Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were utterly ashamed. They immediately drew their swords and prepared to kill themselves.
Jiang Siming walked over and grabbed both their hands.
"The two of them did indeed swear a Military Order, but this matter also concerns me. If I hadn't agreed, how could they have made this mistake? Speaking of which, I'm the one most at fault. I should be the first to receive military punishment. Sword, come!"
Jiang Siming "angrily" drew his treasured sword and pretended to swipe it across his neck.
"You two idiots had better be smart and stop me quickly, or all my acting will be for nothing."
Jiang Siming was thinking this when, sure enough, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei desperately stopped the sword in midair.
The two men wept bitterly, tears streaming down their faces.
"My lord, I am guilty!"
Jiang Siming cried with them, wrapping his arms around their shoulders.
The three of them seemed to have become brothers even closer than Liu, Guan, and Zhang. Of the three grown men, two were crying for real while one was faking it. In the command tent, the other soldiers were all moved to tears.
At this point, Guo Jia, Xun Yu, and Xu Shu exchanged a glance and began to offer words of persuasion, bringing the act to its conclusion.
Jiang Siming also cooperated generously. He demoted the brothers Guan and Zhang to centurions, sentenced them to thirty strokes, and warned them to atone through future meritorious service.
Guan Yu and Zhang Fei not only had no complaints, but were deeply moved. Their loyalty to Jiang Siming had reached a level even Liu Bei had never achieved!
After the soldiers carried Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, who had just finished taking their beating, outside, Guo Jia, Xun Yu,