Unyielding Resolve
Bai Jingyan came to a stop when she reached the mourning hall. She turned her head and spoke to Nanny Dong, who had followed her there.
"Mama, pass word to Nuo Ping. Have him select a dozen or so guards skilled in martial arts and post them outside the mourning hall. If that servant sets foot inside—no matter who brought him—kill him on the spot."
"Yes, my lady!"
Nanny Dong answered with a deep bow.
When Bai Jingyan entered the mourning hall, she found Bai Jinxiu, Bai Jindong, and Bai Jinchi keeping vigil there, having returned from what little rest they had been granted.
"Eldest Sister…"
Bai Jinxiu rose to her feet.
In that instant, the rims of Bai Jingyan's eyes reddened once more.
"Why are you all here?"
"We must protect Grandfather, Father, our uncles, and our brothers," Bai Jindong replied.
"Eldest Sister!"
Bai Jinchi walked to her side and spoke with grave earnestness. "Tomorrow, I'll cut that servant down with a single stroke of my blade. Don't you worry about a thing!"
Bai Jingyan smiled and stroked her head. "Let's stand vigil here together."
From the first light of the tenth morning of the new year, snow came down in great thick flurries, blanketing Dadu in white.
In the first quarter of the hour of the Tiger, well before dawn, smoke was already curling up from the kitchens of the Zhenguo Duke Estate. Male servants and maids bustled in and out of the side gates. The maids assigned to the heavier labor filed out of the kitchen in a line, some bearing bronze kettles engraved with plum blossoms, others carrying lacquered black food chests, stepping carefully as they passed down a corridor hung full with white lanterns and made their way in orderly silence to their allotted courtyards.
Today was the day the coffins would depart—the Emperor's posthumously ennobled King and Duke of Zhenguo, the household's old servants, and the young lords. The dead had to be committed to the earth before the sun rose.
By the time the hour of the Tiger had passed, every soul in the Bai manor had gathered in the front courtyard.
When Nanny Jin helped Lady Dong, her eyes rimmed with red, into the mourning hall, the other ladies and children were already assembled there.
"Fifth sister-in-law, the snow will make the roads slick today. With your condition, I think it best you don't go," Lady Dong said, looking at the heavily pregnant Lady Ji, the Fifth Madam.
Lady Ji laid a light hand on her belly, her voice breaking. "Both I and this child must see the heroes of the Bai family off on their final road."
A short while later, the Grand Princess appeared, dressed in white and carrying a walnut-wood tablet, her hand resting in Nanny Zhang's.
"Mother…"
"Grandmother…"
The assembled family rose as one and performed their bows of reverence.
"Mother, you mean to attend as well?" Lady Dong asked.
The Grand Princess nodded. Her gaze drifted toward Bai Jingyan, but Bai Jingyan kept her head bowed and did not look up at her—nor, as she might have done on any ordinary day, did she step forward to take her arm. Unable to suppress her grief, the Grand Princess spoke.
"One must see the men of the Bai family off on their final road. I can bear it."
Lady Dong drew a long, deep breath and forced her eyes wide open, willing herself to stay clearheaded.
"Steward Hae. Open the gates."
"Open the gates…"
At the steward's call, the doors groaned open—six great crimson gates, all at once, white lanterns swaying above them.
Outside the gates of the Zhenguo Duke Estate, the people who had come carrying lanterns stood packed shoulder to shoulder. Lady Dong had not anticipated this.
Young men and aged officials of the meritorious noble houses stood quietly in the snow as well, beneath the great plaque that read Zhenguo Duke Estate in gold letters on black.
No one had ever announced the hour of the Duke of Zhenguo's departure to the outside world. These people had simply gathered here from the early hours of their own accord, wanting to see the martyrs of a loyal and righteous house off on their way.
Lady Dong's brother, Dong Qing'e, stood at the very front among the court's generals in full military dress, a white cloth bound around his head and a lantern in his hand, his bearing upright and commanding.
