Note: This story isn't historically accurate. The author made great use of historical license on writing it. The inaccuracy is designed to add to the dramatic aspects of the plot. The Huns' invasions and the first Japanese incursion into Chinese territory is at least two centuries apart. The military apparatuses used in the story are out of their respective Eras, as well. That being said, the cultural aspects of Chinese society were extensively studied and are, mostly, accurate, though. Enjoy the reading!

Flower of China

By Kath Klein

Translated by Yoruki Hiiragizawa

Chapter III

Xiao Lang paced around the little room, fuming with the hit dealt against his pride. He had been demoted! Oh, not officially, no. He was still a Major of the Imperial Army, but he had been put in charge of the saddest, spineless, most pathetic bunch of men he'd ever met. He could bet that in his troop were the worst and most hopeless of all men who had ever enlisted to serve.

'Dammit all!' he thundered, unable to control the anger he felt towards General Xue Lian, who, probably with the approval of Prince Yue, had made clear his contempt by giving him that assignment.

They have done that only to humiliate him and the worst was that the Emperor had sided with them. The man tried to control himself, but couldn't stand the idea of being demoted like that. All due to the General's envy of his military prowess and the prince's rancour.

'Why did the Emperor agree? Dammit!' He snarled.

'Because you need to be taken down a notch, Xiao Lang,' answered an unruffled voice.

The Major turned around only to find the Emperor's serene gaze upon him at the door. He knelt before the elder man and bowed his head in respect as well as a bit of awkwardness.

Wei eased his way to the young man, with his hands held together by the fingertips, as he used to do when in a thoughtful mood. 'Please, stand, son.'

Xiao Lang quickly complied and faced the elderly man who had the hint of a smile on his lips.

'You've been too haughty lately for someone at such a young age. When you get to my age, you'll find out that it's all for nought.'

'Why did Your Majesty allow them to demote me?' he asked, resentfully.

'You haven't been demoted, Xiao Lang. You are still a Major of my Army.'

'I'm commanding a bunch of useless men!'

'You are commanding a hundred of my soldiers,' remarked the Emperor.

'I know, but…' the Major grumbled. 'I'm a warrior, not a teacher. I can't lose my time teaching those men to war,' he explained, taking a deep breath. 'China's being invaded! We're losing lives, Your Majesty.'

'I know that! Do you suppose that I don't care about my people?'

'I'm sorry! T-that's not what I meant,' he stammered, lowering his head.

Wei tried not to smile looking at that man in front of him. So young and reckless. Reminded him so much of himself at that age, when he first took on the Emperor's mantle after his father.

'I want you to turn my worse men into the finest of them all.' Wei insisted, calm and patient. 'That's your mission and I wouldn't trust it to any man less deserving or who I would think incapable of accomplishing it.' The Emperor looked at the slouched young man in front of him. 'I could send you to the battlefront to fight against the Huns, Xiao Lang, but what good would it be to have one excellent warrior? I need an Army of great warriors.'

'I… I understand,' the Major muttered.

Wei rested a hand on the man's shoulder. 'I'm confident that I'll have China's finest warriors under your command, soon, Major.'

Xiao Lang nodded, still feeling dejected. He had no patience for teaching. 'I'll do my best, Your Majesty.'

'I'm counting on it, son.'

Wei ambled toward the door and turned around to look at the man once more. He saw Xiao Lang bow his head, respectfully, and exited the room, leaving him alone.

Sakura was standing between Yancha and another soldier named Yu Ban. Ban was as young as her, maybe younger, even, though he was slightly taller and walked around with a proud gait. Most men laughed at him for posing as a grown-up man, despite being still wet behind the ears.

The men were lined up, shoulder by shoulder, in two rows facing each other while chattering quite loudly as they waited for their Commanding Officer to show up. When the door to the barracks opened blusteringly, they immediately hushed up at the sight of the grimace on Major Li's face. It was very clear that he didn't want to be there.

Xiao Lang strode toward his new soldiers and ran his hand through his hair, disillusioned. He could see that Xue Lian had handpicked the most unsuited and worthless men to send his way.

'I'm Major Li Xiao Lang,' he began as he scrutinised the men in his troop. 'I don't need to mention that I hate cowards and slackers, so, if any of you fit into those categories, you better pack up and go home because you're not soldier material, especially under my command.'

The Major strode over, facing and measuring each and every soldier.

Sakura felt her blood run cold and swallowed hard when she noticed that. What if he recognised her? It'd be her end, no doubt.

'You all should know that you've been considered the worst of the worst of all men to have enlisted,' he stated, matter-of-factly. 'And that I've been tasked with the unpleasant mission of turning you into real men. That being said, you'll have no rest until I think you can fight against the Huns and win!'

