After two successive blows, one in the shadows and one in the open, the Xiao army’s western camp was nearly wiped out and utterly disgraced. The day after the prisoners were rescued, just as Chief Commander Wang had predicted, the Xiao army gathered heavy forces and large numbers of siege engines and launched simultaneous assaults on the northern and eastern walls.
After General Sun died in battle, his body had been taken by the northern Xiao army. Before the assault began, the Xiao army erected a wooden tower and hung General Sun’s corpse high above it, using it to humiliate and provoke the defenders on the walls.
The defenders, in turn, threw down the Xiao banner Li Si had shot through and snapped. It had been smeared all over with dog dung, so foul that the stench drifted on the wind as it fluttered lazily down beneath the city.
Both sides hated each other bitterly, and drums and gongs thundered from both armies.
The Xiao army lined up dozens of stone-throwing machines and hundreds of heavy crossbows, bombarding the walls and defenders with stones and bolts. Amid the chaos, they pushed wheeled scaling ladders and assault bridges toward the walls in an attempt to storm the city, but the Xuan defenders answered with stones and fire arrows, forcing the soldiers back from the ladders and bridges. The Xiao army then wrapped siege carts and wooden-donkey siege engines in fireproof oxhide and wet felt, concealed fresh troops inside, and pushed those beneath the walls as well, only to have them beaten back by the Xuan army’s stones and heavy crossbows.
The two sides fought bitterly for an entire day. The Xiao army left more than a thousand corpses and countless ruined siege engines behind, yet still failed to breach the city.
——
The setting sun sank. The Xiao army sounded the gong to withdraw and retreated like a swarm of locusts.
Lingering flames still clung to life among abandoned war carts, broken weapons, and shattered siege gear. The dim yellow glow of sunset covered the heaps of corpses below the walls. Vultures and crows circling overhead dropped like sudden rain, beginning the feast they had waited for all day.
Inside the city, everything was busy yet orderly. Medical soldiers carried stretchers back and forth, treating the wounded; soldiers coming on duty replaced their exhausted comrades; craftsmen who had long been waiting beneath the gate towers hurried up the walls to repair every damaged section.
Zhang San had followed Wang Xu on patrol until late the previous night, then fought another full day at the northern wall. Both of them were utterly exhausted.
As soon as the battle ended, Wang Xu dragged Zhang San down from the wall and found a military tent in the camp. He posted two personal guards at the entrance to keep Zhang San from sneaking out, then collapsed onto the crude bed without even removing his armor. “Sleep. They might attack again tomorrow morning.”
The guards brought in wooden planks, made Zhang San a low cot on the ground, spread a quilt over it, then withdrew.
Zhang San was exhausted too. He had the guards call a military physician to change the dressing on his left shoulder, then lay down and fell asleep.
——
Wang Xu slept until midnight, when some instinct told him something was wrong. He jolted awake and immediately looked toward the low cot—only to find it completely empty, with even the quilt gone.
The two guards at the entrance had fainted. Zhang San had at least been considerate enough to worry they might catch cold lying outside, so he had dragged them into the tent and covered them with Wang Xu’s cloak.
Wang Xu: “…”
He shook the two useless fellows awake and stormed straight toward the prefectural dungeon, cursing as he ran through the night. “Heartless bastard! We fought all day, and you still won’t let your older brother sleep! I should’ve let Father chop your head off the night before last!”
Wang Xu charged into the dungeon with bear-like force. Sure enough, the two jailers on duty had also been knocked out and were sleeping peacefully beside the brazier.
He went straight to the innermost cell, expecting Zhang San to have already succeeded in helping Li Si escape, only to find Zhang San quietly seated on the ground against the bars.
Zhang San had draped the quilt stolen from the military camp around himself. Half covered his own body, while the other half had been pushed through the bars and wrapped around Li Si. Like two little beasts huddling together for warmth, the two young men leaned against each other through the bars, their heads touching as they slept.
——
Wang Xu waved a hand and signaled the guards behind him to withdraw.
