Futile Devices Scans

Zhang San clung with all his strength to the edge of the broken cliff, and only after watching Li Si’s figure disappear into the forest on the far side of the river did he finally let out a breath of relief.

He left the remaining luggage at the cliff edge, put on the tiger cloak, took only a torch and a single-edged saber, and quickly turned back toward the mountain road.

The mountain road back was still rugged and difficult to traverse. Without Li Si behind him to steady him, and because he was anxious to hurry, he fell several times along the way. Fortunately, his tiger hide was tough and highly resistant to falls. He rolled once in the snow, climbed back up unharmed, shook out his tiger fur, and continued forward.

Halfway along the road, the sun set. He lit the torch and shone it toward the dark path ahead. In the forest, tree shadows loomed and swayed with rustling movements, seeming at once like creeping ghosts and lurking beasts.

But he was filled with tiger ferocity, scorching and fierce. Demons and monsters dared not approach, and birds of prey and savage beasts dared not show their heads.

He stopped and reorganized himself, looked at the map to identify his current location, then continued onward.

–

Deep into the night, he arrived alone at the North City Gate—much later than the time he had agreed upon with Liu Wu.

Liu Wu was not waiting for him at the North City Gate. From afar, Zhang San saw Junior Clerk Chen holding a lantern, standing beneath the city gate and anxiously hopping on tiptoe.

Seeing Commander Zhang appear on the mountain road from afar, Chen Lu hurriedly hopped and ran toward him. It was only a few dozen steps, yet he ran until he was panting for breath. When he reached Commander Zhang, his foot almost slipped and he nearly fell.

He did not receive the same treatment as Envoy Li, who could throw himself into Commander Zhang’s warm embrace. He was a full head shorter than Commander Zhang and thin and slender besides. Before he could fall, Commander Zhang pinched him back with two fingers and planted him firmly to the side like a rice seedling.

“Commander! You’re finally back!” Chen Lu said anxiously. “This is bad!”

–

Beneath the South City Gate, Liu Wu held the hilt of the saber at his waist with one hand. His expression appeared calm and steady, but the space between his thumb and forefinger was clenched extremely tight. His other hand, hidden inside his sleeve, was already slick with cold sweat.

The sound of hoofbeats came from the distance. Zhang San rode a tall horse, breaking through the night as he galloped urgently toward them.

Liu Wu hurried to meet him.

Zhang San swung one long leg over and dismounted, then used two fingers to pinch Chen Lu, who had been sitting behind him, down from the horse as well.

It was Chen Lu’s first time riding a horse, and he had ridden this fast together with Commander Zhang, jolting up and down in utter terror. His face was deathly pale, and as soon as he got off the horse, he rushed to the side by himself and began retching.

Liu Wu glanced at him, saw that aside from vomiting there was nothing wrong with him, and had no time to look after him. He hurriedly said to Zhang San, “Commander! Please come with me quickly!”

The two quickly climbed onto the inner barbican, crossed along the city wall to the newly built outer barbican, and looked out through the gaps in the parapet.

—The Xiao army’s encampment had already been set up on the official road outside the city!

The nearest camp was barely one li from the South City Gate, and because the mountain road was narrow, the encampment stretched downward for several more li. The campfires blazed brightly, like a fire serpent coiled along the mountain road, and the flying black fang-banners were the serpent’s tongue, hissing and flickering in the night.

–

Zhang San looked as though he had been bitten by a venomous snake, his pupils dilating in an instant.

“What happened here?” he asked in a low voice.

With a sigh full of regret and self-reproach, Liu Wu truthfully told him about pursuing and killing the scout riders the day before, and about the whistling arrow that had given warning…

–

After receiving the warning from the whistling arrow the day before, the Xiao army’s western camp had sent out a small cavalry unit to search the western bank of the Wen River—Zhou Qi and Zhou Ba had counted from inside the sentry tower; roughly a hundred cavalrymen had come.

