Contested Command
He could not tolerate Bai Jingyan steadily cementing her standing in the army, nor could he bear to watch her win authority and acclaim the way Bai Weiting once had. Bai Jingyan was utterly insubordinate, and she held not a shred of reverence for the imperial house. If military power ever fell into her hands, the Emperor would have no way to control her—and God forbid it, she might even rise up in rebellion.
Yet Liu Hong, though his body was frail, had genuinely admired the daughter of the Bai family who had defeated Xiliang and won a great victory in the Southern Border campaign.
And so, at first, he had dismissed the Emperor's worries as needless anxiety. But when he went back and thought it over carefully, he realized the Emperor's fears were not entirely without foundation. Her words in the palace courtyard, and the way she had struck the Dengwen Drum and driven King Xin to his death—either alone would have been enough to plant the seed of the Emperor's unease.
Liu Hong knew himself well. He understood perfectly that he did not possess the abilities of a Bai Weiting or a Bai Qishan. There was a reason the Emperor had appointed him Grand Marshal: even before the man ascended the throne, before he ever sat upon the seat of supreme power, Liu Hong had shown him nothing but unswerving loyalty, never once grasping for authority, never harboring great ambition.
When word reached him that Bai Jingyan had raced from Suyang with her personal guards and arrived at Longyang City in record time, the Emperor's command echoed in his mind—except in circumstances of absolute necessity, never make use of Bai Jingyan—and his heart had grown restless with dread. That was why he had left the main army behind and ridden here with only his cavalry, day and night without pause.
Liu Hong judged that anyone else he sent would be unable to rein her in. Only the Grand Marshal himself could step forward and restrain Bai Jingyan.
He had ridden himself into ruin, so battered he could scarcely dismount his horse. The insides of his thighs had been scraped raw by the saddle, and for days now a raging fever had left his body in a wretched state.
By the time he finally made it inside the city walls, the garrison soldiers were chattering away, utterly oblivious to his condition. The moment Bai Jingyan arrived, they said, she had gone straight into battle without rest, subduing the ferocious Liang general Zhao Tong in a mere three moves—and the morale of the Jin army had soared.
As if that weren't enough, she had even predicted that the Liang army would move under cover of night, captured the Zhao clan soldiers who had infiltrated the city alive, and issued the order to burn the grain stores in the Liang camp.
Watching the garrison soldier pour out his report with eyes brimming over with admiration, Liu Hong felt the weight settle heavily on his shoulders. He could not dream of resting; instead, he summoned his generals to the training grounds at once.
High atop the training grounds, a great brazier roared with fire, and banners fluttered at every corner. The flames swayed in the wind, casting the grounds as bright as day.
Liu Hong sat pale-faced in his chair. The fever had drained all strength from his body; even his breath came out scorching. His mouth burned as though seared by fire.
It was not that he had no desire to rest. He simply could not show the soldiers who had withdrawn to Longyang City that their Grand Marshal was less than a mere woman.
Liu Hong sat struggling for breath. If he lay down now, he feared he would not wake until the following day at the earliest—he had to give the generals their orders first.
When the generals arrived, Bai Jingyan among them, Liu Hong was seated upon the high dais of the training grounds, a sable cloak draped over his heavy armor. On either side stood mounted guards bearing swords, lending him the full majesty of a Grand Marshal.
"We pay our respects to the Grand Marshal."
The generals stood beneath the dais and saluted Liu Hong.
Liu Hong tried to rise and receive their salutes, but his whole body ached, and the fever burning in his joints would not let the pain subside. So he remained seated and returned their courtesy.
"I beg your understanding, gentlemen. I have caught a chill and cannot stand. Generals, receive my command. From this day forward, without my order, you are on no account to engage the enemy, nor to take any independent action whatsoever. Any who defy this order will be punished for treason! All of you will wait within the city until reinforcements arrive. Only then will we devise our strategy."
The generals exchanged glances, then raised their fists in salute.
When Bai Jingyan lifted her head and looked at him, Liu Hong hurriedly averted his gaze. There was something that pricked at his conscience—he could not bring himself to meet those deep, still eyes.
He pushed himself half to death, chasing here at breakneck speed, and all for this?
"Return to your posts and rest! Once you have rested fully and the reinforcements arrive, we will crush Liang then!"
As Liu Hong's heavy voice died away, his personal guards moved in from either side to support him.
Lin Gangluo watched Liu Hong go, then turned his head toward Bai Jingyan, whose expression had not changed in the slightest. His lips moved as if to say something, but in the end, no words came.
Anyone with half an eye could see it. Liu Hong's order had been aimed at Bai Jingyan and no one else.
"General Bai, you have ridden day and night without rest—you must rest now. The reinforcements from Anping Camp should arrive within three days at the latest. When that time comes, there will be no avoiding a bitter battle with Liang. Only with General Bai among us will our Jin army have the strength to fight!"
Wang Xiping hurried over to Bai Jingyan, offering what comfort he could. He was worried that her spirits might be low.
Bai Jingyan gave a small nod, offered a fist salute to the assembled generals, and took her leave.
Wang Xiping stood beside Lin Gangluo, seeing off the others before he spoke.
"It seems the Grand Marshal is deliberately suppressing General Bai. Is he afraid she might steal his authority?"
During the Southern Border campaign, the Grand Marshal had been the Crown Prince. Yet the victory then had only been won because Bai Jingyan, holding nothing but a single tiger tally and no official title, had led the troops.
Lin Gangluo scowled.
"War is about to break out, and this so-called Grand Marshal won't think of joining hearts with his generals to defeat the enemy—he'd rather keep watch over his own officer, afraid she'll snatch the credit!"
