Heaven Hates Arrogance

"Open the gates! Marshal Zhang is coming through!"

The gates of Taiping groaned open on their hinges. Out from the government seat on Taiping Road rode a middle-aged commander with his guards at his back. Zhang Dingbian walked his horse at an easy pace, watching the soldiers haul away the enemy dead, while on the gate tower of the city falling away behind him a black banner snapped in the wind — a flag the color of deep brown gone nearly to black, the words King of Han written across it in white.

He put his heels to the horse, and before long he had reached Caishi, where Chen Youliang's navy lay at anchor. Hundreds of vessels, great and small, crowded the water, but what seized the eye were the dozens of enormous tower ships among them. The greatest of all was Chen Youliang's flagship, the Hunjianglong — the Dragon That Churns the River.

"Marshal! You've come?"

The moment Zhang Dingbian arrived — closest confidant of the King of Han, Chen Youliang, or rather his sworn brother — the officer standing watch over the Hunjianglong came running.

"And His Majesty?"

"We have him in the inner cabin, just as His Highness ordered. Aside from a brief turn in the open air, no one is permitted to go near him."

"Hm..."

Zhang Dingbian began to speak, then stopped. The officer could only watch his face and wait. This was the man called the fiercest of the brave generals under Chen Youliang, and now he stood with his brow knotted, sunk in thought. At last he lifted his head.

"Get every sailor and soldier off that ship, and seal the surroundings. No one is to come within sight of her. Do you understand?"

"Sir? Yes — yes, Marshal!"

In moments, hundreds of oarsmen, sailors, and soldiers poured off the great ship, and the troops Zhang Dingbian had brought with him went aboard in their place and drew a hard cordon around her. He crossed the deck with a set face and went down into the cabin. Chen Youliang's own household guards, posted at the inner door, bowed their heads and opened what they had kept shut fast. Zhang Dingbian stepped through with care. Only a single guard followed him, carrying a box.

A lamp burned in the dim inner room. A man in a dragon robe of red silk sat drinking, and when he set the bottle down to look at his uninvited guest, the smell of wine came off him in a wave.

"Ten thousand years! Ten thousand years! Ten thousand times ten thousand years! This officer, Zhang Dingbian, pays his respects to Your Majesty!"

Zhang Dingbian went down on one knee and offered a formal salute. The man who looked back at him was the Emperor of Tianwan, and Xu Shouhui's flushed face was haggard past all telling.

"Marshal Zhang — what are you doing here? A man as busy as you, what business could you possibly have with me..."

"This officer comes by order of His Highness the King of Han, to lay a report of victory before Your Majesty."

"Victory? You mean the fight was won?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Xu Shouhui nodded, his mouth bitter.

"Yes. The King of Han is a formidable man, just as I thought. So he beat even Zhu Yuanzhang's army — the one with such a name for valor..."

Zhang Dingbian took the box from his guard, opened it, and drew out the victory memorial to present it.

It had been last year's twelfth month when Emperor Xu Shouhui, unable to keep the ever-swelling Chen Youliang in hand, had taken the bold step of leading his own commanders, his officials, and the whole of his army to Jiangzhou. When Chen Youliang came through the gates in hemp cloth, begging pardon and leading Xu Shouhui's horse by the bridle, the emperor had all but cried out in triumph, certain the realm had been set to rights. The price of that complacency was hideous. The gates slammed shut, and ambushers burst out from within the walls and from without; the civil and military officials who still gave Xu Shouhui their loyalty, and the household troops drawn from the Maitreya sect, were slaughtered to the last man. After that he had been shut up inside the city to play Chen Youliang's puppet, until suddenly he was dragged out and put aboard a ship — and how long ago had that even been?

"Zhu Yuanzhang's general Hua Yun, and Zhu Yuanzhang's adopted son Zhu Wensun, were holding Taiping. By His Highness the King of Han's subtle design, the city fell in three days."

"Ha. So you've taken Taiping as well? Then Zhu Yuanzhang's capital, Jinling, is no more than half a day off by water..."

"Yes. In effect, we have them by the throat, Your Majesty."

