“How can that be possible?” Samuel Grant immediately became agitated and exclaimed, “Even if we combine our forces, we only have about 1,500 men. Although nearly 300 of them are absolute elites, the enemy has no fewer than 5,000! If we take the initiative and attack, and end up losing…” As he spoke, his face turned pale and he looked at Henry Clark, deeply afraid that the lord he had just pledged allegiance to would be angered.

There aren’t as many as 300; the precise numbers are 12 scout cavalry, 60 swordsmen, 111 spearmen, and 51 archers, totaling 234 system soldiers. Edward Blake, Samuel Grant, and the others had no idea what the system was, simply assuming those soldiers were Henry Clark’s tribal warriors.

After some investigation, it was found that the Jie people had gathered various tribes and miscellaneous nomads, and after merging, their numbers would indeed not be less than 5,000 cavalry and infantry. By then, the number might be even higher, since the Jie were now the overlords of the Central Plains and had a natural advantage in rallying the nomads.

Henry Clark originally wanted to rapidly mass-produce soldiers, but then he held back. Even if he had enough resources to do so, he could only produce 179 swordsmen, which would not have a decisive impact on the battle. Moreover, since he had stopped mining gold, his gold reserves were insufficient. He was contemplating a tactic—using the advantage of his golden finger to determine the outcome of this war, but the premise was that the Jin soldiers he recruited would need to play a supporting role.

With a preliminary strategy in mind, Henry Clark sent scouts far and wide to survey the terrain around Buqi City.

Next, Henry Clark arranged for the division of labor in production, transferring the system farmers who were chopping wood to focus mainly on gold mining, while all woodcutting was handed over to the Jin refugees.

As for food, Samuel Grant had at least served as a county deputy before and had enough experience commanding people to cultivate farmland, but in Henry Clark’s view, it was still far too slow.

A single system farmer could cultivate ten mu of farmland in just over ten days, but it would take nearly fifty Jin people at least a month to do the same. The difference in efficiency was like night and day. This not only showcased the superhuman efficiency of the system farmers but also highlighted the inefficiency of the Jin people.

With no other choice, Henry Clark tried having the system farmers do the cultivation and then handing the fields over to the Jin people. But something strange happened: the cultivated fields could be handed over, but soon after, weeds would grow wildly, faster than they could be cleared!

[Is this some kind of restriction?]

Henry Clark was about to go crazy. He thought he had found a way to cheat, but it turned out he was just wasting time.

“My lord!” William Reed didn’t know how far he had run, and was panting as he said, “To the north, enemy activity has been spotted to the north!”

Henry Clark had been so focused on construction that, not hearing any attack alarms, he hadn’t checked the map in his mind. Upon hearing this, he reflexively checked the map and, after searching for a moment, finally spotted two clusters of red dots.

William Reed paused to catch his breath and was no longer so winded, but he couldn’t understand why Henry Clark wasn’t asking for details and was just standing there in a daze. He couldn’t help but call out, “My lord?”

“Assemble the men.” Henry Clark had a rough idea of the enemy’s numbers, but the map didn’t reveal more details. “Follow me.”

William Reed bowed and replied, “Yes, sir!”

Henry Clark did have a golden finger, but it wasn’t all-powerful in every aspect. For example, he could use the map, but right now all he could see were two clusters of red dots moving—he couldn’t tell which tribe or faction they belonged to. Furthermore, if the medium providing vision was lost, the map would once again fall into “fog of war” mode.

The two moving clusters of red dots showed the larger group chasing the smaller one. If their direction didn’t change, they would definitely run straight into Henry Clark’s encampment within two hours.

William Reed quickly gathered his own men—nearly a hundred Jin people, all veterans who had followed Henry Clark through four months of hardship. While they were assembling, Henry Clark had already led the system soldiers out, so they could only hurry to catch up.

The Central Plains were sparsely populated, making everywhere seem desolate in these times. Tall weeds grew higher than a person, and there were basically no roads at all. To make progress, they had to push and trample their way through to forge a path.

Henry Clark assembled 50 swordsmen, 80 spearmen, and 50 archers. They moved about three kilometers north before stopping.

Because the environment was so complex, visibility was extremely limited. Even knowing there were people ahead, it was hard to see them with the naked eye. Ordinary people could only listen for sounds, but Henry Clark could observe through the map in his mind. He led his troops to crouch in the grass, arranged them in formation, and waited for the enemy to stumble into them. He always understood that if used properly, the map in his mind would be the most heaven-defying golden finger.

William Reed brought his men up and was assigned to a supporting position. He also knew that compared to Henry Clark’s elite soldiers, his own troops, who had trained for less than a year, were lacking in combat power and courage. He could only look enviously at those disciplined elites and sigh inwardly, thinking he must train his own men much harder.

The smaller cluster of red dots was about twenty people, while the pursuing group had nearly a hundred. The one thing they had in common was that all were mounted on warhorses.

The thunderous sound of hooves could be heard far across the wilderness, occasionally mixed with neighs and screams. They were moving very fast.