The Xianbei Empire (2)
It was refreshingly cool.
“It’s quite cool,” I remarked.
“Indeed, it is,” my companion agreed.
The north, home to the Xianbei, Xiongnu, and countless other horse-riding tribes. In modern terms, Mongolia. In this era, it was simply called the Great Plain. Even in the modern era of severe global warming, this was a land where summer temperatures never exceeded twenty-five degrees. The open plain, stretching from one end of my vision to the other, brought peace to my mind, and the cloudless sky rose endlessly high. There were a few hills that could be called mounds, but with no large trees or mountains in sight, it was an idyllic scene where one might only occasionally spot wild horses or goats grazing on the grass.
Though I roughly lumped it together as an idyllic landscape, this enormous grassland was so vast that a man could get lost on the bare ground. It wasn’t exactly an appropriate place for settled people to set foot in. There was always the risk of raids from the true nomads who didn’t trade with us, and the situation in the Xianbei Empire might be more serious than what we’d assessed from You Province. They could already be deep in a state of war.
I was moving with a thousand light cavalry, so unless it was a fairly large tribe, they probably wouldn’t attack. But the true nomads who plundered in the summer were madmen out of their minds, so I couldn’t afford to be optimistic.
“Was it… a bad time to come out?”
“We still have to go for another half hour. Still, we should be seeing the Wuhuan guards by now. It’s strangely quiet.”
“Lower your face guards for now, and prepare to retreat immediately if things go wrong. Understood?”
“Yes!”
-Piiiiiiiiik!
The sound of a signal arrow shot from beyond the low hill tore through the air.
“One shot… meant it was safe?”
“It’s a warning.”
Ah, so it was a warning. They were just checking whether we knew the protocol. Right.
“Hey! Are you bastards from Wushenje?!”
Far across the plain, a group of riders was approaching. Five or six nomads in leather armor mounted on strangely prancing horses. They had strong voices; I could hear them clearly from this distance.
“We are warriors serving Lord Dadun! Who are you!”
“Dadun?! You son of a bitch! I’m Gongsun Zan of You Province! If you see your sworn brother, you greet him before shooting arrows, you idiot!”
“Elder sir?!”
Dadun. He led a nomadic tribe that had been pushed by the Xiongnu all the way to the northern edge of You Province. Fortunately the current chieftain was quite capable. He had taken responsibility for the eastern sector of the Xianbei Empire and had sworn brotherhood with me, which was a relief. At the very least, they wouldn’t put an arrow in their sworn brother’s face. Even if these nomads decided to pick a fight with us, they weren’t the type to launch a cowardly ambush.
The riders who had been galloping at full speed slowed their horses and stopped at a distance where we could clearly see each other’s faces. I raised my face guard to show my bare face, dismounted, and walked slowly toward them.
“Have you seen any bastard around here wearing fancy clothes besides me?! What kind of bullshit is this, shooting arrows before you even check who it is?”
My tone was far from polite, but they actually preferred this kind of speech. Something about how no one from the Central Plains ever treated them like friends. Strange fellows.
“Ah… well… from the west, those Khitan? Jerman? Red-faced crazy bastards with paint all over their faces have come, and the steppe is in an uproar. The ones who couldn’t even meet our elder brother’s eyes when he was alive are suddenly charging in iron armor. The damage to our brothers has been no small matter.”
“Jerman? German?”
“Ah! Yes, German. The name doesn’t roll off the tongue easily, so we just call them Jerman…”
…?? Germans? Wasn’t that Europe? More importantly, were there Germans in this period? Ah… maybe there were. It had been over thirty years since I studied world history; my memory was hazy.
“No, the commotion happened that far away and you raised such a ruckus that even You Province could hear about it? Do you know how much my back has been itching?”
“Our great elder sister was greatly enraged. The one who got injured this time happened to be a Xiongnu fiancé…”
“…Tsk. So it has nothing to do with our side?”
