Chapter 829 - Expanding the Military (2/2)

I was stunned. What a malicious move. This must have been Owen’s suggestion. This way, he could take away my most capable generals. If I were the only leader of this army, I couldn’t possibly manage so many soldiers. This was clearly a hidden attack to cut off my right and left arms.

I took a step forward, “Your Majesty, this may not be appropriate.”

King Rob was stunned, “General Li, what is inappropriate?”

I thought about my answer before responding, “The Royal Army has only recently grown to be successful and is still in a phase which requires talented leaders. Han Yuan and the others are the most capable at handling such matters. Moreover, they’ve developed a relationship with the soldiers. In the military, trust is highly regarded. Only with these kinds of generals can I optimize the Royal Army’s strength. I’d rather give up all of my rewards to keep these four in the Royal Army!”

King Rob jumped to his feet, “Li Xiao Yao, are you saying that you’d rather have these four men and not the title as the Protector of the Empire?”

I nodded with a smile, “Yes, Your Majesty. Please grant my wish.”

“Alright then…”

King Rob let out a sigh and said, “All generals in the Royal Army will not be transferred and will remain in their former positions. I will allow you to recruit more people so that your army can handle the scale of 100,000 men.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty!”

……

I returned to my spot in line. Ye Lai smiled, “This world is just too shady…. They won’t even give rewards and even the NPCs are shady. D*mn, I don’t even know what else there is to say.”

I smiled back, “It doesn't matter, one day there will be light in this world!”

“That’s right!”

Afraid I wasn’t happy, Wan Er stayed by my side after the meeting. I walked out with her and sent away Frost, Zi Shu, and Odelia. I went straight to the Royal Army to finish some tasks while Wan Er and Dong Cheng went to grind levels.

I mounted onto my horse and rode out of Tian Ling City. When I looked back, I saw that there were four heads on spikes before the Tian Ling City gates. One of them was fairly larger than the others. It was the Blood Giant Kehl’s head. The other three were Luo Lin, Gawain, and Han Ling. This was like a slap to the Hybrid Demon, displaying the all powerful Hybrid Demon King heads there. If Lanais, Da Lun, Xi Fu or any one of the other Demon Kings were to see this sight, they would probably be pissed. Would there be a day in which King Rob and Owen’s heads would be on spikes on the Hybrid Demon walls?

When I arrived at the camp, Han Yuan and Xiao Lie were beyond happy to see me back. They soon pulled me into the central tent for a strategy meeting regarding the status of the different factions in the army. I took the opportunity to tell them what happened during the reward ceremony

Han Yuan furrowed his brow and said, “I originally thought that I’d receive some kind of reward. Who would’ve thought that this time, the king had no intentions of rewarding the Royal Army at all. Looks like he’s really going senile.”

I smiled, “No worries, Deputy General Song can take some gold from our treasury to reward our soldiers. While the king might have disappointed our hopes, we can’t do the same to our men.”

Long Xing smiled, “The commander’s right!”

Xia Ye asked, “My lord, His Majesty allowed us to recruit enough people for a 100,000 man army?”

I replied, “That’s right. The only problem is that I haven’t thought of where we can find that many men.”

Han Yuan said, “My lord, do you know why the Royal Army’s battle power is on par, and sometimes even higher than that of Flame Dragon Army and the Xia Yu Army?”

“I don’t, why is that?”

“Because our Blade and Shield Army has the undefeatable Barbarian strength!” Han Yuan laughed, “However, after the continuous battles, our 5,000 man Barbarian division has now been cut down to 4,000. We cannot continue on like this. I have a suggestion. How about we gather some men and head out to the southeast region of Ba Huang City to recruit some men from the Barbarian tribes?

Long Xing clapped his hands, “The Barbarians live impoverished lives. If we give them gold and food, then almost all of the Barbarians would sign up to join. I’m sure we'll be able to recruit many strong foot soldiers. General Han Yuan, great suggestion!”

Xiao Lie was much more reserved and cautioned, “I still have a few worries. The Barbarians are harder to order around. How do we tame their wild spirits?”

I responded, “There’s a piece of land just south of the Moon Blade Forest called the Flame Crystal Valley. We can start developing that land into fields. I’ll make a request and we can move the entire Barbarian Tribe to that area. Not only are the lands fertile for harvest, but it can help them develop a sense of loyalty to the nation. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about them rebelling.”

Joy lit up in Xiao Lie’s eyes, “Genius move, my lord. That’s exactly what we’ll do!”

“Good!”

……

My request went through smoothly. Princess Pearl easily got the authority over the Flame Crystal Valley land. The Royal Army sent out a 20,000 man troop to begin clearing the area. The other four generals and I led a 10,000 man team to escort several carts of rations and gold to the south eastern region of Ba Huang City.