To Reviewer: Thanks for your review, but I think I'm going to write my story my way. You're right about making Sung Mina perfect, that you think. But I'm not going to make Sung Mina like a goddess, like you presume. You shouldn't judge a person by how they look and what they do. You can find more to a person like personality etc. A reader likes such characters like this, but they like to see these characters face a challenge and defeat the challenge or win, no matter how hard it is. So I think you should've read more before writing down a comment like that. So, I suggest you read more before saying anymore, but if you don't like my story that much, I suggest you stop reading.
(Sorry for the long sermon readers, back to the story.)
Chapter 7: The Rescue of the Emperor
Zhao Yun woke up sometime at four in the morning. He yawned and got up stretching his body. It had been about a year already since he had been walking down the mountain at Chang San with Sun Ce when they had made the oath under the tree with the Rose of Sharon. So many things had happened the past year.
A week had passed since they had won the battle of Hu Lao Gate. Zhao Yun was having a good time resting and talking to Mina, but was a little depressed about Diao Chan. Then when Zhao Yun went to eat at the mush room, word was spread that the generals had to meet in the afternoon to discuss battle plans to take over Nak Yang, where the emperor was.
After breakfast, the generals met in Cao Cao's tent and started discussing what their goal was.
"We must take Nak Yang without getting the emperor hurt. So, I think it'd be best if a few men go to Nak Yang to take the emperor out of Nak Yang. If we don't Dong Zhou will probably use him to escape or use ransom, etc. So anyone you sirs recommend?"
Yuan Shao stood up and said, "Cao Cao, you very well know that Han is famous for all of its strong generals, but not many are speedy. However, I would like to recommend my own Zhang He."
Cao Cao slowly nodded and said, "Anyone else?"
Zhao Yun stood up. "I'd like to recommend myself and Sung Mina. All of you very well know that Sung Mina is a fully qualified ninja from the islands of the east. Anyone refuse?"
"Hey Mina, let's get ready! We got to leave tonight!"
Mina started packing lightly and got her ninja clothes ready. Zhao Yun himself tried on the all-black ninja suit and it fit him very well. Mina walked up to him and said, "You look good."
Zhao Yun flushed and walked away, saying he had to go to the bathroom. He did. He breathed in deeply a few times and got the ninja stars ready in his right pocket. Then taking a sword that Mina had given him, he left his tent. Mina had a lot of these ninja swords and Zhao Yun really liked it how they made it.
Zhao Yun was under the Hu Lao Gate and was getting ready to leave when he saw Diao Chan waiting for him at the front gate.
"You really do look good." She smiled and walked towards him.
"Thanks Diao Chan. Uh. . . didn't you slap me just a few days ago?"
"Uh. . . yeah. Sorry about it. I just felt like slapping you."
"Uh. . . sure. Well. . . I'll be back!"
Zhao Yun waved as he saw the small figure of Diao Chan slowly disappear by darkness.
"Now I really don't understand women."
With another sigh, he met up with Mina and Zhang He.
Zhang He came over and said, "Lord Zhao Yun, it is my pleasure to meet you."
"Zhang He, I've heard a lot of stories about you. Shall we?"
Zhang He, Zhao Yun, and Sung Mina dashed through the night where they could see the small figure of the big castle Nak Yang.
They saw hundreds of soldiers on the walls of Nak Yang.
Zhao Yun looked around and said, "They must be expecting us to attack at night. There's probably more inside the castle. This won't be easy as we hoped it to be."
Let's try the south gate. That's seems to be the weakest part of the castle."
Zhao Yun, Zhang He, and Sung Mina looked around Nak Yang castle and looked for places where soldiers didn't go often. They found a small area where soldiers never walked passed around the north gate.
Zhao Yun stared at the same area for 30 minutes and finally said, "That's the place."
It was two in the morning and Zhao Yun, Sung Mina, and Zhang He snuck over to the castle and climbed the walls using a rope. They threw the rope onto a part of the castle wall. Sung Mina went up first and Zhang He and Zhao Yun followed. Then when they saw soldiers coming, they threw some of the ninja stars Sung Mina had. They started running around the castle wall, taking a good look at the inside of Nak Yang. They saw the big palace, which they supposed belonged to the emperor. When they had gone through one whole lap around Nak Yang, Sung Mina was breathing heavily and started coughing.
Zhao Yun went over to her and said, "You okay?"
