Changed my mind about keeping this story going. Already working on chapter 11.
Scouts had located where many of the Mongols were camped, about 20 miles north of Wu Zhong. They estimated there to be about 5,000.
The number of soldiers present at Wu Zhong was over 6,000 as new recruits and reserves were still arriving. It had been a month since the Mongols had ambushed the military camp. There were still wounded to tend to, but they were much less critical.
Zhou was trying to learn as much medicine during this time as he could, knowing that once more battles occurred, there would be many more wounded to tend to. The seasoned medics were quick to grab him for new learning experiences. He was learning how to set broken bones, fix dislocated shoulders, stitch up wounds and treat head injuries, among other things. He barely slept, but he loved it.
When the Chinese army decided to attack the Mongol camp, two medics came along and two stayed back. Zhou wanted to come along, but it was decided that two senior medics would instead. While nearly everyone was gone, Zhou helped prepare supplies and prepare the medical tents to receive wounded.
He and the other medic swapped stories about war and family life. Zhou discovered that this medic had treated his mother after she had been injured by Shan Yu's sword. He'd heard a little of the story of the avalanche, but now got to hear it from the medic's perspective.
His mother had entered the army as Fa Ping, to take his grandfather's place. His grandpa Fa had been injured years before as a general, and was conscripted to return when the Huns attacked. She had taken his conscription notice and joined the army as a boy. No one knew until she was slashed by Shan Yu's sword and the medic had to treat her. The Hun leader's sword had left a deep slice in his mother's side. He found out that only his father had known about her being a girl. He also found out that the avalanche his mother caused killed most of the Huns and saved a lot of Chinese soldiers. She'd also saved his father's life.
Zhou wondered why he didn't know more about that. The more he learned about his family, the more questions he had.
Thankfully, there was much to keep his mind occupied. His army was returning to the camp with many wounded, and more coming. The attack on the Mongol camp had not gone well and over 2,000 of their 6,500 soldiers were killed, along with over 300 wounded. Four medics for 300 wounded soldiers. This time, his father was not one of them.
Zhou was able to treat on his own many of the soldiers with less complicated injuries. He also assisted the other medics with the more severe patients.
While the injured were being treated, the generals began coming up with strategies for going up against the Mongols. They were expert archers.
It was decided that the Imperial army would camp towards the top of a mountain that faced the Mongol's war camp. Behind them would be an even larger mountain, and 1,500 archers made camp up there.
This way they could watch for the enemy, and initially attack from up high.
It was about two weeks later that the Mongols attacked their temporary camp. Scouts had brought back warnings that they were moving towards them.
As soon as the 4,000 Mongol warriors were in view, the archers unleashed a giant amount of arrows on them and didn't stop until given a cease-fire order. This cut the number of enemy soldiers roughly in half.
Then the other 3,000 soldiers attacked. Zhou watched from high on the mountain as the Imperial army, led by his father and the other two generals, fought back the Mongols until only a handful remained. The archers who'd been up high descended to come to the aid of the foot soldiers.
The remaining enemy soldiers were captured and killed. Once again, the number of Chinese wounded was high. Out of 4,500 troops, 500 were killed and 400 wounded. Once again, Zhou and the senior medics worked around the clock to treat them. Scouts kept a watch on the surrounding areas to be alert for any more attacks, just in case there had been more Mongol troops elsewhere.
They returned to Wu Zhong, where Zhou continued to assist in treating the wounded. Shang and the other generals regrouped and trained more recruits. After 6 more months, they were finally able to go home.
Neither of them had seen any of the other family, besides Mulan when Shang was injured, for nearly a year.
Mingzhu and Qiang tackled Zhou onto the ground as soon as they saw him. He was 19 and they were 5 and 8.
His little siblings had grown considerably in all the time he'd spent away from them. Qiang had been a baby when he'd started at the military academy. Now Zhou could teach him martial arts moves. The younger boy was eager to learn whatever he could from his big brother.
He wasn't surprised when Mingzhu showed him some of her moves. She'd continued to learn, as well.
But the questions at the back of Zhou's mind continued to nag him when he wasn't occupied. He tried to keep himself busy with the horses and his younger siblings, and practicing his own fighting skills.
Why did his mother and father live apart for so long? Why didn't he meet his mother's parents before he was 7? Why wasn't he supposed to talk about any of that?
One day, after practicing martial arts in the yard, he spotted his mother in the temple. Her night terrors had gone away for the time being. Since Zhou and his father had been home, she hadn't woken up screaming once.
He decided to ask his mother what had kept them away from this home for so long, when he was younger. She jumped at the question, then shook her head and went back to praying.
That was odd, thought Zhou. But, he dropped it.
After 6 months at home, Zhou and Shang went to Wu Zhong for 6 months. More recruits needed to be trained. Zhou worked with a senior medic again, and also did many of the physical drills to sharpen his skills in fighting.
One of the nights, he walked with his father around the pond near the camp. He finally unloaded all the questions that had been in his mind for over a year.
