ALL NOVEL
Chapter 558
Old Lady Mo sighed heavily, for she had not only endured the pain of losing her husband, but also the anguish of losing countless children.
Today, as she watched several of her sons heading off to battle, her heart was bleeding.
The old lady handed the precious pearl she held to her eldest daughter-in-law, then walked towards her sons.
"My Mo men are no cowards. I know you fear neither life nor death, but this time you must all return safely without a single one missing. Otherwise, I shall consider you unfilial sons."
These words brought tears not only to the women of the Mo Family, but even the stalwart men could not help having reddened eyes.
Such a scene tugged at the heartstrings. Although she knew her sons were well-equipped for survival, she still worried for them.
Yet there was nothing she could do, for the battlefield spares no one, and no one could guarantee there would be no accidents.
He Zhiran pulled Mo Jiuye aside, her eyes brimming with tears, "Husband, Zhu and I will await your safe return."
At that moment, Mo Jiuye could not care less, embracing He Zhiran and Zhu in front of everyone.
"Rest assured, your husband now has a doting wife and children. I would not easily throw away this life."
He Zhiran gently pounded on his chest. "Just be careful out there, all right?"
She pointed at the long, black bag hanging on Mo Jiuye's warhorse.
"You have ample sniper rifle ammunition. Use it wisely instead of taking unnecessary risks."
"I know. Capture the king before the thieves. I'll make good use of it."
In He Zhiran's eyes, compared to her husband's life, a sniper rifle was expendable...
The Mo brothers were gone for two months on their campaign.
Meng Huaining also took Mo Hanyue to the capital for work for the same duration.
The first snow of the year fell in Xi Ling Village as winter arrived.
Over these two months, He Zhiran received several messages delivered by Little White.
Mo Jiuye's offensive against the Barbarians in the western territory was a resounding success, emerging victorious in every battle with barely any casualties on the Da Shun side.
The Barbarian Army had since retreated and encamped over a hundred miles from the western territory, while the Barbarian King had sent an envoy with a letter of surrender to Mo Jiuye.
Mo Jiuye harbored less hatred for the Barbarians compared to those from the Southern Province.
The Barbarians were not innately warlike, only invading Da Shun for food.
However, this time was different. When interrogating prisoners of war, Mo Jiuye learned that they had been instigated by the Southern Province.
The current Southern Province Emperor was once the prince who had taken the Fourth Princess of Da Shun as his consort.
Back then, he seemed like a fool, but after ascending the throne, he revealed his ambitions to conquer Da Shun.
Especially after the Mo Family no longer guarded the borders, he felt it was the perfect opportunity to seize Da Shun.
Compared to its smaller neighbors, Da Shun was a vast land with abundant resources and a larger population.
Thus, the Southern Province Emperor believed that to conquer Da Shun, he needed to ally with the Barbarians to increase their chances of success.
In this alliance, he promised the Barbarians that whichever party occupied a city would claim it as their own territory after dividing up Da Shun's lands.
With this two-pronged attack, even the Barbarians could see the benefits, but lacked the audacity to invade Da Shun on their own.
Once the Southern Province Emperor planted this idea, both sides quickly agreed to attack Da Shun.
Being further from the capital, the Southern Province received news later than Da Shun thanks to the lack of an intelligent beast messenger like Little White.
Fortunately, Nan Yu was farsighted, convincing Mo Jiuye to return to court at the critical moment, minimizing Da Shun's losses.
By the time Mo Chongyuan led his troops to the southern border, the frontier had already fallen.
The few remaining garrison troops had retreated to the next city.
In other words, the Southern Province had already captured one of Da Shun's southern cities.
While dispatching reinforcements westward, Nan Yu also sent a large army south.
However, the distance was great, and this army could not travel as swiftly as the Mo brothers, only arriving ten days after Mo Chongyuan reached the south.
Before then, the Southern Province forces constantly harassed Da Shun, even launching a major offensive.
Thankfully, Mo Chongyuan's private soldiers had explosives and repeating crossbows.
Under the onslaught of these advanced weapons, the Southern Province troops could only retreat, with many soldiers terrified.
They claimed the Da Shun forces wielded "heavenly thunder."
This "heavenly thunder" rained down from the sky, instantly obliterating countless men into unrecognizable corpses. Just imagining their comrades' mangled remains made them shudder in horror.
The Southern Province commanders were also afraid. When they reported back requesting a withdrawal, the Emperor gave no response.
With Da Shun reinforcements arriving, they walked on eggshells, fearing that one day the Da Shun forces would unleash their "heavenly thunder," not just destroying their army, but potentially razing the entire Southern Province to the ground.
He Zhiran received this news a long time ago, as the Southern Province lacked a swift messenger like Little White.
She guessed that, given the Mo men's nature, they would surely pursue their advantage and press the attack.
What she did not know was that Mo Chongyuan had already led a large force into the Southern Province capital, giving their Emperor no chance to surrender.
That place was a nightmare for several Mo brothers, but now it had become a nightmare for the Southern Province rulers...
As for Mo Jiuye's approach to the Barbarians' surrender, he had his own plans, but such matters had to be reported to the imperial court for the Emperor's final decision.
When Mo Jiuye received the letter of surrender, he immediately had Little White deliver it to the capital that very night.
Along with the Barbarians' letter, Nan Yu also received Mo Chongyuan's battle report urgently delivered from the Southern Province.
Like the Mo Family, Nan Yu also harbored deep resentment towards the Southern Province.
Especially their proficiency with poisonous venom - a harmful practice that was almost impossible to guard against.
Nan Rui had once told him how the Southern Province controlled Consort De with a venomous creature to force him to do their bidding, nearly causing a grave mistake for Nan Rui to save Consort De's life.
It was common knowledge that the Southern Province people, regardless of age or gender, were fascinated with venoms and poisons.
Even ordinary commoners with no special talent or funds in this area would try to keep a venomous creature as a pet.
Who knew what harm such a creature could cause, even unintentionally?
Therefore, Nan Yu would never allow the Southern Province another chance to harm others in this manner.