Disclaimer: For no particular or logical reason I have started back writing Dynasty Warriors stories. It's been a while since my days writing Dynasty Warriors stories but I'm going to try to give this another go. This originally was going to be a rewrite of my old Dysfunctional Brotherhood series, but this changed to be something else. So it's more of a reboot or a redux. It employs more historical and novel references, with my own twists inspired by Dynasty Warriors shenanigans among other things. For those interested this is also being posted on AO3; one of my first cross-platform stories.
We Just Outsourced: Part 1
Stuck in a forest in the uncharted areas of southern Danyang was not the most ideal place for a small army to find themselves in. Especially in enemy territory. The green forces of Sun Ce, son of the late Tiger of Jiangdong, were trudging through the rain and mud and their young general was getting increasingly frustrated with how slow their movement had become because of it.
"Keep moving!" Sun Ce roared to his troops, standing alongside their rank and file, waving his dirty and muddy hand along as if to speed their process. "We don't want to be sitting ducks, while they pick us off do we?!"
At that, an allied messenger arrived, going against the current of forces. "My Lord Sun Ce, a message from Han Dang. They are arriving at their position and are awaiting your orders sire. Should they wait for you to arrive?"
"I don't care if we're all there," the young general roared over the sound of his struggling army. "Tell them whoever gets there, don't wait, just attack. We gotta start a fight before they block off the bridge."
"Right away sir!" The messenger started his horse, but it didn't go much faster than the horses already stuck and wading through the mud.
"Dammit," the general murmured under his breath, shaking his head in dismay. Things were not looking good. His former inflated sense of accomplishment was now coming to a crashing halt, and he knew his troops were going to see it in his eyes, unless he got himself together.
Wading through the mud, tugging horses and carts along the way, Sun Ce didn't like the stop and go movement his troops were having as they marched towards the rendezvous site to face off against Zu Lang's tribal warriors.
"My lord!" Sun Ce spun his head around, finding his friend Lu Fan riding through the swampy grass. "A report!"
"Report away, Lu Fan," Sun Ce called over the sloshing feet of his troops, eyes focused on his personal assistant. No, Lu Fan was more than that. Sun Ce felt protective of Lu Fan, having come from the same humble beginnings of the Sun clan. Now caught in the midst of high ranking warlords and Heavens granted elites, Sun Ce wanted to keep Lu Fan close, his company a comforting reminder of where he and his army came from.
And humble beginnings Lu Fan may have come from but he had a solid military mind. He had proven more than useful in coordinating scouts.
"My scouts have reported movement from Zu Lang's rear vanguard. They are nearly at the rendezvous point."
"Thanks, my friend," Sun Ce met the strategist with a broad smile, before his voice boomed towards his troops. "You heard him! Push faster and we can bring Zu Lang to his knees!"
The cheers from his troops were strong, but uneven. Sun Ce knew he had to be wise about pushing his men, but gods dammit he was not going to let Zu Lang get away.
Meanwhile at the Sun family headquarters in the northern part of the region, far and away from the middle of the conflict starting to brew among Sun Ce's forces, his mother, Lady Wu, was waiting for word on her eldest child's progress against Zu Lang.
As she was waiting, she was listening to the storm outside. Storms normally calmed her, but now she felt it an omen. And that omen brought in a shivering and drenched messenger to the door to her quarters, requesting entry before even looking at his Lady.
At her beckoning the messenger bowed and announced, "A report from the field from Lord Cheng Pu."
Wordlessly, she held out her hand and the messenger, used to simply reporting the message verbally, handed her the scroll that held Cheng Pu's message.
"I see," she finally said after she read the scroll's contents and her emerald eyes held onto the messenger's for a moment. She dropped the scroll and folded her hands in her lap. "Please do me a favor. Send over a message to Shu County to brother Wu Jing. I request an audience with him as soon as he is able."
The messenger bowed and turned on his heel to do as asked of his Lady.
Back in the middle of the battle, Sun Ce's forces were finally seeing the banners and structures that indicated an enemy location. They were getting closer to the bridge and they could see some of their allies already in the middle of fighting.
Dismayed that he didn't arrive first, Sun Ce instructed his men to reform their line. The bridge was heavily fortified with Zu Lang's men placing barricades all around the bridge access points. They would have to be dismantled before they could even think about moving supplies and weapons in bulk. And they certainly would slow a forward charge.
Zu Lang's men even constructed a watchtower on the other side of the bridge, filled with archers at the ready to pick Sun Ce's encroaching army off. By the bodies on the ground, the archers already killed some of Zhu Zhi's men and were taking aim at the struggling soldiers of Han Dang right around the vicinity of the watchtower.
