The moment Xiahou Zuo laid eyes on the divine falcon, he broke into a grin, repeatedly thanking the Daoist Changmei and Mister Yan.
“You two didn’t have to come all this way, why bring gifts on top of it? Did you know we’re short on supplies out here at the frontier and deliberately bring us a pig to treat us? Tonight we can finally eat a proper meal — nobody fight over it, I’m claiming that pig nose for myself.”
Mister Yan said, “Don’t even think about it. That’s the wild piglet Li Chi brought back from Yanshan — it’s just grown up now. He’s Li Chi’s little brother.”
Xiahou Zuo froze for a moment, examined the divine falcon carefully, then asked Li Chi, “Your little brother?”
Li Chi answered, “More or less.”
Xiahou Zuo said, “Has the underworld scene in Jizhou City really gotten that rough? I’ve been gone over a year, and the only follower you’ve recruited in Jizhou City turns out to be a pig?”
Li Chi said, “This isn’t an ordinary pig.”
Xiahou Zuo said, “Do tell.”
Li Chi said, “Have you ever seen a pig that refuses to think of itself as a pig? Sometimes it thinks it’s a dog, sometimes it thinks it’s a cat, and most of the time it’s convinced it ought to be a bird — but it feels deeply inferior around the falcon because it knows it has no wings and can’t fly.”
Xiahou Zuo asked, “Is it the pig doing all this thinking, or is it you?”
Li Chi shot Xiahou Zuo a sideways glance.
Xiahou Zuo said, “So after everything you just told me — it sometimes thinks it’s a dog, sometimes thinks it’s a cat — and you still say it’s not an ordinary pig. Let me analyze what you’ve described and draw my conclusion: when you say ‘not ordinary,’ does it mean it’s even more useless than an ordinary pig?”
Mister Yan said, “That reading comprehension deserves full marks.”
Xiahou Zuo said, “Thank you, sir.”
Mister Yan quickly replied, “Don’t call me that — people will get the wrong idea and think I taught you. It’s bad for my reputation.”
Xiahou Zuo: “……”
Xiahou Zuo looked over at the falcon and said, “Since we’re already on the subject of this extraordinary pig, let’s go ahead and talk about this extraordinary overgrown rooster too.”
Mister Yan said, “Can you conduct yourself with a little refinement?”
Xiahou Zuo was just about to say there was nothing unrefined about what he said, but then he thought back on what he’d just said and immediately felt a flush of embarrassment.
That really wasn’t easy to manage.
Mister Yan said, “I’m truly relieved you’re not someone I taught.”
Li Chi sighed, “That falcon is a gyrfalcon — the most magnificent of all great birds — and you talk about it so coarsely.”
Xiahou Zuo said, “I notice that when you said ‘great bird,’ it didn’t sound like a compliment either.”
Li Chi looked at Mister Yan and said, “I respectfully request that the sir purge this disgrace from your circle.”
Mister Yan said, “When I get back, I’ll consult with President Gao. A wretch like this deserves to be dealt with by President Gao personally.”
Xiahou Zuo stood to the side with an expression that practically begged to be punched and said in a goading tone, “Well, speaking of President Gao — it just occurs to me I haven’t seen him in a long time. And I haven’t seen President Gao’s granddaughter Gao Xining either. Wonder if that girl has gotten married yet.”
Mister Yan looked at Li Chi. Yu Jiuling looked at Li Chi. Even Daoist Changmei looked at Li Chi.
Li Chi looked up at the sky.
They chatted for a while, then Mister Yan said he wanted to go up onto the city wall to have a look — he had never seen what the northern frontier looked like, never seen what the Black Wu people looked like. Daoist Changmei heard this and wanted to see too, so Li Chi and the others led these two elders — whose virtue was modest and reputation no great shakes — up onto the wall.
Along the way, every person they passed greeted Li Chi.
“Young Master Li, you brought a pig!”
“Young Master Li, looks like you brought a pig — and a bird too.”
Daoist Changmei thought to himself, who the hell are they calling a bird?
But he couldn’t say it out loud — saying it would be the same as admitting it.
When they reached the city wall, Mister Yan looked out at the black mass of the Black Wu encampment stretching across the land below, and felt a shock deep in his chest unlike anything he had known before. Outside the wall, great numbers of corpses still lay where they had fallen, uncollected. The sight of it drained the color from Mister Yan’s face involuntarily.
He murmured to himself, “Heaven’s time is against us, the divine spirit rages — the killing is done, the slain lie abandoned in the open fields.”
Daoist Changmei had traveled the rivers and lakes with Li Chi for many years and had seen no small number of scenes strewn with bodies, yet those scenes could not hold a candle to the frozen corpses blanketing the ground before this frontier city.
“When the nation is weak and its people poor, enemies seek to devour it. When the nation is strong and its people prosperous, enemies seek to pay it respect…”
Mister Yan felt a lump of air lodged in his chest that simply would not come out no matter what.
From a distance came the sound of Black Wu battle horns, one wave after another — the Black Wu were marshaling their forces again. Perhaps before long another assault would come. What they surely had not anticipated was that this small frontier city would hold them off for this long.
“Teacher. Mister.”
Li Chi said, “Across that way, in that great encampment, is the Black Wu Khan-Emperor Kuokedi Dashi himself.”
A subtle change came over Mister Yan’s expression. He turned and looked at the garrison troops along the wall. Although Li Chi had told everyone to put on Dachu military uniforms, there simply were not enough uniforms to go around, so one still saw large numbers of ordinary civilians in plain clothes. Was it on the flesh and blood of these people alone that they were expected to hold back the hundreds of thousands of soldiers the Black Wu Khan-Emperor had brought? Would this battle record the name of every person who died here?
