35: The decisive battle begins

Han Huohuo walked out of the Main Camp early in the morning and saw Hua Mulan still standing on the stone. It was clear she hadn't gone back to rest all night and was guarding the gate there.

He walked over.

"You've worked hard."

"It's alright."

It was very quiet all around, not even the sound of animals. In fact, there hadn't been any sound all night yesterday, not even the wind.

"General Hua, what do you think of the current situation?"

Hua Mulan glanced at Han Huohuo and said calmly, "We're fine today. Go rest."

Han Huohuo was surprised, "Huh? Why do you say that?"

Hua Mulan smiled slightly, "Yesterday, the official troops suffered a great loss here. They only have two choices: one is to send troops overnight to prioritize eliminating us. The second is, they will choose to eliminate other easier-to-deal-with Bandits first, and finally concentrate their forces to wipe us out."

"So?"

"Since they didn't come last night, they won't come today either. We can rest and recuperate, waiting for the final great battle tomorrow!"

After Hua Mulan finished speaking, she went to the Generals Residence to rest without looking back.

Han Huohuo was puzzled, was this girl reliable?

He went over and instructed Zhang Xiaoping to keep a close eye on the watchtower and stay alert. If there was any disturbance, report it immediately. The watchtower had a warning range of several kilometers, so he estimated there wouldn't be much of a problem.

The blacksmith shop had stopped working. There was no iron ore left, and Liu Hu wasn't needed to forge weapons anyway, so they had a rare moment of leisure.

Not just Liu Hu, but even Liu Long, Zhang Xiaoan, and the large group of young men they led were all idle.

There were too many cheval de frise, piled up everywhere. Hua Mulan said they were enough. Originally, two guys wanted to take advantage of the free time to install a fireplace for the boss.

But Han Huohuo stopped them.

"Liu Qiang, bring the tables out. I'll have tea and chat with the brothers!"

Bandits shouldn't drink tea, they should drink alcohol!

But Black Wind Stronghold had no alcohol, only tea.

No one farmed, and there was no grain, so what could they use to brew alcohol? Thus, drinking alcohol was something they could only think about.

They made do. The tea was also wild and tasted extremely bitter.

A group of Bandits started drinking tea together!

"King, can we hold on?"

"King, this tea isn't good. Next time I'll find you a few good varieties and plant them in the camp."

"King, there are no women in our camp either, right? It's all a bunch of men, it's too boring."

"Are you stupid? There clearly are some in the Generals Residence."

"Pfft!"

This sentence almost scared the kid to death.

"Awesome, you're brave enough. Then you go!"

No one was afraid of Han Huohuo; at least he looked approachable. But everyone was afraid of Hua Mulan. That woman looked fierce. When someone went to help clean the Generals Residence and wanted to move Hua Mulan's long spear, two men used all their might but couldn't move it. It was dead heavy!

Who would dare touch a woman like that?

Han Huohuo hummed a tune, not answering any questions. Facing the morning sun, he just smiled and said, "This weather is really good!"

Yeah, after continuous cloudy days, the sun suddenly came out today.

"King, don't just look at the good weather. This is because the north wind is coming. Clear skies mean winter is about to arrive."

"Is that how it is?"

Everyone chatted and laughed, and soon the sense of restraint disappeared. Each person was smiling happily as they talked.

Suddenly, Pang Muzhi smiled and said, "King, have you ever thought that one day you will rule the world and bring peace everywhere?"

"That's right. What a piece of trash that old emperor of the Great Qian Dynasty is! He's caused warlords to divide the land and constant turmoil. Look at what a mess he's made of a perfectly good dynasty. It would be better for our King to be the emperor!"

"Haha, exactly! King, are you interested in overthrowing that scoundrel emperor? Our brothers will follow you!"

Here, the mountains were high and the emperor was far away. A group of Bandits and Mountain Bandits naturally spoke without restraint when talking about the old emperor, slapping the table, glaring, showing no verbal decency or respect whatsoever.

In fact, throughout the entire Empire, few people took the emperor seriously. Every lord wanted to replace him, but the question was, who would step forward first?

No one dared!

The Bandits didn't care about any of that! They just blurted out whatever came to mind.

Finally, everyone looked at Han Huohuo.

