After Xu Xiaomeng’s encounter with Liu Two, she immediately sent him out of Dongan, deploying him to a minor fortification quite close the border of the Yao Dynasty, though Xu Xiaomeng had specified that Liu Two would not see combat, thus it’s location is quite insignificant, and should be unknown to the Yao Dynasty.

Perhaps Xu Xiaomeng was annoyed by his existence, perhaps her mental state was disturbed, regardless, her intentions were quite clear, she did not want Liu Two to die, though simultaneously, she did not wish for him to be in Dongan.

The fort itself was quite small, housing only two thousand people, though as it was a narrow island on Hejiang, only a limited amount of soldiers could attack the fort at any time.

Liu Two himself did not think much of it and believed that this decision was made completely by the recently established general staff, and not personally by Xu Xiaomeng.

Regardless, as Liu Two was sleeping rather comfortably, it was naturally, not on his mind.

The place he was sleeping in was slightly cramped, though it appeared not to bother his comfortable sleep at all. After a bit of time passed, a frown appeared subconsciously on his face, likely caused by the snoring of one of his fellow soldiers, whom he was sharing the room with.

After some more time passed, a slight smile appeared on his face, somewhat spontaneously, though he is sleeping, it should be considered something that is quite natural.

Of course, in his sleep, he was blissfully unaware that currently, beneath the series of Earthen fortifications the camp was built behind, a group of five thousand soldiers of the Yao Dynasty, along with their newly acquired battle cruiser, was planning an assault on the minor fort.

The Yao Dynasty general was wearing dark blue, checking his pocket watch, he noted that the time would soon be midnight. After closing the pocket watch in a careful manner, he carefully tucked it into his coat, before holding up his hand, signally for the soldiers behind him to stop.

Unfortunately, it was quite dark, so some of them did not notice, and continued advancing, reaching the walls of the fortification, before stopping.

The general did not speak up, remaining silence, though silently lamenting their fate. Inside his coat, the time of the pocket watch reached midnight.

At the same time, the naval gun on the battlecruiser, along with a detachment of artillery and mortars, began to bombard the fortress.

The artillery was recently purchased from Teuton, and so was the naval guns. Thus the blast of the shell was one never seen before by this general. The portions earthen fortifications was destroyed, while large craters were left on the island itself.

Much of the soldiers that had advanced too far, was blown along with the fortifications, though the night caused the scene to obscured from the soldiers, it was still a rather terrible concept that was looming on the minds of the soldiers, causing their morale to drop, though none had yet fled.

Liu Two, after sensing the trembling of the room, was quick to wake up and after a brief period of confusion, quickly gather himself and roused the other soldier inside the room.

As the fort was truly not prepared for battle, the rifles were neither loaded nor could they access it easily, furthermore, much of the weapons were outdated, with the majority of the arsenal being musket rifles instead of the new Type 1 Rifle.

Fortunately, however, Liu Two was quite favoured and had received a pistol from his older brother, thus, he soon left the room while the others collected their weapons.

Near the end of the corridor was a large drum, which soon roared as Liu Two beat it with all his might.

After five minutes, he stopped, though it was out of exhaustion, and not of a lack of need, soon, after resting briefly, the drums once more began to sound.

Liu Two continued to beat the drum, lasting for nearly half an hour, before he placed down the sticks, his hands shivering badly.

He attempted to pick up the pistol, though his hands did not follow his instructions.

The soldiers within the fort meanwhile, had by now acquired their weapons and began to prepare for a possible attack. The situation was quite tense as the soldiers within the fort were unaware when they would be assaulted, coupled with their sudden wake from sleep, they were in terrible form.

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Eventually, Liu Two recovered, and joined in preparing for the defence of the fortification.

The artillery bombardment continued, lasting until the beginning of dawn, where the morning river fog blocked the sight of the soldier.

The revolutionaries have waited for six hours by now, yet no attacks had been launched, instead, the naval guns and artillery continued to bombard the fortress, causing the majority of its walls to fall. Specifically, the Eastern walls were completely destroyed, thus, with what little man they had, around half were sent there, while a small group was sent to the hills of the island, with the remainder garrisoned around the other walls.

All things considered, Liu Two, with the status as a private, should have been sent to the Eastern walls or hills. However, this was not the case, as he was not sent to the Eastern side instead he had remained within the centre of the fortification, along with the Colonel of the fort.

“The sound of rifles could be heard, Liu Two, you remain here, I shall go rally the soldiers,” the colonel said, his face was quite young, though his expression was very mature.

Liu Two nodded his head and sat down on a guest seat while placing his pistol onto the table.

The battle raged onwards, and though Liu Two was not at the scene, his heart was still beating rather rapidly, and his lips becoming quite dry.

