146: Chapter 146 Even bandits want to surrender

Originally, although many people coveted the treatment offered by Su Bai, they still had reservations in their hearts.

After all, Su Bai had little seniority. If those veteran generals above were to gang up and destroy him, they would end up in trouble too.

But now, it was different.

General Su had become the disciple of the Prefect!

Who was the Prefect?

He was the top official among the civil servants, a figure whom even the Military Governor had to treat with three parts of respect.

With such a powerful backer supporting him, who would dare to touch Su Bai?

He not only dared to distribute pay and win battles, but now his backing was terrifyingly strong.

As long as one wasn't an idiot, anyone could do the math.

Consequently, the entire Yunzhou Army camp was in an uproar.

Outside the West City Camp.

Ma Lie, leading over a dozen veterans from the Handao Camp, stood at the camp entrance holding their weapons.

It was not to guard against enemies, but to maintain order.

At this moment, the area outside the camp gate was packed with a dense crowd.

These people were all wearing armor from other camps; some didn't even carry weapons, just staring longingly inside.

"Deputy General Ma! Brother Ma! Please, make an exception! Let us in to see General Su!"

"I'm not working for Captain Li anymore! That son of a bitch deducted half of my military pay last month, and my old mother at home is nearly starving to death! I want to follow General Su!"

"Me too! I have plenty of strength, and I'm not afraid of death! As long as General Su feeds me, I'll sell my life to him!"

The crowd was agitated, with spit flying everywhere.

Seeing this scene, Ma Lie felt both surprised and satisfied.

Once upon a time, their Local Militia Camp was a joke in the eyes of other regular troops.

They would be pointed at by soldiers from other camps whenever they walked down the road.

But now?

The tables have turned!

These regular soldiers who were usually arrogant and looked down on everyone else were now begging and pleading to squeeze into their Local Militia Camp!

All of this was because of their General's prestige!

Ma Lie took a deep breath, circulated his spiritual power, and roared at the entire crowd:

"Everyone shut the hell up!"

This shout made the ears of the soldiers in front buzz, and the scene instantly quieted down.

Ma Lie stood with his hands on his hips, scanned the area with extreme arrogance, and sneered, saying:

"Want to defect to our General? Fine!"

"But! Our General has an order: our Su Army does not want cowards, does not want slackers, and definitely does not want ungrateful traitors who bite the hand that feeds them!"

"Want to enter this gate? Fine! First, take off your armor and weapons and return them to your original camp commanders! Our General does not care to take advantage of other camps!"

"Take off your armor and come in bare-chested. From this day forward, if you eat our General's food and wear our General's armor, you must give your life for our General. On the battlefield, if anyone dares to retreat even half a step, I will hack him to death!"

"Those who are willing, come over and line up to register! Those who aren't, go back to where you came from!"

Ma Lie's words were crude, but in the eyes of the other soldiers, this was exactly how it should be.

The Local Militia Camp was the powerful one now.

As soldiers of the Local Militia Camp, they had to be tough and proud!

The soldiers exchanged glances.

Return the armor?

Return the weapons?

What kind of thing was that!

As long as they could follow General Su and eat meat, who cared about that scrap metal.

"I'm willing!"

A burly man stepped out first, quickly stripped off his leather armor and threw it on the ground, shouting at the top of his lungs: "I'm a bachelor, from now on, I'm following General Su!"

"Count me in!"

"And me!"

In an instant, countless soldiers outside the camp gate took off their old equipment and lined up to register.

On several high slopes not far away.

Captains and deputy generals from other camps watched as their own soldiers flooded toward Su Bai's camp like a tide, their faces turning green with anger.

"Too much! This Su Bai is simply going too far! He is digging up our roots!" a deputy general with a fleshy face roared angrily.

"Then why don't you go stop them? Go get your soldiers back?"

A thin captain beside him sneered, "Why don't you try stopping them? He is the Prefect's prized disciple now! If you touch his people, do you believe that Prefect Li could throw you into prison tomorrow on some trumped-up charge of embezzling military pay?"

The fleshy-faced deputy general immediately deflated like a punctured ball, speechless.

That's right, he couldn't afford to provoke him.

When Deputy General Chang was around, he could still suppress this Su Bai.

Now that Deputy General Chang's tent was empty, it was said he had disappeared without a trace, and they didn't even have a backbone to rely on.

Now, in the Yunzhou Army, besides General General Qin Bei and the Military Governor, who else could suppress this rising star, Su Pojun?

They could only watch helplessly as their soldiers were poached.

This feeling of frustration was worse than swallowing a dead fly.

It wasn't just the army inside the city that was undergoing drastic changes.

The storm of following Su Bai had even blown into the towering mountains outside the city.

Eighty li outside Yunzhou City lay the Mist Swamp.

This was the largest bandit force in the vicinity of Yunzhou, aside from Black Tiger Cliff and Fierce Tiger Mountain.

The First Boss, nicknamed Mountain Piercing Leopard, was an expert at the Foundation Establishment Stage.

At this moment, the atmosphere inside the Hall of Loyalty and Righteousness of the Mist Swamp was so oppressive that it made people struggle to breathe.

Mountain Piercing Leopard sat on a tiger-skin armchair, puffing on a dry pipe, his brows knitted tightly together.

The other bosses below were also gloomy and dejected.

"Big Brother, you need to make a decision! We can't go on living like this!"

The Second-in-Command slapped his thigh and said anxiously, "That Su Bai is simply a living Yama. Liu the Tiger of Black Tiger Cliff had his head chopped off by him with a single blade, and Hu Li of Fierce Tiger Mountain couldn't even defend his mountain gate and was captured alive!"

"Now word has spread everywhere that this Su Bai has a Formation Plate in his hands that can break all techniques; killing us Bandits is like killing chickens to him."

The Third Boss also chimed in:

"That's right, Big Brother! And I've heard that this Su Bai is not only ruthless, but also very strange!"

"Those underlings who surrendered at Fierce Tiger Mountain were not only spared, but anyone who was forced into banditry and hadn't killed innocent people was incorporated into his ranks. I heard he not only feeds them but also pays them military pay!"

Mountain Piercing Leopard tapped his pipe against the corner of the table and then let out a long sigh.

He had spent the entire night thinking about this damn matter in his head.

Fight?

That was definitely impossible.

Su Bai didn't even put a regular army deputy general like Chang Feng in his eyes, and the soldiers under him had expanded several times over; attacking their shabby mountain stronghold would probably only take half a day.

Run?

In these chaotic times, where could they run?

Running to other places would just mean being Bandits again, and perhaps they would be preyed upon by other large factions.

And who knows, you might not even have run two steps before running into the Demon.

By then, you wouldn't even be able to leave a whole corpse behind.

Actually, if they could really be incorporated and eat a stable meal, who the hell would want to be a bandit with their head on the line every day?

It was just that the previous government troops were all beasts who ate people without spitting out the bones; surrendering meant death.

But this Su Bai... seemed to be different.

Legend had it that this man was peerlessly benevolent and righteous, and treated his own people exceptionally well.

If the rumors were true...

A flash of determination crossed Mountain Piercing Leopard's eyes; he suddenly stood up and said:

"Brothers!"

All the Bandits looked at him.

"Our days as Bandits are over!" Mountain Piercing Leopard said through gritted teeth, "Since General Su is offering a way to live, let's not wait here to die!"