Perhaps someone Li Zi-song had sent to assign the next mission. Dong Bong-su stood still, waiting for the messenger to approach.
Neigh neigh neighhh.
The messenger rode up right in front of Dong Bong-su and stopped his horse. His eyes naturally saw the tragic scene unfolding inside Daihai Village from earlier, but he deliberately pretended not to notice. From the moment Li Zi-song ordered the mercenaries to strike this place, their fate had been decided to become like that.
He looked down and spoke while looking at Dong Bong-su.
"Are you the mercenary captain Kang Dal-hui?"
"That's right."
Dong Bong-su answered.
From that indifferent appearance, the messenger felt a chill. Rather than the mercenaries creating the carnage, this sight of him guarding the village entrance and watching felt even more inhumane.
The messenger shook his head once, then took out a rolled-up dispatch from his bosom and held it out to Dong Bong-su.
"If you can't read, I can instead..."
The messenger was trying to add another word with a deliberately calm appearance.
Snatch.
Dong Bong-su answered with action instead. Disregarding the flinching messenger, he read Li Zi-song's orders. The content was extremely brief.
Eliminate Manhan Mountain within three days.
As brief as it was, its meaning was also clear.
Dong Bong-su rolled up the dispatch again and handed it to the messenger.
"Tell him I understand."
With those words, Dong Bong-su turned away from the messenger. Since new work had arisen, he had to leave this place as quickly as possible.
"Aaaaahh!"
"M-Mom!"
"Ahhh! St-stop!"
The plunder was nearly over. But the villagers' nightmare had not yet ended.
Period of Entertainment.
The mercenaries called this time so, and some liked this time even more than when plundering.
"Hehehe. Stay still. When else will you guys get to taste southern gentlemen's goods? Such opportunities aren't common."
All too naturally, the objects of entertainment were children and women. Some women were being violated with their ears cut off, while others bit their tongues to end themselves.
For some, entertainment; for others, nightmares. In any case, it was chaos.
Dong Bong-su walked slowly toward the village center.
"B-bark! Bark, you bitch! Why are you keeping your trap shut? Huh!? Huff huff."
"..."
A bearded man, not even noticing his buttocks turning bright red from the cold, had his rear exposed and was vigorously moving his hips.
What was being shaken like duckweed while having her hair grabbed from behind by him was a village woman who appeared to be about thirty.
They were blocking Dong Bong-su's path. At this, Dong Bong-su stopped walking and spoke.
"We're leaving for Manhan Mountain. Right now, immediately gather all the other bastards in front of the village."
Dong Bong-su's voice was flat, but it wasn't small. However, since he had nearly reached climax, the bearded man merely pretended to hear while roughly pushing his hips.
"Huff! Co-coming...!"
The dirty buttocks of the bearded man who reached climax trembled.
Thunk.
Simultaneously, his head also rolled and fell.
"Huk! Ahhh!"
The woman who had been quiet even while being raped screamed and collapsed to the ground. Because a liquid far more disgusting than the liquid shot inside her body had splattered on her back.
And the round object that fell afterward. The woman knew well what it was without looking.
Thud thud thud.
Dong Bong-su stepped over the woman's back and continued forward.
A silence already hung over the scene, and all eyes were focused on Dong Bong-su. As if time had stopped...
A moment later, Dong Bong-su, who had arrived at the village center, stopped walking.
"I'm giving you half an hour. Within that time, everyone line up in front of the village."
Still a flat voice. But not a small voice.
Time flowed again.
Having finished speaking, Dong Bong-su slowly returned to the village entrance. The messenger still hadn't left and was staring blankly at Dong Bong-su until then. Looking at him, Dong Bong-su spoke.
"The commander will be waiting."
"Ah, yes, yess! Atten..."
The messenger almost saluted Dong Bong-su. That's how much the appearance Dong Bong-su had shown for a brief moment was somehow overwhelming the messenger.
Half an hour later.
The messenger returned to Liangcheng where Li Zi-song was, and about a thousand mercenaries gathered in front of Daihai Village.
Fengqian, Xin'an Manor, Tiancheng Village, and in the process of occupying this place, about five hundred had died, and one more died half an hour ago. So now the total remaining mercenaries were barely a thousand. However, the fierce aura they emitted was by no means light.
The mercenaries' formation looked disorderly at a glance, but in fact it wasn't. They were thoroughly lined up according to rank, and at the very front stood Dong Bong-su.
