Biting the Hand That Saved Them
Zhang Danyue tugged twice on the reins, then tightened his grip on the horse's flanks, and rode into Fengxian at full swagger.
The moment they reached the entrance of the tavern, the man who had been sent up to keep watch rushed forward and offered a cupped-fist salute in a hurry.
"We couldn't secure both rooms, General. The room west of General Bai's was already occupied. The servant there said his master was no man short of money, and no amount of silver would convince him to give it up. I didn't want the matter to grow and tip off General Bai, so I only took one room."
"Has anyone gone in to see General Bai?"
Zhang Danyue asked.
The man nodded.
"Several entered just a little while ago."
The Crown Prince's face darkened, and he clenched his teeth. With his hands clasped behind his back, fists balled tight, he trudged up into the not-particularly-spacious tavern.
Zhen Xiaoyi had come out to greet the guests, and the murderous-looking guards brushed her aside so roughly that she nearly toppled over. Frightened, she could only stare, dumbstruck, as the Crown Prince ascended, hemmed in by his wall of guards.
The workers and patrons inside the tavern all turned to look, sure that this must be someone from a most distinguished house, to enter with such ceremony. Most likely one of the court's first-rank ministers, they thought.
"Young Master, this way, please."
Zhang Danyue gestured ahead of the Crown Prince, clearing the way.
But at the door, the Crown Prince paused. He glanced once at the room where Bai Jingyan was, then turned to look at the men who had been following her, as if asking whether she was truly in that room.
When the man nodded, the Crown Prince stepped into the adjoining room. There he sat down on the round table with his back to the wall of General Bai's room, fists clenched tight.
Several of his men filed in, and after closing the door, they all lifted the teacups from the table and pressed them against the wall to listen.
The tavern's walls were far from soundproof. It was quiet inside, and if the voices in the next room rose even a little, there was no need for eavesdropping tricks — the words came through, hazy but audible.
The Crown Prince closed his eyes, held his breath, and listened to the conversation stirring in the next room.
"What about Mount Yuqing for the site? It's a mountain road, but the terrain opens wide... If we release him here, he'll be found far too easily. And then caught far too easily, won't he. Even if the Crown Prince fails, he will never slip out of the hands of Great Jin's grand army. Besides — our Eldest Lady's bow never misses. One arrow, and the matter is settled!"
The word Crown Prince drifted faintly through the wall. The Crown Prince could bear it no longer. He shot to his feet, shoved aside the subordinate who had been holding a teacup to the wall, and pressed close himself to catch every word.
"Our purpose is to make it so that people watch him openly go to the Crown Prince... so that he submits to the Crown Prince. It must be done in such a way that His Highness seizes him with his own hands and presents him to His Majesty. We are not trying to kill him! If he dies, then all this effort of ours means nothing."
The Crown Prince knew that voice. It belonged to the type who shadowed Bai Jingyan.
"Eldest Lady — you truly mean not to tell His Highness the Crown Prince?"
"There's no need to tell him. The Crown Prince fears His Majesty terribly. Mention it carelessly, and it may only ruin everything."
Bai Jingyan paused a beat, then added one more thing.
"Look after Yu Xing well these next few days. Make sure he learns exactly whom he must go to."
The Crown Prince's brow furrowed. From what he heard, they had no intention of harming him. At Green Jade Mountain, they meant to make him catch someone with his own hands.
His mind churned with questions. Bai Jingyan clearly had someone in her grip... and she was setting a trap so that he would be the one to spring it.
And the moment he recalled those words — the Crown Prince fears His Majesty terribly — his fury surged up all over again. I would ruin things, would I? In Bai Jingyan's eyes, am I nothing more than a chess piece she can discard and place wherever she pleases?
"Your Highness — shall we seize them now?"
Zhang Danyue asked in a low voice.
The Crown Prince tightened his grip on the teacup, then set it back down on the table roughly. His temples throbbed. He forced the anger down, weighed the matter for a moment, and spoke.
"Leave them be for now. Let us wait and see whom Bai Jingyan intends to have me catch at Mount Yuqing."
In all of Great Jin, Bai Jingyan was the only one who could strike fear into enemy states. Unless it became absolutely necessary, the Crown Prince had no intention of killing her. And he had only just signed a secret alliance with Xiliang — had not yet brought the cities Xiliang promised to divide over into Jin's hands, nor laid his grip on the reparations either.
After long deliberation, the Crown Prince looked at Zhang Danyue.
"General Zhang — keep your men on the tightest of leashes. Not the slightest thing may reach Bai Jingyan's ears. If Bai Jingyan truly comes to hate Jin for the deaths of the Bai men and commits some act that harms Great Jin — then you, Zhang Danyue, will answer as a traitor to Great Jin!"
Zhang Danyue, suddenly handed a loaded accusation, hurriedly snapped to a cupped-fist salute.
"Yes, Your Highness!"
Just then, a clamor rose from outside the window.
Now that he knew the purpose of Bai Jingyan's visit, the Crown Prince had no reason to linger, and he went downstairs.
Before climbing into his carriage, the Crown Prince glanced once toward the commotion.
"What man, in the midst of war between two nations, slaughters soldiers who have already surrendered? They say Little White Marshal of the Bai Army is a rakshasa reborn! Protecting the people? Kill every last Xiliang soul, and she'll come back and kill the rest of you next!"
"He's right! A hundred thousand Xiliang troops! Enemies, yes, but they had already laid down their arms! Most of them had wives and parents waiting at home — and she coldly set the fires. They say the blaze in Wengshan Canyon burned for half a month straight. Think how many families were torn apart and burned to ash! That Little White Marshal has no mercy in her heart, I tell you."
