Futile Devices Scans

The moment Zhang San said he was leaving, the dozen or so ragged men from before all crawled out of the earthen caverns, along with several peasant women—the family members of some of the men. Every one of them looked uneasy and frightened.

It turned out that this earthen fortress truly was an abandoned fortress, built in some unknown dynasty. Aside from the rammed-earth walls and sentry platform, there were numerous secret tunnels and caverns inside, like an enormous ant nest. The fortress had long since been abandoned, and most of the tunnels had collapsed, but a few caverns remained where people could shelter. Drainage channels, smoke vents, kitchens, latrines—all the necessary facilities were there. Behind the fortress was a mountain spring; game could be hunted in the forest, and there were even several plots of land that had once been cultivated.

Before the Xiao army besieged Kuiyuan, several cities to the north had fallen, and a group of refugees had fled into the abandoned fortress. They were all impoverished tenant farmers bringing along their elderly and children, roughly twenty or thirty people altogether. After the Xiao army surrounded Kuiyuan, another group appeared: desperate outlaws, every one of them a huge, vicious brute.

The bandits took over the fortress and made themselves its rulers, using threats and enticements to force the refugees into joining their gang. The bandit chief drove them like laborers, ordering them to build a maze called the Seven-Star Formation at the entrance of the earthen fortress to keep outsiders away. The bandits also went out every day to rob and plunder, slaughtering travelers fleeing south along the Fen River and wealthy households escaping from Ant County, stripping them of everything they carried.

The refugees suffered endless abuse from the bandits and watched them kill people day after day, but could only swallow their anger in silence. It was not until half a month earlier, when Zhang San suddenly barged into the fortress and slaughtered the entire gang of vicious bandits with his saber, that everyone inside was finally saved.

Zhang San distributed all the wealth the bandits had stolen among the refugees, and most of them took their families and continued fleeing south. Only these dozen or so able-bodied men and women remained. They had no elderly relatives or children to care for, no family or friends in the south to take them in, and no desire to leave their homeland in the north. So they stubbornly attached themselves to Zhang San, refusing to leave the fortress and insisting on calling him their “new Boss.”

——

Seeing that he really meant to leave, everyone grew anxious, afraid of losing their protector again.

Zhang San hardened his voice. “I told you when I first came here that sooner or later I’d leave!”

Everyone’s eyes reddened. “Boss…”

“I’ll leave the tiger-fur cloak with you. Choose yourselves another Boss. There’s stored grain and farmland in the fortress, enough to keep you alive. Go up the mountain every day and take a look. If you see Kuiyuan fall, then stop clinging to the north and flee south through the forest.”

Tears shimmered in everyone’s eyes. “Boss…”

“Don’t rob travelers, and don’t fight among yourselves. If I hear about it, I’ll come back and clean you lot out myself.”

Everyone burst into loud sobs. “Boooss!”

“Let go of me! Stop pulling at my coat! This is the only decent set of clothes I’ve got left, and I still need to wear it into the city! Hey! Hey!”

——

Li Si climbed out of the tunnel and retrieved his quiver from the narrow alley where they had fought the day before. He also picked up his saber, now marred by a large notch, and turned it over and over in his hands, clearly reluctant to part with it.

It was early morning, and the sun was still gentle. A narrow strip of light spilled down from the high wall on one side of the alley. Zhang San emerged from the tunnel with his clothes in disarray and happened to see Li Si standing in that soft beam of sunlight, lashes lowered as he silently stroked the damaged saber. There was no expression on his face, yet somehow he looked both pitiful and aggrieved.

Zhang San could not help asking, “What are you crying about?”

Li Si raised his eyes in confusion. “I’m not crying.”

The tears he had shed the previous night were the first he could remember crying in his life, yet in Zhang San’s eyes, he had apparently already become a sniveling little crybaby.

Zhang San frowned. “If it’s broken, throw it away. I’ll replace it.”

He ducked back into the tunnel and brought out one of the broad, single-edged sabers the bandits had used to rob travelers. Li Si pressed his lips together and stared at the greasy, grime-coated hilt for a long time, unwilling to take it.

Seeing straight through him, Zhang San cursed, “You’re lucky there’s a weapon at all! Still being picky? What kind of fine blade do you expect to find in this broken fortress?”

Li Si lowered his eyes and thought for a moment. “Do you have an iron shovel?”

“What for?”

“I know where there are weapons. Two sabers.”

——

Each carrying a battered iron shovel, the two left the earthen fortress beneath everyone’s tearful send-off. They followed the route Li Si had found the night before and climbed back up the mountain along the rockslide debris.

