Futile Devices Scans

For an instant, there was utter silence. Only the dull thud of the corpse hitting the ground could be heard.

The eunuch alternated threats with promises. These brave warriors had all been carefully selected: each possessed a useful skill, while their wives, children, and elderly mothers remained in camp as hostages to ensure their loyalty. If they returned successfully, they would be promoted three ranks and rewarded 3,000 guan. Even if they died along the way, their families would still receive compensation in silver.

Take this good fellow lying on the ground, for instance. He might have talked too much, but at least he had already earned his family 3,000 guan.

Seeing the men begin to waver, the eunuch continued soothing them. “Gentlemen, there is no need to worry. Daoist Ma received the personal teachings of Perfected Master Shenxiao and is skilled in the art of immortal fire. He can summon fire to subdue spirits and command gods to drive ghosts. He will surely lead everyone back safely. If you do not believe me…”

The eunuch stepped aside again. The mighty Lion-Headed Strongman planted his long-handled pole saber firmly on the ground, dropped into a horse stance, and assumed a guardian’s pose. Daoist Ma swept his horsetail whisk, let out a horse-like neigh, and a streak of fire shot into the sky!

The soldiers in the front row had their beards singed and stumbled backward in terror.

Li Si opened his dark eyes wide and tilted his head up, staring intently at the magnificent flames blazing before him.

Only Li Er let out a quiet sigh of despair. Who did they think they were fooling? As though no one had ever watched street performers during the Lantern or Dragon Boat Festivals! Every year, when the Emperor reviewed the troops, the various armies’ “Baixi” included fire tricks performed for blessings. This fake Daoist might strike a fiercer pose and produce bigger flames, but surely it was the same sort of trick used to deceive people!

Elio’s Notes: Baixi (百戏), literally “a hundred entertainments,” was a broad term for popular performance arts such as acrobatics, martial arts, magic, music, dance, comic acts, and similar spectacles.

No one else seemed to think so. The soldiers clicked their tongues in amazement, and Li Si was completely entranced. Even after Li Er tugged at him twice, he still could not bear to look away.

Fine. Off they went, then. The sooner they died, the sooner they could reincarnate.

——

The group disguised themselves as a band of armed escorts, mounted their horses, and rode hard for several days.

Kuiyuan lay a thousand li from the capital. They first had to travel west along the Yellow River, then follow the Fen River upstream, heading north all the way toward its upper reaches.

The Fen River flowed between the Lüliang and Taihang mountain ranges, carving out a long, narrow plain stretching from north to south. Kuiyuan City stood at the northernmost end of this Fen River Plain, its only gateway, gripping the western Xiao army’s southward advance by the throat.

Because Kuiyuan held the enemy back, the towns and villages downstream along the Fen River remained relatively peaceful. Traveling along the official road, the group saw only a few wealthy households fleeing south. Snow covered the fields beside the road, but the villagers had not yet become refugees. It was the agricultural off-season, and people were busy watering their fields for winter, repairing tools, and fixing their houses.

Only the officials of the various prefectures and counties knew these peaceful days would not last. They raised high walls, organized patrols and drills, and made every show of preparing for a desperate defense.

Fearing unexpected trouble, the group did not dare enter the cities to rest. They concealed their movements and kept a low profile throughout the journey, sending only a few men into town at a time to purchase dry rations and water. At post stations along the way, they used official post vouchers to exchange some of their exhausted horses for fresh mounts.

——

That evening, the group reached Jiao County, one hundred li south of Kuiyuan City. In a wooded area in the mountains far from the county seat, they found an abandoned farmhouse and lit a fire to keep warm.

Daoist Ma, maintaining his immortal bearing, went off to one side and sat cross-legged with his eyes closed in meditation. Only when the fire was burning nicely did he secretly inch his backside a little closer to it. During the day, the Lion-Headed Strongman had sent two of his men into town to buy several jugs of wine. Now he warmed the wine by the fire, took out several strips of dried meat, and tore into them in great bites.

The soldiers had only ordinary dry rations such as roasted flatbread and parched rice. A few who were craving wine and meat shamelessly went over to beg some from the Strongman. He ordered them to spin around and perform tricks for his amusement, and the men obediently complied, making him laugh until he rocked back and forth.