Han Dang had already forced himself past the bridge with his smaller unit, so the archers didn't have time to decimate his forces from above, but now, stuck in the middle of fighting deep in Zu Lang's line, they could not move as archers tried to take aim between the lines of Zu Lang's soldiers. Mud and rain made it hard to tell between Han Dang's soldiers and allies.
But the archers could see Sun Ce and his forces and had a good distance on them. And a good angle.
After a few volleys of arrows, Han Dang tilted his head back, face cooling in the rain, as he spotted the archers focusing in on Lord Sun Ce. Slicing a soldier across the chest, he raised his hand and shouted to get the attention of his soldiers over the sounds of swords clashing and men yelling.
"Push up the tower, lads. Now!"
The first volley of arrows wasn't able to hit any of Sun Ce's forces, they were so entrenched in the trees still, arrows sticking into branches and bark. But the second one started wounding soldiers further up his line, an arrow piercing the leg of a spear-man and another running through the shoulder of a foot soldier.
"Keep the line!" Sun Ce called as more arrows filled the sky. "They can't hit too many of us if we're still in line!"
He shuddered as he heard the thuds of a few of his men as they hit the mud, dead from impact from the arrows.
The archers had oil canisters meant for a volley of flaming arrows, used sparingly especially with Sun Ce's men still in some cover by the forest. One spark and the entirety of Danyang could be up in flames. They were to wait until Sun Ce crossed the open field towards the mouth of the bridge, before resorting to the fire arrows.
Time was not on Zu Lang's archers' side. The tower was quickly overwhelmed by Han Dang's men, as the officer made a big push, and at some point during the violence along the watchtower, one of the oil canisters toppled over, dripping through the panels of wood onto the torches and lanterns below...
As the smoke rose before him, Sun Ce could not keep his eyes off the spectacle, the watchtower quickly becoming a shining beacon in the cold, rainy, misty forest. Even the rain didn't do much against the growing flames, and the embers licked at the damp wood, the structure maintaining well against the flames, but the wet wood made the structure all the more feeble...
There was loud unearthly groan, and suddenly to the cries and screams of the men who were still alive, barely breathing against the smoke and flames, the watchtower buckled. There was a snap as one of the legs broke, the others following suit in a violent torrent of embers, smoke and ash and cries, the entire structure collapsed to the ground.
Sun Ce's jaw was slack, knowing in his gut his men were on that watchtower. Then a cry came out from behind his line.
"Behind us! Ambush!"
Sun Ce snapped out his trance, barely catching the soldier's words. "What? Impossible. Lu Fan!"
He jerked his head around, trying to find his friend, wanting an explanation on why this was missed from his scouting, but before he could locate Lu Fan he heard the telltale sound of men's voices being wrenched out of their throats as arrows and swords pierced their bodies.
Sun Ce nearly willed his men to stand their ground, and they did so admirably, but they were stuck between trees and shrubs and mud, being picked off from the Zu Lang's ambush troops as they descended from the treetops.
The back of Sun Ce's line was nearly decimated when they could see a familiar red and yellow flag bearing his family crest come down from the path where they came from.
Cheng Pu's Serpent Spear flashed against the rain as he ran, leading his troops straight towards Sun Ce.
Sun Ce wanted to tell his officer to stop, but the steely gaze of the older man was set firm. He wasn't after the mission. He was after saving Sun Ce. And he did so with a rather simple but effective strategy.
The ambush had foolishly let their rear exposed, thinking the archers would have Sun Ce pinned, but with the archers consumed in flames and Cheng Pu coming into his rescue, now the ambush found themselves surrounded. The mighty officers of Cheng Pu's unit slaughtered the ambush troops that had descended upon the line, and the remainders scattered, some into the vicious arms of Sun Ce's men who wanted a bit of revenge, others disappearing into the woods they came from.
"Our coordination is off, Lord Sun Ce," Cheng Pu said pragmatically as he wiped blood off his spear with the end of his decorative military robe. Otherwise the tall magnificent older man looked as though he merely polishing his weapon, as calm as he was. "We have to quickly reorganize and move as one. As I have advised before we ventured out."
Gesturing to get his soldiers' attentions, Sun Ce shouted to his men, "You heard him, line back up and let's get a move on. No archers. No ambush. Let's make the best of this!"
The cheers, still uneven, were much stronger now that the hail of arrows and ambush troops were no longer a problem.
"I'll take my unit first to provide cover," Cheng Pu offered and pointed to the mess of barricades before the bridge. "We'll see if we can take those down so you can move the bulk of your forces in."
"Go for it."
