Little Conqueror (小覇王) (3)
After their crushing defeat at Qu'a Port, Liu Yao's army fled by a roundabout route with the tattered remnants of their force and took refuge in Guzhang City. They did not immediately enter Kuaiji Prefecture, intending instead to rally the scattered officers and soldiers.
Liu Yao's army was mustering its strength at Guzhang City.
The moment Sun Ce got word, she led her subordinates straight to Guzhang City and launched an assault.
"Lion! Where is the Lion! General Who Attacks Rebels Sun Ce has come to settle what remains unfinished! Let the Lion of Liu Yao's army come forth at once and face her equal!"
A lady with flowing red hair shouted, raising a greatsword. The ferocious fighting had left her beautiful face covered in wounds, but her savage smile radiated fighting spirit.
Three days.
Her wounds had healed considerably in that time.
Now Sun Ce was brimming with youthful vigor again as she challenged her rival to a duel.
Hey, Lion, let's play.
Come on out.
If a third party heard that innocent voice, they would think warmly, "She's visiting a friend." Without a trace of ill will, Sun Ce kept calling Taishi Ci by her nickname out of sheer competitive spirit.
"Stop calling me that, you idiot! How many times do I have to say my name is just Ci?!"
How many times had she called that name?
Atop the gate, a slender beauty with striking green hair revealed herself.
Taishi Ci.
She was a master of the short halberds serving under Liu Yao.
Like the wound-covered Sun Ce, her valiant face was also a mass of scratches.
Creeeak—
The tightly shut city gate opened.
At the same moment, Taishi Ci emerged on horseback, clad in her armor.
She truly did not avoid the duel.
She had come out to fight a fair, decisive contest of champions.
Sun Ce smiled, full of satisfaction, and welcomed Taishi Ci. Taishi Ci responded to Sun Ce's brazen demeanor with a curt scowl.
"Lion! Throw away your weapons with your subordinates and surrender! Killing you would be a waste. Join His Highness the King of Chen's great cause and you will be appointed a General commanding a full army. The Crown Prince has already sanctioned it, so stop hesitating and submit!"
"Shut your mouth! Do you think I would join forces with the rebels who invaded Jiangdong?!"
Ridiculous.
An absurd suggestion.
Join the rebels' usurpation?
She would sooner die than kneel to the brigands who invaded Jiangdong.
The svelte warrior drew a short halberd in each hand.
Wu Prefecture had already fallen under Sun Jian's fierce assault. Furthermore, the main army of Liu Chong's forces had entered Moling County, and Danyang Prefecture was on the verge of being seized in succession—a critical, life-or-death crisis.
They were outnumbered.
There was absolutely no way to reverse the disadvantage.
And yet Taishi Ci remained faithful to her lord, the Governor of Danyang Liu Yao. Her resolve was palpable—her willingness to give her life for her lord and her subordinates who had fled to this shabby fortress.
"You refuse my offer? You'll surely regret it. From what I've heard, the so-called Governor of Danyang was so persistently suspicious of you that he never appointed you a General. And you'd give your life after being treated so shabbily..."
"Are you trying to sow discord? I have already seen through the fact that your head is bad, you wench. So stop with the worthless chatter and raise your weapon!"
"Damn it! Refusing my offer—just how badly do you want me to like you?!"
"You crazy...!"
An obstinacy worthy of respect.
She liked it all the more because it was an inflexible, stubborn obstinacy.
If Taishi Ci had snatched up the offer, Sun Ce would have been overjoyed—and yet she would not have been able to hide her disappointment. Sun Ce paid her respects to Taishi Ci's defiant act of raising her short halberds and offering fierce resistance.
"Just as I thought, persuasion doesn't suit me. Trying to persuade with words... I must have thought you were truly too precious to lose. The warriors of Jiangdong really ought to have honest conversations with blade and spear."
"This time I will take your head."
Sun Ce raised her greatsword.
Taishi Ci leveled her short halberds and readied her offensive.
Sun Ce and Taishi Ci fought a champion's duel in the center of the field, watched by countless officers and soldiers. They struck at each other with their weapons as if recreating the moment of their bloody clash at Qu'a Port.
* * *
The forces of Liu Chong subdued the Jiangdong warlords swiftly, like a scythe reaping a ripe rye field. The local gentry, who had been awaiting the outcome of the battles, surrendered to Liu Chong's army the moment they heard the news of Governor of Danyang Liu Yao's crushing defeat.
Of course, it was not entirely smooth.
A sharp point pierced through the sack.
Yan Baihu and Yan Yu, the bandit chiefs who commanded Jiangdong, raised a rebellion with ten thousand troops in defiance of Liu Chong's rule. Moreover, Yan Baihu's son-in-law Zhu Shulian led the Shanyue people to join them, complicating the situation further.
"Break through the enemy's center in a single stroke!"
"Yes!"
Several hundred horsemen appeared.
The figure commanding the cavalry was a heroic woman with flowing gray hair.
Colonel of the Picked Cavalry Zhao Yun.
Leading Liu Seong-hwi's personal cavalry guard, she broke straight through the great army of Yan Baihu and Yan Yu.