Soon, the sound of retreat could be heard, causing Liu Two’s face to become even paler, as it signalled the loss of the hill. The colonel said he was going to rally the soldiers, he should be at the East wall then, Liu Two thought to himself, though it did not calm him down in the slightest.

This agitation became an itch, and soon got even worse when he heard the sound of weapons being fired at the Eastern wall.

He remained sitting in his chair, his expression by now was truly ghastly, while his hands were shaking once more, though it was not in the same manner as it had been when he had beat the drums, yet one could not see it, as it had hidden within his sleeves.

The sound of gunfire continued in the Eastern walls, causing Liu Two to become even more agitated.

This agitation was not one of a hot-blooded youth, instead, it was more similar to what one could experience if they encounter a cockroach.

It was one of fear and disgust.

Thus, Liu Two remained on the guest seat, his pistol still on the table, and his hands still within his sleeves.

After a very long time passed, the fog had eventually faded, but the battle still continued.

Ultimately, Liu Two shook his head violently, before picking up the pistol, leaving the room and heading toward the East.

Naturally, he was going to join the frontline, though his face was still quite pale, and his arm was still shaking badly.

When he had arrived at the Eastern walls, one could see the revolutionary soldiers hiding from bullets and mortars behind the remains of the former wall. There did not appear to be too many bodies, around two thousand at most, naturally, the majority were soldiers of the Yao Dynasty.

It was truly a pitiful sight, though Liu Two did not spare it any glance, and soon hid behind a portion of the destroyed wall.

Liu Two did not shoot at anyone, as his hands were still shaking, so there would be no point. In truth, his involvement was somewhat unnecessary, though he did help carry the wounded away from the wall, and further into the fortress to be treated.

After his sixth transport, he noticed that a portion of them had been exposed, and the person originally hiding behind the wall had died from mortar shells.

By now, his hands were much steadier, though his face was still quite pale.

This was truly an unwanted situation as if this portion was exposed, the Yao soldiers could easily flank the revolutionaries.

Liu Two did hesitate for a long time, before finally positioning himself behind the wall.

At first, he used his pistol and shot at the incoming soldiers. As the bullets sank into their bodies, much of them collapsed silently, though as the wave of Yao soldier continued, Liu Two’s hand gradually became shaky once more, while his pistol had run out of bullets.

Thus, he picked up the rifle from one of the soldier’s body, before continuing to shoot at the incoming soldiers.

The Yao soldiers came in waves, causing Liu Two a great deal of trouble in regard to reloading, eventually, they advanced close enough for combat.

Liu Two responded by stabbing the incoming soldier with the bayonet attached to the rifle, though soon, he himself was impaled.

Removing the bayonet from the corpse, Liu Two proceeded to stab a second soldier.

By now, his hands were truly shaky, along with the blood covering it, it constantly spattered, covering much of his reddish-brown uniform.

Again, he stabbed toward a soldier, and once more he too was stabbed.

His actions slowly became calm and methodical, though the whole time his hands did not remain still, and his face, perhaps devoid of blood, never seemed healthy.

By the tenth person he had bayoneted, and the eighth wound he had received, a group of revolutionary soldiers finally arrived at the section of the wall he was at.

Noticing his, he placed down the rifle he was holding, not wishing to continue to bloodshed.

Unfortunately, he was stabbed many more times and soon collapsed onto a Yao soldier.

His hands finally stopped shaking, though it would never move anymore.

“General Liu, after a series of assaults by the Yao Dynasty army, Lady Xu wished for me to personally come as a sign of her condolences,” Xiao Xi said.

Liu One gave a voice of affirmation, though his eyes remained on a pistol, along with a very bloody jacket.

The pistol was given to by Li Ming when they had taken over Dongan, though as time passed, it became outdated. Thus Liu One had passed it onto his younger brother, mainly as a simple accessory.

Xiao Xi saw that Liu One was distracted, and left in a silent manner.

Soon afterwards, Liu One reached within the jacket, ignoring the sogginess of blood. Before long, he managed to retrieve a piece of white cloth, which was issued to treat wounds, along with a painting.

As they were not in the Far East, cameras had yet to become a thing, this painting was the only method to capture a person’s appearance.

Much of the painting was soaked with blood, though the outline of the person could be seen.

The person within the painting had a benevolent smile, while the hair, which was now red, could naturally be assumed had originally been silver. The strokes of the painting itself were very amateur, as Li Ming nor Xu Xiaomeng had committed any painting, the painting naturally was painted personally by Liu Two.

In the end, Liu One gave a long sigh, before folding up the painting, and placing it into his jacket. Fortunately, the blood had tried by then, or Liu One’s jacket would be quite messy.