Drunk and worn down as he was, Xu Shouhui was still a man who had been raised up as emperor for close to ten years. People sneered that he had become emperor on nothing but a tall frame and a handsome face, and it was said he had been led about by powerful ministers such as Ni Wenjun. Even so, he was an emperor. He had held Hunan and Hubei, reached Shu in the west and Jiangxi in the east, and pushed south as far as Fujian. The seasoned weight of a man who had led so vast a realm did not simply vanish.

"Play his hand well, and the King of Han could take the world. A man of that quality — no wonder I fell to him. Hahaha..."

He broke into a loose laugh and tipped the bottle up, gulping. Zhang Dingbian bowed his head and said nothing. This was the emperor to whom he and his sworn brother and lord, Chen Youliang, had once pledged their loyalty, and the sight of him brought so low made the emptiness of a life feel very near.

"Impressive, I'll grant you that. But tell me, Marshal Zhang — why bring a report like this to me at all?"

"As I said, His Highness the King of Han wished Your Majesty to hear—"

"What wind suddenly blew Chen Youliang into reporting anything to me? Didn't he drag me all the way here because he was afraid I'd get up to something if he left me in Jiangzhou?"

Xu Shouhui watched him with bloodshot eyes, and a thin smile touched his mouth.

"Why don't we be honest with each other?"

"......"

"You know as well as I do that every limb of mine has ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠already been cut away. I'm a puppet with the strings gone. What threat am I, that you go to these lengths?"

At the pitiful emperor's appeal, Zhang Dingbian only kept silent.

"For the sake of what we once were, put in a good word for me with the King of Han. Tell him that if he wants this empty title of emperor, I'll hand the whole of it over."

Zhang Dingbian kept his head bowed, and a bitter smile pulled at his mouth. If only it were that simple. Who would wish to carry it this far? He raised his head and flicked a glance at the man who had moved, without a sound, to stand behind Xu Shouhui in the dark. The man slipped a hand into his sleeve and drew out a small iron mace.

"Marshal Zhang, for old times' sake..."

The blow was not very loud. Xu Shouhui stared at Zhang Dingbian with glazed eyes as blood ran in a stream down his forehead.

"For... old times'..."

He wiped at the blood in his eyes and tried to stagger up.

"M-Marshal Zhang, d-don't—"

Zhang Dingbian squeezed his eyes shut. Better to be out at the van of a battle, swinging spear and blade. The blows fell one after another, a sound like someone beating a wet rag, cruel and wretched, and then, before he quite knew it, the noise had stopped.

"See that His Majesty's body is properly attended to."

"Yes, Marshal."

Zhang Dingbian rose and went straight off the flagship. He did not have far to go. Above Caishi, where the navy lay moored, stood Juluo Hill, and on that hill an old shrine. At the Temple of the Five Manifestations, his lord was waiting.

"Elder brother — the matter, how did it..."

"This officer confirmed it with his own eyes, my lord."

Chen Youliang was a tall, solid man, his face burned dark as a soldier's ought to be, and the armor on him flashed like quicksilver with a weight of authority. He seized the hand of his sworn elder brother, two years his senior and from the same hometown.

"Elder brother. I'm sorry to have asked this of you."

"No, my lord. If someone had to do it, then it was rightly this officer's task."

Both had come from fishing families in Mianyang, in Hubei, and from childhood they had roamed river and field together. Unlike Zhang Dingbian, who had never learned his letters, Chen Youliang had picked up a little scholarship and come to understand the sense of writing. Hating the life of a fisherman who did nothing but catch fish, he had become a clerk of the prefecture — and, unsatisfied even with that, he had stepped forward to join Xu Shouhui when the rebellion rose. From that day on, his sworn brother Zhang Dingbian had never left his side. Chen Youliang delighted in trickery and was full of suspicion, and this man was the confidant he trusted most: the finest brave general in his army, peerless in courage and in the art of war.

"Elder brother. This Youliang will never forget what he owes you. Let us be certain to accomplish the great work, and share wealth and glory together, generation after generation."

"This officer only follows his lord."