Li Er gnawed on a flatbread in the corner, secretly sighing at all the noise. Li Si sat with his head lowered, polishing his saber with cheap oil. Hearing the commotion, he glanced up. When he saw that none of their tricks was as interesting as Daoist Ma breathing fire from his horse-like mouth, he lowered his eyes again.

Someone called, “Li Erlang.”

Li Er sprang to his feet. Li Si put away his saber and followed him. The two passed through the noisy campfire area and walked to another quiet corner. The leader who had carried the roster and selected the men sat cross-legged on the ground studying a map. Several trusted subordinates standing guard beside him stopped Li Si outside.

“No matter. Let him come too,” the leader said.

On the first day of the journey, the leader had already informed everyone of his position: he was a Commander of the Imperial City Directorate. In name, the Commander was escorting Daoist Ma, but in reality, he was the true leader of this small unit. He had selected the thirty unlucky Imperial Guard soldiers according to some unknown criteria. Together with more than a dozen Imperial City Directorate men and Daoist Ma’s party of four, the unit numbered fifty altogether.

Li Er hated the Commander for choosing both uncle and nephew and leaving their blind old mother behind in camp as a hostage. He would gladly have stabbed the man to death with a single stroke. Unfortunately, the Commander was an exceptional swordsman and had plenty of men at his side. Li Er could only swallow his fury. He stood respectfully before him. “Commander, what does this subordinate need to do?”

The Commander kept his eyes on the map. “I looked at your military record. You came from one of the lower army units and were once transferred to Hedong to suppress bandits. After earning merit, you were transferred back into an upper army unit in the capital. Are you familiar with the terrain around Kuiyuan?”

Li Er replied, “Commander, I know a little.”

“We’ll be near Kuiyuan in another day. In your opinion, what would be the best way to slip inside?”

Li Er thought for a moment. “The land around Kuiyuan is flat, with nothing to hide behind. But twenty li to the west is Yuquan Mountain. There’s a small county halfway up the mountain. The terrain is dangerous enough to conceal people, and you can still see Kuiyuan from there. If the Xiao army hasn’t discovered the county, we can go there first and decide what to do next.”

He poked a finger at the map.

Standing beside him, Li Si raised his eyes slightly and looked at the map as well.

The Commander peered more closely. “Ant County?”

——

The Commander asked Li Er several more questions before waving him away. As Li Er walked back with his nephew, he pondered the matter. Choosing Li Si made sense—the boy had been good with his fists since childhood, excelled at mounted archery, and was the youngest drill instructor in the Imperial Guard. But why choose an old hand like me, with no particular skill to speak of? Was it simply because they needed someone to guide the way?

Li Er let out a long sigh. He glanced at his unlucky, wooden-faced nephew beside him and sighed again.

Li Si still did not understand the worries filling his uncle’s mind. His dark eyes lifted and fixed steadily on the campfire ahead. Suspicious, Li Er followed his gaze and saw that the Lion-Headed Strongman, flushed hot from drinking, had removed the lion-head mask he normally never took off, revealing a swollen, pig-like face that had not yet fully recovered.

It was none other than the burly thug who had bullied people in the street that day and been pinned down and beaten senseless by Li Si in his veiled hat!

The moment Li Si saw him, he clearly felt the previous beating had not been enough. He rolled up his sleeves and strode forward to give the man another one. Li Er cried, “Hey! Hey!” and grabbed his nephew around the waist!

As uncle and nephew struggled, Li Er looked up and met the thug’s gaze head-on. He hurriedly covered his face, but the thug merely snapped impatiently, “You’re making a damn racket! Get lost!”

Li Er touched his face and only then remembered the treasured full beard he had ruthlessly cut away. He smacked his troublesome nephew on the forehead and dragged him back to their corner.

——

Early the next morning, the group hid their horses and supplies in the forest, leaving two Imperial City Directorate men behind to guard the cache and await their return. Everyone else disguised themselves as rustic villagers and continued toward Kuiyuan on foot.

