The Heavens Know
"Master Zhen, I don't think that's a fair thing to say. Surely you don't mean to suggest that our Great Jin can only win a victory by leaning on a single woman?"
Advisor Fang was uncharacteristically angry. He grumbled under his breath, shot Zhen Xiangzhi a glare, then turned to the Crown Prince and bowed obsequiously once more.
"I wonder what Master Zhen takes His Highness the Crown Prince for, to speak so. It seems he holds neither the generals of Great Jin nor the strategists of the Crown Prince's own household in his eyes at all."
Zhen Xiangzhi felt as though his chest might burst from the suffocating frustration. He clenched his teeth and demanded, as if shouting:
"In this war, between the strategists of the Crown Prince's household and the generals of Great Jin, who else grasped Yun Paxing's troop deployments as perfectly as General Bai did? When the dispatches came in, who put forward an efficient plan of deployment that allowed a small force to drive back a vastly larger enemy? And when the fifteen thousand troops in the middle of Wengshan were entirely wiped out, who was it who held the line with a mere thousand defenders and delivered a great victory at Wengshan?"
"I have said it before. The western side of the canyon was held by General Zhang Danyue. Although the Xiliang army did seize the eastern side, with General Zhang Danyue on the west, the Xiliang forces would be caught in a pincer between our allied armies — and with that being so, one cannot definitively say our Great Jin was bound to lose. The great victory in this war was not a matter of pure inevitability, was it?"
Advisor Fang, too, was furious, his chest heaving as he blustered on.
"Master Zhen draws the salary of the Crown Prince's household, yet every other word out of his mouth is about Bai Jingyan! I must wonder — is Master Zhen's master General Bai, or His Highness the Crown Prince?"
Advisor Fang flapped his sleeve, clasped his hands behind his back, and stood tall, wearing the lofty air of a man who could not be bothered even to speak with Zhen Xiangzhi any further.
Fury blazed up in Zhen Xiangzhi's chest. He could not suppress it; he wanted, right then and there, to draw his sword. But he could hardly truly come to blows with an old man, and so he wrestled his rage down by the barest margin.
"Advisor Fang, have you forgotten? Who was it who produced the strategy that crushed the enemy and seized victory? Every time you open your mouth it is 'I said so long ago' — as if the deployment of the troops were your accomplishment alone!"
"Master Zhen!"
The Crown Prince looked at Zhen Xiangzhi with dark eyes. He was displeased with him.
"Advisor Fang is an old man. Have you forgotten even the basic courtesy owed to one's elders? Or is it that you have truly forgotten who your master is?"
"......"
He was so enraged he nearly vomited blood, but Zhen Xiangzhi barely held himself in check.
Watching the Crown Prince and his party depart, Zhen Xiangzhi stood upon the battlements where a wild gale howled, and turned his head to gaze up at the reddened sky above the Wengshan Canyon. Tears pooled in his tightly closed eyes.
Back at Shilipo in the capital of Dadu, when Bai Jingyan — dressed in mourning white — had presented him with words, clothes, and a dagger for self-protection, she had said this to him:
"Someday, when I, Bai Jingyan, bear the banner of the Bai Family Army upon my shoulders, and take a high seat at court in a woman's body — on that day, I will put my affairs in order and wait for you. I ask that you not turn me away, but stand shoulder to shoulder with me and lend your strength for the people of Great Jin."
Zhen Xiangzhi had been unable to hide his astonishment that a woman — that Bai Jingyan — should set her heart on protecting the people of Great Jin. At the time, hot blood had seethed in his chest, and he had even felt, fleetingly, that if only he were a few years younger, he might achieve something great alongside this woman of such towering ambition.
But then he had recovered his composure, and after long deliberation, concluded that what he had said then was nothing more than a momentary impulse, swayed by the force of Bai Jingyan's conviction.
How difficult it was for a woman to stand unbowed in this treacherous world. Moreover, he was already past forty, and in Dadu the Bai family had been walking on thin ice. He told himself he might not be able to wait until Bai Jingyan shouldered the Bai Family Army's banner. The day when she would stand shoulder to shoulder with him and scheme great things for the people of Great Jin — that day, he thought, would likely never come.
And so, after meeting the Crown Prince, he had chosen to remain at the Crown Prince's side.
