Jingzhou Subjugation (2)
Jiangxia Castle sprawled before the vast plain. The killing intent pouring from fifty thousand troops crushed the earth beneath them. The sky hung heavy with gloom, and the wind carried the damp scent of soil mingled with blood. It felt like a downpour was imminent—no, like a rain of blood was about to fall.
Atop the castle walls, Huang Zu—trusted retainer of Jingzhou's Inspector Liu Biao and governor of Jiangxia—had packed the battlements with defenders and gazed down arrogantly. The walls were tall and sturdy, fronted by a deep moat that made the defenses seem impregnable.
Huang Zu, still drunk on the thrill of slaying Sun Jian days earlier, was underestimating the enemy before him.
"Hmph, Yuan Shu? That coward who stole the imperial seal and fled Luoyang dares invade Jingzhou? Pathetic. And look at those troops—half of them are ragged stragglers. Do they even eat properly?"
Huang Zu snickered to his adjutant at his side.
"Who's that at the vanguard? The banner doesn't look like Yuan Shu's... And what's with that bizarre getup? Did he come to perform a ritual on the battlefield?"
The adjutant pointed a trembling finger toward the castle gate.
"Governor, th-that's Sun Jian's son, Sun Ce. But his attire..."
The general at the forefront, Sun Ce. His appearance was utterly bizarre, yet it seized every gaze with an overwhelming aura.
It wasn't the flashy golden armor or crimson silk cape common on the battlefield. Over cold scale mail still stained with the red bloodstains from battles days ago, he had roughly draped a coarse yellow hemp garment. His sleeves were rolled up and tied for mobility, a thick white sash bound around his waist. Beneath his helmet, a white band encircled his head, proclaiming his mourning status to the world.
Mourning garb on the battlefield. It was the blood-soaked wail of a son who hadn't even completed his father's funeral rites—a frozen vow like frost that he would not rest until vengeance was his.
Each gust of riverside wind made the rough hemp flaps billow, clashing against his iron armor with a strange clack, clack. It sounded like the rustle of a death god's robes.
From Sun Ce in his white mourning clothes emanated a blazing killing intent.
Sun Ce gripped his spear shaft as if to crush it, biting his lip until blood trickled down his chin. Yet he seemed oblivious to the pain.
"Until I avenge my father, I will never remove this rough hemp. This land stained with my father's blood—I will wash it clean with theirs."
His eyes were no longer human.
Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, Han Dang, Zhu Zhi, and the other Jiangdong generals and soldiers following him were the same. They were less an army than a horde of vengeful demons crawled up from the depths of hell.
The silent pressure they exuded made the defenders on the walls swallow dryly and step back involuntarily.
Huang Zu shattered the heavy silence with a vile laugh.
"Aha! So you're that dead tiger's whelp! Putting on a show, eh?"
Leaning halfway out from the ramparts, Huang Zu bellowed.
His voice dripped with mockery and insult.
"Hey, you milk-scented brat! Your fool of a father got himself turned into a pincushion for overstepping, and now you've come crawling to join him? What a filial son! Want to follow daddy to the afterlife that badly?"
The Jingzhou soldiers on the walls erupted in laughter.
"Scram! Go mourn your father and suckle some more milk! Who do you think you are, prancing around in mourning rags like bad luck on legs? Your dad's corpse is probably crow food by now—want us to turn you into fish bait?"
Their vile laughter pierced Sun Ce's eardrums.
In that instant, blood vessels burst in his eyes. The whites turned red.
The steel spear shaft in his grip trembled violently with a creeeak, like molten candy.
His muscles swelled with rage.
"......"
Sun Ce said nothing. No curses, no shouts.
But that silence weighed heavier and more chilling than a hundred words.
The air around him seemed to freeze.
Even Cheng Pu and Huang Gai at his side held their breath under his aura.
From the rear, I watched his back alongside Yuan Shu. A chill ran down my spine.
I knew it. This silence wasn't the calm before a storm—it was a volcano on the verge of eruption, forcibly swallowing its boiling lava.
They touched the untouchable reverse scale. Huang Zu, you'll see hell today.
If hell had its most terrifying demon, it would look like that. Madness beyond rage. An aura that transcended human reason.
"General Seo."
Sun Ce called me softly, without turning.
His voice was calm, but it rippled with flames that could incinerate all.
"Give the order."
His voice quivered faintly.
