Extreme Frontier Army: Starting from the bottom ranks, conquering the chaotic world

At 9:00 AM, at the Eighth Battalion's drill ground.

Hundreds of soldiers crowded around the command platform, chattering and complaining, their anger barely contained.

"Why are you holding back your attack?"

"Exactly! This reward we risked our lives for, why should Lu Jing keep it locked up?"

"This broken woodcutter's knife I'm holding got a chipped edge from chopping wood yesterday. How am I supposed to use it to cut down those Northern barbarians' ironclad cavalry?"

"I've heard that someone in town is willing to pay a high price for these new knives!"

"Lu Jing wouldn't really be willing to trade our brothers' lives for money, would he?"

The black bear stood at the front of the crowd, with a bandage wrapped around its chin.

A few days ago, Lu Jing dislocated his jaw with an elbow. Although it has been reattached, he still speaks with a slight lisp.

He didn't dare to provoke Lu Jing directly, but he was still adept at stirring up trouble among the group of veterans.

Just then, Skinny Monkey, carrying five knives, swaggered onto the command platform.

"Shut up, all of you!"

The skinny monkey, acting like a bully, roared, and the audience fell silent for a moment before countless green eyes fixed on the new knife in his arms.

"Brother Lu said so!"

Skinny Monkey threw the five knives onto the wooden plank of the command platform.

"These knives were specially approved by Mr. Gu, and our Commander Zhao personally inspected and handled them. They are truly exceptional knives, delivered to the Eighth Battalion with great difficulty!"

Upon hearing the name "Commander Zhao," many soldiers below turned pale.

After all, Zhao He had been hung up and fumigated by them just a few days ago.

But seeing the five shiny new knives on the stage, that slight unease was quickly suppressed.

"Brother Lu is holding back because he's afraid the brothers will damage the blades during practice. Today, he specifically asked me to bring out five to let the toughest brothers in the camp test their skills!"

The skinny monkey raised his hand and pointed to the audience.

"Black Bear! Wang Wu! Scarface Li! Zhang Tiezhu! Liu San!"

He named five of the most troublesome and bratty guys on the street.

"Come up and get the knife!"

"Let the brothers see for themselves what kind of divine weapon Zhao Baihu has personally inspected!"

Black Bear was the first to jump onto the stage, grabbed a long knife from the ground, and pushed the handguard hard with his thumb.

"Whoosh!"

The gleaming blade extended halfway out, so bright in the sunlight that it was blinding.

A collective gasp immediately rose from the audience.

"A fine knife!"

The black bear couldn't help but roar, fully drawing its knife and making two feinting slashes in mid-air.

Hearing the whooshing sound of the wind breaking through the air, an undisguised fervor appeared on his face.

"That kid Lu Jing finally did something decent!"

"With this sword, I can cleave that northern barbarian's head in two, helmet and all, with a single stroke!"

The other three troublemakers each picked one up and were equally captivated by it.

"What are you standing there for?"

The skinny monkey took two steps back and pointed to a wooden iron post next to the platform, which was specifically used to tie up deserters.

"Try it!"

"Give it your all, brothers in the audience, let's make a sound!"

"Watch closely!"

The black bear roared and gripped the knife handle tightly with both hands.

Tall and strong, the muscles in his arms bulged out of his tattered military uniform when he exerted force.

With waist and stance in perfect harmony, the long sword whistled through the air, and with the force of Mount Tai crashing down, it slashed fiercely at the iron-clad wooden pillar.

Hundreds of soldiers held their breath, waiting to see how this "peerless sword" would slice through the iron and penetrate deep into the wood.

"Bang!"

A piercingly loud metallic snapping sound suddenly rang out across the training ground.

The long knife in the black bear's hand broke off in the middle the instant it touched the wooden pillar and the iron sheet.

The upper half of the blade spun back, grazed the black bear's scalp, and with a "thud," embedded itself into the mud behind him.

The blade continued to tremble and hum.

In the black bear's hand, there was only a half-foot-long stubble left.

He remained in the chopping posture, frozen in place like a wooden stake, the bandage on his chin ripped open, and his mouth was wide enough to fit a fist.

The entire room fell silent.

Hundreds of soldiers felt as if they had been grabbed by the neck at the same time, their eyes fixed on the broken iron in the black bear's hand.

Wang Wu looked down at his knife, then drew a short dagger from his waist and struck the blade hard with the back of the dagger.

"Click."

A piece of sheet metal the size of a fingernail flew off with a thud, revealing rough, grayish-white cast iron slag inside.

Scarface Li, still not believing in evil, swung his long knife at the wooden fence.

The first cut chipped the blade, the second bent it, and with the third cut, the brass rivet on the hilt flew off.

The entire blade detached from the handle, swirling and sweeping through the crowd, nearly slicing off the nose of a new recruit in the front row.

In Scarface Li's hand, all that was left was a bare wooden handle.

Zhang Tiezhu and Liu San turned pale. They didn't dare to try again and threw the knife on the ground like a hot potato.

Clang!

The wind swept across the muddy ground, scattering a few flakes of silver powder and revealing the pale, crude iron at the broken end of the blade.

This is hardly a peerless sword.

The props that storytellers use to demonstrate their skills under the overpass are all more durable than this thing.

The hundreds of soldiers who had been fighting on the brink of death finally realized that they had been taken for fools.

The kind of fool who risks their life.

"Damn it!"

The black bear slammed the broken handle in its hand to the ground, veins bulging on its forehead.

"Is this a knife used to kill people?"

"This is fucking scrap metal that's sending us to our deaths!"

He turned around abruptly, staring in the direction where the main camp and the centurion's tent were located.

"Who delivered it?"

"That old dog Zhao He!"

"He said he personally inspected these knives! He just wants us to take this pile of junk to our deaths!"

"Damn Zhao He!"

Scarface Li squeezed the wooden handle in his hand so hard it made a cracking sound.

"First they cut off our food supply, and now they want to take our lives!"

"This batch of scrap metal is definitely something he did: he sold the good knives on the black market for money and then tried to fool us with junk!"

The blind old soldier raised the still-crumbling knife high in the air.

"Brothers!"

"Zhao He is trying to wipe out our Eighth Battalion!"

The crowd erupted in chaos.

All rules and military law were thrown to the back of their minds at this moment.

All they knew was that if Lu Jing really distributed these knives, their weapons would shatter during the first clash when the Northern Barbarians attacked the city.

By then, all five hundred people will have become mincemeat under the hooves of the northern barbarian cavalry.

"Kill Zhao He!"

"Kill that old dog who embezzled weapons!"

"Dump his hundred-household account!"

The crowd was like boiling water, grabbing broken machetes and rotten sticks, ready to rush out of the training ground.

Just then, a figure slowly emerged from behind the abandoned tents on the side of the training ground.

Lu Jing kept his hands tucked into his sleeves, walking at a leisurely pace.