Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 759 The Terrifying Information Gap
"These people are quite clever, conducting light scouts. A thousand or so is reasonable. I guess they're planning to kill two birds with one stone. If they find my defenses are weak, they'll probably turn the tables on me."

Upon hearing the commotion at the front, Bao Wu provided a detailed analysis. None of them doubted that this was a reconnaissance mission by the enemy. If the more than a thousand men were all heavily armored or cavalry, it might be considered an attack. However, they were all light infantry. Their lightly armed and unpretentious manner clearly indicated that they were scouts sent out to investigate.

That means there must be a large army waiting to strike!

Therefore, after the analysis, Liu Changsheng decided to send all his elite troops forward and recruit some good recruits from among the immigrants to supplement the army.

Zhang Feng became one of the first to be conscripted. Originally just an assistant officer without a formal position, now with the gleaming armor and standard military weapons placed in front of him, he was a proper soldier.

"Hey, how old are you? What's your name?"

"My name is Zhang Feng, and I'll be seventeen soon. What about you?"

"My name is Dugu Liang."

"You're from a prominent family? What brings you here?"

"I'm just a small branch of the family, I can't afford to be happy anymore, so I've come here to pan for gold."

The two men were whispering to each other when the instructors who were training them came up and each gave the other a lash with a whip: "No whispering while standing!"

Zhang Feng winced and shut his mouth. He turned around and saw Dugu Liang winking at him. The young man couldn't hold back his laughter, and when they looked at each other, they couldn't help but laugh.

"Laugh!" The instructor stepped forward and grabbed the two boys, one in each hand, and pulled them out: "If you like to laugh, then laugh here for everyone to see, and laugh for half an hour!"

"Reporting, Instructor, I can't laugh anymore!"

Dugu Liang shouted, and the instructor laughed instead. He raised his whip and lashed each of them on the buttocks: "If you can't laugh, then go run! Run ten miles!"

There are 1,200 new recruits in this battalion. These greenhorns are only sixteen or seventeen years old on average. They were all selected from this immigration and they all look very energetic. However, the rules of the new army are very strict. Although the instructors and generals eat with them in private, they show no mercy during training.

The two were running around the training ground when Dugu Liang asked Zhang Feng, "Brother Feng, I'll only be sixteen next year. From now on, I'll call you Big Brother, so you'll have to protect me."

"Sure thing!" Zhang Feng chuckled. "Let me tell you..."

The two were young and physically fit, so the ten-mile run was more like a leisurely stroll for them. But Liu Changsheng, who was on patrol inside the camp at that moment, pointed at the two boys who were chatting while being punished and said with a smile, "Back then, you and I were just like that. We were punished by the instructors so badly that we cried so much that we soaked our bed boards with tears when we went to sleep at night."

"Hahaha...more than a decade has passed in the blink of an eye." The battalion commander sighed, "Youth flies by so quickly, I really envy these greenhorns."

"Alright, let's not talk about the past. Let's talk about these Japanese spies. Why didn't your sentries send any messages before they approached the town? That won't do."

"Look, the first one to spot the Japanese scouts was that kid who was punished by running. With manpower stretched thin, we can only rely on these auxiliary guards for now. This kid is quite quick-witted; he spotted the enemy scouts and immediately issued a warning, then joined the other guards in harassing the enemy, delaying them for a full quarter of an hour." The battalion commander meticulously reported the situation to General Liu Changsheng, who certainly wouldn't take credit for the kid's achievement: "So it's not that we didn't arrange things properly, but rather that we are indeed short-staffed."

"I see. But it would be troublesome if we encountered a large enemy army. We still need to send some people to investigate. You should select a group of elite scouts to investigate the enemy army's movements."

"Order!"

As a general capable of executing large-scale troop operations, Liu Changsheng was keenly aware that he had alerted the enemy, who might temporarily lay low and wait for an opportunity. Therefore, the most important thing at the moment was to scout out the range of the enemy's main force.

"By the way, have those captured Japanese prisoners confessed yet?"

"Ha, these short mules are all very stubborn. Don't let their frail appearance fool you, they all have the air of warriors ready to die."

"Oh? Take me to see it."

