The Golden Throne

Chapter 176: Marching to the next city

The next day,

Liu Feng was standing side by side along with hundreds, no, thousands of other recruits. In front of him was General George. Given the number of recruits, George could not recognize Liu Feng, and he did not even intend to. Seeing this impressive figure, everyone was silent. No one dared to make even a peep.

They knew that if they did, pain was all that would come next.

“All the recruits. As you know. We will be departing today. Many of you wonder what you will be doing because clearly, your current state is all but a joke. A hundred of you will be honoured with the task of accompanying the front line going forward. The rest will be in charge of the transportation of the food and other necessities.

For now, your captains will select the best of you and send you to the front lines. The soldiers will make sure that you will know what to do. As for the rest of you, you will start by dismantling the tents and packing the food.”, George said in an authoritarian voice. He then turned to the captains who were taking care of the recruits.

“I will leave the segregation to you. I have more things to take care of.”, he nodded towards them and left immediately.

“You heard him. My batch, follow me. Get moving.”, the elf that was in charge of Liu Feng’s batch shouted as she moved. Everyone complied involuntarily, and they moved to a place with more privacy.

“Alright. This is going to be very simple. Who wants to go to the front lines, step forward.”, she said.

Liu Feng did not move an inch. He knew that now wasn’t the time to be used as cannon fodder. He knew from the moment he heard General George that the kings were planning to use the recruits as fodder to reduce the casualties of actual soldiers. He detested this tactic, but he could not do anything about it. This was war, and he had to accept all aspects of it, given that he started it.

Slowly, a few people stepped forward. They numbered about thirty people, in a large crowd of hundreds. The recruits were not idiots, and most of them understood the risks of going to the front lines.

“Thirty? That is not good. Fine then. Fight among yourself. Only ten of you can go to the front lines.”, she said.

Hearing this, the people who stepped forward looked at each other. They seemed to have an understanding within each other, and a few of them stepped back.

“Good. You saved me quite the hassle. All of you. Stay here. These ten will follow me to report to another person. Urgh, so many steps so much redundancy.”, she said as she walked back to the place they came from. The ten followed her.

The recruits started talking about this the moment she left.

“What the hell? They are not even disguising it this time. They just want to sacrifice us.”, a recruit said.

“These people care only about themselves. First they force us to conscript, and now they want us to sacrifice ourselves? They must be drinking too much.”, another chimed inn.

“Forget all that. I am just surprised that they did not kill all of us because they could not find the killer of that bastard Kwon. I thought that they would go with the same approach as they did during the count’s death. When everyone was killed just so that they could kill the killer as well.”, a voice came from the side.

Liu Feng looked at this with shock and interest.

“What are you talking about? I never heard of that.”, he said immediately.

“This? This happened the Count Marcelli’s death? He was killed when he visited his subjects once, and someone assassinated him. I am not sure about the details, but if I am not wrong, they killed everyone in the region to make sure that they got the right guy. It was terrible.”, the man shook his head.

“How did I never hear about this?”, Liu Feng looked aghast.

“Well, why would the king let this spread? He must have thrown this under the rug.”, the man chuckled.

“Why are we talking about the past? Our lives are on the line now. Focus on the present.”, the person who started the discussion said.

“Aye.”, nods of agreement arose from the crowd.

Liu Feng grumbled. Just when he thought that he was getting some good information, he was thwarted by another. He shrugged and looked ahead. As the elf was coming back, he whispered to the person next to him, “What is the commander’s name? I still haven’t heard it.”

“Do you not know? She is Miel. She is one of those terrifying elves who lived long enough for our fathers to remember her. She is a very powerful elf apparently.”, the person responded.

“Thanks.”, Liu Feng whispered back and looked back front. He watched Miel come back to the batch and look at them.

“Now, I am sure that all of you know how to dismantle a tent, but I still cannot believe that I have to say this. Do not break anything. Half of you will be packing the tents, and the rest will be packing up the food. From the fifth line, all of you go to the graniary. Now, there will be multiple other recruits there. Please do not make a big mess.”, she sighed as she directed them. Liu Feng was also in this group.

They started walking to the graniaries, and soon got there. As Miel said, there were other recruits there, and clearly, there were superior officers making sure that everything was going properly.

They went into the granaries when Liu Feng saw something horrible. All the grains and the food was strewn apart on the floor and just left for the open. The recruits just started packing them into bags.

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