Nanman (5): The Fall of King Mulu
The generals who saw what lay inside the wooden case started in shock.
A massive tiger stood mounted upon a chariot.
It had been crafted with such exquisite precision that they truly believed a living beast was before them.
"This is what is known as a Wooden Beast. I made it in my younger days."
Only recently, with the help of his wife Huang Yueying and Po Yuan, had he finally completed it.
Zhuge Liang explained the purpose of the Wooden Beast to the assembled officers.
"Incredible, Prime Minister!"
"With this alone, we need no longer fear the beasts."
Hearing of its capabilities, the generals could not help but marvel at Zhuge Liang's genius.
Indeed, it was the Wooden Beasts that had driven off King Mulu's savage animals.
Yet Zhuge Liang shook his head.
"However, its slow movement is a drawback."
Mechanisms were installed within the tiger, and its weight was considerable, so its mobility suffered greatly.
This was because the campaign against Nanzhong had begun earlier than planned, leaving the refinements unfinished.
We invaded Nanzhong sooner than in the original history, so like the Yuanrong Crossbow, the improvements remain incomplete.
They were meant to drive the beasts away, but if they failed to seem threatening, they would be useless.
"…What if we reduce the enemy's mobility instead?"
Guan Suo, who had already earned major merits in the suppression of Yong Kai and the capture of Dulong Cave, stepped forward to offer his counsel.
The generals fixed their attention upon him, and Zhuge Liang likewise lent his ear to Guan Suo's words.
"Lieutenant General, do you have a method in mind?"
Zhuge Liang's manner toward Guan Suo had shifted slightly.
He had once treated the young man with casual ease, yet the recent achievements had led him to regard Guan Suo as a proper general in his own right.
"Yes. I brought something separately from Chengdu."
It was not an invention of Zhuge Liang's making, nor an item commonly used on the battlefield.
Yet, anticipating the day the Nanman forces might unleash beasts, he had obtained it from Po Yuan's forge.
I meant to use it when covering a retreat, yet it seems it will serve here instead.
Guan Suo explained what he had brought.
"Very well. Let us proceed as you suggest."
Zhuge Liang agreed with Guan Suo's proposal and issued orders to the officers.
Having driven back the Shu vanguard with his beast corps, King Mulu returned in high spirits.
Though Shu's losses were not especially great, a victory was still a victory.
In a string of defeats, the news was like rain in a drought.
—Waaaaah!!
He succeeded in lifting the flagging morale of the Nanman army.
When he returned to the main camp to share a victory toast with Meng Huo, unexpected figures awaited him.
"…What? Why are you and Huaman here?"
Meng Huo's eyes flew wide at the sight of his family.
"We heard Your Majesty was struggling and came to help."
"Did I not clearly order you to remain and guard Yunnan?"
Meng Huo protested to Lady Zhurong, yet when she narrowed her eyes sharply he clamped his mouth shut like a clam.
"Do you ask because you do not know? Your defeats have left the soldiers' morale in ruins!"
Even Meng Huo, whose renown had once shaken all of Nanzhong, was a henpecked husband.
Fearing his furious wife, he bowed and scraped in a low posture.
Meng Huo soothed Lady Zhurong gently and whispered into her ear.
"I-I'm sorry. We managed a small victory this time, so please forgive me. Think of my dignity, at least."
When he pleaded with her to consider the prestige of the King of Nanzhong, Lady Zhurong sighed and ceased her scolding.
King Mulu's gaze locked onto the figure behind Lady Zhurong and refused to leave.
…Hah. So the rumors that the King of Man's daughter is beautiful were true…
Mulu murmured under his breath as he looked at Meng Huaman.
He had heard the talk that Meng Huo's daughter was the foremost beauty of Nanzhong, yet he had never believed it.
Meng Huo himself was powerfully built and manly in appearance, yet far from handsome.
I thought it mere baseless gossip.
Whether she took after her mother more than her father, she possessed a striking beauty.
A dark, greedy light slowly rose in King Mulu's eyes.
