One Against Ten
"Yes—that's right. Lost his martial arts years ago, so now he's nothing but a cripple."
Bai Jingyan stared down at Yun Poxing, an arrow spent of its strength, a beast caught at the end of its power.
"I hear this Yun Poxing fellow fears our Bai Family Army terribly—like a small child fears his own father. Desperate to screw up his courage, he gathers snakes like Nanyan around him to swagger and bluster, enters a coward's conspiracy with Liu Huanzhang, one of my grandfather's own deputy generals, and raises an army of a million men to hatch his scheme. Only by stooping to all of that—by scraping and clawing every step of the way—was he finally able to kill the men of the Bai family, wasn't he?"
"So I thought to myself: even a cripple like me, if I gave it everything I had, could take that man's head. And yet—would you look at that—before I've even begun, he's already collapsed into a fish on my chopping block, this wretched. To think you're already squirming helpless in my grip before I've lifted a finger... You've truly disappointed me!"
Bai Jingyan's features were cold as frost.
"Without Nanyan's help, without Liu Huanzhang's intelligence, this Yun Poxing turned out to be less than a crippled woman."
Yun Poxing's eyes bulged with fury.
"You dare insult me, you little girl?"
"I merely spoke the truth. Is that an insult?"
Bai Jingyan glared at him, rage blazing in her eyes, her jaw clenched tight.
"Was it not an insult to cut off my seventeenth younger brother's head and desecrate his corpse? You conspired to kill my grandfather and the men of the Bai family—but you did it as the enemy general of a rival state, in service of your own nation's interests, and for that much, I would grant you respect. But a man who calls himself a general, a man who claims to be so honorable—how dare he raise a blade against a child of ten? Not only cut off his head, but hack at his corpse besides? You are not even human. You make my skin crawl!"
Yun Poxing clenched his teeth, the memory of the ten-year-old boy who had died with dignity flashing through his mind, and then he roared back.
"It was war between two nations! Child or old man, anyone who takes up blade and sword is nothing more than a soldier. There is no place for pity or sentiment on a battlefield!"
The moment the words left his mouth, an arrow split the air and punched straight through his knee. It was so fast that not even an afterimage remained. Red blood sprayed, and Yun Poxing's scream tore out as he crumpled down onto one knee. Drenched in cold sweat, trembling from jaw to fists, he glared up at Bai Jingyan.
"My lord!"
The Xiliang survivors drew their swords—but with the Bai Family Army enclosing them in a ring of steel, none dared to move.
"That arrow was for my seventeenth younger brother!"
Bai Jingyan's gaze turned to ice.
Another arrow hissed through the air—and Yun Poxing's right knee burst open as well. In one wretched heap, he collapsed onto both knees.
"And that one was fired so you would kneel and beg forgiveness from my seventeenth brother!"
"Then kill me! I, Yun Poxing, fear nothing!"
His voice tore itself raw with the shout.
"Kill you?"
Bai Jingyan's grip tightened on the Sun-Shooting Bow.
"Waste an arrow on a gutless wretch like you? That would be an insult to my bow."
"Little Marshal! Use my blade! I'm not afraid of Yun Poxing sullying my blade—I'm afraid of nothing else!"
Cheng Yuanzhi, his face lit with grim conviction, drew his broadsword and offered it to her.
"If it gets filthy, I'll wash it and use it again!"
Unable to bear the humiliation a moment longer, Yun Poxing ground his molars together, wrenched out his curved blade, and raised it toward his own throat to take his own life.
Thwang!
Before the blade could touch his neck, an arrow flew and buried itself in his wrist. The curved blade clattered to the ground.
"My lord!"
The Xiliang survivors went mad with bloodlust. Cornered like beasts at bay, they bared their fangs and glared at Bai Jingyan.
"Yun Poxing. Today, I'm letting you go."
Bai Jingyan said it plainly.
"Little Marshal—no! That man killed our Grand Marshal! He killed our Vice Marshal! Why would you let him live?"
Cheng Yuanzhi's eyes went round with disbelief. This was the moment he had waited for through agonizing years. In his heart he wanted nothing more than to draw his blade that instant and sever every tendon in Yun Poxing's body, to flay the skin from his flesh. He wanted to carve off that man's head and hollow it into a chamber pot—so why in the world would she let him walk away?
But Bai Jingyan's resolve was iron. Swallowing down the hatred that burned in her chest, she looked at the stunned Yun Poxing.
"Three years. Crawl back to Xiliang and prepare yourself. In three years, bring the sons and grandsons of your house and come find me again. If you do not come, the Bai Family Army will march into your country, slaughter the people of Xiliang, and drag your royal house into oblivion. I will exterminate your entire clan—and not even the livestock in your stables will be left breathing."
Unable to rise under the crippling agony, Yun Poxing lifted his head and looked up at Bai Jingyan, her killing intent piercing the very sky. As he gazed at this woman—calm in a way that was itself terrifying—a shudder of genuine dread ran through him.
"Fall back!"
Bai Jingyan raised the Sun-Shooting Bow high and commanded the Bai Family Army to open a path. She was clearing the road for Yun Poxing's escape.
"Little Marshal!"
Cheng Yuanzhi dropped to his knees, fists clasped in salute.
"You cannot release Yun Poxing! We must have vengeance for the Bai Family Army!"
"Little Marshal! You cannot let him go like this!"
Reluctant as they were, the officers and soldiers of the Bai Family Army had no choice but to obey. They only ground their teeth and fixed Yun Poxing with eyes blazing with fury.
Robbed of the use of both legs, Yun Poxing was hauled up by his Xiliang survivors, and he looked back at Bai Jingyan.
"You truly mean to release me?"
