Back on the deck, both sides had only exchanged glances, pretending they did not know each other.
But the moment they stepped into the cabin, somewhere Lu Xiangsheng could not see, the Shanxi soldiers and the sailors instantly threw their arms over each other's shoulders.
"HAHA! Kid, it's you?"
"Back then you joined the Xiaolangdi militia while I went to the Shanxi militia. Never thought we'd run into each other here."
"Heh. I already moved up. From Xiaolangdi militia to a navy soldier."
"I'm in the army now. Different branch entirely."
"So what? Remember Xiao Sanzi from our squad back then?"
"Of course."
"That guy joined the air force."
"The air force?"
"Yeah. Their benefits is amazing. I heard his pay is fifty percent higher than ours."
"Holy hell. Now you got me wanting to switch to the air force."
"Not that easy. Their physical requirements are brutal."
"By the way… looks like we're heading to attack Jinzhou this time."
"Right. The same Jinzhou mentioned in A Small Soldier by the Daling River. That damned Zu Dashou."
"He was the one who killed Instructor He."
"But Instructor He is still alive though."
"Exactly. That means we need revenge even more."
"Right! We're going to avenge Instructor He!"
Similar conversations broke out across ship after ship.
Soon the soldiers were shouting in unison.
"Take Jinzhou!"
"Avenge our grievance!"
The roars spread through the entire fleet.
Lu Xiangsheng heard the shouts echoing everywhere and felt rather surprised.
He turned to Cao Wenzhao.
"Your soldiers have incredible morale. The expedition hasn't even begun and they're already roaring like thunder. Seems I don't even need to give them a pre-battle speech."
Cao Wenzhao chuckled.
Cao Bianjiao smiled awkwardly.
"Well… you see… they might have a tiny bit of personal grievance involved."
Lu Xiangsheng blinked.
"Personal grievance?"
He thought about it for several seconds.
Then realization dawned.
Of course.
Cao Wenzhao's troops were the Guanning Cavalry. They had fought outside the passes for years. It would not be strange if they had private grudges with Zu Dashou.
Yes.
That must be it.
The fleet was just about to depart.
Suddenly another group came running along the shore, shouting toward the ships.
"Wait for us! We're coming too!"
The sailors looked closely and immediately recognized them.
It was the six hundred Guyuan frontier soldiers that Sun Chuanting had brought to the capital earlier.
Leading them was the terrifying and infamous figure.
Chen Qianhu.
Sun Chuanting was currently cooling his heels in the capital, but letting six hundred frontier soldiers sit idle would be a terrible waste. Naturally they had come running to join the expedition.
The sailors on the ships burst out laughing the moment they saw Chen Qianhu.
"Oh no!"
"Zu Dashou must have heard we're launching a surprise attack on Jinzhou!"
"He got here first and is launching a surprise attack on Tianjin Port!"
"Brothers! Fire the cannons at Zu Dashou!"
The sailors laughed wildly.
One cannon that had not even been loaded slowly rotated and aimed at Chen Qianhu's group.
Chen Qianhu exploded in anger.
"Damn it! What kind of training did you receive at the military academy?"
"Loaded or not, you never point a gun or cannon at your own people!"
"Who turned that cannon just now? Lock him up for a day!"
His scolding made perfect sense.
The artillery battalion commander immediately dragged out a clueless young recruit and threw him into a small cabin for confinement. He also apologized to Chen Qianhu.
Chen Qianhu grumbled a bit but did not pursue the matter further.
He led his men onto several transport ships.
The sailors and Shanxi soldiers all stared at him with strange expressions.
After all, he was the actor who played Zu Dashou.
Boarding this ship felt extremely awkward.
Chen Qianhu took one look at their expressions and instantly knew what they were thinking.
He felt miserable.
His eyes darted around the ship.
"Where's the reporter? The war correspondent?"
"Brother Chen, I'm right here."
Sure enough, there was a reporter aboard.
It was the veteran war correspondent Zhou Daya.
She used to report on the anti-bandit campaigns in the Central Plains, but now that the roving rebels had been wiped out, she had moved to Liaodong.
Behind her followed a special operations team carrying a door sized miniature camera.
Zhou Daya's style had always been soft.
Soft voice. Soft smile.
She smiled sweetly.
"Brother Chen, what do you need from your little sister?"
Chen Qianhu said quickly,
"Good. You're here."
"This time I'm going to Jinzhou personally to chop off Zu Dashou's dog head."
"You must film that moment."
"I want everyone to see that I am a good man. A GOOD MAN!"
"I'm a good person, understand?"
Zhou Daya smiled gently.
"Brother Chen, you seem especially fierce today. Why are you so obsessed with Zu Dashou?"
The question nearly brought Chen Qianhu to tears.
Truth be told, he had not been that famous before.
Yes, his face looked terrifying, but the impact was limited. At most his fellow soldiers were afraid of him.
But everything changed because he made two films.
The first one was Mu Guiying.
In that film he played the Liao general Xiao Tianzuo.
That role established his image as a villain.
Then came the second film.
A Small Soldier by the Daling River.
In that movie he played Zu Dashou.
If the first film was just the prelude, the second one was the grand climax.
The character of Zu Dashou completely locked him into the role of "the man responsible for every evil in the world."
His fame skyrocketed.
During Mu Guiying, only children sprayed him with bamboo water guns.
After A Small Soldier by the Daling River, both adults and children wanted to beat him up.
How could Chen Qianhu possibly accept that?
He bared his teeth in a savage grin.
"I fell because of Zu Dashou."
"So I must stand back up because of Zu Dashou."
He leaned extremely close to the camera.
"You're filming, right? Good."
His terrifying face filled the entire lens.
He snarled at the audience.
"Dear viewers watching at home."
"Just wait and see."
"I'm going to chop Zu Dashou into seventeen or eighteen pieces and mail them back to you!"
Zhou Daya hurriedly waved her hands.
"Brother Chen, don't get so close to the camera."
"If you're too close the image will distort. It will make your face look even more terrifying."
Chen Qianhu froze.
"What?"
Unfortunately it was already too late.
The camera had recorded everything.
Several days later, when this footage was broadcast on the giant screens in the marketplaces of Xi'an, Puzhou, Gao Family Village, Pingyang Prefecture, Luoyang, and every Tianzun liberated region...
The audience saw a monstrous, twisted face filling the entire massive screen.
The terrifying figure bared his white teeth and said in a chilling voice:
"I'm going to chop him into seventeen or eighteen pieces and mail them back to you."
People watching the screens turned pale with fright.
That night many of them could not sleep.
The moment they closed their eyes, they imagined Chen Qianhu standing there holding a bloody chunk of meat, grinning wickedly.
"This is Zu Dashou's meat."
"I mailed it back for you to eat."
"Don't be ungrateful."
"Eat it."
"Eat it!"
Seriously.
Who could handle that?