Xiangyang (3)
Deng County, Nanyang Commandery, Jing Province.
At the county's southernmost edge stood a fortress.
Fancheng.
The final bulwark guarding Xiangyang, the heart of Jing Province's vast dominion.
By design it was a stronghold meant to answer Xiangyang across the river, the two cities bound in close mutual support to drive off any attacker—
but at present, that purpose had all but lost its meaning.
"This is enough to drive a man mad."
Huang Zu, entrusted with the defense of Fancheng by Liu Biao's order, muttered as he glared at the scene before him.
The General-in-Chief's host—monstrous in scale, its soldiers elite down to the last man—left not a single flaw for the eye to catch. The mightiest army under heaven had come surging in like a flood tide and settled in, deliberate and unhurried, to lay siege to Fancheng in earnest.
"At this rate, reinforcing Xiangyang is out of the question."
Every line of the enemy's dispositions declared that nothing, whatever happened, would be allowed to slip away to Xiangyang's aid, and Huang Zu exhaled a long sigh at the sight.
The moment he pulled troops out under the fine pretext of helping his allies would be the very day Fancheng fell.
"Even so, what can be done, I must do."
Arms crossed, Huang Zu chewed on the problem for a moment, then called for his aide.
"You there!"
"You called, sir!"
At the summons the aide appeared and saluted with a cupped fist.
"Before they finish their siege engines, send out a raiding party to churn up the inside of their camp!"
"...Would that even be possible, sir?" the aide ventured, keeping his tone deferential.
Huang Zu replied.
"It will. From what I hear, the Peerless Under Heaven is over at Xiangyang right now, and that damned Sun Ce bitch is said to be there as well—so there's no enemy general on this side of the river we need fear."
Huang Zu had once stood against Sun Jian in days past and witnessed Sun Ce's martial prowess with his own eyes; even now, the mere memory of her sent a chill crawling down his spine.
If a woman like that were lurking inside the enemy camp, any raid we launched would come home a failure, nine times in ten.
Huang Zu rather prided himself on knowing his own measure.
"But cowering behind the walls out of fear gets nothing done."
"……"
"Pack away your worries and follow my orders."
"Understood, sir."
Hearing the answer, the aide bowed low at the waist.
"Then whom will you appoint to command the raiders?"
"Oh, I already have someone in mind for that."
At the question, Huang Zu stroked his beard.
A commander whose loss would cost him nothing, even if the raid came to grief. Whether she died in the attempt or returned safe and successful, it made no difference to him—and just such a conveniently useful piece was serving under Huang Zu at this very moment.
"Send that bitch out."
"Yes, sir!"
He hadn't spoken so much as a name, yet the aide took the order as though he understood it perfectly.
The woman had plied the trade of river banditry around Yi Province and Jing Province until—whether she'd conceived some hankering for official rank, who could say—she had come under Huang Zu's command along with her fellow bandits.
He scorned her as a lowborn river-bandit bitch, yet inwardly Huang Zu did concede the woman's exceptional martial skill.
"……"
Concede it or not, a bandit was still a bandit.
For wretches who had made their living robbing other people's property, this much treatment fit them exactly right.
And where do they get the gall to try climbing, knowing nothing of their own place?
So thought Huang Zu as he watched his aide withdraw to carry out the order.
Some days later, a band of figures slipped out of the fortress and set off in stealth toward the General-in-Chief's host.
This was before Liu Biao lost his life to a revolt among his own officers.
The dead hours before dawn, the sun long vanished and only black darkness pressing down.
With moonlight the only light to cling to, a man trailing behind a woman broke the silence.
"Sis. You sure this is right?"
"Sure about what?"
At her subordinate's question, the woman with the wild, feral eyes turned her head.
When her gaze landed on him, the man scratched at his shaggy hair and went on.
"I mean—it's not just any army out there. It's the General-in-Chief's own, of all things. I keep wondering whether attacking that army is really the right call."
"Hmm..."
"You don't suppose they're just shoving us out here to die, do you?"
Having said his piece, the man offered up a proposal of his own.
"What if we surrender on our own, just the lot of us? Word is they treat those who give up well enough."
"Besides, I never liked how that bastard's been eyeing us like a butcher sizing up meat," the man grumbled.
The woman heard him out and said flatly, "Hard to say."
"Sis?"
"They say the General-in-Chief treats his people well. Whether he'd do the same for the likes of us—that's what I doubt."
The man's eyes went wide, and the woman gave a small shake of her head.
"Think back to what we did for a living before we crawled under that godforsaken bastard's banner."
Apparently she didn't think much of the man in question either.
Asked what they had done before entering that godforsaken bastard's service, the man answered, "Well... we were river bandits. Robbed the purses of anyone who looked like easy pickings."
"Right. And killed more than a few people doing it."
The woman nodded, then gave the bells tied at her waist a little flick.
The bells swayed with a soft jingle.
"Now then, time for one little question."
"Mm."
The woman asked, "Remind me—how does the General-in-Chief treat bandits?"
"...Uh."
Caught by the question, the man lost his words, eyes rolling every which way.
"Not... good. As far as I remember."
"Exactly."