Alone, he slowed his steps and quietly approached the pair, lowering his head to look at them.
He had known A’Xiao for four years.
Back then, A’Xiao had only been a nineteen-year-old hothead. His martial skill was outstanding, but his temper was fiery, and he had offended many superiors. Even when he earned merit, it was never reported upward. For several years, he remained a lowly vanguard soldier, constantly sent on assignments that amounted to little more than being thrown away to die. Yet A’Xiao could eat, could fight, and was as fierce and slippery as a wildcat. He escaped death countless times, sometimes even managing to carry or drag several wounded comrades back with him.
Four years earlier, Grand Preceptor Tong had led troops south to suppress Fan La’s rebellion. During the campaign, A’Xiao had been kicked around like a cuju ball until he finally landed under the command of Wang Xu and his father. Wang Xu was straightforward by nature and loved studying martial arts, so he got along well with A’Xiao; his father, meanwhile, was upright and stern, clear in reward and punishment, and deeply respected by A’Xiao. The father and son quickly tamed much of A’Xiao’s wildness. Under their guidance, A’Xiao gradually learned how to deal with people and conduct himself in the world. His temperament was no longer as sharp and untamed as it had been in youth, and his cleverness and quick thinking began to show. He was promoted to Unit Commander and started learning how to lead troops and conduct marches.
Wang Xu had watched A’Xiao grow up. The A’Xiao of today still had his sincere nature, but he had long since learned to judge the situation and plan things carefully.
To seize an opportunity to leave Grand Preceptor Tong’s army, bear the tattooed marks on his face and the obvious identity of a deserter, struggle north through countless dangers, then somehow attach himself to an “Envoy” and successfully make his way back into Kuiyuan—the dangers and hardships involved were easy to imagine. Yet A’Xiao had done it.
He had already done it, yet he had nearly thrown everything away again for this young Envoy.
Wang Xu was certain that A’Xiao was holding back now only because he trusted Father to save the boy. If Prefect Zhang truly intended to execute the young Envoy, A’Xiao would undoubtedly find some other way to resist.
They had known each other for only a few short days, yet A’Xiao had already said, “He really is different from everyone else.”
This kid has truly fallen for him.
——
The lamps in the prison were dim, and Wang Xu’s vision gradually blurred.
Looking down at the two young men leaning against one another, he suddenly thought of his wife and children far away in the capital, and of his wife’s silent, reluctant gaze when he had left home years ago.
In their youth, they too had been tender and affectionate, once walking hand in hand through a bustling night market with lanterns in their hands. In early adulthood, they had been blessed with boy-and-girl twins, but the birth had nearly cost his wife her life. He had been terrified, wiping sweat from her face with tears in his eyes. Now, in middle age, war was frequent and they were more often apart than together. Love was no longer easily spoken aloud, and longing had been buried beneath hatred for the enemy and grief for the nation.
When would they meet again? When could they lean warmly against one another and sleep peacefully through a cold winter night like this?
Even a fierce general as steadfast as a mountain could not stop the heat rising in his eyes.
——
But a prison had its rules, and allowing Zhang San to sleep there was ultimately improper. Wang Xu moved lightly and bent down to wake him, only to sense someone’s gaze and stop.
Zhang San was truly exhausted and sleeping deeply. Li Si, however, had been startled awake and was looking up at Wang Xu.
Li Si’s face was still hazy with sleep, his eyes clear and dark. He stared blankly for a long moment before recognizing Brother Wang, who had brought Zhang San to visit him the day before. Brother Wang had also instructed the jailers not to mistreat him and to give him three full meals.
Li Si did not know that Brother Wang had come to catch Zhang San. He thought Wang Xu had come to visit and look after him again, so he blinked quietly, pressed his lips together, and gave him a shy, grateful smile.
Brother Wang: “!!!”
The young man’s brows and eyes were handsome and delicate. Though his features had already matured, he still carried a clean, youthful innocence that had yet to fade. When Wang Xu had left home, his son and daughter had still been young children; after a few more years, perhaps they too would look this fresh and tender.
