Firmament Sword

Once the two had calmed down, Xu Luo looked at them and asked, ”Do you know about Yuan Zhi’s death?”

”Heh heh heh, of course we know. The Grand General killed him because he was afraid Yuan Zhi would run his mouth...” Li Yu sneered.

”Absolute nonsense! I thought you two had some sense, but it turns out you’re just like the Yuan Brothers—idiots who can’t tell right from wrong!”

Xu Luo said angrily, ”Use those blockheads of yours and think about it. If my father wanted to kill Yuan Zhi, why on earth would he do it in the Imperial Capital?”

”Who else could it be but the Grand General? He’s afraid someone will dig up that old case!

When my brother and I went to find the Grand General, ready to ask him to his face, he had us driven away. Soon after, Yuan Zhi came to the Imperial Capital. He met with us, and less than an hour after we parted ways, he was dead...

Who else but the Grand General could have done this?”

Li Yu sneered at Xu Luo, ”Everyone wants to believe their closest kin could never be a truly evil person, but in reality, the truth is often devastating!”

”Wait... you’re saying you met with Yuan Zhi before he died? And before you met Yuan Zhi, you went to my father, wanting to ask him to his face why he ordered you to go out on a suicide mission?” Xu Luo frowned, sorting through the information in his mind.

”That’s right. After we were defeated, we spent half a year recuperating. The few of us lucky enough to survive finally recovered. We couldn’t let it go, so we wanted to find the Grand General and demand an answer, to ask him why he was so heartless as to send us to our deaths!” Li Yu said.

”What did my father say?” Xu Luo asked.

”Your father... Heh. He saw us from a distance, and his expression changed completely. He panicked. Then he had a few of his guards come over and drive us away. Those guards didn’t even dare mention who we were. And to throw everyone off the scent, the Grand General yelled, ’You worthless lot, you still have the gall to come see me?’”

As Li Yu spoke, tears began to stream down his face. ”To think that we Death Warriors, dedicated to dying for our country, loyal to the Grand General to the end, would be treated like this. Dammit, I won’t stand for it!”

”My father... there were other people with him at the time, weren’t there?” Xu Luo, unmoved by Li Yu’s words, pressed on.

”There was a whole crowd of Civil Servants from the court. They seemed to be arguing with your father. We didn’t want to approach him then, but your father spotted us first and immediately ordered his men to get rid of us...”

Tang Yong’s face contorted with anger. ”The Grand General was obviously scared of being exposed! Why else would he drive us away? Wasn’t it to cover up the truth?”

Xu Luo looked at Tang Yong and Li Yu, sighed, and said slowly, ”Do you realize something? After that defeat, the report filed after the battlefield was cleared stated that all Death Warriors were killed in action...

The battle was so horrific, with severed limbs everywhere, that it was impossible to identify anyone.

But you... you’re still alive. Do you have any idea what would happen if anyone found out who you are? You would be arrested immediately, and then... executed!

Because you would be guilty of... the crime of deceiving the Emperor!

As for my father... First, it would have been completely inappropriate for him to acknowledge you. He couldn’t just receive you on the spot. If his enemies had seized on that, you would never have made it out of the Imperial Capital!

Second, you’ve returned from the dead. But according to the official report, you were all killed in action. If your identities were discovered, that would be deceiving the Emperor!

Heh... The crime of deceiving the Emperor. Your families, your friends—they would all be dragged down with you!

Surely... you can understand that simple logic, can’t you?”

”This... this...” Tang Yong and Li Yu stood there, stunned. Lost in their anger and resentment for so many years, they had never once considered such a possibility.

”And more importantly, in the report on that defeat, you were listed as having disobeyed military orders and charged out on your own initiative! Don’t cry injustice just yet. If that’s what really happened, then... my father merely having you driven away instead of executing you was an act of extreme mercy!”

”So, now, you’d better tell me what happened back then. Tell me everything, from beginning to end. Perhaps I can help you clear your names,” Xu Luo said in a deep voice.

”And why should we trust you?” Li Yu said, looking at Xu Luo.

”You’ve run out of options, but you’re not willing to live out your lives so wretchedly, which is why you came up with the idea of breaking into my home to steal a sample of my father’s handwriting...

Heh, to think you’d resort to such a method...

Never mind that you’re now prisoners, and your very lives are in my hands. Do you really have a better option? And for that matter, what reason would I have to lie to you?”

Xu Luo looked at them and said calmly, ”Besides, I want to get to the bottom of this even more than you do. Because I believe that my father is innocent!”

