A cenotaph would not be needed — but if the conflict before them was not resolved quickly, there would certainly be many new graves to fill.
They could not share a language. How could they most swiftly convey that they had no interest in fighting?
Shen Zhuxi thought for a moment. Her gaze landed on a Rong tribesperson not far away who was groaning in pain.
This was a girl of thirteen or fourteen, still childlike in her face, her large eyes bright as water yet brimming with tears. Because the leather-armored soldiers had turned from restraint to genuine fury earlier, and their blades had changed from flat to edge, one strike had landed squarely on her shoulder. The blood had nearly soaked through her entire chest.
Without a second thought, Shen Zhuxi rushed over and pressed both hands firmly down on the girl’s bleeding shoulder.
“Niuwang, come help me!” she called out, raising her head.
After a brief moment of confusion, Niuwang walked quickly toward her.
The Rong tribespeople near Shen Zhuxi, seeing her touch one of their own, tensed and gripped their weapons. Some bellowed at her with intimidating gestures, their expressions fearsome. Shen Zhuxi paid them no mind. She took the strips of cloth torn from Niuwang’s garment and swiftly bandaged the wound still bleeding from the girl’s shoulder.
After several battles, Shen Zhuxi could now bandage wounds with ease and confidence.
Witnessing what she was doing, the Rong tribespeople who had been so agitated fell silent — no one was sure quite when. Dong Miji said something from the elephant’s back to the chieftain, whose brow had been tightly knit. After a long moment, the chieftain let out a whistle. The elephant she rode slowly knelt in place.
The chieftain in her white tiger hide descended nimbly down a falling ladder to the ground. Behind her, Dong Miji also sounded a whistle, commanding his elephant to kneel.
“This is a misunderstanding — we have no hostile intent!” Shen Zhuxi set down the girl whose bandaging was now complete, rose to her feet, and looked earnestly at the chieftain and Dong Miji, speaking loudly: “Continuing to fight will only bring more bloodshed! I have no wish to see my people injured, and you have no wish to see your tribespeople injured — so why don’t we sit down and talk this through properly, and resolve this dispute with words?”
Li Wu stood quietly with his stone knife pressed to the female elder’s throat, watching Shen Zhuxi as she attempted to negotiate.
Dong Miji listened with full concentration to Shen Zhuxi’s already deliberately slowed sentences and relayed the general meaning to the chieftain beside him. Once Dong Miji had finished his string of incomprehensible words, a silence fell over the scene. Both groups waited for the chieftain’s response.
Whether the situation would escalate further or find a peaceful resolution rested entirely on the chieftain — who pressed her lips together in a thin line, her face still as a deep, still well.
After a long and deadly silence, the chieftain let fall a low, brief sentence.
Dong Miji translated: “Release, our, family—”
All eyes turned to Li Wu. He said nothing, holding the chieftain’s gaze. The two faced each other in silent standoff for a moment. Then Li Wu’s hand relaxed, and he shoved the hostage forward.
Freed, the female elder let out a shriek and whipped around, lunging toward Li Wu!
“Qilumi, Damiehli!”
The chieftain cried out in fury. The female elder stopped as though seized by an invisible hand, halting sharply in her tracks. Seething with rage and fury, she shot a glare at Li Wu, then turned on her injured leg and limped toward the chieftain.
Once the female elder had returned to the chieftain’s side, Li Wu spoke: “Satisfied now?”
Dong Miji did not translate, but the chieftain guessed his meaning. She issued another quiet command. The Rong tribespeople exchanged glances and gradually put away their stone spears and wooden bows.
The chieftain had agreed to sit down and negotiate!
Shen Zhuxi was overjoyed. She immediately ran to the sides of several other Rong tribespeople who had been more seriously injured and directed Niuwang to lend a hand, swiftly bandaging their wounds one by one.
