We Agreed On Experiencing Life, So Why Did You Immortals Become Real? - Chapter 322: Iron Tiger Army! Deploy!
Chang Xin looked at the list of ten names. His brow furrowed deeply, his eyes narrowing.
“What? Is there a problem?” Commander Wang asked.
“Reporting to Commander, there’s no problem!” Chang Xin answered.
“Since there’s no problem, then go tell them properly. Have them prepare well. Tomorrow at the hour of mao, they depart.” Commander Wang waved his hand, “Go.”
“Yes!”
Chang Xin cupped his fists in salute, turned, and walked out of the wooden house.
Walking through the military camp, Chang Xin still felt something was strange.
Although it was normal for Iron Tiger Army soldiers to go to the battlefield, the problem was that for Iron Tiger Army recruits’ first time on the battlefield, it was generally battles that were relatively short in duration and small in scale. Most people would even go to border garrisons for a period of time first.
But this time, for a war of national annihilation, to actually have these ten Iron Tiger Army newcomers like Xiao Mo go, was this really appropriate?
This was a war of national annihilation. At the shortest, it would take two or three years; at the longest, seven or eight years. And the intensity of the battlefield, could they accept it?
Chang Xin couldn’t figure it out, but he also knew he didn’t need to think about it. He was a soldier. He only needed to obey military orders.
Moreover, not just anyone was qualified to participate in a war of national annihilation.
For them, this was perhaps also a good opportunity to establish merit and achieve success.
Before long, Chang Xin arrived at the Earthly Branch Twelve dormitory.
The dormitory was completely empty.
Chang Xin went to the training ground again.
Sure enough, after these years of training, even without him present, they would all feel restless. Training had already become a habit in their lives.
“Everyone stop and assemble.” Chang Xin shouted at them.
Hearing Instructor Chang’s voice, Xiao Mo and the others stopped training, wiped their sweat, and ran to line up in front of Instructor Chang.
“You don’t need to train today. You’re allowed one day off, and you can leave the military camp. Just go get your tokens.” Chang Xin said to the ten including Xiao Mo.
Hearing Instructor Chang’s words, Xiao Mo and the others were stunned. They looked at each other, doubting whether they had heard wrong.
“Instructor Chang, you just said… we can rest?” Xiao Mo asked.
“That’s right.”
Chang Xin nodded.
“According to Iron Tiger Army rules, every recruit has one day of rest before their first deployment. You can write wills, you can go drink, you can go to brothels. Just return to the military camp before the sun sets. Tomorrow at the hour of mao, you will deploy with the army to Wei Kingdom. Did you hear clearly?”
“Heard clearly.” Xiao Mo shouted but apart from Xiao Mo, the other nine hadn’t reacted yet and were still in a daze.
“Are the rest of you nine deaf or mute? I’m asking you, did you hear clearly?” Chang Xin roared.
“Heard clearly!” Zhao Wei and the others finally responded loudly.
“Dismissed.” Chang Xin looked at them with deep eyes, “Boys, don’t die.”
After Chang Xin left, Zhao Wei and the others began discussing among themselves.
They knew that one day they would have to go to the battlefield but what they never expected was that this day would come so quickly. However, soon they also accepted this reality.
After returning to the dormitory, Zhao Wei and the others took out paper and brushes to write wills.
After these years of learning to read and write, they were no longer the youths from a few years ago who barely knew any characters. Writing a will was more than sufficient.
However, a will was essentially an explanation to one’s family, equivalent to writing a letter home but because people in the military camp often trained themselves to death on the training grounds, the camp normally didn’t allow writing letters.
Otherwise, if they constantly exchanged letters with family normally, soldiers would definitely be distracted. And if one day family members stopped receiving letters, the emotional blow to relatives would be even greater.
So generally, when someone came to the Iron Tiger Army, they were considered “dead” by default. If they were alive after seven years, that was a matter for seven years later.
Therefore, when Zhao Wei and the others picked up their brushes, even though they were writing wills, they didn’t know for a moment what to write to their families.
“What are you all writing?” Zhao Wei scratched his head and asked Xu Yongsheng and the others but Xu Yongsheng and the others likewise shook their heads.
Hei Daniu sighed, “I’d like to let my parents know I can now read and write, but it feels like saying this is useless. Even if my parents see it, I’ll already be dead.”
Yue Jiyun also bit his brush, “I feel like writing a will for the first time is quite awkward, but we can’t not write it.”
