The Tiger of Jiangdong (4)
Acting on Huang Zu's orders, Zhang Hu strode boldly forth alone and bellowed at the army of Sun Jian.
"Enemy commander, come forth and face me! I'll teach you wretches the difference in our caliber!"
"Then try withstanding the Iron Snake Spear of Demou himself!"
Scarcely had Zhang Hu marched out of Liu Biao's camp and called for a duel than Sun Jian's camp answered it—almost as though the challenge had been waiting for him. At the sight of the old general who came bounding out, Zhang Hu sneered.
"Does Sun Jian's army truly want for capable officers so badly? Why else send a worn-out old man onto the battlefield!"
"You green whelp! Let's see how long you can keep flapping that tongue of yours!"
Cheng Pu looked thoroughly fed up with enemies who never failed to bring up his age the moment they laid eyes on him. The two closed on each other at once, weapons locked, trading some thirty exchanges—and the one gradually driven back was Liu Biao's officer.
Whirling the Iron Snake Spear, Cheng Pu roared across at Zhang Hu.
"What's the matter, boy?! Where did all that fire of yours go just now?!"
"Wh-What is this...!"
Zhang Hu, barely deflecting Cheng Pu's Iron Snake Spear, stammered in disbelief. At a glance the old man looked every one of his years, yet his skill and strength were nothing short of extraordinary.
As Zhang Hu began to flounder before him, Cheng Pu let out a jeering laugh.
"Judging by the look of things, this is the full measure of your ability!"
"Shut your mouth!"
Zhang Hu's face twisted sharply as he screamed back.
"Zhang Hu, of all people, being pushed back by an enemy officer?"
Huang Zu's expression darkened as he realized how badly the situation had turned. Watching closely, it was plain that if this went on, their own officer would fall to the enemy's—and if that happened, the soldiers' morale would plummet through the floor, leaving them unable to fight at all. Huang Zu cursed himself for having tried to reverse the mood with a duel in the first place.
With Liu Biao's army cornered into one loss after another, an officer standing at Huang Zu's side spoke up, almost offhandedly.
"General. Permit me to go to Zhang Hu's aid and strike down the enemy officer."
"..."
At the proposal from another of Liu Biao's officers, Chen Sheng, Huang Zu hummed in thought before giving a nod.
"Very well. Go, aid him, and return."
"Yes, sir."
Watching Chen Sheng square his stance, Huang Zu murmured under his breath.
"Demou, was it? Pray don't hold this against us."
Not long after that murmur, Chen Sheng emerged from Liu Biao's camp.
"You old fool! Xiangyang's own Chen Sheng joins the fray!"
"What?! You cowards dare face me two to one!"
"What place does cowardice have on a battlefield! Victory is all that matters!"
Every preparation complete, Chen Sheng threw himself straight at Cheng Pu. The ambush was sudden enough that Cheng Pu's eyes flew wide as he re-gripped his weapon.
"Very well! Come at me, then! I'll show you myself just how wide the gap of experience is!"
"Hahaha! How confident you are! Then die—!"
Thwip!
Just as Chen Sheng lunged at the enemy commander, something flashed in Sun Jian's camp—and a heartbeat later an arrow tore through the air like a ray of light and punched clean through his chest. The man who had been shouting in triumph found himself staring, abruptly, at the shaft buried in his own body.
"...Gah, urk."
Chen Sheng gazed at the arrow that had pierced his heart, loosed a groan thick with agony, and tumbled from his horse.
"Wh-What was that? What in the world just happened?"
It had all come too suddenly; Huang Zu's eyes went wide, his shock impossible to conceal. His gaze swung toward the figure holding a bow. A woman who looked to have celebrated her coming-of-age ceremony only recently was aiming the weapon in their direction.
"Charging in without even reading the situation."
"...!"
She struck him with an arrow from that far away? While Huang Zu stood aghast at the woman's archery, matters turned desperate for Zhang Hu, still locked blade to blade with the enemy commander.
"Gahk!"
At some point the enemy commander's weapon had found his abdomen, and Zhang Hu cried out in agony. Face contorted, he still tried to swing his spear—but Cheng Pu was faster still, wrenching the Iron Snake Spear free and sweeping off Zhang Hu's head. Watching the headless body totter and collapse, Cheng Pu raised his voice.
"Enemy officer! Cut down by the hand of Demou!"
WAAAAAH—!!
Sun Jian's army's morale surged as though to pierce the very heavens, and Huang Zu could not hide his consternation. The soldiers' will to fight had already sunk after their earlier defeat, and now they had lost the duel on top of it. They had squandered two officers to lead their men, while the enemy fielded commander after commander of exceptional martial skill—the worst of all situations. Huang Zu wracked his brains for a way to break out of this, until at last he murmured, all strength gone from his voice.
