Other than the few men who volunteered, they were still missing several men before being able to meet their quota of fifty men.
Of course, no one was willing to volunteer for something that they felt had a high chance of them dying. After all, all the men in the village had their families to worry about, so none of them were willing to leave them.
Out of fairness, the village chief decided that they would do a drawing for the few spots that would be left out of their quota.
Each family would be given one ballot and if their ballot was chosen, they would be required to send someone as part of the quota.
Of course, families that didn't have adult men or were already sending someone because they had volunteered were excluded from this drawing.
In the end, the rest of the thirty were chosen, including Qiao Qiao's big brother Qiao Man.
On the day that they were heading off, everyone's eyes were filled with tears, especially Qiao Qiao.
She didn't even bother looking at her big brother, rather she had thrown herself into Lin Fan's arms as she begged him to be safe.
On the side, Qiao Man had a bitter smile as he said, "Little sister, once you've found someone to love, you don't care about your big brother anymore?"
When Qiao Qiao heard this, she wiped her tears and finally came out of Lin Fan's arms. She turned to Qiao Man with a scowl on her face and said, "It's too much trouble worrying about an idiot like you."
The men all around heard this and started laughing at Qiao Man who was just left there with a bitter smile on his face.
While her mouth had been fierce, when she came closer to Lin Fan, she said in a low voice, "Xiao Yu, can you keep him safe for me?"
Lin Fan looked down at her and gave a nod with a faint smile on his face.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtQiao Qiao revealed a bright smile in return, but the tears quickly came back when she remembered that Lin Fan was heading off as well.
But all things had to come to an end and Lin Fan led the group off to the city.
When they arrived, they were immediately assigned to a mass barracks which were filled with various other peasants that had been conscripted.
The living conditions were terrible and the food was even worse, but they had no choice since that was how things were. It was already good enough that they had received anything at all and weren't expected to sleep outside or find their own food.
After they arrived, the first thing that they were put through was a test to see the average level of these peasants. It was during this test that Lin Fan was able to stand out.
With his abilities, he was able to catch the eye of the commander who had recommended Lin Fan to the general.
After seeing Lin Fan's ability with the bow, the general had immediately made a decision to give Lin Fan a special position.
Lin Fan was promoted to the position of a hundred man commander and he received fifty other peasants along with the people from his own village to form a special unit. This special unit was a unit that was completely made of archers, so other than the people from his own village, the peasants assigned to him were all people who had experience as hunters.
Lin Fan trained hard with this unit and before long, they became a legend on the battlefield.
They didn't become a legend because of their abilities in a head on fight, but rather they became legends as assassins.
Lin Fan was even given the title of Lightning Bow because his shots flew out as fast as lightning as they pierced through the heads of barbarian commanders.
As for his squad, their arrows always rained down where help was needed the most, alleviating the pressure on the frontlines.
By the end of the war, it was unknown how many times they had saved the peasants that had been on the frontline from dying.
The war itself lasted for half a year and in the end, the northern army was able to push back the barbarians.
Lin Fan was offered a job to stay with the regular army for his performance, but he turned down that job since it wasn't what he wanted. The war was anything but pleasant for him.
He might have been a cultivator before coming to this world, so he was not a stranger to fighting and killing, but war was just on a completely different scale. The number of deaths in this war far surpassed anything that Lin Fan had ever seen before.
Not to mention that when it came to war, there were things that were completely thrown out the window such as morals.
He had seen the ruins of the villages that had been swept through by the barbarians and they weren't things that were for the light-hearted.
So in the end, he decided that it was best if he returned to his peaceful life in the village.
But with all the achievements that he had earned in this war, it was impossible for the government not to reward Lin Fan with something.
So after the war was over, Lin Fan was given an official rank even though he was returning to the life of a commoner. The exact details of his assignment from the government were to take care of a few villages that would be placed under him, namely the village that he was from and a few nearby villages.
This was their way of awarding Lin Fan and respecting his wishes, which was something that his commander had fought for.
Finally when the war was over, Lin Fan brought the people from his village back.
It was a miracle, but they had all survived the war.
Lin Fan hadn't lost a single one of the villagers that had followed him into the war. In fact, he hadn't lost a single man that had been on his squad.
Of course there had been close calls since it was a war, but every time someone was close to losing their life, Lin Fan's arrows would find their way into the heads of the enemies. Every time, Lin Fan's arrows would save them at the brink of death.
He was so popular that some of his other men even followed him back to his village, bringing their families with them.
The village that he was from had also become bigger because during the time that they had been away, there were many young people who had gotten married out of fear that the barbarians would break their way through the lines of the northern army. So when Lin Fan had returned, there were more than ten babies that had been made.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmWhen the men returned, the first thing that the village did was hold a banquet for the returning heroes.
During that banquet, Lin Fan had been placed at the head of the table since everyone had heard about his accomplishments during the war.
While they were celebrating, Qiao Qiao suddenly seized the chance to come forward and stood right in front of Lin Fan.
Then in front of many shocked gazes, she suddenly grabbed Lin Fan's face and brought her own face closer, landing a big kiss on his lips.
This was her first kiss, so she didn't really know what to do. By the end of it, Lin Fan's lips were covered in slobber when she moved away, but there was a big blush on both of their faces.
All around them were sighs and clicks of the tongues from other girls.
Lin Fan was a hero, so naturally he had become someone that they had all wanted. Qiao Qiao could see that, which was what had driven her to do such a bold thing like marching up to kiss Lin Fan.
After a long moment of silence, while everyone watched with bated breath, Lin Fan said, "Let's get married, alright?"
He had spent an entire year and a half in this world and in the first year he had been here, he had spent quite a bit of time with Qiao Qiao. The feelings that the original Xia Yu had for Qiao Qiao had already been transferred to him.
Qiao Qiao's face turned completely red and after a long period of silence, she just gave a slight nod before running off.
There was another moment of silence before everyone broke out in laughter and cheers for the new couple.
There weren't any arguments from the families of the two because both sides had already been able to see the feelings that both of them had for each other. In fact, they had already assumed that they would be together in the end and that it was just a matter of time.
Of course, they wouldn't be married right away since neither Lin Fan or Qiao Qiao were of age just yet, but that didn't mean that they couldn't get engaged.
The banquet continued on late into the night and by the end of it, most of the adults were completely drunk. Most of them were sleeping on the ground, but a few of them had been pulled away by their wives.
There were also people who had hooked up since anyone who came back from the war could be considered a hero and that was more than enough to attract some girls.
As for Lin Fan, while he wanted to go to sleep, he was pulled away by Qiao Qiao in the end.