Warhammer Fantasy: I Have Total War System

What a small world! It's that guy surnamed Lu again.

The beast who extorted gold from him in the camp, mixed sand into his military rations, and led the charge in framing him at the post-war military meeting.

If Li Lin knew how to use the Silver Grass Entanglement technique, he would have made it into a spirit ring long ago.

"How many people know?" Li Lin asked Chen Guizhou.

"The cooks who escorted the grain said there were several hundred people, and they had the area completely surrounded," Chen Guizhou said. After thinking for a moment, he added, "The civil official who delivered the message wasn't very clear. I've sent someone to wait at the camp gate so you can go and ask him directly. If you're not in a hurry, I'll send someone to find out the truth for you."

"I'll go ask myself," Li Lin nodded.

He immediately sent a telepathic message to Xing Ganqi, instructing him to bring four Nanli garrison guards to assemble in front of the Siman cart.

They then bombarded Yi Ge with continuous messages, forcing him out of the workshop.

The latter was extremely unwilling. When he was teleported out, he was still wearing a black hazmat suit. He frowned and stared at Li Lin, his eyes seeming to say, "You better really have something urgent to do."

Damn it!

Are you my lord?

Li Lin inwardly grumbled, but dared not offend the top damage dealer, so he could only pretend to be nonchalant on the surface.

"Where are the materials I asked you to find?" Yi Ge suddenly asked, taking off his conspicuous hazmat suit.

"Uh..." Li Lin looked up at a 45-degree angle, a little guilty.

He had completely forgotten about it.

"I've been quite busy lately... Oh, right!" He suddenly remembered Xu Zilu and the others he had taken in before, "That Shangyang alchemist you introduced before, her whereabouts are unknown, but her family's wealth was left in the Allied Forces, which I took over. When you have time, go to the supply corps and find her apprentice surnamed 'Xu' to see if there are any items you want."

Yi Ge nodded expressionlessly, shifted his gaze elsewhere, and raised his head slightly.

"Oh?" Li Lin suddenly had a feeling.

She seemed guilty?

Do you know where that alchemist went?

"I don't know." Yi Ge's tone remained calm. Perhaps because they had spent so much time together, Li Lin was certain that she was lying.

"What, you didn't... you..."

At this time, Xing Ganqi transferred four men from the Nanli garrison patrolling the camp.

"Greetings, Young Master!" The four knelt on one knee and bowed.

The alchemist's whereabouts can be put aside for now; the most urgent task is to deal with that guy surnamed "Lu".

Li Lin strode away from the command tent and walked toward Hou Rong, who was sitting on a tall horse.

"Commander Hou, would you like to come with me?"

Hou Rong opened one eye, glanced at the few people behind Li Lin, and then closed it again.

"I'm not going."

"what?"

"I promised to back you up back then," Hou Rong said, cracking his knuckles as he stretched. "It was to help you and Xin Qi keep those troublemakers in check and establish command authority. This matter has nothing to do with the military council."

He paused, his tone extremely serious: "I am leading the Jing Sai Army and the Gui Yin Generals, not the Grand Council. If our own men turn against each other, it will affect morale once. My soldiers must be in top condition at all times. I don't have time to deal with your trivial internal disputes."

"You've already failed in your duty once, and I don't want to see it happen a second time."

Those were really harsh words...

However, that is also true.

Li Lin was silent for a moment, then nodded: "Then I'll trouble Commandant Hou to keep an eye on things here for me."

Hou Rong didn't respond, continuing to rest with his eyes closed. His bearded adjutant beside him waved to Li Lin and said, "Go quickly! We'll keep watch for you; no one will dare to cause trouble this time!"

This person was one of those who came to Li Linlong Palace to cultivate last night.

Hou Rong stared at the man in surprise.

After Li Lin and his men left, Hou Rong pointed at his adjutant's nose and cursed without any mercy, "Hey! Old Qiu, when have you ever spoken up for me?"