He had answered the call for reinforcements with lavish gifts, intending once the war ended to demand spoils or a slice of Meng Huo's territory.
…I must change my goal.
Yet after seeing Meng Huaman, thoughts of plunder or land vanished entirely.
Fixing her with a lecherous stare, Mulu asked,
"Does the princess have a husband?"
Meng Huaman answered with cold indifference.
"I do not. I have no interest in men weaker or uglier than myself."
She had received proposals from the men of Nanzhong, yet never once gave them a second glance.
She judged men by the Nanman creed of the strong devouring the weak.
Most were weaker than she, and their faces were ordinary at best, so her eye never lingered.
Combined with Meng Huo's overprotectiveness, her interest in the opposite sex had naturally withered.
"Haha! Is there not a strong man right here? I am the one who drove back the Shu army!"
King Mulu thumped his chest and laughed heartily.
As he turned his attention upon her, Huaman's brow furrowed.
…This one is after me as well.
From Huaman's perspective it was the grotesque sight of an uncle the same age as her father making advances.
"I have heard that in martial prowess you fall short of my father."
The words could easily be taken as a challenge, yet Mulu laughed them off without concern.
"Kwahaha!! Even if I am weaker than the King of Man, I still defeated the Shu army once!"
He sneered arrogantly, boasting of the victory he had won against the Shu forces that Meng Huo himself had been unable to handle.
A greasy smile spread across his face as he imagined crushing the Shu army and then asking for Meng Huaman's hand.
That damned bastard has designs on my daughter?
Quick to sense anything that touched his daughter, Meng Huo immediately perceived King Mulu's dark intent.
…But this is not the time. Zhuge Liang must be defeated first.
Meng Huo secretly plotted to deal with the man once Shu had been driven out.
The Nanman commanders entered the council tent to form their strategy.
"You and King Mulu will strike from the front. I will lead a detached force around to raid the Shu rear."
Lady Zhurong planned to form the detached force from the troops she herself had brought.
She reasoned that Shu would concentrate its strength in the front to counter Mulu's beast corps, leaving the rear lightly guarded.
"We will burn all their supplies, and there is a high chance Zhuge Liang himself will be in the rear."
"An excellent plan."
Given the great distance between Shu and Nanzhong, their supply lines would be strained.
"I will go with Mother as well."
Meng Huaman intended to help Lady Zhurong strike Shu's rear and burn their stores.
"Why must even you take the field?"
Meng Huo vehemently opposed Huaman's participation.
"I am the daughter of Meng Huo, King of Man, but I also wish to defend Nanzhong from foreign invaders no less than any ordinary warrior."
Huaman's expression hardened with resolve.
Lady Zhurong likewise rebuked Meng Huo for his overprotectiveness.
"Your Majesty, Huaman is a proper general. Do not treat her like a child."
At Lady Zhurong's words Meng Huo's shoulders sagged.
"Haha, do as you all wish. But Zhuge Liang's head will ultimately be mine."
King Mulu, placing blind faith in his beast corps, was flushed with triumph.
Greed and ambition had clouded his eyes.
Two days later.
"King Mulu! This time I will take your head!"
From the Shu side, Zhao Yun rode forward at the head of three hundred men.
"Ha! The cowards who fled with their tails between their legs have only big mouths left!!"
Mulu's confidence had swollen past all reason; he placed absolute trust in his beast corps.
"Release the beasts!"
As before, Mulu's soldiers opened the cages that held the savage animals.
Freed from restraint, the beasts turned their bloodthirsty gazes upon their prey.
Yet the moment he confirmed the beasts were free, Zhao Yun flourished his spear and roared at the top of his lungs.
"Retreat! Fall back!!"
No sooner had the beasts left their cages than Zhao Yun ordered the withdrawal.
This time the soldiers plunged into the forest. King Mulu stared blankly for a moment, then sneered as he watched the fleeing Shu army.
"Kwahaha! You strutted and boasted, yet in the end you run?"
The Shu troops disappeared among the trees.
The fools are trying to lure us into the forest.
They clearly meant to use the trees and undergrowth as obstacles, yet it was a foolish choice.
