As soon as Wen Yuesheng finished speaking, Yuan Hao’s mouth was immediately shut, and he was dragged into the center of the battlefield.

The Blade Camp soldiers were ruthless, and after several heavy blows with military clubs, Yuan Hao fell silent, almost lifeless.

The evidence against Yuan Hao came from Haozhou’s prisoners of war, so Wen Yuesheng also sent people to search Yuan Hao’s house in Luocheng.

A large amount of gold and silver that did not belong to the military was found in Yuan Hao’s home.

Additionally, hidden in a secret compartment of the wall in his room, there were Haozhou official silver coins.

These pieces of evidence were laid out in front of everyone.

With Yuan Hao being brutally beaten to death, the entire army fell into a heavy silence.

Yuan Hao’s two close confidants, who were involved in the plot, trembled in fear.

After Yuan Hao was killed, these two men were immediately executed by Wen Yuesheng’s commanders without hesitation.

The night in the borderlands was cold. Despite the torches burning around them, they offered no warmth. Wen Yuesheng stood at the high point, her expression indifferent as she said:

“I know that in these years, due to Great Hui’s military strength being far inferior to Haozhou’s, the difficulties of warfare led people like Yuan Hao to lose their will to fight, even willing to defect to Haozhou.”

Under the circumstances of not seeing victory in sight, it was inevitable that the morale of the troops would be shaken.

Especially since the soldiers left behind in Luocheng were the weakest in the entire border army.

Human nature tends to avoid harm and seek benefits.

After years of fighting with no victory, and seeing Haozhou’s army growing stronger, it was perfectly natural for some to harbor rebellious thoughts.

The torches burning fiercely around them illuminated Wen Yuesheng’s side profile.

She stood in the darkness, her emotions cold, but her words left no room for doubt.

“But in my army, anyone who betrays the country and collaborates with the enemy will die without question.” Her voice echoed in everyone’s ears beneath the quiet night sky.

“Do all the Great Hui soldiers understand?” Her voice was soft, but her words carried immense weight.

Almost as soon as she finished speaking, countless voices rang out: “Yes!”

The response echoed through the night.

The next morning, news finally came from Zhang Yulin.

After he led reinforcements to the city he was tasked with supporting, they fought fiercely against the Haozhou army for an entire day and night.

The army led by Zhang Yulin was the weakest of the four reinforcement troops, lacking Blade Camp soldiers and the elite under the Loyal and Brave Marquis.

This made the battle especially difficult.

But the soldiers under Zhang Yulin were incredibly resilient, and Zhang Yulin himself was a formidable warrior.

By dawn the next day, he personally killed the enemy’s commanding general and forced them to retreat.

Though it was a hard-earned victory, it was still a victory.

Coupled with Wen Yuesheng’s triumph from the day before, the four reinforcement forces had successfully defended two cities and won two battles, reducing the pressure on the main city.

The situation was far better than it had been when the border forces were holding on.

However, if they wanted to completely defeat Haozhou and secure peace in the borderlands, this alone would not be enough.

After all, Haozhou’s main forces had not yet fully deployed, and among Haozhou’s famous generals, only Nulie was present on the battlefield.

On the other hand, Great Hui had sent out almost all of its capable officers from the central government.

The disparity in military strength made it particularly difficult for Great Hui to win, and the initiative in the battle remained with the enemy.

That morning, in addition to the news of Zhang Yulin’s victory, came word of the tough situation in the battle for Yuan City, which was being supported by the Loyal and Brave Marquis.

The previous day, the situation in Yuan City was similar to the main city, with both sides in a standoff.

However, during the night, Haozhou sent reinforcements to Yuan City.

Once the reinforcements arrived, Great Hui struggled to respond effectively.

The Loyal and Brave Marquis did not attempt to hold out, but instead sent soldiers to Luocheng to request assistance.

After receiving the news, Wen Yuesheng immediately ordered her commanders to mobilize the troops and prepare to head to Yuan City for reinforcement.

This time, Liu Yi would also accompany her.

He and several other generals were waiting outside the city lord’s mansion.

When Wen Yuesheng came out, they quickly greeted her: “County Princess.”

Wen Yuesheng nodded lightly and mounted her horse.

Liu Yi noticed that apart from a few Blade Camp soldiers, only Lu Hongying accompanied her.

He was surprised.

It was only today that Liu Yi had received word that Wen Yuesheng’s reinforcement force for Yuan City was not the elite army she had brought to Luocheng the day before.

Instead, it was the border army originally stationed in Luocheng, the weakest unit in the entire border army.

Moreover, she hadn’t even brought the 5,000 elite Blade Camp soldiers, only a few capable Blade Camp generals to accompany her.

The large army would require some time to mobilize, and the 20,000 border soldiers would set out from Luocheng in two hours.

Wen Yuesheng, Liu Yi, Lu Hongying, and several dozen soldiers would take the northern route to Yuan City ahead of them.

Before leaving Luocheng, Wen Yue Sheng visited the Haozhou prisoner camp.

