Fish Meat – Chapter 100
by Little PandaThe Tenth Year of Shenchu
Iron horses and golden spears (2)
After being pent up outside the city for a long time, they finally managed to slaughter their way into Mengliang. The Chongjin army rushed into the city, looting frantically, killing everyone they saw regardless of whether they were men, women, old, or young.
He Yannian, atop the city wall, had slain five or six people and toppled several siege ladders of the Chongjin attackers. Hu’er Ji climbed up to the top of the wall, brushed aside the obstructing minor soldiers, and hurled two axes at He Yannian, who was fighting ferociously, drenched in blood. He Yannian had just managed to kick away the soldiers clinging to him when a cold glint flashed towards the back of his neck. He hurriedly turned to block it with his sword, deflecting one of Hu’er Ji’s axes but missing the other. Hu’er Ji’s axes, thrown from both his left and right hands, attacked He Yannian’s upper and lower body. He Yannian blocked the axe aimed at his neck but had no time to parry the other, which chopped directly into his lower leg.
He Yannian, in extreme pain, didn’t retreat but instead let out a great shout and charged towards Hu’er Ji.
Hu’er Ji, who only knew a few phrases of the Central Plains language, shouted “Good!” He unstrapped the giant battle axe from his back and swung wildly at He Yannian’s head as the latter rushed forward.
Hu’er Ji possessed immense strength, and that giant axe weighed as heavy as a thousand jin, yet his arms could wield it with extreme dexterity. Hu’er Ji was very confident, each strike landing in the same spot, growing more excited with each chop. As the giant axe fell again and again, his shouts grew louder, and he fought with increasing ferocity. He Yannian, already 56 years old, had his arms nearly broken with each block of his sword. He retreated continuously, forced to the edge of the city wall. Hu’er Ji took a big step forward, intending to end He Yannian’s life with one axe blow. He Yannian, being an old general after all, dodged to the side at the crucial moment, taking the opportunity to slash Hu’er Ji’s waist.
Hu’er Ji, seemingly unaware of any pain, wildly twirled his battle axe in the air, then smashed it onto the stone bricks beside him. The bricks were instantly pulverized.
He Yannian was startled. This battle axe might weigh a hundred jin. Hu’er Ji truly lived up to his reputation as a famous Chongjin general, with unprecedented arm strength that inspired fear.
Hu’er Ji muttered to himself in the Chongjin language: “The longer you struggle, the more painful your death will be.”
Unfortunately, He Yannian couldn’t understand.
Throughout the city, civilians and soldiers frantically fled through the other three gates, vying to escape first. The soldiers ran even faster than the civilians. Zhen Wenjun and Ah Xi were caught in the midst of the panicked crowd, feeling extremely uncomfortable. Ah Xi was nearly pushed over several times, but Zhen Wenjun forcefully pulled her up. They absolutely could not fall down at this moment; otherwise, tens of thousands of people behind them would trample over them, and in the blink of an eye, they would be crushed into a bloody pulp.
The hoofbeats and shouts of the Chongjin soldiers followed closely behind. Seeing the panicked fleeing of the people, the Chongjin men threw their heads back in wild laughter.
The scene of fleeing refugees terrified Zhen Wenjun. Every time she looked back, she could see the Chongjin men, like devils atop tall horse heads, in close pursuit.
In the heavy snow, the strong Chongjin men wore only a piece of animal hide, exposing half their shoulders. Around their necks hung strange objects which, upon closer inspection, turned out to be human ears. Nearly ten people’s ears were strung together and suspended on their chests, making them look like demons rushing out of hell.
All the Chongjin soldiers, when faced with blood, corpses, and the extremely panicked and unarmed citizens of Da Yu, displayed the excitement of chasing prey and the numbness of slaughtering worthless dogs.
Zhen Wenjun had heard plenty about the terrifying nature of the Chongjin people before, how they were like beasts without a shred of humanity. But when it was just hearsay, this statement was nothing more than a commonplace, ordinary remark. Only by experiencing it firsthand, only by struggling with one’s gall bladder bursting and soul flying in terror under their butcher’s knives, could one truly understand what real “beasts” were, and what kind of mental state constituted true despair and fear.
The Chongjin army crushed the prosperous Mengliang to pieces. Li Ju fled without a trace. Of the fifty thousand troops, over twenty thousand were killed on the spot, with blood flowing down the steps. Half of Mengliang’s citizens escaped, while the remaining ten thousand were killed. Hu’er Ji awarded all twenty thousand surviving citizens to his soldiers, letting them choose slaves in order according to their military merits.
