The Nanman (5): A Stairway of Earth
Pile up earth mounds, and the enemy's walls come crashing down...
At Zhuge Liang's strategy, I tilted my head. It was certainly no bad plan. Once the mound stood complete, the wall would be as good as neutralized — there would be no need to lean on ladders or siege engines when a man could simply stroll up and over, and from that moment on, chaos would reign inside.
Sieges being, as a rule, the business of whichever side held the superior force, a defense stripped of the wall's advantage had little choice but to collapse, barring some unexpected upset. The only trouble was that the plan looked weak — it was, after all, the very strategy Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, had slammed headlong into Ansi Fortress. The sight of him pouring such painstaking effort into that mound only to have Goguryeo snatch it out from under him while he went on flailing was pitiful almost to the point of comedy.
Gazing at the wall Meng Huo had raised, I sank into thought. Honestly, it was no masterpiece of fortification. It had the shape of a fortress wall and little more — the height was modest, and it didn't look especially sturdy, either. Was it that the Nanman simply weren't accustomed to building castles? Or did they merely lack the technical skill? Set beside Hulao Pass, cursed with terrain every bit as wretched, the gap was heaven and earth. The engineers still laboring away in Luoyang even now would have buried their faces in their hands at the sight.
The terrain being what it was, our one real regret was that siege engines could not easily be brought to bear. The vegetation grew so thick there wasn't an inch of clean footing — walking was hard enough as it was, so how was anyone to haul war machines through? Trees lay all around, so building them on the spot wouldn't be difficult, but it would plainly take far too long.
Having let my mind wander a moment, I spoke in an even voice.
"Very well. Go on, then — do as you like."
"I shall prove worthy of your expectations, my lord."
Having received my leave, Zhuge Liang bowed low. And what she did next was simplicity itself.
"By tomorrow, I ask that each and every one of you prepare a cloth bundle — something capable of holding things within."
"……"
In short, she had ordered every soldier to produce a wrap. Naturally, the order extended to the Nanman prisoners as well.
"Should anyone fail to obey this order, I shall have their head."
"!!"
At first the Nanman had reacted with supreme indifference, but when Zhuge Liang — clearly having noticed — delivered that grisly warning with a smile, they jolted upright and began scrambling to comply. And so the next day arrived: those who owned bundles brought them, while those who didn't twisted their own garments into something passably bundle-shaped. Their determination not to die came through loud and clear. Then again, losing your head over a missing bundle would be about as raw a deal as it gets — and Zhuge Liang, no rigid stickler, let such cases pass without a word.
Her next command was simple as well.
"Now — once more by tomorrow, I ask that you fill those bundles with earth."
"...?"
"And as before, should anyone fail to obey, I shall have their head."
When she says she'll take the head of anyone who drags her feet, what choice is there? Puzzling over the sudden order, the soldiers and prisoners nonetheless tore into the surrounding earth and packed their bundles full to bursting.
One thing left a real impression: with better than a hundred thousand people at the work, the nearby mountains suffered an ordeal that came close to outright ravagement. So this was the power of numbers, then. Watching the grasses that had been rooted in the soil now strewn every which way across the ground, I offered them a brief moment of silent mourning. In your next life, be born somewhere kinder — the Amazon, perhaps.
Prayer or no, the soldiers and prisoners stood waiting in camp, each clutching a single earth bundle.
Having inspected them, Zhuge Liang chuckled softly.
"Tomorrow, Meng Huo will be in our hands."
"...Is that so?"
"Yes."
With confidence like that, I could only nod along. And so, at dawn that day—
Zhuge Liang, who had let the soldiers sleep not a wink, spoke in a level voice.
"Every soldier will take up an earth bundle and cast it down beside the walls."
"……"
"And to the first who sets foot atop the wall, I shall grant a great reward."
At her command, the soldiers — quick to grasp her design — moved as though flying, scooping up even the bundles the prisoners had laid out, wholesale.
"A-a raid! Enemy raid——!!"
The sentry atop the wall shrieked the alarm, but the Nanman, sunk in deep sleep, were dreadfully slow to stir. We had spent so long dallying without attacking that their vigilance had plainly gone soft; they seemed to be leaning far too hard on the first taste of security a wall had ever given them. Not that I couldn't understand the feeling — but wasn't this carrying it a bit far? I pictured Meng Huo lording it over the battlements with that triumphant grin of hers, and shook my head.
The bundles were hardly heavy; the soldiers shrugged them off one after another at the base of the wall, and before the Nanman had fully come to their senses, a sloping hill now ran flush against the ramparts. What came next... well. Simple.
