One Arrow at Dawn

Look wider.

Dawn had not yet broken. In that pitch-black hour I held my breath and watched a single fire arrow, burning a fierce red, rise from the summit of Qingxue Peak and split the empty dark.

I kept my eyes on the sky a long while, in case another signal should follow. None did. The arrow they had shot was the only one.

Before I sent Li Hui into the killing ground of Qingxue Peak, I had explained the signals to him in detail. The gate tower of Yiyang and the peak stood too far apart; a messenger passing between them would lose too much time. He was to report the rough success or failure of the operation by the number of fire arrows.

Four, if he merely seized the summit and shattered the enemy's chain of command. Three, if he also took alive the enemy general who led the Heishan bandits. Two, if he secured a witness that someone inside the Jizhou Inspectorate had been in league with the bandits. And a single arrow, if he had grasped physical proof that would establish the betrayal beyond all doubt.

The heavier the mission accomplished, the fewer the arrows — a harsh condition. Realistically, I had expected no more than three. Even that, I had told myself, would be enough.

And yet there was only one.

Heaven had handed me an opening. Only then did I let out a long breath of relief.

"Truly, heaven's fortune has attended us."

Zhao Yun, Wen Chong, and Zhao Du raised a crisp military salute as one, sharing the joy of the victory.

"Congratulations!"

"Congratulations!"

"Congratulations!"

"You have my sincere thanks. Li Hui has done something truly extraordinary in that killing ground, and because of him we now hold the initiative of this battlefield completely in our grasp."

I answered the three generals with due gravity, then sank into thought to reckon the next move with a cold head. Not wishing to disturb me, they drew back several paces in silence and waited.

Li Hui would send a messenger at once to report the fine details on Qingxue Peak, but the man would not reach Yiyang until well past morning. I set my tangled thoughts in order, then summoned to the tower my elder maternal cousin, Gao Gan, who held the office of Recorder.

Gao Gan had marched with the army under a grave charge: to survey the campaign as a whole on his own judgment and report directly to my father each day. He was neither Army Protector nor Army Supervisor, and so he held no direct rein on the military authority granted to me. Even so, moving as the eyes and ears of my father, Inspector of Jizhou, he wielded a power within the camp scarcely inferior to my own. Father trusted me enough not to attach a Protector or a Supervisor, but he still needed an objective grasp of the army's movements, and so he had sent Gao Gan, the most faithful of his limbs.

Gao Gan was ambitious, and his ability was outstanding, but as yet he bore me no private malice. He was a man faithful only to Father's command.

"A short while ago Li Hui led a detached column against Qingxue Peak and took it completely. We will not know the details until his messenger arrives, but it seems he has at least captured an enemy commander with control over part of the Heishan bandits."

"I had privately worried that Li Hui's field experience was too thin. This is a remarkable feat. My congratulations on Sima Yuan's first victory."

"Thank you. Li Hui's messenger will have to come down off the mountain and reach the city sometime this morning before we can know the precise situation on Qingxue Peak. So, Recorder Gao, in the memorial you send to Ye at dawn, record only this, and record it clearly: that we have occupied the summit of Qingxue Peak."

"......Very well."

Regret flickered deep in Gao Gan's clever eyes — he wanted to dig further into what lay beneath — but he accepted my order without another word. I was the man who commanded this punitive force, and so even he, my elder cousin, drew a strict line between public duty and private kinship and addressed me with full courtesy.

"When the messenger arrives, I ask that you share Qingxue Peak's exact situation with me as well."

"That is only proper procedure. I will hide nothing. You will see it."

"Then how do you intend to deal with the Heishan bandits?"

"I mean to expand the victory. But I cannot settle a plan until I have confirmed the precise situation on Qingxue Peak."

"As to this expansion of the victory — might you explain it a little more concretely to me, as Recorder?"

"It is not yet fixed, so I cannot speak of it. Once the tactics I have framed in my mind are fully in order, I will inform you clearly."

I drew the line with the firmness of the man who held command here, and Gao Gan, taking it for a reasonable course, pressed no further.

