Firmament Sword

”What are you shouting about! How dare you speak to our General like that? Get off your horse and pay your respects!” Mo Yun said nothing, but the aide beside her was enraged.

The aide had followed Mo Yun for many years and was familiar with all matters within the Yan Army, yet he had never seen such an arrogant minor official.

That’s right. In the aide’s eyes, a commander in charge of three thousand men was nothing more than a minor official.

Yet now, this minor official was putting on such airs. Even Wu Xiaxian wouldn’t dare speak to Mo Yun with such an insolent attitude!

It had nothing to do with whether Wu Xiaxian liked Mo Yun or not. This was about the proper respect due to a commanding General!

”Heh. I’m afraid that if I get off this horse, your General will have me seized, bound, and executed on the spot!” the Grain and Grass Officer retorted coldly from his saddle, completely unafraid.

”Bullshit!” The aide was utterly furious. As Mo Yun’s chief strategist, his status was anything but ordinary. Even the Emperor of Great Yan had personally received him and toasted him in private, instructing him to assist Mo Yun well.

Thus, this aide of Mo Yun’s possessed an imposing presence no weaker than that of any field commander.

He trembled with rage, pointing a finger at the Grain and Grass Officer. ”I have never seen a creature as arrogant and insolent as you! If you don’t want to give us our rations, then just say so! Our General and we soldiers who have risked life and limb for Great Yan are not beggars! But how dare you push us around like this? How dare you open your mouth to slander our General? Do you think I wouldn’t dare to kill you?”

The Grain and Grass Officer’s presence was just as strong. He said coldly, ”Slander? How would a small fry like me dare to slander a high and mighty figure like General Mo? I’ve merely been wronged. Am I not even allowed to cry out in protest? Or is it that you’re allowed to treat human lives like grass, but we’re not allowed to voice our grievances?”

”You... You’re outrageous!” The usually eloquent and intelligent aide was so angry he was practically fuming.

”Me, outrageous? Ha! I haven’t even started. I just want to ask one thing, General Mo. By what right did you send people to kill the Soldiers in my unit? By what right? Huh? By what right?” The Grain and Grass Officer’s pent-up fury erupted completely, his words turning into a thunderous roar.

”I don’t like those Cao Kingdom soldiers in my unit either! I’d love to kill them myself! But now is a critical moment for our cooperation with the Cao Army! And what do you do? To blow off some steam, you go and kill seven or eight of their men. Haha, feel better now that you’ve had your fun? But you’ve thrown me right into the fire!”

”General Mo, I’m just a small fry with no great ambitions. All I want is to make it through this war and secure a comfortable life! You’re high and mighty, General Mo. A defeat means nothing to you. But a nobody like me can’t afford it!”

”You had your fun with the killing, but what about me? What am I supposed to do? When the Cao Kingdom comes looking for someone to blame, the Grand General will make an example out of me first! When that time comes, I won’t make it out alive, but don’t think you’ll get off easy either!”

”What the hell are you talking about? Get down, apologize, and explain yourself to me clearly!” Mo Yun finally snapped. Her powerful aura erupted as she stared coldly at the Grain and Grass Officer.

Crushing defeat, grievous wounds... Her proud heart was already at its breaking point. To think that a mere Grain and Grass Officer would dare to slander her like this, and with such a vehement tone—he was acting completely unhinged.

How could she not be furious?

Though heavily injured, Mo Yun’s imposing presence remained. As her anger flared, the Grain and Grass Officer opposite her was momentarily intimidated.

Just then, a Soldier, his face caked with blood and dirt and his head wrapped in thick bandages, limped forward. Pointing at the Grain and Grass Officer, he let out a stream of curses in a pure Yan Kingdom accent: ”Fuck your ancestors! You son of a bitch, what asshole forgot to zip his fly and let you out! Look at you, acting all high and mighty. Who the hell do you think you are! Daring to talk to our General like that? You must be tired of fucking living!”

”That’s right, we took a beating! We were set up by a bunch of Cao Kingdom scoundrels and Cangqiong Kingdom bastards colluding against us! But we’re also the motherfuckers who fought and bled for this army! We may have lost, but did the Cangqiong Kingdom get off easy? If you were even worthy of seeing the battle reports, you’d know how many of them we fucking killed!”

A wave of righteous indignation swept through the remnants of Mo Yun’s forces. They wished they could cheer for the brave Soldier who had just charged forward!

”Yeah, do you have any fucking idea how many enemies we killed?”

”I’ve cheated death and chopped off the heads of seven or eight enemies! I earned this body full of scars, the marks of a hero! Can you even compare?”

”You’re just a fucking Grain Transport Officer! What’s there to be so damn arrogant about?”

At that moment, the brave Soldier who had charged out roared again, ”And you... you lot of grain haulers! Yes, transporting supplies is important work, but do any of you motherfuckers have a single scar? Have you ever faced real danger? Have you ever been through a life-or-death battle like I have? Our General is seriously wounded, and you bastard dares to come here and bully her? Fuck! Brothers, we can’t fucking stand for this!”