"Yeah. Just not too good at long distance running."
They rested for 5 minutes and came down from castle wall. Then they silently went up to the palace steps. They saw the big doors with the symbol of a dragon covered with jewels. To their surprise, the door was partly open. Zhao Yun saw this strange as they approached the beam of light coming from the open doors. Then they heard voices. There were two rough voices and two weak voices. The two weak voices, they could tell. The frightened voice was the emperor. Then the second voice was the little brother of the emperor. His voice didn't sound very scared, but it had full confidence in his voice.
"Ah, dear emperor, we have just received orders from Lord Dong Zhou. We are to get rid of you and make your brother the new emperor."
The frightened voice started shaking and said, "Y-You think you can get rid of the emperor?"
Another rough voice said, "Yes, we can."
They heard movements of the voice and heard something go into someone's body.
"Ugh. . .I-I'm the emp-emperor. . ."
The brother of the emperor said, "What do you think you're doing?"
"Just getting rid of the worthless emperor and making you the emperor, your majesty."
"But why must it be me to be the emperor?"
"Your majesties brother was just like a scarecrow. No special skills with him. Not good at martial arts or smart in any way. If we have people like that for an emperor, the people of the land will start a rebellion. We need a smart emperor to help Han continue its long history."
There was silence and finally the young voice replied, "So what am I supposed to do?"
"We will burn the castle of Nak Yang and go to Jang Ahn."
Zhao Yun felt as if a sudden shock wave went through his body. He couldn't believe that Dong Zhou would burn Nak Yang, where millions of peasants lived.
The new emperor seemed shocked, too.
"What? Burn Nak Yang? What about all the peasants living here? They're all my people!"
"Yes, your majesty. We're planning to take them by force to Jang Ahn."
"Are you crazy? There are many old men and women that can't make it from here to Jang Ahn. They'll all die on the way!"
"So then we can just bury them on the way, can't we?"
There was a deadly silence and the emperor said, "Then I'll have to stop you."
"Oh, emperor, please. I don't want to see anymore blood tonight."
There was a sound where one of the rough men got punched on the face by the emperor.
"Why you . . .!"
Then the calm rough voice said, "Hua Xiong, it's the emperor you're talking to."
The other rough man said, "Fine. Then one tiny scratch on the face will do. . ."
The gentle rough voice didn't show any signs to stop, so Zhao Yun cued the two of them to charge in.
Zhao Yun made a large sound to stop Hua Xiong from hurting the emperor.
"Huh? Who the heck are you?"
Hua Xiong looked bewildered at the three black cloaked figures. Zhao Yun was surprised to see that the person next to Hua Xiong and the emperor was Lu Bu.
Lu Bu stepped up and said, "Hua Xiong, you make sure they don't take the emperor. I know they're here for the emperor. Lord Dong Zhou needs the emperor to use incase of an emergency on our escape."
Hua Xiong backed off and Lu Bu stepped up with his Halberd.
Zhao Yun couldn't bring his spear, because it was too heavy to carry around with the ninja suit. He only had the ninja sword, but this sword wasn't a very short sword, either.
Lu Bu started swinging away with his halberd and Zhao Yun knew he didn't have a chance without his spear. Then he shouted, "I'll keep him busy! You take the emperor and escape!"
Zhang He and Sung Mina went into formation position and started attacking Hua Xiong from both sides. Meanwhile, Lu Bu was swinging away madly.
"I don't know who you are, but now that you've seen what we've done, you're not going back alive!"
Zhao Yun couldn't reach Lu Bu's body with the sword, so all he could do was defend him from the halberd. Then he saw Zhang He attacking Hua Xiong and then tried a feint to take the emperor, but Hua Xiong blocked Zhang He away. Then Sung Mina appeared out of nowhere and started beating Hua Xiong up. Then Zhang He took the emperor and said, "Emperor, please don't resist. I have been sent by Yuan Shao and the United Forces of Han. Please follow us."
The emperor nodded and Zhang He jumped through the darkness with the emperor in his arms. Then Sung Mina followed Zhang He to help him get through the soldiers that had awakened due to the ruckus.
Zhao Yun saw Sung Mina and Zhang He escape and tried to find some resting time to escape, but Lu Bu just continued to attack continuously. Zhao Yun could only think of one way to escape. Zhao Yun suddenly dashed into Lu Bu and Lu Bu slashed Zhao Yun with his halberd, leaving a dark red slash on Zhao Yun's chest. Zhao Yun ignored the pain pumping through his heart. Then he dashed in some more and slashed Lu Bu by the legs and arms.
