Once he grasped what had happened, Li Xiu felt not only outrage at the absurdity of it, but a growing panic. He was a mere second lieutenant, without power or influence, suddenly saddled with a charge he could never bear. What would happen if he was convicted?
Had he remained unconscious or on the brink of death, that would have been one thing. Now that he had woken up, the outcome might be...
Execution by firing squad!
No, as the son of a baronet, he legally belonged to the nobility. They would preserve some dignity for his remains, so hanging was more likely.
Li Xiu's face twitched. That was even worse than being shot!
Besides, the other side had probably already banded together and coordinated their testimony. Once the trial was over, they could divide the remaining blame for the Moxia Ridge front among themselves. Everyone's burden would become lighter, and whatever culpability remained would have little impact.
"Second lieutenant? Second lieutenant?"
The soldier called twice, bringing Li Xiu back to his senses.
"Second lieutenant, what can we do? I asked around. If we're convicted, the worst we'll face is compulsory discharge, but you could be sentenced to death..."
The soldier spoke with utter sincerity. It was this second lieutenant's command that had led them in their desperate breakout and brought back the Third Battalion's seventy-seven surviving men. Every one of them sincerely loved and respected their young commanding officer. The bond they had forged in war was true comradeship, tempered in blood, iron, and fire.
Of course Li Xiu did not want to die. He would not pin his hopes on the fantasy that dying here would let him "go home." He had only one life, and death might mean losing everything. Whether he wanted to start anew here or find a way back, he first had to survive this crisis.
Think of something!
Li Xiu's brow knotted as he racked his brain for a solution, yet he felt painfully helpless. The hearing was tomorrow, and surely plenty of the trial committee's seats would be filled by officers stationed here!
But there was still hope. Mulan's memories kept flickering through his mind, with memories of the recent war and deeply ingrained knowledge surfacing first.
Although this war had left Li Xiu thinking little of Dierjia's army, it had not yet rotted beyond repair. Dierjia's imperial family was also famously centralized in its rule. At least on the surface, it would not tolerate a military tribunal's entire committee colluding.
Looking on the bright side, some of the people sent out to negotiate the armistice might also take part in the trial. And surely I, Mulan Jonester, won't be the only one on trial.
Li Xiu's mind raced, combining the current circumstances with twenty-first-century reasoning to assess the situation, predict possible outcomes, and find a way to save himself.
As he thought, Li Xiu suddenly looked up at the soldier.
"Do you know the exact charges against us?"
The soldier hurriedly searched his memory, then quickly gave an answer.
"It's no secret anymore. We just found out late. The charges are roughly abandoning our positions and fleeing in battle, exposing the main force's flank, and triggering the collapse of the front. Those bastards! We held out the longest, and they even ordered us to cover the retreat. We almost never made it back... Those bastards! They originally thought you were dying, second lieutenant, and wanted to pin everything on you..."
"Wait!"
Li Xiu immediately cut off the soldier's angry tirade. He seemed to have caught hold of something crucial!
"Fleeing in battle... You're saying they planned to hold the hearing without the defendant because I was unconscious and dying?"
"Yes."
"I'll attend!"
The second lieutenant's words lifted the soldier's spirits. Second Lieutenant Jonester was the only one who could stand up for them. But when he looked at the bandages covering his commanding officer and his pale face, worry filled his expression again.
"Second lieutenant, your condition..."
Li Xiu had begun to see a way through the charges. After turning it over in his mind, he looked at the soldier again and interrupted him, calling him by name for the first time.
"No matter how bad my condition is, I have to attend. Jerry, I need you to do me a favor. Our honor is at stake, and so is my life!"
Jerry immediately straightened.
"Give the order, second lieutenant! Jerry will carry it out even if it kills him! All seventy-seven of us owe you our lives!"
In fact, under the Noble Convention, even if Second Lieutenant Jonester had surrendered and been captured, the enemy would have afforded him basic treatment and the right to ransom himself. It would merely have been deeply humiliating. Under the usual practice, the punishment for being "captured after putting up a determined resistance" would not have been too severe.
But once ordinary soldiers were captured, their fate was almost invariably a lifetime of hard labor worse than slavery. Death might have been preferable, but not everyone had the courage to take his own life.
So when Second Lieutenant Jonester had fought his way out of a hopeless situation and successfully led the Third Battalion back, every man had become utterly loyal to him. Jerry's words were no empty promise.
"I trust you!"
As his memories and his body's instincts drew him into Mulan's feelings, Li Xiu also developed a powerful trust in the soldiers under his command.