Lady Dong found herself recalling the scene on New Year's Eve, when the people had stood here alongside the Bai family waiting for news. Then the memory of the fifth morning, when all the people of Dadu had carried lanterns through the falling snow, waiting together with the Bai family's bereaved at the south gate for the heroes to come home—and the tears she had fought so hard to contain broke free at last.
Dong Qing'e had not slept a wink the night before. He had gone door to door through every military household of the court, appealing to their hearts and pressing upon them their duty, begging the generals to come and help bear the coffins—to see the Duke of Zhenguo, Bai Weiting, off on his final road.
The moment the manor gates opened, Dong Qing'e set down his sheepskin lantern, dropped to one knee, and rendered a full military salute.
"This humble general, Dong Qing'e, comes to see the King of Zhenguo, the Duke of Zhenguo, and the young generals off on their final road! The soul of the Bai Family Army shall endure forever!"
Beside him, General Shi Panshan, his eyes rimmed red, dropped to his knee with a clasped-fist salute. "This humble general, Shi Panshan, comes to see the King of Zhenguo, the Duke of Zhenguo, and the young generals off on their final road! The soul of the Bai Family Army shall endure forever!"
"This humble general, Jiang Ruhae! The King of Zhenguo, the Duke of Zhenguo, and the young generals—the soul of the Bai Family Army shall endure forever!"
"This humble general, Zhen Zeping! The King of Zhenguo, the Duke of Zhenguo, and the young generals—the soul of the Bai Family Army shall endure forever!"
"This humble general, Zhang Danyue! The King of Zhenguo, the Duke of Zhenguo, and the young generals—the soul of the Bai Family Army shall endure forever!"
One more general, who had galloped in at speed in full military dress, dismounted and knelt from behind the rest, shouting for all to hear. "This humble general, Liu Hong! The King of Zhenguo, the Duke of Zhenguo, and the young generals—the soul of the Bai Family Army shall endure forever!"
Second Madam Yu, watching through the goose-feather snow from beyond the gate as the generals knelt to see the honored dead of the Bai family off, could endure no more. She collapsed into Bai Jinxiu's arms, beating her chest and wailing—for the husband who had gone, for the son who would never come home!
Third Madam Li, too, lost all composure, tears streaming down her face.
Fourth Madam Wang—who, when the seventeenth young lord's body had been returned, had flung herself against his coffin in a frenzy of grief and tried to beat her head against it until she died—stood quietly in a corner, her two hands folded respectfully before her. There was no light left in her eyes at all; she looked like a wooden doll, incapable of sorrow or joy.
Fifth Madam Ji turned away and bit down hard on her lip. The dull taste of blood filled her mouth, yet she did not loosen her jaw. Afraid that she would lose her grip on herself, she forced herself to hold on.
The commoners standing at the entrance all fell to their knees and wept. Their cries of grief rose to the heavens. Voices calling out for the King of Zhenguo and the Duke of Zhenguo rose and fell without end—and with them came tears for the young generals who had given their lives for the people in the very prime of their years.
Steward Hae wiped his eyes with his sleeve, fought back his tears, and raised his voice.
"Kneel!"
The people in the street were already on their knees, weeping too hard to hear anything; the Bai family sank slowly to their knees as well.
"Bow…"
With tears held in her eyes, Bai Jingyan bowed.
Before the honored spirits of the Bai family, I swear: with my own life as pledge, I will protect the family they leave behind.
"Bow…"
Bai Jingyan bowed a second time.
Before heaven and earth, I swear: those who brought ruin upon the Bai family will repay their debt in blood. Until this vengeance is exacted, I will never leave this world with my head held high.
"Bow…"
Bai Jingyan bowed a third time.
Before my grandfather, I swear: in this life, I will carry on his will with all my strength—protect the people, and strive for peace throughout all the land.
"Read the eulogy. Proclaim the life of the departed…"
Xiao Rongyan, clad in prisoner's garb, stood at the very back of the crowd and gazed quietly toward the mourning hall. It was as though the great snow itself had set a wall between him and this place—like a man who could not draw near.
The Emperor of Great Jin did not know it. It was true that over a hundred years, the merit of the Zhenguo Duke Estate had come to surpass even the Emperor's own—but the Zhenguo Duke Estate was, in truth, the very pillar of Great Jin.
