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


    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 vige respected.


    When he came to the center, he saw that everyone was gathered around a bulletin board that was at the center of the vige. 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 wasing over, the vige chief waved at him before saying, "Xiao Yu,e and take a look at this."


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


    The vige 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 vige 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 arge fee.


    This was a wise move on the part of the government since this meant that there were more high ssbour that was avable to them, but since this was still an ancient feudal society, there weren''t that many jobs that were avable for this higher ssbour 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 ack 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 vige hunter like Lin Fan.


    What he cared more about now was the bulletin board that had been ced 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 vige chief waited for him to finish thinking.


    Since the incident with the cliff, the vige chief had found that Xia Yu hadpletely changed.


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


    As for this matter, it was definitely one of the most important matters that had appeared in the vige since he had be 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 arge 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 vige to join the army to defend against the invading barbarians. However, it was that number that was a problem for Lin Fan''s vige.


    The total number of people in this vige 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 vige would certainly copse from ack 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 woulde 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 vige 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 vige 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 vige 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 vige 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 vige chief was going to ask him.


    The vige 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 vige chief''s eyes what he wanted him to respond with.


    It wasn''t that the vige chief was scared that Lin Fan would be a threat to his position, rather he wanted Lin Fan to go for apletely 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 toe back to discuss this with him.


    To put it simply, he didn''t want the men from their vige 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 propermander 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 armymanders didn''t care about any peasants.


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


    If there was a peasant that showedbat skills, especially the ability tomand, they would naturally catch the eyes of themanders. If that was the case, they would be allowed to be amander 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 vige chief wanted Lin Fan to go.


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


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


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


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