You Didn't Choose a Life Like That

Tuang Shui bit his lip impatiently. He was dressed in an immaculate parade uniform befitting a lieutenant of imperial troops. The problem was that there were not many people to impress with it in this hopeless garrison city the Heavenly Ones must have ejected out of one of their less heavenly orifices, he maliciously thought.

He uttered a sigh and observed Ankiang forlornly from the top of the Dragon Wall.

- "Shui?" his mother said. "You look displeased."

She was a general and the commander of the local garrison.

- "Hm." Shui's voice was as mocking as he dared in his mother's presence. "Why ever, I wonder. If we were stationed in Tai Tung someone might actually notice my talent and my career might improve. Not to mention that I could use my free time for something other than counting the grains of sand on these miserable plains."

- "You would do well to use your free time for example for reading the works of wise men and practising with your weapons!" his mother exclaimed sharply. "Your... talent is not perfect yet, though I have no doubt that you would love to lead the hapless ladies of the Imperial Capital to believe so instead of trying to improve yourself."

Shui didn't answer. Like the land of barbarians west from the Dragon Wall, the province of Chukei was arid plains with salty grainy sand, dry grass and almost no water. The garrison city of Ankiang had a few struggling civilian businesses, a depressing little inn, and of course the garrison itself with some governmental buildings.

- "You are young, Shui..." the commander Tuang Chen continued in a softer tone, "I understand that you would like to enjoy all the entertainments and girls of bigger cities. But you didn't choose a life like that. You chose to become a soldier in service of the Emperor, like me. Soldiers go where they are needed to serve their country and Emperor, whether it is convenient or not. Do you not think Ankiang is important? It is the northernmost of the garrison cities along the Dragon Wall, protecting our mighty Empire from the barbarians. We are guardians. What we do is important."

- "Oh please, mother!" Shui's voice was scornful. "Everyone knows that an assignment in Chukei, military or administrative, is actually a punishment! And who in their right minds would want to live here, out of all the..." he gasped and stopped abruptly as his mother backhanded him hard with her gauntleted hand, fire in her dark eyes.

- "I have had quite enough of your disrespectful attitude, Shui! It is not befitting an Imperial officer, nor my son for that matter! Do you want to be punished? I am your commanding officer." Her eyes challenged him, blazing. Chen was as formidable as she had seemed to be when Shui was but a small boy, playing with his wooden toys and admiring his warrior mother tremendously.

- "No, mother," he replied timidly, bowing his head. He knew when to give up. "I apologize for my behaviour."

Chen nodded stiffly. They both were quiet for a long time, gazing at the lands across the Dragon Wall, and the high tops of Chigidi Mountains.

- "You are right about that thing, son," Chen said then. "I made an error in judgement, warring T'u Lung. Had the information I had at hand been correct, it would have been a right decision... but as it turned out, I lost nearly two thousand men without gaining anything. And that kind of thing... well, careers of officers have stagnated for far less."

- "But it sounds like it was not your fault."

- "It wasn't as such, at least not completely... but I was the commander, and commander takes the responsibility. And... I don't have anything to complain about, really. I still do what I always wished to do and was trained to do. I wield my sword and command troops in service of my Emperor and country. What I said to you is true. Just because others consider this place a hellhole with dead-end careers, doesn't mean this garrison isn't important to the Empire."

- "It seems to me that those barbarians are nothing but skirmishing animals. How could they possibly threaten the mighty armies of Shou?"

- "They may be all that, but they also are ferocious and tempered by the harsh living. Tuigans invaded Shou Lung not too long ago, though you are maybe too young to remember it. Humility, Shui. That is something you should learn."

Shui didn't think that at all, but was wary of his mother now.

- "Did you know that the first Imperial Capital was here, Shui?"

- "No." The young man's eyes sparkled with definite interest.

- "Oh yes, near Fukiow."

Shui nodded. Fukiow was an important mining city in the middle of the otherwise dead plains.

- "Yes... there used to be Kuo Meilan, where the first emperors ruled. Their court is still there, half-buried in the sands, haunted or so they say. So you see, son. There is more to everything than it first seems. Do not hasten to close your eyes."