Chapter Ten: Chi Bi
In the decisive battle for control over China, a prince loses his army, while a princess heads off to war for the first time.
From atop the heights of a tall cliff, Sun Jian overlooked the blazing inferno below. The swift Wu navy, under Huang Gai's command, was doing an excellent job of serving as fire ships.
Too excellent a job.
Cao Cao's entire armada was being rapidly consumed by their flames, which attacked like roaring scarlet demons, mercilessly devouring every man who stood in their paths.
What a waste of human life, Sun Jian thought sorrowfully to himself, even as his own troops, proudly bearing the crimson tiger flags of Wu, seized upon the chaos which reigned at Cao Cao's camp and began a slaughter of the Wei soldiers who had somehow managed to escape the firestorm.
Sun Jian turned away from the sight, focusing instead on the familiar form of his second son, Sun Quan.
"Zhongmou," he told the young man, "take your forces and go to Hefei. Cao Cao will inevitably try to flee toward there, and I doubt your brother's first wave of attack will completely stop that cunning old bastard...Speaking of your brother, where is Bofu? I haven't seen him since the battle started—"
"Here I am!" a breathless male voice called out before he could finish, and both father and son turned around.
A snorting charger came galloping past Sun Quan, nearly crashing into the latter and spinning him off his own horse, before screeching to a frantic halt in front of Sun Jian. Its rider turned out to be none other than the previously missing Sun Ce, his maroon-and-blue armor thrown on askew, his long dark hair in disarray and streaming loosely around his shoulders...and a suspiciously small amount of Wu infantrymen following at his heels.
As soon as he saw the panicked look on his eldest son's face, Sun Jian knew that something was wrong.
"Bofu, what is the meaning of this?" he asked sternly, yet a note of worry nevertheless crept into his voice. "Why aren't you preparing an ambush for the Wei troops like General Zhou's battle plan calls for? Did you lose to one of Cao Cao's warriors?"
Sun Ce coughed and mumbled something inaudible, which only strained his father's patience.
"What happened?" Sun Jian demanded, giving up on trying to decipher his son's incomprehensible mumblings.
"Pop, Shang Xiang stole half my army!" Sun Ce finally burst out.
Sun Quan, who'd previously looked ready to murder his older brother for nearly knocking him off his mount, now began shaking with laughter.
However, the patriarch of the Sun Clan hardly looked as amused as his child did.
"How could your eighteen-year-old sister possibly steal half your army, son?" he snapped incredulously.
To say that Sun Ce looked uncomfortable at being asked such a question would be a huge understatement, but he eventually coughed up the answer.
"Well, I, ah, kind of woke up a bit late this morning," he admitted sheepishly, prompting his younger brother to suggest in a faux helpful tone, "That ought to teach you never to go drinking and gambling with Gan Ning again!"
The first prince of Wu suddenly seemed to remember something else, and added, "Oh, yeah, about that whole gambling thing—Pop, the Sun family has now lost a city or three to the Gongsun Clan...But don't worry; me and Gan Ning will fight them for all the land we lost last night, as soon as the Wei invasion's been dealt with!"
Sun Jian's face, meanwhile, had turned progressively paler with each word that fell out of his oldest son's lips, until the leader of Wu looked positively ready to go into cardiac arrest—or throttle his firstborn child. With a tremendous burst of self-control, he successfully smothered the urge to do either, and instead urged, tight-lipped, "Continue."
Sun Ce had the grace to at least blush, as he admitted, "Well, when I finally woke up this, um, afternoon, I found out that half of my battalion was gone. Apparently, Little Sis had come early in the morning and told the troops that since their leader—that would be me—had been incapacitated last night, she would be taking my place as general and would be leading them out to battle against Wei. She only managed to carve away half of my men, though: Da Qiao came out just in time, and then that crazy girl took off."
Sun Jian listened in stony silence.
Finally, he turned to Sun Quan and asked of his second son, "Zhongmou, I want you to take what's left of your brother's troops and add them to your army; you'll now be in charge of the ambush that Bofu was supposed to carry out. I'll go to Hefei in your place."
