Hearing the officer’s furious roar, the surrounding crowd backed away even further.
“I wouldn’t dare, sir – I wouldn’t dare claim any credit,” Xu Sigen hurriedly replied, looking up.
The officer spat right in his face.
“Let me tell you – people will always be more important than beasts or objects!” he shouted, his thick eyebrows raised high. He slapped his own chest and pointed at the soldiers behind him. “It was us who drove back the Western rebels! It was us who earned this military merit with our lives! We could fight the Western rebels without your damn horse iron, and we could fight them with it. With or without this thing, it’s us – who can defeat the Western rebels!”
Xu Sigen bowed his head and murmured his assent.
The officer spat again angrily before finally turning and leading his men away.
Xu Bangchui was almost mad with rage. Shaking off Xu Sigen, he made a move to charge forward, but a pained cry from Xu Sigen, who had fallen to the ground, forced him to stop and rush back.
“Are you all right?” he asked, helping him up.
“It’s nothing,” Xu Sigen said, holding his arm.
Ignoring him, Xu Bangchui forcefully pulled his hand away and pushed up his sleeve. When he saw the dark bruise on Xu Sigen’s arm, nearly torn open into a bloody gash, he flew into a rage all over again and jumped up, only to be sharply stopped by Xu Sigen.
“Brother, what’s the point of all this!” Xu Bangchui yelled angrily. “We’re mocked as cowards hiding safely in the rear. You came up with this horse iron, but no one appreciates it – instead, they despise us for it. You’re still just a regular soldier, while I’ve even been made a brave! What are we still doing here?”
The veterinarian and others who had been hiding nearby came over.
“Young Xu has been wronged, it seems,” one of them whispered. “Some officer wrote about the horse iron in a memorial and exaggerated its significance. That ended up angering the higher-ups, which stirred these cavalry officers to come and make trouble.”
“So isn’t this my brother’s achievement?” Xu Bangchui shouted. “Horse losses have been reduced – did these bastards ever deserve two horses each before? Isn’t it all because of the horse iron? Is killing enemies and shedding blood the only thing that counts as merit? Does what my brother did mean nothing?”
No one answered him. They mumbled vaguely, made awkward excuses, and drifted away.
Xu Bangchui was so angry he felt like vomiting blood.
“And I thought you were doing so well here! What was it all for?” he yelled.
“I do it for the work itself,” Xu Sigen said calmly, a faint smile on his face. “I don’t need anyone to validate whether it’s a contribution or not.”
As he spoke, he glanced toward the horse pen in front of him with a look of quiet satisfaction, while pressing a hand gently against his injured arm.
“It works. It’s made a difference. That’s enough – it wasn’t all for nothing.”
…
Xu Bangchui rode into the camp on his horse. Fan Jianglin and Xu Maoxiu, who had been talking in the courtyard, turned to look, somewhat surprised.
When he had left, he was swaggering and full of himself – how could he come back so dejected? Who in this fort could have possibly upset him?
He fought fiercely in battle, so the officers liked him. He pursued glory but never fought over rewards, so his comrades liked him. He was generous and free with his money, so the laborers and conscripts liked him. These days, the matchmakers lining up to propose marriages for him were practically crowding each other out.
“You’ve had plenty of matchmakers coming your way too,” Fan Jianglin said with a laugh, glancing at Xu Maoxiu. “And here you are making fun of him.”
Xu Maoxiu chuckled and called out, “Bangchui!”
Xu Bangchui responded listlessly, his head still hanging low.
“Where did you go?” Fan Jianglin asked.
“I went to the fort to see Fourth Brother,” Xu Bangchui replied, his head still lowered.
All the brothers had gotten their wish – assigned to forts as brave soldiers. Only Xu Sigen, because of the horse iron, had been recommended by Zhu Si and permitted by Inspector Guo to take charge of forging horseshoes.
Over the past six months or more, they had progressed from initially nailing on the horse irons to branding them, from early issues of discomfort and injury to the horses to the point where now nearly all cavalry mounts in Longgu City had grown accustomed to horseshoes. It had taken tremendous effort.
But that kind of effort wasn’t as visible as killing enemies and earning merits in battle. So even now, he remained an ordinary soldier – without a single achievement reward to his name.
Fan Jianglin was about to say something, but Xu Maoxiu spoke first.
“What happened?” he asked directly.
Xu Bangchui puffed out his cheeks.
“Nothing,” he said.
Fan Jianglin raised his hand and smacked him on the head.
“Who do you think you are, trying to lie to us?” he scolded.
Xu Bangchui rubbed his head.
“Fourth Brother was bullied,” he burst out, his eyes reddening. “He was even hurt!”
At these words, the expressions on Fan Jianglin and Xu Maoxiu’s faces changed instantly.
