Chapter 208: One Word

Late in the afternoon, the setting sun still lingered reluctantly with the evening clouds.

But inside the Jin army camps, no one had the leisure to exchange flirtatious glances with the sunset.

In a certain sense, Jin was much like Yan.

Something in the bones of its people seemed to lack that trace of poetic elegance.

Even their accents carried the same quality—drawn-out endings mixed with a fiery, headlong temperament.

Xu Youcheng silently washed his right arm.

During the morning siege, an arrow had struck him there.

Truthfully, he knew perfectly well that the barbarian soldier atop the wall had been aiming for his head.

Fortunately, he had dodged in time.

Otherwise, his life would have ended beneath the walls of this fortified manor.

The brothers under his command had not been so lucky.

More than three hundred men had gone forward as a middle assault echelon.

Nearly a hundred were lost.

Almost everyone who returned carried wounds.

This fortified manor did not look particularly large.

But fuck it was genuinely difficult to bite through.

Xu Youcheng was only a watered-down Thousand-Man Commander, no famous general.

Even he could see that trying to break the fortress by having everyone carry scaling ladders forward was nearly impossible.

The Yan troops inside possessed high morale.

Nor did they appear troubled by shortages of grain or military supplies.

If both sides truly intended to sit beneath these walls and grind away human lives against one another the attackers would suffer far more.

A soldier brought Xu Youcheng his ration.

A coarse corn cake.

It had frozen hard enough to crack teeth.

The only way to eat it was to soak it in boiling water and make do.

Xu Youcheng did not complain much.

The men under him silently ate the same rations.

In the past such a thing would have been unimaginable.

Even during ordinary days, their meals at least included white rice and as much bean paste as they wanted.

Whenever the army marched out on campaign, wine and meat would appear every few days.

When had they ever suffered like this?

But circumstances were stronger than men.

Xu Youcheng's unit had originally been retainers of the Wenren Clan.

And the wealth of the Wenren Clan was known throughout the realm.

When it came to supplying their own soldiers they always chose the best.

Who could have expected that those good days would simply vanish overnight?

Not long ago, everyone had still been full of momentum, attacking Yan.

Along the Horseshoe Mountains, six hundred thousand troops from the two great clans had been locked in battle with the Yan.

The Yan could fight.

But they had not seemed quite as godlike as rumor claimed.

That had been Xu Youcheng's genuine impression at the time.

One of their Army Commanders had once said that Yan's truly formidable troops were currently bogged down inside Qian.

Even so, Xu Youcheng had not thought much of it.

The sons of Jin were not inferior to Yan men.

They could ride horses.

They could draw bows.

Children in Jin grew up playing games about killing wild men.

The Jin had always looked down on the softness of Qian people.

The Wenren Clan Head and several young lords had even promised that once Yan was defeated and they entered Yan territory, the army would receive enormous rewards.

For someone of Xu Youcheng's rank, the merit from that campaign should have been enough to let him return home, build a fortified manor, and live comfortably as a local rich man.

He had barely begun savoring that dream when the Zhenbei Army and Jingnan Army suddenly appeared behind them.

Among the common people, stories now claimed that two hundred thousand Yan iron cavalry had ridden out of a black gale, suddenly appearing behind the Jin army and crushing it for a thousand li.

But Xu Youcheng had personally lived through it.

He knew that was not what had happened.

The Jin had six hundred thousand troops.

That did not even include local garrisons.

With that many men, stacking every soldier onto a single battlefield was impossible.

No commander with half a brain would deploy forces that way.

Likewise, Yan's two hundred thousand cavalry could not simply be thrown forward in one solid mass.

When both armies together approached a million men where would one find a battlefield large enough for both sides to slaughter each other to their hearts' content?

The Jin army had been divided into several major forces.

The Yan, despite already being outnumbered had divided their own troops as well.

At the beginning, the Yan army's sudden appearance truly did catch Jin completely unprepared.

Jin suffered enormous losses.

But Jin troops were not Qian troops.

When it came to open-field combat aside from Qian's Western Army, none of Qian's other forces could compare with Jin.

The Wenren and Helian Clans rapidly organized a counterattack.

