Chapter 790: Military Merit Falling from the Sky
For reasons known to all, the students of the National Teaching Academy received special protection from the imperial court and the Li Palace. The most obvious evidence was this: the National Teaching Academy had been recruiting new students for three years, with the total number of teachers and students exceeding three hundred. Yet only a handful of students were on the front lines, and they were all doing clerical work.
But no one blamed the National Teaching Academy.
Because anyone could see the malice hidden in the imperial court’s arrangement, and they could also understand why the Li Palace was so nervous.
More importantly, aside from those few students doing clerical work, there was still someone from the National Teaching Academy on the front lines.
Although that person might have even forgotten his own identity, Su Moyu, who was stationed at the National Teaching Academy in the capital, would not forget. The priests in the Li Palace responsible for related matters, especially the Cardinal Office, would not forget. He was a member of the National Teaching Academy, and a very important one at that.
Wofu Zhexiu, the strongest of the younger generation of the Wolf Clan, also held the position of Vice Superintendent of the National Teaching Academy.
After Zhou Tong’s death, Zhexiu left the capital and came to the front lines to fight the demon race, returning to the life he was once most familiar with.
No one knew whether his days at the National Teaching Academy in the capital had left any memories in his life, but it was clear that he had no awareness of being the Vice Superintendent. In the past year or more, he had never once met with the few students the academy had sent to the front lines, nor had he given them any guidance. But he also refused the military department’s appointment to become the main general of the forward camp at Yonglan Pass. He rejected the goodwill secretly conveyed by the corrupted Xue He Divine General through the Deputy Dean of the Star Picking Academy, who wanted him to go to the Black Mountain Military Prefecture to train their most elite Black Armored Light Cavalry. Instead, he returned to the old trade he had practiced most often in the army many years ago.
Scout, spy, shadow, assassin… many names actually meant the same thing.
Zhexiu still lived and fought in his own way.
His life was originally composed of countless battles.
As for his method, of course, it was fighting alone.
Just like in those past years, everyone thought his fighting style was too primitive, too savage, too bloody, and too low-class. They thought he wouldn’t last long on the snowy plains and that news of his death might come at any time. Yet he stubbornly kept living, and he kept reaping results.
In these two years, his military merit alone on the front lines equaled the total military merit of some ordinary sects, mountain gates, or academies.
The soldiers of the Black Mountain Military Prefecture and Yonglan Pass once again recalled a saying that had been circulating for many years.
Zhexiu was a man born for military merit.
And now, his military merit was the National Teaching Academy’s military merit.
Under these circumstances, who could still criticize the National Teaching Academy?
Among the more than ten military prefectures in the north, over the years, perhaps only one person could compare with Zhexiu in terms of military merit.
Interestingly, Zhexiu was a famous man, while that person was an unknown.
That person had once been a civilian staff member of the Northern Expedition Military Prefecture. Due to some incident, he was demoted to the Qilixi Military Camp and became an ordinary roaming cavalry officer. Because he was skilled in military strategy, possessed extraordinary strength, or perhaps was just incredibly lucky, during his time at Qilixi, he and a superior surnamed Chen led this group of roaming cavalry to create countless miracles, achieve countless victories, and accumulate military merit to an astonishing degree.
But perhaps because he was arrogant about his talent, bullied others with his power, or had a terrible temper, or maybe just because he came from the Tiannan region and wasn’t a Zhou native, this officer had terrible relationships in the camp. He often clashed with his superiors and violated military discipline. The military merit he painstakingly accumulated was often used to offset punishments, and it never once made it smoothly into the records. So he never gained a reputation as loud as Zhexiu’s.
Logically speaking, with this man’s ability and his speed of accumulating military merit, if he had been a little more sensible, he would definitely have become a key training target of the Northern Expedition Military Prefecture, and he might even have become the youngest divine general in the Great Zhou military in a few years. But the big shots in the military prefecture never gave him that opportunity. Later, people finally understood what this indifference really meant.
The deliberate suppression of that young officer caused a lot of dissatisfaction, or rather, resentment, in the Qilixi camp. After a major battle three months ago, this emotion finally erupted. Half a street in the busiest part of Qilixi was smashed into ruins by drunken cavalrymen.
What happened next was simple—that officer was directly expelled from the roaming cavalry by a military order from the capital’s military department, and even expelled from the Northern Expedition Military Prefecture. He was exiled to a very desolate place.
That place was called Banya, located at the southeastern foot of Cold Mountain. It wasn’t a key fortress facing the demon race’s offensive, nor was it a necessary route for weapon transport. It was just a remote horse ranch that was rarely remembered.
Apart from the frost-covered grass covering the cliffs, there was nothing produced there. It was exceptionally desolate, to the point that even migratory birds heading south or north wouldn’t stop there for a moment. The reason a horse ranch was set up there was simply because those frost-covered grasses were the favorite food of Dragon Steed horses during their mating season.
Dragon Steed horses were the most important mounts for the Great Zhou army. Setting up such a ranch specifically for their taste could be considered a privilege, but for the people exiled to the ranch, it was anything but.
That young officer was yet another disappointed man exiled to Banya over the past few hundred years.
The officers and soldiers at the Banya Horse Ranch knew his background and achievements, so they naturally felt a lot of sympathy. But no one carefully considered why such an excellent young officer would face suppression from his superiors, with the pressure even coming directly from the capital’s military department. Nor did anyone carefully consider that although this place was desolate and remote, far from the battlefield, and unable to earn any more military merit, it also meant he didn’t have to worry about being killed by the demon race’s strongmen on the front lines.
In short, behind all seemingly unreasonable events, there must be some hidden logic, but no one knew it at the time.
That officer was the person involved, so he naturally knew the reason, but he didn’t say anything. But perhaps because of this incident, in the two months since arriving at the Banya Horse Ranch, his mood might have been somewhat low. The smell of alcohol could be detected on him every day.
Drowning his sorrows in drink might not have been successful, but fortunately, he didn’t neglect his duties. The biggest impact on him was probably that he slept quite heavily, sleeping through the night until dawn every day. That was, until one night, when two very muffled thuds came from behind the camp tent…
He propped himself up, looked out the window, and shouted angrily, “Can’t a man get some sleep?”
No one answered his question, so he fell back into a deep sleep. But before long, he was woken up again.
Accompanied by his subordinates, he came to the side of the ranch near the cliff. Looking at the scene before him, he couldn’t help but suck in a breath of cold air.
The cliff slope was covered with traces of rolling stones. A faint dust was rising. A man lay on the ground, his life or death unknown. A twelve or thirteen-year-old girl sat to the side, hugging her knees. Her clothes were torn, her body covered in mud, and her expression was dazed.
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(I’ve been out for two days now, and I’ve been working hard, but I really don’t know if I’ll have time to write tomorrow. If I don’t, I’ll remember to let everyone know.)