About the time it takes two sticks of incense to burn, Shen Zhuxi and the others moved into the chieftain’s large dwelling. Using gestures to supplement language, with a not-quite-serious interpreter who had spent only three days learning the Yan tongue relaying things to the chieftain — and then haltingly translating back — the vast majority of the time, what Dong Miji translated came out less clearly than simply watching one another gesture.
The language barrier made negotiation all the more difficult. After a full night of a mentally exhausting, drawn-out back-and-forth, the two sides at last established a preliminary treaty of mutual non-aggression: the leather-armored soldiers would withdraw to the riverside roughly five li from the settlement, both sides would return their captives, and neither party would initiate or join a third party in open conflict.
Once these three terms were confirmed, the blazing red sun was already fully up in the sky.
The leather-armored soldiers set up a temporary camp along the riverside, and Shen Zhuxi and Li Wu withdrew from the settlement along with Niuwang and the others. Once they had settled down temporarily, Shen Zhuxi immediately joined in helping treat the wounded. Although Niuwang’s leather-armored soldiers had also suffered considerable injuries, the Rong tribespeople’s weapons were primitive, and most of the wounded had been struck by the impact of the elephants. Those who had merely been knocked aside were not in immediate danger — but those who had been unlucky enough to be trampled by elephants were in a far more grim state.
Shen Zhuxi had gone the entire night without sleep for the negotiations, and then went straight from that into helping treat the wounded without pause. When at last she was able to rest for a moment, she washed the blood of the wounded from her hands, said a few words to the army physician inside the tent, and pushed the tent flap open, stepping out with a weary face.
The brilliant sun blazed overhead, and its warm light drove away a measure of the worry in her heart. Thinking of Niuwang’s troops — at last reunited with them — Shen Zhuxi felt that the road ahead had turned a corner and light was breaking through.
She was firmly convinced that as long as everyone was together, no obstacle or hardship could not be overcome.
Shen Zhuxi wanted to go see how Li Wu and Niuwang’s discussions were progressing. Just as she reached the entrance of the main tent, she saw Li Wu lifting the tent flap from inside, on his way out.
Seeing her, Li Wu immediately asked: “Have you seen Diao’er?”
Shen Zhuxi shook her head blankly: “Isn’t he with you?”
“He was, two hours ago — told him to fetch a bucket of water, and now no one knows where he’s gone—” Li Wu grumbled irritably, “What the hell, did he go to fetch it from the Milky Way?”
“Diao’er has a playful nature — he’s probably gone to catch birds.” Shen Zhuxi consoled him. “If you need water, I’ll call a soldier for you…”
“Never mind that now, come inside.” Li Wu took her hand and led her into the main tent. “How are the wounded doing?”
Niuwang was inside the main tent stretching his limbs. When he saw Li Wu bring Shen Zhuxi in, he called out a hearty greeting.
“Shinniang, you’ve come just in time. I’ve sent someone to prepare the morning meal — if Shinniang doesn’t mind, I’ll stay here and eat with the two of you?”
Shen Zhuxi smiled: “If you’ll stay and tell me what has been happening out there, I couldn’t ask for more.”
Before long, a soldier brought simple fare. The three of them sat at one table, starting with small talk before gradually drifting into the current situation.
“…When we broke away from Xiangzhou at the time, younger brother Xiaohu proposed leaving a contingent behind in Xiangyang — not only to get wind of the court’s movements at the first moment, but also so that when Shifu wanted to retake Xiangyang in the future, they could act as an inside force. Shifu was not present at the time, and most within the Azure Phoenix Army were against it — most did not trust Xiaohu, who came from a bandit background. I was the one who overruled the objections and agreed to the proposal. If Shifu wishes to assign blame, lay it on me—”
“Blame you for what? If I’d been there, I would have agreed as well.” Li Wu said without a care. “If I didn’t trust Xiaohu, I’d have sent her to plant cabbages in the Northern Capital long ago — why would I have let her stay in the Azure Phoenix Army this long?”
