3.


Mulan's family had a long and proud history.
Fa Zhou was no different from the Fa patriarchs before him, in that he devoted his life to farming--mostly chickens and dairy, and his was the seventh generation in a row to serve in the Emperor's army (Mulan having become the eighth).
The Fa residence stood on the same site for six hundred years; it had survived a number of earthquakes, droughts, and floods. The house, stable, and most of the surrounding walls were repaired or rebuilt many times over the years, but the family temple and sections of the rear wall remained much the same as when they were built by the first Fa to settle the land.
According to family legend, the Great Stone Dragon predated the Fa settlement, having stood on that spot for a thousand years. Fa Zhou had recently begun to reassemble the pieces of the shattered statue, and he promised his family he would restore the Great Stone Dragon within three years.
Ten days had passed since Mulan left her family for the second time. For the rest of the Fa family, the household now seemed somewhat quieter--and lonelier. Their thoughts were all on Mulan; they kept reassuring themselves she was all right.
Fa Zhou and Fa Li stood with Grandma Fa, and the three of them looked across the garden, through the moongate, to the old family temple. It was now autumn, and the grounds of the temple was surrounded by the petals and leaves fallen from the surrounding trees.
"I do hope the Ancestors are watching over us . . . watching over Mulan," Fa Li commented. "If only they would give us some sort of sign."
Grandmother Fa looked over to Mulan's mother. "I must tell you something," the elder Fa said. "It's a story I never told anyone. It happened more than fifty years ago, shortly after Zhou's father and I married, and before Zhou was born. It was very strange, and I shall never forget it. Never."
She looked at Fa Zhou. "Your father was gravely ill with a mysterious fever. Within hours he grew too weak to stand, and he collapsed on the bed. Then he slipped into a coma. The doctor was helpless to save him--he sadly told me my husband was going to die."
"Well, being a young wife, this was too much for me to bear. I ran to the temple carrying jewelry, money--anything of value I owned. I threw everything down at the beis as a sacrifice to the Ancestors, and I fell to the floor, grieving. I laid there for an hour, crying and praying that the Ancestors not let my husband be taken from me."
"I then went back to my husband to be with him in his final moments. I sat by his side the entire night."
"Then a miracle happened. The next morning, his fever broke. He began to improve slowly, and the effects of the illness vanished. His life was spared. I ran to the temple to thank the Ancestors. It was then that I noticed mysterious things."
She continued slowly. "My sacrifice--the jewelry and all--was gone. The stone figures inside the temple looked different somehow--as though they were all taken down, and later replaced. The brass dragon incense burner was no longer tarnished; it looked as though someone had polished it. And the Great Stone Dragon . . ."
Grandma Fa hesitated.
"Go ahead, Mama," Fa Zhou encouraged.
"You know how the Great Stone Dragon has always been covered with moss and ivy, don't you? That morning, and that morning only, it looked like freshly cut stone. No moss. No ivy. Just pure white stone. And, it stood at a slightly different angle than before. It has stood at that angle ever since--that is, until it crumbled the night Mulan ran away."
"I have always believed that the Great Stone Dragon and the figures in the temple are our family Guardians, who came to life and rescued my husband that night many years ago, by working some sort of divine magic. Ever since, I have had faith that in times of trouble, our Ancestors summon those same Guardians to protect the family."

Every night before retiring, Mulan spent a few minutes with Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po by the campfire light, patiently teaching them to read. They learned a few new characters each night, and Mulan began to have them practice reading from their Sun-Tsu scrolls.
Chi Fu started to take notice of the four friends' activities. Finally, he snuck up behind them one evening, and, pacing back and forth, he watched them, totally perplexed. "What on earth is going on here?" He asked.
"Mulan is teaching us how to read," Chien-Po said.
"Teaching you to wha--?" Chi Fu exclaimed. He waved his brush and tablet in the air. "A woman? Teaching? Now, you stop this nonsense--"
Chi Fu was about to forbid any more reading sessions, but knew that the news would travel back to Shang. And Chi Fu was weary of feuding with Shang, and was not about to get into a tussle with him over this. He just guffawed.
"A woman teacher is worthless," Chi Fu scoffed. "Everyone knows that."
The Emperor's Counsel turned on his heel and strutted away.
Mulan's three friends shook their heads. They hoped that someday Chi Fu would treat Mulan with respect, but they figured he simply would never learn.

While he trained the recruits, Shang trained Mulan, Yao, Ling, and Chien-Po to be commanding officers. Under Shang's watch, the four were assigned to help train the recruits. Shang watched Yao and Ling closely, making sure their natural tendency to brawl was kept in check. Mulan noticed that the recruits were a ragtag bunch--as she and her training class once were--however, within a couple of weeks the new class of recruits showed marked improvement. They had a long way to go, but she could tell these new recruits would eventually become very fine soldiers.
On the morning following their episode with Chi Fu, the four new officers were called by Shang to his tent for a conference. Shang laid before Mulan and the Gang of Three a map of the region. He placed markers along the map: black markers representing Hun units; red for the Imperial units. By moving the markers along the map, Shang demonstrated to the others how the main Hun army headed south, directly for the Imperial City. Then, about thirty miles out, the Huns abruptly took an eastward course. Then they traveled northwest for a few miles.
Yao scratched the muttonchops on his face. "If the Huns are trying to get to the Imperial City, they're taking the scenic route."
Even Shang was baffled at how the Hun army, which at first was driving straight for the Imperial City, now seemed to wander aimlessly. He also wondered why the enemy would sometimes occupy a village for several days before destroying it.
"Maybe they're probing our defenses, trying to find a weakness," Mulan suggested.
"I don't know. It's not like them. It's as though they were searching for something," Shang said.
"Why don't we just go out with our armies now and stop them?" Ling asked.
Shang sighed. "The Emperor has urged me to protect the citizenry, rather than protect him in the Imperial City. That is truly noble of him, but to best protect the citizenry, I would need to blunt the Huns' advance with a counteroffensive attack--just like you suggested. However, to do that now would be foolish--for two reasons. First, this Hun army is much quicker than any army we've ever assembled. So, if we marched on them, the Huns would simply go around us and attack the Imperial City. Instead, we'd be better off if we blocked up the roads, forcing the Huns to march on a fortification near the Imperial City."
Chien-Po looked up. "The second reason is . . .?"
Shang looked at the map sullenly. "The second reason is, we have no army in the entire region. Shan-Yu's first wave wiped out all of the trained forces we had, and so the only thing left is the recruits here at Wu Zhong. And I can't send a band of fresh recruits against that kind of might--they would just be slaughtered. So, we have absolutely nothing to attack the Huns with."
They all looked discouraged.
"What is that marker for?" Mulan asked, pointing to a red marker at the southern edge of the map.
"That, my friends, is our best hope now. Months ago, when Shan-Yu crossed the Great Wall, my father called for these reserves. They are elite archers from the Canton province--two thousand of them. Well, twenty-two hundred fifty, to be exact. They had to march a long way, and only now are arriving in the region. With the Huns stalling, the Cantonese archers should be available to us in time to defend the Imperial City."
Shang lowered his voice. "They are good--very good. Each man can shoot twenty arrows a minute and hit a grain of rice at a hundred paces. I'm not exaggerating."
The others raised their eyebrows and pursed their lips. Mulan gazed at Shang, who scanned the marker on the map with a hopeful expression upon his face.