I did not tell him that I had secured proof of Guo Tu's collusion. I kept it hidden. It was not yet the moment to bring that out, and I meant to think longer, then swing the knife properly. This blade was too precious to hand straight to Father, and if the secret leaked, Guo Tu might flee. Whether Guo Tu and his faction lived or died, I wanted that decided by my will alone.

Gao Gan offered a light military salute and went down from the tower. Framing tactics and employing the army were my authority alone. Even Gao Gan, for all his right to report directly, had no pretext by which to control them.

The moment he withdrew, I called in the three generals who had been waiting — Zhao Yun, Zhao Du, and Wen Chong — and gave Zhao Du the first order.

"Army Sima Zhao. Have the men raise a great flag at once, in the most conspicuous place upon the tower. The message is Wait. Li Hui on Qingxue Peak must see that signal and must not move rashly. Once we have the details in hand, I mean to frame a finer plan."

"By your command!"

"Sima Yuan, a moment ago you told Recorder Gao you would expand the victory. Show us even a little of what you intend," Wen Chong asked. He would stand at the vanguard, and his voice was grave and heavy.

To these trusted limbs, at least, I opened what lay deep.

"First I must learn whether the enemy commander Li Hui captured is a general who can command all the Heishan bandits gathered around Yiyang County, or merely one who controls a portion of their strength. If it is the former, we can issue false orders to the entire Heishan host, strip them of their arms, and take every last one of them prisoner without spilling a drop of blood. And..."

I fell silent a moment, thinking, then spoke again.

"No. Several thoughts are rising in my mind at once. I will give orders on this point only after the plan is clearer. If it is the latter, we send a misplaced order into the Heishan camp, throw them into severe confusion, then strike with the main force, trample them, and take the merit."

"If it is the former, do you mean to draw even the remnants scattered through the nearby ravines into one place and sweep them all away at a stroke?"

It was a sharp question from Zhao Yun. I nodded.

"That too is an excellent method. But our numbers are not so ample that we can perfectly annihilate that vast swarm of bandits. Heaven's favor has put the enemy's weakness in our hands, so we must think on how to wring out the finest achievement while keeping our own losses to a minimum."

When I laid out our present limits and my own trouble with that candor, the three generals shut their mouths and nodded, their faces grave. For now, knowing the exact situation inside Qingxue Peak came first. After that, they would add their own tactical judgment and speak.

A sleepless night had left a deep fatigue around their eyes, but the first raid had been a great success, and behind the hard set of those fierce faces a hot will to fight was already boiling.

"Dawn will break soon. All three of you, take turns and close your eyes even briefly, and recover your strength. Inspect the square formation with care. On a battlefield an unforeseen variable can spring out at any moment. Not even a moment's carelessness can be allowed."

"By your command!"

The three generals acknowledged the order in ringing voices, with crisp discipline, and withdrew.

They went down from the tower, and only a heavy silence remained, and the guards. Only then did the tension leave me. The strength went out of my legs, and I dropped into a chair. Fatigue came rushing through the flesh, but my reason was colder and more awake than it had been at any moment before. Eyes closed, I spread the board of the battle in my mind and gave myself over to an endless contest of moves, weighing one possibility after another, searching for the best plan by which to ruin the enemy.

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The dim dark lifted, and the sun rose over the cold air of dawn.

I must have dozed, leaning against the tower. When I opened my eyes, the sky that had been pitch-black had taken on blue and grown clear and bright. In the hush of that quiet morning, a new plan flashed through my head.

The Heishan bandits are crouched in those ravines. I am not going to butcher them without mercy, nor drive them back into the mountains. If I civilize them and settle them as the people of Yiyang County, they will become a force that follows me, and me alone.

Of course, those who riot and refuse must be rooted out and killed without hesitation. Civilizing a barbarous host will mean years of bitter toil. But... the fruit that sets at the end of that pain will be sweet beyond anything, when the time comes to take the realm in hand.

The great clans rooted in Jizhou possessed formidable economic foundations. They were shallow companions at best, moving only as profit moved them, and they might turn their backs on me at any time. But these others — houseless, fieldless, starving — if I gave them land, and shielded their lives and property from cruel disaster and from the clans' extraction? They would become the most blind and faithful of limbs, glad to throw their lives away for one man alone: Yuan Shang.

