I Swear to Follow
"Your Highness, there is no more time to hesitate!"
Zhen Xiangzhi knelt and made his plea in a ringing voice.
Bai Jingyan too raised a fist-in-palm salute, dropping one knee to the ground and speaking with grave formality.
"Whether Your Highness grants permission or not, I will go regardless. The strategy was mine to devise! I cannot stand idle and watch tens of thousands of soldiers lose their lives through a misstep in the middle of Wengshan. Nor will I watch what remains of the Bai Family Army be slaughtered at Yun Paxing's hands and suffer such humiliation."
The Crown Prince's fist clenched tight. The strategy Bai Jingyan had laid out last evening and again this very morning flashed through his mind — and with it, the memory of Bai Weiting, the undefeated war god of the Zhenguo Kingdom, praising her as a marshal of the highest order.
The Crown Prince made his decision. He would send Bai Jingyan.
He helped her to her feet and pressed the military tally from his hand into hers.
"Then the task falls to you, Young Master Bai! I will summon the two thousand defenders from Wanping at once. Every soldier of the great Jin army on the Wengshan battlefield will follow your orders!"
"There is no need, Your Highness. Before I left the camp, I already instructed the defenders to assemble their troops and stand by awaiting your command. But you are the foundation of this nation, Your Highness. You cannot send out the entire Wanping garrison — a thousand or so must remain at your side."
Only after offering this honeyed flattery did Bai Jingyan accept the tally. Then she pressed on.
"Your Highness, give the order for the Bai Family Army's Haoying Battalion to follow me into the Wengshan Canyon. If I fail to win this war, I will offer up my head!"
"Your Highness! Young Master Bai speaks with reason!"
Advisor Fang cut in.
"You are the foundation of the state, sire. You cannot be left without an honor guard."
The Crown Prince gritted his teeth. The situation was desperate; there was no time left to waste. However wary he might be of Bai Jingyan, he had to win this war first!
"The Haoying Battalion awaits orders at Banli Slope outside the city walls. Take them with you!"
The Crown Prince answered.
"Bai Jingyan receives your command!"
With that, Bai Jingyan strode swiftly from the hall.
Watching her brimming with spirit, the Crown Prince could not hold himself back and hurried after her. Outside the gates, Bai Jingyan tossed the military tally in her hand to Bai Jinchi and swung herself into the saddle in one fluid motion.
"Bai Jinchi, take the tally and hurry to the camp! Bring a thousand troops and follow me to the Wengshan Canyon to crush the enemy!"
"Bai Jinchi receives your command!"
Bai Jinchi caught the tally in a single grab and galloped off.
"Young Master!"
Xiao Ruohai threw the silver spear he was carrying to Bai Jingyan.
Spear in one hand, Sun-Shooting Bow slung across her back, Bai Jingyan clamped her legs tight against the horse's flanks and shot forward like an arrow.
The Crown Prince felt as though his throat were burning. So this was the terrifying ferocity of the Bai generals?
Bai Jingyan was magnificent, her whole body radiating an awe-inspiring air. Every order from her lips carried a power that set men's blood alight — an irresistible pull that made one want to charge onto the battlefield at her side and crush the enemy this very instant.
Zhen Xiangzhi stood behind the Crown Prince, fists clenched tight.
It was his first time near a war front. Seeing Bai Jingyan's blazing spirit, he found himself thinking, inevitably, of the reigning Emperor.
If only the Emperor had trusted the Bai family's loyalty without a shred of doubt — if only he'd possessed the magnanimity to contain them — how glorious a sight the Bai descendants would have shown on the battlefield! They would have swallowed Xiliang's great army whole, and perhaps the world itself, in a matter of time.
For a hundred years and more, in the hands of Bai Weiting, the Zhenguo Duke Estate had risen to the blazing summit of glory. Not one of their descendants was useless; every one of them carried great ambition in their breast. Generation after generation, they shared one heart and one mind, upheld the same virtues, and waged war for one purpose alone — the unification of the realm.
But the Emperor they served had neither the breadth of vision nor the will to swallow the world. And that was precisely why he had feared the Bai family so.
That was why the Bai family had to die.
What a waste. What a bitter lament it was!
Xiao Ruohai kept hard on Bai Jingyan's heels, racing toward Banli Slope.
There, two veteran signalmen of the Haoying Battalion had gathered, discussing the order they'd received the night before — to hold their position with signal fires at the ready. Just then, a scout's report came in: someone on horseback was riding toward them at speed.
