Chapter 637 Ancient World (3)

When Lin Fan had just come back from the hunt, he found that there was a crowd that had gathered in the center of the village.

He could hear a few things from the murmurs around him, but it was still better for him to find out the source of this anxiety from the center of the crowd.

When Lin Fan headed over, the crowd that saw him started moving aside, parting to make way for him.

That was the status that he enjoyed as one of the top hunters, he was someone that everyone in the village respected.

When he came to the center, he saw that everyone was gathered around a bulletin board that was at the center of the village. However, he never remembered this bulletin board being here before, which meant that it must have been put up when he went out on his solo hunt.

Seeing that he was coming over, the village chief waved at him before saying, "Xiao Yu, come and take a look at this."

Lin Fan revealed a confused look, but he still came over to where the village chief was before asking, "What's going on?"

The village chief pointed at the bulletin board in front of him and said, "People from the City Lord Manor came by this morning to put this up. You should read it first…"

Lin Fan could tell from his voice that this board wasn't anything good, so he turned his attention to it and started to read.

Even though this was an ancient world, education was at a surprisingly high level since everyone in the village could read and write. This was an order that came from the City Lord Manor on behalf of the emperor, which stated that every household had to teach their children to read and write before they turned the age of ten or they would be fined a large fee.

This was a wise move on the part of the government since this meant that there were more high class labour that was available to them, but since this was still an ancient feudal society, there weren't that many jobs that were available for this higher class labour force. So in the end, most of the people were still stuck as farmers and hunters even though they could read and write.

But based on the information that Lin Fan had learned in his year in this world, he knew that the central government was trying to push for more industrialization, so it showed how wise the emperor was. Without creating a capable workforce ahead of time, there would definitely be a lack of capable workers when the time industrialization came.

This was a very farsighted move on the part of the emperor.

But of course, none of that mattered to a small village hunter like Lin Fan.

What he cared more about now was the bulletin board that had been placed in front of him.

As he read the notice that was put on there, he couldn't help slowly knitting his brows more and more.

Once he was finished, he didn't speak right away as he fell into thought.

Seeing this, the village chief waited for him to finish thinking.

Since the incident with the cliff, the village chief had found that Xia Yu had completely changed.

He was no longer as rash as before, but rather he had become much more thoughtful and careful, but that also made him much more reliable. Even now, the village chief found that he asked Xia Yu's opinion when it came to most of the important matters of the village.

As for this matter, it was definitely one of the most important matters that had appeared in the village since he had become chief.

The notice was from the City Lord Manor and it was a notification that the northern barbarians had invaded the borders.

As the city that was closest to the northern borders, it was naturally the job of the city guards to take care of the invading barbarians, however there was a problem.

To put it simply, they didn't have enough men.

The northern city naturally trained a large garrison since it was the city that defended the northern borders, but the number of barbarians far exceeded anyone's expectations. The army wouldn't be able to match the number of barbarians, so they had no choice but to find other soldiers, even if those soldiers weren't willing.

So the notice wasn't just a notification that the barbarians were invading, but also a notification of conscription.

The notice even clearly stated that they would need fifty men from each village to join the army to defend against the invading barbarians. However, it was that number that was a problem for Lin Fan's village.

The total number of people in this village added up to just around three hundred people, with an even division of men and women.

The men were needed for the heavy work while the women were mainly in charge of things like taking care of the home and helping with their farms from time to time, but it was mainly the men who went hunting for their food. Among the men, there were only around seventy five able bodied adults since the rest were all elderly or children.

If they were to take away fifty men like this, the village would certainly collapse from a lack of food since they wouldn't have enough men to do all the work…

But it wasn't as if they had a choice since this was a conscription notice.

If they didn't reply to this, before the barbarians even showed up to tear up their homes, the City Lord Manor would lead their troops to take care of them.

Those were fully armed soldiers and they were just normal peasants, even if they were hunters, they didn't have the training to fight actual soldiers.

Then again, if they didn't send anyone, it was likely that the barbarians would come and rip up their homes. The barbarians were savage, they wouldn't just kill them, they would torture them first.

Thinking of that happening to one's family naturally made them angry.

After a long time, Lin Fan gave a sigh and asked, "How long ago has it been since this notice was put up?"

The village chief thought about it before saying, "It's been there since noon, so a few hours."

After a pause, Lin Fan asked, "How many have volunteered?"

This time it was the village chief's turn to give a sigh as he said, "Just over ten and it doesn't look like we'll get more than twenty since more than half the village has already seen this notice."

Lin Fan gave a nod in response to this before he muttered to himself, "If we teach a few of the kids and the women, I think we can have enough people hunting to feed the rest, but…"

As he trailed off, the village chief gave a nod before turning to look at Lin Fan with a serious look.

When Lin Fan saw this, he already knew what the village chief was going to ask him.

The village chief said in a slow and hesitant voice, "Are you going to go?"

Lin Fan didn't respond right away, but he could tell from the expectant look in the village chief's eyes what he wanted him to respond with.

It wasn't that the village chief was scared that Lin Fan would be a threat to his position, rather he wanted Lin Fan to go for a completely different reason.

He was more worried about the men that they would be sending as part of the conscription. This was also why he waited for Lin Fan to come back to discuss this with him.

To put it simply, he didn't want the men from their village to be put on the front lines as cannon fodder. He knew that if that were to happen, they would certainly die.

But why would they be used as cannon fodder?

Between a soldier that had all kinds of investments stuffed in them like food, armour, weapons, and took months or years to train and a peasant that could be found anywhere, which one would be more valuable?

It was without a doubt the trained soldier.

Any proper commander would choose to use the peasants as cannon fodder to stop the charge of the barbarians before sending out their trained soldiers. Of course in that situation, almost all of the peasants would die and the ones that didn't would certainly be scarred for life.

But the nobles and army commanders didn't care about any peasants.

That is unless the peasant had something that would catch the eyes of the nobles and army commanders.

If there was a peasant that showed combat skills, especially the ability to command, they would naturally catch the eyes of the commanders. If that was the case, they would be allowed to become a commander themselves and be given a squad.

That squad would be excluded from the frontlines since they wouldn't be useful as cannon fodder either, so that would allow them to keep their lives and avoid this suicidal charge.

That was why the village chief wanted Lin Fan to go.

He wanted Lin Fan to go so that he could become a squad commander and bring the men from their village into their squad, keeping them away from the suicidal frontlines.

Of course, this wasn't guaranteed since the other villages would have the same thought, but the village chief would feel assured if it was Lin Fan.

Lin Fan was the most outstanding young man in their village, so he was certain that he would catch the eyes of the commanders.

Lin Fan fell into deep thought for a bit before he suddenly gave a nod.