I rose on a stiff body and stretched long. Having widened the board this far and finished the reckoning, I felt rather proud of myself.

I took a simple breakfast, and I was walking the walls, refining the grand plan in my head, when at last the messenger Li Hui had sent from Qingxue Peak reached the tower. At the news, Gao Gan, Zhao Du, Zhao Yun, and Wen Chong gathered at my side with urgent steps. I opened the letter the messenger offered, read it through with a calm head, folded it neatly, and stored it deep in my robes.

"I will examine it as well."

Gao Gan, the Recorder sent by my father's order to watch the course of the war, held out his hand with perfect confidence.

"Recorder Gao. You must not lightly infringe upon the authority that belongs to me as the man who holds command here. I will judge the contents myself, and inform only the army's leadership of what is appropriate."

I stopped him on purpose, my face set, and Gao Gan faltered, then drew back the hand he had extended. He was an ambitious and clever civil official, and he knew this was not the moment to be obstinate. He had invoked principle out of loyalty to Father rather than from any personal ill will toward me, and before a commander's authority he yielded without resistance.

I looked weightily around at the three fierce generals who trusted and followed me, and at Gao Gan, and spoke.

"Li Hui pierced the pitch-black dark and seized the summit of Qingxue Peak completely. The Heishan bandits packed into those ravines number some thirty thousand in all. But given the Heishan habit of inflating their own strength, the true number of elite troops will be far smaller. And above all... Li Hui has taken alive, without question, Chief Sun Qing and Deputy Chief Li Damu — the two leaders who can control that vast host intact."

The four of them swallowed dryly in the tension and fixed every nerve upon me. Watching them, I understood once more the cruel nature of power. The man at the top must monopolize every piece of essential information, and pass downward only what he has coldly chosen to give.

"The situation has turned overwhelmingly in our favor, and so I mean to carry out a bold plan, in order to seize a still higher achievement. Through the captured Sun Qing, I will have them disarmed completely, then settle them here in Yiyang County not as prisoners, but as the people of Jizhou."

"Sima Yuan, that is far too dangerous! If control should fail, what do you mean to do then?"

Gao Gan had gone pale, and he stepped forward in haste. I did not waver in the slightest.

"Recorder Gao. You must not step forward so freely. The office of Recorder gives you no authority to interfere in the army's operations and order them this way or that."

I drove him back on purpose, colder and more merciless than before, and drew the line.

"As you can see, this whole stretch of Yiyang County has suffered so often from Heishan raids that empty fields and abandoned ruins lie scattered everywhere. Settle those thirty thousand starving souls on this vacant land and put farm tools in their hands, and the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠looting that repeats year after year will be torn out at the root. Yiyang will slowly recover its peace. And if they fulfill their duties as proper subjects — taxes and military service, year after year — I am certain it will be a great help to His Lordship in governing the Jizhou Inspectorate. So however painful it may be, I am resolved to civilize those Heishan bandits and settle them in Yiyang County."

"I understand the intent, but this is absolutely not a matter Sima Yuan may decide alone! The proper course is to send a memorial to His Lordship in Ye and carry it out in safety only after receiving his leave. If His Lordship opposes this reckless plan, how do you mean to bear his wrath, that you would reach so arbitrary a decision?"

"Every consequence that springs from this decision, I will bear in full. So, Recorder Gao, withdraw. Now."

Humiliation flushed Gao Gan's face and drained it by turns. He bit his lip, spun sharply, and vanished at a hurried pace. Nine chances in ten, he would take up brush and ink and send my father a memorial laying out, point by point, the charge of my acting alone.

"Sima Yuan. Are you truly certain it is all right to press ahead like this?" Wen Chong asked, voicing his worry with care.

"I will say it again. Even if, by some one chance in ten thousand, this goes wrong, the responsibility will be mine alone. His Lordship granted me full authority over this punitive campaign, and I am exercising the power that comes with it. Recorder Gao is merely carrying out his own duty. If we waste precious days sending a messenger to Ye to beg permission, and word that Chief Sun Qing has been taken alive leaks down into the ravines, thirty thousand Heishan bandits may pass beyond all control. Army Sima Zhao."

"Yes, Sima Yuan."