Lin Gangluo had fought bloody battles side by side with Bai Jingyan, and his loyalty to her ran deeper than most. Naturally, Liu Hong's conduct stirred his resentment.
But in truth, Lin Gangluo had misjudged him as well. Liu Hong was wronged too. He admired Bai Jingyan deeply, so very deeply, and had no wish for any of this—but he could not defy an imperial command.
Nuo Ping, fearing that interrogating the prisoners together might yield unreliable information, locked the eleven Zhao clan soldiers in separate cells one by one. Even the gravely wounded were isolated and interrogated individually.
From the cells rose the despairing screams of the Zhao soldiers, echoing with terrible shrillness. To hear it even from a distance was to feel as though one had stumbled into hell.
The method old General Zhao used to interrogate enemy officers proved quite effective. It was torture that made death seem a mercy. Especially when a small iron ball, heated glowing-hot in the fire, was pressed into their navels, every one of them screamed for someone, anyone, to just kill them.
In the end, Nuo Ping not only learned the location of the grain stores, but just before dawn, he also uncovered the fact that Bai Jinchi was trapped inside Huoshen Mountain.
The leader of the Zhao clan soldiers, who had come to rescue Zhao Tong, had had his chest pierced by Bai Jingyan's arrow and endured every torture imaginable—yet he was a stubborn man and kept his mouth shut to the very end. Then, when he heard that one of his own had already given up the information, he finally breathed his last.
Nuo Ping wasted no time and went straight to Bai Jingyan.
Bai Jingyan pored over the bamboo slips recording what had been extracted from each of the separate cells. Three of them swore that Bai Jinchi was at Huoshen Mountain; the rest seemed genuinely ignorant of her whereabouts. But they had let slip other useful information all the same.
Now that Bai Jinchi's location was known, there was no time to lose. After a moment's deliberation, Bai Jingyan instructed Nuo Ping to carry the bamboo slips to the Grand Marshal's quarters and request troops from him so that Bai Jinchi could be rescued.
By the time she emerged, Du Sanbao and his men had returned as well.
Du Sanbao knew Bai Jingyan would be worried sick about Bai Jinchi, so the moment he arrived, he sent the others to Wang Xiping and sprinted straight for her tent.
Day was just beginning to break. Du Sanbao's face was blackened with soot, sweat pouring down his brow. When he wiped his face with his sleeve, his white forehead showed through. Baring his teeth in a white grin, he raised a fist salute toward Bai Jingyan and dropped to one knee.
"General Bai, we captured two Liang soldiers. They didn't seem to know the whereabouts of the Gaoyi County Princess, but they said a man named General Gao led ten thousand troops toward Huoshen Mountain. It appears he means to capture her."
Bai Jingyan nodded.
"You've done well. Get up—we're going to see the Grand Marshal."
"Yes, ma'am!"
Du Sanbao rose and followed Bai Jingyan and Nuo Ping at a swift pace toward the Grand Marshal's camp.
The moment he had entered the city, he had heard that Liu Hong had arrived. If they meant to rescue the Gaoyi County Princess, naturally they had to obtain the Grand Marshal's permission first.
Du Sanbao resolved that if the Grand Marshal granted Bai Jingyan leave to save her sister, he would go with her, whatever it took. He wanted to fight a bloody battle at Bai Jingyan's side.
When Bai Jingyan reached the entrance of the Grand Marshal's camp, she offered a courtesy to Liu Hong's deputy general.
"Report to the Grand Marshal: Bai Jingyan wishes to see him on urgent business."
Liu Hong's deputy returned her salute with a troubled look.
"Your Highness, the Grand Marshal caught a chill on the road to Longyang City, and his fever has not broken since. He barely held on, but a short while ago he took his medicine and has fallen asleep..."
"This is a battlefield, not the imperial capital of Dadu!"
Bai Jingyan's eyes blazed as she fixed the deputy general with a look, enunciating every word with deliberate clarity. She did not raise her voice in anger, yet dignity and authority flowed from every syllable.
"There is an urgent military situation. The Grand Marshal's decision is required!"
Cold sweat broke out on the deputy's forehead. Bai Jingyan was not a woman easily dealt with—and Liu Hong, knowing this, had ordered that she be admitted to no one.
But she was right. This was not Dadu; it was a battlefield, where the tide of war could turn in the space of a breath. Unless one was fighting for one's very survival, a commanding marshal, at the head of an army, had to rise at once, assess the situation, and render judgment. On the marshal's decision hung the outcome of the war—and the lives of tens of thousands of men.
"It is an urgent military development. If our forces come to harm because of this delay, will you answer for it, General?"
Du Sanbao, bold as brass, demanded the question outright of the Grand Marshal's deputy.
The Gaoyi County Princess had marched out with three thousand troops, and their supplies had been cut off for half a month already. With no way of knowing what horrors she and her men might be suffering even now, not a single moment could be spared. Every delay here made her peril graver—yet this deputy of the Grand Marshal's stood there dithering.
The deputy felt the crushing weight of responsibility descend upon him. He did not believe he could bear that responsibility if things went wrong. Rolling his lips inward, he hesitated for a long moment before answering.
"Your Highness, pray wait a moment. I will report to the Grand Marshal at once."
Liu Hong, half-conscious and swimming in a fever haze, rose with the deputy's support. His throat was so parched it felt ready to split, and his joints throbbed with dull fire.
"What is the situation?"
"Jin soldiers in plain clothes followed them, so it seems they left the city and gathered intelligence, then returned."
The deputy answered.
Liu Hong raised a hand and pressed his aching brow. Recognizing the urgency at once, he pointed a finger at his own garments and had the deputy help him dress, then continued.
"Show the Zhenguo Commandery Princess in."