The Chongjin people reveled on the city walls all night long. The head of Governor Liu Guan was used as a wine vessel, while General He Yannian of Pingchuan was skinned to make winter clothing.
Men were tortured and killed, women were raped, and children became objects of amusement. Mengliang, the northern stronghold of Da Yu, had no resistance against the Chongjin iron cavalry. It fell shamefully within a day, becoming one of the most disastrous defeats in Da Yu’s history.
The remaining twenty thousand soldiers and ten thousand citizens fled the city, with Zhen Wenjun and Ah Xi among them.
Not knowing if there were pursuers behind, the crowd focused solely on escaping and was split into several groups by countless forks in the road. They were like flocks of sheep lost in the wilderness, chased by hungry wolves. The minds of these routed soldiers and citizens were blank. If not for the will to survive supporting them, driving their legs to run frantically without stopping, they would likely have been caught up in the iron hooves of the pursuing Chongjin army and trampled into a pulp of flesh and bone fragments.
This flock of blinded sheep ran as if possessed, pushing and shoving each other for the path, with the crowd filled with the stench of urine.
It wasn’t until someone running at the front suddenly lost direction and tumbled out, falling head over heels to the ground, that the fleeing crowd slowed down.
Someone shouted: “Barbarians! The barbarians are catching up to kill us!”
However, the crowd, having already run until they had no strength left, with chests burning in pain, once stopped, collapsed to the ground almost fainting, unable to stand up again. The fear of the barbarians in their hearts made them weep miserably, their wailing echoes reverberating through the mountain valley.
Zhen Wenjun had been silently pulling Ah Xi along at the back, running while observing. Whenever they encountered a fork in the road, they would go where more people ran, where there were more strong and fit individuals, and where there were fewer carts carrying provisions and supplies. By this point, their small group had dwindled to just over five hundred people.
All along the way, the crowd had only focused on running forward with their heads down, but Zhen Wenjun had been carefully observing the surroundings. The Chongjin pursuers wouldn’t come here to chase this group of useless remnant soldiers; they were mostly after the supply wagons and women and children. So from the beginning, Zhen Wenjun had avoided the supply carts. The Chongjin pursuers shouldn’t catch up, and even if they did, these five hundred strong men might be able to fight to the death.
She went forward to check on the person who had fallen and couldn’t get up, feeling for breath and pulse. Indeed, he was already dead.
“Stop wailing! There are no pursuers; he died from running! If you keep howling, you’ll really attract the barbarians!” Zhen Wenjun, being trained in martial arts, was young and strong; running ten li was nothing to her. Although she was also panicked, the years by Wei Tingxu’s side had cultivated a mentality beyond that of ordinary people. She had conserved quite a bit of energy along the way and could still move freely. Despite being thirsty, hungry, and weak-limbed, Zhen Wenjun’s voice was much louder than these collapsed, routed soldiers. This shout indeed calmed the ghostly crying in the mountain valley considerably.
Zhen Wenjun stood on a rock so everyone could see her: “There are pursuers, but they’ve all gone south to capture the supply wagons. No pursuers have followed us here, so everyone can rest here at ease.”
A middle-aged man, panting heavily, his face and ears red despite the cold winter, stepped forward and said: “I dare not stay long! The barbarians may not have caught up now, but once they’re done killing those left behind, they’ll come after us! If you want to die, stay here! Don’t mislead everyone with your deceptive words!”
Several people around immediately agreed: “That’s right! I’ve heard the barbarians are demons who eat human flesh and drink human blood! Their hair is red! Once they catch us, our souls will be sucked away, and we can’t fight them at all!”
“No wonder they so easily broke into the city!”
“Oh, mother! How can we ordinary people be a match for these demons! Let’s flee quickly! Otherwise, we’ll be eaten by them!”
“Pah!” A young gentleman who hadn’t yet discarded his spear propped himself up with his weapon and stood up, retorting, “What demons! I’ve killed barbarians before! They’re just like us, with one nose and two eyes! If you say they’re fierce, I’m a hundred times fiercer! They killed our parents and violated our wives and children! When we regroup with the main army, we’ll surely kill tens of thousands of barbarians to avenge our parents, wives, and children!”
The crowd looked at this skinny young gentleman, all skin and bones, still boasting even after fleeing this far, and they all felt utter contempt:
“Didn’t you flee too? If you’re so formidable, why didn’t you stay in Mengliang City and fight the barbarians to the death?”
