News of the Female Chancellor’s return was spreading through the city.
As word passed from mouth to mouth through the crowds, the constables and officers who heard it were already springing into action. The Female Chancellor’s order — no mutiny, everyone to their posts — spread along with the running messengers, and the panicked, chaotic crowds, thrown into disorder by the fires burning through the city, began joining in to help fight the flames.
On the city’s east side, people with headbands tied around their foreheads were stopped by approaching constables. Upon hearing the news, whispers rippled through the crowd. Someone bellowed, “They’re sent by that traitor Yu Shen — he means to surrender the city any moment now!”
But on the other side of the street, word of the Female Chancellor’s return passed from the mouths of common folk, and some who had been hiding indoors now opened their doors and stepped out into the street.
“He’s one of Zou Xu’s spies—” the crowd roared with fury, blades flashing, and in an instant the fighting broke out into a chaotic melee.
Within the Azure Palace, the arguing continued unabated.
A young eunuch came running along the palace’s covered walkway, slipping in through a side entrance and hurrying behind the curtain to deliver some piece of news to Madam Jin.
Behind the curtain, her breathing suddenly grew heavy. After a moment, she rose from her seat.
“The situation… the situation is urgent. There’s no room left for hesitation. Everyone… allow me to decide on your behalf. The palace guard commander Wu Xingdang has always been known for his loyalty and integrity — Shan’er and I trust him completely. Let him go to the East Gate at once, to temporarily relieve Yu Shen. Let… let Yu Shen return, so that all of you may determine for yourselves whether he has surrendered to that traitor Zou…”
Madam Jin’s tone had suddenly turned forceful and unyielding. Shao Qingshi and the others frowned. “This cannot be allowed…”
“Silence—” Madam Jin’s voice rang out sharply from behind the curtain. “My husband entrusted the fate of this nation to all of you! And now, with war and danger bearing down upon us, you’ve argued for an entire day without reaching a single decision. Mark my words, all of you — whoever delays further is a traitor. All of you must root out the traitors among you…”
Several minor officials in the hall immediately stepped forward, pointing at Shao Qingshi. “I say Shao Qingshi himself is the traitor — seize him, everyone!”
“I’d like to see anyone try—” Shao Qingshi looked around in bewilderment, and several other officials stepped forward to rebuke the minor officials as well. The hall dissolved instantly into chaos.
At that very moment, a figure slipped in from the side behind the curtain — it was He Yuncang, the chief eunuch who had served at Madam Jin’s side for years. In the shadow cast against the curtain, he could be seen casually picking up an incense burner from beside the throne and raising it into the air. From behind him, Tian Shan’s confused voice called out, “Uncle He—”
A heavy thud.
Madam Jin let out a piercing scream, as the incense burner crashed down on her head, sending her sprawling to the floor.
“The Female Chancellor has returned!” He Yuncang’s normally shrill voice now rang out in a hoarse roar. “The Female Chancellor entered the city through Dingyuan Gate — she’s back! What are you all still arguing about? I, He Yuncang, may be a eunuch, but I know right from wrong! The Female Chancellor has returned from the brink of death, and all of you should be rooting out the traitors—”
He screamed, half out of his mind.
“Aaaaaaaaaah—”
At that moment, perhaps sensing the shadow of death closing in, Madam Jin — struck down by the incense burner — let out a shrill scream of her own. She scrambled up from the floor, blood streaming down her face, and charged at He Yuncang, and the two of them fell into a violent scuffle.
Within the hall, several officials who had until then stood behind Madam Jin, echoing her words, now reacted in panic — some collapsed limply to the floor, others screamed and snatched up whatever was at hand to hurl themselves at Shao Qingshi, while still others swung their fists wildly. In an instant, the entire hall dissolved into a chaotic brawl of officials beating on one another.
Regardless of how it played out, the invisible banner belonging to the Female Chancellor was already sweeping through and displacing all the chaos that had gripped Weisheng.