Wang Xu felt as though lightning had struck him. He stiffly straightened, waved at Li Si to indicate Go back to sleep, then turned and hurried away.
——
At dawn, Zhang San opened his eyes and carefully pulled the entire quilt back without waking the sleeping Li Si. He also rubbed away the dusty impression his body had left on the floor with the sole of his boot, concealing every trace that he had sneaked in and slept there overnight.
He stretched his stiff body a little, bundled the quilt into his arms, and tiptoed back the way he had come.
He passed soundlessly by the two jailers, who were still sleeping deeply, and crept toward the dungeon entrance, convinced that his plan had been flawless and that he could simply sneak back to the northern military camp.
The moment he emerged into the faint morning light, however, Wang Xu stood outside like a mountain. He had changed into clean battle robes and looked full of energy, his powerful arms folded as his bright eyes glared at Zhang San.
Zhang San: “…”
Guiltily, he hid his face behind the quilt. Knowing full well that he was in the wrong, he still tried to argue. “I only came to look at him. I didn’t let him escape.”
Wang Xu snorted through his nose, gave him a contemptuous glance, then looked around to make sure no one else was present. He snatched the quilt away, tucked it under one arm, and pulled out two steamed buns wrapped in dried lotus leaves, stuffing them into Zhang San’s hands. “Take these to him.”
Then he produced another dried-lotus-leaf packet. Inside was a tiny pinch of cane-sugar crystals. “Got them from the prefectural yamen’s cook. They’re good dipped with the buns. Give him these too.”
Great Xuan’s sugar-making techniques were advanced, and cane sugar was common and cheap enough for ordinary households to afford. In wartime, however, it was extremely difficult to come by, especially in the army. Wang Xu’s huge hands—hands used to wield weapons and kill enemies—carefully cradled that tiny pinch of sugar, afraid the wind might scatter it. After showing Zhang San, he carefully wrapped it again and stuffed the packet into his hands.
Zhang San: “???”
He suspected Wang Xu had dreamed of being kicked in the head by little colt hooves. “Brother, I’ve never seen you treat me this well.”
The little brother got sugar. The big brother got fists.
If Wang Xu had not been carrying the quilt under one arm, he would gladly have fed Zhang San another pair of punches. “As if you deserve it, you useless brat! Just to sneak into prison and sleep for one night, you knocked out four people. Did any of them offend you?”
——
The Xiao army attacked for only one day. After being repulsed, they did not return the following day.
By this point in the war, both sides had realized that Kuiyuan was solid as iron and could not be taken by brute force. Battles like these, aside from consuming manpower and supplies on both sides, were little more than shows of intimidation—the Xiao could not enter the city, and the Xuan could not leave it. What they were competing over now was not military strength, but time.
All the Xiao army needed to do was keep the city trapped and wait. Wait for one northern Xuan city after another to fall, wait for every relief army to be defeated in turn, wait for Great Xuan’s already scarce elite troops to be gradually exhausted, wait until the supplies and grain stockpiled in Kuiyuan finally ran dry.
Then Kuiyuan would become nothing more than an isolated dead city with no hope of relief, helplessly awaiting death and ripe for the taking.
——
That morning, Prefect Zhang finally awakened after two days of unconsciousness. The subordinates and servants waiting outside were overjoyed. Some fed him soup, others medicine, while those who needed to notify Chief Commander Wang hurried off at once.
Chief Commander Wang rode quickly from the eastern wall to the prefectural yamen, only to find Prefect Zhang gone. A servant said the Prefect had ignored the objections of his servants and physicians and insisted on going to the northern gate, where the previous day’s fighting had been fiercest.
Chief Commander Wang hurried to the northern gate. Wang Xu and Zhang San were both standing guard on the wall, but neither had gone up into the gate tower. The subordinates waiting below said Prefect Zhang was currently alone upstairs and would see no one except Chief Commander Wang.
Chief Commander Wang removed his weapons and went upstairs alone.