“Probably not. Since you’re here, will you go see the great elder sister as well?”
“I suppose I should. It’s been a few years since I last saw her face. By the way, a fiancé? Has Hualian still not gotten married?”
“She says she won’t marry anyone who isn’t stronger than her…”
The current queen of the Xianbei Empire, Hualian, was a few years older than me, so roughly in her early thirties. In modern times that would still be considered young for remaining unmarried, but by this era’s standards she was approaching old-maid territory. At that age, and as the second emperor of a nomadic empire spanning the entire steppe, couldn’t she just pick any man she liked and get married? Someone stronger than her? Where would you find a man stronger than that human gorilla? Honestly even I couldn’t beat her.
If it came to army versus army… hmm… assuming I dumped every Jincheonroe I had made so far at once, maybe we could achieve mutual destruction? Anyway, without guns I absolutely couldn’t win. I wasn’t that skilled at mounted combat to begin with.
“Where in the world is there such a person? Is that even human? It’s the reincarnation of Xiang Yu… or a gorilla.”
“Isn’t he that elder’s first descendant? The Xiongnu’s difficult Chanyu was barely able to match him, so we arranged the marriage talks. But the German bastards ambushed him, and now he lies in bed.”
“No… You’re telling me there really is someone strong enough to match Sister, and then there are guys far to the west strong enough to beat him down? Does that even make sense?”
“The cowardly ones came in a horde and overwhelmed him. It happened right when the horses had been let out to graze, so there was nothing he could do.”
“Ha… Fuck. I don’t know. Let’s go see Sister first.”
“Ah, she’s right over there. She’s been waiting on this side for several days because she heard someone would be coming from You Province.”
“Hey! Gongsun Gongsun ZanZan!”
“Great Sister?!”
The woman riding Akhal-Teke II, the progenitor of the Liaodong army’s warhorses—a white horse with a slight golden tint—was approaching at a ghostly speed. The legendary steed that could run a thousand li after one drink of water, go days without eating after one graze, and sweat blood-red sweat had passed down through generations carrying her across the steppes. The woman on that pure white horse raced toward us with her blood-red hair streaming behind her.
Her speed was something only a modern automobile could barely catch up to, and her size was comparable to a draft horse that had undergone breed improvement in the modern era. In this time, her horse was like a creature from legend that no famous steed in the world could dare to look upon.
To cool the heat rising from her entire body she wore no armor at all, simply binding her chest with linen and freely wielding a greatsword larger than her own body. Red hair, red eyes, a belt and pants made from the peeled hide of a red tiger. Overall she was a person red as blood, yet her physique was that of a delicate woman, making her appearance strangely hard to get used to.
She was the only person who could freely draw the solid steel bow I had made as a test of how good Liaodong’s steel was, and she was a master who could shoot it while riding. She was the queen of the nomads and a disaster for the settled people.
No, look at that greatsword that must weigh over a hundred pounds. Not a spear, but a greatsword! With the center of gravity toward the head, making it hard to swing, yet she swung it however she wanted. Was this a person? Or a gorilla? Look at those eyes; they looked like they could shoot beams. Honestly, I was curious how the Central Plains people in original history had managed to stop this crazy war machine.
Ah, they couldn’t. That was why the Yuan Dynasty was born. Later the Qing Dynasty too… And Rome had fallen because of people like them. Yes, these folks were basically natural disasters. Thinking that way brought me some peace of mind.
“It’s been a while.”
“Oh, Gongsun Zan. Have you come to help this sister get her revenge?”
“No. I heard the north was noisy, so I came to see what was going on. Since you’re here, it didn’t feel right to just send my subordinates to find out, right?”
“Tsk. In the old days you were more solid and decent. After getting married and having kids you’ve lost all your spirit. Just marry this sister. I’ll treat you well.”
“I refuse. I don’t marry women stronger than me. Besides, I already have a wife.”