The Haoying Battalion soldiers all rose to their feet, gripping their reins as they gazed into the distance.
Shen Liangyu, vice-commander of the Haoying Battalion, who had been sitting beneath a gnarled old tree chewing a stalk of grass, stood up and squinted into the far off. He saw a youth on a fine steed — silver armor, a red-tasseled silver spear in hand.
The sight was achingly familiar. Shen Liangyu spat out the grass and took a few steps forward. He'd seen this figure somewhere before, but the memory would not surface.
The horse closed in fast, its rider wrenching the reins back so fiercely the steed reared onto its hind legs. Only then did Shen Liangyu's eyes fly wide open.
"Xiao… Xiao Baishu?"
The soldiers who had served in the Haoying Battalion since years past heard Shen Liangyu's murmur, recognized Bai Jingyan, and let out a thrilled roar.
"It's Xiao Baishu! Xiao Baishu has returned!"
On horseback, Bai Jingyan gripped the reins tight. The moment the steed's forehooves touched ground again, she fixed her keen gaze on the Haoying Battalion officers and soldiers waiting just ahead and called out in a voice that carried across the slope.
"I am Bai Jingyan, eldest daughter of Bai Qishan, deputy marshal of the Bai Family Army! Today, our forces and Xiliang clash in the Wengshan Canyon. The battle hangs by a thread! Brother soldiers — all who would fight the enemy beside me, mount up and follow me to Wengshan, now!"
With that, Bai Jingyan wheeled around and sped off with Xiao Ruohai at her side.
Shen Liangyu, who had been fighting back hot tears from the moment he laid eyes on her, felt the blood surge clear to the roots of his hair. He vaulted onto his horse in one motion and bellowed for all to hear.
"Shen Liangyu, commander of horse, swears to follow Xiao Baishu unto death! Haoying Battalion — ready for battle!"
The Haoying Battalion soldiers, in perfect formation, mounted as one, cracked their whips, and charged after Bai Jingyan.
As she raced toward Wengshan, Bai Jingyan met Bai Jinchi on the road, leading the thousand Wanping defenders toward Wengcheng as ordered.
Bai Jinchi spurred her horse to catch up.
"Big Sister Jingyan!"
"Did you bring the banners?"
Bai Jingyan turned her head to ask.
"Don't you worry! I brought every last one of them!"
Bai Jinchi answered firmly.
"Shen Liangyu!"
Bai Jingyan turned her head and called out.
At her summons, Shen Liangyu spurred forward to her side and answered with a voice thick with fervor.
"I await the marshal's orders!"
"Lead the Haoying Battalion up to the peaks above the Wengshan Canyon and the mouth of Jiuqu Peak. Rain arrows down on Xiliang from the high ground and cover our advance! Plant the Bai Family Army's war banner where every eye can see it — it will steel our army's courage!"
Before she'd even finished speaking, Xiao Ruohai drew a map of Wengshan from his breast and tossed it to Shen Liangyu. He caught it and spread it open with one hand.
The map was flawless in its detail, and his eyes grew hot. With this map and Xiao Baishu, victory was surely within their grasp. Without a moment's hesitation, he roared his reply.
"I will carry out the marshal's orders!"
Shen Liangyu took his command and led the Haoying Battalion to climb from the flank, sweeping up the mountain ahead of the thousand troops Bai Jingyan led — the vanguard that would shield them.
"Xiao Ruohai!"
Xiao Ruohai darted up at once.
"Your subordinate hears your command!"
"Take twenty-five men and carry the Bai Family Army's signal banner. Climb the eastern ravine at top speed, unfurl the Bai banner along the east cliff, and strike terror into the Xiliang troops trapped in the gorge!"
Xiao Ruohai gritted his teeth and nodded.
"Your subordinate will carry out your orders!"
"Bai Jinchi!"
At her eldest sister's call, Bai Jinchi felt her blood boil over in an instant. She rode forward eagerly and waited for the order.
"Bai Jinchi, present and ready!"
"In this battle, you will not stray more than two paces from my side! Break the order and I'll have you punished under military law!"
Bai Jinchi faltered for a beat, then blurted out in protest.
"Big Sister! Everyone else gets a real order — why am I the only one stuck trailing after you? You're looking down on me, aren't you!"
