Chapter 22: Frankness

Inside the mess hall, there was silence, so profound it was almost noisy.

Mysterious smiles appeared on the faces of Mo Hu and the veteran soldiers; it seemed they all knew what was about to happen.

The many new recruits shook their heads in unison; they were either from respectable families or were the stronger individuals selected from other military camps.

Fights certainly happened often, but as for killing, they neither had the opportunity nor the guts for it.

Killing is not like drinking water or eating a meal—you cannot just do it on a whim; the first time requires some courage.

Furthermore, killing a living, breathing fellow human who might even beg for mercy does indeed carry a certain psychological burden.

Flesh and blood flying everywhere, brains splattered, intestines spilling out from a shrunken belly, and hearts and lungs still contracting while being ripped out alive.

These scenes bring immense shock and pressure to those seeing them for the first time.

Now they can slowly adapt to these things, but on the battlefield, one moment of carelessness means losing one's life.

Of course, some people will surely have no reaction to such things, but most people ultimately need time to adapt.

Therefore, it is necessary to let the Personal Soldiers see blood before going to the battlefield to get them accustomed to such situations.

The many new recruits shook their heads, but only Chen Mo pondered for a moment and slowly nodded.

He could not hide his past experiences; he had fled a disaster to reach this place, and while killing was not common for disaster victims, it was not exactly a rare occurrence either.

Especially for the disaster victims who fled here, one does not need to think to know that most had killed, because if you did not kill, you might be killed.

Rather than continuing to hide it, only for someone to find out his identity later and realize he had lied about this, it would make him seem guilty about the matter.

It is better to admit it openly now; in any case, no one would punish him for it.

At the time, those people had attacked him first, and he was acting in self-defense.

According to Great Gan Law, killing in self-defense is not a crime.

Moreover, no one would bother to investigate too deeply into what happened in the disaster zone.

Conversely, if he kept covering it up, there was no guarantee that people wouldn't overthink it.

After all, the disaster victims who managed to flee here were not necessarily forced to kill; some might have killed proactively.

Seeing him nod, everyone turned their gazes toward him in unison.

Sun Jiangjun was also a bit confused; ever since he discovered some time ago that Chen Mo could sense his killing intent, he had been somewhat surprised, though he hadn't yet investigated him thoroughly.

Now that he had proactively admitted to having killed people, could he be a notorious bandit who joined the army to escape punishment?

But that shouldn't be right; if that were truly the case, why would he need to admit he had killed people?

"When did you kill people? How many did you kill?" Sun Jiangjun asked, squinting his eyes.

"I am not a local; I only arrived here a while ago while fleeing the disaster. The people I killed were all those who wanted to kill me and steal my food on the road. There were seventeen or eighteen of them, I don't remember clearly!"

Chen Mo spoke in a measured tone, reciting the draft he had prepared in his heart.

In reality, he truly did not remember exactly how many people he had killed; it could have been seventeen or eighteen, or perhaps more.

During his flight, he was extremely hungry every day and only thought about eating; he had no extra energy to remember such trivial matters.

Killing is indeed difficult for these new recruits who, at the very least, had been able to eat their fill before.

But for the Chen Mo of that time, it was truly not a matter worth considering much.

Sun Jiangjun was stunned upon hearing this; he had previously looked at Chen Mo's place of origin and had always assumed he was a local.

When Chen Mo joined the army, his household registration naturally fell into the previous military camp.

His place of origin before joining the army was clearly written as Qingmu County; now it seemed the soldier in charge of recruitment at the time had taken a shortcut and lumped everyone together.

This matter was quite normal and not worth being too surprised about, but he just hadn't thought of it before.

Looking at it this way, Chen Mo being able to sense his killing intent was normal.

The disaster in Qingzhou was too severe; if he hadn't been sharp in his senses, he would have died on the road long ago while fleeing.

Mo Hu, on the other hand, looked stunned and incredulous, staring fixedly at Chen Mo.

Killing was really not a difficult task for him, and seventeen or eighteen people were not many to him; he had long since hacked to death far more people than that.

Even Chen Mo saying he had killed seventeen or eighteen people as if it were as simple as drinking water or eating a meal was nothing to him.

Only those new recruits who had never been to the battlefield would feel surprised and shocked by this.

