The Yellow Sky Shall Rise
With the rain having swept the yellow dust away, the emergency meeting inside the command tent of the Northern Palace Commander at the main camp of the suppression army in Gulu, Ji Province, had turned into pure chaos.
“What? That bastard Zhang Jue came out first and picked a fight?! He’s leading his entire army and forming up on the open plains? Unless that son of a bitch has suddenly gone insane… Hey, you didn’t just drink yourself blind and see things, did you?”
Dong Zhuo’s face was a mask of disbelief as she repeated the scout’s report.
“Lord Dong, the soldiers on the watchtower gave the exact same account. It doesn’t appear this man is hallucinating. Hmm! They must have something they’re relying on! How very… intriguing.”
Cao Cao’s eyes curved into their usual smiling slits, but even she couldn’t hide the sheer absurdity of the situation. Of course the enemy held an overwhelming numerical advantage. Still, they were nothing but a rabble of peasants. If they had chosen to hunker down behind defenses and trust in sheer numbers, that would have made sense. But to challenge elite troops—who spent every waking hour training except when they were eating—in open battle on the plains was nothing short of suicide. And they were doing it despite being at a hopeless disadvantage in cavalry? They had to have eyes and ears hidden among the suppression forces; how could they not know what kind of woman Dong Zhuo was?
She was the one who had spent years in Xiliang brawling with nomadic horsemen. A cavalry specialist who had practically grown up in the saddle trading blows with riders. If she had come alone, perhaps they might be forgiven for underestimating her. But she had brought her own men—the Xiliang cavalry that were essentially her private army—and they were preparing to fight on open ground? To Cao Cao, the whole thing reeked of a trap.
“Even if that fool has something to believe in, it can only be his sorcery, can’t it?” Yuan Shu cut in haughtily. “It seems the news that I, Yuan Gonglu, annihilated the Yellow Turbans in You Province has finally reached their ears. With danger nipping at their heels, they’ve come scrambling out in desperation. Lord Dong, these idiots have crawled out on their own two feet. We must not let them slip away. From what I hear, they were only barely holding this position by relying on their spells. How could they possibly win on open plains?”
Li Jue and Guo Si, standing to either side of Dong Zhuo, nodded firmly in agreement.
“Commandant Yuan is correct! My lord, if you entrust the cavalry on both wings to myself and Guo Si, we will deliver Zhang Jue’s head before sunset!”
“Exactly! Sorcery? No matter how they try to annoy us with it, what can they do once our boys charge them on horseback? There’s no way the famed Xiliang cavalry would lose to a bunch of farmers stumbling around on flat ground! My lord! Give the order before those morons tuck tail and run!”
Dong Zhuo’s lips curved into a satisfied smile at their overflowing confidence. She had been about to issue the march order when she suddenly smacked her own forehead, as if she had nearly forgotten something important, and turned to her strategist and father-in-law.
“Li Ru, what is your thoughts? Do you also believe we should accept their challenge?”
Li Ru stroked his thin beard, lost in thought for a moment, then answered slowly.
“Like Commandant Cao said, their sudden move is indeed suspicious. Under normal circumstances I would suggest probing them with light cavalry first… but the current situation leaves us no other path. My lord has no choice but to launch an all-out offensive.”
“Oh? Our strategist is being unusually bold today. Very well, Li Ru. Why do you claim I have no option except a full frontal battle?”
“As you know, my lord, when those bitches drove out Lu Zhi—who had been fighting splendidly—they used the excuse that the rebellion had not yet been suppressed. If news spreads that the newly arrived Palace Commander is also avoiding battle and simply holding position, the Qingliu faction will not stay silent. They will harass us, asking why Lu Zhi was removed while Dong Zhuo is left untouched. My lord… this is the opportunity we barely seized after shoveling horse dung in Xiliang. Whatever their intentions may be, you must accept the fight.”
The “bitches” Li Ru spoke of were, of course, the Ten Attendants. Dong Zhuo realized there truly was only one path left.
Yes. Better to fight and die than sit still and be driven out.
“You are all correct! Generals, relay my orders to your units and prepare to march! Today I shall personally sever the head of that trash’s ringleader and ease His Majesty’s worries!”
And so the battlefield became the plains of Gulu in Ji Province, where the morning sun was just beginning to rise. Fifty thousand troops of the suppression army from Luoyang and one hundred fifty thousand native Yellow Turbans of Ji Province had gathered on the once-peaceful fields to spill blood. Only time would tell whose blood the earth would drink, yet both sides stood brimming with confidence that it would be their enemy’s, each for their own reasons.
