Chapter Eighty-Two: Handling the X Project

"Gag her, drag her away, and lock her up."

Watching the woman—who was still struggling violently while being held by two soldiers and gagged—Zhou Yingxiong found her behavior utterly incomprehensible.

She relied on the camp for her food and clothing. If she were caught by the Han army outside, she would surely die; if she fell into the hands of refugees, she would suffer a fate even worse. Yet, a person in such a position was publicly campaigning against him.

She was even lower than a dog—at least a dog wouldn't bite the hand that fed it.

Still, it was nothing major. Encountering a lunatic now and then wasn't worth fretting over. With that thought, he waved his hand at the soldiers who had gathered nearby to whisper among themselves. "Disperse!"

Most of the soldiers followed orders and left. However, a few stood their ground. "Sir, the female teacher instructed us: do not punish people for their words. Even if she said something inappropriate, it was just talk, not action. Isn't it inappropriate for you to arrest her like this?"

"Arrest them all, gag them, and give each of them twenty lashes with the military staff," Zhou Yingxiong said, pointing at the men. "What a chaotic mess this is..."

Before entering this space, he had often encountered such people—those who couldn't tell good from bad, didn't know the gravity of the situation, had a death wish, and were both greedy and stupid. But how could such people exist in this era, too?

Beating such people with the military staff felt satisfying; perhaps Wang Luo was right that doing more physical labor would cure them.

But... there wouldn't have been so much chaos if Wang Luo hadn't caused it. If he hadn't been idle enough to organize literacy classes, none of this would have happened...

Wait, that wasn't right. Wang Luo's prescribed textbooks didn't contain this material. "Who taught her?"

The soldiers nearby were all silent. After a moment, one of the soldiers who had been attending the classes stood up. "She seems to be a student of Master Gertini."

Did they use other textbooks to save time while teaching them to read? Damn! Always creating trouble for me.

Then again, that was the way a clever person would act; only a fool like Ranke would actually follow Wang Luo's requirements to the letter.

"Report!" As he prepared to return to his tent, a scout on horseback burst into the camp from afar. "Report to the Commander! A Han army unit is approaching the camp from the distance!"

"What are you panicking about?" Zhou Yingxiong reprimanded. "How many enemies are there?"

"Over three thousand... coming from the direction of the ferry."

"Order the troops of every battalion to prepare their equipment and form up to meet the enemy." Zhou Yingxiong pondered for a moment. "Gather all the women taught by Gertini into the main tent and lock them up."

"Many of them have been assigned to take care of the commanders and deputies. There are even some by General Wang's side..." a soldier reminded him in a whisper.

"...Forget it. Then lock up the ones who haven't been assigned. And those I had you monitoring before, have them all... no, just keep them under strict guard. Do not allow them to act on their own!"

"Understood!" The soldiers around him bowed in unison.

"Send someone to notify General Wang. At this hour... the battle must have already begun. Inform him as soon as possible and ask him to return for reinforcements if he can."

----

The morale of this Han army unit was not high.

Midway through their march, they had received orders to attack the enemy's camp while the main force of the Revolutionary Army was deployed. It sounded like an easy task to pick up scraps. But as a local garrison unit, they lacked training, their equipment was crude, and some soldiers even harbored favorable feelings toward the enemy's leader—high morale was impossible.

However, once the order came, they had to execute it.

Wu Zhou was able to mobilize them by relying on the following item:

*Forged Imperial Edict*: Can be used to issue combat orders to a unit smaller than 5,000 men or a unit whose commander lacks sufficient intelligence. Valid for twenty-four hours.

Once the effect expired, the gains within that time frame would be settled immediately without waiting for the battle to end, and the rewards would be increased by 10% to 30% based on the combat results.

Lin Feirui had purchased it using a merchant who had temporarily spawned in the mobile team space. She then used it to mobilize the soldiers at the ferry camp, preparing and waiting for a long time until this moment, when the main forces of the Revolutionary Army and the Han army were engaged in battle again, to launch a surprise attack on the Revolutionary Army's camp.

Her opinion had been fully conveyed to the entire Wu Zhou team. This time, they needed to give it their all.

They were fully deployed, having mentally prepared to use all their skills and items. Now, they had to rely on this Han army unit—which lacked strong combat power—along with their prior arrangements within the enemy camp, to break into the empty camp while the enemy force was almost entirely away.

"Can you ensure the enemy's main force won't return to reinforce?" Da Bing asked Red Lightning, who was walking beside him in the marching column.

"The Team Leader has made arrangements," Red Lightning said, his face grave. "Although we cannot control the main Han army, we can at least ensure they fight more fiercely today."

"More importantly, it's because of the location," said Dart, standing beside Red Lightning. "The enemy's main force took the western road to intercept the Han main force, while we are flanking from the east to head straight for their camp."

"What if our attack doesn't go smoothly and the enemy is forced to retreat?" Da Bing asked.

"Heh, heh, heh," Dart laughed. "Then the Han army's prepared..."

"Dart!" Red Lightning's voice was much harsher.

"What are you so nervous about?" Dart didn't stop because of Red Lightning's tone. "If Da Bing were a traitor, we wouldn't need to fight; we could just defect right now. Da Bing, are you a traitor?"

"No," Da Bing replied.

"Remember what you said. We're old friends, don't trick us."

"I'm really not," Da Bing said, spreading his hands. "How could I be a spy? If I wanted to defect, I would have just gone over; I wouldn't have come back."

"Hahaha, that's true! If the enemy turns back to support, then the Han army's prepared ambush will come in handy."

"Forget it, it doesn't matter if I tell you," Red Lightning sighed softly before speaking. "It's not something we orchestrated. It was a strategy offered to Lu Zhi by several Han officers to flank the rear... Now, we just fear they won't return. The Team Leader's plan is built on this specific action by the Han army."

"The Team Leader's plan?" Da Bing asked.

"If we can't win a frontal assault, we win with a surprise strike. We use the enemy's preference for frontal combat to flank them and break their camp. Without supplies, even the strongest army will quickly collapse."

"Can we take it?"

"That depends on us," Red Lightning said, clenching his fist. "The Team Leader has made preparations, but I don't think we should pin our hopes on such things."

"Then..." Da Bing, who didn't mind speaking his mind in front of friends, spoke again. "What if we lose this time?"

"We won't lose." Dart opened his mouth, but said nothing in the end. It was Red Lightning who answered him. "Don't think so much. We won't lose."