"I need you to get a message out as quickly as possible... I want all the men ready tomorrow. And, if possible, find friends in other battalions or other regiments to help..."
Li Xiu spoke at length, thinking and adding details as he went. Finally, he gave one solemn instruction.
"Let the men be angry, but don't let them get carried away!"
Jerry listened carefully throughout, not daring to miss a single detail, then saluted.
"Yes, sir! We would never gamble with your life! I'll get moving immediately."
After saluting, Jerry wasted no time. Following the second lieutenant's instructions, he immediately left the tent. They had only one night to prepare, and he had to hurry. He had no idea how his commanding officer could attend with such severe injuries and blood loss, but he trusted him without reservation!
Only after Jerry left did Li Xiu let out a long breath. He was far from certain he could survive this crisis, but he hated leaving his fate to chance. At least he would have fought for it!
With that thought, Li Xiu instinctively glanced at the pistol in his bag, contemplating the worst possible outcome.
About fifteen minutes later, the nurse finally returned with a doctor she had found somewhere. As the doctor examined him, Li Xiu hastily asked detailed questions about his condition.
The next morning, an officer wearing warrant officer's shoulder insignia arrived outside Mulan's tent with two military policemen. After pausing for a few seconds, the warrant officer nodded to them. One immediately pulled back the flap and tied it in place before the warrant officer entered.
Mulan had long since woken up and asked the nurse to bring him toiletries. With her help, he had washed his face and, more importantly, brushed his teeth. He instantly felt as though he had gained a buff.
Military police had never enjoyed a good reputation in the army. Their entrance startled even the nurse, who was checking Li Xiu's dressings.
"Military police? What are you here for?"
The nurse asked cautiously, while the military police warrant officer remained expressionless, his attention focused mainly on Li Xiu.
"We're here to deliver an order to Second Lieutenant Jonester, miss."
"I-I'll fetch the doctor!"
The nurse panicked. All she could think of was fetching the doctor, so she hurried outside.
Li Xiu frowned. Now that only he and the military police remained in the tent, tension immediately rose within him. The leather bag containing his pistol lay beside the bed, and he stood ready to draw it at any moment.
In the warrant officer's eyes, however, the man in bed was still deathly pale and gravely injured. Even moving seemed difficult for him. As expected, waking from a coma had done little to improve the condition of someone already near death.
But regardless of anyone's condition, procedure still had to be followed.
Without wasting words, the warrant officer took out a document, showed it to Li Xiu, and spoke.
"Second Lieutenant Mulan Jonester, you have been charged with serious offenses..."
The warrant officer read out the document, stating that Li Xiu would stand as a defendant. At the end, he asked a perfunctory question.
"Second Lieutenant Jonester, do you wish to attend the hearing?"
Li Xiu lay in bed, pale but without fear in his expression. After a look of surprise, he asked in a slightly hoarse voice, his tone utterly serious.
"We've actually been charged?"
The warrant officer showed him the document again.
"Yes. The hearing will be held this afternoon. Given your condition, the committee has permitted you to be absent. Someone will defend you."
Li Xiu gave a cold smile. He could not trust any appointed defender.
"Very well. Though I don't know what happened while I was unconscious, I must attend, if only for our honor and for the brothers who died in battle!"
The warrant officer looked at the second lieutenant's body, wrapped in bandages with blood seeping through all over.
"The court is quite a distance from here. With the carriage jolting all the way, you might not survive until the hearing."
Li Xiu's expression remained blank. He said only one simple sentence.
"Please allow me to bring my personal belongings."
"Very well. Get onto the stretcher, then."
The warrant officer nodded and waved to the military policemen beside him. Standing at either end, they gripped the prepared stretcher with all four hands and unfolded it, then made no further move.
The stretcher was still at least two meters from Li Xiu's bed.
Li Xiu looked at the warrant officer, then at the two military policemen. After just two seconds of silence, he clenched his teeth and, relying on his right hand and the strength of his waist, endured the searing pain as he slowly sat up under their astonished gazes.
It hurt!
It hurt like hell!
But I have to be tough. I have to hold on! Li Xiu kept repeating to himself, I'm a tough guy. I'm a tough guy!
They just think I can't attend. Then I'll damn well go!
Creak...
The side of the bed creaked. Li Xiu's eyes were bloodshot, and the muscles and veins on his right arm bulged. Through sheer determination, he forced himself to do today what he had been unable to do yesterday.
Whew...
