Taking a sniff from his snuff bottle, Liu Three gave off a sigh of content.

“Third brother, I thought Lady Li had forbidden the use of tobacco on duty,” Liu Two informed while sitting on a bed.

“She won’t know as long as no one tells her,” Liu Three replied as he waved his free hand.

“Third brother, our commander instructed us to remain alert at all times,” Liu Two reminded.

Giving off a loud chuckle, Liu Three said,” It has been nearly four months, and the troops sent by the imperial court has still not gathered, while we’ve been rotting away at this village until Summer, it appears that the Imperial Army is too large to manage.”

Liu Two did not continue the conversation. Moving toward a rather crudely made closet, he took out two muskets and began oiling the parts.

Liu Three, seeing his older brother ignoring him, gave off a snort, leaving the house before climbing up to the roof.

Crossing his legs, he looked toward the entrance of the village, before removing one of the roof plates revealing his hidden storage of alcohol.

It had been given to him by one of his fellow soldiers when they had parted ways to go to their assigned village, at that time, Liu Three had not taken any slips, but did not reject it either.

Grabbing the bottle, he opened the cap, preparing to take a sip, letting the strong smell of alcohol enter his nostrils, before ultimately shaking his head, and dumping its contents into the streets below.

As alcohol flow down the rooftop, off in the distance, a trail of dust could be seen.

Surprised, Liu Three hastily placed the roof plate back along with the bottle. Jumping off, he once again went into the house.

“Second brother, the enemy is coming,” Liu Three said.

Upon receiving the information, Liu Two quickly resembled the muskets, before putting them into the closet.

Before long, a detachment of five thousand men had arrived at the village, appeared rather tired contrasted with their general, who strode valiantly riding on a horse, compared to the majority of the soldiers who were on foot.

Before long, an official responsible for the village greeted them.

“Have sir gathered the supplies requested?’ the general asked.

The official confirmed, before leading the general toward the grain storage.

“Liu Two, do you see those men?” Liu Three asked, holding the rifle that had been recently oiled.

“Of course,” Liu Two replied, within his hands, he was holding a horn, before long, a sound could be heard throughout the village.

From the houses, soldiers dressed in civilian outfits rose from the windows, holding their muskets, the sound of gunpowder exploding could be heard.

Shocked by the ambush, the imperial soldiers quickly picked up their muskets from the supply wagon, before forming formations.

Holding their own muskets, they returned fire into the windows, yet none had hit, as the revolutionary soldiers took cover under the windows.

Liu Three had not yet been fired, instead of holding a grenade, lighting the fuse, he hastily threw the explosive onto the streets.

The soldier which the grenade had arrived next to anxiously picked it up and attempted to throw it into the house which Liu Three was currently hiding in, yet it exploded in his hand, turning the limb away from the rest of his body, leaving a rather gruesome scene of mangled corpses laying in the caved-in pavement.

The alcohol that Liu Three had dumped into the street was ignited, causing the surviving soldiers surrounding it to flee.

“Third brother,” Liu Two began.

“It was completely intentional,” Liu Three blocked his older brother’s sentence midway.

“No, I mean the use of flames was clearly forbidden by Lady Li,” Liu Two said, waiting by the door with his musket.

Clicking his tongue, Liu Three did not continue the conversation and fired a bullet into the formation of soldiers, yet it had missed the soldiers, causing Liu Three to click his tongue once more.

“Third brother, the enemy seems to be charging toward the buildings, is the door locked?” Liu Two asked, attaching his bayonet into the musket.

Liu Three made no sound of affirmation as he reloaded his musket.

As Liu Two had finished attaching his bayonet, the sound of a hard object hitting the door could be heard, before long, the door was swung open.

Liu Three did not stare at them, firing his bullet into the crowd of soldiers approaching the other houses while Liu Two stabbed at the men that had entered the room, piercing his throat.

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Collapsing, the man revealed another behind him, holding a spear, he prepared to impale Liu Two, whose blade was still stuck in the other man's body.

At this point, Liu Three finally turned around, charging towards the man at the door, preparing to pierce the man’s torso.

Noticing Liu Three, the man soon turned around and attempted to stop Liu Three with his spear, impaling Liu Three in the shoulder.

Yet Liu Three appeared not to notice, continuing his thrusting motion toward the man, leaving the spear holding man impaled and struggling.

After removing his bayonet from the man's body, Liu Three had finally felt the delayed pain.

Staring toward his younger brother, Liu Two closed the door, making sure to block it with a piece of furniture.

“These buildings were modified on orders of Lady Li to ensure the only possible entrance is the door,” Liu Two remarked.

“I forgot to close the door, however, not harm did come to anyone,” Liu Three replied, throwing his musket toward Liu Two, and picking up a piece of cloth to bandage himself.

Staring intensely at his younger brother, Liu Two ultimately resigned, before taking aim with the musket given to him.

“Brother, I believe you did that on purpose,” Liu Two said as he fired a round into a soldier approaching their building.

Liu Three showed a confused expression, before returning to bandaging his arm once more.

“Later on, the wound needs to be checked by the medic for,” Liu Two showed a confused face, before continuing,” inflection treatment, I think.”

