The militia responded in one unified roar, voices shaking the morning air.
"Understood!"
Cheng Xu let out a breath he did not realize he had been holding. The moment he heard that it was not a death order, his whole body relaxed like someone had just loosened a rope around his neck.
So that is what it means. Not a must-win no matter what situation. If things go bad, I can actually retreat. I do not have to fight Wang Zuogua to the last breath like a suicidal hero. Good. Very good. Survival rate just went up dramatically.
In his mind, he silently gave the Dao Xuan Tianzun system of workplace safety a five-star review.
Above the battlefield, the absurd "great-grandmother" vision that only he could see suddenly flipped again.
She who had been floating like a celestial immortal with long flowing ribbons suddenly shrank mid-air, like someone had adjusted the scale of reality. In an instant, she turned into a ten-year-old little girl. The ribbons vanished. Her feet touched the ground with a soft landing sound.
Then she started running.
She ran across the field giggling, completely ignoring dignity, immortality, or anything resembling divine authority. She even squatted by the ditch at the edge of the farmland to catch mudfish with her bare hands like a village kid who had just discovered the joy of chaos.
A ten-year-old "great-grandmother" chasing mudfish looked ridiculously cute, so cute it was almost illegal.
Cheng Xu blinked twice.
He decided not to question Dao Xuan Tianzun's internal UI design.
"Alright," Gao Yiye said loudly, pulling everyone back to reality. "The divine decree of Dao Xuan Tianzun has been delivered. What I am about to say next is my own message."
Her voice carried across the drill ground.
"I wish you all a victorious campaign. May your banners rise first and return undefeated."
Cheng Xu straightened immediately.
"Move out!"
The thousand militia troops began to mobilize.
They first arrived at the train station, then boarded the train heading toward Bai Family Fort, and from there they would enter Huanglong Mountain.
This was not a short trip. Once they entered the mountains, they were stepping into a world where days blurred into weeks, and survival depended entirely on terrain, firepower, and luck.
Huanglong Mountain was dense with forest, ridges overlapping like tangled bones, ravines cutting through the land like scars. Finding Wang Zuogua alone would be difficult. Killing him would be even harder. No one knew when they would return.
From a distant hillside, Xing Honglang stood silently watching them depart.
At the front of the artillery detachment, there was a tall figure wrapped in iron armor like a walking iron barrel. That was Gao Chuwu.
Xing Honglang's eyes followed his back as he walked further and further away, until the figure blended into the marching formation and disappeared into the mountain path.
A rough female voice suddenly sounded beside her.
"Boss Xing, if you are this worried, why not go with them? Mountain warfare is your specialty."
Xing Honglang turned her head and saw Zao Ying standing there.
She quickly erased the soft expression on her face and returned to her usual cold posture.
"What am I worried about? There is nothing to worry about. I am not worried about anyone."
Zao Ying grinned.
"Oh really? Gao Chuwu is kind of dumb, you know. If nobody watches him, he might just wander off into the mountains and get lost."
Xing Honglang's expression twitched for half a second.
"I am not worried about him. He is not Flat Rabbit. He is dumb, yes, but he follows orders. He will not run around."
Zao Ying burst into laughter.
"You are panicking. You are definitely panicking. Come on, just admit you want to go too."
Xing Honglang shook her head firmly.
"I cannot go. The bandit suppression mission does not lack me. It does not matter if I am there or not. I have more important work."
Zao Ying tilted her head.
"Oh? More important than your man?"
Xing Honglang's eyes widened.
"That guy is not my man. Not at all."
Zao Ying laughed even harder.
"This is too funny. Teasing Boss Xing is the best entertainment I have had all month."
Xing Honglang could no longer endure it. She turned and started walking fast.
Zao Ying immediately chased after her.
"Boss Xing, do not run. Before he left, did Gao Chuwu promise anything? Like coming back to marry you after the war?"
Xing Honglang's face instantly turned red.
"No! Absolutely not! Why would there be such a promise? That kind of talk gets people killed! Stop following me. I do not want to talk to you."
Zao Ying leaned in like a persistent mosquito.
"Come on, just a little chat."
"No chat."
"I am also a bandit leader. I specialize in romantic gossip."
"I do not gossip."
"Then I will gossip alone."