"Oh dear! Commandant, you are always kind and benevolent, so there's no need for you to say more," the bearded adjutant said honestly. "But that Li fellow is foolish and doesn't understand Commandant's meaning, so I had to remind him."

"You smooth talker, when we have a martial arts match later, I see a lot of people in the team haven't fought in days and are itching for a fight, so let them have a good fight today."

The bearded adjutant immediately collapsed, his face contorted with grief.

-----------------

Li Lin paused briefly at the camp entrance and found the cook who had come to deliver the message.

The leader was an old man over sixty years old, covered in dust, with a bloody gash on his forehead, hastily wrapped with a dirty strip of cloth, the blood already congealed into a dark brown scab.

He recognized Li Lin the moment he saw him.

The reason was that the young man in front of him looked almost exactly like the once-glorious military commander in the old man's memory when he was young.

"No need for formalities, just tell me the truth about the interception of our supplies."

The old man nodded, hurriedly got up, and said in a heavy southern accent, "We were transporting grain as usual toward your camp, sir, when we were robbed by a group of people halfway there."

"The leaders were a few men in military uniforms, followed by about a hundred others with sticks. They started beating us right away."

Someone behind him chimed in, "We have the same here!"

"You guys here? More than one team has been hijacked?"

"Yes!" the speaker squeezed through the crowd. "We were transporting supplies to the people in the rear, and we were robbed too! The situation is exactly the same as what happened to Old Liu!"

"They said the soldiers weren't even eating well, so why should we leave anything for the civilians? They just looted everything!"

Li Lin Hong warmed up.

He suddenly became very understanding of Bai Qi.

After ascertaining the locations of the two ambushed groups, Li Lin instructed the cooks to go to the supply camp to collect healing pills, while he led his team to head towards the supply train heading towards his camp.

The incident occurred about three miles from Li Lin's camp, in a small pond that had been trampled into a depression.

On both sides are gravel slopes of varying heights, and in the middle is a muddy dirt road repeatedly compacted by vehicle ruts.

From afar, Li Lin could see a dark mass of figures.

Nearly a hundred disarmed stragglers stood haphazardly along the dirt road, some squatting on oxcarts, some leaning against the slope eating sunflower seeds, and some simply lying on the cart shafts taking a nap.

Three oxcarts loaded with grain and fodder were surrounded in the middle, and the oxen pulling them were swishing their tails impatiently.

Several cart drivers who failed to escape were pushed to the side of the road and tied to a large rock, their faces bruised and swollen.

Standing at the front were four people dressed in military officer uniforms.

His clothes were wrinkled and covered in mud and grime, making him look almost indistinguishable from an ordinary, idle soldier.

Li Lin came to the front of the crowd and pulled on the reins.

Lu Pingchuan was not found.

He's probably in another supply convoy.

When the four officers saw that Li Lin had only brought six men with him, their expressions visibly brightened.

They exchanged a glance, and almost simultaneously, a look of triumphant satisfaction appeared on their lips.

Li Lin's personal guards were almost completely wiped out in the battle of Shilei Fortress. The remaining thirty or so soldiers were organized into what was called "Nanli Garrison". Although it was called a personal guard, it was actually just a group of wounded soldiers who had just survived the battlefield.

I heard he also got two stone lions, which were said to have displayed great power on the battlefield yesterday. The story is quite exaggerated, but I haven't seen him with them today.

Nine times out of ten, it was a rumor spread by people who colluded with the vanguard and the central guard.

This was to cover up his predicament of not having enough manpower.

"Steward Li." The leader clasped his hands in a respectful greeting, his tone polite, but he remained standing still, showing no intention of making way. "We have been waiting here for quite some time."

Li Lin glanced at him and vaguely remembered that the man was named Pang Yi, one of the accomplices who had been implicated by Wang Bodang during the military council.

After being dismissed from his post, he was stripped of his family property and servants and forced to work as a cook in the supply corps.

"You know who I am and you still dare to block the road?" Li Lin's tone turned cold. "Are you deserters tired of living?"

Pang Yi's face immediately turned extremely ugly, revealing his true colors as he stared menacingly at Li Lin.

