The Battle of Red Cliffs: Prelude (2)
Just before my arrow struck him square in the face, the enemy general threw up his arm and deflected it. It wasn't a killing blow — but he wouldn't be drawing a bow anytime soon.
Wounding their commander had slowed the enemy ship considerably. Gan Ning seized the opening at once.
"Now's our chance! Ram them! And ready for close combat!"
Gan Ning's booming voice carried across the water. He had been stalking the enemy vessel's flank the entire time, waiting for just this moment — to drive a ramming strike into their side, board them, and take the ship for himself.
The ship locked onto its collision course and surged forward at full speed while the soldiers prepared for hand-to-hand fighting. The instant the words "close combat" left Gan Ning's mouth, his men went wild with excitement.
"Close combat!"
"Waaaah! Waaaaaah!"
Crowding the bow in a seething mass, Gan Ning's subordinates roared themselves hoarse even though the fighting hadn't started yet. They thrust swords and spears skyward and shook them wildly. Some hammered their shields with maces, raising a deafening clamor.
Dozens of blades and spearheads clashed recklessly in midair with a continuous ringing of steel, sunlight glancing off them in cold, star-bright flashes. There was not a trace of fear among them — only the raw will to crush the enemy.
That atmosphere set my own blood boiling with battle-fever. I was beginning to understand why Lu Su had assigned me to Gan Ning's unit.
On the enemy ship, the opposite was true. The closer our vessel drew, the paler their faces became under the weight of that ferocious momentum.
Crash!
Our ship, carving white wakes through the river on either side, finally slammed into the enemy's flank. A tremendous jolt rocked everything; wooden splinters exploded outward and enemy soldiers toppled in heaps.
The recoil sent several of our own men — who had been half-perched on the railing — tumbling onto the enemy deck. They scrambled up at once and threw themselves at the enemy like monkeys. The rest of the soldiers followed with bloodcurdling howls, leaping across to engage. Whether it was because we had already won the contest of spirit, enemy soldiers fell rapidly under our assault. I drew my long sword and joined the fray.
"Come on, then, you bastards! As many as you like!"
A voice I hadn't heard before rang out — but I already knew who it was. A general wielding a massive curved blade, and a formidable fighter at that. His sword flashed several times, and a handful of our men collapsed to the deck, bleeding.
"You!"
He had spotted me. Without a doubt, this was the same general who had traded that fierce exchange of arrows with me earlier. A dark, swarthy face and a savage expression — though one arm was now tightly bound in a blood-soaked cloth from my arrow.
"I am Pian-general Sun Guan! State your name!"
"Duwei Jin Cheong!"
"Oho. I'd heard rumors of a female hero among you. So they were true?"
"They were."
"I'll give you credit for hitting me. But this is as far as you go. Today I will take your head and present it to the Prime Minister. We simply serve different masters — so don't hold it against me too much."
The moment those words left his mouth, Sun Guan and I closed on each other.
He charged first, sweeping his blade. I knocked aside the flat of his sword and counterattacked at once. He stepped back and caught my strike. Our weapons clashed again and again. His strength was considerable, but the injury made his movements subtly unnatural.
While I kept Sun Guan locked down, our forces began overwhelming the enemy soldiers, and a look of growing desperation crossed his face.
Clang!
Our weapons collided once more and sprang apart. Judging that delay would only hurt him, Sun Guan raised his blade high overhead and charged straight in. I set myself as if to receive the blow — then slipped sideways the instant before his sword came down.
"Wha—?"
The heavy blade slammed into the deck. I surged forward and slashed open his side.
"Ugh!"
Sun Guan staggered, clutching his flank. My sword found the opening and finished him, cutting through his neck.
"Kh…!"
Defeat and bitter frustration flickered through his eyes. He glared at me for a moment with pure resentment, then crumpled to the bare planks.
Sun Guan. A man who had primarily fought as a vanguard alongside Zhang Pa. In the Battle of Ruxu — a battle that had not yet occurred in this world — he would fight valiantly even after taking an arrow wound, earning Cao Cao's praise. That injury would eventually fester and kill him.
I had hastened the timing of his death, but somehow his end felt much the same.
"Waaaaah! Duwei Jin Cheong has brought down Pian-general Sun Guan!"
With their general fallen, fresh energy surged through our ranks. I cut down several more enemy soldiers as we all but seized the ship.
And then—
"Another enemy ship coming in!"
Someone shouted. From the opposite side of the vessel we had boarded, a second enemy ship was closing fast. They brought out a gangplank and laid it across the railings.
Thud. Thud-thud!
"Charge!"
The order rang out from the enemy ship, and their soldiers began pouring across the plank.
I hurled the sword I was holding. It spun like a windmill and buried itself in the chest of a soldier mid-crossing. He screamed as he plummeted into the water below.
I snatched up a spear from the deck and faced the oncoming enemy. I stabbed and battered those who tried to cross, dropping them one after another — but they kept coming, boarding the ship we had taken.
Boom!
In the middle of trading blows with the enemy, the ship suddenly lurched hard. The two vessels' prows had collided.
"Whoa—?"