Following the hoofprints by the river, these cavalrymen had also discovered the official road up the mountain. After scouting ahead, they then discovered the rockslide. They dismounted, climbed over the rockslide, and discovered Ant County. There were too many of them, and Liu Wu could no longer lead men out to intercept them, so he could only retreat into the city and shut the gates tight. Those hundred or so Xiao soldiers investigated near the city gate for a while, stepped into the horse-trap pits and left three to five corpses behind, then quickly withdrew, riding down the mountain to return to camp and report.

This evening, over a thousand infantry had come again. After arriving outside the city gate, they showed no urgency in attacking the city, but set up camp on the official road instead, their fires burning through the night.

–

Zhang San climbed to the highest point of the city gate and observed carefully for a while. He saw campfires inside the Xiao encampment, but not many people resting. Instead, men were coming and going along the official road, seemingly transporting supplies.

The more he looked, the more alarmed he became. Turning to Liu Wu, he said, “With the Xiao army acting like this, they’re probably waiting for their equipment to be ready. Once day breaks tomorrow, they’ll attack the city!”

Liu Wu said regretfully, “Commander, it’s all my fault for failing to kill that old soldier with one arrow and letting him fire the signal arrow before he died! It’s all my fault! Punish me by military law if you must—kill me or cut me to pieces…”

“Stop talking nonsense!” Zhang San interrupted him. “Brother Liu, between us brothers, we don’t say this kind of useless nonsense! Right now there’s no time to punish you and no time to comfort you. Right now, we have to respond immediately!”

During the time Liu Wu had been waiting for him, he had already thought through a few countermeasures, so he said, “What if we have the common people pack their valuables overnight and hide in the mountains, leaving the Xiao army an empty city?”

But Zhang San said, “There are wild beasts and venomous snakes in the mountain forests. People can’t stay there for long. Besides, in weather this cold, the elderly, weak, women, and children may not even survive tonight. And Jiao County and Tianmen Pass have both been occupied by the Xiao army. Even if they enter the mountains, where can they go?”

He grabbed Liu Wu’s faintly trembling shoulder. “Brother Liu! We have nowhere left to retreat. Ant County must be held! Only by holding Ant County and retaking Tianmen Pass according to Chief Commander Wang’s instructions will we have a slim chance of survival—and Kuiyuan will have a slim chance of survival too!”

Meeting his blazing gaze, Liu Wu felt the blood in his own body burn as though scorched, his back turning hot. He worked hard to steady himself and nodded. “Commander, I’ll listen to you. Whatever you say, I’ll stake my head on getting it done!”

–

Since Liu Wu dared say he would stake his head on it, Zhang San truly dared to use him—he had Liu Wu take one sharp-eyed, quick-witted archer and slip out of the city under cover of night to scout near the Xiao camp and find out the situation clearly.

While Liu Wu left the city to scout, Zhang San remained inside and rearranged the defenses at the city gate. Ant County currently had more than eighty village soldiers, old and new together. He placed those skilled in archery atop the inner and outer barbicans, arranged the sabermen and spearmen along the wall, and assigned the new recruits who were not skilled in martial arts to throwing stones and oil sacks.

He also gathered all the craftsmen originally working the night shift on the fortifications and sent them to collect stones from the mountains outside the North Gate, using ox carts to transport them to the South City Gate.

–

Zhang San feared alarming the city at night and causing panic and chaos among the townspeople, so he temporarily sealed off the news that the Xiao army had surrounded the city. Only the soldiers defending the city and a small number of clerks knew. When the craftsmen came and went transporting stones, he merely said they were going to repair some additional fortifications outside the city.

However, this secret movement in the depths of night still alarmed someone who should not have been alarmed—one of the clerks secretly reported it to the head servant of the county magistrate’s household, and soon the news reached the county magistrate’s ears.

The first reaction of that rat of a county magistrate was to immediately summon his household servants to pack up valuables and flee into the mountain forest through the North Gate!