Cheng Pu charged ahead with his smaller quicker unit, and his forces swiftly dismantled the barricades, while Zu Lang's men scattered around to regroup after the collapse of their watchtower before Sun Ce charged with his forces.
Not known to be a patient man, Sun Ce didn't wait for Cheng Pu to remove all of the barricades, and charged forth, hoping to reach the fortifications before Zu Lang's men regrouped. Cheng Pu's protests ignored, Sun Ce swiftly swarmed the base, thankfully needing only his front line to scatter what remained inside the base. Zu Lang's men informally retreated, abandoning their position by the bridge. It was a useless position now, with much of the fortifications and supplies destroyed by the watchtower fire.
The post-battle lull loomed and there were no shouts of victory. Sun Ce instead focused on getting the rest of his forces to keep an eye out along the perimeter for any other signs of an enemy lurking.
Meanwhile, soldiers began sifting through the bodies, trying to determine who was Zu Lang's and who was one of their own. Cheng Pu stared solemnly at the growing line of bodies laid on the ground, covered in capes, sashes and other garments out of decency.
He and Sun Ce recognized most of the bodies being from Han Dang's unit, and they searched the crowds of allied soldiers frantically looking for any sign that Han Dang or any of his men survived. Cheng Pu then turned at the sound of the soldiers calling over searching through the damage of the fallen watchtower. They had found someone alive.
"Master Han Dang!"
Immediately Cheng Pu charged towards the soldiers pulling a large body out of the charred wood of the watchtower, shoving his way past the crowd. The soldiers laid Han Dang on his back, his face covered in soot but otherwise didn't look to be burned too badly. Han Dang though was in a world of confusion, eyes flitting about when he finally managed to open them.
Coughing and sputtering, his eyes settled on Cheng Pu's anxious face, "Did...did we win?" He nodded, watching Han Dang trying to move his head around, "...my men…where are they?"
The soldiers backed away slightly, each waiting for one another to break the horrific news.
"Unless we find another survivor, they have perished." Cheng Pu's normally steely gaze faltered, awaiting his friend's reaction.
The soldiers watched, hearts breaking, as the crease in the Han Dang's forehead wrinkled, eyes lost and helpless. He whimpered, "All of them?"
No one gave an answer. The silence was enough. Shaking, Han Dang rolled onto his knees trying to force himself up, but the weight of the grief caused him to collapse, his hand covering his eyes as he howled in despair at the loss of every one of his soldiers.
For his friend, Cheng Pu did what he rarely was seen to do. He bent down to offer Han Dang a comforting shoulder. Han Dang, too delirious from grief and his wounds to care about appearances, wept openly in his fellow officer's robes.
The victorious Sun army returned to the headquarters, with the exception of trusted captain Ling Cao, who remained behind to fortify the position. The army that rolled in wasn't the boisterous, excited group that had left. And there were noticeably fewer numbers.
Even Sun Ce, normally cheery and festive after his battles, held back on his loud words boasting of his victory.
As the night waned and the generals and soldiers dispersed to their homes for the evening, Sun Ce could sense a growing anticipation. The longer the night went on, the more likely his mother and current matriarch of the Sun family, Lady Wu, would get word of the details of his victory and ask to summon him. And he had to think of an explanation without throwing anyone under the cart.
With a messy victory as this was, it was hard to analyze what went wrong and what could have gone better. Everyone did their part to the best of their ability and he wasn't going to fire anyone for things out of their control. Like bad weather and not being in familiar territory.
But she didn't summon him that evening. Nor did she the evening after. And thinking he was in the clear, Sun Ce returned to the ranks as usual, listening to a few field officers inquire over their future assignments. It was out in the courtyards among the sounds and dust of his army both relaxing after the battle and preparing for whatever new one awaits when he saw his uncle descend the steps of headquarters.
Wu Jing was always Sun Ce's favorite uncle (don't tell Sun Ben). He was his mother's younger brother and he was very similar to Sun Ce in both appearance and personality. Constantly having an impish smile on his face, constantly full of laughter, constantly leaving Lady Wu in exasperation. Being the oldest of his own siblings, Sun Ce saw Wu Jing more as an older brother than an uncle.
Sun Ce smiled at Wu Jing and raised his hand to wave, but paused as he vividly recognized the second man, tall, dressed in dark robes, with short black hair and a well groomed beard and mustache, following close behind Wu Jing's heels.
It had been days stuck in a poor caravan, hopping from inn to inn, shanty to shanty, while traveling from Shouchun. Sun Ce and his toddler brother sat across from their mother in the traveling cart, an old rickety thing that had to have it's axels repaired twice thus far during the journey.
