A Flicker of Hope
At daybreak the next morning, sunlight pierced gently through the layer of clouds and poured down upon a towering mountain in the distance. The rays climbed steadily higher with the rising sun, chasing away the darkness as they followed the swift current of the Jinghe River flowing east, sweeping past the Jin camp and on toward the Xiliang camp.
South of the Jinghe, where the Xiliang camp had lain quiet for days, a company of riders suddenly appeared and galloped to the riverbank, shouting that they demanded an audience with Bai Jingyan. At their head, mounted on horseback, was Yun Paxing.
His kneecaps had been shattered, leaving him unable to stand—but sensation remained in his legs, so as long as he stayed in the saddle, he looked as hale and whole as any man.
Yun Paxing stared up at his son's head hanging high above the Jin camp and ground his teeth until his jaw ached. The rims of his eyes slowly reddened. Yet the tangle of feeling lasted only a moment before his heart grew cold, as though someone had dashed icy water over him.
So this was heaven's wheel of retribution. This was karma.
He had killed Bai Weiting and hung Bai Weiting's head above his own camp to rouse the fighting spirit of Xiliang's warriors. And sin, it seemed, always came home—Bai Weiting's granddaughter had killed his son and grandson, and his son's head now hung above the Jin camp.
Yun Paxing closed his eyes. His pupils seemed to tremble beneath his lids, and then a hot tear slid down his cheek.
Inside the commander's tent, Bai Jingyan received word that Yun Paxing had come seeking her. She fell silent for a moment in thought, then smiled faintly.
"So Xiliang's grain arrives today. That must be why Yun Paxing has come to me—to bargain."
The enemy's numbers were vast and her own were few; that was Bai Jingyan's greatest weakness. Grain burned and no troops able to march—that was Yun Paxing's.
That was why Yun Paxing had lain quiet of late, and why Bai Jingyan had held back from attacking, facing the great Xiliang army across nothing but a single river.
The reason Yun Paxing had been unable to press terms on her all this while was that only once Xiliang's grain arrived could he be certain he had the strength to fight a war even if negotiations collapsed.
Bai Jingyan had ordered Shen Liangyu to take men of the Haoying Battalion and keep watch on the Xiliang camp. Apart from messenger riders, no grain had ever entered it.
What was more, smoke had risen from the Xiliang camp every single day even after their grain stores burned. By now, their food shortage must be dire.
Bai Jingyan was certain: Xiliang's grain would arrive today.
She strode swiftly to the sand table and bent low over the map of the surrounding mountain ranges.
Then she gave the order—men were to lie in ambush at Camel Gorge and cut off the grain Xiliang sent. Back then the Xiliang army had been at Tianmenguan, and to move grain quickly they had no choice but to pass through Camel Gorge.
Now the great Xiliang army had fallen back to the far bank of the Jinghe. The fastest route for grain to reach the Xiliang camp was through the Tianling mountain range—the very place where her grandfather had met his end.
Bai Jingyan clenched her fist, set her jaw, and spoke.
"Bai Jinchi, tell Shen Liangyu to lead the Haoying Battalion and lie in ambush in the Tianling range, then burn every last sack of Xiliang grain. You're going with him!"
Bai Jinchi had been trailing at her elder sister's side, determined to guard her. But she reasoned that with the great river between her sister and Yun Paxing, there would be little trouble—and so she took the order and rode out of camp.
If the grain was cut off, Yun Paxing would have no way to win a war with a starving army—unless he had some gift for conjuring food out of thin air.
Before long, Bai Jingyan rode out of the Zhen camp at the head of a company of soldiers and galloped for the Jinghe.
The moment Yun Paxing laid eyes on her, the memory of his dead son and grandson surged up and grief boiled in his chest. But then came the thought that Bai Jingyan's grandfather, father, uncles, and brothers had all perished at his hands—and the grief turned swiftly to savage satisfaction.
Yun Paxing turned his head and spoke to the soldier beside him.
"Send one man across the Jinghe. Tell Bai Jingyan I wish to meet her and talk. She can choose the place."
The Xiliang soldier took the order and crossed the river alone, poling a raft.