The young gentleman’s face reddened, but he puffed out his chest and said: “The inchworm bends to stretch further, the dragon and snake hibernate to preserve themselves! A true man can bend and straighten as needed. I must keep my life to fight back later, isn’t that right?”
The middle-aged man who spoke earlier still sneered: “If you want to fight, go fight! Don’t drag us all to our deaths with you!”
“But… deserters are to be executed, aren’t they?” someone muttered softly.
“Hmph, even the Emperor has fled to who knows where. Why should only we be executed?”
Zhen Wenjun pointed at the corpse on the ground and said: “If you continue running forward, you’ll end up just like him, dying from exhaustion. Do you know where you’ve run to? Do you know where you are now? Do you know if you keep running forward, whether you’ll face steep cliffs or a dead end? The barbarians are just taller and stronger than us, but they don’t have three heads and six arms, they can die too. If you keep fleeing, it’s like bending over and waiting for the barbarians to kill you. But if you grip your weapons tightly and fight to the death, even if the fish dies, it can still break the net!”
“But our army of tens of thousands has already been defeated like this. Fight again? Isn’t that just suicide?”
Zhen Wenjun continued: “Do you think you can survive by just running? How much strength do you have left? How far can you run? I’m afraid you won’t even make it over this mountain before starving or freezing to death on the way. Tell me, you’ve been running for your lives all this way, and now you probably can’t even stand up, right? While fleeing, you could resist the mountain’s cold and dampness, but now that you’ve stopped, can you feel the cold? If you light a fire to warm up, within an hour the barbarians will follow the smoke and kill you. If you don’t light a fire, you’ll freeze to death. The animals in these mountains have probably all hidden away for winter, all provisions have been cut off, and in the winter wilderness around Mengliang, there’s not even a single edible wild vegetable. You people are unfamiliar with the terrain; to fill your stomachs, you can only rely on tree bark and roots. If you accidentally eat poisonous plants, you’ll save the barbarians the trouble.”
After seeing the fear on everyone’s faces following these words, Zhen Wenjun pointed to the mountain peak: “This mountain is called Cansan Peak, the boundary between Mengliang and Guanyang. If we can grit our teeth and climb up overnight, we needn’t fear even if the barbarian thieves come looking. No matter how formidable the barbarians’ horses are, they can’t climb a mountain full of frozen soil. They’ll have to climb on foot if they want to come up. We’ll have the advantage of the high ground, and with just some simple traps, we can kill them all.”
The middle-aged man said: “Little miss, that’s some big talk. You’re not even a proper Da Yu soldier, just a private guard. What ability do you have to boast like this?”
Zhen Wenjun wasn’t annoyed: “Let’s say I, Zhen Wenjun, am just boasting.” She looked back at the sky that was about to turn to night, and walked towards Cansan Peak, “Anyway, I’ve said my piece. Those who want to live, follow me. If you don’t believe me, then don’t come. Ah Xi, is there any food we can dig up on Cansan Peak?”
Ah Xi, walking beside Zhen Wenjun, said: “Yes! You can’t see it on the surface, but you need to find a shovel and dig into the frozen soil.”
“Can you find it?”
“Yes, I can. Ordinary people can’t find it, but I lived on Cansan Peak with my father for half a year, so I know where to look. The mountain delicacies are precious; one the size of a fingertip can sell for two taels of silver…”
As they talked and walked as if no one else was around, the young gentleman who had earlier boasted about killing barbarians followed them: “Wait for me, ladies! I want to go with you!”
The three of them walked further and further away, and by now it had become completely dark. After the frantic run, all the hot sweat had dissipated, and the five hundred people left behind, feeling increasingly cold, looked at each other in bewilderment.
“Where should we go next?”
“You’re asking me? Who am I supposed to ask?”
“Should we keep going forward?”
“What’s ahead? Damn this snowy weather, can’t tell east from west, north from south…”
“What did that young lady say her name was? Zhen Wenjun? Could she be the strategist by the side of Her Highness the Grand Princess?”
“Who? The strategist of the Grand Princess?”
“Yes, my father does odd jobs in the Grand Princess’s mansion and has heard of her. They say she’s a favored person by the Grand Princess’s side and has often given advice and planned strategies.”
“Her? A young lady?”
“Hey, you can’t speak carelessly about this. Isn’t the Grand Princess also a young lady…”
After this back-and-forth dialogue, everyone fell silent. A few people took the lead and followed in the direction Zhen Wenjun had left, while the remaining few hesitated before finally following as well.
