If Heaven hadn't given birth to me, I would be arrogant.

At this moment, Zong Ze's 50,000-strong army had arrived at the border forest. Looking at the dense forest in front of him, Zong Ze couldn't help but marvel inwardly!

Previously, Zong Ze thought that the border forest was just a small forest on the border between the Rune Empire and the Bright Empire in the north. The reason why the White Tiger Cavalry Legion was defeated by those bandits was not because those bandits were so powerful, but because the forest blocked the cavalry's advance and charge, which led to the defeat!

Now Zong Ze finally understood that this world and Earth were two different worlds after all, and not everything was exactly the same! In his previous life, when Zong Ze was still a rogue immortal, he traveled to Shennongjia, the most legendary place on Earth. He spent more than ten days traveling all over Shennongjia, and finally learned that the reason why Shennongjia was so mysterious was because there was a vital passage in Shennongjia that led to the world of cultivation!

The reason why the Kuomintang deserters disappeared in Shennongjia was because they alarmed the guardians of the Shennongjia vital gate, which led to the cultivators being dispatched to kill the soldiers! Later, as tourism developed rapidly, more and more people became curious about Shennongjia, so the cultivators guarding the vital gate had no choice but to create a series of supernatural events to deter tourists!

But the border forest before him was many times larger than Shennongjia! At this moment, Zong Ze secretly regretted his decision. He had thought it was just a small task to eliminate bandits, and that with his 50,000 special forces, he could easily take over the border forest and restore peace to the empire's borders. In addition, this bandit suppression would also give the soldiers some real combat experience. Therefore, Zong Ze abandoned the air strike and chose the land advance method!

Who would have thought that Zong Ze would realize he was wrong when he arrived at the border forest! Such a vast primeval forest meant that even if he sent out air troops, he might not be able to completely wipe out the bandits! After all, even a powerful dragon can't suppress a local snake. This primeval forest was the bandits' home, and their familiarity with the mountains and forests was much greater than that of his soldiers. This undoubtedly added a lot of difficulty for the Shenji Battalion!

At this moment, Zong Ze could only secretly hope that these bandits weren't that clever and didn't know any real tactics! Otherwise, having his soldiers face constant harassment, street fighting, or even tunnel warfare! Just thinking about it gave Zong Ze a headache!

"Order the entire army to set up camp! Order all battalion and regimental commanders to convene a meeting at the main tent in one day!" With this thought in mind, Zong Ze, who had originally planned to take down the bandit's den in one fell swoop, had no choice but to issue the order to his personal guards!

Before long, the camp was set up! Wisps of smoke were already rising. It wasn't that Zong Ze didn't want to keep it a secret; with such a large army marching, even bandits would likely have scouts! Their movements were already known to the enemy, so there was no need to hide. They should eat as usual; perhaps the smoke from the massive army's food supply would even increase the enemy's psychological pressure, after all, they were facing an army of 50,000!

An hour later, all five battalion commanders and fifteen deputy battalion commanders had arrived at Zongze's tent in the center to discuss the next military action!

"Gentlemen, before we begin this meeting, I must admit to a mistake! I initially thought this border forest was just a small grove of trees, and that once our army arrived, we could simply crush it like a kodo beast. But now I realize I was wrong. This border forest is far too vast, and the enemy is in the dark while we are in the light. It's actually a tough nut to crack! So, I apologize for my oversight!"

Zong Ze first sincerely apologized and pointed out his mistakes!

“General, this is not your fault!” said Camor, the commander of the First Battalion. “As you know, I used to work for the old prime minister. Before we came here, the old prime minister spoke with me and told me that someone had deliberately sabotaged our mission. That’s why we received the order urgently and made preparations hastily! There was no time to conduct a detailed investigation of the enemy! Actually, we had considered this problem, so didn’t you choose to divide and conquer, attacking the border mountains and forests first, while investigating the pirates in the meantime?”

“General! You don’t need to blame yourself!” Shi Mo also spoke up, “This border forest is vast. Although we are not familiar with this place, our soldiers have undergone three years of training and are very experienced in this kind of forest warfare. I think those bandits can’t be stronger than us. Comparatively speaking, our chances of winning are still very high! I believe that as long as the soldiers can perform at half the level they usually train, this border forest will belong to us!”

"Hmm!" Hearing the battalion commander's words, Zong Ze felt more confident. "However, I originally wanted to achieve victory with zero casualties, after all, these are our brothers! But I was afraid they were all new recruits. Soldiers who have never seen blood are different from veterans who have been on the battlefield. I originally thought this was a piece of easy prey, a chance for my brothers to truly see blood, so they wouldn't be afraid on the real battlefield in the future! Who knew... sigh... it was my mistake, I was too confident!"

As soon as Zong Ze finished speaking, he saw the 20 battalion and deputy battalion commanders in front of him looking at each other, their faces turning red as if they had been trying to laugh! It was as if they had said something wrong!

"What? Why do you all look at me like that?" Zongze asked, puzzled. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Hahaha!" Upon hearing Zong Ze's question, the twenty battalion and deputy battalion commanders could no longer hold back and burst into laughter at the same time. After laughing, Shi Mo said with some emotion, "General, you are truly our good general. Every brother is like your own child in your heart, but you seem to have forgotten something very important!"

"Oh? What is it?" Zongze asked.

“General!” Camor said casually, “You’re worried about these brothers because you think of them as new recruits. That’s true. For our Shenji Battalion, let alone them, even we and you are considered new recruits. But General, what you’ve forgotten is that we brothers are all elite soldiers selected from various regiments!”

“Yes, General!” Stantu wiped away tears of laughter and said, “These guys were chosen because they’ve all crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. If we’re talking about seeing blood, these guys have seen it all before. Even Graphite has probably participated in quite a few battles!”

"Hey!" Zong Ze slapped his forehead: "Damn, that's right! I forgot about that! I always thought the brothers were all new recruits who had never seen blood before! Damn it, what's there to worry about! Order the whole army to rest, sentries be careful, we'll start the attack first thing tomorrow morning!"

After saying that, Zong Ze chuckled and said, "Gentlemen, are you interested in coming with me to capture a few prisoners?"