Once fully upright, Li Xiu slowly exhaled, trembling slightly, his pale face covered in fine beads of sweat. Still without saying a word, he clenched his teeth again, turned sideways, braced his right arm against the bed's edge, and actually began to stand.
After speaking with the doctor, he knew the bones and tendons in his right leg were uninjured. In theory, he could force himself to walk.
Li Xiu raised his head and looked at the man who had come to deliver the order. The warrant officer's initial arrogance had vanished, and the two military policemen holding the stretcher seemed at a loss.
To the warrant officer, Second Lieutenant Jonester's expression looked fierce, almost savage. His muscles trembled as he finally, slowly straightened. Sweat visibly multiplied across his face throughout the process, yet he never cried out or asked for help.
Simply watching him was enough to know that the second lieutenant was enduring tremendous pain.
"What are you doing? You can't stand up! How can you even stand?"
The nurse who had gone to fetch the doctor finally came running back with him. As they entered the tent, they saw the second lieutenant already standing beside his bed.
While the nurse covered her mouth, the shocked doctor rushed forward.
"Even military police must respect their patients! His injuries are far too severe. He mustn't move around!"
The doctor roared at the military police in fury. At that moment, Li Xiu spoke.
"Doctor, miss, I have to go to the military tribunal no matter what. My life is at stake, but more importantly, so is my dignity and that of my brothers in the Third Battalion!"
To everyone watching, Second Lieutenant Jonester's face might have been pale, but his eyes shone with such unflinching resolve that they could not find the words to dissuade him.
"You..."
The warrant officer could not help wavering. Before coming, he had held this infamous Second Lieutenant Jonester in deep contempt. But now... This hardly looked like a criminal officer who had fled in battle, possessed a vile character, and even been shot by his own soldiers.
"Warrant officer, let's go!"
After speaking, Li Xiu gritted his teeth and walked toward the stretcher. The doctor and nurse hurried forward to support him.
"Let me help you!" "Careful!"
The doctor and young nurse knew how terrible the second lieutenant's condition was, with both injuries and illness afflicting him. Either alone should have made standing virtually impossible. What she had just witnessed had truly shaken her.
The two military policemen also instinctively cooperated, allowing Li Xiu to settle onto the stretcher in a suitable position.
"Reckless! Utterly reckless! If you insist on going, I'm coming too. I don't want you dying halfway there!"
The doctor had learned about the military tribunal's charges yesterday. Now, moved by Second Lieutenant Jonester's determination, he packed his medical kit and went along.
"Thank you!"
Li Xiu did not refuse their help now. The pain made his breathing rapid and cautious, but everyone present had already been filled with profound respect.
Had the nurse and doctor not supported him, the warrant officer would have wanted to do it himself. He also secretly regretted his earlier behavior. As a military policeman, he generally did not fight directly, but he had always admired brave, heroic men above all others. That was why hearing the charges against Mulan had deepened his disgust. Now, although he had no evidence, he vaguely felt that the accusations might be wrong.
"Second Lieutenant Jonester, you're a soldier worthy of respect! Let's go. If you need anything else, just ask."
"No need!"
Li Xiu did not even look at the warrant officer as he firmly rejected the offer. The latter nodded to the two military policemen.
"Keep it steady!"
To keep the stretcher steadier, they did not move quickly.
The young nurse stayed almost pressed against the stretcher. She had heard the Third Battalion's soldiers describe their tenacity and the second lieutenant's bravery. Before, she had thought much of it was exaggeration, but today she seemed to feel its truth firsthand. She knew this second lieutenant might truly be a hero!
Amid worry and a jumble of other emotions, the young nurse's heart involuntarily quickened. Every so often, she wiped Li Xiu's sweat and asked whether he was thirsty or needed anything.
As they passed a stretch of barracks, some soldiers saw the military police carrying the stretcher. Many others then came out to look, and quite a few whispered among themselves.
"Who's that?" "No idea. Do you know?"
"A second lieutenant from the Third Battalion. Could it be Second Lieutenant Jonester?"
"I heard most of the Third Battalion died in battle..."
"Where are they going?" "Don't know."
"Those are military police. I heard there's a temporary military tribunal in Dia City. Is he going on trial?"
"No way!"
Although he knew they could not possibly inch their way from the army camp into Dia City like this, Li Xiu still breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the carriage. Now he should not have to worry about missing the hearing.
It was a black, four-wheeled carriage drawn by two horses, with a door and step on one side and glass windows on both. Inside were two rows of cushioned seats, with enough room for the stretcher. It was much better than he had imagined.