Li Si dug both Li Er and the Commander out from beneath the rocks. Then he found a conspicuous large tree nearby, dug a deep pit beneath it, and buried both bodies inside.

Zhang San could tell Li Si was feeling low, so for once he did not chatter. He silently put his strength to work, helping Li Si carry the bodies and dig the grave.

Before covering them with earth, Li Si jumped down into the pit and removed both men’s sabers, handing them up to Zhang San. Li Er’s bow had also been smashed, so Li Si left it beside him as a burial offering. He straightened the Commander’s cap and clothes, then carefully tidied Li Er’s clothing as well.

He wiped that stubbled face again and again, but no matter how many times he wiped it, wet traces remained. He could never seem to wipe them away completely…

After a long silence, Zhang San suddenly asked, “Who is he to you?”

“My second uncle,” Li Si said.

Zhang San fell silent again.

——

Li Si wiped his uncle’s face one last time, then stood and climbed out of the grave.

His face was covered in dust and dirt. He only thought the wind on the mountain was too strong, making his eyes blur until he could barely see. Just as he raised a hand to wipe them, warmth suddenly touched his cheek. Zhang San had reached out first, his warm thumb gently brushing Li Si’s face several times.

Li Si froze.

Zhang San coughed and awkwardly tried to comfort him. “The dead cannot come back. Don’t cry.”

Am I crying? Li Si wondered blankly.

He still was not very good at recognizing his own emotions and had not even realized he was crying again. What he did notice was the burning heat in his face. Unable to stand there dazed any longer, he slapped Zhang San’s hand away and blurted, “You touched me again!”

Zhang San had only meant to comfort him and was astonished to be resented for it. “Who wants to touch you? I only saw you crying again!”

Li Si snatched one of the sabers back from Zhang San—the Commander’s. His second uncle’s weapon was a broad-bladed saber, while Li Si was accustomed to lighter, narrower blades. The Commander’s saber was a slender imperial-style weapon.

Gripping it in one hand, he jabbed Zhang San hard with the scabbard. “You—you stay farther away from me!”

Zhang San was completely baffled. “What are you getting shy for?”

——

Zhang San knew perfectly well that Li Si was simply embarrassed from being teased. Li Si, however, thought Zhang San was bullying him again and that the burning in his cheeks was anger. Bad children in the military camp had bullied him before, but his emotions had always been numb, and he had never become this angry. Yet for some reason, every time Zhang San bullied him, he became “angry”—so “angry” that his face heated again and again.

Why does Zhang San always bully me? Why is he so awful?

The two somehow ended up sulking at each other—or rather, Li Si sulked at Zhang San—while they silently shoveled earth over the grave.

Digging the grave and completing the burial took several hours. By then the sun had risen high overhead. The two sat far apart—or rather, Li Si sat far away from Zhang San—each eating a piece of dry ration and taking a few swallows of water before beginning to climb toward the other side of the rockslide.

Li Si climbed ahead. A loose stone shifted beneath his foot, and he accidentally stepped into empty air. Zhang San reached from behind and caught him in time. Li Si found firm footing on another rock, then immediately kicked backward and said urgently, “Let go!”

Zhang San released the hand that had been supporting his backside.

Li Si once again became so “angry” that his entire face burned. He continued climbing, thinking the tiger bandit had finally learned to behave, only to hear Zhang San call from below, “Little colt, why’re you just like a little donkey? Touch you once and you kick.”

Li Si was terrible at trading insults. Hearing Zhang San compare him to a donkey, he thought for a long while before finally shouting back, “Big tiger!” After a pause, deciding that was nowhere near insulting enough, he added, “Big bug!”

Elio’s Notes: 大虫, literally “big bug,” was also an old colloquial name for a tiger. Li Si thinks he has found a harsher insult, but he has essentially called Zhang San “big tiger” twice.

Zhang San laughed so hard below that his whole body shook. He was so delighted that his own foot slipped, and with a sharp crack! he slid a long way down.

Li Si hurriedly looked back, his own foot starting to slip downward as well, but Zhang San called from below, “I’m fine! Keep going!” Judging from his voice, he was still laughing far too hard.

Li Si silently cursed him again as a big bug. He had the feeling that if he said it aloud, Zhang San would only keep laughing and falling down forever, so he wisely shut his mouth.

——

The higher they climbed, the harsher the sun became and the more bitterly the wind cut, leaving neither of them any energy to argue. After finally making it over the largest boulders, they picked their way down the loose rubble on the other side, one step sinking deep and the next barely finding purchase. Both men swayed unsteadily. Neither had any attention left for embarrassment or anger, so they clung tightly to each other’s arms and supported one another down the slope.