But he was stopped by his household accountant and adviser. “My lord! Don’t be a fool! The mountain road is so dangerous—how many li could you possibly escape? It’s dark at night, and who knows whether there are jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards in the forest? With so much of your household property, where could you even flee?”

The rat lord’s two thin little mustache tips trembled violently with fear. “If I flee, I can’t get away. Then what should I do? Those Xiao bandits are savage and brutal. They massacre cities! Once fighting starts tomorrow, who will still be alive?”

The accountant circled the room several times, then gritted his teeth and said, “My lord, Kuiyuan has been surrounded for so long that it likely cannot be saved. The Xiao have already destroyed the Northern Lang Kingdom. Great Xuan couldn’t even defeat Northern Lang; how long can it possibly hold out? When the nation is no longer a nation and the household is no longer a household, rather than waiting until tomorrow for our family to be ruined and our people killed, it would be better to hurry and find our own path to survival…”

With a sinister expression, he muttered for a while and came up with one hell of a wicked plan.

The more the county magistrate listened, the more frightened he became. Trembling, he said, “C-can this really work? Will they really believe it? Can we really preserve our wealth and lives?”

The accountant said viciously, “You are this county’s magistrate. How could they not believe you? If worst comes to worst, you can reveal that dragon-patterned jade pendant in your possession. One look will tell them you are imperial kin and nobility. They won’t kill you. On the contrary, they’ll let you continue overseeing this county for them.”

The county magistrate trembled for a while, and the expression on his face gradually turned vicious as well. Hardening his heart, he slapped the table and said, “Then we’ll do as you say!”

–

Liu Wu took one veteran archer with him. Wrapped from head to toe in withered grass, the two used baskets to lower themselves down from the city gate, crawled into the snow, crept across the open ground outside the gate on their bellies, and slipped into the woods.

The two crept close to the Xiao camp, climbed up a large tree, hid themselves in the crown, and observed carefully.

Aside from transporting supplies such as weapons, grain, and fodder, the Xiao army had only brought over some small scaling ladders—the rockslide was too high, and large siege engines such as stone-throwing machines and assault carts could not get through.

Moreover, because the journey was long and oxen and horses could not cross the rockslide, the Xiao army could only rely on human labor for transport—therefore, in this thousand-man camp, only about four or five hundred were actual soldiers, while the rest were merely laborers used for hauling supplies.

–

Liu Wu slipped back into the city and reported this matter to Commander Zhang. Only then did Zhang San’s tightly furrowed brows ease slightly.

—Assaulting a city was far more difficult than defending one. When a city remained sturdy and its command was orderly, even if the defenders faced a large number of attackers, they would not necessarily lose. With three thousand troops of the Shengjie Army and two thousand village soldiers, Chief Commander Wang had held Kuiyuan City for a month against what was said to be a hundred-thousand-strong Xiao offensive. For Zhang San to pit eighty men against five hundred was not without hope of victory.

–

But Zhang San was not overly confident, and in all matters he prepared for the worst. He rode alone to the training grounds and went to find the twenty-two imperial guardsmen and the two Imperial City Directorate subordinates.

After hearing him explain the current predicament of the Xiao army surrounding the city, everyone’s expressions froze.

Among the imperial guardsmen were two selected decurions. On the night before last, when they killed Xiao bandits and rescued General She, these two had been the first to respond. One of them said, “Commander Zhang wants us to lend you our strength again and join the battle on the city wall tomorrow to help defend Ant County?”

The two Imperial City Directorate subordinates beside them tensed at those words, looking as though they wanted to speak but stopped themselves.

Zhang San caught the expressions of everyone present from the corner of his eye and shook his head. “No. This time is different from last time. Defending the city will be extremely dangerous, and all of you have another important duty. There is no need for you to accompany us with your lives. I came to inform you that the person His Majesty sent you to find is currently in Ant County, but he is only willing to follow Envoy Li back to the capital. Before Envoy Li returns, if Ant County unfortunately falls, I will have to trouble you to take this person and General She into hiding in the mountains. Once Envoy Li returns, leave together.”

