If I made you cannon fodder, how did you manage to achieve your goal of conquering the wolf's l

Li Kui carried a sealed earthenware jar in his left hand, his right arm was slinged around his neck with a rag, and the pain from the bone injury on his wrist made him break out in a cold sweat.

During the day, they paid black market thugs to intercept and kill Xu Qingshan, but by midnight, the three men had not returned to report.

He knew in his heart that those people had most likely made a mistake.

If Xu Qingshan survives to tomorrow unscathed, he will be useless to Liu Sandao, and his crippled wrist will make him a discarded pawn in the barracks.

Since doing it openly doesn't work, and doing it covertly has also failed, let's just burn it all down.

When the water flows through a snowy day, the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled inside are so engulfed in smoke that they have no way to escape.

When it gets light tomorrow, all that will be left are a few charred bodies dug out of the ruins, and no one will be able to find out the truth.

Li Kui walked to the back wall and used his good left hand to uncork the pottery jar.

The pungent smell of tung oil spread in the cold wind.

He planned to pour tung oil through the window cracks and then light it with a tinderbox.

He gritted his teeth, enduring the excruciating pain in his wrist, and took a step forward, his foot landing on a seemingly flat patch of snow at the base of the wall.

The subtle sounds of the mechanism rubbing together were swallowed up by the howling wind.

next interest.

The seesaw mechanism set up by Bai Zhi sank under the force, and the sharpened wooden stick buried under the snow was launched out by the force of the mechanism.

puff!

Two sharp wooden sticks with iron nails pierced through Li Kui's thin straw sandals and went straight through his soles.

"ah--!"

A piercing scream shattered the silence of the night.

Li Kui was in so much pain that his face contorted, and he lost all strength. The tung oil can in his hand crashed to the snow and shattered into several pieces.

The dark tung oil flowed out, and its pungent smell was extremely strong.

The scream was like a signal.

Several figures suddenly darted out of the abandoned kiln, thirty paces away from the back wall.

Zhou Laoqi and Tie Niu led the way, followed closely by Hou San carrying a sharpened wooden spear, while Xiao Qi held up a burning torch to light the way ahead.

The four men were already on lookout duty as instructed by Xu Qingshan. Upon hearing the commotion, they rushed to the scene and surrounded Li Kui, who was lying in the snow groaning in pain.

"Who goes there! Don't move!" Tie Niu shouted, raising his thick arm and pointing the wooden spear at the dark figure on the ground.

The back door of the dilapidated courtyard creaked open from the inside.

Xu Qingshan walked out steadily, his powerful bow already fully drawn, a gleaming armor-piercing arrow aimed directly at Li Kui's throat.

The flickering torchlight illuminated Li Kui's deathly pale face.

He fell to the ground, his feet pierced by splinters, blood gushing out and staining the surrounding snow red. Beside him lay shattered pottery jars and tung oil splattered everywhere.

Xu Qingshan walked closer, his gaze sweeping over the mess on the ground, his voice revealing neither joy nor anger.

"Tung oil? Brother Li, why are you out in the middle of the night carrying a jar of oil to my wall? Is it because this winter night isn't warm enough, and you want to make a fire for everyone to keep warm?"

Hearing these murderous words and feeling the cold arrows so close at hand, Li Kui's mental defenses crumbled.

Ignoring the excruciating pain in his foot, he pleaded repeatedly, "Sergeant Xu! I was wrong! I was blind! It's a misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding! Spare my life, I'll never do it again!"

The bowstring in Xu Qingshan's hand remained completely still.

"You bribed a thug with half a bag of coarse rice to ambush and kill me during the day, and then brought tung oil to set the yard on fire at night. If you call this a misunderstanding, then if this arrow of mine accidentally slips from my grasp and pierces your throat, that should also be considered a misunderstanding."

Li Kui was trembling all over and couldn't even finish a sentence.

Xu Qingshan put away his powerful bow and turned his head to look at the four veterans beside him.

"Tie him up tightly and gag him."

Hou San and Tie Niu moved swiftly, stepping forward to snatch the short knife from Li Kui's waist for self-defense.

Several people worked together to tie him up with rope, then tore off a piece of rag and stuffed it into his mouth.

Li Kui could only let out muffled groans, his eyes filled with terror.

Zhou Laoqi stood aside, looking at Xu Qingshan, and asked, "Squad leader, what should we do with this man? Should we hand him over to the camp tomorrow morning so the centurion can determine his punishment?"