And they genuinely managed to organize it effectively.

But what happened afterward left an unimaginably deep shadow inside Xu Youcheng, a rough soldier who had spent half his life in the army.

Ten days.

Seven battles.

A thousand-li front.

The Jin army lost.

Then lost again.

And kept losing.

Until finally they were completely shattered.

Xu Youcheng truly could not understand how an army that terrifying could exist beneath Heaven.

Mounted archery.

Cavalry charges.

Even dismounted infantry fighting.

In every respect the Jin could not match the Zhenbei Army and Jingnan Army.

At the beginning, the two sides could still fight back and forth.

Jin possessed numerical superiority.

There were even times when the Jin army seized an early advantage.

There were moments when Yan formations fell into genuine danger.

Yet even when the Yan were cut apart across the battlefield even when only ten Yan soldiers remained in one isolated pocket those ten men could still reform their horses and launch another charge.

Or dismount and close ranks into an infantry formation.

The Jin army had been broken by force.

Again and again.

The so-called surprise attack had been only one small part of the reason.

The true reason the Wenren and Helian Clans were destroyed so completely was that both Clan Heads placed too much faith in their ability to fight in open terrain.

Then the Yan army swallowed them fairly and openly battle after battle.

Even now, when Xu Youcheng dreamed about those ten days and nights he would sometimes wake trembling.

Later, because his unit still retained a considerable number of cavalry, he led his men west once it became clear that the Yan had seized the overall advantage.

They accepted recruitment from the Jin Emperor and entered the Capital Region.

There—

Xu Youcheng received the rank of Thousand-Man Commander.

He had never imagined that not long afterward, Yu Huacheng, commander of the Capital Region garrison, would pull them back out to face the Yan once again.

Xu Youcheng had never fought this particular Yan force in an open field.

So he could not judge its true quality.

But the Yan troops defending the fortress had already displayed more than enough combat strength.

Those arrows were fucking accurate.

At moments like this, Xu Youcheng could not help thinking:

If we keep fighting the Yan like this will anything good really come of it?

It was a tangled feeling.

Deep inside he feared the Yan.

But at the same time he still carried the pride of a son of the Three Jin lands.

In the end all that remained was a numb mentality of getting through one day at a time.

Fortunately several thousand Situ Clan elite cavalry still held the army together.

Fortunately the routed troops numbered only several thousand.

Most of the army still consisted of the Capital Region's imperial troops.

So morale inside the Jin camps remained reasonably stable.

Yu Huacheng might have stumbled beneath this fortified manor for two days but his methods of controlling an army were solid.

While Xu Youcheng's mind wandered through these scattered thoughts shouts from scout riders suddenly came from outside the camp.

Xu Youcheng's unit was stationed in one of the southern subsidiary camps rather than the main camp.

He immediately ordered every soldier under him who could still mount a horse to accompany him outside and inspect the situation.

Once he left the camp and saw the "enemy attack" reported by the scouts—

Xu Youcheng froze completely.

Yan reinforcements consisted of only three men!

Even so, Xu Youcheng did not dare relax in the slightest.

In fact, his calves began trembling uncontrollably.

That massive Pixiu.

And the gilded armor worn by the man sitting upon it.

Together they announced the newcomer's identity more clearly than any banner.

"Mar...

"Marquis of Jingnan!"

Xu Youcheng did not order his men to rush forward and seize this heaven-defying military merit.

Instead he immediately ordered several cavalrymen beside him to race back and report.

The news spread rapidly.

Troops began pouring out from the subsidiary camps one after another.

They moved toward this place but only to form a distant ring around the three Yan riders.

Not a single commander actually ordered an attack against these "Yan reinforcements" of only three men.

Eventually the main camp moved as well.

The man at the front was naturally the commander of the forces here—

Yu Huacheng.

Beside him rode Situ Jiangong.

"You're certain you didn't mistake him?

"The Yan Marquis of Jingnan personally came here?"

The messenger had reported with absolute certainty.

Even so, Situ Jiangong still found it difficult to believe that Yan's Marquis of Jingnan would dare pull something like this.

If Tian Wujing had arrived leading an army—

Situ Jiangong would not have found it strange in the slightest.