“Hey! You big men are actually going to follow behind a woman! Aren’t you ashamed?” the middle-aged man shouted.
Just after he shouted, suddenly a chorus of wolf howls echoed.
“They say there are indeed snow wolves roaming the outskirts of Mengliang, specifically hunting small, isolated animals,” someone said, shivering in the darkness. “These snow wolves always move in packs, and because they’re hungry, they’re especially fierce. Once they catch their prey, they won’t let go… I, I, I don’t want to be caught by them. Wait for me!”
After another group of people left, those remaining couldn’t stand it anymore and immediately decided to go with the flow and climb the mountain.
“You… you spineless lot!” The middle-aged man stomped his foot heavily and followed them.
Zhen Wenjun had managed to scrape some tree resin to start a fire, lighting a torch to illuminate the mountain path. Northern trees were dry and didn’t have much resin; tearing off a piece of clothing to wrap around the branch as an oil cloth could extend the burning time of the flame, but walking blindly might not be enough to reach the mountaintop.
Fortunately, Ah Xi seemed to have found the mountain path in the light. Zhen Wenjun and the young gentleman followed her, quickly leaving behind the difficult frozen soil and stepping onto stone steps.
The stone steps were covered with a layer of ice, making them treacherous to walk on, but at least it was a path. By the light of the torch, Zhen Wenjun found the young gentleman increasingly familiar.
“Lady Wenjun,” the gentleman, noticing Zhen Wenjun’s confusion, spoke up first.
“Oh? We indeed have met before,” Zhen Wenjun remembered. “You’re the Wei family messenger.”
This person was indeed one of the Wei family’s messengers, skilled in horsemanship. The last time they met, he wasn’t this thin. If not for the faint mole between his eyebrows, Zhen Wenjun might not have recognized him at all.
The young gentleman said his surname was Zuo, given name Kunda, courtesy name Jiyong, and that he was a distant relative of the former Minister of State Affairs, Zuo Xu. Speaking of Zuo Xu’s death, Zuo Kunda became very angry, but as a mere soldier, he could do nothing. Even his attempt to go to the front lines to kill enemies ended in a hasty retreat. At this point, thinking of Mengliang’s likely current miserable state, Zuo Kunda was overcome with sorrow and couldn’t help but cry out loud.
“Stop crying, what use is crying?” Zhen Wenjun said coldly. “Hurry to reach the peak, finding food to fill our stomachs is urgent.”
“Now that Mengliang has fallen, Chongjin will soon attack Runing. When that time comes, with the country destroyed and families ruined, wouldn’t it be better to die here for the country!”
Zhen Wenjun thought of how graceful Zuo Kunda had been when riding a horse before. If it were someone else, she wouldn’t have bothered to waste her breath: “If the country truly falls and you want to die for it, then do so. No one’s stopping you. But now, it’s just Mengliang that has fallen, we haven’t reached the point of national destruction and family ruin, okay? Besides, if Mengliang is lost, we can take it back.”
Zuo Kunda looked at Zhen Wenjun in disbelief: “Take it back? Could it be that you have a way?”
While using the torch to explore the path, Zhen Wenjun casually answered as if joking: “Yes, I do.”
Zuo Kunda knew about Zhen Wenjun. She worked for Li Yanyi, maneuvering at the very center of power struggles, quite formidable. But how many people did they have now? The Chongjin army that attacked Mengliang had at least a hundred thousand troops. Moreover, Mengliang city had deep walls and strong moats; once occupied, it would be quite difficult to recapture. Yet she dared to speak so boldly?
Zuo Kunda was very curious about what method she had, and kept asking along the way, completely forgetting his fatigue. As Zhen Wenjun climbed the mountain, she told him the plan in her mind. After listening, Zuo Kunda curiously inquired:
“May I ask, Miss Zhen, have you ever led troops in battle before?”
Zhen Wenjun shook her head: “I’ve only engaged in armchair strategizing, borrowing some wisdom from the ancients and experiences from famous battles.”
“Brilliant… truly brilliant!” Zuo Kunda grew more excited as he thought about it.
However, Zhen Wenjun wasn’t as optimistic as him: “But we don’t have any people. Even if we have a plan in mind, without people, we can’t accomplish anything.”
“We do have people!” Ah Xi pointed at the hundred or so people following them up the mountain.
“This few won’t be enough to get things done.” Zhen Wenjun was somewhat dejected.
Watching helplessly as their compatriots in Mengliang were being killed, she had a plan but ultimately had no way to use it, and could only watch the tragedy unfold before her eyes.