Sun Quan nodded and rode off with the second half of his brother's army, and as Sun Jian himself turned to descend from the cliff, he heard a voice pipe up forlornly, "Hey, wait—what am I supposed to do now?"
Without slowing down, the ruler of Wu threw an answer over his shoulder.
"You have just been formally excused from your battlefield duties so that you may challenge the Gongsun Clan to a duel for all the cities you lost!"
A soot-blackened Cao Cao coughed as he emerged from the roaring Hell of scarlet flames and swirling black smoke. Behind him straggled a pitifully reduced crew of a few hundred infantrymen; the rest of his awe-inspiring million-men army were either dead or dying, surrendered or scattered.
Of the mighty Wei generals, only those few warriors who were strong enough had managed to escape with their lord: Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, the two Xiahou brothers, and their like. Some, such as Xu Zhu, had stayed behind to keep the triumphant Wu-Shu surge at bay long enough for Cao Cao to escape. Others, such as Cao Ren, were stationed elsewhere, guarding key Wei strongholds.
Cao Cao and the feeble remnants of his army plodded wearily forward, intent on escaping to safety.
Suddenly, a bomb exploded in the distance, and out of the dense forests rushed a small battalion proudly bearing the emerald-green flags of the Shu-Han. At its lead was none other than Liu Bei, riding Hex Mark and brandishing his famous sword, the Gold Moon Dragon.
Cao Cao heaved a weary sigh, before flicking one hand to beckon Xiahou Dun forward.
"Yuanrang, take care of him long enough for the rest of us to escape; you may catch up as soon as your task is completed," he ordered of his loyal cousin.
Xiahou Dun obeyed, riding forward with a few brave cavalrymen and whirling the massive Kirin Fang as he engaged Liu Bei and the Shu troops. Steel met unforgiving steel underneath the silver glint of moonlight as the two warriors exchanged blows, Xiahou Dun forfeiting all swordsmanship technique and instead opting to hack madly at his opponent in his adrenaline-charged frenzy.
Cao Cao took the opportunity to escape, desperately whipping at his horse, Shadow Runner, to go faster. The rest of his army followed, with Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, and Xiahou Yuan menacingly swinging their weapons at the Shu soldiers to clear a path for the Wei troops.
As soon as he saw that his lord had safely escaped, Xiahou Dun knew that it was time for him to withdraw and flee as well. Victory would come another day; tonight, it would be enough just to survive. The one-eyed warrior feigned a thrust at Liu Bei's right side, and when the latter moved to dodge that attack, Xiahou Dun galloped past him.
"Follow!" Liu Bei yelled that single command, and the Shu troops started to give chase.
Before they had gone a few paces, however, a horseman bearing a green dragon banner burst out from a side road obscured by black foliage. He frantically flagged down Liu Bei, effectively halting the latter's attempts at a pursuit.
"My lord," the strange trooper cried, his Shu uniform in tatters, "General Guan Yu encountered a Wei ambush on his way to Huarong Valley! Please, you must help him!"
Hearing this startling news, Liu Bei almost dropped his sword as he murmured worriedly to himself, "Second Brother!"
Within seconds, his mind was made up: He would have to abandon the chase here. Taishi Ci and Gan Ning were up ahead to intercept Cao Cao, and even if that man could get past those two warriors, there were still Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei waiting in ambush as well, one in the Black Forest, the other at Hulu Valley.
"Come," Liu Bei told his men, "we'll go to the aid of General Guan!"
Liu Bei glanced suspiciously at his treacherous surroundings—steep cliffs, dark forests, and an endless sea of thick brambles which would make perfect hiding spots for soldiers lying in ambush—as he rode for Huarong Valley. He slowly reined Hex Mark to a stop, and behind him, his soldiers halted as well, while their leader paused to consider the position they were currently in. The inky darkness, the narrow roads, the tall trees and deep-cut mountainsides...
Liu Bei's eyes suddenly widened, as realization flashed across them like a thunderclap.
"Not good," he gasped to himself, and turning around to face his troops, he started to order, "Retreat!"