The Major's voice was cold and overbearing, causing Ban's face to flush out of anger. He clenched his jaw, trying to hold his tongue not to disrespect their superior officer. 'Presumptuous ass...' he hissed, though Sakura could hear him quite clearly.

Li darted his way. 'What did you say, soldier?'

'I didn't say nothing, Sir,' the boy answered.

The Major smirked, looking down on him. 'Indeed, if you had said nothing, your lips wouldn't be moving, soldier.'

'I said I was anxious to start, Sir.'

Xiao Lang knew he was lying, but decided to overlook it, for now. 'What's your name, boy?'

'Yu Ban, Sir.'

'I advise you to hold your tongue. Are you even old enough to be here?'

Sakura noticed that the boy was struggling not to answer to the provocation.

Xiao Lang looked away from the boy and his eyes set on Sakura, who quickly turned forward. He frowned, wondering, firstly, why there were so many kids in his unit; and, secondly, whether he hadn't already seen that one before somewhere. He stepped ahead, watching the quivering boy.

'And what's your name?'

'Kinomoto Touya.' She roughened her voice.

The Major regarded the scrawny boy with contempt. 'Japanese?'

'No, Sir.'

He scowled even harder, thinking that the boy should be the offspring of one of those blasted soldiers who invaded China years before. His own father had been killed by their hand. He already felt like loathing the green-eyed boy. 'Have we met before, soldier?'

'No, Sir.'

Xiao Lang shook his head, assuming he probably didn't know the kid, despite feeling like he had seen him before. He moved on, coming down hard on his men.

As soon as he had stepped away, Sakura sighed, feeling relieved. Her nervousness was quite palpable and she glanced toward Yancha, who remained looking straight ahead, trying to avoid the Major's attention. She knew he had to find her interaction with Li, at least, suspicious and started to think of how she could explain travelling with the arrogant Major's unit, but not knowing him.

As soon as the Major finished laying down his rules and expectations, he directed the men back to the stables, so they could follow up by riding to camp. One of the soldiers noticed that neither Sakura nor Ban had a horse and the clever girl let the boy answer first, giving the same excuse.

So she got her own horse. It wasn't a mighty steed like the Major's but was a sturdy mount nonetheless. The only problem was that she didn't know how to ride by herself. She had made her way to the palace on the back of Yancha's horse.

She walked toward the animal, dragging her feet and opened a tight-lipped smile, looking into its eyes and reaching up to caress its head.

'Hurry up, Kinomoto! We can't wait all day!' The Major snapped at her, noticing that she wouldn't mount the horse. 'Unless you can't ride...'

Sakura didn't answer, just watched Yancha as he mounted, paying close attention to every movement of the fat man. If he could do it, so could she. She lifted her leg, stepping into the stirrup and lifted herself up, sitting straight over the mount.

"It isn't that hard!" She thought, just as the horse walked forward, causing her to lose balance and fall to the ground.

The soldiers burst into laughter, making her blood boil. She stood up, throbbing veins in her neck, and strode toward the animal, decided to mount it again. This time, however, she held tightly to the reins.

Xiao Lang and the rest of the troop watched as the little soldier tried to control the mount. It was quite clear that he didn't know how to ride.

Sakura saw Ban get close to her, mounted on his horse. 'You need to control it by the reins, Kinomoto.'

'I know that! I know what to do,' she bristled, making the men laugh even harder at her short temper.

The Major closed in on the boys and sighed exasperatedly. "That's great! Just what I needed! On top of everything else, having to babysit those brats!" He thought, pointing fingers at the two of them. 'You and you, hurry up!'

Sakura looked at him with a flushed face. She swallowed her anger and pulled the reins, trying to better control her skittish horse.

Xiao Lang shook his head and turned away, his patience running short as he set the ride toward the camp with his men right behind him.

Sakura tried desperately to control the animal and Ban gave her some pointers, while Yancha laughed uncontrollably.

When she finally managed to rein in the horse, the troop was already a good distance ahead of her. Yancha and Ban rode beside her, instructing her on what to do. In almost no time, she'd gotten the hang of horse riding.

'Think ya can gallop now, Kid?' asked Yancha with a smirk.

'Sure!'

'Then let's go, because the Major is eager to get rid of us!' Ban stated, setting a ground-covering stride to reach the main troop.

Sakura did the same, despite an initial fear, controlling her horse quite easily. She couldn't hold back a smile at the thought of what she would be able to do and learn as a man. A woman would never be allowed to mount. Maybe being a soldier wasn't such a bad idea.