Yet in this brief span of time, Bai Jingyan had kept every word she had spoken. She had come to the Southern Border. She had raised the banner of the Bai Family Army.
Regret came flooding in.
Zhen Xiangzhi regretted having dismissed the enemy commander of the Bai family so lightly, merely because she was a woman.
But he was, of all things, a strategist — a military counselor.
A strategist's office demanded loyalty and integrity. Once a master was chosen, one must never harbor another allegiance, never linger at another's side. If that truth were passed down to later generations, he would earn the mockery of all the world.
A strategist could not cheaply cultivate the very backbone he was meant to possess.
Though he could not, as he had once promised at Shilipo, stand shoulder to shoulder with Bai Jingyan, he wanted at the very least — on this campaign to the Southern Border alone — to protect her safety even at the cost of his own life.
News of the great victory at Wengshan Canyon had already reached Wengcheng.
The three generals of the Bai Family Army, convalescing in Wengcheng, were struck dumb by the report that Xiao Baishu — Bai Jingyan — had returned, and was leading the victorious Bai Family Army from Wengshan toward Wengcheng.
Wei Zhaonian, Gu Wenchang, and Shen Kunyang were among the eldest men in the army. No one knew better than they how grave the injuries Bai Jingyan had suffered that year truly were. Wounded in the abdomen, she had fallen into a swift, icy river in the dead of winter. That she had survived at all, they believed, was only because heaven had spared her. They had long mourned that Xiao Baishu had lost her martial prowess.
But Xiao Baishu has come back?
She lost all her martial skill — how can she have returned to the battlefield?
Did Cheng Yuanzhi look after Xiao Baishu properly in this war? Surely she hasn't been wounded again?
The wounded soldiers of the Bai Family Army convalescing inside Wengcheng climbed the battlements and gazed into the distance.
Leaning on staves, their wounds wrapped in thin cloth, the soldiers of the Bai Family Army watched the great host come galloping from afar, bearing the black-and-white White Python Banner high. Someone let out a cry of excitement.
"They're here! They've come! Our Bai Family Army has returned!"
The battlements of Wengcheng erupted in an instant, and cries of joy rang out from every quarter.
"The Bai Family Army has come back!"
Gu Wenchang, gripping his staff, steadied his surging heart. He turned to Wei Zhaonian, who had lost an eye and wore a mourning band, and asked in a low voice:
"Did you see Xiao Baishu?"
Before Wei Zhaonian could answer, Shen Kunyang had already thrust out his arm, pointing into the distance and shouting.
"There! Isn't that Xiao Baishu there — the one at the very front, carrying the silver spear?"
The galloping horses drew nearer and nearer, until at last Gu Wenchang and Shen Kunyang too could see Bai Jingyan riding at the head of the column. Even Wei Zhaonian, with his one remaining eye, saw her clearly.
Wei Zhaonian clenched his jaw. The rims of his eyes reddened, and even his breathing grew ragged.
When the generals of the Bai family had fallen in battle, he had believed the Bai Family Army could no longer hold together. He had thought that the ragged remnant that barely survived would meet its end there in the Southern Border.
He had failed to stop Cheng Yuanzhi from leading ten thousand Bai Family troops out of the city to aid the fifty thousand reinforcements sent by the court, and he had thought: so today is the day the Bai Family Army dies. And henceforth... never again will a Bai Family Army exist in this world.
And yet Xiao Baishu had returned without a sound. And not only returned — she had come back clutching victory, at the head of ten thousand Bai Family troops!
Arterial heat surged in Wei Zhaonian's chest. Only now, seeing this sight before his eyes, could he truly believe that the fifty thousand reinforcements had really subdued Yun Paxing's army of over a hundred thousand and won.
Bai Jingyan, the rightful eldest granddaughter of the Duke of Zhenguo, was a commander born, not made. Not once had she shown a single flaw in strategy.
Wei Zhaonian lifted his head to the star-strewn sky and ground his teeth together.
The heavens helped us. They did not tear the Bai Family Army out by the roots! It was the late Marshal and Vice-Marshal, the generals of the Bai family, and the soldiers who went ahead of us — they brought Xiao Baishu back to us to protect the Bai Family Army that survived!
"It really is Xiao Baishu! Quickly — come out of the city with me to welcome her!"