Chen Youliang patted his shoulder and turned. The Five Manifestations were gods the common people believed would bring luck in wealth; their images had been carried outside, and in the emptied shrine the civil and military officials of the campaign were already gathered.

"As you all know, His Majesty's health has been poor since the first month of this year, and so this man has been conducting the affairs of state in his place."

It was a transparent lie, and not one man objected. Even Zou Pusheng — an elder of Tianwan, who together with Peng Yingyu, patriarch of the Maitreya sect, had raised Xu Shouhui to the throne — only stole a cautious glance aside. Every confidant of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Xu Shouhui with the standing to oppose Chen Youliang had already taken the road to the underworld.

"Of late His Majesty's illness had taken a grave turn, and alas..."

"......"

"Regrettably, His Majesty breathed his last a short while ago."

Chen Youliang threw aside the ceremony and went straight to the point.

"It is a sorrowful thing. But these are troubled times, and what matters above all else is how this realm is to be led. Is that not so?"

"H-His Highness the King of Han speaks truly!"

"We must discuss the succession to the throne!"

Zou Pusheng had been a fortune-teller skilled in geomancy, like the sorcerer-monk Peng Yingyu, and he had done much to raise the western Red Turbans out of the Maitreya faithful. The moment he added his voice, the rest found theirs.

"It is only fitting that His Highness the King of Han ascend the throne!"

"By the merit he has piled up, and by taking Taiping at a stroke and securing the ground on which to pacify Jiangdong — if not His Highness, who would lead us?"

Chen Youliang lifted a hand and quieted them all.

"You all wish me to take the throne?"

As one, they dropped to their knees and shouted.

"Your Majesty! Ascend the throne!"

"Ascend, and bring this age of chaos to peace!"

Chen Youliang mounted the altar that had been prepared beforehand and read the sacrificial address with his own voice.

At his declaration the commanders and officials cried out together.

"Ten thousand years! Ten thousand years! Ten thousand times ten thousand years!"

They drew blood from a horse and smeared it on the mouths of the hundred officials, and with that the rite of the blood oath was done. The moment he took the throne, Chen Youliang proclaimed his will.

He set the old elder Zou Pusheng in the honorary place of Grand Preceptor, teacher to the emperor, and so put the established meritorious men at ease. Zhang Bixian, a powerful commander with whom he had sworn brotherhood in the days under Ni Wenjun, he made Chancellor, to grip the court in his hand. His most trusted sworn brother, Zhang Dingbian, he set over the whole of military authority. Then he bestowed offices one after another on the commanders and officials who had backed him, commending their merit, and made ready to announce the accession to the entire army.

Countless soldiers had lined the bank of the Yangtze to pay homage to the new emperor. At that very moment the sky went dark, and rain came sheeting down through the ink-black clouds that had swallowed the sun.

"Huh? What — rain?"

The downpour hit so suddenly that no one knew where to turn. They rushed a ceremonial parasol over to shelter the Emperor of Great Han, but Chen Youliang was already soaked through, and it did him little good.

"Y-Your Majesty! We have committed a crime worthy of death!"

Commanders and ministers bowed their rain-drenched heads, and Chen Youliang laughed, wide and easy.

"Hahaha! It doesn't matter!"

"Is Heaven not answering, having heard ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this joyful news?"

"Y-Your Majesty..."

He smiled thinly at the men muttering as if the omen were ill. Did everything in the world go as a man wished? After rain, the sky cleared and a rainbow rose. Fret and hesitate over every trifle, and how was anyone to accomplish a great work?

"I took the throne here in Taiping so that I might pacify Jiangdong!"

"The ancient capital of a thousand years, Jinling, now lies before our eyes. I will take it, settle Jiangdong, and go on to seize the whole of Jiangnan!"

The squall had already passed, and the sun shone again overhead.

"Spread a great feast, and let the soldiers eat and drink their fill!"

"Once they have rested enough, I myself will lead the army, take Jinling, and bring Zhu Yuanzhang to his knees!"

At that bold declaration his sworn brothers Zhang Bixian and Zhang Dingbian met his eyes, nodded, and stepped forward.

"Long live the Emperor! Ten thousand times ten thousand years!"