The camp officer led Liu Changsheng to the prison cell, which was smelly and filled with screams of torture, truly a scene from hell on earth.

Here, hundreds of prisoners who had been captured alive were being tortured. Most of them were executed by Mao people, who hated the Japanese to the bone. When they carried out the torture, they were ruthless and unscrupulous. In just two days, they had killed more than twenty people. Their hatred was truly emanating from their very bones.

"Even after fighting like this, they still won't tell the truth."

Hearing the camp officer say this, Liu Changsheng became curious. He raised his hand to stop a man who was torturing someone, pointed to the Japanese man hanging there, and said, "Translate this for me."

Mao Ren immediately nodded in agreement, and Liu Changsheng then asked, "Where is your main force? Tell me and I'll let you go."

After the translation, the Japanese man, who had been beaten to the point of near death, struggled to raise his head and muttered something. Upon hearing this, the hairy man raised his hand and lashed out with his whip. Turning back, he angrily said in broken Chinese, "General, this man deserves to die!"

"What did he say?"

He said, "They are the main force!"

You're so stubborn!

Liu Changsheng questioned several Japanese prisoners in succession, and their accounts were surprisingly consistent, which made General Liu laugh in exasperation.

"Very well, your general should be satisfied with having such subordinates."

Finally, when they questioned the general who led the team, Liu Changsheng had run out of patience. He frowned and asked, "Tell me, where is your main force?"

After Mao translated, the general opened his eyes and glared fiercely at Liu Changsheng, then suddenly shouted, "We are the main force! The main force! Don't look down on us!"

"Oh, you can speak Chinese." Liu Changsheng laughed angrily: "What a tough guy!"

After saying that, he flung his hand and walked out. The screams inside grew louder and louder, but to Liu Changsheng they sounded like mockery.

"Old Liu," the battalion commander whispered, "You see, it's not that I can't do it, it's just that they're too stubborn."

"Hey!" General Liu paced back and forth outside the cell, hands on his hips. "If they're all this tough, the upcoming battle won't be easy. I'll ask the commander-in-chief for reinforcements right now!"

"Will we make it in time?"

"Hopefully I can make it in time."

How could a general accustomed to fighting against tens or hundreds of thousands of men possibly believe that a force of just over a thousand men was the main force? In addition, this place was unfamiliar to everyone and everyone, so they could not act rashly. They were severely short-handed, so this was not the time to joke with the lives of their brothers. They had to ask the commander for help!

So later that day, a fast boat was launched. The officers gave a brief description of the situation and then headed west straight into Ningbo Port.

Three days later, Xia Lin saw the letter. It said that the pioneering group was being harassed by a large Japanese force at the front line, and in order to prevent any unforeseen circumstances, they needed to ask the commander to lend them 3,000 troops.

"They call it borrowing three thousand soldiers, but frankly, they're just planning to take advantage of their daughter's family." Xia Lin scoffed, then sighed, "Fine, fine, what can they do about their married daughter? Someone come here!"

Emperor Jingtai walked in carrying a bowl of some kind of food and said to Xia Lin, "The old lady outside sells something delicious. I've never tried it before. Do you want some?"

"Your Majesty, could you please stop eating food from strangers?!" Xia Lin's voice suddenly rose: "If you get sick from eating it, who will I blame?!"

"I saw you eating yesterday, so I went to eat today. Why are you being so sarcastic?"

“I can eat you but you can’t.” Xia Lin looked up at Emperor Jingtai: “If you poison me, I’ll die. If you poison me, I’ll die. Do you understand? If I die, people will just say that I was too powerful and that the emperor was wise and powerful in killing the treacherous minister. If you die, I will be accused of plotting to usurp the throne and murdering the emperor in the street.”

"what?"

"I told you to return to Jinling to preside over the government, but you refused to leave! You are the emperor, it's been so long, do you not want the throne anymore?" "I won't leave. Later, I will issue an imperial edict to myself, appointing myself as the Great General Who Destroys the Barbarians. Whoever wants to sit on the throne can sit, whoever wants to live in the palace can live. I'm not going. I want to lead troops and fight wars. The future emperor of the Tuoba family cannot be wasted in that dilapidated palace."

