn to look at this rough-featured man. She felt his speech was refined, not like a barbarian at all. Seeing Qing Xia watching him, the man smiled and cupped his hands toward her, saying, “I am Meng Tinglu. This young brother has good eyes—I’m not a barbarian.”

Seeing that he could tell what she was thinking before she even spoke, Qing Xia knew he was indeed not simple. She smiled and cupped her hands in return, saying, “Xia Qing!”

At this time, the man on the city tower began the pre-battle rally. Qing Xia saw that he spoke eloquently and was high-spirited, but seemed like a fledgling just entering the world. She couldn’t help feeling somewhat relieved. If the Xichuan royal family had sent such a person as a general, then this recruitment in Flame Emperor City would certainly not involve any major operations. At most, they would do things like escorting grain supplies and clearing roads for cargo transport. This suited her intentions better. If she could get these two boys to give up their thoughts of revenge sooner, that would be even better.

Although Qing Xia wasn’t someone who wouldn’t take revenge when wronged, she always approached people and matters from a practical standpoint first. In this world, using individual strength to oppose an entire nation would never end well. The Mulian tribe was a branch of the Xiongnu people who had survived comfortably like fish in water for many years despite the combined annihilation efforts of Qin armies and Xichuan. How could two inexperienced children possibly deal with them? Letting them train in a military camp would be good—they could learn about human relations and worldly affairs earlier, understand sooner how unrealistic their ideas were, and live peaceful lives sooner. She owed a great debt to Aunt Doihua’s family, and regardless of how willful and selfish Xuda Lie was, his leaving home to join the army was also because of her. Both emotionally and logically, she couldn’t ignore Banbuer and Nakedo. Thus, she once again stepped into the chaos of war, hoping only that this time everything would be safe and sound.

After the rally, the selection process began. The four had complete recommendation letters, clean backgrounds, were young, and Xi Lin Chen knew medicine, so they were easily selected.

After receiving their name tags and joining the military register, they were assigned to form a group with six other people and told to select a squad leader among themselves to report upward.

Banbuer and the others naturally wanted to choose Qing Xia, but when they reached their assigned location, they encountered their nemeses—they were grouped with those same men who had mocked them earlier. When those men saw they were assigned these child soldiers, they immediately began shouting loudly. During wartime, people in one group formed a separate combat unit—rewards were shared for achievements, punishments shared for mistakes. Since Qing Xia’s group were young, and except for Nakedo who looked somewhat sturdy, the other three appeared thin and weak, those men naturally didn’t want them.

After shouting for a while, they were scolded by the company commander and stopped talking, but their eyes toward Qing Xia’s group were filled with malice.

Banbuer and Nakedo glared back defiantly. Xi Lin Chen acted as if nothing had happened, tilting his head slightly, lost in thought. Qing Xia closed her eyes to rest, not even looking at those men. Soon it was time to distribute uniforms.

After receiving their military uniforms and weapons, they went to their assigned tents to rest. Their group of ten was allocated three tents. When Qing Xia’s group arrived, the opposing six had already occupied all the tents, two to a tent.

Nakedo’s eyes were red with rage, his chest heaving with anger, looking ready to kill. Qing Xia patted his shoulder soothingly, nodded to Xi Lin Chen, then walked into one of the tents alone.

Among these three, she only felt somewhat at ease with Xi Lin Chen. Nakedo had more than enough ferocity but insufficient wisdom—a completely impulsive hothead with no cunning, whom she could directly overlook. Banbuer had some small cleverness, but would panic when encountering major events and liked to join in and follow trends. This personality would also suffer losses in a military camp. Only Xi Lin Chen, although she couldn’t tell what he was thinking all day, was definitely not a simple character. Like how he had also come along to join the army this time—he was someone whose depths couldn’t be fathomed.

The three stood at the entrance, ears pricked to eavesdrop on sounds inside. But after quite a while with no movement inside, just as Nakedo was getting impatient, suddenly a series of muffled thuds rang out. Then military uniforms and armor were thrown out one after another, followed by weapons and luggage, mixed with several muffled male groans and screams. Nakedo was anxiously wanting to lift the curtain, fearing Qing Xia was at a disadvantage, when suddenly a black shadow was flung out hard, landing on the ground with a thud and raising a cloud of dust. Before anyone could see clearly what it was, another figure was thrown out, crashing into the crowd that had gathered to watch upon hearing the commotion.

Two men over seven feet tall were beaten black and blue with swollen faces, crying out in pain as they crawled up from the ground.

With a swish, the curtain was flung open, and Qing Xia walked out without looking sideways, entered another tent, and again there were muffled thuds as two more men with the same fate were thrown out. Qing Xia said to Banbuer and Nakedo, “You two live in that tent. Xi Lin and I will live in this one.” Then she dusted off her hands as if nothing had happened and walked inside.