With the Xiao army besieging the city, it was certain to be watching for reinforcements arriving from the south and would have mounted scouts posted along the roads. To avoid those scouts, the group stayed away from the official road through the river valley and instead followed the mountains, diving quickly into the woods at the slightest sign of trouble.

At sunset, under Li Er’s guidance, they reached Yuquan Mountain west of Kuiyuan.

The setting sun hung low on the horizon, its dying light illuminating Kuiyuan City twenty li to the east. Kuiyuan’s massive walls stood three or four zhang high and were broad enough for horses to gallop across. Stretching a total of twenty li around all four sides, the city resembled an enormous Bixi crouching silently upon the vast river-valley plain, four legs planted firmly and its heavy shell rising above the earth.

Elio’s Notes: Bixi (赑屃, bìxì) is traditionally described as one of the dragon’s nine sons. Resembling a dragon-turtle and renowned for its strength, it commonly appears in Chinese art supporting heavy stone steles.

The Xiao army’s camps clustered like dense swarms of bees, surrounding this descendant of the divine dragon on every side.

The soldiers could not help stopping to stare.

“Keep moving!” the Commander, bringing up the rear, barked in a low voice.

Afraid that the Xiao army might already have discovered Ant County, the group did not dare use the main road up the mountain. Instead, they crept quietly through the forest. Evening deepened, and the woods grew darker and darker. After some time, even Li Er, who was leading the way, lost his bearings.

The Commander ordered everyone to remain where they were and called back Li Er and Li Si from the front. Several men lit a torch and crouched around a compass, trying to determine their direction.

While they were still hesitating, the compass needle suddenly began swinging wildly!

The ground lurched beneath their feet. In an instant, the earth shook and the mountains trembled! Everyone in the forest struggled to remain standing as a thunderous rumbling rolled down from higher up the mountain.

Li Er shouted, “It’s a landslide! Move!”

But in the pitch darkness, where could they go? Dozens of people plunged into chaos beneath the trees, and broken rocks were already crashing through gaps in the canopy!

Li Er shouted, “Run forward! Don’t go downhill!”

The forest was dense, and the soldiers ahead were still darting about like headless flies. Li Er, Li Si, and more than a dozen Imperial City Directorate men found themselves trapped at the rear. Suddenly, a horse-like neigh rang out, followed by a streak of fire shooting into the sky!

Daoist Ma, desperate to clear an escape route for himself, had actually spat a burst of raging fire behind him. He meant to force the soldiers back and squeeze out a path for his own survival!

Winter was dry, and the dead branches and fallen leaves ignited the instant the flames touched them. Stones rained down while fires flared everywhere. Several Imperial City Directorate men even caught fire, screaming as they rolled across the ground.

Li Si had never witnessed a real battlefield before. The horror of the scene left him frozen in place.

Li Er turned back, grabbed him, and drew his saber to hack through several burning branches blocking their way. But the flames were too fierce. There was nowhere to go. Uncle and nephew managed only a few staggering steps forward…

RUMBLE—!!

Mud and rock poured down like a flood, crushing huge swathes of forest as the debris surged all the way to the foot of the mountain.

——

In the middle of the night, Li Si opened his eyes.

He was buried beneath a pile of broken stones. As he pushed himself upright, fragments clattered around him and dust billowed into the air, making him cough several times.

As though awakened by the coughing, a weak groan came from nearby.

Many of the surrounding trees had been snapped and crushed, and moonlight shone over the rubble. Li Si scrambled forward and dug his uncle’s blood-covered face out from beneath the stones.

A falling rock had struck Li Er in the chest, leaving half of it twisted and caved inward. He was breathing out far more than he breathed in and was clearly beyond saving. Li Si frantically began digging at the stones covering his body, but Li Er caught his wrist and pulled him down to listen.

“Don’t… waste your strength…” Li Er sighed. His ribs were completely shattered. Every word brought terrible pain, and after only a few syllables, blood welled up from his throat.

“Your father… died like this too… hit by a stone from a catapult… I came back alone… you were only… this little… so obedient… silly child… you even thought I was your father…”

He tightened his grip around Li Si’s icy wrist. Beneath the cold moonlight, Li Si lowered his head and quietly looked at him, his dark eyes still betraying nothing.

