Sacrificing Their Lives for Justice
Having received orders to go to Fengcheng, Bai Qishan, the heir of the Duke of Zhenguo, rushed toward the city in a state of utter bewilderment — only to discover upon arrival that Fengcheng was perfectly safe and sound. The granary official of the army provisions bureau swore that no grain had ever reached Fengcheng, while Deputy General Liu Huanzhang claimed he had stayed behind in the city only long enough to explain that the grain had already been transported forward to the front-line camps, leaving word that the granary official had no cause for concern.
Only then did Bai Qishan realize that Liu Huanzhang had resolved upon treason. He turned back at once and raced for the Tianling mountain region, hoping to lend his support — but Liu Huanzhang, leading one hundred eighty thousand soldiers, lay in ambush at the Luofeng Gorge and fell upon them.
Bai Qishan commanded barely ten thousand men. The disparity in force was far too great. Wounded, the deputy supreme commander led fewer than a thousand surviving soldiers back to Fengcheng.
For five days Bai Qishan was trapped inside Fengcheng, his supply lines severed. The Nanyan army captured five men of the Bai family alive, stripped them bare before the enemy camp, and tortured and humiliated them flesh by flesh — all in the hope of forcing Deputy Supreme Commander Bai Qishan to surrender. But Bai Qishan had to keep fighting, to buy time until the people of Fengcheng could flee to safety. At last, unable to bear it any longer, he put the five men of the Bai family out of their misery with his own bow, tears streaming down his face.
Before riding out, Deputy Supreme Commander Bai Qishan raised his voice and cried:
"Any man who is the only son of his household, who must care for aged parents, take one step back! Any man who has not yet taken a bride, take one step back! As for the rest — any soldier willing to lay down his life for the people of Great Jin, stand with me and drive back the enemy!"
Bai Jingdong, the seventeenth son of the Bai family, a boy of only ten, drew his sword and stepped forward, declaring that even if it meant wading through blood and having his flesh carved away, he would follow his uncle onto the battlefield — that even if he died for the people, he would never live as a coward. Moved by the words of a child of ten, every soldier of the Bai Family Army drew his blade, vowing to fight to the death and shield the common folk to the very end. If they were to die on the battlefield, they cried in unison, then let them die — for they would have no part in a base and shameful life.
Yet when half a million Nanyan troops stormed the camp, King Xin fled at the head of a mere three thousand soldiers. The remaining two thousand men of the Bai Family Army stayed behind by choice, keeping faith with their oath — they would give their lives for the people alongside General Fengfeng's own Bai Jingyou, and hold the line until every last civilian had escaped.
Bai Jingyou dispatched five hundred soldiers to escort the people to safety, then shared a final cup of farewell wine with the fifteen hundred who remained.
"……We were not born of the same house, but we donned armor and fought side by side for the people of Great Jin, and so we are brothers in all but blood. My comrades…… drain your cups, and let us meet again in the next life!"
General Fengfeng Bai Jingyou perished together with his fifteen hundred soldiers, and their bodies were consumed by fire.
General Zhiyong Bai Jingming gave his life defending Fengxian, holding the walls against the combined siege of the Xiliang and Nanyan armies. "Millions of civilians stand behind these walls!" General Zhiyong declared. "We make our stand with our backs to the water! By heaven, we will not retreat one step while a single soldier still breathes!"
Seeking to shatter the morale of Great Jin's army, Yun Paxing, supreme commander of the Xiliang–Nanyan coalition, beheaded Bai Jingdong, the seventeenth son of the Bai family, before the assembled host and slit open his belly, desecrating the boy's corpse. But the boy's stomach was filled with nothing but tree roots and dirt — and even Yun Paxing recoiled in shock!
The Bai Family Army, choking on grief and fury, fought the enemy with savage valor.