"Stop the cavalry! Loose arrows and thrust your spears!"
"We are outmatched, they have broken through again...!"
The army was split in two as its spine was severed.
Wheeling their horses about, the cavalry turned and charged again, threatening Yan Baihu's troops.
"Hahahaha! A mob of rabble indeed!"
"Captain! Every time we press the charge, those worthless soldiers scatter in terror!"
The officers and soldiers of Changshan Prefecture, who had originally pledged themselves to Gongsun Zan's army to follow Zhao Yun, had not returned to You Province but instead submitted to Liu Chong's forces. These one-man-army cavalrymen, who joined the Jiangdong campaign under Liu Chong's command, now displayed peerless might against Yan Baihu's army.
Shuah—
A sharp spear tip pierced the enemy's rear.
The fallen soldiers of Yan Baihu's army were then trampled mercilessly under heavy hooves.
"A-are those the White Horse Volunteers?! Don't tell me they're the White Horse Volunteers?!"
"All the soldiers following the enemy commander ride white horses...! There is no way Gongsun Zan's army has reinforced them!"
The White Horse Volunteers.
Zhao Yun and the soldiers of Changshan had belonged to this elite cavalry corps.
White horses with flowing white manes.
Armor and horse armor of pure white.
And astonishing mounted archery, landing nine hits out of every ten shots.
Their mobility and penetrating power bordered on the supernatural.
This was truly the martial splendor of the White Horse Volunteers, who boasted the Central Plains' finest embodiment of "Speed Is the Essence of War."
"Guhk!"
"Stop them! They must not break through again!"
Any defense was meaningless.
The warriors of Changshan dissolved Yan Baihu's battle lines in a single rush.
A few dozen.
With only a few hundred horsemen, they reduced an army of ten thousand to a rabble.
It was possible because of the martial might of the cavalrymen of the White Horse Volunteers and the personal guard horsemen Liu Seong-hwi had assigned, and because the person commanding those horsemen was Zhao Yun—an S-rank fierce general specialized in cavalry.
'If the Governor of Beiping had trusted me the way the Southern Heir does... I would likely have returned to You Province. The reason I ultimately stayed with Lady Liu Bei instead of returning to Gongsun Zan's army—perhaps it is actually resentment and hurt toward the Governor of Beiping, who would not employ me. In the end, I too was a worldly creature.'
All of her cavalry obeyed her orders.
She was commanding the battlefield as a general of an army.
Her spirit soared as if it would pierce the sky.
A sense of exaltation rose in her at having become the commander of cavalry she had so desperately craved.
If she had returned to Gongsun Zan's army, could she have experienced today's fulfillment? Gazing across the battlefield strewn with the corpses of Yan Baihu's soldiers, Zhao Yun felt a dense knot of doubt and perplexity, dark as a storm cloud.
"Well done."
After routing Yan Baihu's army,
Zhao Yun led her horsemen and regrouped with the main army of Liu Chong's forces.
"I slew the enemy commander leading the vanguard... but the ringleaders, Yan Baihu and Yan Yu, escaped."
"That is fine. It suits my purpose, driving the remnants of Jiangdong into one place."
Kuaiji Prefecture.
Drive them all into Kuaiji Prefecture.
Soon Liu Yao's army, trapped in Guzhang City, would cross the Zhejiang River and flee to Kuaiji. Liu Seong-hwi was deliberately driving them together with Yan Baihu's army and the other Jiangdong remnants in order to sweep them all away in one net.
"..."
"So, how was it? Your impression of leading cavalry on the battlefield."
"I have no personal sentiments. I merely obey my orders faithfully as a military officer."
"The Governor of Xu Province told me you would be overjoyed."
So Lady Liu Bei had seen through her.
She was someone who, even while appearing leisurely, could pierce straight into a person's heart.
Zhao Yun swept her disheveled gray hair back and averted her gaze. It was an attempt to hide the fact that she had been so giddy with joy, like a child, while charging at the head of her cavalry.
Her cheeks flushed red.
She felt flustered enough for it to show on her face.
Because Zhao Yun was someone who never revealed her emotions, the reaction stood out all the more clearly.
"You have earned splendid merit. I will continue to entrust the cavalry to you."
"...Your military command, I shall obey."
A military command.
Liu Seong-hwi nodded at Zhao Yun's answer.
But the "military command" Zhao Yun spoke was a lord's command. She was implicitly revealing her intention: for now, at least until the conquest of Jiangdong is complete, I will serve you as my new lord.
'Since one day he will be the lord who weds Lady Liu Bei... Even if he is a lecherous crown prince and a base cadet imperial clan member who, not content with Lady Liu Bei, has even taken Lady Yunchang. Still, he clearly possesses the qualifications to seize the realm. Even if he indulges his lusts like a man snatching an item already in his pocket.'
Her eyes sharpened as she stared at Liu Seong-hwi's back.
An object of respect and loyalty.
And at the same time, an object of wariness.
Zhao Yun felt confusion as she regarded the Southern Heir and his many-sided nature.