Dong Bong-su, who had become mercenary captain, was not the Ear Ghost they had known. Originally Ear Ghost was a frightening person, but Ear Ghost who became mercenary captain was a perfect commander and general. He never retreated, and fought like a Mad Tiger at the very front, leading them to victory. Though it looked extremely crude, it was also most mercenary-like and Wanderer-like. At that sight, over the past few days the mercenaries had either been overwhelmed by Dong Bong-su or completely captivated.
"From now we go to Manhan Mountain."
"..."
"Those who don't want to die at Manhan Mountain, come out now."
Of course, there was no one. They already knew. That if they stepped forward now, they would die. Those words of Dong Bong-su weren't saying to drop out if you don't want to die.
It meant: Those who don't want to die at Manhan Mountain, right now! Here! I'll kill you.
"If there's anyone who doesn't like me or wants to go home right now, kill me. Then you can become mercenary captain or return home safely."
"..."
"Don't hesitate. Abandon mercy. Toward me, toward the enemy, and toward yourselves."
Having said that much, Dong Bong-su turned his body northwest. On the plains, a fairly high mountain rose up, blocking the setting sun.
It was Manhan Mountain.
Dong Bong-su headed that way while speaking.
"Any bastard who's confident can stick a sword in my back anytime. But only draw your sword when you're truly confident. Otherwise you'll regret it."
When he was a groom, Dong Bong-su had been an excellent groom.
For the past year, Dong Bong-su had been a flawless mercenary.
And now Dong Bong-su was a mercenary captain.
Perfectly, of course.
Dong Bong-su departed for Manhan Mountain, and a thousand mercenaries followed behind him.
***
Boom—
As Dong Bong-su headed to Manhan Mountain, in Guisui the sound of drums announcing soldiers' departure was resounding.
A massive force reaching as many as twenty thousand was arranged in units of ten thousand in front of Guisui's outer walls. However, despite so many people lined up on horses, except for the occasional sound of horses neighing, no other sound was made.
They were traditional nomadic cavalry, armed mainly with light armor, bows, and swords or sabers instead of heavy iron armor. Though mainly a unit good for hit-and-run tactics in the vast grassland regions, the northern nomads' cavalry were skilled in close combat even wearing only light armor. They weren't called the calamity of the grasslands for nothing.
On the outer walls, all of Guisui's key figures had come out.
The castle lord, defense commander, and various generals.
Among them, at the very front, in the center, an old man with snow-white hair.
From everyone's eyes watching only his mouth, one could easily tell he was the person in the highest position among them.
In contrast to his white hair, his physique seemed to have been bypassed by the passage of time—his frame was so large it reached eight feet, and his back was utterly straight.
Moreover, the hegemon-like aura emanating from him easily surpassed and exceeded that emitted by the twenty thousand troops arrayed before the castle.
The old man—there are many terms referring to him.
Hegemon of the North, God of the Grasslands, Northern Plains Otter-Wren.
And.
Timur Khan.
In the distant past, there had been a Great Khan who unified the north and looked beyond the Central Plains to the western skies, all the way to their end, and the last descendant of that Great Khan was Timur Khan. However, he did not become the ruler of the Northern Plains by the mere fact of being the Great Khan's descendant alone. Northern nomad society was not so lenient that one's entire life was determined simply by bloodline.
Timur Khan was someone who had risen to this position by suppressing all competitors with his own overwhelming military force, political power, and extraordinary judgment. Originally, before he ascended to the Khan's position, there had been many other descendants of the Great Khan besides him. And they all had higher rank than Timur.
However,
In the end, the one who survived the bloody political struggles and wars was Timur, and he alone survived to become the Great Khan's final heir.
Timur Khan's eyes were so thinly slitted that his pupils were barely visible. However, even with those barely visible eyes, Timur Khan was watching the cavalry's appearance without missing a single thing.
The cavalry all knew well what a frightening person he was. No one could breathe loudly or cough loudly once. Even the horses were the same.
As if the world had stopped? How much time had passed like that?
"March out!"
At some moment, Timur Khan shouted vigorously.
His lion's roar filled with internal power stuck clearly in each cavalryman's ears.
Timur Khan's departure ceremony was always like this. What need for long words at departure?
Go out, and fight. Only these two words were needed.
And...
Waaahhh!
The soldiers' battle cry was enough.
The cavalry shouted at the top of their lungs and turned their horses' heads one by one in order. Then they began galloping toward the vast Hetao Plain spread out there.