The gate tower stood directly above the northern gate. To display the grandeur and prosperity of Great Xuan to envoys from the northern states, it had been built on an impressive scale: dragons coiled around the pillars on all four sides, the five-ridged hipped roof rose stately and imposing, and rows of lifelike ridge beasts lined its green glazed tiles.
Unfortunately, after more than a month of bombardment by Xiao stone-throwing machines, most of the green tiles had collapsed, the ridge beasts had long since been smashed to pieces, and a huge hole gaped in the roof. Cold wind poured through it with a ceaseless whoosh, whoosh, chilling the building to its bones.
Prefect Zhang stood alone by the railing of the second-floor gallery. From a distance, his tall, slender figure looked refined and elegant, like a cultured gentleman gazing contemplatively into the distance. Up close, however, the wind had blown his hair loose, strands whipping wildly around his face. The bruises and swelling had not faded, his eyes were puffed up like those of a giant fish, and the man himself looked as bleak and battered as this half-collapsed symbol of prosperity.
Chief Commander Wang approached from behind and saluted. “Prefect.”
Prefect Zhang turned, squinting through swollen eyes as he struggled to make him out. “Brother Zhengchen, you’re here. Please, sit… No. Come stand here.”
Chief Commander Wang stepped beside him. He had intended to ask after Prefect Zhang’s health, but with the man’s face swollen into such a miserable state, the question would almost sound like mockery, so he wisely swallowed it. After thinking for a moment, he said, “Yongxi, the wind is strong out here. You’ll catch a chill. Whatever you need to discuss, let’s return to the prefectural yamen and speak there.”
Prefect Zhang weakly shook his head and raised one pale hand, pointing beneath the tower, where several craftsmen were hurrying to repair sections of wall smashed open by stones.
“At first,” Prefect Zhang said, “their stone-throwing machines could only reach halfway up the wall. Later, they could hit the top. Now look—even the gate tower itself can be punched open.”
Chief Commander Wang replied, “I’ve already ordered the craftsmen to dismantle abandoned buildings in the city and use the timber for barricades. At the same time, they’re making thousands of rope nets covered with cloth screens. Erect those barricade nets atop the walls, and they can catch incoming stones.”
“These nets are made only of rope and cloth. What if they attack with incendiary bombs?”
“Incendiary bombs are a Great Xuan technique. The Xiao do not know how to make them.”
Prefect Zhang sighed. “Many northern cities have already fallen or surrendered. Those cities possessed incendiary bombs. It will not take the Xiao long to learn the technique. They were a nomadic people, uncivilized, and founded their state barely ten years ago. Back then, they didn’t even know how to use ordinary siege engines. Ten years later, they have captured countless cities from Northern Lang, destroyed the kingdom itself, and now they have come for Great Xuan.”
Chief Commander Wang said, “If the Xiao acquire new techniques, we will devise new countermeasures. When soldiers come, generals block them. When floodwaters come, earth dams stop them.”
Prefect Zhang gave a bitter smile. “Brother is the same as ever. No hardship can shake your resolve. Do you remember when the Xiao first surrounded Kuiyuan? I once considered surrendering the city. You stopped me and explained the greater cause, or else I might have committed a terrible mistake.”
Chief Commander Wang said, “When Grand Preceptor Tong fled south with the army, I personally saw you desperately trying to persuade him to stay, even at the risk of offending him. We have known each other for years. I know you are not a man who chases power or fears death. You were thinking of the people of this prefecture and feared the Xiao would slaughter them after taking the city.”
Prefect Zhang smiled bitterly. “Brother understands me, and I understand Brother. I may be weak, but after you persuaded me, I understood that Kuiyuan’s fate is tied to the safety of Great Xuan. We cannot surrender. Besides, the Xiao are cruel and lawless. Even cities that surrendered were still massacred and looted. They treat Xuan people like cattle and horses, selling them to nobles to be enslaved, abused, and killed at will. Worse still, during sieges, they bind our own civilians in front of their armies and drive them forward as shields of flesh and blood…”
Hatred twisted Prefect Zhang’s face. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his teeth until they creaked, trembling as he said, “If Kuiyuan also falls into Xiao hands… I am afraid. So afraid that I cannot sleep at night.”