Before the hill was even finished, a woman with bluish-silver hair sprang lightly from her footing and landed atop the wall. She swept a glance around her and murmured in an even tone.
"Looks like I'm the first one up."
No prizes for guessing who she was. The woman was Ma Chao.
"So the grand reward goes to me, then?"
With those words, Ma Chao flashed a beautiful smile that had no business on a battlefield. Just what sort of reward was she picturing, to light up like that? ...It isn't the one I'm thinking of... right?
"Die——!!"
A Nanman soldier who had spotted the intruder roared and charged. Throwing themselves at a general of Ma Chao's caliber without a flicker of intimidation — "a warrior people" fit them to a tee. But spirit alone was a poor match for this particular opponent.
"Khhk!"
"You lot are the spitting image of the ones I used to watch back home."
Ma Chao flicked her spear, cut the man down without so much as a pause, and spat out,
"They never know when to quit — just like them. They come charging with no fear at all — just like them..."
"Uwaaagh!"
"Does living in rough country make everyone turn out the same?"
"Ughk!"
Ma Chao kept talking, and never once stopped swinging her spear. ...Someone had dropped me a hint about this before, so I'd known — but seeing it firsthand, her personality really does flip on a whim depending on whether I'm anywhere near. Even without a horse beneath her, the sight of her carving through enemies like a butcher left more than a deep enough impression on me.
"Whew, they're no pushovers, huh?"
Gan Ning, twirling her twin halberds as she eyed the top of the wall, let out a whistle.
"Seriously, the more I look, the more baffling it gets. Where on earth do they keep popping out people like that?"
Perhaps because she had already staked her life against Zhang Liao and Guan Yu, Gan Ning — blessed with a rare instinct for sizing up another's strength — burst into laughter.
"Stand around gawking and there won't be any glory left to grab!"
With that, she vaulted up the slope just as Ma Chao had.
"Here I come — number two! Anyone itching to die, come at me, every last one of you—!"
I swept my gaze once across the generals tearing through the enemy lines as casually as if it were their own bedroom. Huang Zhong rained arrows in from long range, utterly one-sided; Zhang Liao, too, topped the wall at much the same moment as Gan Ning. Zhao Yun stood guard at my side in place of Seo Yeo and Lü Bu, who could not be moved rashly. And with the vanguard under Seo Hwang and Gao Shun descending on the fortress to seal the deal, I reached my conclusion. Just as Zhuge Liang had grandly boasted, the fortress Meng Huo held would not live to see another day.
How long had we been pounding at the fortress by then?
"……"
"……"
By the time the moon had slipped away and dawn was creeping in, Meng Huo was dragged before me once more, trussed up tight as ever. I'd expected her to come in unconscious at somebody's hands again, like last time — but this time she was perfectly sound? Had something shifted in her heart, then? I addressed Meng Huo, whose head hung low as if ashamed of her string of defeats.
"Well? As I told you before, your stronghold has fallen."
"……"
"Do you finally feel like surrendering to me in earnest?"
"……"
"...?"
Question after question, and still the silence. What was she playing at? Was she turning over some excuse that would let her keep refusing me? Knowing the Meng Huo I did, it was entirely possible.
"Such insolence—!"
"Enough. Stand down."
I stayed the generals around me — faces dark, ready to lunge — and went on.
"Something seems to weigh on you. Then I shall wait, and wait patiently."
"Um..."
"Hm?"
At last, Meng Huo opened her mouth in a very small voice.
"...surre..."
"What was that? Say it again."
She was mumbling something, but so quietly I couldn't make head or tail of it. As I leaned in, Meng Huo — head bowed until that very moment — snapped it up and cried out.
"I surrender!"
"……"
"So please — please, just save Zhurong!"
I blinked at the plea that had come from nowhere. What was she suddenly on about? When I turned to the generals nearby, Zhang Liao explained in an even voice.
"The woman called Zhurong has lost consciousness as we speak."
Now that it was mentioned — Meng Huo and Meng You were here, but Zhurong was nowhere to be seen. What in the world had happened?
"...And the reason?"
"It appears the wound she took from General Lü Bu may have festered."
Lü Bu, standing nearby, pointed at herself as she said,
"Eh? Wait, is this my fault?"
"Who's to say."
I shrugged. I'd been wondering just how one went about bending that bullheaded stubbornness of hers — and it turned out the answer was to hold a life over her head.
"I'm begging you-huu!"
"Please, just save her!"
The sight of the two fiercely proud sisters, Meng Huo and Meng You, prostrating themselves on the ground and bawling their eyes out was quite the rare spectacle indeed.