A fierce expression gradually appeared on Han Huohuo's face. He slapped the table and stood up, leaping onto the stone and laughing wildly, "How can a great man be content to remain below others for long? I can replace him!"

Everyone applauded together.

No lightning struck from the sky, because Han Huohuo wasn't just talking nonsense; he was speaking his true feelings.

As for the hardships of the common people, he didn't care. As long as he himself was happy, that was enough.

He didn't understand any grand principles of the world either.

None of that was his business. He just felt that since he had transmigrated and had an opportunity, why not forge a career? Why grovel and fawn, and shamelessly look at others' expressions!

If he didn't want to live by looking at others' faces, then he could only live as a King!

A great man should be like this!

A group of ragged Bandits, harboring the beautiful dreams of becoming emperor and founding fathers, got high on tea. They became wildly excited, singing and dancing, wiggling their butts.

You have to admit, these guys danced pretty well.

It just wasn't a pleasant sight!

Han Huohuo suddenly missed girl groups, thinking to himself that when he got rich, he would also raise a girl group to dance for him.

"King, when are you going to get us some girls?"

"No rush. After we drive away the official troops, we'll take our men and specifically target wealthy families, robbing them of a hundred or eighty women."

Hahaha!

Incredibly lewd laughter echoed back and forth shamelessly among the mountains.

Unfortunately, there were no living people left in the surrounding mountain strongholds. Blood flowed everywhere, the land was stained red, and all the camps were deserted. Naturally, these bright and lewd sounds couldn't be heard.

The Bandits, harboring beautiful dreams, spent their happiest day.

No work, no war, drinking tea together, and being able to gather and curse the old emperor.

How great!

Just as Hua Mulan had predicted.

There were no battles this day.

The official troops seemed to have disappeared, as if the bandits suppression had ended.

The calm before the storm.

After everyone had their fun, they all went back to rest. Han Huohuo looked at the system data. In the Ten Thousand Mountains region, only over two thousand mountain strongholds remained.

However, it was only the second day. The official troops had skipped some tough nuts to crack and cleared out all the other Bandits. In the end, only these two thousand mountain strongholds with resistance capabilities remained.

The official troops' killing blades were too sharp!

The number of Lords was still slowly decreasing, but the rate of decrease had slowed down. Clearly, these last two thousand-plus mountain strongholds were not so easy to deal with, and the official troops were struggling to fight them.

Tomorrow might not be easy!

Returning to his Main Camp, he closed the door and found that the fireplace had already been installed. He didn't even know when Liu Long and Zhang Xiaoan had secretly installed it for him.

A fireplace was much better than a bonfire. The smoke could be vented out through the chimney, preventing carbon monoxide poisoning.

Usually, when lighting a bonfire in the middle of the house, to prevent dying from carbon monoxide poisoning in the middle of the night, Han Huohuo had to leave the main door slightly ajar before daring to sleep.

Freezing to death when getting up in the morning!

This was a simple, European-style fireplace. A lot of firewood was already placed in front of the fireplace, the fire inside had been lit, and a rattan chair was placed next to it.

Liu Qiang was a very thoughtful person and had arranged everything.

Han Huohuo sat on the rattan chair and fed a piece of wood into the fireplace.

The flames in the fireplace burned, and it became very warm.

He was a bit restless and kept staring at the system data. Before long, only over a thousand Lords remained.

Han Huohuo simply closed the system. The more he looked, the more annoyed he felt.

He didn't know why.

Han Huohuo didn't sleep that night. He couldn't sleep either. He just sat on the rattan chair, warming himself by the fireplace, until dawn broke.

Day Nine

Clear skies, light breeze.

The temperature dropped again.

Han Huohuo walked out of the Main Camp and saw the heroic and spirited Hua Mulan standing on the stone. All mechanical troops were in position.

Two Plasma Cannons were placed in the safest positions, one on each side, capable of forming crossfire.

"Good morning!"

"Lord, you'd better hide somewhere safe. It might get quite bloody soon."

"Bloody? Haha, would I be afraid of that?"

"Liu Qiang, bring the tables and chairs over!"

"Coming, Lord!"

The Liu family brothers brought the tables and chairs over again. Han Huohuo sat there, waved his hand, and told everyone to step back. Today, he wanted to watch this battle alone.

"Reporting, General Hua, the enemy troops have arrived. They are overwhelming, countless, and stretch as far as the eye can see!"