Chief Commander Wang sighed. Prefect Zhang’s caution and meticulousness were strengths, but the other side of those traits was an anxious nature that worried about everything. Every advantage had its cost.
Still trembling, Prefect Zhang continued, “The day I refused to admit General Sun, I heard him die beneath the walls with my own ears. I have regretted it ever since. And then that very night, His Majesty’s secret decree arrived…”
Chief Commander Wang immediately straightened. That was right. He had stormed off in anger that night, and Prefect Zhang had spent the following days unconscious. Amid everything that had happened, he had completely forgotten about the secret decree. “What did His Majesty order? Are reinforcements coming? Is there some plan to defeat the enemy?”
Prefect Zhang sighed. “Brother thought exactly as I did. Reinforcements? A plan to defeat the enemy?”
He pulled a scroll from inside his robe—the secret decree he had spent an entire sleepless night deciphering—and pressed it into Chief Commander Wang’s hands with trembling fingers. “Brother, read it yourself. See what our Emperor, the Son of Heaven of Great Xuan, sent someone a thousand li north to entrust to us while the nation stands on the brink of ruin.”
Chief Commander Wang lowered his head to read. His expression gradually darkened, and he frowned in silence for a long while.
Prefect Zhang suddenly erupted. “The eastern Xiao army is marching south. The Emperor Emeritus has already abdicated and fled! Yet our new Emperor sends no reinforcements and has no strategy for defeating the enemy. Instead, he listens to some damned Daoist and orders us to search Kuiyuan for some imperial descendant whose Five Phases align with Fire, so he can be taken back for the Daoist to perform rituals and pray for blessings!”
His voice dropped into a furious growl. “If Kuiyuan falls! If the capital falls! If Great Xuan falls! What damned use is an imperial descendant then?!”
“Watch your tongue!”
Chief Commander Wang lunged forward and clapped a hand over his superior’s mouth. Ignoring etiquette entirely, he glanced anxiously down from the tower. Fortunately, the wind was fierce and the tower stood high. The craftsmen below were concentrating on their work and had heard none of Prefect Zhang’s treasonous outburst.
Chief Commander Wang immediately dragged Prefect Zhang from the gallery back inside, pulling him beneath the ruined roof to calm down. “Yongxi! Never say anything like that again!”
Prefect Zhang himself looked as though he had frightened his soul out of his body. After standing dazed for a while, he asked shakily, “No one heard that… did they?”
The two senior officials, whose combined ages exceeded a hundred years, stretched their necks and peered down the staircase together. Seeing no one there—and realizing their subordinates had dutifully kept everyone outside the tower—they finally breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Now they truly were bound together in life and death. First thoughts of surrender, then words of gross disrespect toward the Emperor. Either one was more than enough to wipe out nine generations of a family.
——
The two officials stood beneath the drafty roof, the enormous stone that had smashed through it lying at their feet. Both were still shaken.
After a long silence, Chief Commander Wang finally gave a bitter laugh. “You’re usually so cautious. I never expected words like that from you.”
Prefect Zhang sighed. “It is precisely because I am weak by nature. First came General Sun’s tragedy, which angered even Brother enough to leave. Then I spent the entire night alone deciphering His Majesty’s decree. My heart turned to ashes, and I never slept.”
He rubbed his swollen eyelids, his expression relaxing slightly. “But the next day, Brother insisted on leaving the city to rescue the prisoners. You charged out bravely and returned safely, which relieved me greatly. Then, as soon as I woke up… that young Envoy beat me senseless.”
Chief Commander Wang said, “He is still young. He acted impulsively…”
Prefect Zhang shook his head. “Brother need not blame him. That beating actually knocked some sense into me. I am a Pacification Commissioner responsible for an entire circuit and the Prefect of Kuiyuan, yet I had less courage and insight than one young man. It is truly shameful.”