What must come would always come.

As one of the promising men of the Situ Clan's younger generation, he was not Situ Lei's son, but his branch of the clan remained close to the core bloodline.

So long as Situ Jiangong proved capable, his future naturally would not be limited.

And as the saying went newborn calves did not fear tigers.

Even though the Marquis of Jingnan had personally led an army through Qian and into Jin, destroying two of the Three Jin lands' great clans in one stroke—

Situ Jiangong had not been frightened merely by the man's reputation.

If anything he felt faintly excited.

What he could not understand was why Tian Wujing had come with only two other riders.

What kind of logic was that?

Yu Huacheng had already gone through his shock inside the command tent.

With his elder brother helping steady him he had barely managed to regain his composure.

And compared with Situ Jiangong, however talented that young Situ clansman might be Yu Huacheng understood the current political situation far more clearly.

The Situ Clan genuinely did not possess many troops on the western front.

They had only recently reached a tacit ceasefire with the Yan.

The question was not whether they could mobilize a great army to surround and kill Tian Wujing.

The question was if they dared touch the Marquis of Jingnan would the Yan Emperor immediately order Great Yan's iron cavalry to march east regardless of everything else?

At that moment, the gates of the fortified manor suddenly opened from within.

The Jin army was stunned yet again.

Several units quickly broke away from their camps and began moving toward the fortress.

But they did not exploit the opportunity to launch a siege.

Instead their posture became strangely hesitant.

The absurd part was this:

The Jin possessed the absolute numerical advantage.

Yan's reinforcements consisted of exactly three men.

Yet at this moment more than ten thousand Jin soldiers somehow felt as though they were the ones caught between two enemy forces.

Zheng Fan rode out from the fortified manor first.

Behind him, Green Willow Fortress's cavalry mounted one after another and followed him out.

Beneath the walls they began forming ranks.

They were preparing to charge!

Situ Jiangong watched the scene in astonishment.

He did not believe the Yan force inside could possibly be unaware of how many reinforcements had arrived.

With the elevated view from the fortress walls, they could not miss the appearance of any large-scale force.

But apparently simply because the Marquis of Jingnan had arrived the Yan commander dared abandon the advantage of the walls altogether.

Every cavalryman had ridden out.

They were forming battle lines beneath the fortress!

Fuck.

So this was Yan?

Governor Zheng who normally treasured his life to an almost ridiculous degree after learning Tian Wujing had arrived fell silent for a moment.

Even though he knew perfectly well that the other man had brought only two riders he still suppressed the objections and noise from the Demon Kings beneath him.

Then, as commander he gave the order directly:

"Form ranks outside the fortress!"

The Blind Man was slightly dissatisfied.

Yet he also understood.

Perhaps this was like those people who spent ordinary days pinching every copper coin as though possessed by the ghost of a miser only to one day suddenly ruin their own household to relieve a national crisis.

Even the calmest person experienced moments of impulse.

Sometimes hot blood rushed into the head and a man suddenly wagered everything.

Whether he regretted it afterward was something for later.

For now, enjoy it first.

Siniang smiled as she remained beside Zheng Fan.

Liang Cheng silently surveyed the surroundings.

Inside his mind, he was already calculating which direction they should charge if battle began and which route offered the greatest chance of breaking through.

A'Ming quietly raised his waterskin again and took a gentle sip.

Drink plenty of blood in peaceful times.

Then there would be enough to spill during war.

Xue San sat atop Fan Li's shoulder.

Beside Fan Li stood a coffin.

They rode out through the gates.

Formed ranks.

Then, Governor Zheng suddenly began feeling nervous.

But when he looked toward that figure in the southwest he somehow stopped caring.

Zheng Fan was not deliberately trying to flatter Tian Wujing.

Nor was he hoping the Marquis would notice him.

Truthfully there were not many complicated thoughts left inside him.

Only one idea.

Since Old Tian had come then no matter what—

I ought to help hold up the scene.

...

To the southwest surrounded by several thousand cavalrymen of the Three Jin lands—

Tian Wujing remained seated atop his Pixiu.

