Chapter Ninety-One: The Storm is Brewing

Qin Mo was fighting, wielding his tattered axe and wearing the arrow absorber suit made for him by Ximan. He always charged ahead of his troops. His blood was boiling; only in the heat of battle could he forget some of his troublesome thoughts.

Allen stood not far from him. If asked to come out and provide cover for the high-ranking officials' men, he would ignore them completely; he wouldn't even look at these small fry. The Great Elf had his pride; if he were to kill, it would be a powerful orc.

But Qin Mo wanted to go out and hone himself against the orcs, and he couldn't help but look at him with aggrieved eyes. The situation around the trading city was chaotic, and if Qin Mo were to encounter a "king" again, it would not be a test but an ordeal.

"Allen, why is there no sign of the orc king-level powerhouse? Did you scare him away?" Qin Mo threw his broken axe aside, and two servants immediately ran over to wipe it clean with snow. The young master was very clean, and the bloody mess was too creepy.

"Do you think the king is a tiger? There's one in every forest? How many kings are there around this trading city? You actually managed to find one behind the orcs' territory..." Allen stopped talking, and Qin Mo understood what he meant.

"You just think I'm too lucky!" Qin Mo could only laugh at herself. When she didn't return on time, Allen immediately went north alone to look for her. It wasn't that he didn't care about her; he just wanted Qin Mo to complete his coming-of-age ceremony on her own.

Qin Mo glanced at the high-ranking military officials and their children around her, who were excitedly cracking open the orc's fangs, and felt a little contemptuous: "He's just a lousy general, and he doesn't even have many elite soldiers. What are you all so excited about? You're really lowering my standards."

"Alright, we've killed quite a few recently. Let's all head back to the city and rest for a while! We've probably attracted the attention of some powerful orcs. Remember this: 'A phoenix in the sky is no match for a sparrow in your hand.' Let's know when to stop!"

Upon hearing Qin Mo's words, the group of men, blinded by their military achievements, quickly cleaned up the battlefield and prepared to retreat. Recently, Qin Mo had shown them the true extent of the difference; whether in seizing opportunities or individual bravery, he was simply not in their league. Qin Mo had won the trust of everyone.

Just after the private army of the Great Xia withdrew from the hunt, the orcs finally launched a strong counterattack. The three clans united to form an elite hunting party, which successively wiped out several private armies of the Great Xia, and even Marquis Yang Xiaozhang of Huyang suffered a hidden loss.

As the orc hunting party grew stronger and stronger, the nobles had fewer and fewer opportunities to ambush them. After several head-on battles with the orc hunting party, they finally gave up on continuing the hunt, ending this large-scale hunting campaign aimed at gaining military merit.

The orcish allied forces and the Great Xia army had finally reached a stalemate, with both sides waiting. The Great Xia army was waiting for reinforcements, while the orcs were waiting for their high priest and... food. Their 300,000-strong army needed to be fed from the rear, but transport was difficult across the icy terrain, and the orcs had huge appetites; some had even seen the corpses of Rakshasa soldiers who had starved to death.

The situation in the city was much better. The grain stored in the warehouses was enough for the Xia army to last until spring. As for the Rakshasa people in the city, it was already a mercy that they were not searched for grain in their homes. Naturally, the grain in the granaries would not be distributed to them, and they would be left to starve.

As the first month of the fifth year of Zhaowu was drawing to a close, Zhao Qirui finally convened a meeting in the capital once again, and for the first time, all the nobles and the leaders of the Imperial Guards gathered at the General's Mansion in Maimai City.

Qin Mo saw that annoying Wang Renbi again. He was still the same arrogant person who provoked everyone. She couldn't understand why he hadn't improved at all after these months of training, or perhaps his arrogant appearance was just a disguise.

After Ran Qi, Xiang Zuoxian, the commander of the Xuanyi Army under Zhao Qirui, spoke first, saying nothing more than that all the heroes and valiant men were the backbone of the empire. Then he took out a roster and began to read out the military merits of the recent hunting of beastmen and the ranking of the military merits of each family and force. The council hall immediately erupted in chaos.

"Please be patient, everyone. The General is very pleased with your and the Orcs' fighting spirit and has specially set aside a portion of the military merits as an extra reward for the top three noble families in terms of military achievements."

"As for my colleagues in the Imperial Guards, the General has other plans for them and they are not included in this ranking."

Xiang Zuo's words made Qin Mo frown. It was clear he intended to incite competition among the nobles through military merit rankings, to prevent them from shirking their duties. In the future, friction among the nobles over rankings would be inevitable.

"Third in cumulative military merits, Prince Renbi, heir of the Duke of Wuwei."

"Second in cumulative military merits, Qin Fafeng of the Prince of Anle's Palace."

"The one with the most accumulated military merits is Qin Mo, the heir apparent of Prince Heng."

After the leftward movement, the nobles began whispering among themselves, discussing the military achievements of the three families.

"You are all just vanguards of your respective noble families, so the accumulated military merits cannot represent the strength of your families. They can only be attributed to your heirs, eldest sons, and the leaders of the army. It is not the sum of the achievements of any one person, but the sum of the achievements of the entire hunting team. I hope you will not misunderstand."

The meaning of "to the left" is that regardless of whether it's Wang Renbi or Qin Mo, their military achievements were earned by themselves and their troops, not just by him alone. So you shouldn't let them use their subordinates' achievements to embellish their own reputation; that's only fair.

"Commander Xiang, I wonder how many military merits the Crown Prince of Heng has accumulated?" A man in his fifties stood up and asked loudly.

"The exact number of military merits is too scattered to be detailed, but since the Marquis of Huyang has asked, I can reveal that His Highness the Crown Prince of Heng killed the orc overseer." Xiang Zuo didn't need to look at the roster to come out, because among all these, only this orc overseer had been killed.

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