Gu Wenchang's eyes burned hot. Then he raised his great voice and shouted. Overwhelmed past all bearing, he hobbled down from the battlements on his staff, weeping with joy.
Shen Kunyang and Wei Zhaonian hurried down after him.
The massive city gate, scarred all over with the marks of battle-axes, groaned slowly open. Splinters of shattered timber lay thick on the ground, matted together with dark red blood — the wreckage the Xiliang army had left behind during the siege. The soldiers of Wengcheng had only cleared away the corpses; fearing the Xiliang army might return to attack again, they had not yet had the leisure to tidy away the rest.
Gu Wenchang, Wei Zhaonian, and Shen Kunyang — leading the wounded of the Bai Family Army — stood at the very front of the enemy bridge before the outer walls, watching the warhorses come galloping through the darkness. It was like glimpsing a brilliant light amid ink-black night: faint beyond all measure, and yet a light that drew the eye to it still.
"Big sister! There are people ahead!"
Bai Jinchi shouted, squinting at the several hundred shadowy figures faintly visible before the enemy bridge of Wengcheng.
"I think it's Shen — it's Uncle Shen's men!"
Cheng Yuanzhi raised his hand, and the galloping column slowed its pace.
When Bai Jingyan reached the enemy bridge before Wengcheng, she reined in her horse hard. Before her, the wounded soldiers of the Bai Family Army stood in a long, wavering line — every single one of them with a mourning band knotted about his head. In that instant, tears rose in her eyes yet again.
Bai Jingyan dismounted. Her throat was tight. Before she could open her mouth to speak, Shen Kunyang, his beard hanging in wild disarray, called out "Xiao Baishu!" — and the wounded soldiers of the Bai Family Army all dropped to one knee, saluting with cupped fists.
"Uncle Gu, Uncle Shen, General Wei — I've come far too late!"
Hot tears brimming in her eyes, Bai Jingyan bowed deeply to the three generals.
"You are not late! Not late at all!"
Shen Kunyang, unable to contain himself, hurried forward and steadied Bai Jingyan, raising her up. When he saw the dried bloodstains on her shoulder, his chest heaved — but he forced his eyes wide open, straining to hold back his tears. His voice cracked as he pressed on:
"Xiao Baishu, are you still in mourning? Has your martial strength returned? Were you badly hurt in this war?"
Shen Kunyang had watched Bai Jingyan grow up. When she first entered the military camp, she had served under his command — and even then she had always brimmed with life. Young and utterly fearless, she would stride about with the Sun-Shooting Bow in one hand and the Red-Tasseled Spear in the other, sparring with the soldiers under Shen Kunyang's command. She had even beaten Shen Kunyang himself, and that was how she claimed the post of vanguard.
In Shen Kunyang's eyes, Bai Jingyan was Xiao Baishu — but she was also the junior he had watched grow from girlhood.
"Jinchi!"
Bai Jingyan turned her head and called for Bai Jinchi.
At the sound of her name, Bai Jinchi came running to Bai Jingyan's side.
"This is my fourth younger sister — Bai Jinchi, eldest daughter of my Third Aunt!"
Bai Jingyan introduced Bai Jinchi to Shen Kunyang and the others.
Bai Jinchi, bright and cheerful, saluted the three generals with cupped fists.
"Bai Jinchi, paying her respects to you all."
Shen Kunyang, Wei Zhaonian, and Gu Wenchang hastily returned the salute.
"Fourth Young Miss!"
Shen Kunyang gazed at Bai Jinchi, the rims of his eyes red.
"The Marshal used to say, always, that the Fourth Young Miss is the granddaughter who most resembles the Marshal in his youth. I had hoped, someday, to meet you just once — and today, at last, I have."
Shen Kunyang's voice grew softer and softer as sorrow welled up in him.
"I never imagined we would meet in circumstances like these."
Bai Jinchi's eyes too had gone scarlet. She clenched the fist hanging at her side until it trembled.
Grandfather... did he truly think I was a girl just like him in his youth?
"Let's not stand here — let's return to Wengcheng at once."
Gu Wenchang raised his head with a choked voice and looked toward the wounded of the Bai Family Army standing in the distance.
"The soldiers need their wounds seen to. And so do you, Xiao Baishu. Let us tend to the injuries first — there will be time enough to talk afterward."