Hearing his answer, the woman said evenly, "He's the man who crushed the Black Mountain Bandits in Bing Province, and after them the Baibo Bandits that rose around Sili Province."
"……"
"And from what I've dug up on my own, the great Yellow Turban hordes that sprang up in Xuzhou and Qingzhou were wiped out too—by Cao Cao, acting on the General-in-Chief's orders, mind you."
With that, the woman shrugged.
"Show the man a bandit and his eyes start spinning. You really think someone like that would treat us nicely?"
"...Even so, didn't a good number of the Black Mountain and Baibo lot surrender?"
The Baibo he couldn't speak to, but the Black Mountain Bandits were famed these days as one of the General-in-Chief's elite units. Ambush craft was their specialty, and rumor had it that in mountain warfare they could push back even those barbarians.
"Being used as soldiers and being used as officers are two different things."
"...Huh. Can't argue with that."
The man bobbed his head and pressed on. "Understood. I follow you either way, Sis—so do as you please."
"Look at the mouth on this brat."
The banter was rough, but her mood seemed none the worse for it, and the woman let out a soft snort of laughter.
"Worry not. Do we look like people who die easy?"
"……"
"And if we do die—well, then I suppose we just weren't lucky."
"Your peace of mind is a marvel to behold."
"Shut it."
Talking as they went, the woman had come to a halt, and now she gazed at the camp spread out before her.
"Right then. Let's go."
Laughing and joking nonchalantly.
A four-character idiom for trading laughter and conversation as calmly as ever, even when gripped by worry or confronted with the astonishing.
And she was the very heroine of that anecdote—the woman said to have laughed and bantered without a flicker of fear even with Cao Cao's host of four hundred thousand arrayed before her eyes.
And so Gan Ning—Xingba—set forth.
Having reached the bounds of the General-in-Chief's camp, Gan Ning watched the sentries prowling this way and that, then nodded to her men.
"Ghk—!"
"Urrk—!"
Gan Ning's men, hidden well out of sight, darted forward and dropped the patrolling sentries one after another.
It had all happened in the space of a breath, and the General-in-Chief's soldiers never sensed that anything was wrong.
Thus, inching forward step by careful step, they had made it to the middle of the camp when Gan Ning's brow creased faintly.
"Honestly, who posts this many soldiers in one place?"
Whoever commanded this place, one thing was clear: they were the thorough type to the bone.
"No helping it, then."
Gan Ning heaved a deep sigh—and then roared.
"Listen up, boys! Time to raise some proper hell!"
"UWOOOO—!"
The eight hundred river bandits who followed Gan Ning bellowed as one.
With nothing left to hold back for, Gan Ning and her crew cut down every one of the General-in-Chief's soldiers who came into view.
"E-enemy raid! Enemy raid—!!"
"Someone go call for reinforcements! Quickly!"
A soldier of the General-in-Chief's army, catching sight of Gan Ning's force, shouted the alarm.
Watching it all unfold, Gan Ning murmured, "Well, well. Quick on the uptake, aren't they?"
She had expected as much from the way they kept watch, but the General-in-Chief's soldiers were drilled to the letter even in how to respond to a night raid.
An officer of the army went among the soldiers, steadying them.
"Hold fast until the relief arrives! Form ranks and hold your ground!"
"Yes, sir!"
As if to forbid all approach, the sentries nearby came swarming together and bristled into a wall of spears.
Charge in blind and I'll be riddled like a sieve.
"Not a bad choice, but..."
Gan Ning whistled and coiled strength into her legs.
"Doesn't work on me!"
As she launched herself into the air, the bells at her waist gave a jingle.
At the sight of her soaring higher than a man's head, the soldiers froze for an instant—
"Gahk—!"
—and that sliver of an opening was more than time enough for Gan Ning to cut the officer down.
When she planted her foot on a soldier's shoulder and killed the officer, the General-in-Chief's soldiers could only stand there, thrown into confusion.
"Hey! How d'you like that?!"
"That's our Sis for you!"
Her acrobat's body-work sent the spirits of the bandits following her soaring.
"Good—now then, let's kill them all—?!"
KLANG!
Gan Ning bit off the words and caught the crescent blade that came hurtling down at her head.
"Whew! Nearly lost my head there!"
Riding the force stored in the crescent blade, she backflipped a good distance away and shouted, "And just who the hell are you?!"
"...That, I believe, is my line."
A woman with brown hair bound high at the crown of her head emerged slowly, crescent blade in hand.
At the sight of anything-but-ordinary bearing, Gan Ning called out, "One look and I can tell you're a general. Let's hear your name!"
"Zhang Liao. Courtesy name Wenyuan."
The woman who answered Gan Ning's question spoke, her brown eyes glinting the same color as her hair. "Pressing on with a night raid in a situation like this—I take it that means you're rather confident of yourself?"
"And what if I am?"
Gan Ning tossed the reply back while twirling the halberd gripped in each hand with easy, whirling flourishes.
At the sight of such arrogance, Zhang Liao opened her mouth.
"Then allow me to face you myself."
"...Ha! Then by all means—try me!"
The words were barely out before Gan Ning came lunging in, and Zhang Liao rose to meet her head-on, crescent blade sweeping upward.