Futile Devices Scans

Zhang San clung with all his strength to the edge of the broken cliff. Only when Li Si’s figure disappeared into the forest on the far side of the river did he finally breathe out.

He left the remaining luggage at the cliff edge, put on the tiger-fur cloak, and took only a torch and a single-edged saber before quickly turning back toward the mountain road. The road back remained rugged and treacherous. Without Li Si behind him to steady him, and anxious as he was to hurry, he fell several times along the way. Fortunately, his tiger hide was tough and could take a fall. He would roll through the snow, climb back up unharmed, shake out his tiger fur, and continue onward.

Halfway along the road, the sun set. He lit the torch and held it toward the dark path ahead. In the forest, tree shadows loomed and swayed as branches rustled restlessly, seeming at once like creeping ghosts and lurking beasts.

But his whole body blazed with fierce tigerish vigor. Demons and monsters dared not approach, while birds of prey and savage beasts dared not show their heads.

He stopped to collect himself, checked the map for his position, 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 there. From afar, Zhang San saw Junior Clerk Chen holding a lantern beneath the city gate, rising anxiously onto his toes and craning his neck.

The moment Chen Lu spotted Commander Zhang appearing on the mountain road in the distance, he hurried toward him. It was only a few dozen steps, yet he arrived panting for breath, and when he finally reached Commander Zhang, his foot 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 one side like a rice seedling.

“Commander! You’re finally back!” Chen Lu said anxiously. “Something terrible has happened!”

＊

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 his grip was so tight that the web between his thumb and forefinger was taut. 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 darkness 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 his very first ride had been this wild dash with Commander Zhang, bouncing up and down in utter terror. His face was deathly pale, and the instant his feet touched the ground, he rushed off to one side and began retching.

Liu Wu glanced at him. Seeing that there was nothing wrong with him apart from the vomiting, he had no time to fuss over him and hurriedly said to Zhang San, “Commander! Please come with me quickly!”

The two swiftly 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 several more li downhill. Campfires blazed brightly, like a fire serpent coiled along the mountain road, while the black command banners snapping in the night were its flickering tongue.

＊

As though bitten by that venomous snake, Zhang San’s pupils dilated in an instant.

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

Regret heavy in his voice, Liu Wu 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 previous day, 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 them from inside the sentry tower—roughly a hundred cavalrymen had come.

Following the hoofprints along the river, these cavalrymen had also discovered the official road up the mountain. After scouting ahead, they found the rockslide, dismounted, climbed over it, and discovered Ant County. There were too many of them for Liu Wu to lead men out and intercept them, so he could only retreat into the city and shut the gates tight. The hundred or so Xiao soldiers investigated around the city gate for a while, stumbled into the horse-trap pits and left three to five corpses behind, then quickly withdrew, riding back down the mountain to report to camp.

That evening, more than a thousand infantry had come. After arriving outside the city gate, they showed no urgency to attack. Instead, they set up camp along the official road, their fires burning through the night.

＊

Zhang San climbed to the highest point of the city gate and observed carefully for a while. He could see campfires burning throughout the Xiao encampment, but hardly anyone was resting. Instead, men were constantly coming and going along the official road, seemingly transporting supplies.

The more he watched, the more alarmed he became. Turning to Liu Wu, he said, “With the Xiao army acting like this, they’re probably waiting for their siege equipment to arrive. 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! Deal with me under military law if you must—kill me or cut me to pieces…”

“Stop talking nonsense!” Zhang San interrupted him. “Brother Liu, men like us don’t waste time saying things like that! Right now, there’s no time to punish you and no time to comfort you. We have to respond immediately!”

During the time Liu Wu had spent waiting for him, he had already thought of 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, the weak, women, and children might 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 gripped 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, heat rushing up his back. He forced himself to steady his nerves and nodded. “Commander, I’ll listen to you. Whatever you tell me to do, I’ll stake my head on getting it done!”