Xu Qingshan glanced at Zhou Laoqi.

"Hand it over? Liu Sandao will just use the excuse that he got drunk and went the wrong way at night, and give him a few more lashes to get rid of it. I won't do something as stupid as letting a tiger return to the mountain."

These words sent a chill down the spines of all four veterans.

They all understood what he meant.

Li Kui struggled desperately, his eyes filled with despair, and a mournful cry escaped his throat.

Xu Qingshan drew his machete from his waist, walked up to Li Kui, and looked at him with a cold gaze.

"You've been stationed at the border for so many years, you should understand one thing: if you want to kill someone, you should be prepared to be killed."

A flash of light.

The chipped machete sliced ​​precisely across Li Kui's neck.

Blood splattered on the snow. Li Kui's body twitched a few times, then quickly stopped moving.

A single, fatal blow.

In addition to the smell of tung oil, there was also a strong stench of blood in the air.

Tie Niu, Hou San, and Xiao Qi felt their hands and feet go cold.

Even Zhou Laoqi, who was used to seeing life and death, held his breath for a moment.

This young corporal usually appears calm and collected, but when he gets going, he is ruthless and decisive, leaving no room for retreat.

"What are you standing there for?" Xu Qingshan grabbed a handful of snow from the ground, wiped the blood off the knife, and sheathed it. "Get to work."

The four of them snapped out of their daze, straightened their backs, and dared not be negligent in the slightest.

"Take off his sheepskin coat and straw sandals." Xu Qingshan gave the instructions methodically. "Tie Niu, you're strong, carry him. Hou San and Lao Qi, you two lead the way to that stinking ditch east of the fortress. Drill a hole in the ice and stuff him in. With the snow falling so heavily, everything will be covered by tomorrow morning."

"If anyone asks later, just say you never saw him. Whether he drank too much and froze to death outside, or deserted, it has nothing to do with us. Understand?"

The four veterans immediately nodded in agreement.

They knew very well that from tonight onwards, they were truly on Xu Qingshan's ship.

But in a cannibalistic place like Blackrock Fortress, following a ruthless leader who can protect the team is much safer than following a spineless coward who only talks big.

In the wind and snow, the four men carried the corpse and quickly disappeared into the night.

Xu Qingshan stayed behind alone, kicking away the snow smeared with blood and tung oil, then shoveling fresh snow from elsewhere to fill and bury the base of the back wall.

After doing all this, he pushed open the back door and walked back to the dilapidated courtyard.

The firelight inside the house was dim.

Hearing the commotion, Shen Qinghe and Xiao Hongluan came to greet them.

The other women in the room were also awake, but they all remained silent and quietly huddled in the corner.

"What happened outside?" Shen Qinghe asked softly, her gaze falling on Xu Qingshan's slightly tired face.

"A few stray dogs came and caused trouble, but we've already taken care of them," Xu Qingshan said calmly.

Xiao Hongluan glanced at the wood-chopping knife at Xu Qingshan's waist and smelled a very faint scent of blood.

She didn't ask any more questions, but simply placed the wooden gun against the wall.

"Go and rest, there won't be any more trouble tonight," Xu Qingshan waved his hand.

Everyone dispersed, leaving only Xu Qingshan by the fire pit.

He leaned against the doorpost and closed his eyes.

In my mind, the cold system notification arrived as expected.

[The assassin has been eliminated, and the territory has been successfully defended.]

Increased respect from subordinates leads to greater team cohesion.

[Reward: Intermediate Sword Technique Insight]

[Reward: Military Rations Biscuit Recipe]

As the notification tone ended, Xu Qingshan felt a warm current flow into his limbs and bones.

He clenched his fist and found that his arm was stronger than before.

Moreover, a wealth of knife skills techniques flooded into my memory.

If the basic sword techniques he learned before only taught him how to cut people, then the intermediate sword techniques he now understand how to kill enemies more efficiently on the battlefield.

Then, a detailed recipe came to mind.

Military rations.

It is made primarily from sorghum flour and brown rice flour, with a specific ratio of coarse salt and several common cold-resistant herbs added and then baked.

Not only does it have an extremely long shelf life and is not easily spoiled, but it can also quickly replenish physical strength and resist cold.

Xu Qingshan opened his eyes, a satisfied smile appearing on his lips.

This recipe came at just the right time.

The sorghum flour and coarse salt obtained from the black market came in handy. With these military rations, even if they faced a food shortage crisis or needed to go on long-distance raids in the future, they would not go hungry.