In a corner of the city’s southeast district, Zhan Wu stood in an alley, sensing the atmosphere shifting through the city in the wake of Lou Shuwan’s return. He smiled faintly, then shook his head. “Looks like Zou Xu really didn’t spare me after all…”
At both ends of the alley, figures who looked like ordinary civilians had already appeared, drawing weapons. Zhan Wu, who had disguised himself as an old farmer, raised both hands and revealed a gleaming pair of twin blades. In that instant, a thought struck him — Fang Chengye. He might already be in grave danger.
—If Zou Xu had arranged people even here in Weisheng, where he himself stood, how could he possibly have spared Fang Chengye, sent to the northwest? With the rebel army’s crushing defeat there and the Mongol cavalry running rampant, could Monkey Fang possibly still make it back?
He paused for a moment, startled by the thought, as the fighters entering the alley quickened their pace. “For the sake of the realm and its people, we shall purge you traitors!”
“So Dai Mengwei really did teach you all about loyalty and righteousness…”
He smiled and sighed, and then, atop the walls flanking both sides of the alley, figures appeared.
Huaxia Army soldiers leapt down from above.
Zhan Wu charged forward.
In an instant, blood covered the ground.
…
The ox cart still rolled onward.
Officials, great and small, had already gathered nearby, following along with the procession.
Only Yuan Xiaoqiu, the maidservant who had once attended Lou Shuwan and now held some measure of authority herself, was permitted to approach. She walked beside the cart, reporting further news to Lou Shuwan.
“The news from the East City isn’t good…”
“Why? Weren’t they prepared?” Lou Shuwan showed no sign of urgency.
“Fifth Master Zhan and General Xue were indeed prepared — Zou Xu’s two attacks were both repelled. But after midnight last night, some of the technical staff inside slipped out over the wall with their families, even blowing a hole through half a wall to do it. That traitor Zou… may have already struck a deal with them long before this…”
Lou Shuwan blinked in surprise. “Ning Yi… what did he do… ideological work on them? And here he was, bragging about it all the time…”
Yuan Xiaoqiu lowered her voice. “Most of those who defected this time were… precisely the ones we’d been trying to win over.”
“…” Lou Shuwan’s eyes widened, her gaze shifting through a complicated mix of emotions. After a moment, though, she slumped back with an expression somewhere between exasperation and amusement. “I can’t even get angry anymore, Xiaoqiu…”
“Yes, Chancellor.”
“Find me something to eat — congee would be best. Bring it quietly, later…”
The ox cart rolled onward. Officials, constables, and common folk alike knelt along the roadside. Time slipped by; the fires within the city died down, the columns of smoke stopped rising, and the unrest gradually subsided. Lou Shuwan could still hear the low murmurs and sobs of the people. The hour of Shen was drawing to a close, and the sunlight over the horizon grew gentler, its glow deepening into the rich gold of sunset.
The East Gate drew near.
…
On the hillside outside the city.
Zou Xu rose from his seat and took a few steps forward, sensing the strange, growing stillness settling over the city ahead. He frowned.
Nearby, many of his soldiers were still hard at work, digging into the earth, constructing defenses.
“What’s going on…”
The setting sun poured down before him like flame, and he watched the city bathed in that fire.
Then, suddenly, it went still…
…
Lou Shuwan climbed down from the ox cart.
She thanked the old man who had driven her, softly, and waved off the officials behind her who tried to follow. She walked slowly toward the side of the city gate.
Soldiers guarding the city stood along the road, and farther off, in courtyards and towers, people craned their necks to watch.
Lou Shuwan walked up to the base of the wall and, with great difficulty, began climbing the steps.
Her body bore wounds, her robes long since tattered, caked with mud and grime from the road. People watched as she climbed one step at a time, occasionally reaching out with her right hand to steady herself against the wall beside her. Weisheng’s walls stood over three zhang tall, with forty-two steps. At last, bathed in the setting sun, she reached the top of the wall. There, soldiers stood in silent ranks behind the parapet, no one speaking, everyone simply standing still.