The order came too late. Just as the Shu battalion had done to Cao Cao earlier that night, so now did a bomb explode, signifying the impending onslaught of soldiers waiting in ambush.
Tall phoenix flags sprang up from amongst trees and bushes, and out rushed a sea of blue-clad soldiers. At their lead rode a Wei officer of incomparable beauty, decked out in an armor of purple-and-black and carrying a pair of long, cruelly sharp claws in his hands as weapons.
"It's a good thing General Sima Yi planned out this ambush, in case something went wrong in the battle tonight," Zhang He spoke with languid eloquence. "Liu Xuande, think of how beautiful your severed head will look, impaled on my Peacock Talon as I present it to my lord tomorrow morning."
Liu Bei tried to act flippant, even though he knew the tides were now solidly in the younger warrior's favor.
"Then Sima Yi must have lost a lot of generals at Chi Bi, if he's been forced to use one of his concubines to set up an ambush for me," he taunted, hoping that this cheap shot at Zhang He's masculinity would incense the latter into making a serious mistake.
For such a tall man weighed down with so much ornamental gold, Zhang He moved astonishingly fast. Liu Bei almost found himself impaled twice to a tree before he was finished speaking, and only some quick action prevented his death right there at the ambush.
Zhang He struck a second time as Liu Bei was unsheathing his sword, knocking the Shu leader off of Hex Mark. However, as Liu Bei fell, he managed to slap the flank of Zhang He's own horse with his sword, so that the startled beast reared up and spilled its master onto the forest floor as well.
Both men now found themselves engaged in ground combat rather than mounted dueling, and the advantage swung further in Zhang He's favor. That man, despite his deceptively refined veneer, turned out to be a swift-as-lightning nightmare with a definite penchant for all things bloody and macabre.
Liu Bei staggered heavily against a pine when one of Zhang He's Peacock Talons found its target, tearing open his right shoulder.
Several cries of, "My lord!" rang out from the Shu side, as the panicked soldiers hurried toward their injured leader.
However, this one gritted his teeth and switched his sword to his left hand, urging his troops to return to battle with a gallant order of, "Charge! Today we overcome the enemy...or we fight to the death!"
Having thus re-ignited the fighting spirits of his men, Liu Bei returned to his own duel.
Zhang He was a demon, striking with such speed and ferocity that Liu Bei found it increasingly difficult to even ward off the other man's attacks, what with his sword held clumsily in his unaccustomed left hand. Another expert slash and the Gold Moon Dragon was knocked aside, landing several yards away from its master.
So this is the end, is it? Liu Bei thought dully to himself, as a gleeful Zhang He got ready for the final, fatal blow...
...Until a flash of gold-and-silver materialized out of seemingly nowhere to deflect the Wei general's attack.
Liu Bei slowly let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding, as a new battalion—dressed in bold red tones and proudly brandishing the tiger flags of the Wu kingdom—joined the fight. Leading the troops was a svelte figure on horseback, carrying a pair of chakrams and wearing a burgundy silk scarf wrapped loosely around the lower part of its face.
The new warrior then proceeded to give Zhang He so much hell that the latter was forced to abandon the ambush.
Gathering up the remnants of his troops, the striking Wei general cried out, "Retreat! With grace, gentlemen, with grace!"
A thunderous wave of cheering rose from amidst the victorious Wu-Shu ranks as their enemies hastily ran away. Soldiers yelled and waved their weapons in triumph, while their horses snorted and neighed shrilly and kicked up a large amount of dust.
It took Liu Bei a while to notice that, among these jubilant troops, was a sizeable amount of women warriors. With a start, he turned to their commanding officer, and soon realized why there were so many females in this Wu auxiliary corps.
The bold fighter who'd deflected Zhang He's attack and saved his life was now slowly peeling the burgundy scarf away. Hidden behind its silky folds was a youthful face, which, despite its owner's deceptively short dark hair and aggressive fighting style, bore remarkably attractive, feminine features.
She was a woman, and she turned to smile at Liu Bei with a glow of victory in her warm brown eyes.