"Alright! Then you lead the troops to fight the Japanese!"

Xia Lin regretted saying that as soon as he said it, but Emperor Jingtai took it to heart. He rolled his eyes and then shamelessly found a place to sit down.

"I'm just kidding."

"You have no joke."

"Am I fucking Jun?"

Emperor Jingtai stepped forward, grabbed Xia Lin's general's seal, and then slapped his own jade seal hanging at his waist in front of him: "You are now."

"No!" Xia Lin pointed at the general's seal in his hand: "Don't do anything reckless!"

"How can you call it reckless? My ability to lead troops into battle is no less than my talent for poetry and prose. If it weren't for the burden of empty fame, I would definitely be a famous general of our time."

"This is absolutely unacceptable."

"I beg you..." Emperor Jingtai clasped his hands together and bowed to Xia Lin: "I'm leaving the rear to you."

"This is dangerous."

“Danger is just right.” Emperor Jingtai slapped his thigh: “A calm sea cannot produce excellent sailors, you said it yourself. The court has the ministers, and you handle foreign affairs. I can confidently roam the world. This is what an emperor should do: dare to be the first in the world.”

Xia Lin remained silent for a while, pondered for a long time, and then said, "You can't go, but you can send your Imperial Group."

"Oh?" Emperor Jingtai's eyes lit up immediately upon hearing this: "Really?"

"Go and select three thousand men. But I have only one requirement: the general of your Imperial Regiment must unconditionally obey Liu Changsheng."

"Who is the general of the Imperial Guard?" Xia Lin asked, turning his head to the side.

At this moment, the adjutant who had been hiding in the shadows suddenly spoke up: "General, it's Liu Changmao."

"Ok?"

"He is General Liu Changsheng's older brother."

"Oh, what a coincidence." Xia Lin said with a smile, "Alright, it's decided then. Let him lead the team over there. You can go after the navy here is established and stable. It's very dangerous there without naval cover."

"Alright then." Although Emperor Jingtai was somewhat disheartened, since the other party had already conceded, he couldn't say anything more.

As for what the Imperial Guard is, it all started when Emperor Jingtai got itchy hands. There were sixteen guards in the capital, but apart from the Thousand Ox Guard and the Feathered Forest Guard, there were actually no legions directly under the emperor. A few years ago, these two guards were also reorganized into the city defense army, and the emperor's protection work was directly taken over by the Investigation Department.

In other words, the current emperor did not have any directly subordinate military units, which was unreasonable. So, after arriving in Ningbo Prefecture, Emperor Jingtai, now that he had money, formed a personal guard directly under his command.

Although it was called a guard, it was actually organized as a 5,000-man battle group. The equipment was all the best, newest and most powerful. The personnel were the elite of all the Fuliang army, even the elite of the elite. Generally speaking, Fuliang holds a grand competition every year, with 22 outstanding soldiers emerging from 22 events. However, the outstanding soldiers of the past five years have all been selected by Emperor Jingtai.

When Xia Lin saw the selection criteria, he jokingly said, "Are you selecting Astartes?" Then, Emperor Jingtai kept asking him for two days what Astartes was. Xia Lin made up a story that it was a Western mythological group belonging to the Emperor's most powerful warband. That's how the Imperial Group was born.

If these three thousand people were to go, then...

However, given Emperor Jingtai's impatient nature, he simply declared, "There are no enemies ahead of me," and then ordered three thousand men to board the ship.

"How should I put it?" Xia Lin said during a meeting when discussing with the officers, "This regiment is an ultra-heavy armored combined arms army, with each person equipped with two hundred rounds of ammunition and four guns, and they wear damn heavy armor."

"Your Majesty is truly wealthy..."

"Is he rich? He's just burning money like water." Xia Lin slammed his fist on the table in anger. "Have you ever seen a family where a soldier's equipment costs two thousand taels of silver? He's crying poverty on one hand, and burning money like this on the other. If I were the Minister of Revenue, I would lead a rebellion."