Banbuer and the others were dumbfounded, never expecting that the usually gentle and mild Qing Xia would be so formidable when angered. The surrounding people were amazed to see such a small person have such abilities. Within less than an afternoon, news spread throughout the entire Flame Emperor City military camp about a small, thin soldier who had single-handedly defeated four burly men. Qing Xia also became the first squad leader decided by force due to this glorious record.

Qing Xia naturally understood army life better than others. Since they were young and would inevitably face exclusion when they first arrived at the military camp, only by using thunderous methods to intimidate these people could they avoid future harassment. At this moment, she sat on the felt mat in the tent, gently sharpening her sharp dagger, listening to Banbuer and Nakedo’s endless complaints, thinking that if military life continued like this, it actually wasn’t too bad.

“This is too much! We came to join the army to fight enemies on the battlefield, but they’re making us escort grain supplies like civilian laborers. What a waste of talent.” Banbuer said angrily. Xi Lin Chen took out the tea leaves he carried with him and quickly brewed a pot of fragrant tea. He smiled as he offered it to Nakedo, but seeing Nakedo shake his head like a rattle drum, he smiled and drank it himself.

“Xia Qing, what are you calculating?” Once in the military camp, they couldn’t call Qing Xia “Jema Agu” anymore. When Qing Xia had been looking for Yang Feng in Baiyuan County, she had no choice but to use the name Xia Qing. The others thought this was her real name and continued calling her that.

Qing Xia was drawing with her knife on the ground. Hearing Banbuer’s question, she said, “I’m calculating how much food a fighting soldier needs daily, how much food an army of 200,000 stationed at White Deer Plain needs daily, how many days the remaining food could last if the army ran out of supplies, how many days without food would cause a military mutiny, what scale it would reach, and what the national losses would be. We supply transport soldiers number 10,000, and with escort vehicles and horses, how long a line we’d form on the main road, and how many people the enemy would need to send to successfully attack the grain supplies if they wanted to raid them.”

“Xia Qing, why are you helping the enemy with their calculations?” Nakedo frowned and said gruffly.

Qing Xia smiled lightly and said, “Since I have nothing else to do, I’m calculating for fun.”

“Oh!” Banbuer suddenly shouted, pointing at Qing Xia and said, “I know! You’re trying to tell us in a roundabout way that this grain escort mission is no small matter—it’s of great importance, and there might be people who will intercept it, so we should be careful and prepared, right?”

Qing Xia laughed and scolded, “Look at you showing off. You learned a few four-character phrases and can’t wait to use them in every sentence.”

Banbuer scratched his head and grinned.

“Is Xia Qing here?” A voice like a broken gong suddenly sounded outside. Nakedo lifted the curtain and stuck his head out, shouting loudly, “What’s the matter? He’s here!”

The person outside said, “The general will inspect the troops shortly, then we’ll set out. Urge your group to quickly break camp and pack up.”

Qing Xia raised her eyebrow, thinking that originally they were scheduled to break camp tomorrow, but now they were leaving so late in the day. It seemed this journey wouldn’t be peaceful.

She suddenly turned to look at Xi Lin Chen, who was sitting leisurely on the felt mat, and said softly, “This four-nation hunt is set at White Deer Plain in Xichuan. Many old generals and subordinates from Southern Chu will return. Aren’t you afraid of meeting acquaintances and having your identity exposed?”

Xi Lin Chen turned his head slightly to look at Qing Xia and smiled faintly, saying, “Chu Li will also be going. Aren’t you afraid of being discovered by him, Xia Qing?”

Qing Xia raised her eyebrow, her gaze sharp as she looked at Xi Lin Chen. Xi Lin Chen unhurriedly finished his last sip of tea and said lightly, “I wasn’t acquainted with Lin Mubai. That painting—I found it beside the pillow on the bed in the central military camp when I escaped that night.”

With that, he turned around and began organizing his personal belongings.

Qing Xia was slightly stunned. How could she have forgotten that besides Lin Mubai, Chu Li also had one.

Outside, people were bustling about. At White Deer Plain, smoke was rising from battles. An invisible great war was about to unfold.

The troops set out from Flame Emperor City, passed through White Stone Pass that day, and camped overnight at Yunyun Township. The next day they crossed White Cloud River, traveled by boat on Wucang River, marched for two days, and entered Inner Mongolia territory. At Fort Pine Ridge, they joined forces with the Shi family’s second master Shi Xiaoming, bringing their forces to over 26,000 men with formidable strength. Over ten days later, they reached Chenmen Pass in Ningxia, where the Shi family head Shi Xiaofeng also arrived with elite troops, combining all three armies into one.