He lowered his head, straightened his robes, adjusted his headpiece, and smoothed down the hair the wind had disordered. Only then did his expression grow serious. “I did not ask Brother here merely to trade gloomy words. I sincerely wish to resist the enemy, yet I can see no path forward. The capital is threatened, and His Majesty cares only for rituals. Hedong has become isolated, while the Xiao attacks grow fiercer by the day. In Brother’s judgment, how can Kuiyuan save itself?”
Chief Commander Wang said, “I have been considering that question these past two days as well. After hearing A’Xiao describe Ant County, I came up with several ideas. They may buy us a sliver of hope.”
Prefect Zhang’s spirits lifted. “I would very much like to hear them.”
——
No one knew what the two officials discussed upstairs. They spoke for nearly an hour. Wang Xu and Zhang San waited beneath the tower, growing more anxious the longer they stood there. At one point, they even vaguely heard several shouted sentences from above, but the wind was too strong for them to make out a single word.
At last, Zhang San could no longer endure it. “Brother Xu, why don’t you go up and look? They’ve been talking forever. What if they’re arguing about Sisi?”
Wang Xu felt uneasy too and hovered near the tower entrance as though considering barging inside. The prefectural officials did not dare offend him, but they still tried to stop him. “General Wang, we are only following orders. We mean no disrespect. Please do not make things difficult for us.”
Wang Xu was not entirely unreasonable. With no choice, he dragged the restless Zhang San away, and the two circled the tower once more. When they returned, they finally saw the two senior officials descending the stairs one after the other.
They hurried forward and saluted. “Prefect. Chief Commander.”
Prefect Zhang’s face was still swollen, but the despair that had hung over him before was gone. “My poor health has caused Envoy Li to suffer unnecessarily for several days. I must trouble the two of you to bring him out and escort him to the rear courtyard of the prefectural yamen so he may wash and change. At noon today, I will hold a memorial at the western gate and burn incense for the souls of the fallen Shuozhou reinforcements. Please bring Envoy Li as well.”
Zhang San froze, not having expected that response at all. He stood there until Wang Xu promptly kicked him in the shin, at which point he finally recovered and hurriedly saluted together with Wang Xu, repeatedly acknowledging the order.
——
Li Si was still wrapped in the coat Zhang San had left two nights earlier, curled into the corner like a rice dumpling.
His hands were still trapped in the wooden cangue. With his long, callused fingers, he idly played with a dried lotus leaf that had once wrapped cane-sugar crystals, every so often lifting it to his nose to sniff the lingering sweetness.
The scent made him feel a little sweet inside. Then he rubbed his cheek against Zhang San’s coat and felt a little warmth as well, which left him quite content.
After staring blankly for a while, he tried folding the dried leaf into a kite. But he had never folded a kite before, and the cangue kept his hands so far apart that he could not bring them together properly. Eventually, he gave up and peacefully returned to staring into space.
Suddenly, hurried footsteps sounded from above the dungeon. Thud, thud, thud, thud. They were coming fast.
Li Si raised his head, clenched the dried leaf in his hand, and stood to approach the bars. Before he even reached them, Zhang San had already strode into view. With one hand, he seized the iron bars and hauled hard several times, bending several of them out of shape before reaching through and pulling Li Si straight out of the cell.
Zhang San’s next punch slammed heavily into the wooden cangue. Crack! It split in two. He tore it off Li Si, then swept the younger man into his arms, chest pressed to chest, holding him so tightly it seemed as though he wanted to press Li Si directly into his own body.
Only then did Zhang San finally stop moving and breathe out a long sigh.
Li Si’s face reddened inside his embrace, but he did not struggle. Beside his ear, Zhang San murmured as though sighing, “Little Fool.”
Li Si was too busy enduring the heat in his face to answer.
Zhang San stroked his hair and quietly called again, “Little colt.”
“Big tiger,” Li Si replied this time.
Zhang San laughed. The vibration of his chest shook both of them, and he ruffled Li Si’s hair once more.