This was Jinchi's first time on a battlefield. And in this very moment, Bai Jingyan felt she understood, completely, the heart of the father who had once worried over her.
No matter how valiant she proved herself, her father had always wanted to keep her close at his side. It must have felt exactly as this — exactly the way her heart ached for Bai Jinchi now.
"All this time, with so little of it to spare, I've had time to master only the Sun-Shooting Bow. If you're at my side, you can guard me in close combat!"
Beyond her desire to keep Bai Jinchi close and protect her, there was truth in the words.
Time had been too short; the only skill she had reclaimed in her reborn body was archery. She held the Red-Tasseled Spear in her hand, yes — but she could no longer scatter a host of enemies with a single spear-thrust as she once had. Still, the spear had to travel with her. It was something like a standard, a symbol.
The fierce warhorse, the silver spear, the Sun-Shooting Bow. Only when the Bai Family Army beheld all of these with their own eyes would they truly understand: she had returned!
Just like the banner of the Bai Family Army itself. Only when the banner was planted there could it refill the courage, the daring, and the terrible majesty of every last Bai soldier.
Bai Jingyan's words put fresh strength into Bai Jinchi's spine.
"Yes! Bai Jinchi will carry out her orders!"
With that, she reached to touch the war banner hidden against her chest — and found the military tally instead. She hastily drew it out and handed it back to Bai Jingyan.
"Sister! The tally!"
Bai Jingyan had already committed the entire map to memory. She had to lead her troops down the shortest road at forced march. They had to reach the Wengshan Canyon at a speed no Xiliang soldier could imagine.
The falcon Yun Paxing took with him on every campaign circled and shrieked above the Wengshan Canyon.
Within the gorge, the clash of battle shook the very sky. Blood ran in rivulets; mud sprayed; spears snapped; broken shields and countless corpses lay heaped together. Torn bodies were scattered everywhere.
Officers and men, treading over the dead — enemy and comrade alike — swung great blades and spears, eyes red with slaughter.
On the gorge's western side, Zhang Danyue led his crossbowmen, firing down on the Xiliang forces from the valley walls. To prevent a Xiliang assault from the west, a thousand close-combat infantry had arrayed themselves behind the crossbow lines.
On the gorge's eastern side, a fierce Xiliang general led his archers in raining arrows down upon the great Jin army below. The oil, the stones, the timber on the eastern cliffs all belonged to the Xiliang side — but alas, below them the Jin troops were few and the Xiliang many, so they dared not blindly hurl rocks and logs downward. Even the Xiliang found themselves helpless.
At the mouth of Wengshan Canyon and the exit of Jiuqu Peak, Jian Zhiping and Shi Panshan paid a heavy price to slaughter a portion of the Xiliang army alongside General Zhang Danyue, and as planned, sealed off the exit. Jian Zhiping then led his men charging back into the gorge to fight the Xiliang hand to hand.
At the entrance to the canyon below the five terraces of Wengshan, twelve thousand elite troops lying in ambush, together with the ten thousand Bai Family Army soldiers under General Cheng Yuanzhi, blocked the Xiliang forces retreating toward the terraces and fell upon them in a frenzy of killing.
Cheng Yuanzhi, a strip of mourning cloth bound around his head, severed the head of a Xiliang officer — and in that instant, a Xiliang arrow came whistling down from the eastern cliff above. It buried itself deep in his shoulder. So great was its force that Cheng Yuanzhi, standing atop a mound of corpses, toppled backward into the bloody mire behind him.
Foul-smelling blood mixed with muddy water splashed across his face and blotted out his sight. After a long moment of dazed confusion, he rose to his feet, steadied by an officer and soldier who shouted "General!" as they lifted him.
Cheng Yuanzhi braced his broadsword against the ground to hold himself upright and wiped the gore from his face. Then, with bloodshot eyes and clenched teeth, he hacked off the shaft of the arrow. And as he glared up at the Xiliang troops aiming down at him from the eastern cliff, he bellowed with all the force left in his lungs.
"Don't mind me! Bai Family Army — hear my command! This battle is a fight to the death! We will take Yun Paxing's head if it kills every one of us! Avenge our Bai generals and our brothers!"
"Vengeance!"
"Vengeance!"
The Bai Family Army, locked in ferocious combat, felt its blood boil over. Fighting as though each breath might be their last, eyes wild with the will to survive, they threw their lives into the fray — and the great Xiliang army was driven back, and back, and back again.