“That Ant County… if you can’t get in… by the river at the eastern foot of the mountain… there’s an abandoned earthen fortress… go there… hide for a while…”

More and more blood poured from Li Er’s mouth, nearly drowning out his words. Struggling, he forced out one last sentence. “Silly child… take care of Grandma… those sweets… having one or two now and then… it doesn’t matter. I won’t blame you…”

Li Si remained silent. He neither spoke nor nodded. Only his lips trembled faintly.

Li Er had not expected him to answer. He let out a long breath and thought of how little his entire life had amounted to. His family had been low-ranking military households for generations. His elder brother had possessed decent martial skills but terrible luck. Li Er himself had no particular ability, yet somehow he had survived until now, stumbling from one battlefield to another simply because he knew when to hide and when to run. He had managed to collect a few enemy heads, scraped his way into a minor Deputy Cavalry Officer post, and spent every day in fear, never knowing when the next battle would come, where he would die, or which day would be his last.

Now, at least, I know.

A broken laugh escaped him. “Ant County… people like us… tiny as ants… what have we spent our whole lives struggling for…”

Still laughing, he closed his eyes. A tear slipped through the blood and mud covering his face. The moment it fell to the ground, his breathing stopped.

——

Li Si bent down and pressed his head against his uncle’s chest, listening for a long time before slowly sitting upright again. His expression was blank.

He knelt dazedly beside his uncle for a long while before finally remembering what Li Er had told him: “By the river at the eastern foot of the mountain, there’s an earthen fortress. Go there and hide for a while.”

Li Si had always listened to his uncle, so he rose and prepared to leave.

Before going, he searched Li Er’s body for something he could keep as a memento. Apart from a few pieces of dry rations and a fire striker, he found nothing. Even the water flask Li Er had carried had been smashed by the rocks.

Li Si dampened the corner of his sleeve with what little water remained and wiped the blood and dirt from his uncle’s face. Then he painstakingly scraped up a handful of frozen earth from beneath the roots of a nearby tree and spread it over Li Er’s face, leaving the rest of his body covered by the rubble.

He dug his own saber out from the stones as well. His bow had snapped in two, so he abandoned it and slung only the still-intact quiver over his back. Standing again, he checked his direction. The path toward Ant County had been completely blocked by massive fallen rocks, leaving him no choice but to follow the debris downhill toward the abandoned earthen fortress his uncle had mentioned.

——

He had gone only a dozen or so steps when someone suddenly grabbed his ankle.

Li Si whipped out his saber. The man coughed up a mouthful of blood, spraying it directly across the descending blade.

“It’s me…” the Commander of the Imperial City Directorate said weakly.

The Commander lay on his back, his chest and abdomen pinned firmly beneath a massive fallen rock. He too was close to death. His subordinates had been nearby when everyone fled, but there was no telling beneath which of the surrounding stones they now lay buried.

Li Si searched around for broken logs, hoping to lever the rock up and pull him free. He failed and only made the Commander cough up another two mouthfuls of blood. Grimacing in pain, the Commander stopped him. “Don’t waste your strength…”

The Commander reached toward his waist, trapped beneath the rock, and struggled for a long time before finally tearing free an identity token marked “Imperial City Directorate Envoy.” He handed it to Li Si.

“With this token as proof, you will take my place as a secret envoy of the Imperial City Directorate and carry out an important mission under His Majesty’s orders. You may enter and leave any city…”

Then the Commander fumbled around inside his hair knot for some time and pulled out a wax pellet.

