MHNEB 28 (1/2)

Book 2: Generals die after a hundred battles; heroes return after ten years’ time.

Chapter 28: The First Companion <3> [Part 1 of 2]

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The first year of Shenjia is not peaceful. The Rourans knew that the Great Wei is currently sending troops to battle with the Xia Kingdom. Knowing this, they began to harass the borders of Great Wei more. 

The HeiShan camp is located in the ancient city of HeiShan at the south foot of YinShan Mountain. The camp is the closest camp to the Rouran camp. The HeiShan camp is also the largest camp in the north. But for a long time, the Rourans did not engage in a war directly with Great Wei. On one hand, they allied with the Liang kingdom, Xia kingdom, Liu Song kingdom of the southern dynasty and other allies in the north to fight against Great Wei, and on the other hand, they continued to plunder the northern territory of Great Wei.

The Rouran troops have more calvaries than Great Wei. The Rourans has a vast territory in the north. It has a staggering number of horses, but in addition to horses and livestock, there are too many things that the Rourans want in the south.

The power of Great Wei had blocked the Rouran’s southward advance, and the Wei state located in the North has helped to block the Rouran’s rise in the central plains. 

This situation lasted for eighty years.

Great Wei's army has been honed more and more in the ceaseless battle with the Rourans, and the Rouran's hatred with Great Wei has grown deeper and deeper as each day passed. 

Hua Mulan wants to be stronger, but that doesn't mean that Hua Mulan is willing to live such a life of engaging in a small battle every three days and engaging in a bigger battle in every five days. 

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"Have the Rurus taken the wrong medicine recently?" Hu LiHun growled as he put on his leather armour while he shouted, "Can’t they even allow us to sleep?!”

"Obviously, they wouldn’t want us to sleep.” A-Dan ZhiQi accepted his fate and carried his long halberd. "I heard from the White Barracks that to Your Majesty, the battle in the summer is of most importance. Therefore, they harass the side where we are located in daily, and they acted as if they are leading their army down to the south to contain us.” 

"Let's have a fucking battle uprightly! Every time thousands of calvaries are sent out to shoot a few arrows, and these people didn’t have the balls, so they ran!" Kun Da was obviously disturbed by the daily harassment of the Rourans until he felt that his life is a living hell. 

They are the luckiest team in the "Black-4" camp. Over the past few months, not only did they not die, but they were also given better tents to change into, and they had meals with meat every four days instead of the having meals with meat every five days.

When the food that began to be better, they are also being called to a battlefield more. 

"If you have the time, it’d be better to use your time to wash your face than complain." Recently, the bigger battles suddenly spiked. Hua Mulan gradually began to sleep. Hua Mulan started to not take off her armour to sleep gradually, most of the time, she would simply take her helmet and clothes to sleep. 

At the moment, her long sword is hanging on her waist. She lifted her quiver to carry it on her back and used her feet to hook her longbow that was on the floor. 

Hua Mulan's spear that she brought from home has been broken. Now, she’s carrying a long sword that she scavenged from the Rourans. From the time that the edict for enlistment was broadcasted, all military families’ enlistees have to prepare everything that they need in the army, from needles, threads and socks to weapons and horses. If one is from a declining military family, it is afraid that they wouldn’t even have a set of armour. 

Therefore, it's their customary to pick up spoils on the battlefield.

Hua Mulan never snatches the leather armour or the armour of the dead. Sometimes, when she gets the right weapon, she will replace her current weapon. Fortunately, her leather armour is the treasure of Hua Father, and it has been well maintained for many years. The leather is also beautifully tanned, and the armour is strong while does not hinder the movement of Hua Mulan.

Hua Mulan does not know when she became the existence of akin to a sea anchor in the team.

As long as she is present, everyone can quickly charge forward in the face of a battle. 

Just as what A-Dan ZhiQi said, once you go to the battlefield, if you don't want to die, you must kill. Her actions would be in vain once she reaps a lot of lives.  

The others do not know of this, but her comrade-in-arms knew. 

They knew that Hua Mulan's arrows are faster than the others, and Hua Mulan's swords and spears strikes are more powerful than the strikes of others. As long as they follow Hua Mulan, they can always turn the tide.

It may be a little sordid, but people always like to follow the strong. And that is based on the fact that they all knew Hua Mulan's abilities, but no one has ever exposed her. 

Once they expose her, she may be leaving Black-4. No army will give up on such a strong subordinate who can shoot far when the enemy is far and attack with such strength when the enemy is near.

At that time, where are they going to find such a reliable companion?

"Ha Da and I use short weapons. We will charge ahead. Hu LiHun and Kun Da use long spears and halberds. Both of you will be in the back-up array. A-Nu and Ho Huai’er can flank the left-wing, and Ah Chai and Wu Di flank the right-wing. Sha Gui, you pay attention to the back. Hua Mulan…... " The one who is commanding the battle formation is the team captain, A-Dan ZhiQi.

"You will be in the middle to support and coordinate the actions of us.” 

“Yes.” 

Hua Mulan nodded.

To so-called support and coordinate their actions is to rescue her teammates when they are in danger. 

All her companions have entrusted her with their backs.

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A night passed.

The team was active in their pursuit of their enemies. However, the harassment in the middle of the night was not targeted at HeiShan City, but the right side of HeiShan that was marked out to be a residential area.

The Rourans had once again insidiously attacked many villages in the north in the late-night during winter. Hua Mulan and the others galloped hundreds of miles with the right army. However, they only caught up to dozens of Rourans. 