“When will Envoy Li return?” the decurion asked again.

“At daybreak tomorrow, I will send men to meet him. He should be able to return within one or two days.”

“Where is the person His Majesty wants?”

Zhang San knew well that officialdom and human hearts were complicated. He did not dare hand Qiao Shen over in advance, fearing that someone among them might grow selfish, abandon Li Si, and take Qiao Shen away on their own to claim merit. “If the city falls, someone will naturally bring this person here.”

The decurion nodded. “Very well. We will wait here for Commander Zhang’s message. If Commander needs manpower to defend the city, I and some of the brothers are willing to help voluntarily. We will assist Commander until Envoy Li returns.”

–

Zhang San thanked all these brave men and, anxious to return to the city gate defenses, walked out the door in only a few steps. His ears were sharp. When he reached the corridor, he heard an Imperial City Directorate subordinate lower his voice and ask, “Why did you promise to help him defend the city? Do not forget that our journey here is for the sake of completing His Majesty’s entrusted task. The matter of Ant County has nothing to do with us.”

Zhang San paused slightly and listened carefully. He heard the decurion from earlier answer, “Ant County has sheltered us for so many days, and Commander Zhang even provided this training ground for us to live in. A true man repays kindness. What is wrong with helping him once? All beneath heaven belongs to His Majesty; are the villagers of Ant County not also His Majesty’s subjects? Sir speaks so heartlessly, but did you not risk danger to save two constables a few days ago? Because Sir saved those constables, you were able to find Ant County. That is Sir’s good karma. A truly heartless man was Daoist Ma, who set a fire that burned the Commander and dozens of brothers to death. He lost half his head and did not even leave behind a whole corpse.”

The Imperial City Directorate subordinate had nothing to say and spoke no further. Outside the window, Zhang San silently grinned, not expecting that among this group of rough military men there would be someone who understood reason so clearly.

–

He turned and descended the wooden corridor toward the courtyard, the smile still at the corner of his mouth. As soon as he lifted his head, still smiling, he saw the pig-headed Strongman sliding crookedly down from the roof beam of the opposite room.

The Strongman had climbed over from the county magistrate’s residence beyond the wall. Only halfway down did he see this long-absent Plague God Zhang! That smile frightened his soul out of him, and he scrambled in terror to crawl back. But with half his backside hanging below the roof beam and his two sturdy legs kicking back and forth, how could he possibly climb back up? He was so frightened that he lowered his voice and squeaked, “Eek! Eek!” again and again.

Zhang San withdrew his smile, strode forward in several large steps, grabbed him out of midair, pressed him to the ground, and raised his fist.

The Strongman covered his head and begged for mercy. “Good—good hero, spare my life! You people have already beaten every part of my body, and my backside is still injured…”

Zhang San loosened his fist and slapped the Strongman’s fat face, which had finally recovered into a human shape after many days of rest. “What are you here for? Looking to die?”

The Strongman’s voice carried a sob. “I came to report something to Young Master Li. Good hero, why are you here…”

Zhang San slapped his fat face again. “You can report things? What kind of intention do you have! Don’t even think of tricking Young Master Li! Right now, there is only your Grandpa Zhang here!”

Having fallen into Grandpa Zhang’s hands, if a layer of thick pigskin were not flayed from him, Zhang San would still have to shave him down. The Strongman hurriedly dodged and cried in a low voice, “Grandpa, spare me! I really came to report something! That county magistrate is going to offer the city and surrender!”

Zhang San was first startled, then his face immediately darkened. He dragged the Strongman into the courtyard, pressed him into a gap between the ornamental rocks, and said in a low voice, “Explain carefully, and tell the truth! If you dare speak even one false word, I’ll cut out your tongue and feed it to the dogs!”