＊

Since Liu Wu dared stake his head on it, Zhang San was willing to take him at his word. He had Liu Wu take one alert, sharp-eyed archer and slip out of the city under cover of night to scout near the Xiao camp and determine the situation clearly.

While Liu Wu left the city to scout, Zhang San remained behind 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, stationed the sabermen and spearmen along the wall, and assigned the new recruits who were not skilled in martial arts to throwing stones and oil-filled sacks.

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

＊

Zhang San feared that sounding the alarm in the middle of the night would throw the townspeople into panic, so he temporarily suppressed 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 reinforce some additional fortifications outside the city.

However, all this covert activity in the dead 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 the news soon reached the county magistrate’s ears.

That rat of a county magistrate reacted by immediately summoning his household servants to pack up the family valuables and flee into the mountain forest through the North Gate!

But his accountant, who also served as his adviser, stopped him. “My lord! Don’t be a fool! The mountain road is so dangerous—how many li could you possibly escape? It’s pitch-black at night, and who knows how many jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards are lurking in those woods? With so much of your household property, where could you possibly flee?”

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

The accountant circled the room several times, then gritted his teeth. “My lord, Kuiyuan has been surrounded for so long that it likely cannot be saved. The Xiao have already destroyed Northern Lang. Great Xuan couldn’t even defeat Northern Lang, so how much longer can it possibly hold out? If the country ceases to be a country and home ceases to be home, rather than waiting until tomorrow for our family to be ruined and our people killed, we might as well 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 scheme.

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 our lives?”

The accountant said viciously, “You are the magistrate of this county. Why wouldn’t they believe you? If worst comes to worst, you can show them that dragon-patterned jade pendant in your possession. One look will tell them you are a noble of the imperial clan. They won’t kill you. On the contrary, they’ll let you continue governing the county on their behalf.”

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. “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.

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

Aside from transporting weapons, grain, fodder, and other supplies, the Xiao army had brought only a few small scaling ladders. The rockslide was too high for large siege engines such as stone-throwing machines and goose carts to pass.

Elio’s Notes: A goose cart (鹅车) was a large wheeled siege vehicle, typically protected with hides or metal, used to shelter troops as they approached or assaulted city walls.

Moreover, because the journey was long and oxen and horses could not cross the rockslide, the Xiao army could rely only on human labor for transport. Thus, although the camp held roughly a thousand men, only about four or five hundred were actual soldiers. The rest were laborers used to haul supplies.

＊

Liu Wu slipped back into the city and reported everything to Commander Zhang. Only then did the tight furrow in Zhang San’s brow ease.

Assaulting a city was far more difficult than defending one. When the walls remained strong and command was orderly, defenders would not necessarily lose even against a much larger attacking force. 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 did not grow overconfident. In all things, he prepared for the worst. He rode alone to the training grounds and went to find the twenty-two Imperial Guard soldiers and the two Imperial City Directorate subordinates.

After hearing him explain that the Xiao army had surrounded the city, everyone’s expressions stiffened.

Among the Imperial Guard soldiers were two selected ten-man squad leaders. 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 asked, “Commander Zhang wants us to lend you our strength once more 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 shift in everyone’s expressions and shook his head. “No. This time is different from the last. 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 tell 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 ten-man squad leader asked.

“At daybreak tomorrow, I’ll 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 perfectly well how complicated officialdom and human hearts could be. 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 the merit. “If the city falls, someone will naturally bring this person here.”

The ten-man squad leader nodded. “Very well. We will wait here for Commander Zhang’s message. If Commander needs manpower to defend the city, some of the brothers and I are willing to help of our own accord. We’ll assist Commander until Envoy Li returns.”

＊

Zhang San thanked all these brave men and, anxious to return to the city-gate defenses, strode out of the room. His ears were sharp. When he reached the corridor, he heard one of the Imperial City Directorate subordinates lower his voice and ask, “Why did you promise to help him defend the city? Don’t forget that we came here to complete the task His Majesty entrusted to us. What happens to Ant County has nothing to do with us.”