“Our purpose on this journey was to deliver a secret letter to Zhang Xiao, the Prefect of Kuiyuan… The letter is hidden inside this wax pellet and written in cipher. Only Zhang Xiao can decipher it… Once he reads the letter, he’ll tell you what to do next…”

Seeing Li Si imitate him and tuck the wax pellet into his own hair knot, the Commander sighed. “This assignment should have been handled by the Imperial City Directorate alone… But Perfected Master Shenxiao claimed the journey would be extremely dangerous and required the aid of Fire virtue. He said we had to find fifty men whose Five Phases, as determined from their birth data, aligned with Fire to deliver the letter… There weren’t enough Fire-aligned men in the Imperial City Directorate, so His Majesty ordered me to select another thirty from the Imperial Guard… And the Perfected Master insisted that his disciple, Daoist Ma, be named leader of the mission, saying his immortal fire would aid us. Who could have guessed that Daoist Ma would instead set the mountain ablaze and harm so many people…”

Li Si blinked silently. In truth, his Five Phases were not aligned with Fire at all. Years ago, in order to get him entered into the military register early and start collecting a monthly salary, his uncle had found someone to increase his recorded age by one year. Li Si had actually enlisted at fourteen. He said nothing of this to the Commander.

A sudden last burst of strength came over the Commander. He seized Li Si’s wrist and said urgently, “Daoist Ma clings to life, fears death, and has a vicious heart. He is absolutely not a man who can be trusted to see this mission through! If he survives tonight and you encounter him, kill him. Don’t let him cause any more trouble!”

Li Si knelt silently on one knee, his expression as wooden as ever. The Commander gripped his wrist painfully tight and stared at him for a long moment. Only then did Li Si realize he was expected to answer, so he nodded.

The Commander released a long breath. His hand went slack, and he died.

As usual, Li Si searched the body for anything useful. He found a pouch of silver pieces and a finely crafted sleeve knife about the length of his palm, both of which he kept. He also scraped up some yellow earth to cover the Commander’s face, then stood and felt his way farther down the mountain.

——

The season was approaching Lesser Cold, and a thin layer of ice had only just begun forming over the Fen River. After the landslide, the debris had rushed all the way down the slope to the riverbank, smashing a line of large holes through the still-fragile ice. Broken rocks continued to tumble down from the mountain from time to time, rolling over the debris with a succession of eerie crack! crack! sounds that set one’s teeth on edge.

On the sentry platform, the same two gaunt peasant men were still wrapped in their ragged padded coats, each clutching a bed-warming flask. The violent shaking earlier had frightened them badly, but once they saw that the debris had stopped well short of the mountain fortress, they relaxed again and poked their heads out to watch the excitement.

The younger brother craned his neck until another snot bubble formed beneath his nose. Without bothering to suck it back in, he shakily poked one finger from his ragged coat and once again pointed into the distance like a fairy casting a spell. “Bro, am I dreaming again? Look by the river. Why’s another tree grown there?”

His older brother yawned lazily. “You damned fool, how could another tree have grown… What tree?!”

Both men jolted awake and clung to the half-collapsed crenellated parapet, craning their necks to look. The older brother said, “No need to worry! Didn’t the new Boss have us repair the Seven-Star Formation? This time it’ll trap that blockhead ghost for sure! You stay here and watch! I’ll hurry and report—”

BOOM!

Their secret weapon collapsed again.

The brothers said nothing more. They threw down their bed-warming flasks and ran for their lives.

——

Following his uncle’s directions, Li Si found the abandoned earthen fortress at the foot of the mountain. The outside consisted entirely of rammed-earth walls three or four zhang high, making it look like a tiny sealed city. Only along the riverbank was there a stretch of earthen wall resembling a maze, as though a path might lead inside.

Li Si went down to the river and stepped through an opening in the maze, twisting left and right between the walls. They stood one or two zhang high and one or two chi thick, apparently intended to trap anyone who entered. But Li Si had gone only a short distance when he noticed a recently repaired patch at the corner ahead, where the color of the mud differed from the surrounding wall.

He backed up several steps, then charged forward hard. The earthen wall collapsed, revealing a narrow but passable path. After following it for some distance, he found several stones beside the path that could be used as footholds to climb higher. At the top stood a half-collapsed, dilapidated sentry platform.

Strangely, his uncle had called this an “abandoned” earthen fortress, yet two still-warm bed-warming flasks lay abandoned on the platform.

Li Si bent down, picked one up, and hugged it gratefully against his chest. Realizing there were living people hidden inside the supposedly abandoned fortress, he drew his saber.