The Strongman trembled. “N-no false words! My backside hurt at night and I couldn’t sleep, so I went to the corridor to get some air, and ended up hearing them plotting in secret. I hid beneath the window outside and heard it with my own ears! They plan to gather the household servants and launch a surprise attack on the city gate early tomorrow morning, open the gate, and let the Xiao army in! They also said they would present a dragon-shaped jade pendant to the Xiao army…”

“The jade pendant is in their hands?” Zhang San asked in shock and suspicion.

The Strongman nodded repeatedly. “I know that jade pendant. It belongs to Young Master Li. Back then, when I fell into the pit and got stabbed in the backside, Young Master Li saved my life but fainted himself. I saw with my own eyes the head servant take it from Young Master Li.”

Zhang San frowned and sank into thought.

The Strongman trembled again. “Good hero, where is Young Master Li now? I reported the news to you, so that counts as helping you too. Young Master Li and I are both working for His Majesty. We can’t get involved in this war. Hurry and let us go!”

Zhang San gave a scornful laugh. “I was wondering why you were so kindhearted as to come report the news. So it turns out you wanted to flee for your life with Young Master Li!”

Looking wronged, the Strongman still wanted to plead innocence and loyalty, but Zhang San grabbed his pig ear and dragged him toward the courtyard exit. “Young Master Li is not here right now. You’re not going anywhere. You can only stay and fight this battle with your grandfather! Let us simply turn their plan against them!”

–

The night wind howled as it swept over the mountain peaks. Within the small mountain city, hidden currents surged, concealing a night of silent clamor.

Dawn finally arrived, and a streak of bright red fell upon the silent city walls.

The mountain road was narrow. The Xiao soldiers, dressed in black armor and lined up in a long formation, looked like a venomous snake with scales gleaming black, blocking the city gate. The snake’s head rose high, baring its fangs at this tiny city no bigger than a palm.

The Xiao soldiers at the front of the ranks raised scaling ladders and hooked ropes, while the soldiers behind them lifted sabers, axes, bows, and crossbows. They were only waiting for their commander’s order before launching the attack on the city.

Yet on the outermost side of the city wall, the tightly shut little gate of the outer barbican suddenly gave a piercing creak and slowly opened outward.

The soldiers did not understand what was happening and stirred slightly in confusion. The Xiao commander hurriedly made a hand signal, ordering everyone to remain calm.

–

The county magistrate of Ant County, wearing his blue official robe, walked slowly out from the gate, his two little mustache tips trembling slightly.

He dragged a rope behind him, and behind him was a tall man tied up tightly. The man’s head hung low, his tangled long hair covering his brows and eyes, revealing only a high straight nose bridge and a hard-shaped jaw.

In the depth of winter, this man’s upper body was bare. His broad shoulders and thick chest were bound by tight ropes cutting into his flesh, and his wheat-colored muscles were mottled with blood, as though he had suffered many vicious beatings and much hardship.

Like a dying wild beast, he was dragged by the county magistrate. After only a few steps, his legs weakened beneath him, and he fell to the ground.

The county magistrate also knelt down with the momentum. He released the rope, took out a wooden box from his robes, and held it up with both hands above his head.

In a trembling voice, the county magistrate cried loudly, “I—I am Shu Da Fu, county magistrate of Ant County. This man is County Commandant Liu Wu. I hereby respectfully welcome the Xiao lord and present this county’s official seal to the Xiao lord.”

The Xiao commander was half-believing, half-doubting, and ordered men forward to inspect. Two personal guards carefully avoided the horse-trap pits and approached the county magistrate. First, they looked into the barbican and saw that the wall was empty of people, while on the ground knelt thirty archers, all bare-chested, with their hands bound behind their backs and their bows placed in front of them—the bowstrings had all been cut and could not be used.

The personal guards then looked through the outer barbican toward the South City Gate and saw that inside the city, the elderly, the weak, the women, and the children were all kneeling across the road leading into the city, dressed in shabby clothing and trembling with fear.