“Do those bastards have a death wish?” Fan Jianglin shouted, already turning to leave.
Xu Maoxiu reached out and grabbed him.
“Let’s get the full story first,” he said, then turned back to Xu Bangchui. “What exactly happened?”
“Those officers refused to acknowledge Fourth Brother’s contribution – they even resent him for ‘stealing their credit.’ They stirred up a group to attack him. His arm was injured by a horse iron!” Xu Bangchui shouted.
Officers… stirred up…
Fan Jianglin looked at Xu Maoxiu.
“We’ve got the story,” he said. “What do you plan to do?”
Xu Maoxiu smiled at him.
“We do what has to be done!” he said, releasing Fan Jianglin and striding forward first. “Grab your gear!”
Fan Jianglin laughed heartily.
Exactly. Who cared whether they were officers or soldiers? When your own brother is wronged, you stand up for him first. Overthinking and weighing pros and cons were never what brothers did!
“Grab your gear and rally the others,” he yelled.
Watching the six men charge out on horseback with fierce determination, Liu Kui, who had been chewing on a flatbread nearby, widened his eyes.
“Hey! Hey! Where do you think you’re going?” he shouted, spitting out the bread.
No one paid him any attention. Xu Maoxiu and the others urged their horses into a gallop and raced away.
“Trying to run off? I’ve got my eyes on you!” Liu Kui yelled. He hurried over, grabbed a horse, and chased after them.
Inside a barracks in Longgu City, an uproar was rising.
“What’s going on? What’s happening?” curious onlookers outside asked.
“A fight! There’s a fight!”
The moment they heard about a fight, crowds of people surged inside. The New Year festivities were over, and with little to do in the city, no one wanted to miss this kind of excitement.
With a sharp thud, a burly man was thrown to the ground. Before he could get up, Fan Jianglin pounced on him, pinning him down with a knee and landing punch after hard punch.
Such ferocity drew cheers from the onlooking crowd.
Several people rushed over and finally managed to pull the two apart. The burly man’s face was covered in blood.
“What do you think you’re doing? Are you trying to rebel?”
“Fan Jianglin, it’s you again! Was killing a superior officer last time not enough? Now you want to kill your own comrades?” someone on the other side roared.
“Last time, we stood up for our brother who was bullied – and this time is no different!” Fan Jianglin and the others shot back.
In an instant, the brawl erupted again.
Liu Kui stared in stunned disbelief.
“I knew it – you’re nothing but trouble!” he yelled. “Instead of fighting the Western rebels, you’re picking fights with your own comrades!”
Before his words had even faded, an elbow jabbed into him from the surging, chaotic crowd. Liu Kui immediately sprang up.
“…Son of a bitch! Why the hell are you hitting me? Think I’m an easy target?!”
Shouting, he threw a punch without hesitation.
When Zhou Liu-lang received the news and arrived at the official hall, all those involved in the fight had already been brought inside. The commander of the capital garrison had been alerted and was in the hall, furious and stamping with rage, shouting for Xu Maoxiu and the others to be dragged out and flogged.
“…Sir, we admit our guilt and accept punishment, but their crimes cannot be ignored either!” Xu Maoxiu said.
The commander sneered, ignoring him. They were just lowly soldiers – responding would only demean his own status.
“So you’re saying it’s someone else’s fault you beat people up?” a clerk on the side barked.
“Sir, why not ask us why we fought?” Xu Maoxiu pressed.
The clerk snorted dismissively.
“Who do you think you are, to demand that the sir question you?” he shouted.
“I may not be worthy of questioning, but these men attacked Xu Sigen of the Group Pasturage Office, using their dissatisfaction with the Inspector’s rewards and merits as an excuse. Shouldn’t the sir look into that?” Xu Maoxiu shot back.
Invoking the Inspector to pressure him – the garrison commander’s face darkened.
“Xu Maoxiu, are you here to disrupt my court?” he growled.
A mere “brave” daring to challenge the garrison commander of Longgu City, Wei-zhou Road – the onlookers outside fell into a hushed silence.
Just like that girl taught him – there’s nothing he wouldn’t dare do, Zhou Liu-lang thought with an inward scoff.
“Sir, we wouldn’t dare,” Xu Maoxiu said, his spine straight. “We only seek to clear our name. Our brother was beaten by these men, accused of exaggerating his merits. We refuse to accept this. How can something recognized by the Inspector be called exaggeration? If so, wouldn’t our brother be beaten every day? We deserve punishment for our offense, but shouldn’t the commander also investigate their crime? Otherwise, it would mean they were right to beat him – that our brother did boast, and the Inspector’s recommendation for merit was wrong…”
The commander’s face remained stony, but inwardly he was even more furious than before.
Damn these runaway brats!
