The First Order

After setting off again, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin got together to read the newspaper they had just gotten. However, Ren Xiaosu was stunned the moment he started reading, because the entire page was about the Wang Consortium’s garrison forces on the border. After the Pyro Company withdrew, they suddenly launched an attack on the Kong Consortium. In just a single day, they occupied two of their strongholds one after the other!

The Kong Consortium’s garrison troops no longer had any desire to continue fighting. The two strongholds did not even put up any resistance and opened the gates to surrender!

Their surrender was likely the result of a privately engineered move the Wang Consortium had been undertaking for a long time. It was said that someone had been trying to persuade the highest-ranking military executive in these two strongholds to surrender, but they did not respond to the Wang Consortium because the Kong Consortium’s boss was still around. Now that the entire Kong Consortium was in chaos, those two executives immediately gave up resisting when they realized it would be difficult to turn the situation around.

After that, the Wang Consortium left some garrison troops behind and set off to the north to face the enemy.

The Kong Consortium was already there for the taking. These two strongholds had been an obstacle to the Wang Consortium’s advance east. Once they were taken, there would be no further obstacles hindering them from expanding eastwards.

In the paper, Hope Media detailed how Stronghold 176 was massacred by the northern enemies. They reported how the Pyro Company had headed north to face the new enemy and gave up on attacking the Kong Consortium while the Wang Consortium took the opportunity and attacked the Kong Consortium.

There were no subjectivity in the article, just a factual reporting of the events.

But on the second page, Ren Xiaosu realized there was actually an article written personally by the chief editor, Jiang Xu. The entire article criticized the Wang Consortium’s defeat in the North that led to the massacre of the city and how they took advantage of the situation to attack the Kong Consortium.

According to the article, the nomads had informed Stronghold 176 that an enemy was coming from the North. With more than 10 days to prepare, the Wang Consortium should have been able to deploy their entire military to face the enemy. However, even though the Wang Consortium had troops heading to the North, their main forces remained stationed on the Kong Consortium’s border.

Maybe the Wang Consortium might not have stopped the massacre even if their main forces had rushed to Stronghold 176’s rescue. However, they would surely have been able to save a lot of people.

During the massacre, some escapees were fortunate enough to escape from the stronghold and traveled south to seek protection from the Wang Consortium. However, they did not encounter any of the Wang Consortium’s reinforcements even after traveling more than a 100 kilometers. In the end, they were still caught by the northern tribe and killed.

And now, not only did the Wang Consortium fail to defend Stronghold 176 and send reinforcements to reclaim it, they even launched an attack on the Kong Consortium. With the foreign enemy coming, they were still thinking of how to maximize their personal interests. This made Jiang Xu extremely angry and helpless.

In contrast, Jiang Xu expressed his admiration for the Pyro Company’s just actions. It would’ve been a very difficult decision to give up occupying Stronghold 31 and 32 when they were already theirs for the taking.

Jiang Xu mentioned in his article that the residents of the Central Plains should remember the Pyro Company’s decision and the choice made by the Wang Consortium.

At the same time, Jiang Xu appealed to the entire Alliance of Strongholds to work together to fend off foreign enemies. The massacre of the city announced the ambitions of the foreign tribe, so the Central Plains people should put aside their differences and unite.

When this news came out, the entire Alliance of Strongholds was in an uproar. The word “massacre” horrified everyone, and everyone was raging at the Wang Consortium’s indifference and how scheming they were.

The third page was an interview between a Hope Media reporter and the Pyro Company’s higher-ups. They described their confidence in fighting off the foreign enemies.

The fourth page talked about the reporter’s findings during an interview of the potential problems the Pyro Company might face while fighting the foreign enemy such as the lack of medical facilities, medical supplies, clothing, and other logistics issues.

After all, they had just finished fighting a war with the Kong Consortium. Before that, they had not expected something like this to suddenly happen in the North. As such, they had not made enough preparations.