The personal guards then took the wooden box from the county magistrate’s hands and delivered it to the commander. The commander opened it and saw that it was indeed Ant County’s official seal. Beneath it were the military rolls of Ant County’s thirty village soldiers and the household registers of eight hundred village households. There was also a splendid jade pendant carved with a dragon pattern.

The commander raised the jade pendant and examined it carefully for a while, then gestured to the personal guard beside him.

That personal guard loudly asked in the Xuan language, “What is this object?”

The county magistrate hesitated slightly. The tightly bound man behind him suddenly drew a deep breath, and the county magistrate quickly trembled and cried loudly, “Th-this is a family heirloom of mine, Shu’s family heirloom! I am a distant relative of the Great Xuan imperial clan, and there are many treasures in my residence! The Xiao lord may enter my residence and take them at will. I ask only that you spare the lives of my household!”

A satisfied look appeared on the commander’s face as he played with the jade pendant.

He slipped the jade pendant into his robes and whispered a few words to his personal guard. The personal guard then shouted several commands in the Xiao language behind him. Two hundred of the five hundred soldiers separated from the formation and followed him into the city, while the remaining three hundred stayed outside.

–

This minor commander looked down on Xuan people—from Yunzhou southward, most of the prefectures and cities the Xiao army passed had surrendered without a fight. Even those that did not surrender had failed to resist for more than three or five days. Only Kuiyuan City had stubbornly held out until now.

This was merely a small county outside Kuiyuan City. Judging by its appearance, the entire county had no more than one or two thousand people, and only thirty soldiers. What resistance could it possibly offer? Naturally, this was a sincere surrender. The county magistrate was cringing and terrified, and did not look false either.

The county magistrate walked ahead, trembling, leading the way for the Xiao army. The bare-chested “County Commandant” followed behind him, his steps unsteady, blood still flowing down from the wounds on his body beneath the tight ropes.

The minor commander walked behind the two of them and merely assumed there had been internal strife between these two Xuan people. The “County Commandant” was a martial man and presumably had been unwilling to surrender, likely tied up and beaten by men called in by the county magistrate, and forced to surrender together with him.

Only, the wounds and blood on this “County Commandant’s” body were far too fresh. They looked as though they had just been carved open not long ago…

Doubt suddenly arose in the minor commander’s heart. By now he had already passed through the city gate and entered the inner barbican, and was just about to step onto the main road leading into the city. Looking from up close at the raggedly dressed elderly, weak, women, and children kneeling on both sides of the road… their builds were far too sturdy!

The minor commander abruptly stopped in his tracks and, while drawing his saber, shouted in the Xiao language, “Something’s wrong! It’s a trap!”

At the instant the word “wrong” left his mouth, the tightly bound “County Commandant Liu Wu” turned around, revealing through his tangled hair a pair of blazing eyes like those of a fierce tiger. With one violent strain of his arms, he snapped all the ropes binding his body!

At the instant the word “trap” landed, a length of broken rope had already looped around the minor commander’s throat!

Zhang San tightened the broken rope and spun once around the minor commander’s body. Leaping into the air, he kicked away the blade slashing toward him from the commander’s personal guard behind him. Using that spin, he wound the broken rope tightly around the commander’s throat, pulled the rope end taut, then arched his body and lifted the minor commander’s body into the air!

The body fell to the ground with a heavy thud, its neck already wrenched apart. The minor commander’s eyes bulged wide, blood spraying from all seven orifices!

“Shut the gate and beat the dogs!” Zhang San shouted loudly.

All two hundred Xiao soldiers had already entered the inner and outer barbicans. Several figures suddenly appeared atop the outer barbican wall and cut the ropes hidden behind the wall. A drop gate concealed behind the wall crashed down with a thunderous roar, completely sealing off the outer barbican—and blocking the three hundred reinforcements outside the city!

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