“During that time, you will be seeing Medic Wei, considering how often you get yourself injured, it would not be shocking if you developed some feelings for lady Wei,” Liu Two took a grenade from his side, before deciding to place it back into the stockpile.

“The third brother, when you have your wedding with lady Wei, do not forget to invite Liu Five’s wife, from the letters I had been receiving, he had gotten married after a large quantity of grain was given to him as compensation for Liu Four,” Liu Tw

“Second brother, this petty talk is just you distracting yourself from the battle,” Liu Three said, finally finishing his bandage, he took another rifle to aim at the window alongside Liu Two, considering their size as full-grown men, they appeared rather out of space next to the window.

“What do you mean,” Liu Two said as he removed himself from the window and back into the door.

“You are undoubtedly trying to distract yourself from taking the life of another,” Liu Three said.

Liu Two did not respond, only moving the corpses of the two soldiers that had entered the house away from their vicinity.

Grunting, Liu Three responded by firing another bullet toward the imperial soldiers, yet it once again missed.

Liu Three, now irritated by missing twice in a row, threw aside his musket, and took three grenades, simultaneously lighting their fuse, he threw them on mass onto the street.

“Those were our last grenade,” Liu Two said, his face appearing rather pale.

“We still have bullets, and this time, it will hit,” Liu Three replied, once again loading his musket.

Noticing the paper bag which the gunpowder was stored in did not rip open, he appeared even more agitated then from missing the shot.

“Third brother, I will be changing my clothes,” Liu Two suddenly said.

“What’s the point of being clean in the middle of a battle,” Liu Three did not look toward his older brother, continuing to struggle with the bag, until it was finally opened.

Liu Two ignored Liu Three and began to change his clothes.

When Liu Three had finally reloaded his musket, he took aim, and once again shot into the soldiers, this time, it had finally made an impact, furthermore, it was with the commander, covered in the blood of the office that had led him to the grain storage.

Yet before Liu Three could celebrate, the enemy soldier returned fire in small volleys toward his building, grazing him by his ears. Flinching in pain, Liu Three ducked under the window, using his hands to cover his wound, blood could be seen.

Liu Two, halfway into changing into his red-brown military clothes, rushed toward his younger brother with another bundle of cloth.

Swiftly bandaging up the wound, Liu Two thought to himself that Liu Three did indeed want to see Lady Wei.

Cussing out in pain, Liu Three attempted to reach toward the stockpile of grenades, forgetting that it had been exhausted.

“Third brother, stay away from the window, the battle is nearly over either way,” Liu Two said as he stopped his younger brother.

Liu Three acted surprisingly obedient, and rested next to the door, one hand covering his arm, and the other his eye.

Liu Two gave off a frown, before looking toward his brother, afterwards, he positioned his musket on the window, yet did not fire a single shot.

Before long, the battle was over, the main street which the imperial army had been standing upon was destroyed by the grenades, the streets littered with corpses, some mangled by the explosives, appearing rather horrific, yet Liu Three appeared not affected.

Slightly smiling, Liu Three appeared rather ugly, pushing away the furniture blocking the door, Liu Three quickly left toward the direction of their supply wagon while Liu Two began to finish changing. before bringing the bodies left the house into a patch of grass to be buried.

At the supply wagon, Liu Three began to help the other soldiers unload the enemy grain.

“What is this,” one of the soldiers asked, knocking his hand at a rather peculiar object.

“It appeared to be a canon, but the design differs greatly,” Liu Three commented, stepping closer toward the weapon.

The soldiers noticed the amount of blood leaking through the bandage, and quickly diverted their attention away from the peculiar weapon, and called for a medic.

Soon enough, Liu Three was brought away into a rather remote house, which had not been affected by the recent fighting, inside, a woman with her hair tied in a pigtail quickly rushed to attend to him upon notice.

"You smoked again," Lady Wei scold with a light smile.

Liu Three only returned a similar light smile, next to Lady Wei, he appeared incredibly ugly.

“Hello again,” Liu Three said as he waved his injured hand toward Lady Wei, but flincted due to the pain.

Li Ming had remained in Dongan, sitting in the office, a stack of workload could be seen, yet she maintained her smile.

After some time, a maid arrived.

“Xiao Xi,” Li Ming said without lifting her head from the paperwork.

“To report to Lady Li, the ambush was successful, the battles at Guying, Muyang, Lizhou and thirty other villages had all resulted in victory, except for two,” Xiao Xi said.

“And what of the casualties,” Li Ming asked, this time placing down her pen.

“On the Imperial Army, there was one hundred and twenty thousand captured, twenty thousand dead, and an unknown amount that had escaped to join up with the other detachment, stationed around one hundred and thirty friendly villages,” Xiao Xi said off heart, showing no sign of struggle to remember these numbers.

“And what of the casualties of our side?” Li Ming asked.

“None captured, ten thousand wounded beyond treatment and five thousand dead, overall, Guying was most successful in terms of casualty, with only fifteen wounded and none dead,” Xiao Xi replied.

“Guying is the farthest of the villages, naturally the imperial soldiers are tired, that is not surprising,” Li Ming said.

Xiao Xi appeared to struggle to say something, but ultimately resigned, giving a bow, she left the study.

Finishing the current article she was on, Li Ming paused for a moment, before taking another piece of paper from the pile.