The Rourans will not allow anyone to live when they plunder the border. That is because bringing these people would slow them down. They selectively robbed the things that are easy to rob. They didn't care to rob the cows, sheep, pigs and dogs at all.

In order to prevent the Rourans from tricking them, the right army did not continue to pursue them, but killed the dozens of Rourans and went to sound the gong to call for the retreat of the army. 

Their situation is akin to every time you are ready to hit with all your might, but you hit something soft every time. Soon, an anxious and unwilling mood had spread over the whole HeiShan camp.

As a result, Hua Mulan's behaviour of practising archery or martial arts in the evening decreased in frequency, because she often met her teammates who cannot fall asleep at night to vent their negativity by practising at the shooting range. 

The Han army officials in HeiShan speculated that the enemy could not be harassing them all the time. A big battle was going to begin. So, the military began to tabulate the achievements of the recruits. The recruits must join in fighting in the battlefield quickly and become the new force of each army.

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In the Recruit’s drill ground. 

"Black-4, team 16." The Deputy General of the right army looked through the military merit records of the "Black-4" and looked at it with some uncertainty. "Seven battles, 76 heads?"

He rubbed his eyes and thought he saw the information wrongly.

Even veterans that had been in the war more than ten times would have a team enemy head tabulated of less than 76. This means that everyone in the team 16 has conducted more than 10 feats of killing an enemy.

It doesn't sound like it's hard to get ten kills in each of the seven battles. But the Rourans troops are a cavalry troop. Their strategy is to run when they cannot defeat the enemy. There are few desperate men in their army. It’s a scary achievement if they can kill 10 people each in their team, as they were in an ordinary recruit camp.

"Where is Hua Mulan?" The deputy general raised his head and loudly questioned the Black-4 officer that is standing below the platform.

Hua Mulan, who’s standing in the crowd, pursed her lips and stood out in the curious eyes of the people around her.

"Hua Mulan is here!"

"Hua Mulan, according to the military merit records, you've fought seven times, and you've got 17 heads, haven't you?"

The deputy general looked up and down at this young and handsome Xianbei boy, but he could not see the ferocity that he had imagined. 

Hua Mulan hesitated for a moment and looked towards A-Dan ZhiQi.

She doesn't know how many people she killed. Every time the team cleaned the battlefield, it was her companions who chopped the heads of the enemies. 

Kun Da and Mo Huai'er averted their guilty eyes. 

In fact, there are many more enemies killed by Hua Mulan.

Half of the 76 heads in the tabulated military merits were shot or killed by Hua Mulan. When they went to stab the enemies to ensure their deaths or finally cleaned the battlefield, in order not to make their achievements too ugly, they would secretly "pick" the heads of several people that Hua Mulan killed to serve as their military merits. 

Of the ten teammates, only A-Dan ZhiQi didn't do it, but he didn't stop them from doing it.

Over time, the teammates are used to this behaviour of profiting at Hua Mulan’s “expense”. 

Hua Mulan's hesitation and her teammate’s guilt are all witnessed in the eyes of the deputy general, but obviously, the deputy general had thought too much. What he had thought is largely different from the truth.

Therefore, his mood sank, and he snorted.

"Why, you don't know your own tabulated military merits? Are these seventeen heads the ones you picked up from the battlefield? "

Because Xianbei-ren are used to calculating the heads of the enemies as military merits, and some military personnel had slaughtered civilians to add up to their military merits in the past. When cleaning the battlefield, several people from different teams fought for the ownership of a corpse and killed people. Therefore, the Northern Wei Dynasty punished people severely for falsely reporting and robbing others' military achievements. If they were caught, they could not be forgiven. If there were many false reports, the whole family would suffer.

With the words from the Deputy General, Hua Mulan and the rest had all changed their expressions.

"This subject’s military merits are all…..."

"Reporting to the deputy general, Hua Mulan's military merits are all recorded by us!" A-Dan ZhiQi stepped a few steps ahead, knelt down on one knee and said: "Hua Mulan is good at archery. But, because she doesn't like to clean the battlefield after every battle ends, and our team is responsible for the tabulation. Hua Mulan's military merit is accurate! "

"Who are you?" The deputy general glanced at A-Dan ZhiQi.

This young man is strong and muscular, and this is the type of lad that he had imagined who could obtain 17 heads. 

"This subject is Black-4 team 16’s captain. I hail from Wu Chuan. I am A-Dan WangLi’s descendent, A-Dan ZhiQi.” 

"From Wu Chuan?" Wu Chuan Town, like HuaiShuo Town, is an important town for the Ping City in the north to help resist the Rourans. The deputy general flipped through the military records and found that Hua Mulan was also from HuaiShuo, one of the six towns in the north. Seeing this, he had some confidence in what they had said. 

If it's to record military merits for their teammates, they would definitely not record a higher number. The heads would be counterchecked before recording. He thought about it and thought that the teammates might also hide some information in the recording, 

They wouldn’t allow the whole team’s merit to belong to a single person.

Since the team captain and his companions admitted that they had recorded the military merits, Hua Mulan’s military merits would only be lesser, not more. 

"In that case, you can return to your team…..."

“Halt!”

Another Deputy General of the right army stepped out and pointed to Hua Mulan.

"Your captain said that you are good at archery. To what extent is that?”

"My archery skills are just average. However, because there are no teammates in my team who use a longbow, perhaps that is why they think my archery is good." Hua Mulan calmly lied brazenly, "The 17 heads that were under my merit were all thanks to my companions’ protection. This subject does not dare to claim credit for myself."

The faces of Sha Gui and Wu Gui turned red involuntarily.

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Fleur's Corner: 

Next update on Friday, 

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