Chapter 1 Where Am I?

“Young Marquis, please get up quickly. It’s our turn to patrol.”

“Where am I?”

Qin Hu sat up groggily, feeling a chill on his body. The wind was howling outside, and a sense of strangeness filled his heart.

“Oh, Young Marquis, why are you so confused? We're in the military camp. It's our shift to stand guard. If we don’t get up, we’ll be punished according to military law. Even the old Marquis can’t protect you now.”

“What?”

Qin Hu opened his eyes and saw that he was in a tent. Standing before him was a soldier in leather armor.

Just as he was about to ask something, a splitting headache suddenly struck, and a massive influx of information flooded his brain. A few seconds later, he realized he had transmigrated.

He had gone from a modern special forces soldier to a young marquis also named Qin Hu, the leader of the seven most notorious young masters in the capital!

And this era, called the Great Yu Dynasty, didn’t exist in history at all.

Qin Hu's ancestor was one of the four dukes and twenty-eight marquises who founded the Great Yu. Three months ago, his father died of illness, and Qin Hu inherited the title, becoming the new Champion Marquis.

Qin Hu had been spoiled by his parents since he was a child. He didn’t like studying or practicing martial arts, only indulging in playing, eating, drinking, and causing trouble in the capital.

When he grew up, his family wanted him to settle down, so they arranged a marriage for him. The woman was the eldest daughter of the Duke of Chen, named Chen Ruoli, a virtuous and beautiful lady from a distinguished family.

This Qin Hu was cruel to everyone else, but he was exceptionally obedient to this beautiful fiancée, treating her like a treasure.

But the problem arose with this childhood sweetheart, Miss Chen.

According to Qin Hu’s memory, he had accompanied his fiancée to the palace to pay respects to the current Chang’an Princess. The princess and Chen Ruoli were childhood friends, so she arranged a banquet.

But later, Qin Hu drank himself into oblivion. When he woke up, he was already in the inner guard’s prison. He was told that he had drunkenly flirted with the princess, with malicious intent.

What was even stranger was that Chen Ruoli actually submitted a memorial impeaching her fiancé, Qin Hu, for seventy-two illegal acts, each with solid evidence.

Qin Hu felt as if he had been struck by lightning. He couldn't believe his ears…

The imperial edict soon came down. In consideration of Qin Hu’s ancestor’s merits, he was spared the death penalty but could not escape punishment. He was exiled to Youzhou to serve in the army, retaining his title to observe his future behavior.

But after arriving in Youzhou, he was quickly assigned to the front lines – to serve at the vanguard camp.

After these events flashed through Qin Hu’s mind, he basically understood that this was a trap.

Because the Duke of Chen had long wanted to break off the engagement with him.

The Qin family and the Chen family were originally in a political marriage. Both families wanted to become stronger, but the later Qin Hu, apart from being a playboy, was almost useless. It could be said that he had completely disgraced the Champion Marquis’s mansion.

You should know that all previous Champion Marquises were heroic figures with unparalleled influence in the military, but this generation produced a good-for-nothing who had never even been on the battlefield.

When the old Marquis was alive, the Duke of Chen still gave him face, but after the old Marquis died, the Duke of Chen turned ruthless and staged a scene of breaking off the engagement at the mourning hall.

But Qin Hu deeply loved Chen Ruoli and refused to agree, while Chen Ruoli had long been disgusted by this scoundrel.

Thus, a disaster descended!

As for the Chang’an Princess, it was even simpler. She was the cousin of Qin Hu's paternal cousin. As long as Qin Hu died, the vast property of the Champion Marquis’s mansion would naturally fall into the hands of this cousin.

These forces, each seeking their own benefit, colluded with each other and quickly joined forces…

As expected, entering the nobility is like entering a deep sea. There are really a lot of people who want him dead.

“Qin An, do you think we can find a place to take shelter from the wind?”

Under the bright moonlight, the rough north wind carried a piercing whistle, sweeping across the empty wilderness, making the few torches flicker, and cutting at people’s skin like countless flying knives.

“We can’t, Young Marquis. We’ll be punished according to military law.”

Qin Hu and Qin An huddled together, braving the wind, running out of the camp, and stepping forward on the thick snow.

The weak Qin An was caught off guard and directly overturned by the wind.

Two sentries on duty saw them come out, exchanged sinister smiles, scooped up two handfuls of snow and extinguished the fire for warmth, then crawled into the tent.

Damn it, even the soldiers have been bought off. They want to freeze me to death!

This was a small camp, with about twenty tents, surrounded by wagons. The outer perimeter didn't even have caltrops or deer antlers arranged. The surrounding terrain was flat and offered no natural defenses. It was clear that they didn’t plan to stay for long.

According to Qin Hu’s memories, there were about two hundred people stationed here. They were the vanguard camp of Li Qin, the General Conquering the North of the Yu Dynasty.

And the target of Li Qin’s twenty thousand troops this time was the Yu Dynasty’s long-time enemy on the border, the Liaodong Kingdom.

“Cough, cough, Young Marquis, do you think we can return alive?” Qin An curled up on the snow, his lips and face were blue, and his speech was weak, as if he would die at any moment.

Qin Hu sighed inwardly. Qin An was purely implicated by him. If things continued to develop like this, the two of them would definitely die.

Those who wanted him dead couldn’t kill him in the court, so they were using underhanded methods in the military camp, trying to beat him to death.

But Qin Hu was not one to sit and wait for death. This was clearly a frame-up, and he couldn’t let it go.

Life is an endless struggle for survival. Just wait, I will not only survive, but also kill my way back to the capital and settle accounts with you.

“Qin An, how many silver notes did we bring when we left?”

“There are no silver notes. I only have twenty taels of silver on me. The imperial edict said that we were exiled to the army, and our family property was confiscated.”

Qin An was only 16 years old this year. He was Qin Hu’s personal attendant. He was very thin and weak and had already been exhausted by the hardships. He looked like he was on his last breath.

Actually, Qin Hu wasn’t in much better condition. These past few days, the vanguard camp had been marching 30 *li* every day, and the work they did was opening roads through mountains, building bridges over water, chopping firewood, making fires, digging ditches, carrying water, and building camps.

And what would be the situation when these two delicate guys were with hundreds of rough soldiers every day?

They would definitely do the hardest work, eat the worst food, endure the most beatings, and suffer the most anger…

Qin Hu estimated that his predecessor might have been tortured to death.

It could be considered his just desserts.

But he had to bear this suffering now. If he couldn’t bear it, he would die too.

“Give it to me.”

Qin Hu had made up his mind. He had to find a way to save Qin An’s life first, and then think of other ways.

Saving his life wasn’t actually that difficult. The simplest method was bribery. As the saying goes, money can move gods. Although this method was primitive, it always worked.

But in this situation, he couldn’t bribe high-ranking officials because no one dared to associate with him. Besides, he didn’t have the money.

So the person who came to his mind was the centurion, Li Xiaokun.

Who was currently the top leader of the vanguard camp.