——

He climbed down from the sentry platform and continued along the narrow, rugged path. There was no light anywhere inside the earthen fortress and not a sound to be heard. The earthen walls on either side gradually rose higher. He realized that the path was sloping downward into an alley, while the moonlight above was steadily being blocked from view.

He listened carefully again, then pulled out his fire striker, blew it alight, and held it forward—

A pair of sharp, gleaming eyes suddenly flashed in the darkness. A cold blade came cleaving straight toward his face!

Li Si raised his saber horizontally to block. A heavy clang! rang out. The man possessed tremendous strength; Li Si could not hold his saber steady with one hand and was forced back a step.

The man shifted forward and struck again with another vicious, heavy slash, driving Li Si back several more steps until he staggered into the earthen wall behind him.

Two rows of torches suddenly flared overhead. More than a dozen ragged men in tattered padded coats, all looking like bandits, appeared atop the earthen walls on both sides of the alley and glared down at him.

At the far end of the narrow alley stood a man draped in a tiger-fur cloak. Tall and imposing, with a fierce presence, he was obviously the leader of the bandits. A tiger-fur hat covered his head. Beneath its brim, his loose hair was still wet, frost forming on it in the wind and leaving his shoulders streaked with white. The tiger-fur cloak was only loosely drawn around him, exposing two full, muscular pecs that gleamed faintly with water and steamed with heat.

Once the tiger bandit saw Li Si’s face clearly, he was no longer in any hurry to attack. Lowering his saber, he sneered. “I wondered what kind of hero had scared you lot out of your wits and made me rush out halfway through my bath! It’s just some little brat whose hair hasn’t even grown in yet!”

Li Si steadied himself, tucked the extinguished fire striker back into his waistband, and tossed the quiver from his back. Finally, he pulled the warm bed-warming flask from inside his clothes. He was clearly reluctant to part with it, but threw that aside too. Then he gripped the saber hilt tightly in both hands, slowly drew a breath, and suddenly sprang forward.

The cold smile remained on the tiger bandit’s face as he met Li Si’s lightning-fast slash. After another tremendous impact, both men stepped back and separated.

The smile vanished from the tiger bandit’s face, and his gaze sharpened. He glanced down at the wide-bladed saber in his hand, now marred by a huge notch, and tossed it aside in disgust.

Li Si still held his own saber steadily, but the web between his thumb and forefinger had been jolted numb. He glanced at the blade and saw several deep notches in it as well. The saber had been with him for five years. It was no fine weapon, but he had carefully oiled it every day. He hated to discard it, yet if he continued using it, the blade might snap and leave him at a disadvantage. Reluctantly, he threw it aside.

The two fought another round barehanded in the cramped alley.

The tiger bandit’s heavy fists cut through the air with tremendous force. Li Si’s punches were lighter but much faster, and he gave no ground. The two traded blows back and forth. As the fight grew more intense, the ragged men lining both walls began shouting and cheering wildly for their Boss.

Li Si took a heavy punch to the shoulder, slowing him slightly. The tiger bandit seized the opportunity and drove a fist toward his waist, but Li Si evaded it with a sparrowhawk flip. Years spent riding had given Li Si exceptional strength through his waist and legs, and as he turned through the air, he kicked the tiger bandit hard in the chest.

The tiger bandit stepped back in pain and pulled his cloak open to look. A bright red footprint stood out across his chest.

He laughed, suddenly interested. Then he ripped off the heavy, cumbersome cloak and tossed it away. In the depths of winter, wearing nothing but a pair of thin trousers, he went bare-chested and resumed sparring with Li Si.

The two crashed together again, fighting at even closer quarters. Neither noticed that the tiger-fur hat had fallen from the bandit’s head during the struggle. Its leather lining was wet and crusted with frost, making it extraordinarily slippery. As they exchanged blows at close range, each man planted one foot on the hat.

Both of them lurched!

Splat!

The ragged men lining the walls saw everything clearly by torchlight: their Boss’s foot slipped, and he went crashing to the ground together with the little brat!

Li Si’s vision blurred as a wave of heat rushed against his face. All he saw was a pair of wet, wheat-brown pecs slamming heavily toward him—

They smacked him squarely in the face!

His ears rang, and in an instant, everything went black.