King Mulu (2)
Meng Huo decided to press the assault on the fortress while simultaneously turning to meet the enemy reinforcements.
It was a bold call, by any measure.
Naturally, not everyone received the decision without trepidation.
"…Are you certain? Halting the siege and concentrating on the reinforcements first…"
"No way!"
Hearing out her old friend's concern, Meng Huo shook her head emphatically and jabbed a finger toward the fortress.
"If we do that, the bastards holed up in there will patch up those weakened walls and then spend the whole campaign pestering us from behind!"
"…Hmm."
The woman could not refute that.
Even a passing glance made it plain that the commanders defending that fortress were capable men; the moment her side showed even the slightest opening, they would assuredly make life miserable for them.
"And besides, not one soul has ever beaten us in the open field!"
No matter how vast the enemy host, there were no exceptions to that rule, Meng Huo declared with a hearty laugh.
"Mulu! You're up!"
"Hwahaha! So the hour has finally come for me to take the field!"
The instant Meng Huo's cry rang out across the assembly, a figure strode forth with unmistakable confidence.
"I've been itching for a fight, standing quietly on standby all this time!"
"Then the timing's perfect! Word just came in that enemy reinforcements have shown themselves nearby!"
At Mulu's self-assured bearing, Meng Huo carried on without missing a beat.
"Take your prized beast corps and sweep the lot of them away!"
"The very order I've been waiting for!"
Having received Meng Huo's command, King Mulu proclaimed:
"Fear nothing, Great King of the Nanman!"
With that cry, she took the bell hanging at her waist in hand and gave it a jingle.
No sooner had the bell sounded than the roars of every manner of beast rose from all around—cries so ferocious that even their own allies felt a chill of dread.
King Mulu shouted:
"Whatever foe may come, one glimpse of my beast corps and they'll turn tail and flee in terror!"
"That's the spirit! I'm counting on you!"
Meng Huo nodded to the woman whose body was painted head to toe in unknown dyes.
Since marching up into Yi Province, these savage beasts had not lost to a single enemy unit—and now they were on the move once more.
Near Meng Huo's camp.
A woman with bluish-silver hair, arrived at the head of her own troops, sat atop her horse gazing toward where the enemy lay.
An aide approached her and bowed with deference.
"General, all preparations are complete."
"Good."
The girl spoke without turning her head.
"You remember all of your assigned tasks?"
"Yes. I have instructed every soldier to tuck tail and run the instant they set eyes on a savage beast, but…"
The aide's face clouded with doubt.
"Can beasts truly comprehend human speech and take part in war?"
It was an entirely reasonable question.
Taming a single beast to gentleness would demand effort beyond imagining—how much less plausible that anyone could tame whole packs of them and bend them to their will?
To the aide's question, the woman answered in a perfectly level voice.
"That's something we'll judge with our own eyes."
"…"
"Or what—were you thinking of defying the General-in-Chief's orders?"
Beautiful eyes like cut diamond fixed the aide with a frosty glare.
Sensing the killing intent gathering in those eyes, the Qiang aide started and blurted out in a rush:
"H-how could I ever entertain such a thought! I was merely curious!"
"Then that's that."
Hearing his answer, the woman turned her head back toward the enemy.
The Qiang aide, who had been watching her, let out a long breath of relief.
One wrong word just then, and his head might well have rolled for insubordination.
When the General-in-Chief was at her side, she mellowed into something almost tame; the moment he was nowhere near, she reverted to the terrifying creature who had cut down rebel armies in Xiliang without so much as a flicker of expression.
Does the General-in-Chief even know about this side of her…?
"What are you brooding about?"
"Eep! N-nothing at all, General!"
Her instincts are annoyingly sharp, as always!
The Qiang aide answered with lightning speed—before the spear in the woman's hand could come flying his way.
"Hmmm…"
Even so, she seemed not fully satisfied, and stared him down for a good while before speaking.
"I'll be watching you."
"Y-yes, ma'am!"
While the aide was busy treading on eggshells, another soldier dressed in the garb of the northern steppe came forward with a report.
"General! A—a report from the scouts ahead!"
"What is it?"
The woman asked in a cool voice, eyeing the soldier, whose face said he could scarcely believe his own ears.