When Xiao Ruogang raised his hand, the crossbowmen at once stepped in front of Bai Jingyan, bows drawn and trained on the Xiliang soldier.
"No need for that, Ruogang. It's a single Xiliang soldier—does he look like he carries some heaven-defying ability about him?"
Bai Jingyan said in a low voice, her eyes on Yun Paxing.
The Xiliang soldier, having struggled across the river alone, looked up at Bai Jingyan seated high upon her fine steed. At the sight of the cold light glinting off her armor, the brothers of the Xiliang army who had burned to death in Wengshan Canyon rose before his eyes. Feeling as though he stood before some blood-drinking demon, the soldier bowed his head low and spoke.
"Our commander wishes an audience with General Bai. He said the place is yours to choose."
"Ah."
Bai Jingyan answered without expression, then lifted her gaze to Yun Paxing.
"Go back and tell him we'll meet upstream of the Jinghe. I'm a very busy woman, and now is the only time I have. If your commander has a great deal to prepare, then tell him we may simply meet again on the battlefield some other day."
Bai Jingyan knew Yun Paxing might lay a trap—that was precisely why any meeting had to happen quickly. She could not grant him time to set one.
The Xiliang soldier boarded his raft once more, rowed back across, and delivered Bai Jingyan's words to Yun Paxing.
Yun Paxing pointed upstream with his horsewhip and rode out ahead of everyone.
Before setting off, Bai Jingyan turned and gave an order to the Jin cavalry behind her.
"Bring me that parcel of snacks the Crown Prince bestowed."
"Yes, Commander!"
Soon Bai Jingyan and Yun Paxing were galloping for the upper reaches, where the river narrowed. To show his good faith, Yun Paxing crossed the water mounted, without dismounting.
"General Bai, Yun has come to make peace."
Yun Paxing laid a hand over his chest as he spoke.
"If General Bai returns my son's head to me, Xiliang and Jin will never raise arms against each other again—we will hold the Jinghe border well. And in three years' time, we can fight our war then."
With grain soon to arrive, it seemed his confidence had returned with it. To lose, and then propose the Jinghe as the border just as before.
Bai Jingyan did not lose her temper. Instead, laughter burst out of her.
"Making peace is beyond my authority to decide. But that is a remarkably magnanimous offer. Xiliang allied with Nanyan to attack Jin, was dealt a crushing defeat, and now means to carry on as though nothing happened and return to how things were? Where in this world does such a bargain exist?"
"Then what would you have?"
Yun Paxing asked.
"It isn't about what I would have. If Xiliang truly wants the war to end, then you cede land. You pay reparations. You send hostages. Only then would you be granted even the smallest sliver of a chance."
Bai Jingyan looked into Yun Paxing's eyes, which spat out cold light.
"And as for your son's head—it was I who stopped the Jin soldiers from turning it into a chamber pot. That much was already a concession against my own true feelings. By all means, take it back. But three years from now—"
Yun Paxing's hands trembled with fury. Gritting his teeth, he pressed on.
"So General Bai means to keep fighting this war. Then remember this well—our great Xiliang army outnumbers the army of Jin several times over!"
"Ah, then you remember this as well—who it was that spared your dogs' lives at Wengshan Canyon!"
Bai Jingyan wore an expression as calm as still water, her eyes brimming with mockery.
"And above all, never forget how I slaughtered several hundred thousand Xiliang soldiers in Wengshan Canyon without sparing a single soul."
"Insolence!"
Rage surged up in Yun Paxing's chest.
"I lost once—once—through a single moment of carelessness! You don't imagine you can beat me every time?"
"Then tell me—why have you been flying the truce banner aloft all these days, unable to take the field?"
Bai Jingyan laughed, low.
"Ah—could it be your grain was cut off? When Xiliang brings its grain and supply carts over, let me see... will it cross through the Tianling range? There's one stretch there with vicious terrain, isn't there? The very place where you laid a trap to strike down my grandfather."
In an instant, it seemed, Yun Paxing grasped Bai Jingyan's intent, and his whole body went taut. The tension passed into the horse beneath him, which grew restless, shifting its hooves without pause.