I staggered for an instant, then drove the spearpoint into the deck to brace myself. Using the shaft as a springboard, I vaulted into the air, clamped both ankles around the head of an enemy soldier still reeling for balance, and twisted my body hard — slamming his skull into the deck.
"Gahk!"
His neck snapped. He was dead on the spot.
But the situation was far from good.
Too many of them.
Cao Cao's forces hadn't committed their full strength, but they still outnumbered us. They had more ships, and each ship carried significantly more men. Our side, meanwhile, had already taken casualties seizing this one vessel.
Whoosh! Whoosh-whoosh!
The sound of arrows cutting the air — and then shafts punched into the bodies of soldiers still crossing the gangplank. They screamed and toppled into the river with heavy splashes.
Then came a familiar sound.
Jingle!
"Heyyy! Came to lend a hand!"
Gan Ning. He had left the rear of the ship, brought his guards, and come to reinforce us.
"Ah. Glad you made it."
"Say, is this really your first time fighting on water? Your skill ain't ordinary."
"I'm flattered — but let's save the conversation for after we finish fighting."
"Fair enough! Hyaaah!"
Gan Ning tossed off the remark and threw himself at the nearest enemy soldier. His movements were as sharp and fluid as if he were running on solid ground.
"Haaah!"
With a shout, his blade sheared through an enemy's shoulder. The man dropped his weapon and clutched the wound. Gan Ning slammed into him with his shoulder, then bellowed and drove the soldier's body forward all the way to the railing. "Uwooooh!"
The soldier struck the rail. Unable to withstand Gan Ning's force, his body toppled over the side and into the water.
"Aaaaaah!"
Splash!
The man vanished from sight, but his scream and the sound of him hitting the water rang out clear as day.
"Who's next!" A column of water erupted behind him, glittering in the sunlight.
With lightning speed he slashed the next man's legs out from under him and kicked him hard.
"Aaagh!"
The soldier reeled almost as if flung, driven back to the railing. This time Gan Ning seized both of his legs, hoisted him upside down, and hurled him over the side. The thrashing soldier's legs disappeared beyond the rail. "Aaaaagh." Splash.
He kept dropping enemy soldiers one by one, and true to his pirate origins, finished each of them by dumping them in the water. All the while his mouth ran a continuous stream of curses, and the copper bells he always wore jangled in time with every movement.
"You sons of bitches!"
Crash! "Aaaaaah!" Splash.
"Swim for it!"
Thud! "Aaaagh!" Splash.
"Crawl back to your own damn country!"
Crash-bang! "Aaaaagh!" Splash.
His movements looked loose and scattered on the surface, but I could tell what he was after — and why he fought that way. The very messiness of it drew every eye.
Curses and screams. The jingle of bells and the splash of bodies hitting water. The more that four-part chorus rang out, the more soldiers floundered in the river, the paler the remaining enemy faces grew.
Those who had gone overboard were all wounded, thrashing helplessly and bellowing for rescue. Some of the enemy on deck kept whipping their heads back and forth, torn between saving their comrades and fighting us.
Our side, meanwhile, began recovering their fighting spirit from his display.
"Give these northern bumpkins a taste of southern water!"
"Waaah!"
"Kill them!"
Our men charged the enemy with savage grins, refusing to let the rising momentum slip. Their martial skill fell well short of Gan Ning's, but for sheer brutality they were every bit his equal.
They didn't just stab and slash with spear and sword — they clubbed with weapon hilts, kicked, stomped, and, like Gan Ning, pitched men into the river.
The enemy could only suffer through it.
A hilt smashed into a face and teeth sprayed out. A helmeted headbutt sent a man reeling backward, blood fountaining from his nose.
It was a scene that could have been called both grisly and terrifying — but our side's momentum would not break, and the enemy's will to fight steadily withered.
That's right. Martial skill matters in battle — but so does the atmosphere.
I raised my spear again and met the enemy without yielding an inch. At least here, there was no one who could stand against Gan Ning or me.
In the end we nearly wiped out the reinforcements as well, and the remaining enemy ships began to turn tail.
"We've taken this ship!"
Gan Ning raised his sword and roared, and the soldiers cheered. He scanned the surroundings once, then shouted again.
"We've pushed too far out. Pull this ship back and reorganize!"
In the heat of the fighting we had drifted a considerable distance from our own fleet.
But before we could even try to sail the captured vessel, someone cried out.
"Ship approaching!"
I looked where he was pointing. One of the enemy's mengchong — a ramming assault ship — was bearing down on us at high speed.
"Aigoo. There really are a hell of a lot of them."
We had only just seized this ship; getting it underway and dodging in time was impossible. At this rate, we would take a full broadside collision.
Gan Ning knew it too. He barked orders to the men.
"Get low and brace for impact! And ready for close combat!"
Fighting two ships back to back had already produced a fair number of casualties among our ranks.
The enemy mengchong was almost on top of us. I grimaced and dropped low.
BOOM!
Ship slammed into ship with a thunderous crash that hammered the ears. Shattered hull fragments flew in every direction, and a great spray of water erupted skyward.