Even the official historian attached to the campaign left these words behind at the end:
"I am shamed before the burning blood of a child of ten. Though I am a man of letters, I mean to cast aside my brush and take up a sword! I too…… shall hurl myself onto the battlefield!"
When all six bamboo slips of the campaign record had been read, the surviving members of the Bai family and the commoners of Dadu, gathered before the Wude Gate, were drenched in tears.
Bai Jingyan raised high, with both hands, the six bloodstained bamboo slips bearing the campaign records, and her voice rang out like a great bell.
At her words, the gate warden felt fury rise in his chest; his eyes burned hot and tears spilled down his cheeks. Turning to the Grand Princess, he spoke out of genuine goodwill.
"Your Highness the Grand Princess — every strike of the Dengwen Drum earns the striker thirty strokes of the rod! Please, tell the third young miss to stop!"
"Keep drumming!"
Bai Jingyan sprang to her feet, eyes blazing.
"Thirty strokes for every strike — I'll take every one of them myself! Even if I die here today outside the Wude Gate, I will make Heaven hear this drum!"
Bai Jingyan knelt at the very front in the posture of a soldier receiving a military flogging, and fixed her gaze unblinking upon the towering Wude Gate.
All this time, the Dengwen Drum had been nothing more than an ornament. It stood as some sort of symbol, and no one had ever dared strike it.
The executioner, gripping his rod tightly, did not know what to do. A dozen emotions surged through him all at once. Whenever he recalled the horrific deaths of the men of the Bai family, he found he simply could not swing the rod.
This frail, slight woman was a surviving kinswoman of the Bai clan. He could not bring himself to strike her.
And yet strike her he must. It was simple enough to pour as little strength into his arm as possible.
"First Miss Bai, the rules are the rules — I have no choice but to lay hands upon your body. I beg your forgiveness!"
He raised the rod high, then brought it down upon Bai Jingyan with as little force as he could muster.
The rod whistled down and struck her, and Bai Jingyan, her fists clenched white, nearly collapsed to the ground. She bit down hard on her lip, and the taste of blood rose from her chest.
"Let me take it! My body can bear it! Let me take it!"
Bai Jinchi stepped forward and seized the rod. Then she knelt down beside Bai Jingyan and spoke to the executioner.
"My eldest sister suffered grave wounds while chasing down the traitor — she was in poor health to begin with. Let me take it in her place!"
"I struck the drum, so naturally the punishment should fall to me!"
Bai Jindong said this even as she hammered the drum with all her strength.
"Then let us sisters take it together!"
Bai Jinxiu knelt at Bai Jingyan's side and cried out.
"I've taken military floggings more times than I can count — do you think I fear some little court flogging?"
From among the crowd, a man who had been kneeling and weeping suddenly rose, pushed his way through the press of people, and knelt down, declaring:
"I will take this court flogging in place of Miss Bai! The sons of the Bai family died fighting for this country! Must their surviving kin die trying to win justice for them? For the sake of the Bai family's loyalty and righteousness alone, Your Majesty must restore their good name!"
"I will take it! That scheming wretch King Xin colluded with the traitor Liu Huanzhang to steal glory that was not his, and worse, desecrated the corpses of the heroes who gave their bodies for Great Jin! The sons of Bai threw away their lives for this country — so I will risk mine for the Bai family's honor, and for justice!"
A pale-faced common scholar rose to his feet as well.
"Well said! Laying down one's life for justice! I am nothing but a lowly scholar — they say a scholar is the most useless thing in all the world. Very well then. Today I shall use this good-for-nothing body of mine to win justice for the loyal souls of the fallen!"
At the scholar's words, the crowd's emotions reached a fever pitch. Women and children began to weep aloud; the mothers clutching their children wept hardest of all as they thought of the Bai family's seventeenth son, that child of ten, and his pitiful death. And when they remembered Lady Dong, who had beaten her head against her sons' coffin and tried to die, even the women rose to their feet, declaring they would take the rod in the Bai family's stead.