When their feet finally reached level ground, both let out a long breath without realizing it. Li Si quickly released Zhang San’s arm. It had been solid yet yielding, thick with muscle, disturbingly similar to what had smacked him in the face the night before. Now not only his face but even his palm felt hot.

Zhang San had no time to tease him. He swept a wary gaze over their surroundings. The desolate landscape of shattered stones and snapped trees looked much the same as the other side of the rockslide. Several corpses lay among the remaining rubble, some facedown, others sprawled on their backs.

Li Si went forward to search the bodies of his fallen comrades. Zhang San sighed. “Who are these people to you now? Need to dig another grave? We already left the shovels behind.”

Li Si shook his head. He merely removed an intact bow from one of the bodies, slung it over his back together with its bow case, and gathered the arrows into his own quiver. Then he scraped up some yellow earth and covered each dead man’s face, bringing the hasty burial rite to an end before straightening again.

“How many of you were there altogether?” Zhang San asked.

Li Si answered honestly, “Fifty.”

Zhang San counted. “Only five here. Add those two back there, and that makes seven. Where’re all the others? Buried under the rocks?”

Li Si shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Zhang San looked around, then pointed toward a trail of confused footprints in the forest. “Looks like quite a few survived. Are they heading to Ant County?”

Li Si shook his head again. “I don’t know.”

Zhang San planted his hands on his hips. “You don’t know this, you don’t know that. What the hell are you good for? So many people survived—how did that wax pellet end up with you of all people, Little Fool?”

Li Si did not become angry despite the scolding. He slowly explained, “My second uncle suggested Ant County to the Commander. Only my second uncle knew the way. Now that my second uncle and the Commander are both dead, I don’t know where the others would go.”

“There’s only one city on this mountain. They’ve got nowhere else to go. Come on!”

Li Si shook his head yet again. “I don’t know the way.”

“Who said I was relying on you? What the hell good would that do? I know the way. Come on!”

——

Zhang San truly did know the way. Before long, the two emerged from the mountain forest and arrived outside Ant County, halfway up the mountainside.

Ant County was a pocket-sized city only four or five li around, built directly against the mountain. To the east, it faced a cliff overlooking Kuiyuan in the distance. To the north and west, it was nestled into steep mountain ridges. Only one official road ran along the southern slope, providing the sole entrance into the little city.

In short, it was an isolated mountain city.

Perhaps because it was hidden and difficult to find, or perhaps because it was too insignificant to matter, the Xiao army surrounding Kuiyuan twenty li away had not noticed it. The land outside the southern wall lay empty, without any traces of fighting or attack. Atop the city tower, three or four zhang high, a Great Xuan flag fluttered quietly. Beneath it stood a single thick city gate, tightly shut.

Li Si noticed several subtle mounds hidden beneath the withered grass along the road. He crouched and carefully scraped at one with his scabbard. Buried underneath was an iron caltrop designed to obstruct men and horses, something he had seen before in military texts.

The two slowed and carefully picked their way around the caltrops.

When they reached a point only three or four meters from the southern gate, the ground suddenly vanished beneath Li Si’s feet, and his entire body dropped!

Zhang San, walking behind him, caught the back of his collar in time and hauled him up. They were nearly the same height, but Zhang San raised both arms high, holding Li Si like a long, skinny cat before carefully setting him back on solid ground.

Startled, Li Si looked down. The seemingly flat patch of dead grass beneath his feet had collapsed, revealing a pit two or three meters deep, its bottom densely packed with sharpened wooden stakes. Had he actually fallen in, he would have been skewered straight through.

Li Si had never defended a city, but he had seen this sort of thing in military texts too. “This is… a horse-trap pit?”

“What a fancy bookish name,” Zhang San said. “I just call it a death pit.” As he spoke, he hooked Li Si’s chin upward, making him look up as well. A row of archers suddenly popped up in quick succession behind the crenellated parapet, all drawing their bows and aiming straight at them.

“A tiny county like this actually has defenses like these,” Zhang San remarked, casually pinching Li Si’s soft cheek. “Quick, use that little imperial-hound token of yours… Hey! Why’re you kicking me again?”

——

A bamboo basket tied to a rope was lowered from the city wall. The two carefully crossed several rows of horse-trap pits and placed the Imperial City Directorate token inside. Once the basket had been hauled up, a helmeted head appeared over the wall, examined the two men, then waved toward someone behind him.

Before long, the two heavy city gates slowly opened just wide enough to form a narrow gap, and Zhang San and Li Si slipped through sideways one after the other.

The moment they entered, several sabers came down heavily across their shoulders. Inside stood a semicircular inner barbican, with archers posted along the smaller surrounding walls, bowstrings drawn and aimed directly at them.