Shang was quiet for several minutes. "We knew you would want to know all this, eventually."
"I'm not a child anymore, I'm twenty years old now."
"Son, I used to be a very different man than I am now. I did a lot of things I'm not proud of."
"Like what?"
"After your mother started the avalanche with our last cannon and was hit by Shan Yu's sword, I found out her secret." Shang looked off in the distance for a moment before continuing.
"I was the only one that knew. I began forcing her to have sex with me in exchange for me not turning her in or beheading her. She didn't want to, but I didn't give her any choice."
Zhou felt like he was in shock. He could barely breathe and his heart pounded in his ears. His father had raped his mother?! A white hot rage began to crawl up his spine.
"That's how you came about. She got pregnant, and you were born just a few weeks after we finally defeated the Huns. She wanted nothing to do with me, and did not want to go home single and pregnant. She made a life at a nearby village, and I settled not far from her. I gave her food, money and hay regularly to make sure the two of you were taken care of.
She continued to not want me around, so I respected that. But gradually she changed her tune as she saw I was changing. It wasn't until you were 7 that she realized she loved me and finally agreed to marry me. So that's why we lived apart so many years.
It was not long after that we found out Fa Zhou was ill. She felt she could finally go home, once we were married. So we went there to live. So now you know. I hope you don't hate me."
"Do you love my mother?"
"Yes, Zhou, I do."
"Has she forgiven you?"
"Yes"
"Why did you treat her like that?"
Shang stared at his hands, then up at the stars.
"I didn't know how to treat a woman with respect. My father, your grandfather Li, had been terribly abusive to women my entire life. My mother and two of his concubines died as a direct result of his violence."
"So you carried on what he'd modeled for you?"
"Yes. After you were born, I was determined not to pass the same legacy onto you, so I broke the pattern. I know that's difficult to hear all that, but with you being grown now you deserved to hear the truth."
"So is that what her nightmares were always about?"
"Yes, son, they were because of me."
Zhou stopped in his tracks, thinking back on all the years of seeing his mother's flashbacks and nightmares. All this time, he thought it was from the Huns, but it was because of his father!
The blind rage that had been crawling up his spine suddenly clouded his vision, and he punched his father square in the face, knocking him to the ground.
"That's for my mother."
He stood, watching with fists balled up, as Shang got up from where Zhou had knocked him down.
His father could have had him disciplined for punching a high-ranking officer, but chose not to. The two men stood looking at each other, neither sure what the other was about to do.
Zhou turned and punched a tree. Then he punched it again and again. Shang stood silently watching him. He hadn't been taken aback by Zhou's reaction. The young man loved his mother, after all.
Finally, knuckles bloodied, he stopped. Feeling spent, Zhou sank to the ground. Shang cautiously sat beside him. His nose had finally stopped bleeding from where he'd been punched by his grown son.
"I am sorry, Zhou, for what I did to your mother. I truly am. I still tell her that, a lot."
"She's forgiven you?"
"Yes, she has."
"Well, I don't think I can. Not yet."
"I understand."
"How did you feel, seeing all those nightmares of my mother's, and knowing you caused them?"
"Absolutely terrible. There were times, too many to count, that I wanted to fall on my sword. But, knowing I had you and your mother, then later Mingzhu and Qiang as well, kept me from doing it."
"Does Grandma Fa know?"
"Yes."
"What'd she do?"
"She slapped me, then slapped me a second time for Grandpa Fa."
"So Grandpa Fa didn't know?"
"No. He would have killed me if he did. I barely met him, but I studied his heroic deeds in school."
"So did I. He sounded amazing. I wish I could have known him more."
"Me, too. You know, you have his heroic blood in you. Fa's never back down. Like when our camp got ambushed and you dragged me to the medical tent, even though they kept coming at you trying to kill me, you fought all of them off with one arm and dragged me with the other. You saved my life, and I never thanked you for that."
Shang placed his hand on Zhou's shoulder. "Thank you for saving my life."
"You're welcome."
"I think Grandpa Fa would be proud of you. I'm proud of you, too, Zhou."
"What about Grandpa Li? You don't talk about him much."
"He was an excellent general, but he was arrogant and that clouded his judgment. He thought his army could defeat the Huns, but they outsmarted him. He made me a captain long before I was ready."
"Did he ever tell you he was proud of you?"
"No, never."
It was almost dawn before they were done talking. Shang got started with leading drills and Zhou hurried back to the medical tent to take over care of a critically injured soldier who'd been thrown off a horse the day before.
Treating that patient, and then a snake bite and the fallout injuries from a couple of fistfights kept Zhou too busy to think about what he'd discussed with his father.
After the other medic took over for the night, he sat down by the lake to be alone with his thoughts.
In time, he'd forgive his father. After all, his mother had forgiven him and she was the one who'd truly been wronged.
The Fa's never back down. He'd heard his mother and great grandma Fa say that, before, too.
He had Fa blood in him, and he never backed down from a fight or a challenge. Every trial that came his way, he met with determination and a set jaw.