“Big Brother Xiao, what did you write?” Qu Weize saw that Big Brother Xiao had finished his will in no time.
Xiao Mo sealed his will and answered, “Write what you normally want to say to your family but are too embarrassed to say out loud. This will only gets sent after we die anyway. When family sees it, we’ll already be gone. Don’t be afraid of being sentimental.”
Hearing what Big Brother Xiao said, everyone felt it indeed made some sense.
They continued holding their brushes, carefully considering each word and sentence.
Before long, Zhao Wei and the others successively put brush to paper.
After everyone finished writing their wills, they sent them to the wooden house called “Posthumous Name.”
If Xiao Mo and the others died in battle, the wills along with the death benefits would be sent to their relatives’ hands immediately.
If they didn’t die, next deployment they’d write another one.
After submitting their wills, several people suddenly felt light and unburdened, with a feeling of having no attachments.
After all, the Iron Tiger Army’s death benefits were quite considerable, enough for their parents to live out their remaining years.
“Brothers, let’s go, let’s go check out the imperial capital.” Su Lei said excitedly to them, “We’ve been in the capital so long, always staying in the military camp. We’ve never gone to see the city.”
“True. Now we have some money too. We should really go enjoy ourselves in the imperial capital. Otherwise, if we die, we won’t have another chance.”
“Agreed!”
“You country bumpkins.” Ma Jinpeng smiled, “Come on, this young master will take you to see the world!”
Everyone spoke one after another, all looking forward to the imperial capital, then looked at Xiao Mo together.
“Why are you all looking at me? If you want to go, then go.” Xiao Mo said with a smile.
“Let’s go! To the imperial capital!”
Soon, they got their tokens and left the military camp.
When Zhao Wei and the others entered the imperial capital and saw its prosperity, they were momentarily stunned, then visibly excited.
“Holy crap, this main road is several times wider than the one in my hometown city!”
“Damn! So lively, so many people.”
“What do we do? I feel like everyone here has class. Will they be able to tell we’re from the countryside?”
“Don’t be so pathetic. We’re Iron Tiger Army people. That at least counts as half an imperial capital household registration, right? Don’t just stand here looking stupid like country bumpkins.” Ma Jinpeng straightened his clothes and led his brothers to tour the imperial capital.
Along the way, Hei Daniu and the others made various exclamations of amazement, feeling even the little girls in the capital were fairer than those back home.
Li Dadan felt the dough for steamed buns in the capital was kneaded more delicately than back home.
Xu Yongsheng felt that even any random brothel girl in the capital was better looking than those in his city.
Xu Yongsheng even beat his chest in regret, thinking what kind of mediocre beauties had he been sleeping with at the county brothels before?
Weren’t these capital brothel girls far more refined, beautiful, and shapely than those back home?
I love the capital!
Xiao Mo looked at the capital’s strange yet familiar sights, feeling quite emotional.
So far, he hadn’t returned to the capital in two and a half years.
Before he knew it, Xiao Mo looked toward the direction of the Xiao Manor.
“Brothers, how about we go to a brothel for some wine and flowers? We have money now anyway. If we don’t go this time, who knows if we’ll have another chance.”
Xu Yongsheng proposed selecting a brothel to visit.
After hearing this, although Hei Daniu and Li Dadan didn’t agree, they didn’t refuse either. Their dark faces just revealed a blush, looking both expectant and somewhat embarrassed.
Apart from Xiao Mo, Zhao Wei, and the two officials’ sons, the others also appeared reluctant on the surface but wanted to go in their hearts.
After all, they were still virgins.
They didn’t want to die on the battlefield still virgins.
“You all go. I won’t go.” Xiao Mo said with a smile.
“Big Brother Xiao, you’re really not going?” Xu Yongsheng was somewhat surprised.
Before, Big Brother Xiao was still young and immature, so not understanding was normal but now Big Brother Xiao had reached the age of the elephant dance ceremony. According to Qin Kingdom law, he could even get married.
Could it be that because Big Brother Xiao was always with us rough men, he had no interest in women?
“Really not going.” Xiao Mo shook his head, “Remember to finish early. I’ll go stroll around the city first. If the sun is about to set and you still haven’t come out, I’ll kick you off the beds.”
“This…”
Xiao Mo not going made everyone somewhat hesitant.
“Alright, if you’re going, go. Don’t be wishy-washy.”