The two women, both strong enough to break skulls with bare hands, ran across the hillside chasing and fleeing like schoolgirls arguing over candy.
Their figures quickly disappeared into the distance.
Meanwhile, deep in Huanglong Mountain, northeastern ridge.
Inside a hidden valley lay a massive bandit force numbering twelve thousand men.
This was Wang Zuogua's army.
On paper, it looked like an overwhelming force. In reality, only about five thousand were truly combat capable. The remaining six thousand were old, weak, injured, or half-disabled.
Their daily survival routine was simple and brutal. Dig up roots. Strip bark. Pick wild fruit. Catch rabbits. Catch pangolins. Catch mice. Anything edible was considered strategic resources.
The five thousand combat soldiers, on the other hand, periodically raided nearby Yichuan County, burning, killing, and looting like a rolling disaster.
Their pattern was chaotic but familiar. One day they hit one village, the next day another, like a roaming storm that never settled.
Yichuan County had already suffered deeply. They tried several rounds of suppression, but each time Wang Zuogua fought against government forces led by Hong Chengchou, he would lose battles but never die.
He was like a cockroach in armor. You could stomp him down, but the moment your foot lifted, he was gone again.
At this moment, Wang Zuogua was sitting inside his tent.
On his left arm he held a young lady from a local gentry family he had forcibly captured. On his right hand he gestured lazily while discussing future targets with Miao Mei, Feishanhu, and Dahonglang.
Outside, a bandit rushed in urgently.
"Boss! Bai Family Fort from Cheng County has sent a militia force of about a thousand men into Huanglong Mountain. They look like they are coming for us."
Wang Zuogua sneered immediately.
"So Bai Family Fort wants revenge for their assassination attempt? Hah. We only killed a few of their people and stole some horses. What is there to complain about?"
Miao Mei also coldly laughed.
"That Bai faction is too arrogant. This is our territory. Even the government does not dare to enter easily. A mere militia dares to come in? One thousand men? So what?"
Feishanhu frowned slightly.
"They have firepower. The last time we clashed over horse raiding, their explosive devices wiped out entire rows of our men."
Dahonglang snorted.
"Firepower like that consumes a huge amount of powder. Even the imperial army cannot equip it in large numbers. A small Bai Family Fort? How many can they possibly have? Last time we just got startled. This time we will crush them properly."
Wang Zuogua nodded slowly.
"Exactly. They cannot have many of those weapons. Maybe a dozen muskets and a few strange bombs at most. Fighting in our territory, there is no need to fear them."
He tapped the table.
"Find a good terrain. Set up an ambush circle. We will wipe out this Bai militia in one move. After that, we strike Bai Family Fort itself and strip it clean."
Everyone answered at once.
"Understood."
At that moment, an unfamiliar voice suddenly came from the side.
"Everyone… I have something to say."
The group turned their heads.
A new recruit stood there. A man from Mizhi County.
His nickname was the "Chuangjiang."
Trivia & Context Notes
[1] Hong Chengchou
A top-tier Ming dynasty general known for relentless campaigns against rebel forces. His repeated failure to kill Wang Zuogua wasn't incompetence—it reflected a broader late-Ming problem: armies could win battles but not finish wars. Mobility and local terrain often mattered more than victory on paper.
[2] "Chuangjiang" (The Breakthrough General)
A title implying aggressive, forward-charging leadership. In late-Ming slang, such nicknames often doubled as personal brands—useful for recruitment, intimidation, and reputation-building in an era where fame traveled faster than logistics.
Bandit Economics
Raiding cycles like Wang Zuogua's were not random brutality. They followed seasonal hunger patterns. When stored grain ran low, villages were hit; when pressure rose, bandits retreated into mountains. Hunger, not ideology, dictated strategy.[3]
[3] Confucian Irony
Classical morality emphasized order and virtue, yet late-Ming reality proved a blunt truth: ethics function far better after meals. Hunger routinely overruled ritual, law, and loyalty—an unspoken contradiction scholars preferred not to dwell on.
Firearms & Fear
Early gunpowder weapons caused disproportionate psychological damage. Even when numbers were small, unfamiliar explosions shattered morale—often more decisively than casualties themselves. Once the shock wore off, confidence tended to return, sometimes dangerously so.