"Ten thousand years! Ten thousand years! Ten thousand times ten thousand years!"

The roar of a hundred thousand men shook the freshly cleared sky.

Jinling — that is, Yingtianfu. The office known as the Jiangnan Branch Secretariat had the air of a house in mourning.

"To think Grand Marshal Xu could be beaten..."

"At this rate, aren't we in danger here as well?"

These were the generals of Zhu Yuanzhang's army, peerlessly brave, men who had not known defeat since they crossed the Yangtze. Now they only whispered and murmured, anxious eyes darting, with no idea what to do. Zhu Yuanzhang could not even bring himself to rebuke them. He let out a long breath.

"I have no face to show you, my lord."

"It is all this officer's incompetence."

He gave a bitter smile at the thoroughly cowed figures of his sworn younger brothers, Xu Da and Chang Yuchun. Last month, in the fifth month, the two of them had been holding Chizhou when Chen Youliang's great host came against them, and they had broken it badly — a great victory, ten thousand enemy heads taken and three thousand men captured alive.

Chen Youliang had sent an envoy to apologize, and the generals of Zhu Yuanzhang's army had gone so far as to think the man had taken fright. Xu Da and Chang ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Yuchun, the two great captains who stood at the head of that army, had let their guard down for a moment — and then Chen Youliang's vast navy came surging in on the current of the Yangtze.

"Is his navy truly that large?"

"It isn't only the numbers. Tower ships as huge as fortresses — the Hunjianglong, Churner of the River; the Saeduanjiang, Blocker of the River; the Dangdaoshan, Toppler of Mountains; the Jianghai'ao, Leviathan of River and Sea — five of that rank, and dozens more besides."

"Beyond those, fighting ships and mengchong, patrol boats and fast skiffs, great and small, run into the hundreds. More than ten times our strength."

Even the naval commanders who had gone out confident they knew how to fight on the water and could stop them — Liao Yong'an, Yu Tonghai, and the rest — seemed to have lost their nerve, and could only sigh.

"Chen Youliang has clearly set his mind on something large this time. After he took Taiping, he murdered the false emperor Xu Shouhui, put himself on the throne, proclaimed the founding of Great Han, and declared he would bring this Yingtianfu down."

Generals and civil officials alike groaned, looking thoroughly cowed. An enthronement held right under the nose of their own base was a slight that ought to have had even the fiercest of them leaping with rage, and yet here they were, only rolling their eyes. It was a pathetic sight. Zhu Yuanzhang let none of that show. He looked around the assembly.

"How, then, do we stop them?"

No one spoke. Li Shanchang, who might be called the second man, stepped forward.

"My lord, if we mean above all to hold Yingtianfu, we must retake Taiping. Retake Taiping, and they will have no ground to stand on. In the end, won't they have to fall back?"

As strategy it was not greatly wrong. As a plan of campaign it lacked any grip on what was possible, and Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head.

"We rebuilt Taiping's walls not long ago, and they're stout. The moat is deep and wide besides. Taking that city from the land side in a short time will not be easy. They were over the walls in three days only because they brought those enormous ships up the waterways, laid them against the wall, and used the ships themselves as ladders."

"Then if we used the navy as well..."

"We're downstream. We'd be fighting the current, and they're upstream, with the momentum on their side. Their naval strength is ten times ours. Meet them head-on and we lose. That's certain."

At that cold reckoning Li Shanchang drew his neck in. At governing the people in Zhu Yuanzhang's stead and at feeding an army, he had no equal. At handling a host of this size, the limits of his gift were plain.

"Father! Then let's go out onto dry land and fight it out there! They may know the water, being Hubei men, but in a fight on land, can they match us of Huaixi?"

Zhu Wenzhong — Zhu Yuanzhang's adopted son, and his nephew — shouted it with his eyes on fire.

"Chen Youliang is a man who only plays tricks. If you lead the army out yourself, Father, we will win. Give me the vanguard, and I'll stake my life, break their line, and lay the victory at your feet!"

Everyone else had sunk into despair, and the sight of his nephew stepping forward so fiercely steadied Zhu Yuanzhang more than he let on. It still was not enough.