Elio’s Notes: A barbican is a fortified enclosure built around or just inside a city gate, creating an additional defensive space and helping protect the gate itself.

Li Si looked around tensely. Zhang San, by contrast, seemed perfectly relaxed. His eyes swept around the enclosure before he asked curiously, “When did they build this barbican? It wasn’t here before.”

A young man in full battle armor, around twenty years old, descended from the city tower carrying the Imperial City Directorate token. Speaking with the same Hedong accent as Zhang San, he said, “These are extraordinary times. Please forgive my discourtesy. May I ask who you two gentlemen are and what brings you here?”

Zhang San elbowed Li Si. Keeping his face stiff, Li Si struggled to organize his words before slowly saying, “I… am a drill instructor of the Dragon Guard Army in the capital. I was ordered to go to Kuiyuan City on military business. Since Kuiyuan is under siege and cannot be entered for the moment, I need to use your county’s post station to rest and regroup.”

Hearing that Li Si was a drill instructor, Zhang San glanced at him in surprise. Li Si had never mentioned that the night before. No wonder his movements were so clean and efficient—he was already a drill instructor at such a young age.

Li Si spoke the standard speech of the capital, and with the token in hand, the young man already half believed him. He asked, “Since you came from the capital, do you know a Daoist Master who traveled with you?”

Li Si’s eyes widened, instantly shattering his previously calm and aloof appearance. “The one who looks like a horse? The one who breathes fire?”

The young man froze. Zhang San burst out laughing behind Li Si.

The young man awkwardly cleared his throat. “Ahem. Yes… I suppose so.”

“He traveled with us,” Li Si said. “There’s also a Strongman who looks like a pig.”

Zhang San laughed even louder. The young man coughed awkwardly again. “Ahem. Isn’t he the Lion-Headed Strongman?”

Li Si explained with complete seriousness, “When he takes off the mask, he has a pig face.”

Zhang San nudged him from behind and laughed under his breath. “Little colt, hurry up and shut your mouth.”

Fortunately, the young man was serious by nature and not the sort to make trouble or mock people. He ordered his subordinates to lower their weapons, returned the Imperial City Directorate token with both hands, and bowed in apology. “Honored officers, please forgive the offense just now. This subordinate is Liu Wu, Chief Constable of this county. Please follow me.” With that, he led the two through the barbican and into the city.

——

As they walked, Li Si took the initiative to ask the young Chief Constable, “May I ask where Daoist Ma is?”

“Our county’s post station is small and shabby, and Daoist Ma’s party is too large to fit there. They are currently staying at the county yamen.”

Zhang San suddenly cut in. “A large party? How many?”

“This subordinate knows that your group suffered a landslide on the journey and sustained heavy casualties. Daoist Ma’s party now has twenty-six people remaining.”

Zhang San asked suspiciously, “At a time like this, you dared let more than twenty soldiers with no identity tokens and unclear origins stay inside the county yamen?”

The young Chief Constable looked embarrassed again. He clearly thought the arrangement was inappropriate as well. Turning toward Zhang San, he asked, “Judging by your accent, sir, are you from around here?”

“I’m from Ant County,” Zhang San said. “I joined the army at fifteen and have been away for eight years.”

The young Chief Constable looked startled. “So we’re fellow townsmen!” Learning that Zhang San had spent many years on the battlefield, and now sharing the additional connection of coming from the same hometown, he sighed and said, “Daoist Ma demonstrated an immortal-fire art for our County Magistrate…”

“What art?” Zhang San asked suspiciously.

The young Chief Constable dropped the formal phrasing and sighed. “The Daoist breathed fire. Our County Magistrate loved it and kept praising it as a miraculous art.”

Zhang San laughed. “Then I’d certainly like to see what kind of fire-breathing great horse this is!” He turned toward Li Si. “Is it really that impressive?”

After asking where Daoist Ma was, Li Si had gone quiet again, walking with his eyes lowered as though lost in thought. Only when Zhang San nudged him did he slowly nod.

“The fire is very big.”

The young Chief Constable continued, “This morning, Daoist Ma also set up an altar and performed rites. He said it was some military art passed down by his master that could make people outside unable to see our county.”

Zhang San said, “Then how did the two of us see it from outside?”

The young Chief Constable hesitated. “Well…”

Clearly, he did not believe the Daoist either, but he had been unable to dissuade the County Magistrate, who seemed thoroughly bewitched. And since he had no idea what relationship the two men before him had with Daoist Ma beyond having traveled together, he did not dare say anything further. He fell silent and continued leading them toward the county yamen.