"Indeed. Killing surrendered troops was going too far, no doubt about it."
Someone among the crowd nodded along.
"Utter nonsense!"
The Crown Prince watched as the veiled female official who had been shadowing Bai Jingyan stepped out of the crowd, climbed to a raised spot, and called out at the top of her voice.
"Everyone — do not be led astray by these few troublemakers! The Xiliang troops breached our gates, massacred our families, and violated our wives and children! Time and again, it was the Bai Army that staked their lives to save us. That is the only reason any of us survived!
And yet today, strangers from who knows where are spreading word that the Little White Marshal butchered surrendered soldiers in cold blood. Are we to swallow their lies and say the Little White Marshal takes pleasure in killing? Would that not be repaying kindness with treachery? Every soul in Fengxian is alive because the soldiers of the Bai Army bled for us! Others may revile the Bai Army's Little White Marshal if they wish — but the people of Fengxian must never do such a thing!"
The Crown Prince gave the female official one deep, searching look, ground his teeth, and climbed into his carriage.
The Bai Army. The Little White Marshal...
This war — it was he who had marched at the head of the troops. And yet the people remembered only the Bai Army's Little White Marshal.
Had not a single one of Jin's soldiers fallen? Were the men of the Bai Army dead, while Jin's grand army all walked away alive?
"The Little White Marshal had to face more than a hundred thousand Xiliang troops with only fifty thousand of Jin's grand army. If she hadn't killed the surrendered troops... was she simply supposed to stand by and watch them take up arms again and slaughter our Jin soldiers? And watch them massacre our helpless Jin people once more?"
Ji Nanghua's eyes reddened. She raised her voice, teeth clenched.
"The Little White Marshal gave up every ounce of military glory she had earned to protect the people. And in this war, the men of the Bai family all fell in battle. Even so, she came all this way to guard the people of the frontier!
I treated the Little White Marshal's wounds myself. No general alive carries a body so covered in scars. Old wounds and new — every single one of them is proof of how she defended this nation and its people! And if the very people she staked her life to protect now turn on her and rebuke her — tell me, what sorrow could be greater than that?"
Ji Nanghua's temper flared hotter and hotter, and she pointed at the out-of-towners who had been spreading word that Bai Jingyan delighted in slaughter.
"Have any of you ever taken the field for the people of Jin? Can you face over a hundred thousand troops with fifty thousand and still spare a hundred thousand surrendered soldiers? If you claim you could — I'll drag you before His Highness the Crown Prince right now. So go on, explain how you would beat a hundred thousand with fifty thousand. Explain the strategy that wins while sparing a hundred thousand surrendered men! If you can truly do it, then I, Ji Nanghua, will pay for my words with my life. Well? Can you or can't you?"
These were the very people Lin Shijie had sent to spread word that Bai Jingyan gloried in war and slaughter. They stood frozen for a moment and began to retreat — but with Ji Nanghua's finger pointed squarely at them, the people of Fengxian closed in around them, eyes blazing. There was no escaping now.
"Killing a hundred thousand surrendered troops to avenge the Bai family? Nonsense, all of it! Those hundred thousand surrendered soldiers were killed for the sake of us — the people of Jin's frontier!
The Xiliang men love war. How many times have they attacked Jin again and again, launching one war after another? If the Little White Marshal had spared those hundred thousand Xiliang troops and withdrawn, they would surely have attacked us again. And then Jin would not have had a single soldier left to hold them back. And who would have died then? People like us — the poor and powerless. And who would have been violated, if not your wives and daughters?
So she killed them — what of it? She is the guardian deity of Jin's frontier people! The Little White Marshal is the guardian deity of us all!
I, Ji Nanghua, say it plainly here and now: anyone who calls the Little White Marshal cruel will receive neither treatment nor medicine at our Cao'antang. Not one coin's worth of herbs is too precious to waste on those who have thrown away their conscience!"
Someone moved by Ji Nanghua's words could no longer hold back their fury and shouted out.
"That's right! We can't stop outsiders from spewing their filth, but the people of Fengxian are the ones whom the Bai generals and the Bai Army staked their lives to protect. We owe our trust to the benefactors who saved our lives!"
"If the Little White Marshal hadn't killed those hundred thousand surrendered troops, none of us would have made it home today!"
One man rolled up his sleeves, seized one of the rumor-spreaders, and shouted.
"These wretches are clearly spies from an enemy state! Seize them all and drag them to the magistrate's office. We need to look into where these vermin came from."
"What are you doing, you rough frontier brutes! We're nothing but traveling merchants! We only said a word or two — what is the meaning of this! Let go! Let go, I said! Is there no law in this place!"
Bai Jingchi stood at the upstairs window, watching the people seize the ones who had stirred up the quarrel with Ji Nanghua by their collars to drag them off to the magistrate, and her eyes went red. She turned her head to look at Bai Jingyan, whose face remained perfectly composed, and her voice choked with tears.
"Unnie..."
"Yes."
Bai Jingyan nodded. She knew that Bai Jingchi was moved.
The people of the frontier were those who had long endured Xiliang's oppression. Of course they would not be so easily fooled by the words of rumor-mongers.
But the people who lived in peace and comfort would not think this way. If someone had come all the way to Fengxian to spread these slanders, then surely, along every road she traveled from here, more and more people would come to know of her killing of the surrendered troops.
In the Southern Border war, when she had crushed the Xiliang-Nanyan allied forces — the Crown Prince, the Emperor, Xiliang itself — none of them were so very different from one another. All of them sought to use the fact that she had killed surrendered soldiers to brand her, before the kingdoms and their peoples, as a butcher who delighted in killing. To stain the benevolence and honor of the Bai family with indelible ink.