Fallen Into the Trap
Bai Jingyan gazed across at the Xiliang encampment. Once Xiao Ruogang returned, she would send him to Mengcheng to search for A'jie. A'jie was a clever child—she would surely have left some kind of sign behind. All Xiao Ruogang would have to do was follow it.
Just as Xiao Rongyan's escort was mounting his horse to leave, Bai Jinchi came galloping up, riding the horse she had been out taming.
"Big sister! Eldest sister! Ping'an has accepted me as his master!"
Xiao Rongyan's escort flinched and hurried past Bai Jingyan's side.
But that horse was a gift from my lord to the eldest Miss Bai. Could it be... in the letter you sent to the eldest Miss Bai last time, did you say that you admired the fourth Miss Bai? And so the eldest Miss Bai gave the horse to her younger sister?
Bai Jingyan smiled as she watched Bai Jinchi, giddy with delight. There was not a trace of killing intent in that gentle, placid smile.
She intended to tell Bai Jinchi that A'jie was still alive only after the great victory in the Southern Border.
With the head carefully packed in a red box held against his chest, Xiao Ruogang led a party of escorts toward the Xiliang camp.
Yun Paxing was inside the commander's tent, racking his brain over how to launch a night raid on the great Jin army, when a report came from outside: an envoy from Bai Jingyan had arrived bearing a gift.
He hesitated a moment, then ordered the man brought in.
The moment Yun Paxing laid eyes on the man who had cut off his son's head, he clenched his teeth and strangled down the urge to kill.
Every Xiliang general inside the tent wore a face twisted with fury, and the atmosphere hung on the edge of a blade. One word from Yun Paxing, and they would have torn Xiao Ruogang apart on the spot.
Xiao Ruogang, his face perfectly calm, took the box from the Jin soldier standing behind him and presented it respectfully to Yun Paxing.
"Xiao Baixiu sends this to you. She said that upheaval has broken out within Xiliang, and that Marshal Yun must withdraw and return to quell the civil unrest. As a gift before your departure, she told me. And she said this was to stop you, Marshal, from storming the Jin camp in your rage before you go."
Yun Paxing braced his hands on the table and stared at the red box as if to bore a hole through it. When he understood what lay inside—that it held his son's head—his eyes bulged as if they would tear free of their sockets. Hatred and fury rose together in his chest.
He glared at Xiao Ruogang's placid face. He could even guess that the man was testing him on Bai Jingyan's behalf.
Slowly, Yun Paxing loosened the fists he had clenched until they trembled, and ground out his words through his teeth.
"Tell your Xiao Baixiu I thank her—and tell her not to forget the promise of three years. In three years, I will return, and I will take Xiao Baixiu's head!"
Xiao Ruogang did not move. He merely narrowed his eyes, wearing the expression of a man appraising Yun Paxing from head to toe. One of the generals inside the tent could bear it no longer—he drew his sword, glaring with bloodshot eyes, and roared:
"Dog of Jin—get out, now!"
Only then did Xiao Ruogang withdraw his gaze and lead his soldiers away.
Yun Paxing, his voice choked, ordered the box with his son's head brought before him. He did not have the courage to open it. Eyes brimming with tears, trembling, he pressed down on the lid with all his strength.
When he raised his head again, his eyes were full of killing intent. His rage was so fierce that his whole body shook.
"To the man who brings me Bai Jingyan's head tonight, I promise a reward of ten thousand gold!"
The Xiliang generals dropped to one knee and answered through gritted teeth.
"Do not worry, Marshal! We will avenge the young master and the little young master, whatever it takes!"
After their bellies were full, the Xiliang army withdrew with half of its forces before the sun had even sunk behind the western hills.
Before long, the Xiliang scouts reported in: the great Jin army, too, was withdrawing in the direction of Fengcheng.
Fire blazed in Yun Paxing's hatred-filled eyes, his burning gaze sweeping over the Jin encampment across the river.
"Bai Weiting's granddaughter is more careless than her grandfather ever was! Does she truly think I'll be cowed by a single day of drills, by a single defeat at my hands? Did she think that by sending just anyone to probe me, she could tell whether I would really retreat or merely feign it? To withdraw the great Jin army so brazenly, out in the open—this!"
Deep in the night, under cover of the river's rushing current, Generals Wei Zhaonian and Shi Panshan led their soldiers stealthily in from the left and the right, edging close to the Xiliang camp and lying in wait for the signal.
The Jin camp across the river blazed with light. Yun Paxing watched the movements on the far bank in silence from within the commander's tent.
"Reporting, Marshal."
A Xiliang soldier knelt outside the tent.
"A small force of the great Jin army across the river has headed west from their camp. The reason is not yet known."
At those words, Yun Paxing's right eye twitched violently.
"Go find out what they're doing!"
"Reporting, Marshal."
Another Xiliang soldier knelt outside the commander's tent.
"A small force of the great Jin army across the river has gone west from their camp. We were unable to determine the cause."
Yun Paxing remained silent for a long while. His eye had begun twitching worse and worse.
"Go find out!"
Over the span of several hours, scout after scout came with reports: the Jin camp was trickling troops out of its perimeter in small groups, again and again.
Unease began to crawl over Yun Paxing. His old fear of Bai Jingyan rose from the pit of his stomach all the way up his legs, and a chill gathered rapidly along his spine. He clenched his jaw and demanded:
"The scouts we sent to learn why the great Jin army was leaving their camp—have they returned?"