And if the Bai family fell…
It would mean stripping the army of Great Jin, stripping its armor. Of this, Xiao Rongyan could state with certainty: now that the Bai generals were dead, the state of Jin, which had held the hegemony, had all but lost its power to rule the world.
Far off, when Bai Jingyan rose to her feet, Xiao Rongyan unconsciously took a step forward.
A woman's clear, ringing voice carried across the snow. Calm and gentle. It lacked the full strength she usually showed before others, yet a deep, aching sorrow had seeped into the depths of that voice, and it pierced the heart all the more for it.
The Grand Princess, looking out beyond the gates at the commoners wailing as though heaven itself were departing, and at the generals in full battle dress who had come to see the honored dead of the Zhenguo Duke Estate off, found herself recalling the day her imperial father had passed. The people had wept then, too, and the assembled officials had wailed. But that weeping had not carried the truth that this weeping did now.
She tightened her fingers around the prayer beads she was counting, then slowly let them loosen again. She could not name the feeling welling up inside her.
The Bai family has won the hearts of the people more thoroughly than the imperial house itself.
The funeral was being kept austere—no one had announced the hour of departure—yet the court's generals, the great houses of Dadu, even the humblest commoners had all gathered here. This tide of mourners was grander than when her imperial father had been sent off, more sorrowful, more heartbroken.
She remembered what her granddaughter had said to her in the mourning hall not many double-hours ago: that the nobility of the Bai family lay not in their bloodline but in their backbone—in that heart which had, generation after generation, offered up its very body for the people.
The people truly remembered the Bai family. Truly grieved for them.
The root of the Bai family was a loyalty and righteousness devoted to the people.
The Grand Princess closed her eyes. Her husband Bai Weiting's posthumous name rose in her memory. Buyu—Unswerving.
The sound of her granddaughter reading the eulogy echoed in her ears.
"I once asked my grandfather why he chose 'Unswerving' for his courtesy name. My grandfather answered: so that he might safeguard the people's peace and strive for their tranquility. To hold one purpose without a second heart; to serve with loyalty until death itself grants release."
"My father was the Crown Prince. Every time news arrived from the front, he would lead the charge himself. My mother passed countless sleepless nights, pleading with him again and again to stop. And every time, my father gave the same answer: when the nation goes to war, when hardship falls upon the people, the descendants of the Bai family may not shift the burden onto another's shoulders—they must lead the way and protect the people themselves. Such, he said, was the spirit of the Bai family: like the Black-Cloth White Python Banner of the Bai Family Army, it must never break. Only then could morale be raised, only then could the foreign invaders who violated the people of Great Jin be driven back."
"I was born the eldest legitimate granddaughter, and all seventeen of the young lords were my younger brothers. They were born on different days, in different years, yet they lived by one and the same resolve. If you asked them what they had pursued their whole lives, they would answer without fail: an age of peace. Peace throughout all the land!"
"The men of the Bai family all inherited the backbone of our house—loyal and true. Upright and honest, worthy and unashamed before heaven and earth. With their bodies they repaid the grace of the people of Great Jin; with their lives they bought the border folk their chance to live."
Beyond the gates, the commoners, the nobles, and the generals had become an ocean of tears. Some wept aloud without restraint; some wiped their eyes with their sleeves; some stood with their backs straight and unmoving, tears falling in silence without end.
The loyalty and righteousness of the Bai family lived in the hearts of the people. Between heaven and earth, it could be attested by gods and men alike.
When Bai Jingyan finished reading in a voice pressed low and tight, she knelt before the brazier and, tears falling, fed the eulogy to the flames.
The Grand Princess turned her head and gave a quiet order. "Nanny Zhang. Bring that man here."
Someone had to remonstrate with him. Once that was done, the Grand Princess intended to hand the servant over to Bai Jingyan. Whether the girl killed him or tore him apart, she would let her do as she wished.
Nanny Zhang bowed her head, then shouted out toward the front of the mourning hall.
"Bring him here!"
Before long, two hulking guards led the servant in.