"You come all this way to find me and speak of peace with such insolence because Xiliang's grain is on the very verge of arriving. That's why you're pressing terms on me now. But what a shame—I have no intention of letting that grain anywhere near your camp."
A faint smile played at the corners of Bai Jingyan's mouth.
Yun Paxing turned his head and shot a look at the subordinate who had followed him—the look of a man ordered to carry word back. The light vanished from Xiao Ruogang's eyes in an instant, and he raised his hand.
At once the crossbowmen drew their bows, aiming at Yun Paxing and his men.
In a heartbeat the soldiers tensed and the horses whinnied in distress. Yun Paxing's men all drew their blades. The air between the two sides pulled taut as a bowstring, on the verge of shattering into open war.
The Xiliang soldier who had been crossing the river on horseback, intending to carry word back, took Bai Jingyan's arrow through the heart and dropped lifeless onto the riverbank.
"Bai Jingyan! What is the meaning of this?"
Yun Paxing roared.
Bai Jingyan lowered the Sun-Shooting Bow and spoke with perfect composure.
"Commander Yun, you and your men haven't eaten your fill in days, I imagine. This is a gift of snacks from the Crown Prince. Sit here quietly and have yourself a little meal—and once word reaches you that the grain sent from Xiliang has been plundered, then you may take your time riding home!"
Yun Paxing stared up at Bai Jingyan, sitting high and proud in her saddle. Her eyes gave off such a fierce killing aura that looking at them for long felt like a weight on his chest. He fought to force down his panic.
She was right. Knowing the grain was about to arrive, Yun Paxing had at last been unable to hold himself back—he had come begging for his son's head.
So clever. So impossibly clever. She had read through every one of his thoughts.
Aside from Bai Weiting, this was the first person who had ever made Yun Paxing's gall run cold. Even his scalp had begun to prickle.
His face drained white, Yun Paxing gripped his reins hard and watched a Jin soldier approach, parcel in hand. He glared at Bai Jingyan with a twisted face. He wanted, more than anything, to cut her down where she sat.
"And there is one more piece of news, Commander Yun—you may not yet have heard. Nanyan's grain was also plundered by the Bai family army at Yaoguan Pass. By my reckoning, the great Nanyan army should be arriving back at Yaoguan about today. If the Bai family army slaughters Nanyan's soldiers there, it seems you won't be getting any help from Nanyan either."
Speaking of the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers, Bai Jingyan's tone was as flat and unbothered as if she were making casual small talk.
The wind came curling off the river, heavy with damp, and whispered past his ears. For a moment Yun Paxing's head spun so violently he nearly tumbled from his saddle.
With all the strength he possessed, he crushed down hatred, rage, and fear alike as he glared at her. This woman, sitting there in such unhurried ease—the morning sunlight glittering off the waters of the Jinghe caught her sharp, cold eyes. Yun Paxing felt as though he had been soaked by the current of that river and then frozen stiff all over again by the icy wind.
A dense, murderous atmosphere spread thick between the two of them—and the killing intent beneath Bai Jingyan's placid surface ran far, far deeper.
Defeated.
This war had been a total, absolute defeat.
And yet it made no sense. Why had Bai Weiting never brought a girl of this caliber with him onto the battlefield?
Could this girl be the last hope Bai Weiting had left behind for the Bai family? Was that why Bai Weiting had been able to lead every man of his house out to war?
He could not know. There was far too much he could not know. But one thing was certain: fear was closing in on him.
Even if the Xiliang army vastly outnumbered the soldiers of Jin, he no longer had any confidence in fighting on. From the first clash with Bai Jingyan, she had calculated everything without a single flaw. The Xiliang army had found no footing to rise again, and had suffered catastrophe after catastrophe, retreating all the way to the southern bank of the Jinghe.
His fury at its peak, Yun Paxing suddenly went calm. Every person Bai Jingyan had brought with her was a crossbowman, and Bai Jingyan herself was a superb archer. To wager his life on breaking through that encirclement and carrying word back would be madness.
She had not killed him. Which meant that once the news of the plundered grain arrived, she would surely let him go.
Yun Paxing, as though laying down everything at last, asked Bai Jingyan in a low, quiet voice.
"When you offered me three years' time—was that the truth?"