"If Your Majesty is pleased, then so be it, General... Let's be reasonable. According to historical records, apart from Emperor Wu of Han, no other emperor could have allowed the General to cause such a commotion. The General ordered the construction of ships, and His Majesty mobilized all resources, including millions of people, to build ships for the General. Without His Majesty, our troops would never have been able to form an army."

The soldiers here had all followed Xia Lin around the country, so they didn't hold back in their conversations. Xia Lin, sitting there propping his head up, said, "We've gone over budget! We've gone over budget! Do you know what the price of going over budget is? I have to beg that little bean sprout. You guys are happy, but I'm going to suffer."

Meanwhile, Soga no Iruka, upon hearing that his vanguard had suffered a crushing defeat, was now serious. Some of his strongest samurai had been sent out as pirates, leaving him with a large number of men. Now that he held absolute power in Japan, he decided to teach these arrogant outsiders a lesson.

So he issued a secret order, summoning warriors from all over the country to come to him immediately, ready to use thunderous methods to deal a heavy blow to the enemy. This time he wanted to show what national-level power was. He wondered if the other side had ever seen the 10,000-strong warrior group. They were all top-notch warriors, and their weapons were no longer bamboo, but real, high-quality iron!

Just as the top warriors under each division were gathering in Kyoto, carrying the honor of their families and the honor of their warriors, Emperor Jingtai's Golden Legion also arrived at the port.

He was concerned about his image, and before setting off, he instructed the carefully selected Astartes to be fully armed and give the local skinny monkeys a royal aura when they disembarked.

So when this expensive legion disembarked from the ship, everyone, whether soldiers or not, stood there looking confused and at a loss. Even Liu Changsheng, who came to greet them, was bewildered for a long time.

"General, what kind of lineup is this...?"

"I don't know..." Liu Changsheng looked at the soldiers who seemed to walk on air, carrying two rifles, two shotguns, and long steel guns, and had no idea what they were doing: "Whose army is this?"

Suddenly, one of the heavily armored soldiers stepped forward: "The guards of His Majesty the Emperor of Great Wei, Captain Liu Changmao! Please, General, come forward to hand over the duties."

"Oh, my brother..." Liu Changsheng quickly adjusted his hat and ran over: "Liu Changsheng, commander of the Great Wei Expansion Army, is here!"

At this moment, the man opposite him took off his helmet, revealing a face that bore an eight or nine-tenths resemblance to Liu Changsheng. He took out a token from his pocket and handed it over with both hands: "All command authority is handed over to General Liu!"

After the handover, this intimidating bunch of men marched past on the road with a clatter, accompanied by some Japanese soldiers. To them, these soldiers were no less impressive than three thousand tanks driving by in a grand procession.

"Theoretically speaking, with your configuration, ten men could defend a small town," Liu Changsheng said, half-laughing and half-crying, while hosting a banquet for Liu Changmao. "You've brought three thousand this time?"

“Yes, three thousand.” Liu Changmao nodded: “His Majesty personally selected it. I couldn’t have said it myself. The commander meant that it would be easier for us brothers to communicate. If it were someone else, it might cause conflict with you.”

Liu Changsheng raised his glass: "Brother, you're half a rank higher than me, how am I supposed to take command?"

"Go talk to the commander-in-chief, don't talk to me. I'm just a soldier, I listen to whoever holds the token."

Liu Changmao's face was solemn, and he had no other thoughts whatsoever; only the word "loyalty" occupied his mind.

Meanwhile, in the training ground outside, Zhang Feng and Dugu Liang squatted in front of a soldier, reaching out to touch the soldier's exaggerated heavy armor: "This is really amazing, a masterpiece. I wish I could be selected someday."

At this moment, the armored soldier also took off his helmet and let out a long sigh: "It's so hot and stuffy. If His Majesty hadn't told me not to embarrass him, I wouldn't have bothered wearing it except for training and combat. Are you two new recruits?"

"Yes, I just enlisted a few days ago."

The armored soldier squeezed their arms, then tapped their helmets, which made a muffled buzzing sound: "You're still a bit short of muscle. Train in the camp for a couple more years, and with your physiques, you should be selected. But you'll have to be able to endure hardship, otherwise you won't even be able to carry this 67-pound suit of armor."

(End of this chapter)