"I'm giving you three years. I expect you to be somewhat stronger when they're up. Don't make me beat you again the way I did today—pathetic and limp!"
With that, Bai Jingyan stepped aside, and the soldiers of the Bai Family Army, however unwillingly, parted to let them through.
Unable to bring themselves to trust her word completely, the Xiliang soldiers kept their blades raised in a protective ring around Yun Poxing, wary to the last. They pushed through the midst of the Bai Family Army, which glared at them like wolves waiting to swallow them whole.
Soon the Xiliang survivors had stumbled with Yun Poxing all the way to the mouth of the valley, where the sturdiest among them hoisted him onto his back and vanished swiftly into the darkness—fleeing so fast one might think they feared the Bai Family Army would change its mind.
"Little Marshal—why did you let that man go?"
Cheng Yuanzhi's voice shook with grief and indignation.
"It's a military order, but my heart will not accept it! Yun Poxing cut off the Vice Marshal's head and hung it above his war camp to mock our Bai Family Army! You are the Vice Marshal's eldest daughter. Why would you release the man who killed your own father?"
Bai Jingyan stared long into the pitch-dark night before clenching her fist. Only when Yun Poxing had vanished without a trace did she turn to Cheng Yuanzhi, suppressing a hatred that threatened to tear her apart, and answer.
"I know General Cheng Yuanzhi does not accept it! I know every soldier standing here does not accept it! But my grandfather, my father and uncles, all of my brothers were butchered like animals. Do you imagine my heart is at ease? And yet—if I do not release Yun Poxing today, then when the war in the Southern Border ends, the Crown Prince will leave our Bai Family Army no road left to survive!"
Inside the valley, where the cold wind howled like a beast, the woman's voice rang out with unshakable force.
"When my grandfather marched to war, do you know why His Majesty handed the imperial gold tablet to King Xin—a man who knows nothing of war—and ordered him to spy upon the grand army? Do you know why King Xin could threaten my grandfather with orders to march out and engage the enemy? Why the Liang King forged letters to smear my grandfather's name with accusations of colluding with the enemy and betraying his country? Do you not understand the reason?
"The Emperor who sits on the throne today, and the treacherous ministers in court who bend like reeds in the wind, already regard our Bai Family Army as a threat and are looking for any excuse to cut us down! Why? Because you are the Bai Family Army! Because of the black-cloth White Python Banner you hold so high! Because they believe the Bai Family Army is nothing but the Bai family's private soldiers! Because our army is too brave—because one of our soldiers is worth ten of theirs! Because the fame of the Bai Family Army echoes in every corner of the realm! Because no one in Jin can match the might of our name!
"That I, Bai Jingyan, could stand here today and fight this war alongside you—that my life and death could be joined to yours—is thanks to General Fang Yan. Thanks to General E Zhizhu. Thanks to the Bai family's loyal retainers, Wu Che and Qi Zhengyu! It is because they flung their bodies into danger and carried the campaign records to the capital at the cost of their lives!
"Because of those records, my grandfather's honor was preserved from the slander that he had stubbornly dragged his soldiers into war to chase military glory. Because of those records, the charge of colluding with the enemy and betraying the state was washed away. Because of those records, His Majesty punished King Xin and restored the Bai family's merits to us. The lives of the Bai family's surviving widows and orphans—we kept them alive with those campaign records!"
"In a way, I owe Yun Poxing my thanks. If not for him, the traitorous ministers and the Emperor would have found some way to stop me from ever coming to the Southern Border! The Crown Prince would have blocked my departure by every means, and barred every road between me and the Bai Family Army. I would have been left standing powerless in Dadu, watching the Bai Family Army—reduced to a mere ten thousand men—live and die as the pawns and beasts of burden of traitorous ministers, until every last one of them fell on the Southern Border.
"From my grandfather at the top to the lowest soldier at the bottom, every man of the Bai Family Army is among the bravest soldiers of Great Jin, men who never once harbored a thought of rebellion! We swore to wage war for the peace of all the people under heaven. We swore to fight for the unification of the world. But the Emperor on his throne today and the treacherous ministers of his court think of nothing but how to cast us aside once we've served our purpose!
"We will not commit treason. And yet I, Bai Jingyan, must take up the black-cloth White Python Banner of the Bai Family Army today—and to hold that banner, I must protect the Bai Family Army itself. Even if the means I use violate the Bai family's upright traditions and the teachings of our ancestors!
"Our brave soldiers may die on the battlefield. They may die beneath enemy crossbows and arrows. But they will never lose their lives to the schemes of cowardly men with black hearts!"
At her words, a fire kindled in the chests of the mourning-banded soldiers of the Bai Family Army. Heat swept through their bodies as though fever had taken them, and even their eyes stung with tears.
Bai Jingyan raised her clasped fists in a formal salute to her army, then flipped back the hem of her armor and dropped to one knee.
"I, Bai Jingyan, swear before the martyrs of the Bai Family Army who fell on the Southern Border. I swear before the twenty-three noble spirits of the Bai family. In three years, I will lead you with my own hands to slaughter Yun Poxing and avenge them all. So I ask you—believe in me!"
"Little Marshal!"
Cheng Yuanzhi, tears brimming, dropped to his knees with fists clasped.
The entire Bai Family Army, minds ablaze, knelt as one.
"We believe in you, Little Marshal. We will never doubt you!"
Three years. It was the deadline she had given Yun Poxing—and the time she had promised herself.
Three years from now, no one in Great Jin would dare lay a finger on anyone of the Bai family.
Three years from now, no one in Great Jin would watch the Bai Family Army like hawks, waiting to strike.
Three years from now, she would have her vengeance—no matter what it took!