“Tsk. Man! You’re a man, aren’t you? Huh? Pull up a mountain once! Trample the world like my father once did! That’s how you should live. Is that why you’ve locked yourself in that village making nothing but salt and still don’t have any kids at your age?”
“It’s not that I can’t have them. I chose not to.”
“Nonsense. You’re exactly my type. I know it well.”
I knew that too. That was why I had adopted the kind-hearted Yun-i as my son and agreed with Lady Jin not to have children of our own. No matter how romantic it was to go beyond into this barbaric era, this body’s mind was not something that could be civilized.
“Didn’t you say you had someone to marry? Why are you harassing me again?”
“Ah, that Xiongnu? …Tsk. Well, that’s how it turned out. Why, are you jealous?”
“I just think it would be good if Sister got married soon and experienced the joy of raising children.”
“Tsk tsk tsk… If you don’t want to, fine. If you don’t want to eat even when offered, the pitiful one has to endure. Is your emperor doing well?”
“He died. A while ago.”
“Wasn’t he about the same age as me? What did he do to die so soon? Did he get stabbed by a sword?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he was enjoying himself and got crushed under a woman’s belly.”
“Krkak! That makes sense. When I saw him last time he looked so frail I thought he wouldn’t last long.”
She spat out harsh words without hesitation. Even though it was about another country, to speak such abuse about the emperor in front of his people… Indeed, there was a reason the settled tribes called them barbarians and kept their distance.
If she were weak I could have beaten her down and ‘persuaded’ her not to say such nonsense again. But in an era without guns or cannons, how could one deal with a human blender swinging a sword as big as a person’s torso? In the end all they could do was whisper behind her back that she was a barbarian.
It was fortunate that Dandansai had died. When he was alive the entire northern part of Han had lived in constant fear that these people might come down. What would happen if they came down? They would simply get annihilated. About twenty years ago the Later Han all-stars had gathered and been wiped out. These father and daughter were like objects that should be managed by some fictional global supernatural containment foundation. Their genre was simply different.
“Is there anyone who isn’t frail by your standards, Sister?”
“You, you bastard. That Xiongnu fellow had a pretty good body too, but he had no spirit except when riding horses. To think he got beaten by those red-skinned bastards and is whimpering just because he lost a few horses.”
“…”
“This is how I live, Son Chan. There are no decent men, so I’m doomed to live alone until I die. Won’t you help this pitiful sister?”
“My surname is Gongsun and my name is Zan. When will you remember that? And I don’t like women stronger than me because they’re scary.”
“Chan-ah, Chan-ah. If you throw complicated things aside, your head clears up. What’s the use of nitpicking every little detail? And if you really were scared of me, could you say such ridiculous things in front of me? Admit it. You’re equal to me or even above. Stop pretending to be nice and well-behaved and go wild for once, will you? Do you think those weaklings from the Central Plains could stop you?”
What the fuck… Ha… I don’t know. At least I had learned she wasn’t aiming for the back of my head, so that was fortunate.
“…Well then, I’ll be heading back.”
“Already? Why? Don’t you want to have a proper drink after so long?”
“The emperor died, so the country’s atmosphere is chaotic. I only came because I heard the mood around here was strange too.”
“Don’t live too busily. When your head gets complicated, just cut off your thoughts. From what I’ve seen living, that’s the right answer.”
“…I’m not sure about that.”
“Yes, I like that attitude. If you’re going to live like a scholar, live like that to the end. If you can’t stand it anymore, come find this sister. I’ll play with you intensely.”
“No thanks. I’ll live in Liaodong and die when I get old.”
“Not a single person who said that died normally. You know that, right?”
“Why are you cursing me again, seriously?”
“Kahat! It’s a blessing, Son Chan. People like us are destined to live with blood. Next time we meet, I’ll have made all the western lands mine, so let’s meet as emperor to emperor then.”
“Ah! What the hell is that crazy talk again, seriously!”