With a few sweet "big brother soldier" and "this little sister," Zhou Daya had the Tianxiong Army soldier smiling like a fool in no time.
"Go ahead," he said happily. "Ask whatever you want."
Zhou Daya nodded.
"For this surprise attack operation, do you feel any pressure?"
The soldier scratched his head.
"A little. We are attacking a city after all. That is always difficult."
"I just hope I do not get hit by a stray arrow later."
Zhou Daya continued.
"Why did you join the Tianxiong Army?"
The soldier answered without hesitation.
"To eat."
"If you fight for the lord, you get food. The pay is pretty good too."
Zhou Daya nodded again.
"What do you think about the Qing?"
The soldier snorted.
"They are enemies. So we beat the hell out of them."
Zhou Daya tilted her head.
"You do not have any thoughts about national hatred or family revenge?"
The soldier looked confused.
"The lord says they are enemies, so we fight them."
"I do not really understand those big ideas."
Zhou Daya smiled politely.
"Thank you, big brother soldier."
Lu Xiangsheng stood nearby in silence.
---
Zhou Daya soon walked over to a Shanxi Army soldier.
"Big brother soldier, I would like to interview you."
This soldier reacted very differently.
The moment Zhou Daya looked at him, his eyes lit up.
"Am I going to be on television?"
Zhou Daya smiled sweetly.
"Maybe. It might also get cut during editing."
The soldier panicked.
"Do not cut me."
"I promise I will answer well."
Zhou Daya could not help laughing.
"The more standard your answer is, the more likely it will be cut."
"So remember. Answer honestly."
The soldier nodded firmly.
"Alright. Honest answers. I must get on television."
Zhou Daya asked her first question.
"For this surprise attack operation, do you feel any pressure?"
The soldier waved his hand dismissively.
"Pressure? What pressure?"
"We are just dealing with a bunch of country bumpkins. I would not even need thirty percent of my strength."
Zhou Daya asked again.
"Why did you join the army?"
The soldier grinned.
"Protect the country and defend our homes."
"If I do not fight, who will?"
"If none of us fight, who protects the common people?"
Hearing this, Lu Xiangsheng could not help letting out a quiet sound of surprise.
This soldier had far higher awareness than the men in his own Tianxiong Army.
Zhou Daya continued.
"What do you think about the Qing?"
The soldier answered calmly.
"They are savage barbarians who need to be civilized."
Lu Xiangsheng made another surprised sound.
This soldier did not speak like an illiterate peasant.
Zhou Daya asked her final question.
"What about national hatred and family revenge?"
The soldier grinned.
"With the Qing, it is not really national hatred."
"They are simply a group of minority rebels that grew up in Liaodong, which is still territory of the Great Ming."
"Calling it national hatred is giving them too much credit."
"In my opinion, when minority tribes rebel, we defeat them and then absorb them."
"Just like the tribes in Yunnan and Guizhou."
"They also rebel sometimes, but eventually they are subdued and become part of the Ming."
"But Western bandits are different."
The soldier's grin widened.
"Right now the Westerners are not very strong."
"But they are truly foreigners."
"Those are the real enemies."
"For them we must be ruthless."
"Beat them."
"Beat them hard."
"Beat them very hard."
"And after beating them we must not have any naive ideas about becoming one big family."
"We should keep beating them."
"Beat them once and it feels good."
"Beat them forever and it always feels good."
"We could beat them for hundreds of years and never get tired."
Zhou Daya blinked.
"Where did you learn that speech?"
The soldier grinned proudly.
"From the movie Blood Battle of Liaoluo Bay."
Lu Xiangsheng suddenly felt unwell.
A random ordinary soldier in the Shanxi Army could speak like this?
If he had not personally seen the man marching just now, he might have believed this was a scholar disguised as a soldier.
Some court officials did not even have such clear thinking.
Lu Xiangsheng stared at the soldier and fell into deep thought.
---
At that moment a loud shout came from the front of the army.
"We are close to Jinzhou."
"The enemy outpost has spotted us!"
Then the voice of Cao Wenzhao rang out.
"From this moment forward, assume combat readiness."
"Ten li remaining before Jinzhou."
"Increase speed."
"Move faster."
The order was immediately carried out.
The Guyuan Frontier Army, Guanning Cavalry, and Shanxi Army all accelerated their march at once.
Behind them, the Tianxiong Army and Pi Island Forces were completely shocked.
"We already marched thirty li."
"And they can still speed up?"
"So they were conserving energy earlier?"
"Good heavens."
Even Lu Xiangsheng was stunned.
These people had been marching comfortably the whole time.
At the front of the formation, Cao Bianjiao moved forward from the middle of the column.
He now stood at the very front.
This famous warrior always led charges personally.
Command duties were handled by his uncle Cao Wenzhao, so Cao Bianjiao only needed to focus on one thing.
Charging first.
The moment he moved to the front, it meant battle could begin at any time.
Far ahead in the distance, a column of smoke rose into the sky.
The Jinzhou outpost had already spotted the army and ignited a beacon signal.
The scouts at the front had failed to stop the alarm.
Normally, this would be the point where the army set up camp.
Ten li away from the enemy city was a common distance for Ming armies to establish a camp.
Sometimes five li was used, but that was considered too dangerous and vulnerable to sudden attacks.
However the Gao Village forces had no intention of stopping here.
If they camped overnight, Zu Dashou would have enough time to organize his defenses and even request reinforcements from the Qing.
So Cao Bianjiao continued forward without hesitation.
Lu Xiangsheng suddenly noticed something.
Just a moment ago Zhou Daya had been running around interviewing soldiers.
Now she had become serious.
She no longer bothered with interviews.
Instead she silently aimed a strange machine toward the marching army and slowly swept it across the formation.
Meanwhile the soldiers marched while eating.
Some opened bamboo containers filled with luncheon meat.
Others pulled small pieces of chocolate or sugar candy from their pockets and tossed them into their mouths to replenish energy.
Some soldiers even handed these strange foods to the men of the Tianxiong Army.
Soon the army passed the smoking outpost.
The enemy soldiers had already fled.
The place was empty.
Only the beacon tower continued releasing smoke into the sky.
No one bothered to extinguish it anymore.
Not far ahead lay a corpse.
Most likely one of the outpost soldiers who had been killed by the scouts sent by Cao Wenzhao during the retreat.
The army continued forward.
Before long another dead scout appeared.
Then another.
The advance scouting battle had already been fierce.
They were compressing the enemy's reconnaissance perimeter while expanding their own.
Finally, after marching a little longer, the army saw it.
Jinzhou City.
A city famous for being easy to defend and extremely difficult to attack.
Even the Qing dared not attempt a direct assault.
So they had simply allowed Zu Dashou, that famous political weather vane, to remain inside Jinzhou and sway whichever direction the wind blew.