Chapter 1 The Beginning

“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 strange feeling rose in his heart.

“Hey, 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 by 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, and in front of him was a soldier in leather armor.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to ask something, a splitting headache suddenly struck, and a huge influx of information rushed into his mind. A few seconds later, he realized he had transmigrated.

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

And this era called the Great Yu Dynasty simply did not exist in history.

Qin Hu’s ancestors were 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 Marquis of Champion.

Qin Hu was spoiled by his parents since he was a child. He didn't like to study or practice martial arts, only to play, eat, drink, and be merry, running rampant 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 famous lady, beautiful and intelligent.

This Qin Hu was extremely vicious to others, but he was especially 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, that day he took his fiancée to the palace to pay respects to the current Chang’an Princess. The princess and Chen Ruoli had been good friends since childhood, so she arranged a banquet.

But later, Qin Hu drank too much and passed out. When he woke up, he was already in the inner guard's prison. He was told that he had drunkenly molested the princess and had intentions of doing something improper.

What was even more bizarre was that Chen Ruoli actually submitted a memorial impeaching her fiancé Qin Hu for seventy-two illegal acts, each and every one with evidence.

Qin Hu was stunned, unable to believe his ears…

The imperial decree came down quickly. Considering Qin Hu’s ancestors' merits, the death penalty was waived, but the living penalty was unavoidable. He was exiled to Youzhou to serve in the military, retaining his title to see how he would perform.

But after arriving in Youzhou, he was quickly assigned to the front line – to be used in the vanguard camp.

After these things flashed through Qin Hu’s mind, he basically understood that this should be 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 a political marriage. Both families wanted to become stronger and bigger, but the later Qin Hu, in addition to being a playboy, was almost useless. It could be said that he had completely disgraced the Marquis of Champion’s mansion.

You should know that the Marquises of Champion of previous generations were all heroic figures, with unparalleled influence in the military, but in this generation, there was 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 when 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 was deeply in love with Chen Ruoli and refused to agree to it, while Chen Ruoli had long been disgusted with this young master.

Thus, a disaster descended!

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

These forces, each taking what they needed, colluded with each other, and thus quickly united…

As expected, entering the Marquis’s gate is like entering the deep sea; there are really many 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 harsh north wind carried a piercing whistle, sweeping across the empty wilderness, blowing the torches flickeringly, and cutting people’s skin like countless flying knives.

“It won’t work, Young Marquis, we’ll be punished by military law.”

Qin Hu and Qin An huddled up against the wind, running out of the camp and forward through the heavy snow.

The weak Qin An was accidentally overturned by the wind.

Two sentries on duty saw them come out, smiled at each other sinisterly, scooped up two handfuls of snow, extinguished the bonfire for warmth, and then crawled into the tent.

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

This was a very small camp, with about twenty tents, surrounded by horse-drawn carriages. The outer perimeter didn't even have chevaux-de-frise arranged, and the nearby terrain was flat, with no defenses to hold. It was clear that they had no intention of being stationed there for long.

According to Qin Hu’s previous life memory, about two hundred people were 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 20,000-strong army 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 he spoke weakly, as if he would die at any moment.

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

Those who wanted him dead couldn't kill him in the court, so they used underhanded methods and hit him with a sap in the military camp, trying to kill him.

But Qin Hu was not a person who would sit still and wait for death. This was obviously a set-up, and he couldn't let it go.

Life is an endless struggle for survival. Just wait, not only will I survive, but I will also kill my way back to the capital and settle the score 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 decree said that we were sent to the army as exiles, and our family property was sealed.”

Qin An was only 16 years old this year. He was Qin Hu’s personal servant, very thin and weak, and had already been tortured beyond endurance. He looked like he was on his last breath.

Actually, Qin Hu wasn't doing much better. These days, the vanguard camp marched 30 *li* every day, and the work they did was to open roads through mountains, build bridges over water, chop firewood, light fires, dig ditches, carry water, and build camps.

And what would happen to these two tender-skinned guys when they were with hundreds of rough and burly soldiers every day?

They would definitely do the hardest work, eat the worst food, be beaten the most brutally, and suffer the greatest humiliation…

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

It could be considered that he deserved it.

It was just that he had to bear this suffering now. If he couldn’t bear it, he would also die.

“Give it to me.”

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

And to save his life was not difficult. The simplest method was bribery. As the saying goes, money can move the 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 get involved with him. Besides, he didn’t have any money.

So he thought of one person in his mind, Centurion Li Xiaokun.

That is, the current leader of the vanguard camp.