Xiao Mo patted Hei Daniu’s shoulder and turned to walk forward and just when Xiao Mo hadn’t walked even a hundred zhang, he faintly heard noisy running footsteps behind him.
“Big Brother, wait for us… Big Brother…”
Xiao Mo turned around and saw Xu Yongsheng and the others running over.
Xiao Mo asked curiously, “Didn’t you go to the brothel?”
Xu Yongsheng said with a smile, “We did go in, but the madam could tell we were country folk. Her eyes were disrespectful, so I thought forget it.”
“I… I think finding a good wife is more important. The brothel, forget it.” Hei Daniu said.
Li Dadan nodded, “Me too!”
“Listen to them making excuses…” Chen Wang rubbed his nose, “Actually, we felt that without you, Big Brother, it wouldn’t be as fun for just us, so we came out.”
“You guys.” Xiao Mo said with a smile, “Alright then, let’s all go eat some sauced beef, gnaw on some braised pork knuckles, and have some wine. I know a small shop that’s pretty good, if the owner hasn’t left yet.”
“Let’s go, let’s go. Big Brother, lead the way.” Zhao Wei and the others responded.
Before long, Xiao Mo brought everyone to a shop on the street next to the Xiao Manor.
Everyone drank and ate meat together, watching people come and go on the street, talking about how they must buy a house in the capital in the future, take a wife, have a chubby baby, and live a comfortable life.
Hearing their words, Xiao Mo only smiled, said nothing, but remembered everything, then quietly looked at the Xiao Manor that was just one street away.
“Big Brother Xiao? If I remember correctly, the next street over is where the Xiao Manor is located, right?” Ma Jinpeng asked curiously, “Big Brother Xiao, you rarely come out, and you’re deploying tomorrow. Don’t you want to go see your mother?”
Ma Jinpeng’s words gained consensus from the others. They all looked at Xiao Mo, not having realized the Xiao Manor was so close.
“No need.” Xiao Mo shook his head, “The Iron Tiger Army only gives leave before deployment. If I go back, my mother will definitely deduce I’m about to deploy. Why should I add to Mother’s worries?”
“…”
“…”
The others were momentarily speechless. They also felt Big Brother Xiao made sense.
If it would make Mother more worried, then why go?
But if he didn’t go, he might not even get one last look…
“Let’s not talk about this. Come, Big Brother, brothers, let’s drink!” Zhao Wei raised his cup, “This deployment, we will surely return victorious!”
“We will surely return victorious!”
Everyone collected their thoughts, raised their cups to clink them together, the wine rippling in the cups but in reality, not a single person knew whether they could return alive.
At the same time, in the courtyard of the Xiao Manor, the maid Cuicui was attending to Fifth Madam Zhou Ruoxi.
Zhou Ruoxi was weaving shoes.
Suddenly, Zhou Ruoxi felt something and raised her head, looking in a certain direction.
“Madam, what’s wrong?” Cuicui asked curiously.
“Nothing.” Zhou Ruoxi blinked, “I just suddenly miss Mo’er.”
“Madam, you don’t suddenly miss him. You miss Young Master every day…” Cuicui sighed, “But Madam, don’t worry. I heard Young Master is doing very well in the military camp. And now two and a half years of the seven have passed. In another four and a half years, Young Master can not only leave the Iron Tiger Army but can even become an official.”
Zhou Ruoxi only smiled and looked down at the shoes in her arms, “When Mo’er returns, he’ll be at the age of the cap ceremony.”
“Madam, when Young Master returns, it won’t be about shoe size anymore. Young Master should be discussing marriage!” Cuicui giggled covering her mouth.
“I think Her Highness the Princess is quite good.”
“What nonsense are you speaking?” Zhou Ruoxi lightly tapped her head, “How could Her Highness the Princess take a liking to our boy? But… if that time really comes, we should indeed find Mo’er a good family.”
Before they knew it, the sun was about to set.
Before dark, Xiao Mo and the others returned to the military camp.
The next day, before dawn, as a horn sounded, Xiao Mo opened his eyes, knowing the Iron Tiger Army was about to deploy.
Xiao Mo and the others immediately went to the largest training ground in the center of the camp.
At this time, the other thousand Iron Tiger Army soldiers were also arriving successively.
Each person stood straight in formation, silent, eyes forward. The entire training ground was filled with a solemn killing intent.
Soon, a general walked onto the high platform before everyone.
He surveyed everyone, his authoritative voice spreading throughout the entire camp, “Iron Tiger Army! Deploy!”