"Let me rip out that bastard's tongue... Let me tear down those walls with my bare hands and grind them to dust. I can't hold back anymore."
I slowly drew the sword at my waist and thrust it skyward. Sunlight flashed off the blade.
"Permission granted. Go show them. Engrave upon the world how fearsome the Yuan Shu army is!"
"Entire army! Charge!! Grind that castle to powder!!"
"Waaaaah—!!"
Sun Ce's roar thundered across the plain. With it, the Jiangdong troops surged like a tidal wave.
They ignored standard siege tactics. No shield walls, no archer cover.
No formations, no drum beats.
Only primal instincts—"kill," "destroy"—drove them.
Armed with fury at their lord's death, fearless of even demise, the vengeful spirits crossed the moat and charged the walls. Mud splashed, war cries pierced the heavens.
Leading them was Sun Ce, his white mourning robes fluttering.
"Fire! Shoot! Keep them back!"
Huang Zu commanded in panic. Arrows rained from the walls.
Piiiing—whoosh!Thud-thud-thud!
Arrows blotted the sky like a monsoon.
Normally, troops would advance behind shields or halt to dodge.
But Sun Ce didn't stop. He didn't slow.
Clop-clop! Leaping from his horse, he batted away the arrows with his spear, charging straight for the gate. His spear danced, deflecting them effortlessly.
But the volley was too dense. Arrows grazed his shoulder and thigh, drawing red blood.
Yet he ignored it. Like a man insensate to pain—no, a monster fueling on agony—he ran. Only Huang Zu's neck was his target.
"Impossible... Is that even human?"
Huang Zu's eyes bulged atop the wall. Terror gripped him.
Reaching the gate, Sun Ce dismounted and began scaling the wall. No ladders. No siege engines. No patience for cloud ladders.
He clawed at cracks and protrusions with bare hands. Up he climbed—like a spider, no, a leopard stalking prey—vertically, at superhuman speed.
"Th-that mad bastard! Stones! Oil! Knock him off!"
At Huang Zu's scream-laced order, defenders hurled rocks and boiling oil.
House-sized boulders crashed down with roars; scalding oil cascaded like waterfalls.
But Sun Ce dodged with animal instinct, ascending relentlessly. Oil splattered, searing skin; shards gashed his forehead. Nails splintered, blood poured, staining the wall red—yet he accelerated.
Grind...
Sun Ce clenched his teeth to shattering point, gripping the bricks. Finger bones screamed, but memories of his father's death, that day's helplessness, Huang Zu's sneers fueled superhuman strength.
"Block him! Spear him!"
As he neared the top, soldiers thrust long spears.
In that moment, Sun Ce seized the parapet with one hand and launched into the air. Hemp flaps ghosted like wings.
"Die!!"
Crunch! Landing, his thrust pierced a soldier's chest, bursting out the back. No scream—too swift.
The "demon in mourning robes" had landed on the wall.
"Raaargh!!"
With a beastly howl, Sun Ce yanked his spear free and devastated all around. His spearmanship prioritized raw destruction over finesse. No need for technique—overwhelming power and speed was technique.
Each swing severed three or four heads, splintered shields, lopped limbs. The wall became a blood-soaked slaughterhouse.
His white robes turned crimson—deep crimson—with foes' blood. Mourning garb or gore-soaked shroud? Indistinguishable. Even the white headband soaked red.
"Father's enemies! I'll slaughter you all! Not one survives!"
His eyes rolled back, whites only. Blood-drenched, berserk—he was terror incarnate.
Defenders, crushed by his killing intent, dropped weapons and fled. Any who stood became minced meat.
"Not human! A ghost! Run!"
Screams spread. Formations collapsed, chaos reigned.
Sun Ce's solo bridgehead opened the wall; Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, and Jiangdong generals swarmed up ladders.
"Avenge our lord! Extirpate their seed!"
Huang Gai's twin iron maces crushed skulls; Cheng Pu's halberd impaled a captain's heart. Han Dang's greatsword cleaved through ranks. The veterans' rage matched Sun Ce's.
Finally, Jiangxia's "impregnable" gates swung open from within. With a snap of shattering bars, Yuan Shu's main force poured in with roars.
"Waaaaah—!"
Waiting troops flooded like a deluge. Jiangxia fell.
Too easily. I'd braced for heavy losses, yet it crumbled in a day. Unbelievable.
Yuan Shu, watching from afar, gaped.
