"Who said the demon army was so strong?" Deputy Captain Roger looked smugly at the elite demon troops retreating like a tide at the foot of the mountain. "It seems I'm even stronger."
Deputy Captain Shirakawa rolled his eyes at him and ignored him.
Deputy Nagakawa said leisurely, "Didn't someone just say the other day that we were doomed this time? Let's all run!"
"I hate people who shake the morale of the army on the battlefield!" Roger raged, as if the incident had nothing to do with him: "If I catch him, I'll execute him!"
"You've got amnesia! Talking about you, someone!"
"Oh, how could I say anything like that?" He turned to Shirakawa. "Is someone talking about you?"
Shirakawa watched the two rivals attack each other coldly, then turned his horse: "I'll go see if the master has any instructions."
Twenty thousand black-clad cavalrymen lined up silently on the hilltop, but not a single commotion could be heard. From afar came the faint clamor of the defeated demon army retreating, and the low, whirring sound of the wind sweeping across the Hengchuan Plain, as if the souls of the fallen were reluctant to leave their last sanctuary.
A general in full silver armor stood tall at the hilltop's summit. He stood tall and imposing, his upright figure exuding the unique majesty of a military commander. The setting sun cast a brilliant glow on his silver armor, making him stand out like a god amid the dense mass of cavalry. His trademark silver armor made it clear he was Zichuan Hidehatamoto, the youngest and most legendary of the so-called "Three Young Generals of the Zichuan Family."
Shōchū sighed silently as he gazed from afar at this figure, admired by the entire Far Eastern Army.
She rode up to the "Zichuanxiu" and, seeing the surrounding guards were all members of the Imperial Guard, whispered, "Gu Lei, how dare you! You dare to pretend here wearing my armor!"
"Zichuanxiu" (Gu Lei, Captain of the Imperial Guard) wailed, "Commander Baichuan, I don't want to do this. But my Lord insisted I stand here in this awful outfit... It's so heavy! I'm exhausted. I've already crushed three horses..."
"The battle is raging. What was your Lord doing?"
Gu Lei: "He just had a bath and a barbecue in the back hills. He's already in bed."
...
"Did he leave any instructions?"
Gu Lei: "Oh, yes. He said that if we lose, we should go wake him up and escape together."
Baichuan found Zichuanxiu's tent under the shade of a tree in the back hills. He was sound asleep in his sleeping bag, snoring rhythmically: "Hulu, hulu!"
Shirakawa: "Sir, wake up, wake up..."
The person in the sleeping bag didn't move.
Shirakawa sighed: "Sir, you forced me to do this..."
He turned and went out to get a bottle of water. "I'll count to one, two, three!"
"Ah, don't fall, don't fall, I'm awake."
A head popped out from the sleeping bag, eyes hazy, face stained with sleep—a very handsome young man, or rather a teenager—with a childish smile on his face.
Zichuanxiu: "What's the big deal? Are the demons coming?"
Baichuan: "... Not yet."
"Is it a mutiny among the soldiers?"
Baichuan: "That was bound to happen sooner or later. Once they figure out you were using dummies to trick them..."
Zichuanxiu: "Let's wait until they start arguing—those soldiers are such nitpickers, fussing over such a trivial matter. So Roger and Changchuan fought for you and both died, right?"
"It's a shame, sir, they're still shamelessly alive. The fact is, we won, and the demon army is retreating."
Chuanxiu's face was filled with surprise: "Ah, that's beyond my expectations. We actually won?" He slid his head back into his sleeping bag: "Let me think about this for a while."
Baichuan waited patiently, and waited, and waited... until the snoring sound came from the sleeping bag again: "Hulu, hulu."
Unbearable, she threw the boiling water in her hand...
"Wow! "
In the 778th year of the Imperial Calendar, the victor of the Third Battle of Hengchuan let out a scream that will never be recorded in history...