To the suppression army, the enemy—who had been cowering in their holes only defending—had suddenly stuck their necks out as if they had lost their minds. No, it was more than that. Zhang Jue had brought every last one of the Yellow Turbans and formed up on the open plains! Every time the suppression forces had tried to provoke a fight, Zhang Jue’s sorcery had caused bizarre phenomena that only gave them headaches. Yet now, for some unknown reason, the entire enemy host was taunting them on wide-open ground.
Those bastards had nothing but numbers. Their armor and weapons were shoddy, and they possessed almost no cavalry. Compare that to the suppression army. These men rose each day, ate, and trained without cease. Their armor was solid, their blades oiled so thoroughly that rust never stood a chance. Who among them would actually die to a slash from such pitiful weapons?
Moreover, the newly arrived Northern Palace Commander was none other than the woman known as Dong Zhuo, who had earned quite a reputation in Xiliang. She had even brought her own subordinates—the very Xiliang cavalry famed across the land. To march onto the plains relying solely on numbers and sorcery against the Imperial Gold Army and the Xiliang cavalry? In the eyes of the suppression troops, those bastards were simply brain-dead.
Of course, the Yellow Turbans were not the idiots the suppression army took them for. They had their own thoughts on the matter. After all, Lord Zhang Jue had declared that if they marched out and fought now, they would win! To refuse to fight after that? Bastard… Look at that pathetic lack of faith… Isn’t that guy a spy for the suppression army? Say it, you fuck—call the Emperor a dog bastard! Call the blue sky a fucking idiot!
Since the spies the suppression army had actually sent were being weeded out at that very rate, it was more accurate to say the Yellow Turbans of Ji Province had not entrusted their brains to their own thoughts, but to Zhang Jue’s. Therefore, it was Zhang Jue himself who was confident of victory in his own way.
He trusted in his fanatics who feared neither death nor pain, and above all, in the power of his sorcery. It was written that those swallowed by the sandstorm would fall into utter terror and take their own lives. Elite soldiers? They would meet a hollow death without even being able to swing their weapons. Moreover, while every other spell in the Taiping Essential Arts had a listed countermeasure, this one alone had nothing written beside it. It was a sorcery whose weakness had yet to be discovered by anyone.
Therefore, unless the heavens themselves aided the enemy, victory would belong without question to the Yellow Turbans.
Zhang Jue was certain of it.
Silence stretched between the two opposing armies. On the watchtowers hastily erected by each side, the two commanders glared at one another. The first to break the quiet was Dong Zhuo.
“Zhang Jue! The people of the world say you went into the mountains to gather herbs, got bewitched by a sorcerer, and rose in rebellion! You ungrateful wretch! You dug up spiritual herbs that grow upon the Emperor’s own land thanks to his grace, sold them for profit, yet you fell for a sorcerer’s honeyed words and now seek to overturn the heavens! Have you no shame before the sky?!”
Zhang Jue let out a theatrical laugh as if he had heard the most ridiculous thing in the world.
“Hahahaha!! The Emperor does not watch over us from heaven but exploits us upon the earth—so what is there to be ungrateful for, and what is there to be ashamed of?! Must we simply endure the sight of you bastards living in luxury off our blood and sweat forever?! Ridiculous! The blue sky is too high to spare any glance for lowly wretches like us. Therefore, right here and now—I shall raise the Yellow Sky and build a world for the lowly!”
"Thus, when the King in Yellow fluttered his sleeves, only madness lay within them."
"Ah! O Master! O Master!"
"Show them the desert! They are those who cannot see the unseen and cannot hear the unheard."
"I implore you—strip away their ignorance!"
⟨ YELLOW SKY DESCENT ⟩
From behind the one hundred fifty thousand Yellow Turbans, an unbelievable quantity of dust and sand erupted from the earth toward the sky. A ferocious gale howled toward the suppression army, and the sandstorm swallowed them whole, blotting out their vision. Even when they looked upward, the sky itself had become nothing but yellow.
“Fuck! I can’t see—!”
“How can mere sorcery create a disaster like this?!”
“My lord! My lord! The men and horses are panicking! You must take shelter immediately!”
“What nonsense are you spouting?! You dare tell Dong Zhuo to flee in fear from such cheap tricks?! Li Jue! Guo Si! What the hell are you doing?! Wring the necks of a few of those bastards if you must, but calm them down! Now!”
“It’s too late! They’re already bolting! My lord, you must escape too! This… this isn’t an ordinary sandstorm! Something’s wrong with it!”
“Aman! Aman! Damn it, the sand’s in my eyes… Where are you?! Aman! We have to get out of here! This battle is lost!”
While the suppression army floundered inside the sandstorm, gripped by an inexplicable terror—
“Now is the time! Warriors of the Yellow Sky! Victory here will open the road to Luoyang! Let us punish the Emperor and establish our own heaven! All troops—charge!!!”
With morale soaring into the heavens, the one hundred fifty thousand Yellow Turbans surged forward as one, thundering toward the suppression army.