Chapter 511: A Letter of Challenge

Jiang Chen went to the Soldiers’ Roll Call Platform of the Red Flame Battalion. Gazing at the soldiers, he decided to do something to raise their morale.

In the Third Legion, morale wasn’t an invisible thing. There was a way to quantify it. Battalions could be compared through their morale values.

Jiang Chen had studied it a little and come to the conclusion that it was the representation of one’s emotional fluctuation.

It was a good way to test morale on the battlefield.

The morale of the Red Flame Battalion was, out of the question, the lowest, while the battalions with the highest morale were all trump cards of the legion.

It was a rule that the battalion that functioned as cannon fodder had the lowest morale, and the trump cards had the highest.

It’s time to make a good change, Jiang Chen thought to himself.

The Red Flame Battalion was related to his own interests. It was his first step in the army. Therefore, he could neither make light of it nor skip it.

Glancing at the campsite, Jiang Chen said in a deep voice, “Commander He Zai!”

The voice came so suddenly that it surprised the whole Red Flame Battalion. Many soldiers looked over.

Soon, a tall and thin man quickly walked onto the platform. There was puzzlement in his eyes when he saw Jiang Chen.

“I’m Jiang Chen, general of the seventh rank of the secondary class. I’ve officially joined the Red Flame Battalion,” Jiang Chen said in a loud voice.

The people down below had plain reactions. Some of them were even disappointed to see him.

The commander also welcomed him in a not so warm manner.

“Tell me the situation of the battalion.” Jiang Chen was young, but he behaved quite calmly and sophisticatedly.

The commander stopped looking down on him and gave him a brief report on the Red Flame Battalion.

The Red Flame Battalion currently had 981 people, all around Cloud Five of the Reaching Heaven State. Those above Cloud Five held the post of captain.

“Why are more than half of the soldiers wounded?” asked Jiang Chen.

The commander was surprised at this question. He hadn’t expected Jiang Chen to notice this. Then he said, “In legions, treatment costs merit points, unless it’s for a fatal injury.”

“Does that make any sense? You bleed for the legion, yet you have to pay for it on your own?” Jiang Chen said, confused.

This won him lots of good will from the soldiers, since he had spoken out what was on their minds.

“Only soldiers from the Realm of True Force can receive free treatment,” the commander said calmly, as if he had accepted this.

“Gather the wounded soldiers together. I’ll treat them,” Jiang Chen said.

The commander was struck dumb, unsure of what he had heard. The young man opposite him had medical skills?

The downhearted soldiers of the Red Flame Battalion were interested. Qiu Yan, who had returned to his camp, also walked to the window to observe how it was going.

“I know you’ve suffered a lot, enduring what others couldn’t endure. I’m new here and have never experienced wars. You must be unhappy that I’m taking charge here.

“But believe me, what I’ve sacrificed isn’t any less than you have.

“Sure, people won’t trust each other until they’ve known each other for some time. I won’t ask you to accept me immediately.

“But one day, you’ll trust me with your lives on the battlefield.”

Jiang Chen’s voice was first low, and then higher. He spoke slowly. There was no exaggeration, no intentional emotion. He was just expressing himself sincerely.

He knew he was eloquent, but however eloquent he was, it would only make a good thing better.

To make others willing to sacrifice their lives for him with a speech? That was impossible.

Soon, hundreds of people had gathered in the spacious square. Most of them seemed to be suffering from internal injuries, since external injuries would have recovered with time.

The trickiest problem was during a battle, when the body was intensely functioning. If anything happened to the body at that time, it would be irreparable, like a broken machine.

Unwilling to spend their merit points on treatment, these people had just expected their bodies to recover by themselves.

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Some people would recover this way, provided that they weren’t engaged in another battle before that. And for others, their injuries could worsen.

Jiang Chen was skilled in medicine, but he couldn’t heal everybody facing so many different kinds of symptoms in no time.

He picked out those in the worst condition, then deployed a spiritual formation for them.

When the formation was switched on, the people inside felt like they were taking a bath in a hot spring. They felt warm, and their wounds recovered slowly.

Then Jiang Chen gave them acupuncture in person and managed to save a few soldiers who were close to death.

“All right. Take a good rest,” Jiang Chen told the soldiers, who hadn’t yet come to themselves, removed the formation, and jumped off the Soldiers’ Roll Call Platform.

By then, the soldiers of the Red Flame Battalion had learned from the other battalions that Jiang Chen was the guy who had taught the Young Master Battalion a lesson. They cheered up.

Along with the treatment, the whole battalion was well disposed to him.

But some worried that Jiang Chen would bring the Red Flame Battalion into a worse disaster and that they would continue to be cannon fodder as a result.

Their concern wasn’t totally unwarranted. Before night fell, a letter of challenge was sent to the Red Flame Battalion.

Private fights were a severe thing in the army, since Reaching Heaven States would create a big disturbance that could be taken advantage of by the enemy.

Therefore, if one wanted a fight, they had to write a letter of challenge first.

The beating Jiang Chen gave Xie Yan and Liu Yu was actually carrying out military regulations. Moreover, the two were too weak to cause any major disturbance.

But the one who had sent the letter of challenge was Zhang Tianyi!

And Jiang Chen couldn’t say no, since if the challenged one refused, they would be isolated in the army.

A commander brought the letter to Jiang Chen.

Glancing at the letter, he said, “What’s your name?”

“Wang Qiang,” the commander answered.

“Is this Zhang Tianyi a tough guy?”

Speaking on this topic, even Wang Qiang’s tone changed. He said seriously, “Absolutely. Zhang Tianyi is only a bodyguard, but once, he received an order to go to a rescue, and he managed to inflict heavy losses on the Dragon Rebel Army, although his men were inferior to the enemies in number.

“He also matched an elite general of the Dragon Rebel Army once.

“He’s the man of the hour among the Reaching Heaven States in the army. It’s said that the middle troop will promote him to general as soon as he becomes a Venerable.”

Wang Qiang looked at Jiang Chen with pity. It had sounded like a great thing to beat those bigwigs’ brains in, but the price he would have to pay was obvious.

“In three days?”

Gazing at the date on the letter, Jiang Chen felt curious. Why hadn’t he sent the letter three days later then?

Was it to give him time to be prepared or to make him live in fear in the next three days?

“Ridiculous.”

He put the challenge letter aside, not finding it a big deal. He wouldn’t change his plans for such things.

In the army, the ability that mattered the most for a general was leadership.

This wasn’t just a vague idea, but a framework with clear regulations and requirements.

Troops formed by practitioners were divided into different camps to make good use of tactical formations. Generals were the key of a tactical formation. It was their job to exert the power of the formation.

Jiang Chen was a lieutenant. Qiu Yan would teach him the tactical formation of the Red Flame Battalion, but it seemed that Qiu Yan wasn’t in a hurry, so Jiang Chen was thinking of how to spend the 1,000 merit points.

It would be easy to spend them. One thousand merit points could be exchanged for a class-ten breakthrough panacea or a spiritual armor of the magic level. This was important, since it was the most common way to stay safe on the battlefield.

Jiang Chen found most people would exchange points for these things or martial arts bibles, but few people would choose to use them on practice equipment.

It made sense. One could die anytime on the battlefield. Survival was more important than anything else.

Like the others, Jiang Chen was thinking of whether to exchange the points for a class-ten breakthrough panacea or not.

Although he could refine one by himself anyway, he wouldn’t have to bother finding the ingredients needed.