Before anyone else could react, the limping Soldier charged straight at the Grain and Grass Officer. ”I’m already this fucking wounded! If you’ve got the guts, then cut me down! Let’s see if the man who didn’t die by an enemy’s hand will die by the blade of his own people! Come on, you motherfucker, strike me! Come on, come on! I’m just a grunt, I don’t know any grand principles, and I’m impulsive as hell, so fucking come on and cut me down! Do it!”

The blood-soaked Soldier’s defiance completely ignited the fury of the other wounded men from Mo Yun’s remnant army. A clamor instantly rose from the crowd.

Several hundred men surged forward on the spot, taking their stand behind the veteran.

’They could be weak in anything but spirit.’

At a time like this, showing weakness meant getting bullied!

Losing the battle was infuriating enough, but now even a Grain Transport Officer dared to bully them.

This was intolerable.

The Grain and Grass Officer’s face was pale—not from fear, but from fury!

”Y-y-you... You think you’re in the right? General Mo, are these the soldiers under your command?”

In his blinding rage, he spoke without thinking. Those words were like poking a hornet’s nest.

The first wounded Soldier who had charged out roared, ”Our General needs a bastard like you to lecture her? Fuck! Brothers, beat this arrogant animal!”

”Beat him to death! Dammit, I risk my life for my country, and now our supplies are cut, our medicine is gone, and we have to take shit from a bastard like you!”

”That’s right! These bastards hiding in the safe zone all day have no idea what we brothers have been through. This is going too far!”

”Get ’em!”

”Charge!”

”Anyone who fights back, beat the animal to death!”

Mo Yun and the generals beside her watched, dumbfounded. Mo Yun raised a hand, about to intervene.

But a general next to her roared through his tears, ”General, let the brothers vent! These bastards have pushed us too far!”

Mo Yun turned her gaze to her aide. She saw that the usually refined man, who always paid great attention to his Fengyi, was now clenching his fists, his face flushed red as he roared at the brawl, ”Beat the bastards!”

”...” Mo Yun was utterly speechless. She closed her eyes, a look of exhaustion on her face. ”I’m tired. I didn’t see anything today.”

”Don’t kill anyone!” Zhou Bo stepped forward and yelled. ”As long as you don’t kill them, beat them hard!”

WHAM! BAM! CRACK!

Without any need for further encouragement, several hundred veterans had already charged in and started brawling with the grain transport crew.

Taking a hit without fighting back wasn’t a soldier’s way. No matter the situation, they would fight first and ask questions later.

The Grain and Grass Officer was also completely enraged. Not only had he found no release for last night’s grievances, but he had been thoroughly cursed out and humiliated instead.

’Even though I’m just a Grain and Grass Officer, I’m still a powerful Great Sword Master!’

He kicked a veteran blocking his path into the air and roared, ”General Mo, don’t bring ruin upon yourself!”

”You motherfucker! You dare to fight back!” Seeing this, Zhou Bo was also completely enraged. The veteran who had been kicked away hadn’t gotten back up. Zhou Bo’s eyes went red, and he lunged straight for the Grain and Grass Officer.

At this moment, the rest of the grain transport unit arrived.

The remaining twenty-six or twenty-seven hundred men saw the brawl and rushed over, their faces filled with anger.

However, they were rational enough not to join in.

A brawl between a few hundred people was one thing. If they all joined in, the nature of the incident would change completely.

The consequences would be more than they could bear.

Many on the grain transport team still felt a pang of guilt. Even though seven or eight of their men had been killed the night before, those men were all from the Cao Kingdom, so they didn’t feel particularly strongly about it.

In contrast, the men from Mo Yun’s remnant army were all covered in wounds, their faces pale and gaunt. These were their own countrymen, their own brothers-in-arms.

’How did it come to this?’

Even they didn’t understand it themselves, so they fought timidly, holding back.

Just then, the veteran who had been the first to charge out suddenly let loose an earth-shattering roar. ”You motherfucker! You dare draw a blade?”

His voice was filled with shock, disbelief, grievance, and rage!

The chaotic brawl of several hundred men suddenly fell silent. Everyone instinctively stopped fighting and looked in the same direction.

There, the veteran was clutching his stomach with one hand, blood seeping through his fingers. With his other hand, he had a death grip on his opponent’s arm.

The hilt of a dagger... was still in the other man’s hand.

The man opposite him was stunned senseless, stammering, ”N-no, it wasn’t like that! I didn’t draw my blade! It was him... it was him! He shoved the hilt into my hand himself!”

”And then... he stabbed himself with it. Is that right?” A voice, colder than ice, cut through the silence.

The Soldier from the grain transport team nodded subconsciously. ”That’s right, that’s exactly what happened! He... he’s framing me!”

The veteran, his face a mask of misery, roared in a final burst of fury, ”Bullshit! I went through hell and back to survive the battlefield, and you think I’d stab myself? You... you motherfucker... you dare to kill... but you don’t dare... to admit it!”

As he spoke, the veteran’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed to the ground.

”You... deserve... to die!” The ice-cold voice radiated endless killing intent. A shadow shot forward, appearing instantly in front of the Soldier. A single slap sent the man flying more than ten meters, spraying a fountain of blood. He was clearly dead before he hit the ground.