"Wha... Seowon. That Sun Ce—he's fiercer than his father, isn't he? Thrashing in mourning garb... My legs are jelly. Scary if he haunts my dreams tonight."
He marveled at Sun Ce's monstrous prowess. Not a general—a calamity.
"That's why we keep him on our side. Turn a beast like that against us, and we're done."
"Right, exactly. Rock solid! But... what if he turns on me? Those eyes—he might not recognize his master."
"I'll keep his leash tight. Don't worry. Sun Ce is loyal. As long as we don't abandon him, he won't abandon us."
Yuan Shu finally relaxed, nodding. Taming such a monster beside him was his greatest comfort and pride.
Meanwhile, as walls breached and gates opened, Huang Zu paled.
Blood drained from his face.
"Damn it! Mad dogs! To fall this fast?!"
He judged swiftly. No chance in melee. Yuan Shu's momentum surged; Sun Ce wasn't human. Fight inside, and he'd lose his head as offering at Sun Jian's grave.
But he had a fallback: Jingzhou's lifeline, the natural fortress Yangtze.
"All troops! Abandon the castle! Retreat to the river forts! To the ships! We yield land for water!"
Huang Zu led remnants through a secret rear passage to the riverbank. There waited Liu Biao's prized fleet: dozens of towering tower ships and assault barges crowding the water.
"Don't let him escape! Huang Zu! Stand and fight!"
Sun Ce raced through alleys, bloodied spear in hand. Cheng Pu and Huang Gai followed. Corpses trailed them.
But Huang Zu boarded by a hair.
"Weigh anchor! Hurry! Before that maniac arrives!"
Huang Zu stomped the prow. Oarsmen rowed fiercely. Ships pulled from shore.
By Sun Ce's arrival at the docks, Huang Zu's vessel was beyond arrow range.
"Uahaha! Sun Ce, you pup! Thought hopping on land would catch me?!"
Safe afloat, Huang Zu resumed taunts. Fifty paces out—arrows reach, blades don't.
He gripped the rail, slapping the hull, cackling. Terror forgotten.
"This is Jingzhou! We rule the waves! Upset? Swim over! I'll make you a water ghost like your dad! That mourning rag will make perfect burial shroud when soaked!"
Piiiing—whoosh! Arrows flew from ships. Yuan Shu troops pursuing to shore fell.
Unbeatable cavalry on land? Useless at riverside. Horses shied from water; soldiers queasy at ripples.
"Grr... Coward! Come down! Fight me fair!"
Sun Ce lunged for the river. Bloodied robes soaked in chill flow. Wounds stung, but less than heart's blaze.
"My lord! No!"
Cheng Pu and Huang Gai grabbed him.
"Currents are fierce! Bare-handed, you'll be target practice!"
"Let go! He's right there! Father's killer mocking me! I can't let him slip away!"
Sun Ce wailed like a beast, but the river flowed indifferently. His cries scattered vainly over water.
Yuan Shu's main force: northern horsemen and infantry. Naval novices who couldn't handle boats or water fights. Most seasick on deck sway.
Huang Zu's navy: Yangtze-born. Ships were home. Invincible afloat.
Yuan Shu arrived panting, stomping.
"H-he's escaping! Seowon! What now? Our boys can't doggy-paddle! Just watch? Let prize meat slip?!"
Situation reversed. We dominated land; Huang Zu ruled river.
He planned to park midstream, pepper us with arrows, mock from safety. Tower ships blocked the width.
"Damn... No ships. Even if, against those behemoths..."
Qi Ling clicked his tongue. Our "fleet": meager ferries. Egg vs. rock.
Time favored Huang Zu.
Sun Ce rushed me, soaked, tears streaming.
"General Seo! Ships! Rafts even—I'll cross! Can't let him go! Father's killer right there!"
I gripped his shoulders.
"Calm, Uncle Sun. Rafts against tower ships? Suicide. Avenge your father as fish food?"
I soothed him steadily, eyeing Huang Zu's leisurely fleet.
He knew our naval weakness, grew complacent. Ships anchored midriver, iron chains linking for stability—like land banquets.
As expected. Knew you'd flee to water in a pinch. Jingzhou navy pride will kill you.
This was in my calculations.
I turned. There waited my ace from Gwangneung.
"Jang Heum."
"Yes, General!"
The bronze-skinned man stepped forward. River rat who treated waters like home. Yangtze wave-reader. His eyes burned.