It would not.
In the southern capital, the nobility were still drinking and feasting night after night in their pleasure halls. They would never know the names of these heroes. They had no interest in knowing. Even if someone tried to tell them, those people’s reaction would most likely be… well, isn’t that what that rabble is there for?
Then would the descendants of the common people of the Central Plains know the names of these heroes?
Also no.
They might know that this event happened. They might know the numbers of dead. But they would not know the names of these people.
“They deserve to have their names left behind.”
Mister Yan murmured to himself again.
Those words struck something deep in Li Chi’s chest. He turned and looked at the soldiers with their worn and exhausted faces, then shouted out loud, “Let’s carve all our names into the city wall!”
Everyone who heard this was startled for a moment. A beat later, someone understood and drew out a dagger to carve his name into the bricks. Li Chi carved his own name into the wall before him, then passed the blade to Mister Yan: “Mister, you too.”
Mister Yan shook his head. “I’m not worthy.”
Daoist Changmei made a sound of agreement: “I’m not worthy either.”
The mood seemed to grow solemn in an instant. For a long, long time no one spoke. Then Xiahou Zuo took the dagger from Li Chi’s hand, walked to the wall, and carved the names of Mister Yan and Daoist Changmei.
“The two sirs taught someone like Diudiu, and it was because of Diudiu that he led the troops earlier and drove back the Black Wu assault. So the names of both sirs are worthy of being carved into this wall — and worthy of being remembered by those who come after.”
Mister Yan’s expression filled with shame. “This is far more than we deserve — far more than we deserve.”
Just then, a cavalry unit came riding over from the Black Wu encampment outside the city. It appeared to be a small group, and they were not carrying a battle standard — clearly they had not come to attack. This unit advanced waving their hands to signal that they should not be shot at, and rode up to the base of the wall.
The Black Wu general at the head of the group reined in his horse and called up to the wall in a loud voice: “May I ask which of you is the commanding officer of the garrison on this wall? I know now that your Prince Wu Yang Jiju has not arrived. I wish to speak a few words with the commander.”
Xiahou Zuo braced himself against the wall and shouted back: “That’s me. Who are you?”
The Black Wu general answered: “I am Lüchi, vanguard general of the Black Wu Empire’s southern expedition army. I have a few words for the general. Our Khan-Emperor has decreed: if you open the gates and surrender now, His Majesty the Khan will not hold past offenses against you and will in fact reward you. If you refuse to open the gates, once the city falls, our forces will carry out a massacre — and not only in this Daizhou Pass. As our army advances south, every city it takes will be put to the sword.”
He finished and waited for Xiahou Zuo’s reply. After waiting quite some time with no answer, he called out again: “What does the general say?”
Xiahou Zuo said, “I say you’re talking out of your backside.”
Lüchi’s expression changed. Forcibly suppressing his rage, he continued: “His Majesty the Khan values life and has opened the gate of benevolence and righteousness. You must cherish this. If you anger His Majesty, rivers of blood will flow across the Central Plains.”
Xiahou Zuo said, “Would you open the gate of benevolence and righteousness and let us into the Black Wu capital?”
He paused briefly and continued: “You come to persuade us when you can’t fight your way through, and when persuasion fails you go back to fighting. What’s the point? I’ll tell you this: every great river in the Central Plains is made of blood — the blood of the unbowed. From that blood grows an unbowed spirit. You want rivers of blood? Sorry — the blood of you Black Wu people is not fit to flow as rivers across the land of the Central Plains. But I wouldn’t mind using your blood to water our crops.”
He drew his long saber and pointed it out toward the city: “Come and fight!”
On the city wall, every soldier of the garrison drew their long saber and pointed it toward the Black Wu forces below. They let out a single unified roar.
“Come and fight!”
Lüchi was silent for a moment, then gave a nod. “As you wish.”
He wheeled his horse and led his cavalry back the way they had come.
Shortly after, the Black Wu war drums on the other side began to beat. Formation after formation of Black Wu soldiers began moving forward. They had paused their assault for two days — because they had been mass-producing siege equipment. In truth, the Black Wu were not well suited to siege warfare. What they excelled at was open-field battle on flat ground, and in that kind of engagement they were nearly invincible.
But if they wanted to take the magnificent ten-thousand-li heartland of the Central Plains, they would have to face siege after siege.
Mister Yan looked at Li Chi and said, “Give me a bow and a quiver. I can kill enemies too.”
Li Chi said gently, “Mister, please, you and my teacher go down first. You just arrived — rest a while and recover your strength, and then come back up. I won’t stop you.”
Mister Yan shook his head. “My name is already carved here.”
Daoist Changmei said, “I won’t go down either. My strength isn’t enough to pull a bow and shoot enemies, but I can carry arrows for you. And for that matter — I can wave the flag for you… Diudiu, Mister Yan is right. Our names are carved into this city wall. We have to live up to this city. Live up to these bricks.”
He turned and ran. His now somewhat aged frame moved with a slight stagger as it ran.
Daoist Changmei ran to where the Dachu battle flag stood and raised it, shaking it and shouting: “All of black hair and dark eyes are brothers, all who share one enemy are kin! This old Daoist today borrows divine might from Heaven — kill the enemy!”
A thunderclap burst over the city wall.
It was the roar of everyone together.
“Kill the enemy!”
—