"Chen Youliang likes tricks, and he's clever. If I go out onto the land, he won't meet me head-on. He'll sit behind Taiping's walls, then split his navy and send it down the waterways to strike here, at Yingtianfu."

"Mmm..."

"Riding the Yangtze, they can be at Yingtianfu from Taiping in half a day. Our infantry and cavalry, turning back for Yingtianfu, would need more than a day."

Young Zhu Wenzhong's face darkened.

"Fighting men who are waiting for you, with an army worn out from racing a long way in desperation — that's dangerous."

"...My thinking was shallow."

When Zhu Wenzhong stepped back, the generals and civil officials began to whisper, unease plain in their eyes.

"Perhaps we'd be better off surrendering..."

"Have you lost your mind? Watch your tongue..."

"Then you mean we should all just die like this?"

Out of the murmuring, one general who had been hesitating stepped forward.

"My lord, what if we withdraw for now to Zhongshan, southeast of Yingtianfu?"

"Zhongshan?"

"Yes. Jinling is too large to hold. We take the families of the officers and men and fall back to Zhongshan for the time being. Then, when they've occupied the city and show a gap, we strike — or we burn every granary, so that with nothing to eat they're forced to pull out..."

In a word, it was a proposal that belonged to the old Red Turban days: empty the countryside, throw up a fort in the hills, hide, and hope the enemy went away. Zhu Yuanzhang's face went dark, and he growled.

"If I abandon the people of Jiangdong and run, who will follow me? Do that, and men's hearts will tilt toward that false emperor Chen Youliang instead. I will not accept it."

"F-forgive me, my lord."

He pressed a hand to his brow. Generals who had once been as fierce as dragons and tigers now sat cowed, watching only his mood. Then his eye found the military counselor Tao An, standing there with a calm face. It was Tao An who, last year, in the Yingtian Dialogue, had advised him to make peace with Zhang Shicheng and stand against Chen Youliang. The crisis had pushed it from his mind, but Tao An had already foreseen, a year ago, that Chen Youliang would move on Jiangdong this year. The trouble was that the man had proved more sinister and more skilled in stratagem than expected, and the superiority of his navy far heavier than anyone had reckoned.

The commanders from Chaohu, the backbone of Zhu Yuanzhang's navy, were adept with the relatively small, fast boats used on the lakes; at their largest they handled the mid-sized warship, the mengchong. Chen Youliang's men came from Hubei, a country of lakes and rivers, and their navy was overwhelming in both quality and numbers — tower ships, fighting junks, mengchong, and vessels great and small in combination. When it came to an actual fight, Zhu Yuanzhang's fleet had been forced back without ever making a real stand. He asked, and there was urgency in it.

"What does Counselor Tao think?"

Every eye turned to him. He was fifty now, the age at which a man is said to know the mandate of Heaven: a middle-aged scholar, ordinary to look at. Tao An came forward, faced the assembled generals, and bowed with his hands clasped.

"Most of the generals under Chen Youliang are from Hubei. He holds a vast territory, but the men he has placed in posts of weight are known to be, for the most part, fellow Hubei men."

The generals tilted their heads, as if to ask what he was talking about. He put the question to them again.

"The generals in this room, by contrast, are mostly men of Huaixi. If you surrender to Chen Youliang, do you expect to be treated properly under his banner?"

"Mmm..."

"Th-that..."

A groan went through them.

"The general Zhao Pusheng, whom Chen Youliang murdered unjustly last year, was also a Huaixi man, from Lujiang County. Chen Youliang is suspicious and cruel — a man who butchered even his own sovereign. Can you truly rest easy once you have entered his service?"

He did not rebuke the frightened generals for their foolish talk, and he did not set himself against them. He only laid out the practical interest of the thing: that surrendering to Chen Youliang would never end well.

"It's true. That man can't be trusted..."

"And our lord is one of us, isn't he? From the same country."