“Good that Shifu has no objections.” Niuwang breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, “After I agreed, Da Hu and Er Hu also volunteered to stay behind. After that, the currently appointed Military Commissioner of Zhenchuan, Li Ping, organized several sieges against the Azure Phoenix Army in Jinzhou, and every time it was thanks to the three Hu siblings’ tip-offs that we came through without harm. Now, the Azure Phoenix Army, having taken in refugees from four prefectures, has grown to two hundred and thirty thousand — even in a direct confrontation against Zhenchuan’s forces, we have confidence in victory.”
Shen Zhuxi was astonished at the news: in just a few months of separation, the Azure Phoenix Army that had broken away from Xiangyang had grown and flourished — simply by absorbing refugees, they had swelled to a force of two hundred and thirty thousand!
This was a number not to be dismissed lightly — already enough to overwhelm several of the smaller Military Commissioners, such as Chen Yu of Shu’an, Jiang Zhichuan of Jihai, Kong Ye of Cangzhen, and others.
Even as she felt reassured, she could not help but feel a swell of sorrow —
More than a year had passed since the Shang River Weir had collapsed, yet there were still so many people across the land who had been left homeless and displaced by that disaster, some driven even to banditry.
The one truly responsible for it all was still the most celebrated young man in the realm — lauded as upright and distinguished, feasting on fine food and rare wine, his towering crimes hidden beneath a dashing, aloof exterior.
But paper cannot wrap fire forever. One day, he would bring ruin upon himself.
“The waterway Niuwang came through has a fierce current — swimming in is easy, swimming out is hard, to say nothing of the wounded we have now—” Li Wu held a steamed bun with a large bite taken out of it, wetting his saliva-dry teeth with each slow, deliberate word. “The safest course of action is still to gain the Rong tribe’s cooperation and leave through the Swallowing-Heaven Cave.”
“Will they allow us to leave?” Shen Zhuxi thought of Dong Miji’s firm stance and looked troubled. “They seem to be very hostile toward the outside world. To keep their location hidden, they may not easily let us go.”
“If soft methods won’t work, try hard ones.” Niuwang said. “Surely we’re not afraid of these stone-wielders in an honest fight?”
“They have elephant cavalry!” Shen Zhuxi said.
Niuwang went quiet, and his bluster faded.
Indeed — though the Rong tribe’s weapons were primitive, they had tamed elephants as war beasts. In all her years, Shen Zhuxi had only seen elephants at banquets, serving as ceremonial guards, adorned all over with flowers and gemstones. Those elephants, though also under their handlers’ command, were a far cry from the elephant cavalry she had witnessed today. The elephants today were genuine battlefield war beasts — responding only to the whistle of their own rider, obedient to the letter.
Of the Rong tribe’s elephant cavalry visible today, there were already more than thirty. If that number were higher still, Niuwang’s leather-armored soldiers would be completely outmatched before the charge of the elephant herd.
“I want to negotiate a trade with them.” Li Wu said, pausing in thought. “We can offer grain, craftsmen, or books in exchange for the location of the exit — and an elephant handler.”
“You want an elephant handler too?” Shen Zhuxi was stunned.
Niuwang’s jaw dropped as well.
If they could even persuade the Rong tribe to let them leave safely, that would be extraordinary — and yet Li Wu wanted their elephant-taming techniques on top of that! Did he really think those strings of human skulls hanging as decorations outside the chieftain’s door were made of clay?
Shen Zhuxi looked at Li Wu as he turned his mind to working out the specifics, and could not help but feel a surge of genuine admiration —
That scoundrel Li Wu truly had ability to match his audacity. The poem he had once composed proclaiming himself King of Kings among Scavengers was not entirely without basis.
A goose flies past — pluck its feathers. An elephant walks past — keep its handler!
Nothing could pass through Li Wu’s field of vision and escape intact.