The Major looked back at the sound of horses' hooves quickly approaching. He raised an eyebrow at the sight of the three soldiers galloping to catch up to the rest of the platoon. His eyes surveyed Kinomoto attentively, noticing that, even being unpractised at horse riding, the boy was actually doing well. The kid seemed to be a fast learner. Well, maybe it wouldn't be so hard to teach something to those men, after all.

As soon as they reached the rest of the men, the three stragglers matched their pace with that of the troop.

'I'm glad ya learned to ride, Kid,' Yancha mentioned somewhat out of breath by the effort of controlling his horse.

'It's not that hard.' She flashed a smile.

'Hard will be dealing with that Major,' Ban retorted, watching closely over Li's back at the front as he led the men.

'He's strict, I think, but I heard he's a great warrior,' Yancha said, shrugging it off. He narrowed his eyes at Sakura for a moment. 'I thought ya been recruited by the Major, Kid.'

Sakura shook her head, looking ahead. She had already come up with something to say about that but wasn't sure if he was going to believe it. 'No, I wasn't conscripted. I had decided to enlist by myself after the recruiter went to my village.'

'Ah! That's why ya been walking by ya'self.' He laughed. 'I thought ya just drank too much.'

Sakura shrugged. 'I wasn't going to make it to the palace in time on foot, so I just went along.'

'Now I see why the Major didn't know ya.'

'You didn't know the men you were travelling with, Yancha?' Ban nagged the fat man, making him frown.

'I had no time to lose with this!' He grumbled, defensively. 'I used my free time to train and get ahead of the rest.'

Ban cackled at the man's obvious lie and Sakura gave a sad smile, remembering how close the man had kept her during the whole travel to The Forbidden City.

The Major looked back, over his shoulder, scowling at the three of them, causing Ban to stop laughing and start muttering a series of insults instead.

The training site was quite far away, almost a week away from the palace. At their arrival, the men had to set the tents, both the collective as well as the individual ones, where they were going to sleep. Sakura had no idea of how to do any of that and, unwillingly, accepted help from the other soldiers, despite their teasing.

Everybody treated her and Ban as children, but, while the boy snapped at those who tried to teach him how to do something, she decided to accept all the help and learn all that she could, so that she wouldn't need help again later. She knew that couldn't afford to be proud, once she didn't know how to do those things.

As soon as everything got ready, the Major ordered them to their tents. The really hard work would begin the following day.

It was still dark when Sakura was awakened by the noise outside of her tent. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, yawning. She was startled when Yancha's head showed up at the opening of her tent to call for her.

'Yeah, yeah. Coming.' She grumbled, getting up and dragging her feet all the way to where the other men were waiting for their Commanding Officer to start their training.

Xiao Lang looked hopelessly at the men in front of him. They were too fat or too scrawny or too old or not old enough. Turning those men into fit soldiers would be harder than he thought, and he had no illusions about it being easy at all. The first step was quite obvious. They needed to get some physical conditioning and there was only one way to do so.

'Soldiers! Let's run!' He ordered, starting to run around the camp and being followed by the troop.

Sakura looked around, feeling drowsy. She was still sleepy and wanted only to drag herself back to her tent and sleep some more.

'Wake up, Kinomoto!' Ban yelled at her, forcing her to run after Li.

After half an hour running around the camp, Sakura was already panting, feeling her lungs burning. After an hour she fell to her knees beside Yancha, who was sweating like a pig. Li ordered the men to keep running and went to the two of them.

'If you want to become soldiers, you better learn to overcome your limits and be persistent. Stand up and keep running!'

Sakura stood up, unwillingly, and offered her hand to Yancha, helping him up. 'We're going.' She wheezed through her burning lungs.

'Kinomoto!' The major called them before they resumed their running. 'You'll run ten more laps after you're done with the hundred.'

She widened her eyes, looking at the sardonic look on the man's face. 'Why?'

'Because I said so. And because I'm your Commanding Officer. You'll learn not to talk back.'

Sakura shot daggers at him and held back some choice words, starting to run again, followed by Yancha. As soon as the men completed their hundred laps, they fell to the ground, huffing and puffing. Many drank water desperately, trying to beat the tiredness and lack of conditioning. Sakura pressed on running, despite not being able to feel her legs anymore.

Li was by her side, running as if taking a stroll. 'Only one lap left, Kinomoto.'

She didn't say anything, just swallowed yet another swear, trying to save her breath and complete the damn task before the Major decided to order her to run another ten laps or something.

When the last lap was completed, she immediately fell on her knees, trying to catch her breath. For a few minutes, her insides felt as if wanting to get out through her mouth. She leant on the ground, feeling her lungs burning and her stomach ache, unusually nauseated.