Zhang San paused slightly and listened more carefully. He heard the ten-man squad leader from earlier answer, “Ant County has sheltered us for so many days, and Commander Zhang even provided these training grounds for us to live in. A true man knows to repay a kindness. What’s wrong with helping him once? All beneath heaven belongs to His Majesty. Are the villagers of Ant County not His Majesty’s subjects too? You speak so heartlessly, sir, but didn’t you risk danger to save those two constables a few days ago? Because you saved them, you were able to find Ant County. That was the good fortune your own deed brought you. Daoist Ma was the truly heartless one. He set a fire that burned our Commander and dozens of our brothers to death. In the end, half his head was blown away, and he didn’t even leave behind a whole corpse.”

The Imperial City Directorate subordinate had nothing to say and fell silent. Outside the window, Zhang San grinned to himself. He had not expected one of these rough military men to understand right and wrong so clearly.

＊

He turned and descended the wooden corridor toward the courtyard, the smile still lingering 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 the long-absent Plague God Zhang! That smile frightened his soul out of him, and he scrambled desperately to climb back up. But with half his backside hanging below the roof beam and his two sturdy legs kicking back and forth, how could he possibly get himself up again? Terrified, he lowered his voice and squeaked, “Eek! Eek!”

Zhang San’s smile vanished. He strode forward in several large steps, grabbed the Strongman 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 lowered his fist and slapped the Strongman’s fat face, which had finally recovered something resembling 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 intentions are you harboring? Don’t even think of tricking Young Master Li! Right now, there’s only your Grandpa Zhang here!”

Once he had fallen into Grandpa Zhang’s hands, even if Zhang San did not flay a layer off that thick pig hide, he would at least shave him down. The Strongman hurriedly dodged and cried in a low voice, “Grandpa, spare me! I really did come to report something! That county magistrate is going to offer up the city and surrender!”

Zhang San was startled at first, then his face immediately darkened. He dragged the Strongman into the courtyard, shoved 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 so much tonight that I couldn’t sleep, so I went out to the corridor for some air and ended up hearing them plotting in secret. I hid beneath the window and heard it with my own ears! They plan to gather the household servants and launch a surprise attack on the city gate first thing tomorrow morning, open the gate, and let the Xiao army in! They also said they would present the dragon-patterned jade pendant to the Xiao army…”

“The jade pendant is in their hands?” Zhang San asked in surprise.

The Strongman nodded repeatedly. “I know that jade pendant. It belongs to Young Master Li. Back 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 mixed up 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 protest his innocence and loyalty, but Zhang San grabbed him by his pig ear and dragged him toward the courtyard exit. “Young Master Li isn’t here right now. You’re not going anywhere. You can only stay and fight this battle with your grandpa! We’ll turn their own scheme 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 across the silent city walls.

The mountain road was narrow. The Xiao soldiers, dressed in black armor and arranged in a long formation, looked like a venomous snake whose scales gleamed darkly, blocking the city gate. The snake’s head rose high, baring its fangs at this tiny city no bigger than a palm. The soldiers at the front shouldered scaling ladders and hooked ropes, while those behind raised sabers, axes, bows, and crossbows, waiting only for their commander’s order to launch the assault.

Yet at the outermost edge of the city walls, the tightly shut little gate of the outer barbican suddenly gave a piercing creeeak and slowly opened outward.

The soldiers did not understand what was happening and stirred slightly in confusion. The Xiao commander hurriedly signaled for everyone to remain calm.

＊

The county magistrate of Ant County, wearing his blue official robe, slowly emerged through the gate, his two thin mustache-tips trembling slightly.

He dragged a rope behind him, and at the other end was a tall man bound tightly from head to toe. The man’s head hung low, his tangled long hair covering his brows and eyes and revealing only a high, straight nose and a hard-cut jaw.

In the depths of winter, the man’s upper body was bare. The tight ropes bit into his broad shoulders and thick chest, and his wheat-colored muscles were mottled with blood, as though he had suffered a vicious beating and endured no small amount of torment.