"At once, write large characters in ink upon a great length of plain cloth, and spread it from the tower so that it can be read clearly from Qingxue Peak above. Write this: 'Draw the Heishan bandits out onto the plain and disarm them. Do not harm them. Their safety is guaranteed.'"

"I greatly doubt whether those fiendish Heishan bandits will meekly cast down their weapons and obey, even at their chief's command," Zhao Du said.

"Whether this card we have seized at the risk of our lives is a true card that will steady Yiyang County, or an empty card the wind will blow away, we will soon see it with our own eyes. And if the Heishan bandits lay down their arms, we too must work in careful parallel to persuade them while shedding as little blood as we can. Excepting the most vicious, who swing blades in a frenzy and raise a riot, I will strictly forbid meaningless slaughter. Of course, if they reject my proposal and run mad, I mean to suppress them without mercy. Do you take my meaning?"

"By your command!"

The three generals, my own men, answered as one, ringing and full of a heavy trust.

To prepare for open battle I sent Wen Chong and Zhao Du down from the walls first, and kept only Zhao Yun, the cavalry commander, at my side.

"Rider-Commandant Zhao. The thousand Jizhou cavalry you lead must be hidden deep inside the city. If we provoke them, it will be a grave matter. Only when this taut tension slackens will they feel safe enough to cooperate with us. But the Jizhou cavalry are not to strip their armor. Keep them tense and waiting, ready to ride out at any moment. If their resistance and their riot cross the line and grow fierce, you will sortie and stamp out every spark of it."

"I will carry out Sima Yuan's command."

Zhao Yun offered a loyal military salute and turned to withdraw. Then he stopped, came about, and looked at me long and deep.

"Sima Yuan."

I turned my head, and said nothing.

"Now... I can serve you with a loyal heart, even to the offering of my life. I mean it."

"Was the face Rider-Commandant Zhao has shown until now a false one?"

"I would not dare set out to deceive Sima Yuan, and yet... when you once ordered me to seize the august Emperor's edict, it is true that I harbored a deep anguish, and doubt. But watching you always seek the right path for the people, and labor to steady this age of chaos, I gathered a heart that had been growing weak. And today, in this place, I have come to see that Sima Yuan possesses a breast broad enough to hold the realm, and that you strive to carry out an upright will to care for the people. Seeing that, this subordinate at last became certain. Certain that the realm has need of Sima Yuan."

Zhao Yun offered a military salute of the utmost propriety and went down from the tower.

I smiled, watching the steadfast line of his back as it receded. Forcing a man to submit is easy. Winning a loyalty complete enough that he will throw his life away on the field is as hard as this. To win the true heart of an upright, faithful man like Zhao Yun is harder still than plucking a star from the sky.

You've grown a great deal.

I praised myself. It felt like receiving a prize for having worked hard.

A short while later, Zhao Du spread a great sheet of plain cloth at a slant across the tower and hung it there — the countersign he had written in heavy strokes of ink. The Heishan bandits below could not see it. Only Li Hui, high on Qingxue ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Peak, could look down upon that angle.

And then, in that blood-drying silence, how much bone-grinding time went by?

Suddenly, from the summit of Qingxue Peak, a heavy drum began to beat — boom, boom, boom — striking the heart like the roar of a beast. At the summit's edge, three great banners, red and white and blue, snapped hard in the rough mountain wind, spaced at even intervals. It was the command signal of Sun Qing, the chief who directed the entire Heishan host.

Tense to the bone, I turned my gaze to the deep ravine ahead. Would that humiliating order to disarm, issued in Sun Qing's name, truly take hold of thirty thousand Heishan bandits hungry for blood?

Some time later, far off, the dense thickets of the forest began to shake in a grotesque sway, and a clamorous clash of metal and footsteps set the earth itself trembling. Then, from the maw of the great ravine, a black mass of Heishan bandits came pouring onto the plain like a waterfall, weapons gripped, killing intent thick upon them.

Will they fight?

Or will they disarm, as Sun Qing has ordered?

I lifted my eyes to the ground below the walls. Wen Chong and Zhao Du stood there, drawn tight with tension. Zhao Yun, too, was ready for whatever might come.

Please. Let it go as I intend.

With a prayer in my chest, I fixed my eyes on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the front.