For veteran soldiers like them who had been through many battles, discussing killing was just a daily triviality, not worth paying much attention to.

What surprised and shocked him immensely was that he really hadn't expected Chen Mo, who usually looked honest and simple, with his head full of thoughts about eating and only caring about how the food in the mess hall was...

Even when he went out on leave, after bathing, he wouldn't go to a tavern to drink, wouldn't go looking for prostitutes, and wouldn't go to a gambling den to play for money.

His whole heart was set on either the braised meat stall or a small eatery, spending his days pondering how to eat a few more bites of meat; no matter how you looked at him, he was an honest man.

... had actually killed seventeen or eighteen people!

He had originally thought he was a harmless little kitten, only to discover the other party was a man-eating tiger!

This contrast was truly too great!

For a moment, he found it hard to accept.

In fact, it wasn't just him who couldn't accept it; the many new recruits at the table were all surprised to learn this news.

Two new recruits sitting next to Chen Mo swallowed their saliva, looking slightly uneasy, and all moved a little further away without making a scene.

For veteran soldiers in the army who had experienced many wars, killing was not a big deal, but these veterans rarely talked about such things in their daily lives.

Many new recruits actually knew that the veterans must have killed people, and quite a few of them.

But Chen Mo was different; they were all new recruits, and they had quite a lot of contact in their daily lives because they trained together.

Even without deliberately trying to befriend him, after more than two months, they were all somewhat familiar with each other.

The impression Chen Mo gave to the many new recruits in the camp had always been one of simplicity and honesty; he was always smiling when interacting with others, and no matter how you looked at him, he was a rather amiable person.

Yet, such a person had actually killed seventeen or eighteen people, and looking at his tone and demeanor, it seemed as if this was not a task more difficult than drinking water or eating a meal.

The impact this had on these new recruits was indeed quite large.

"Hmm. Since that is the case, you just follow along and take a look this time," Sun Shouren said, still quite composed, as he made his decision.

As for the fact that Chen Mo was not a local, he did not care much.

Because the Personal Soldiers who would be added to the camp next could at most be considered barely fellow townsmen with him, as they all originated from Xingyuan Prefecture.

In fact, if one really wanted to discuss it, their relationship with him was fundamentally no different from that with Chen Mo.

If he had minded this point, he would not have expanded the scope of recruitment from the very beginning.

Moreover, even among those hundred or so veteran soldiers, there were some who were not of his own clan, or even from his own hometown.

Whether a person could be used or not ultimately depended on himself.

"Understood." Chen Mo nodded in agreement.

The numerous Personal Soldiers lined up and jogged all the way toward the outside of the camp.

As the garrison commander of a prefecture, Sun Shouren could at most mobilize five hundred men to leave the camp without a Command Order.

And they could not wear iron armor, with at most fifty bows allowed.

As for leather armor or ordinary weapons like blades and spears, there were not many restrictions.

However, rules were rules; as long as he was not discovered, he had not broken the law.

Of course, Sun Jiangjun would not mobilize a large number of elite troops to leave the camp for no reason, because rapid marches not only cost money, but would also neglect training.

The numerous Personal Soldiers rushed all the way to the vicinity of a mass grave several miles outside the military camp, where dozens of death row prisoners transported from various counties had already been escorted.

The numerous Personal Soldiers, even the dullest among them, could now guess what was to follow, and most of them showed an undisguisable look of nervousness on their faces.

As for Chen Mo, Mo Hu, and a small portion of the veteran soldiers, they were indifferent and did not care about this at all.

"Do it." Sun Jiangjun gave the order, and steel blades were distributed one by one to the numerous Personal Soldiers.

The numerous prisoners were beheaded one by one, with flesh and blood flying everywhere.

Many new recruits reacted differently; some were disgusted and nervous, others were excited and fearful, and only a few remained calm.

Chen Mo did not participate; he had killed many people, and there was no need to waste a death row prisoner now.

After finishing the courage-building exercise for the numerous Personal Soldiers, Sun Shouren led them away again; as for these corpses, there would naturally be people to handle them.

The following days remained as usual; Chen Mo trained in the military camp every day, and in the blink of an eye, another month passed.

(End of this chapter)