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

The county magistrate dropped to his knees with the momentum. He released the rope, took a wooden box from inside his robes, and held it high above his head with both hands.

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 respectfully welcome the lord of Xiao and present the seal of Ant County to my lord!”

The Xiao commander remained half-convinced and ordered men forward to inspect. Two personal guards carefully skirted the horse-trap pits and approached the county magistrate. They first looked into the barbican and saw no one atop the walls, while thirty archers knelt on the ground below, all bare-chested, their hands bound behind their backs and their bows placed in front of them. Every bowstring had been cut, rendering the weapons unusable.

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

The personal guards took the wooden box from the county magistrate’s hands and delivered it to the commander. He opened it and saw that it did indeed contain Ant County’s county seal. Beneath it lay the military rolls of Ant County’s thirty village soldiers and the household registers of its eight hundred households. There was also a splendid dragon-patterned jade pendant.

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

The personal guard loudly asked in the Great Xuan language, “What is this?”

The county magistrate hesitated. Behind him, the tightly bound man suddenly drew a deep breath, and the county magistrate hurriedly trembled and cried out, “Th-this is a family heirloom of mine! A Shu family heirloom! I am a distant relative of Great Xuan’s imperial clan, and there are many more treasures in my residence! My lord of Xiao may enter my home and take whatever he wishes. I ask only that you spare the lives of my household!”

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

He slipped it inside his robes and whispered a few words to his personal guard. The guard then shouted several orders 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.

＊

The minor commander looked down on the people of Great Xuan. Ever since the Xiao army had marched south from Yunzhou, most of the prefectural cities they passed had surrendered without a fight. Even those that resisted had failed to hold out for more than three or five days. Only Kuiyuan City had stubbornly resisted until now. This was merely a tiny county outside Kuiyuan. Judging by its appearance, the entire county could not have more than one or two thousand people, and it had only thirty soldiers. What resistance could it possibly offer? Naturally, the surrender was sincere. The county magistrate was cringing and terrified and did not look as though he were pretending.

The county magistrate walked ahead, trembling, leading the Xiao soldiers onward. The bare-chested “County Commandant” followed behind him, his steps unsteady, fresh blood still trickling from his wounds beneath the tight ropes.

The minor commander walked behind the two of them and merely assumed that internal strife had broken out between these two men of Great Xuan. The “County Commandant” was a martial man and presumably had been unwilling to surrender. Most likely, the county magistrate had ordered men to bind and beat him, forcing him to surrender along with the rest.

But the wounds and blood on this “County Commandant” are far too fresh. They look as though they were cut only moments ago…

Suspicion 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 more closely at the raggedly dressed elderly, weak, women, and children kneeling on either side of the road…

Their bodies 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 very instant the word “wrong” left his mouth, the tightly bound “County Commandant Liu Wu” spun around. Through his tangled hair appeared a pair of blazing eyes like those of a fierce tiger. With one violent flex of his arms, he snapped every rope binding his body!

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

Zhang San pulled the broken rope tight and spun around the minor commander’s body. Leaping into the air, he kicked away the blade slashing toward him from the personal guard behind the commander. Using the momentum of the turn, he wound the broken rope tightly around the commander’s throat, hauled the end taut, then arched his body and heaved the man into the air. The body crashed to the ground with a heavy thud! His neck had already been wrenched apart, his eyes bulging wide as blood burst from all seven orifices.

“Shut the gate and beat the dog!” Zhang San roared.

Elio’s Notes: “Shut the gate and beat the dog” (关门打狗) is an idiom for trapping an enemy by cutting off its escape route before attacking. Here, Zhang San turns the expression into a literal battle tactic.

All two hundred Xiao soldiers had already entered the inner and outer barbicans. Several figures suddenly appeared atop the outer-barbican wall and hacked through the ropes hidden behind it. A drop gate concealed behind the wall came crashing down with a thunderous boom, sealing the outer barbican completely—and trapping the three hundred reinforcements outside the city!