Li Lin turned to Yi Ge and said, "Look at him, he has the exact same expression as you just now, he looks awful."

Yi Ge: "¿"

[Alchemist Yi Ge, Loyalty -5]

It doesn't matter anyway, they weren't that loyal to begin with.

A wise person cannot be forced to be loyal.

As long as their interests remain aligned, this mysterious alchemist will not easily betray them.

At this moment, a short, stocky officer interrupted, shouting in a shrill voice, "Chief Steward Li, it's not that we want to make things difficult for you."

"The brothers have been hungry for two days. How tiring is the march? How can one meal a day be enough to fill them up?"

"You've got some nerve, allocating all the provisions to your own camp! Leaving our rear guard of over five thousand men starving while you feast and become bloated!"

Oh ho? You're like a mind reader.

Yes, that's exactly what I want to do.

However, I'm not going to prepare a single meal for you.

"That's right!" one of the skirmishers behind the short, stocky officer immediately chimed in, "You officers are drinking meat soup in your tents while we're eating sand outside! How are we supposed to fight this battle?!"

"Military rations are distributed according to need. Since you don't fight, you'll naturally receive less," Li Lin said coldly, already plotting how to take advantage of the current situation.

"Distribution according to need?" Pang Yi sneered. "General Li, you don't even have any soldiers left. There are only a few dozen remnants and refugee farmers in the camp, yet you've received more supplies than us reservists?"

"On what grounds? Just because you're the army commander?"

"Ridiculous! I hold the rank of a fifth-grade official, and my uncles and cousins ​​all serve in the Imperial Court of Wei! Do you think I'm afraid of some refugee camp's allied commander?"

These words immediately aroused the anger of the scattered soldiers.

The crowd began to push forward, like a pack of hyenas that had smelled blood, gradually surrounding Li Lin and his group of seven. Xing Ganqi's hand was already on the hilt of his sword, his muscles tense, ready to draw it at any moment.

Yi Ge rode on his horse, staring blankly ahead as if watching an utterly boring street farce, constantly twirling a thick, long, sharp silver needle in his hand.

Li Lin took a deep breath.

Hold on.

You must stay calm.

If you laugh now, your career as a military commander will be over.

He feigned anger and helplessness, raising his voice to almost shout, "I'll say it again, this batch of grain is the ration for my camp and the civilians' supplies. You can leave now, and I might not pursue the matter of you stealing the grain. But if you persist in your wrongdoing, you will be executed according to military law!"

His voice echoed twice on the dirt road, but instead of making the stragglers retreat, it only fueled their excitement.

"Execute me immediately? What are you going to use to execute me?" The short, stocky officer laughed, gesturing and looking around. "Just the seven of you? Where are your lions? Where are your mages? Where are your crossbowmen? They're all dead at Stone Fortress!"

A burst of laughter erupted from the crowd.

Their numbers gave them confidence and vicious ambition.

The law does not punish the masses; could Li Lin possibly kill them all?

The officers saw that the plan was about to succeed.

He immediately waved to his trusted confidants who were already prepared behind him.

A dozen men immediately jumped onto the oxcart carrying military supplies, cracked their whips, and drove off.

They actually intended to brazenly transport away the grain and fodder from Li Lin's camp right in front of him.

This was not a simple protest involving the looting of grain, but a premeditated and open provocation.

Xing Ganqi clenched his teeth, the veins on his sword-wielding hand bulging, and turned his head to look at Li Lin, waiting for his order.

Yi Ge stared at Li Lin with a puzzled expression, wondering why he was hesitating to make a move.

"Xing Ganqi, blend into the crowd and take advantage of the chaos to shoot me with an arrow." His voice suddenly rang out in the sound transmission magic pattern.

"Don't actually hit me, just let it glide by, or throw a rock to knock me off my horse."

Xing Ganqi was stunned.

He stared blankly at Li Lin, his mouth slightly open, his mind seemingly blank, unable to process what was happening for a long time.

"Young...Young Master, what did you say?"