As the commander, it was her responsibility to decide what to do with the prisoners of war.

In previous battles, Great Hui had never captured so many prisoners.

These were all Haozhou soldiers.

If they followed the way of Feng Yuan and his son, most of them would likely be executed or buried alive.

Not all of Haozhou’s generals were as brutal as the Feng family, but dealing with prisoners had always been a difficult task and required significant manpower to manage.

For someone as brutal as the Feng family father and son, executing them directly would be straightforward, without needing to consider how to handle them afterward.

Before Wen Yuesheng arrived, the soldiers of Hao Zhou, who had already been stripped of their armor and were shackled with handcuffs and ankle chains, felt particularly uneasy.

When they saw Princess Sining, who had ruthlessly killed many of Hao Zhou’s generals on the battlefield, many felt a heavy weight in their hearts.

Wen Yuesheng raised her eyes and looked at the thousands of people in front of her.

Standing beside her was one of the generals of the Guard Camp, who had been captured during the battle for Luo City.

“Your Highness, everyone is here. How should we proceed?” the general asked quietly.

As soon as these words were spoken, countless eyes turned toward Wen Yuesheng.

Liu Yi said, “Among them, there are many elite soldiers, including the well-known Feng family army from across Hao Zhou.”

The Feng family army had a fierce reputation, and no one had imagined that they would one day become prisoners of war under the Great Hui banner.

Wen Yuesheng raised her eyes and said calmly, “Sort out these prisoners, select the elite soldiers from the Feng family father and son’s army, and organize them into a unit.”

Liu Yi was momentarily stunned, not understanding what she meant.

Prisoners of war, no matter how powerful they were, could not be sent back to the battlefield.

After all, they were soldiers of an enemy state.

Once they were on the battlefield, they would act as daggers aimed at their own people.

In all previous battles, there had been almost no case of these prisoners being sent back to the battlefield.

This doubt briefly crossed Liu Yi’s mind when he heard Wen Yuesheng coldly tell the Guard Camp general beside her, “The newly formed unit will be used for daily training.”

The general immediately brightened up and exclaimed, “Yes!”

“The rest of the prisoners, send them to the reserve army.”

The “reserve army” Wen Yuesheng referred to wasn’t the usual kind.

It was a special team of several hundred people that had been organized before their departure.

This team was responsible for assisting Lu Hongying in the creation of weapons.

The prisoners from Hao Zhou naturally couldn’t participate directly in weapon production, but this was a large-scale project.

From mining to transportation and later smelting, it required significant manpower.

The first batch of explosive rockets had been in short supply precisely because there weren’t enough people to handle the work.

The Great Hui soldiers were far weaker than those from Hao Zhou, and nearly all of their usable troops had been sent to the battlefield, leaving the reserve army severely understaffed.

These prisoners just happened to fill that gap.

Liu Yi understood and his expression changed slightly.

Wen Yuesheng’s actions were akin to nurturing her soldiers.

Suddenly, he understood why she had not brought the Guard Camp with her on this mission.

The Guard Camp was the strongest military force among the Great Hui soldiers, and now she was using the prisoners left behind by the Feng family to help train the Guard Camp.

She was also sending them to the reserve army to assist in constructing the walls of Luo City, handle defensive matters, and contribute to the weapon forging efforts of the Great Hui.

Rather than executing these prisoners for the sake of convenience, using them to their maximum potential was the best course of action for Luo City at this time.

Wen Yuesheng’s troops were already deeply immersed in training, and now, with new training subjects added, every task was treated as an opportunity to train.

Liu Yi felt a surge of excitement.

The Guard Camp, already not weak, would become even stronger with this kind of training.

Over time, they could even become rivals to those fierce Hao Zhou generals.

Additionally, these prisoners, familiar with Hao Zhou’s tactics, would provide training strategies far more valuable than sending spies into Hao Zhou.

Before they left the camp, the Knife Camp general had already reorganized the camp and divided the thousands of prisoners into smaller groups for management.

Liu Yi, riding on horseback, observed and said softly, “In the future, the border forces could also be incorporated into the camp and trained in the same manner.”

Even weak troops, under such rigorous training, would likely grow stronger.

Just as he finished speaking, Wen Yuesheng’s voice came from beside him, “Special situations should be handled specially.”

Liu Yi was momentarily stunned, seeing her cold eyes devoid of emotion as she continued, “True character shows in battle.”

The Great Hui had little time left to train soldiers from scratch.

And no amount of training could compare to the real combat experience of life-and-death battles.

At this point, the situation in Great Hui was not much different from that of the end-times.

The zombies wouldn’t wait for them to finish training before invading.

As experimental subjects, they could only be injected with the virus and forced to evolve.

Before their evolution was complete, they had to be sent to the battlefield.

Even so, of the ten thousand experimental subjects in the slaughter plan, only four remained.

Or rather, only she was left.

After undergoing genetic changes and forced injections of refined zombie virus, these experimental subjects could no longer be considered human.