Just like he had planned, Lu Bu fell over in pain and agony, but it was only for a moment. Then Zhao Yun slipped away through the darkness, leaving a cursing Lu Bu who tried to follow Zhao Yun out.
Zhao Yun was outside the castle of Nak Yang and he stopped running and started walking. He started breathing in deeply and walked towards Hu Lao Gate.
The sun was high up in the sky by the time Zhao Yun returned to the camp. As soon as he saw the soldiers of Han, he fainted on the spot dreaming of Diao Chan.
Zhao Yun woke up in the hospital tent and Diao Chan beside him.
Diao Chan smiled and said, "You okay, Zhao Yun?"
"Yeah. You're not gonna slap me anymore?"
"Just wait until you get better! I'll pounds you lots!"
Zhao Yun chuckled and asked, "How about the emperor?"
"Oh, he's inside the Hu Lao Gate."
"How about Mina and Zhang He?"
Diao Chan suddenly had a dark look on her face.
"The emperor arrived here a little before you did. Zhang He and Sung Mina must've kept him from being hurt and they were probably caught and taken away."
"What? They're strong enough to handle themselves out of those little problems! Who were they caught by?"
"I don't know Zhao Yun. It could've possibly been Lu Bu."
"Probably not. I was fighting with Lu Bu and I just ran for it."
"Maybe Lu Bu was going after you, but met up with Zhang He and Sung Mina."
"That's possible. . ."
Diao Chan looked at Zhao Yun with a worried expression on his face.
"Zhao Yun. . .? What are you gonna do?"
"What do you think, I'm going after them."
Zhao Yun put his armor on and left the hospital tent. A few seconds later, Sun Ce came in and said, "Zhao Yun, how's it do. . ."
Diao Chan saw Sun Ce and said, "Sun Ce, quickly go after Zhao Yun! He's turned mad!"
Sun Ce made a U-turn, and as he left he just said, "Roger."
Zhao Yun took Xu Huang and Zhao Mi along with 500 of his best soldiers on horses.
As they were riding towards Nak Yang, Zhao Yun rode over to Zhao Mi.
"Zhao Mi, I haven't seen you for the past month. What's been up?"
Zhao Mi smiled and said, "I've been practicing fighting with a spear."
Zhao Yun chucked and said, "You? Is it going well?"
Zhao Mi gave Zhao Yun a light push and said, "Don't think I can't learn! I wouldn't have come if I wasn't strong enough to protect myself here. Ask Xu Huang how much stronger I have become!"
Zhao Yun yawned and said, "Yeah, yeah. . .I'll fight with you later after this battle, Zhao Mi."
She smiled and said, "I'll beat you!"
Zhao Yun couldn't believe his sister who was 14-years old was riding with him to battle. He had always helped her out when they were younger and he only saw her as the helpless little girl he loved dearly. She did all her heart to become the best sister for Zhao Yun and was doing very well. When Zhao Yun was young, there were some big boys Zhao Yun and his friends couldn't win. But then, Zhao Mi made a plan and using the plan, Zhao Yun and his friends beat up the big boys up pretty well.
Thinking of these memories brought a smile to Zhao Yun's face. But the smile disappeared as he saw the castle of Nak Yang. There was smoke coming from the castle. Zhao Yun suddenly ran faster than ever with his Red Hare and rode towards the castle wall. Then he stood up on his steed and jumped as high as he could towards the castle wall. He got about halfway and using his spear as something to hold on to, he moved up stone by stone. Then he got to the top to see a burning ritual. There were two people tied up from head to toe. It was Zhang He and Sung Mina, no doubt. Dong Zhou came up to the soldiers and peasant. Then he said, "Six hours ago, these two filthy pieces of trash came in to this castle, thinking they would be okay to go around with my Lu Bu here. So let this be a lesson to you all, anyone who tried to attack me or bother me in any sort of way, Lu Bu will make sure to make your necks fly out from your bodies.
There was a wave of a cold shudder as Dong Zhou's words echoed across the castle. Dong Zhou's big body towered over the soldiers and peasants around. Then with his big face smiling disgustingly, he said, "Burn them." As if Zhao Yun had been waiting for this word, Zhao Yun jumped down from the castle walls, reading himself to fighting position.