In an age of chaos this savage, nothing weighed more than the bond of a shared homeland. They were all Huaixi men. They had starved together through hardship upon hardship, and then they had crossed the Yangtze. Following Zhu Yuanzhang, they had laid a foundation in Jiangdong, grown their power, and come into wealth, fame, and high station. The understanding settled on them that all of it would be taken — and that not even their own persons, nor their kin, would be safe. Fighting spirit began to kindle in eyes that had been afraid. Even Li Shanchang, who had quietly kept Tao An in check, swallowed and asked with a tense face.

"Counselor Tao. Then do you have a plan that can beat this Chen Youliang?"

"He won a great victory and took Taiping, and he grew arrogant on it. He killed his own sovereign and, with gross impiety, ascended the throne. One might say it was necessary, since a realm cannot have two masters. But he handled the matter far too hastily."

"Hm..."

"For the moment he has won big, and morale is high, so it may not show on the surface. But there will surely be no small number inside that host who are already shaken. However great and strong an army is, if it is not of one heart, how can it be without a gap?"

Every man nodded.

"Chen Youliang has always taken risks and moved boldly to seize his results, so he is not a cautious man, and his heart is full of pride. That pride is precisely the means by which we can use the gap inside them."

"Pride..."

Tao An spread a map of the Jinling region and set his finger on the bank where it met the Yangtze.

"There is no need to go out and meet them. Draw them on, so that they advance against Yingtianfu, and lead them into the channel here at Longwan."

"Longwan? Isn't that too close? The walls of Yingtianfu would be right under their noses..."

Li Shanchang's question was worried. Tao An smiled.

"The channel there is relatively narrow — barely wide enough for three or four ships to come in abreast. Their navy has many large ships. On the broad Yangtze, perhaps. At Longwan, they will find it hard to bring their strength to bear."

"Ah. Then..."

"In the end they will have no choice but to come ashore and settle it on land. And then it becomes a fight between Hubei men, skilled on the water, and Huaixi men, skilled in fighting on the land."

He went on, indicating the ground around the channel.

"Nearby are Lime Hill and Lulong Hill. Place ambushes there, draw them inward, and then strike all at once. We can catch them off their guard."

At that, the eyes of Zhu Yuanzhang, and of Xu Da and Chang Yuchun, all flashed. They were the foremost military talents in the army, and they felt at once that the plan had a chance of victory.

"They come on the crest of victory after victory, their spirit high. But if unexpected ambushes hit them from every side, then however mighty they are, they will shake easily. They murdered their own sovereign not long ago, so there will be men who still nurse a grievance in their hearts. The heart of that army will waver. It must."

"Indeed... that could happen."

"What's more, they will in effect have come by ship into the very heart of enemy ground. How could there be no unease in them? Once morale breaks, it cannot be stopped. They will all be clamoring to get back aboard the ships first."

Tao An looked to the naval commanders out of Chaohu — Liao Yong'an, Yu Tonghai, and Liao Yongzhong.

"That is the moment for our navy. Small, nimble boats, striking them while they are in a panic. What do you suppose comes of that?"

"That much is our own specialty!"

"Just leave it to us, my lord!"

Hope of victory had come back into the room. The generals looked at one another and nodded.

"The Book of Changes says that the Way of Heaven diminishes whatever brims over, and adds to what is humble."

"......"

Tao An bowed his head to Zhu Yuanzhang with full respect, and his voice rose.

"My lord! Make use of Chen Youliang's arrogance and his haste, and you will surely win a great victory. This is not a crisis. It is Heaven giving you the chance to accomplish the kingly work. There is no reason to fear!"

"......"

"A single victory breaks his momentum and, instead, hands you the perfect chance to advance into Jiangxi. Is that not Heaven's mandate, come down upon you?"

"Counselor Tao speaks truly!"

Zhu Yuanzhang sprang to his feet. His eyes went over Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, Zhu Wenzhong, and the rest of the generals, and he shouted.

"I will use Chen Youliang's arrogance and draw them in. I will avenge Hua Yun, Zhu Wensun, and the officers and men who died at Taiping, and I will go on into Jiangxi and accomplish the great work!"

"We obey our lord's command!"

"We will lay victory before you with our lives!"

The same generals who, moments before, had been talking of surrender snapped to the military salute and roared until their throats tore.