The Major forced her to look up, instead of the ground. 'Keep your head raised, soldier, otherwise you'll throw up.'

Ban approached her and offered her a waterskin, which she gladly accepted, drinking in long gulps with gusto. Her nausea still would take a while to pass, however.

After a while, the Major ordered them to stand up and led them toward the centre of the camp, where was found a tall wooden pillar.

He got two heavy metal discs tied with sturdy leather straps from a box and threw them on the ground. He took a bow and an arrow, aimed at the top of the pillar and shot, sticking it in the lumber.

'I want you to climb to the top, carrying these weights and get me that arrow.' Xiao Lang said, looking at the men. 'He who can do it will be my right-hand man and second in command during training.'

Then he took a step back and pointed to the first one who would try. The one who seemed to be the strongest and fittest among the bunch of them.

The chosen man stepped ahead and set the weights on his shoulders, starting to climb the fairly slick wooden post. The Major watched as the man got almost midway to the top before sliding to the ground.

Xiao Lang pointed to the one who seemed to be the second strongest man and saw the same thing happen again. He chose another and then some, but they all failed to complete the task until the only ones left were those whom he knew for sure that wouldn't make it. The Major sat in the shadow of a nearby tree, just despondently pointing to the next one.

By the end, there were only Kinomoto, Yancha and a dozen others left. Xiao Lang scrutinised the group, noticing the meagreness and debility of the ones left. He looked at the fat man and thought that not even without the weights he could do it, and then looked at Kinomoto and smirked, thinking that the boy could hardly survive the mischief he'd done earlier.

'I give up.' He muttered, annoyed at his wimpy platoon. 'You're a bunch of weaklings.'

'There's only a few soldiers left, Sir.' Said the first one who tried. 'After them, I know that I'll be able to bring you that arrow.'

The Major raised his eyebrows, giving a measuring look to the soldier in front of him. He was the most probable one to accomplish the task, after all. 'Kinomoto, your turn.' He commanded, without sparing a second glance toward the boy.

Sakura stepped forward and got the weights by the straps. She could hardly lift them and looked up to the arrow with narrowed eyes. Oh, how she wished she would be the one to get it, just to see the Major's arrogance fall to the ground and make him swallow his insults. She looked at the weights again, thinking that she would fail if she tried to climb the same way everyone else did, especially being a woman. She handled the straps, looking more closely at them and smirked, getting an idea.

She tied the weights together and enlaced it around the pole, pulling it tightly to make sure it was well tied in. Some of the men got closer to look at what the odd kid was doing, but the Major just rolled his eyes, thinking the kid must have gone crazy.

So, she started to climb, inch by inch, using the friction between the leather and the pole and the strength of her legs to rise.

Once she had climbed half of it, the soldiers began to cry out cheerfully, encouraging her to reach the arrow and finally getting the Major's full attention. Xiao Lang stepped toward the pole, with his eyes locked on the kid.

Sakura reached the top and sat on the pole. She freed her hands and pulled the arrow with all her might, throwing it down at the Major's feet.

Xiao Lang saw the bolt sticking out of the ground and lifted his head, watching the boy with a lopsided grin. The men laughed, surprised that the kid had actually been able to fulfil the task. Yancha cried out, claiming that had he the chance, he would have reached it, as well.

'That's not fair, Sir. The kid used the straps to help him climb, instead of only holding the weights. He can't do that!' said the man who had tried to climb first, approaching the Major.

Xiao Lang turned his way, frowning. 'The straps were there to be used as one saw fit. The kid used his wit and accomplished the task with flying colours,' he said, looking back at the boy who smiled while catching his breath.

Sakura locked her eyes on the Major, noticing that he was watching her with a smirk on his lips. She thought that he probably couldn't believe that she had been the one to fulfil the task after so many men tried and failed.

'Only imagine if he knew that I'm a girl…' She whispered so that only the skies could hear.

Taking a deep breath, she began her way down, hearing Yancha and the others still laughing and yelling. Once she touched the ground, many men surrounded her to congratulate her but stepped back at the Major's approach.

'It looks like you'll be my right-hand man, Kinomoto,' he said, stopping in front of her. 'You're not who I thought would be my second in command, but you did prove that strength alone isn't always enough to achieve victory.'

Sakura faced him, remaining silent and, for a couple of seconds, she felt proud of herself as she never had before in her entire life. Right there she was a man, a soldier. She was finally a human being, instead of being somebody else's doormat.

'I'll honour the responsibility given to me, Sir,' she replied earnestly.

The Major grinned and turned on his heels, pointing out at some of the soldiers on lunch duty for the day.

To be continued.

Edited: November 28th, 2019.