Rage mounted in the people in the other consortiums’ strongholds as they condemned the Wang Consortium’s actions. Many public figures stepped forward to openly praise the Pyro Company, while students started coming out onto the streets to raise funds for the Pyro Company’s war efforts.

Some of them donated medical supplies, while others said they were going to the North to volunteer. Qinghe University organized a volunteer group of more than 600 people to liaise with the Pyro Company. In a few days, they would head north with a large number of supplies to provide support.

Once everyone read through the four pages and took in all the shocking news, they would see the words “Don’t let the sorrows of our era become your sorrow as well” on the fifth page.

This sentence suddenly became a faint hope in this era.

When Ren Xiaosu put down the newspaper, Yang Xiaojin noticed his frown and asked, “What’s the matter?”

Ren Xiaosu suddenly asked, “Jiang Xu’s article was too critical this time. Will it infuriate the Wang Consortium? This report is tantamount to isolating the Wang Consortium from the Alliance of Strongholds. The Wang Consortium has become quite tyrannical in their ways recently. Do you think Jiang Xu will be fine?”

Yang Xiaojin immediately knew what Ren Xiaosu was worried about. “I don’t think they’ll do anything to him. My aunt still has a bottom line when it comes to such matters. No matter how Jiang Xu criticizes the Wang Consortium, he’s only a journalist. He has no political stand or faction, so killing someone like that will cause public outrage.”

“I hope so.” Ren Xiaosu sighed.

He then passed the newspaper to Wang Jing and the others for them to read. When Wang Jing got to the fifth page and saw that sentence, he suddenly said, “I really wish I could get to know the person who said this.”

Ren Xiaosu raised his eyebrows but did not say anything. However, Yang Xiaojin was sure that he was very happy right now…

When it was time for dinner, Ren Xiaosu jumped out of the truck with over a dozen aluminum mess tins distributed by the Pyro Company before the vehicle could even come to a stop and ran all the way to the chow squad.

He was holding six mess tins in his left hand and the rest in his other hand. The mess tins were stacked higher than his head. When the Pyro Company soldiers saw this sight, they were shocked. They had never seen someone collect their meals like this before!

The soldiers on chow duty were also stunned. It was as they had seen a bootleg version of the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King¹…

One of the cooks said in surprise, “Those who know will understand you’re here to collect food, but those who don’t will think you’re here to subdue me with your magical weapon!”

Ren Xiaosu opened the mess tins one by one. “Please fill them to the brim!”

The cooks were speechless. However, their superior had ordered that this young man could line up with the soldiers when it was time to eat, so no one said anything about it.

After collecting the food, Ren Xiaosu ran back again with the mess tins. This somehow became an “attraction” among the Pyro Company troops.

When the other escapees saw Ren Xiaosu was allowed to collect food, they rushed over. But the moment they dashed over, they were pushed aside by the Pyro Company soldiers. “Don’t you know the rules? You’re to wait for the Pyro Company’s regular troops to finish collecting their food before you can collect yours.”

The middle-aged man who had had an altercation with Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “If that kid can collect the food, why can’t we? Isn’t this discrimination?”

The Pyro Company soldier sneered, “We were specifically ordered by our superior to give him special treatment. If you want to be like him, go and look for our commander. What? You scared?”

The soldier was right. The other escapees were really not as bold as Ren Xiaosu to dare to keep asking for favors from P5092. Honestly speaking, P5092 was only willing to talk to Ren Xiaosu that much because he also found him very interesting.

As such, the escapees could only watch Ren Xiaosu’s group in their truck eat their fill while they waited aggrievedly for the Pyro Company soldiers to finish eating before being allowed to collect the leftovers. There might not even be any leftovers for them!

The middle-aged man finally made up his mind. “C’mon, I don’t believe we can’t even get a proper meal if I give my watch away! Once the commander accepts my gift, we’re gonna chase these people out of their vehicle!”

With that, he went to look for P5092. But before he could even approach the commander, he was chased away by a soldier guarding him.

The middle-aged man smiled obsequiously and said, “I’m here to present something to the commander.”

The soldier sneered, “Go back. The commander says you’re not qualified.”

…