“How many people do you need?” Zuo Kunda, who had just been thinking about dying for the country, immediately became energized and kept pestering Zhen Wenjun with questions. “I can help you find all the people! At least twenty to thirty thousand usable people escaped, and they’ve probably all headed to Xie County, southwest of Mengliang.”
That’s right. Zhen Wenjun knew that as a woman, her words would be hard to convince people. If Zuo Kunda spoke instead, presenting himself as a member of the Zuo family, it might be more persuasive. But even if they could gather all the escaped people, trying to recapture Mengliang from Chongjin’s hundred thousand troops would still be quite an undertaking. She needed to craft many siege weapons, and it was hard to say whether there would be skilled craftsmen among these people.
Mengliang was a very advantageous stronghold. Moving forward, they could attack Guanyang; retreating, they could defend Qianhai Pass. After several victories, Chongjin had ample provisions. Once they established a firm foothold in Mengliang, it would only become more difficult to dislodge them.
Mengliang absolutely could not be abandoned so easily.
Now, Chongjin had marched a long distance, with three months of continuous warfare without a moment’s rest. Their long-distance advance must have left them extremely fatigued. Winning several consecutive battles had indeed boosted Chongjin’s morale, but it had also made the already arrogant Chongjin people even more haughty.
Launching a counterattack while they were complacent would be the best opportunity. Zhen Wenjun saw a chance of victory in her mind, if only she had troops to use.
If only there were people who would listen to her words.
The people who followed Zhen Wenjun up the mountain occupied the peak. Zhen Wenjun had them split into two groups: one group followed Ah Xi to find wild food to stave off hunger and start fires for warmth, while the other group followed Zhen Wenjun and Zuo Kunda to set up traps.
Just as they were halfway through setting up the traps, suddenly, in the dim firelight, heads could be seen moving. The crowd, who had just escaped death at the hands of Chongjin, was greatly startled. Their first thought was that the barbarians had come to kill them.
“Stay calm, don’t panic,” Zhen Wenjun said, “The thorns have all been coated with anesthetic. Even the barbarians won’t be able to get through.”
Before departing, Zhen Wenjun had specifically gone to find Bu Jie and squeezed all the Saimafei from his body, bringing it to the northern frontier. She knew this substance would definitely be useful, and now was the opportunity for Saimafei to shine!
Over a hundred strapping men on tall horses huddled together, trembling with fear at the sight of several dark shadows. These shadows grew more and more numerous. At first, there seemed to be over a hundred, but in the end, thousands of shadows surged from all directions. Even Zhen Wenjun felt intimidated. Could the barbarian bandits have discovered them so quickly?
Suddenly, someone among the shadows coughed and asked in a confident voice using the Central Plains language: “Who’s there?!”
Hearing the familiar language, the crowd, who had been terrified for so long, nearly wept with joy and shouted: “It’s us! We are all people of Da Yu!”
Zuo Kunda immediately covered the mouth of the person who shouted: “Aren’t you afraid it might be the Chongjin people’s trick?”
After Zuo Kunda said this, no one dared to make a sound. Those dark shadows quickly surrounded them, and Zhen Wenjun’s heart was pounding. If these were Chongjin pursuers in such great numbers, and the traps had not yet been fully set, it would be difficult to resist. They would all likely be killed.
A person walked out from among the shadows, with a thin and tall figure, long hair coiled into a bun, tightly covering the top of the head. Above the shoulder, a sword hilt protruded at an angle. This person spoke:
“Fire.”
Torches were passed from person to person from the rear, quickly reaching her hand.
This was a woman’s voice, one that Zhen Wenjun had heard before.
The torch flashed in front of Zhen Wenjun and Zuo Kunda’s faces, the bright light so intense that it made them unable to open their eyes.
“It is indeed you,” the person opposite recognized Zhen Wenjun.
After their eyes adjusted to the brightness, Zhen Wenjun opened her eyes again, and Xie family’s Ah Xin’s long eyebrows and deep eyes appeared before her.
“Why are you here?” Ah Xin, who greatly disliked this minion of Wei Tingxu, rather coldly swept the torch over the people in front of her one by one, and immediately understood, “Did you escape from Mengliang City?”
Zhen Wenjun didn’t speak, but Zuo Kunda spoke for her, asking in return, “And what about you?”
“Me?” Ah Xin let out a cold laugh, her eyes determined as she said, “I am Xie family’s Ah Xin, who is going to fight her way back into Mengliang!”
0 Comments