"Marshal! They have not yet returned!"
For an instant, Yun Paxing felt his heart seize. And before he could even understand why the dread was closing in on him, a tide of crimson came surging down upon the Xiliang camp from outside the commander's tent.
The sentries saw the dark sky over the eastern side of the camp suddenly brighten—and before they could grasp what was happening, the first flaming arrow came shrieking down and buried itself in the ancient wooden pillar where they stood. The arrowhead quivered fiercely, and a creeping blue flame began to spread downward.
A rain of fire arrows! It was oil!
"We're under attack! The enemy is upon us! The arrows are burning!"
Scarcely had the sentry's cry left his lips when a sharp arrow punched through his clothing and burst into flame. Screaming, he threw himself down trying to smother the fire clinging to his body—and fell from the ancient pillar.
Seated inside the tent, Yun Paxing heard the sound of countless arrows slicing through the wind and pouring down from the sky. The dense, relentless volley tore through the great and small tents of the Xiliang camp alike.
We've walked into a trap!
Yun Paxing's whole body went rigid, as though a massive hand had clamped down on the back of his neck—no sound would come out of his throat.
An arrow punched clean through the commander's tent, its sharp point piercing a hole in the ceiling. The small ember clinging to it spread over the hole, swelling larger and larger.
"Marshal! The enemy is using fire! Their numbers are not small! We will cover your retreat at once!"
The generals stormed into the commander's tent, shouting.
Only then did Yun Paxing come back to himself, roaring:
"There is no need to fight! Withdraw toward Tianling Mountain—now!"
"Yes, Marshal!"
Supported by his escorts, Yun Paxing stumbled out of the tent and blocked the rain of arrows with his shield. Once mounted, he lifted a torch and looked toward where the massed riders stood. The sky there had been dyed crimson—and when he saw the great Jin army surging in from beyond the camp walls, his heart plummeted.
No! The Jin forces don't add up—there aren't enough of them!
They looked to number barely twenty thousand at most! Then where had all the men who had withdrawn from the Jin camp during the day gone?
Yun Paxing's throat was sealed shut, his mind a blank. It occurred to him that the Jin soldiers who had left their camp since early evening must be waiting for him right now in the Tianling highlands.
When the first wave of fire arrows ended, flames blazed up everywhere throughout the Xiliang camp. Yet the great Jin army that had crossed the river showed not a trace of confusion—they raised high the black-cloth White Python Banner, and it snapped and billowed in the wind. Then the Jin army poured into the Xiliang camp in perfect order, and the sound of savage battle shook the heavens.
Dust and yellow sand swirled up beneath the feet of the Jin infantry as though the wind itself were rising from the ground, the dirt flying among the flames.
Yun Paxing clutched his reins in a death grip. His warhorse circled in place, trembling with fear, and his own pupils shook. Everywhere his gaze fell, he saw the terrified faces of his Xiliang soldiers and the great Jin army howling like starving wolves.
Exactly as they had drilled that afternoon, the Jin army formed ranks in disciplined order and pressed the melee, strangling the Xiliang soldiers in precisely the same fashion, granting them not even a breath to draw.
It's over! It is all over!
This was the army of Xiliang, gathered from every corner of the realm and led out under his command. If they all died here at his hands, no death—ten thousand deaths—would ever absolve him of that sin.
The firelight surging toward the heavens lit Yun Paxing's face, which had gone a color beyond pale. He had no time even to wonder whether ambushes lay waiting in the Tianling highlands. He drew his sword and bellowed at the top of his lungs:
"Withdraw! Fall back!"
Across the wall of flame, Yun Paxing saw Bai Jingyan seated on horseback outside the Xiliang camp. The instant their eyes met, he felt the razor-edged killing intent hidden as though steeped into the woman's very body. That killing intent was thick—and utterly without mercy.
Yun Paxing's body shook uncontrollably, his jaw clenched tight. And then he screamed until his throat threatened to tear:
"Bai Jingyan! I gave you three years—why do you attack NOW!"
The only answer Yun Paxing received was a war cry that seemed ready to split the sky.
One of the generals guarding him before his horse hurled himself forward to block an arrow flying straight for Yun Paxing—only to tumble from his warhorse. The hapless general looked up at his commander and shrieked:
"Marshal! Withdraw, quickly!"
Anyone versed in war could see at a glance how masterful Bai Jingyan's formations were. The Xiliang army had no room left to retreat at all.
Yun Paxing cast one last look at his own men. His eyes were spiderwebbed with burst blood vessels. There was no time to hesitate. He whipped his horse and galloped swiftly out of the Xiliang camp.
On the fourteenth day of the second month, in the sixteenth year of Xianjia, the great Jin army crossed the Jinghe River and fell upon the Xiliang camp in the dead of night, annihilating to the last man the Xiliang army that had massed at the strategic Linggu Pass in preparation for its own ambush of the great Jin forces.
This campaign was the final battle of the Southern Border, and it ended in the crushing defeat of the Nanyan–Xiliang allied army.
By the end of that night, fewer than five thousand men remained in the great Jin camp north of the Jinghe River. South of the river, flames pierced the sky above the Xiliang encampment, and of the Xiliang soldiers famed far and wide for their savagery, not a single soul survived.
The ten thousand Jin soldiers under Generals Cheng Yuanzhi and Zhang Danyue, stationed at the Linggu Pass, had been prepared from long before—and there they slaughtered the Xiliang army to the last man. The shrieks of the dying seemed ready to tear the heavens apart.