Chapter Sixty-Five: Allen's Gaze

Five days later, when Qin Mo had gathered nearly fifty strong and beautiful huskies, the Wu Ning army and a group of nobles finally arrived at the trading city.

When Qin Mo set off from Wulan City, he sent a sample sled to each of their families, thus establishing a good relationship. The Wu Ning army and nobles intensified their efforts in modifying the sled, and finally set off northward two days after Qin Mo left. After many hardships, they finally arrived safely at Maimai City.

After arriving at the trading city, everyone sent representatives from Ran Qinmo's camp to express their gratitude. They were able to safely traverse the seven hundred miles of snowy plains in just over ten minutes, and they also brought a considerable amount of crucial military supplies. The sleds played a vital role in this.

The second day after the reinforcements arrived, Zhao Qirui convened his generals in his tent, briefed them on the specific situation in Maimai City, and assigned defense zones to each unit. This was the third military meeting Qin Mo had attended in six months; the first two had been unpleasant, but this time he received an unexpected arrangement.

The Xuanyi Army and Xuanwu Army are Zhao Qirui's personal troops, which are overstaffed, with each army having nearly 50,000 men. After the raid on Maimai City, there are still more than 70,000 combat-ready soldiers.

The Wu Ning Army, which was sent to reinforce the city, numbered nearly 30,000. Together with the Xuan Yi Army and the Xuan Wu Army, the regular army of the Great Xia in the city numbered over 100,000. Zhao Qirui distributed these three armies to the four sides of the city wall to share the defense of the four sides, while the private armies of the nobles were used as reserves, ready to be sent to reinforce at any time.

After discussing the arrangement, Qin Mo and Wu Shengze both agreed that it had both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage was that as a reserve force, they could wait for the main army to weaken the enemy's morale before engaging in battle, thus gaining the upper hand.

The downsides are... the places that need reinforcements will inevitably be the most intense battlegrounds, the areas with the heaviest casualties, and the enemy's main attack direction. Furthermore, there's a possibility that one's own troops might be split up; it's impossible to send in 10,000 reinforcements at once, right? Unless the defenders on the city walls are suddenly decimated before they can be rescued, requiring a large-scale troop redeployment.

Qin Mo and Wu Shengze discussed the matter for a while but couldn't come up with a solution. Qin Mo got annoyed; since she couldn't change the facts anyway, she simply stopped thinking about it. After attending the military council, Qin Mo holed up in the Da Yuan army camp tinkering with her new toy—a dog sled.

The snow in the trading city doesn't melt throughout the winter, which makes it possible for sleds to travel. And the coolest sleds are naturally those pulled by a group of huskies!

Dog sleds can be pulled in a fan-shaped pattern or with a double-row harness in the wild. Qin Mo researched the double-row harness. Qin Mo selected 16 of his most agile huskies and began training his first batch of sled dogs. On Earth, a sled pulled by 12 dogs is considered a lot, but Qin Mo felt that with his eyesight and reflexes, controlling 16 huskies would be no problem at all.

"Whoa... Giddy up..." Hearing Qin Mo's incoherent shouts, the soldiers in the camp quickly moved aside, clearing the passage. Then Qin Mo excitedly drove his sled, brandishing his long whip. Oh! ... He drove his sled.

Qin Mo's retainers couldn't understand why their prince enjoyed this game so much, always running laps around the camp several times before stopping. Qin Mo scoffed at their bewilderment. "Once I've trained the dogs properly," he thought, "I'll hold the world's first dog sled race! My name, Qin Mo, will be etched in history! How could you bumpkins possibly understand such profound knowledge?"

A figure blocked the middle of the passage, so Qin Mo had to whine and signal the huskies to stop, stepping on the brakes. The sled barely came to a stop beside Allen.

"Hey... Allen... I'm not a very skilled driver. What if I crash and kill my dog? I've trained these dogs for so long." Qin Mo stopped the sled and muttered complaints to Allen. Actually, he was stalling for time while considering why Allen wanted to talk to him. He knew that if Allen contacted him, it wouldn't be anything good.

"Is the young master preparing to go hunting outside the city? This sled is quite useful."

"Going out of town? Hunting? No, no, why would I be so bored? Hehe... This is called a sled, not a sled." Qin Mo pondered Allen's words while chatting idly. He was a little confused; did he, as the commander, really need to go hunting? What kind of prey was worth his effort?

"Oh? Your Highness would be better off going to the General's Mansion. All the nobles are preparing to go hunting outside the city! As the most distinguished member, how can you be afraid?" Qin Mo leaned closer and whispered these words into Qin Mo's face. Looking at his smiling face, Qin Mo couldn't help but think he had ill intentions.

"Well, Allen, I feel my combat skills have improved by leaps and bounds these past few days. I'd like to stay in the camp and spar with you for the next few days." In a fight, Allen could take on more than a dozen Qin Mos, but when it comes to reading people's expressions, being unreasonable, and cheating, ten Allens could still beat one Qin Mo.

Allen straightened up, the smile vanished from his face, and he silently stared at Qin Mo, his eyes misty with tears. Qin Mo felt a chill run down her spine from Allen's gaze and, without uttering a word, turned and left, leaving her standing there in a daze.

Qin Mo saw disappointment in Allen's eyes, and perhaps also sadness at his lack of ambition, but because of her position, she did not speak up to dissuade him.

Qin Mo finally panicked and hurriedly went to call Wu Shengze before heading towards the General's Mansion. Before they even reached the gate of the mansion, they saw a row of nobles and their personal guards crowding around, bustling about.

"Your Highness, you've come too? Which direction will you be hunting in this time? Will you be crossing the river?"

"Your Highness, thank you for the sled. I visited you a few days ago, but unfortunately you were in cultivation and I was unable to see you. Thank you today."

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!