A Scout Sent to Die from the Start, I Trained an Iron Army

After transmigrating as a low-ranking scout on the northern frontier of the Great Jing, Lu Zheng received his first order: leave the pass tomorrow and go die.

In three years, the Vanguard Battalion sent out 170 scouts. Only nine returned.

The whole battalion considered the job a death sentence. Lu Zheng took one look at the camp and said just three words: I can survive.

The next day, he left the pass alone. When he returned, he brought back a prisoner and a warning:

The Beidi are advancing on the pass with three armies. They'll be here in three days.

The battalion promoted him to squad leader. Others asked for silver rewards. He asked for men: the bullied, the ones about to be discharged, the ones nobody wanted.

With ten men, he ambushed forty cavalry at a narrow river crossing.

With a hundred men, he held the breach north of the city.

With sixty men, he beat the thousand-household commander’s forty bodyguards until their armor was caked in white dust.

Inside the city, a corrupt commander. Outside, the Beidi knocking at the pass.

All Lu Zheng had was a band of soldiers rotten to the core.

The soldiers might be rotten, Lu Zheng said, but the men didn't have to be.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.