Tang Yong sighed. ”At this point, our only choice is to trust you. You’re right. We brothers... we’re out of options, and we can’t live with this...”

”Back then, we three hundred Death Warriors, under your father’s command, were secretly lying in wait in a mountain thirty li outside a small town in enemy territory. Our intel said that an important general from the enemy army was coming to that town!

If we could just kill that general, the enemy army would lose its commander and fall into disarray...

The plan was, once we received the order, we’d strike. If all went well, we were to light the beacon fire immediately. Reinforcements would then arrive to support us. With us attacking from the inside and them from the outside, the enemy general would be trapped!

The day finally came. Yuan Zhi, one of the Grand General’s Six Divine Soldiers, arrived with the General’s handwritten order. But on his way, Yuan Zhi had been ambushed by unidentified attackers and was seriously injured. After delivering the order, he collapsed.”

”To this day, I can’t forget that day...” Li Yu’s whole body trembled. As he spoke, he gritted his teeth so hard that a muscle bulged on his jaw. His expression was one of horrific grief, as if he were reliving a nightmare.

”...That day... we attacked on command. At first, everything went smoothly. We slipped deep into their position without a sound. It seemed like the enemy was completely unprepared. Everyone was in high spirits. Song the Third was even cheerfully whispering, ’After this battle, I’m gonna save up my reward money and get my mom’s terrible leg pains looked at... I just heard about a miracle doctor... Hey, I’ve got the prescription right here, just no money to fill it...’”

”And Huang Li, that tall fellow, always had a simple, honest smile on his face. He never got angry, no matter who teased him. We called him Huang Dashua, and he’d just laugh it off. But he was a true man of iron, a warrior who’d risk it all!

Dashua was lying right next to me, telling me with that goofy smile of his that his wife had sent him a letter. Their son could talk now. And the first thing he said wasn’t ’Mama,’ but ’Dada...’

Because his wife told the boy all day long, ’Your dada’s at the front fighting; Your dada will be back once he’s won a big battle; When your dada gets his reward money, we’ll live a good life; Maybe your dada will even get a promotion and we’ll be rich...’

Dashua laughed and asked me, ’Little Yu’Er, tell me, when I get home and see my son, how should I kiss him? On the cheeks? Or on his little head? He was only this big when I left, heh heh... Anyway, my son can say Dada now. This feeling, mm... Little Yu’Er, what’s with that look? Jealous, aren’t ya? Heh heh heh.’”

At this, Li Yu was choking on his tears, unable to speak. After a long moment, he took a deep breath and continued, ”I told him, ’You go to kiss your son, he’ll just piss in your mouth!’”

”And that guy Huang Dashua just chuckled and said, ’That’s my boy’s piss, I’d drink it gladly! Hell, on a long march with no water, haven’t you drunk horse piss before? My son’s piss has got to taste a thousand times better than horse piss!’”

”Everyone burst out laughing then, saying he really lived up to his name, Huang Dashua. A real damn fool!”

”Everyone was in high spirits that day. Xiaoshunzi was twenty-five that year, still unmarried. That night, his eyes were shining as he asked us, ’After this is over, will the reward be enough to get a wife?

I’ve never even known a woman... even Big Brother Dashua here has a son. When I get back this time, I’m going to find a pretty girl with big hips, good for bearing sons. I’ve got my eye on Xiaotao Hong from my village! She can give me a son, too...’”

”Heh heh heh...” Li Yu gave a bitter laugh. ”Just as Xiaoshunzi was saying this, we lit the beacon fire. We were still teasing him, saying by the time he got home, Xiaotao Hong would have probably already had a bunch of babies for someone else...

The beacon flared to life. We were about to charge out and meet up with the Vanguard Army when... a war drum suddenly sounded, and we all froze.”

’This shouldn’t be happening... The intel said there was only a small squad here. How did this turn into a perfectly laid ambush?’

”All around us, thousands of enemies suddenly appeared, and that was just the first wave. The hopeful smile was still on Xiaoshunzi’s face, his eyes were still shining, but an arrow had already pierced his throat...

”He died with a smile on his face! Full of hope... He was twenty-five and had never found a wife. No girl would look twice at him. He was dirt poor. We all suspected that Xiaotao Hong with the big hips was just a fantasy he’d cooked up... You young masters, you have plenty of concubines by the time you’re fourteen or fifteen, but he was still a bachelor at twenty-five!”

”And Song the Third, with the prescription for his mother’s bad legs tucked in his robes, was shot until he looked like a pincushion in the first clash... I’ll never forget the look on his face. He desperately reached into his robes, trying to pull out the prescription. He knew he was done for, but he still wanted us to help him...”