"...I was wrong."
So this was the might of the army they called the Tiger of Jiangdong.
"Charge!"
Scarcely had the thought formed than the emboldened host of Sun Jian came thundering down upon Liu Biao's army.
"...But just because hope is lost does not mean running at once is a commander's duty."
Even in defeat, so long as he could inflict harm in return, it would not be for nothing. Huang Zu gave his orders, forbidding his soldiers from abandoning their posts at will.
At his command, the soldiers of Liu Biao's army held their line as best they could, trembling with fear—and before long, Sun Jian's men came crashing in at the crest of their fury.
The Liu Biao army under Huang Zu fought with everything it had, but in the end it was scattered to the four winds without inflicting any real damage on Sun Jian's forces. The gap in the elite quality of the soldiers and in the competence of their commanders had simply been too wide—it was only natural.
Sun Jian watched the enemies fleeing headlong with their backs turned and could not stop laughing.
"Hahaha! They called me the rat of Jiangdong, and yet the one scurrying off like a true rat is him!"
Just as he said, Huang Zu displayed a singular genius for the act of running away. The moment Liu Biao's army had begun to give ground, he—who realized he could hold out no longer—had been the first to cast aside his helmet and warhorse and melt away among the common infantry. The man was nominally an officer besides; unless fortune smiled upon them, laying hands on Huang Zu would be no simple matter.
Sun Jian watched his army pursue the broken enemy, then turned his head.
"You did well just now, Bofu!"
"Oh, this much is nothing worth mentioning."
The young woman—barely past her coming-of-age ceremony and still carrying a trace of girlishness about her—gave a shrug of her shoulders. At his daughter's show of modesty, Sun Jian laughed heartily.
"Haha! Now I wonder who in the world she takes after on this count!"
"Wouldn't that be your own personality, Father?"
"Ha! Perhaps it is!"
Generation after generation, the Sun family had borne the same bold, unrestrained character as Sun Jian and Sun Ce. Some said their natures were too much like wildfire, their tempers too hasty, that one day they would bring great calamity upon themselves—but Sun Jian paid such talk no mind.
His gaze settled on Sun Ce's brown hair. Though only a short time had passed since her coming-of-age ceremony, she had already grown into the very image of a grown woman. Astonishingly fast, her growth. A faint air of youth still clung to her, but considering Sun Jian's own age, even that much was remarkable. He himself was merely in his mid-thirties, yet he already looked the part of a man long past his fortieth year—surely that, too, was the price of growing up far too quickly. No doubt it was.
As Sun Jian dwelled on these faintly sorrowful thoughts, Sun Ce's eyes turned to him.
"Father."
"Hm? What is it?"
Sun Jian asked the question while meeting his daughter's brown eyes, the same shade as her hair. Liu Biao's army was far too preoccupied with its retreat to pay them any attention, so there was no harm in exchanging idle words in the middle of the battlefield. Sun Ce spoke.
"How much longer do you intend to remain under that man Yuan Shu?"
"..."
At her question, Sun Jian closed his mouth and held his silence.
"Yuan Shu praises your merits with words alone, Father, yet he has never once granted a reward worthy of them."
"Hmm…."
At that, Sun Jian stroked his chin with his fingers. It was true—since he had begun distinguishing himself under Yuan Shu's banner, he had received nothing at all. Sun Jian answered his daughter's question.
"You need not worry yourself so much."
He had no intention of remaining beneath Yuan Shu forever, either. Yuan Shu himself likely believed he favored Sun Jian greatly, after his own fashion. Just as Bofu had pointed out, did the man not constantly lift him up with words—the Tiger of Jiangdong, this and that?
This was a man who looked down on the General-in-Chief now residing in Luoyang as a Bing Province country bumpkin, and who even hurled insults at Yuan Shao—mistress of Jizhou—calling her nothing more than a lowborn servant girl. By that same measure, Sun Jian himself was ultimately nothing but a country bumpkin from Jiangdong. Presumably the grounds for believing himself favored lay in nothing more than the fact that a man so insufferably proud of his own lineage deigned not to insult him. And yet, even while doing all this, Yuan Shu—afraid that Sun Jian might slip free of his command—kept him close as a direct subordinate and never granted him a scrap of real power.
"A man who dreams of holding dominion over all under heaven, and yet so small of heart…."
Sun Jian let out a dry chuckle and turned his gaze toward Xiangyang Castle and the lands around it.
"It won't be long now."
"..."
Following her father's gaze, Sun Ce turned her head as well.