The Pixiu's tongue hung from its mouth.

It looked exhausted.

And it genuinely was.

A journey that should have taken at least three days had been completed in one.

The two standard-bearers behind Tian Wujing had each ridden two horses to death along the way.

Tian Wujing reached down and scratched the Pixiu's fur.

When it sensed someone beginning to approach from the front the Pixiu rose again.

Low growls rolled from its throat.

The sound frightened many of the warhorses ahead into stamping and snorting restlessly.

Situ Jiangong watched Tian Wujing from a distance.

He did not dare move forward.

He knew that even without an army behind him the man before him was not someone easily handled.

Set aside his title as Marquis of Jingnan.

Tian Wujing himself was a genuine Third Grade Martial Artist.

And still in the prime of life.

Yu Huacheng did not dare step forward either.

He simply sat on his horse beneath his commander's banner.

Finally a streak of white flashed through the Jin cavalry like a startled swan.

It landed before the formation.

With a single glance the ferocious Pixiu instinctively suppressed its own violence.

When this man appeared—

Situ Jiangong froze at first.

Then he immediately turned toward Yu Huacheng beside him.

"I never imagined the Sword Saint had been here the entire time."

Yu Huacheng smiled faintly.

He had no desire to explain the matter now.

Situ Jiangong did not mind.

Instead he watched what unfolded ahead with even greater interest.

The Sword Saint looked at Tian Wujing.

He smiled.

"They say heroes of the martial world love walking alone with sword in hand—daring to stand by themselves and calmly watch raging waves crash against the shore.

"I never expected the Marquis of Jingnan would also develop the temperament of a wandering swordsman.

"Yu Huaping, swordsman of Jin—requests instruction from the Marquis of Jingnan!"

Tian Wujing leaned back slightly.

One hand continued gently stroking the Pixiu's fur, soothing the tension his mount felt toward the sword ahead.

After a moment the Marquis of Jingnan raised his eyes faintly.

He looked at the Sword Saint of Jin.

Then lifted one hand and pointed behind himself.

"The martial world is ultimately too small.

"This Marquis cannot be bothered to descend into it.

"And that martial world—cannot contain this Marquis either.

"Walking alone with sword in hand—that is the conduct of some common brute from the martial world.

"Behind this Marquis stands the royal banner of Great Yan.

"Beside it stands this Marquis's command banner.

"How could this be called arriving alone?

"This Marquis—came leading an army."

Behind the Marquis of Jingnan the two mounted standard-bearers straightened their backs.

The black dragon banner and the Jingnan Army's command banner snapped sharply in the evening wind.

The Sword Saint did not become angry.

He merely stepped backward twice.

Tian Wujing's meaning was extremely simple.

He could not be bothered to descend into the martial world and chatter according to its rules.

The imperial court.

Officialdom.

Civil and military authority.

Those were the proper path.

No matter how sharp the Sword Saint's blade might be at this moment he did not possess the qualification to speak with him.

Finally—

Yu Huacheng rode forward.

He came to his elder brother's side and stopped before Tian Wujing.

Cupping his fists, he greeted the Marquis with the rites of a junior.

"Yu Huacheng, commander of Jin's Capital Region, pays respects to the Marquis of Jingnan of Yan.

"We did not know Your Lordship would honor us with your presence.

"May I ask what brings Your Lordship here?"

He was pretending not to understand something everyone understood perfectly.

Awkward as it was he had no choice.

Otherwise how could the conversation even begin?

Surely they could not simply order Tian Wujing killed?

The Marquis of Jingnan looked at Yu Huacheng.

He nodded.

Then spoke.

"This Marquis came for only one matter."

Yu Huacheng relaxed internally.

If they could talk that was good.

Apparently the Marquis of Jingnan, despite his murderous reputation was not entirely impossible to deal with.

Yu Huacheng immediately followed.

"May I ask Your Lordship—what matter?"

The Marquis of Jingnan slowly swept his gaze across the surrounding army.

Finally his eyes returned to Yu Huacheng.

One matter.

In truth, only one word.

Tian Wujing gently patted the Pixiu beneath him and spoke with complete casualness.

"Scram."

(End of Chapter)