The soldier pressed on, utterly bewildered.
"A massive horde of savage beasts has appeared to our front!"
"…"
"Tigers and leopards, dholes and wolves—beasts of every kind are closing in on us!"
So the moment had come: the intelligence that the Nanman fielded savage beasts was proven true.
"We haven't so much as crossed paths yet. If we bolted now, they'd sense something was off."
The aide's jaw hung open, astonishment written all over his face, while the woman shut her eyes for a breath, opened them again, and murmured with perfect calm.
Then she looked over her soldiers and said:
"Don't tell me you lot lack the nerve to shake off a few beasts?"
"…How could we possibly think such a thing!"
The Qiang, after all, were a nomad people who had lived in the saddle from the day they were born.
Their horsemanship yielded nothing to the Xiongnu on their doorstep, nor to the Wuhuan and Xianbei far away in the north.
"I'll have to show you how I shook off a wolf pack when I was a boy!"
"Ha! I went and caught a few with my own two hands!"
One after another the soldiers traded tales of their exploits, laughing heartily as they did.
It was not arrogance, but the simple confidence of men who knew they could do what they had done all their lives.
"Some of those beasts are bigger and faster than wolves, you know?"
The woman put in mischievously as she listened.
Of course, these were hardly Qiang soldiers who would be cowed by that.
"The bigger the quarry, the greater the glory—what's not to like about that!"
"Wolves have grown dull anyway! It's high time for a new challenge!"
At their brash replies, the woman—Ma Chao—snorted a laugh.
"I like the spirit. Just don't go getting cocky and dying on me."
"No fear, General! Staying alive is the one trade we've truly mastered!"
The survival mettle of these border folk, forged through every manner of fight since childhood, was enough to make any onlooker click their tongue in awe.
Such was the resilience of a people who battled beasts that coveted their livestock day in and day out—and at times crossed blades with their fellow men.
So some time passed.
—Jingle.
"Grrrrr…"
Before long, an immense horde of savage beasts slowly emerged into view.
Just as the scouts had reported, the sight of every species of predator mingled together yet moving in perfect order was uncannily surreal.
"Hm? And here I was wondering how grand these 'reinforcements' would be. This is all?"
A bronze-skinned woman perched atop a white elephant muttered.
"I do wonder whether this would even make a single meal for my precious darlings."
"…Those brutes of yours put away more than I thought, huh?"
Ma Chao needled King Mulu without a trace of fear.
King Mulu threw back her head and roared with laughter.
"Hahaha! Big frames need big meals! You'd be floored to learn how much my darlings eat in a single day!"
"…"
"Well now, you're a spirited one. Shall we see how long that bravado holds up?"
With that, King Mulu closed her eyes, raised her right hand in a single-palmed salutation—a prayer rite performed with one hand—and began to murmur something under her breath.
At this ominous display, Ma Chao and her soldiers snapped into readiness, and King Mulu, still chanting, shook the small bell held in her left hand.
—Jingle.
"What in the world is she…"
RRRRUMBLE—!
"Huh?"
Before Ma Chao could even finish, a thunderous roar tore through the air and a savage gale came howling down upon them.
KRA-KOOM—!!
The air itself dimmed, earth swirled up from the ground all around, and boulders began to roll of their own accord.
Watching it unfold, Ma Chao muttered:
"…So this is that sorcery I've only heard tell of?"
What an utterly bizarre sight.
Any ordinary soldier would have long since panicked and dragged the whole army's morale down with him, but Ma Chao, who had already been briefed on this very possibility, bellowed with full force:
"Live long enough and you'll see every kind of crazy witch there is! Fall back for now!"
"Ma'am!"
As if they had been waiting for just those words, the Qiang riders under her command wheeled their horses about in a single motion.
Watching them go, King Mulu could not contain her laughter.
"Hahaha! For all that swagger, that's the best you've got! What are you idling for! After them!"
At her word, the beasts—freed of every restraint—bared fangs and claws and tore across the earth,
"WAAAAAH—!!"
and King Mulu's beast-handlers raised a thundering war cry and raced hard after the creatures.
Riders and savage beasts alike hurtled over the land, riding the current of the freak gale.
Now the chase was on—be caught, or slip away.