No man could move as freely through forest and mountain as a wild beast.
"King Mulu, do not press too deep. This may be Kongming's trap."
Meng Huo, who had once scorned the fleeing Shu army only to suffer for it, offered counsel from beside him.
"Your Majesty, when did you become so timid?"
Mulu never doubted the intentions of the Shu forces that were collapsing in such disorder.
He intended to capture Kongming and flaunt his own majesty.
"Pursue them!"
When Mulu shook his gong several times, the beasts gave chase after the Shu army.
A sound that shook the very earth rolled through the entire forest.
Keheheh… if I take Zhuge Liang's head this time as well, then…
In the very moment Mulu was lost in lewd fantasies,
"Keng! Keng!"
The beasts that had been pursuing their prey suddenly leapt and began thrashing wildly.
"W-what is happening?!"
"Kraaaagh!!"
The soldiers who tried to assess the sudden change in the beasts also stepped on something and cried out in agony.
Seeing his men writhing in pain, Meng Huo dismounted from his yellow ox and examined the ground.
Something glittering lay scattered thickly across the earth.
"…What is this?"
It was the Iron Caltrops the Shu army had sown.
Soaked in water mixed with grass and soil, even beasts with keen noses had failed to detect them.
Their color and size resembled ordinary stones, so the beasts and barefoot Nanman soldiers who had carelessly given chase were easily caught.
Such devices were seldom used in the Central Plains, yet Guan Suo's proposal had brought them into play.
Their effect upon the savage beasts was especially devastating.
As the caltrops sank deep into the soft pads of their feet, the animals thrashed in extreme agony.
They collided with or injured the soldiers of King Mulu who followed behind.
"C-calm them!"
When chaos erupted among their own ranks, a panicked Mulu shook his bell, trying to soothe the beasts.
But the savage animals no longer heard King Mulu's commands.
Starved and wounded, their tempers already frayed, they would not obey.
The Shu army gave the enemy not the slightest chance to reform their lines.
"Now! All forces, attack!"
Zhao Yun wheeled his horse about.
Iron plates had been fitted beneath the hooves of the Shu horses and the boots of the soldiers.
Their mobility suffered somewhat, yet they took little harm from the caltrops.
In contrast, the barefoot Nanman troops and the beasts found their mobility greatly reduced.
"Y-Your Majesty! Fire attack!"
In an instant the surroundings were dyed crimson as flames began to spread.
What beasts feared most of all was fire. That terror was branded into their primal instincts.
"Retreat! Fall back!!"
King Mulu's soldiers and beasts began fleeing from the flames.
Just as King Mulu and his men barely escaped the forest, the Shu army approached, hauling something covered in cloth upon carts.
When the soldiers ripped away the cloth covering the wooden cases, a massive tiger painted yellow was revealed.
—Whoosh!
The jaws of the tiger advancing toward the beasts opened wide, and fierce flames erupted from within its mouth.
With its heavy wheels grinding forward, the fire-breathing tiger closed in.
"Keng!!"
At the appearance of the flame-spitting tiger, the beasts broke free of King Mulu's control entirely.
Their feet already wounded by caltrops, their nerves stretched to the breaking point, and now a tiger breathing fire advanced upon them.
Terror-stricken, the animals leapt and scattered in every direction, fleeing the Wooden Beasts.
"W-where are you going?! Come back at once!!"
Mulu shook his bell frantically, yet the beasts, drowned in fear, had already abandoned him.
—Buoooooh!
Even the elephant that carried Mulu, startled by the Wooden Beast, bolted—and stepped upon a caltrop.
Agony that split its mind made the elephant rear and thrash wildly.
King Mulu lost his balance and fell.
"W-wait!"
Crunch!
The moment he struck the ground, the elephant's foot came down upon him again and again.
Crunch! Crunch!
The wet sound of something being crushed rang out without pause.
King Mulu was trampled to death beneath the elephant's massive legs, meeting a hollow end.
For one who had tormented the Shu army with uncanny arts that controlled beasts, it was an ending far too wretched.