As though righteous indignation were contagious, the commoners surged forward in shared fury, each clamoring to take the punishment before the others could.
Bai Jinchi turned her head and looked out over the people who were stepping forward for the Bai family's sake. It felt as though a storm were surging through her chest. Tears streamed down her face, and her throat was so tight she could not manage a single word of thanks.
Then Bai Jinchi remembered the words her eldest sister had spoken to her in Qinghui Courtyard on the first day of the new year.
Not one soul at court will stand up for us — our situation is hard enough as it is, and if we lose the hearts of the people on top of everything else, the Bai family will never rise again! This is exactly the ending the one pulling the strings behind the scenes wants for us!
So this is the hearts of the people that Eldest Sister wanted! This is how strong they are when they gather!
Bai Jinchi felt as though hot blood were surging up through her. Slowly, she curled her fingers into a fist, and in that instant her mind seemed to open all at once. No wonder her eldest sister, always so spare with words, had stood before the crowds again and again, recounting the Bai family's every deed one by one — showing them how much the Bai clan loved this country and its people. Now, at last, she understood why.
In the past, the Bai family had done much and said nothing at all. And so the people had simply come to take it all for granted.
But her eldest sister had shown the people how much the Bai family had done for Great Jin, for the people of Great Jin — and the people had wept with gratitude.
They say that if you earnestly desire something, the world gives you something first. Not a word of it had been wrong.
"I'll take it! I'm strong and healthy! No matter how many times the third young miss of the Bai family strikes that drum, I will take every stroke of her punishment!"
More and more people, their emotions surging, stepped forward to take the court flogging on behalf of the third young miss of the Bai family. Even a child of seven or eight shouted at the top of his lungs:
"The Bai family protected us common folk! So we common folk should protect the Bai family! I'm still little, but I've read the books of the sages! I'll take the flogging for the Bai family's sisters too!"
Seeing all this, the executioner found he could no longer swing the rod at all, and inwardly he marveled. Never once had he seen commoners behave this way for the sake of a single family. Gazing at the crowd that surged forward with such fierce spirit to take the rod in the Bai girl's place, he stood at a loss for a long while, bewildered by their frenzied fervor. At last he gave his orders to the guards behind him.
"Report to the palace at once. Ask how this is to be handled."
A young eunuch who had been spying on the scene from inside the Wude Gate took one look at the commotion beyond and sprinted straight for the Emperor's great hall. Stumbling and running by turns, he barely reached the entrance of the hall, then hastened breathlessly to Gao Demu.
"Eunuch Gao! The Grand Princess of the Duke of Zhenguo's estate has brought several of the Bai young misses outside the Wude Gate and is striking the Dengwen Drum! She demands that His Majesty arrest Liu Huanzhang and execute King Xin, and enforce the law of the realm! The commoners are screaming out there right now — there's a riot, they're all clamoring to take the court flogging in place of the third young miss who's beating the drum!"
Even Gao Demu, who had served at the Emperor's side for longer than he could remember, could not hide his astonishment. King Xin was the legitimate son of the Emperor and the Empress. Had the Grand Princess gone mad? To actually beg the Emperor to put his own legitimate son to death!
As for the princes of ages past — unless they had committed outright treason, even the harshest punishment had amounted to no more than confinement. Gao Demu could only conclude that with every last man of the Bai family dead, the surviving kinswomen had simply gone out of their minds and were running wild.
"Eunuch Gao!"
The young eunuch wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve.
"Shouldn't someone tell His Majesty!"
Gao Demu gave his horsetail whisk a single flick and curled his lip.
"Why would I stick my neck out for rotten luck like this? Someone's bound to report it eventually. His Majesty only just kicked King Xin out of his presence yesterday — and now today the Bai family comes calling. You'd all best mind your heads. One wrong move, and you could find yourself tangled up in this affair."
Before the words had even left Gao Demu's mouth, the garrison general came striding up to deliver his report.