The whole ride Sun Ce had been impatient. Understandable for a child sitting in a makeshift wooden cart with only his immediate family and Huang Gai to entertain him.
And Huang Gai wasn't in a position to entertain a child. He was escorting his lord's lady and his children to ensure their safety. But as a child Sun Ce didn't realize the extent of the danger they were all in. Especially in these times of chaos where strangers weren't welcome into new cities.
"Had enough bouncing, Bofu?," his mother's patient tone was a bit more clipped than usual.
"My bottom hurts," her young son said quite bluntly, earning him an arch of his mother's brow in disapproval at his choice of words. He's taken on much of Sun Jian's old mannerisms, she's found. Sun Ce rubbed the seat of his pants, sitting on hard jostling wood all day making his entire body sore.
They arrived in the lumber district of Shu county on a cloudy day, and fearing the oncoming rains would make traveling with their cart that much harder, the family and their guard decided to try to find a place to stay there for the next night or so.
Lady Wu opened up her purse and frowned. "We'll have to budget our stay here for a bit. Until our lord sends us some finances."
Huang Gai looked stunned, "We can't afford a place to stay you're saying."
Lady Wu rolled her eyes, "No Gongfu. I am moderately fiscally responsible enough to plan out until young Wu Jing arrives with funds from Lord Sun Jian. I meant that we can't afford luxury housing for the duration of the upcoming rains."
Just as well, the lumber district was in the poorer area of town, the houses and shops looking ramshackled at best, as many were made from leftover boards from the lumber yard, and the only inn they could see was more of a saloon.
"How much are we willing to spend?" Huang Gai asked. Lady Wu sorted through her purse, picking and counting silently. She held out a handful of coins to Huang Gai.
"For three nights," she instructed. "After that, we'll have to figure something else out."
Sun Ce watched Huang Gai take the coins with a curt nod and jog down the unpaved street to the saloon, and waited patiently for him to return.
The family waited by their cart, trying not to draw too much attention to themselves even as Quan became fussy, and Lady Wu pulled him into her arms, giving cautious glances to passers by who she thought looked in their direction for too long.
Eventually Huang Gai returned with news that with the money they could offer, the saloon owners were willing to lend the group one room by the stables, the cheapest room and it was more of a shed, but, thankfully, more private from the usual displays seen at saloons.
The family all settled in, but Sun Ce in particular wasn't at all pleased by the confinement of their room. He could be seen pacing around the small walls, picking at the cracks in the thatching of the wood.
Then there was a crack of thunder, and that upset Sun Quan, who was still cradled in his mother's arms. Still, Sun Ce groaned. The rains were here, and mother most likely wasn't going to let him go out and play on his own. And her patience was bound to be short with a crying Sun Quan in her arms.
"Gongfu," Lady Wu said, trying her best to hide her own distress, patting her youngest son on the back to try to calm him. "Sun Ce is looking a little restless. Have him assist you take the ox and cart to the stables. And be careful out there."
"Absolutely, my lady," Huang Gai nodded and approached the young boy. Sun Ce perked up hearing his name, glad that his mother was allowing him to be anywhere besides in this small room with Sun Quan's crying.
The noble officer of Sun Jian took the young boy, covering his small body in a blanket to shield from the rains. Sun Ce splashed and stomped in the mud and puddles while Huang Gai had to push the cart next to a stable stall. "Oh now you've gotten yourself all dirty, Master Sun Ce," Huang Gai groaned. "Your mother will surely be cross."
When they returned, Sun Quan was settled on the floor in a small assortment of blankets and cloaks brought along the journey, sleeping soundly. Lady Wu had already put on a small fire in the pit for warmth.
She took Huang Gai's cape and removed Sun Ce's clothing, clicking her tongue in dismay at his muddy state, and placed them nearby the flames so as to let them dry.
Sun Ce didn't get much sleep that night. It was a safe guess that no one got any sleep besides Sun Quan, young and still blissfully ignorant of his surroundings he still was. But as morning came, and the rains had subsided for the moment, it finally felt peaceful enough to allow sleep to take them after the weariness of travel. That was until a hard knock came at their door. Abrupt and it shook Sun Ce to his feet.
His mother hushed him, but couldn't hide her own look of confused terror. Huang Gai grumbled a bit, brows lowered sternly over his eyes as he peered at the doorway over his shoddy, hole-filled blanket from the far corner of the shed. The knock came again and he shook out of the blanket and stood low, motioning for Lady Wu to keep her and her family silent while he proceeded to the door.
