Chapter 95: Preparing to Deploy Troops

At the Blue Magpie Country dock, within Tan Jiang's territory. Since a thousand civilians were added at once, they have been settling them these days, making it hard for him to break free.

On the river surface, a lone skiff drifts slowly toward the dock.

"Master, our scout has returned." A Bronze Armor Blade Badge Warrior hurried into the lord's manor and reported to Tan Jiang, who sat in the main seat.

Tan Jiang arrived half a month before Li Bucai and the others. He originally had four generals; at month's end he purchased four more in Sky City, so now he commands eight war generals and six hundred troops of various types. This Blade Badge Warrior named Le Jin has followed him from the start, serving as the chief general and overseeing all defense matters within the territory.

"Oh?" Tan Jiang, upon hearing the scout's return, sprang up. Having come back from Sky City, he had been bitter about Li Bucai not paying tribute, and that evening he dispatched the scout to investigate Li Bucai's movements, waiting for news. When the scout returned, he hurried to meet him—his first time rushing out of the manor to welcome a returning scout.

At the gate, the scout had already entered the camp gate. At this time, almost all lords' camps were wooden; Tan Jiang's main camp stood by the river, and stepping out of the gate one could see the opposite bank. To his east lay Li Bucai's territory, a region of jagged cliffs; to the west it bordered Tan Ping's territory, and the camp's main gate faced the border with Pu Fengtian and He Qingming's lands.

"Only you returned, where are the others?" Tan Jiang had sent out five scouts. To avoid losing fishing boats and jeopardizing the upcoming deployment, he gave the five a single fishing boat, all five went together, yet only one came back.

"They… they… per the master's orders, we were to investigate their details as thoroughly as possible, so after landing we scattered, having arranged to meet at the riverbank at dawn today. I waited at the river until near noon but saw no sign of them. To avoid delaying the master's grand plan, I had to return alone to report the military situation."

Tan Jiang cared little about that; he was only concerned with the situation at Li Bucai's side.

"How many troops do they have, and where have they set up defenses?"

The scout hesitated, then said, "Reporting to the master, they have roughly three hundred soldiers. As for generals, only three or four women were seen. They have a watchpost beneath a cliff on the riverbank guarded by dozens, and they have also built a small water camp on the riverbank."

"Is that all? Where is their main camp? How far is it from the riverbank? How far from the watchpost? Is there a route that bypasses the watchpost?"

After entering Li Bucai's territory, the five scouts left one man on the riverbank to hide the boat; the other four disembarked and scattered, probing deep into Li Bucai's lands, but the Qingwolf Beast heard them. The man on the riverbank successively heard four packs of wolves snarling, each from a different direction—the very directions the four were heading. Realizing the four had met misfortune, he dared not leave the riverbank and quietly hid among the riverside foliage, making no sound.

On the first day, he saw Li Bucai leading many people to the riverbank, erecting a garrison on the hill, then leaving a group there; it turned out the Qingwolf Beast was their mount. On the second day, a female commander arrived with many to continue construction; he was far away, only able to glimpse her in a pink dress, unable to see her features. In the following two days, Li Bucai himself led many civilians to build the dock on the riverbank, and erected a water camp around it, beginning to craft fishing boats.

Because this scout could not penetrate his territory, he could not gather details and lingered here for four days, coming and going. From the soldiers arriving at the riverbank, the number always matched the earlier sight of over a hundred, plus those guarding the main camp; in total it likely did not exceed three hundred.

Until the fifth day, the prolonged hiding caused movement to be heard; the Qingwolf Beast belonging to Yin Ji in the water camp heard the sound, spotting a giant wolf running toward them. It emerged from the foliage, hurriedly pushed the boat into the river, leapt onto a small boat, and fled swiftly.

The scout squeaked, "Their main camp lies on the eastern frontier, a region of jagged cliffs; only at the confluence of the White Horse River and Shalanjiang is there a passable route. Elsewhere the roads may not even reach their main camp, and even if they do, they would be extremely distant and not worth the effort…"

With his current strength, Tan Jiang naturally would not forsake a nearby target for a distant one. He knows this continent harbors many alien races; if he encounters a powerful one, he cannot punish Li Bucai and would likely end up harming himself.

"I know that, what else? Continue."

"Reporting to the master, his territory is extremely mountainous. As of now, only one road leads directly to their main camp, and even that clings to the mountain's foot. The water camp sits at the road's entrance, guarded by about fifty or sixty men; the watchpost on the adjacent hill also has about fifty or sixty guards. Their main camp lies twenty to thirty li south of the water camp." As a scout, having lingered there for days, he could calculate the distance from the riverbank to the main camp using the riverbank guards' schedule and Li Bucai's arrival time.

Tan Jiang nodded with satisfaction, ordered the man to rest, and sent one to rock a boat toward Tan Ping's territory to borrow people and a boat.

In those five or six days, Tan Jiang, besides constructing many civilian houses, was clearing a small grain field, and added manpower at the dock, producing ten fishing boats; now he has seventeen fishing boats. Due to the carpenters' skill limits, they can only build double‑oared wooden boats with reed canopies, unable to craft larger transport vessels. These boats are slender, each carrying at most six people.

Hearing the scout say Li Bucai's territory has over three hundred people, these boats can only carry just over a hundred; to be safe, he sent someone to ask his brother for boats, also eager to see what his whirlwind death soldiers look like.

The Tan family brothers' main camps all hug the riverbank, thirty li apart by water, requiring nearly a day for a round trip.

At dawn the next day, twenty fishing boats formed a line and glided down the river, swiftly reaching the shore and docking at the dock within Tan Jiang's territory. Except for the lead boat, all hulls were covered with blue cloth, hiding their cargo. After the lead boat moored, a commander disembarked, led by Tan Jiang's men straight into the main camp.

"Master, as the main camp chief ordered, the person has been brought." Though the Tan family brothers belong to different territories, they are of one mind; to differentiate, their servants refer to Tan Ping as the main camp lord and Tan Jiang as the second camp lord.

Tan Jiang saw the newcomer was a gaunt assassin radiating speed, with an inverted‑triangle face, hawk‑like eyes, dressed in a sleek black outfit, two green‑glowing Short Knives at his waist, and he bowed to Tan Jiang, saying, "I, Cold Eagle, under my lord's command, have led over a hundred whirlwind death soldiers to see the second camp lord. From now on, I and my hundred‑plus death soldiers will await the second camp lord's orders."

Though his appearance was unusual, he was merely recruited from Sky City, and Tan Jiang was curious to see how the so‑called whirlwind death soldiers differed from others. "Very well, whirlwind death soldiers? Where are they now?"

"Reporting to the second camp lord, they are currently aboard the ship awaiting orders."

"Now that they're on our own ground, why not have them come ashore for a meeting?"

"Their appearance is rather strange; I fear it might startle the second camp lord's heavenly authority."

"Hahaha…" Tan Jiang threw his head back in laughter, saying, "Since I arrived here, I've been crawling through piles of corpses every day; nothing's left I haven't seen, nothing can surprise me. Come, follow me and let's take a look."