On the distant hillside, Zou Xu’s flamboyant banner could be seen.
Lou Shuwan walked toward the front of the gate tower, where a great drum stood, with a strongman stationed beside it to beat it. She walked over, waved weakly at the strongman, then turned her back to the world outside the city, facing the drum instead. With her uninjured right hand, she struggled to lift the drumstick and test its weight. The strongman beside her moved to support her, but Lou Shuwan swung the stick and struck the drum’s surface with a resounding thud.
Her body was battered, her strength gone, and the drumbeat wasn’t especially loud — but she raised the stick again and struck a second time.
The strongman who normally beat the drum was already running frantically along the wall, not shouting, only waving to signal. At the second war drum, a soldier stepped up and took hold of the drumstick.
Boom—
Lou Shuwan struck the third beat.
Atop the wall, a heavy sound rang out in response.
The fourth beat, and answering drumbeats began spreading outward along the wall.
Beneath the setting sun, her thin, fragile frame remained just as delicate as ever, the drumbeats not especially loud — but with every strike of her mallet, the war drums along the wall sounded in unison.
Boom—
Boom—
Boom—
Like the heavy pounding of a heartbeat.
The Female Chancellor beat the war drum for the entire city, and that drumming would not cease. Beneath the wall, along the streets within the city, those who knelt there, watching the Female Chancellor pass, largely understood the meaning of this moment. Some cried out, some wept, some screamed themselves hoarse in wild abandon. The drums rolled on, the cries of the people rolled on, the golden light of the setting sun poured down, and across the whole expanse of heaven and earth, only that single frail figure swung the mallet in the shadow of the gate tower — and everything within that golden light seemed to answer her call.
Outside the city, on the hillside, Zou Xu too heard that steadily rising, heavy drumbeat. His gaze grew calm, and he raised a spyglass, looking toward the distant wall. Faintly, indistinctly, he could make out that slight figure swinging the drumstick.
Zou Xu lowered the spyglass, and, as though suddenly struck by some realization, began to laugh.
An officer approached from nearby. “What is it?”
Zou Xu handed him the spyglass. “Look.”
He pointed toward the city. The officer gazed for a while, and when he lowered the spyglass, his expression still carried a look of alarm. “This is…”
In the setting sun, he heard Zou Xu sigh.
“To bear the humiliation of the nation, and become the ruler of its people.”
Then, with a laugh, he added, “Tell me… how did I never think of that? How did she make it back?”
“Is now really the time to be discussing that?”
But Zou Xu only looked at him, and then, calmly, gave the order.
…
He paced quietly for a while before his battle lines, waiting for the surging drumbeat within the city to fade. Then he called for a warhorse and rode slowly forward.
A few soldiers with loud, carrying voices followed behind him.
He stopped at a distance of a single arrow’s flight from Weisheng’s walls, and dismounted.
“I wish to speak with the Female Chancellor—” he called out slowly.
The soldiers behind him echoed him, shouting, “General Zou wishes to speak with the Female Chancellor—”
Atop the wall, Lou Shuwan was leaning in the shadow of the gate tower, drinking congee. She sent Yuan Xiaoqiu to go take a look.
Below, Zou Xu spread his arms wide before the city.
“In honor of the Female Chancellor’s return — I come alone. Chancellor, you may bring one companion with you—”
The soldiers relayed his words up to the wall. With just those two lines delivered, the messenger soldier turned and withdrew, leaving Zou Xu standing alone before the whole of Weisheng.
Yuan Xiaoqiu returned and reported the situation to Lou Shuwan.
Lou Shuwan took a bite of pickled vegetables.
“Can we shoot him dead from here?”
Several generals came over and assessed the situation.
The answer: he was out of range.
“See? What good are the lot of you?”
Beneath the setting sun, the city lay silent and grim.
Zou Xu waited for his answer.