He didn't answer it. Instead he crept low and peaked through a crack in the door. Whatever he saw outside must've stunned him because he snapped his head back, before glancing bewildered at the family he was to protect. He was about the mouth what he saw to the mother, when Sun Quan, swaddled next to Sun Ce began to make noise. It wasn't a cry, more of a loud fussing as the young boy began to awaken at the rising commotion. Sun Ce thought that whomever stood outside could surely hear it.
Lips tight, Lady Wu picked up her youngest child and cradled him against her shoulder. She then motioned to Huang Gai to move back from the door.
"Take Bofu, Gongfu," she quietly instructed and, as Huang Gai did so, lifting Sun Ce in his mighty arms as he retreated to the back of their shack, Lady Wu started toward the door. He was about to yell his protests when Lady Wu, with young Quan held in her arms, answered the door. She nearly jumped back at the sight of two men, both tall and noble looking, standing before her with arms folded in front of them, heads bowed as if she were a Grand Commandant's wife herself.
She held Quan tightly, protective, eyes following along the forms of these men, before becoming aware of a few commoners looking in their direction, curious as to why two high class men were standing in front of the seedier inns of the city, showing proper protocol of respect to a wandering mother and her children.
Both men raised their heads, revealing fine features, handsome they both were. Distractingly so. And their garments and physique spoke of wealth and, to the anxious glances of Huang Gai and Lady Wu, power.
The taller of the two men, presumably the elder one, spoke first, introducing themselves, "Good morning, my lady. I am Zhou Shang and this is my brother Zhou Yi." He gestured to the slightly shorter man beside him, who had chiseled features, striking eyes, and a self-assured smile on his face that could've been construed as a sly smirk.
Zhou Shang, who stood tall but relaxed in his confidence, too held breathtaking features, beard well trimmed and moustache waxed that emphasized the same chiseled features his brother had. His eyes too spoke of intelligence, the kind that could, and sometimes did cause both exasperation and amazement in higher lords of the Han administrations.
Sun Ce remembered being intimidated by these men at their first introduction, baring their magnificence in front of the comparatively humble state Lady Wu and her family were in. And even at that age he could tell even his fearless mother was perturbed.
"You are Lady Wu, correct?" Zhou Shang asked.
Her eyes drew up and down the men again, and answered cautiously, "Yes?"
Both brothers bowed again. "That we are glad to hear. We have heard that the great general Sun Jian's wife and family were traveling from afar, and had wondered in passing how you were faring. Heavens give us fortune that you arrive in our town, so that we may see for ourselves."
"And we have come to offer the Lady Wu and her family to stay with us during her time here. If...of course that is agreeable to you." Zhou Yi said and Sun Ce's mother noticeably fidgeted where she stood. She did not expect that.
She didn't answer right away and Huang Gai let Sun Ce down so he could hover around her in case these...Zhou brothers...decided to do anything nefarious. The offer, generous beyond measure, drew reasonable suspicion on the intentions of these men.
"I will advise you gentlemen," Huang Gai growled with a glare. "My lady is a virtuous woman. I hope you aren't looking for other forms of payment for your generosity."
The brothers glanced at each other, the younger one, Zhou Yi, looking particularly offended, but he kept his tone controlled and respectful as he rebuked. "I loathe that because of these turbulent times we live in that housing in exchange for intimate favors is considered the norm rather than the hideous exception. No, Lady Wu, Master Huang Gai, we offer our home because you have none and are in need of one, and we have room to give. Nothing more, nothing less."
Sun Ce remembered Huang Gai coloring and backing away, shameful that he would insinuate such a thing from the regarded Zhou family let alone think aloud the idea of his friend's wife being offered up to them.
"My Lords Zhou Shang and Zhou Yi," his mother bowed stiffly, with Sun Quan still in her arms. "You have traveled on this dreary day a good ways from home to give me this generosity, so it is much appreciated regardless. However, even you must understand my...hesitation...to take up the offer, having no familiarity of this place, nor you personally for that matter."
She glanced over her shoulder at Sun Ce and Huang Gai, and Sun Ce could see the debate going on in his mother's head. A debate of where will her family be safest. The halls of a well-established family sounded like a much better place to keep her children, than a modestly-reputed saloon in the poorer side of town. Regardless, Lady Wu looked the brothers in the eyes again and gave an answer she was certain would at least give her time, "So if I may my Lords, I must think on this."
That didn't seem to upset the men, as they shrugged. "No matter," Zhou Shang said. "We will send a cart tonight. When you make your decision, you can send them away or go with them. It is entirely your decision."
He then turned his head up and over his shoulder at the overcast sky that was quickly darkening with the next wave of rainfall sure to come, "Now, if you'll excuse us, Lady Wu, Master Huang Gai, we should probably take our leave before we are caught in the storms."