Tortured screams echoed over the walls of Castle JiangHu in a ghastly concert of bloodcurdling torment and inhuman misery, and for three whole nights, Hongji was helpless to stop it.
Perched atop his command tower on the innermost wall, he steeled his nerves and took in the horrific tableau arranged on the fields before him, so close, yet too far for him to do anything about. In front of the Enemy camp less than two kilometers away, hundreds of Imperial prisoners were suspended or splayed across the fields, well out of bow shot and too spread out for catapults to accurately target. Even without Scrying, he could make out the jerky, spastic movements of the abused victims as they struggled to escape their restrictive bonds and avoid a slow, painful death, while some heinous Defiled working of Chi magnified the sounds of their screams for all to hear. For those doomed prisoners, there would be no respite from this hardship, no release from this anguish, not until sweet death came to claim them, and he wished with all his heart that he could do anything to hasten it.
It took a sick mind to devise a torture such as this, a Defiled mind which delighted in spreading misery and suffering to others. First, the intended victim was bound naked and spread-eagle to a flat stone bed, which was then angled forwards to offer everyone on the castle walls an unobstructed view of the process. Then, a second prisoner was brought in, escorted by two armored Defiled, pretenders who dared call themselves Chosen. There, they gave their prisoner one of two choices: take up the hammer propped next to the bound figure, or become the next unfortunate soul to be bound to the stone plank. A good number of prisoners chose the plank, and at first, Hongji applauded their bravery, but soon enough, he couldn’t help but wonder if he himself had the courage to choose the same, knowing what awaited them next.
For those prisoners who chose the hammer, they were directed to use it in a very specific way. Starting at the victim’s feet, the accomplices wielded their hammers and worked their way up to ankles, shins, knees, and thighs, stopping in between each swing so that the supervising Defiled can inspect and see if the bone was properly broken. This slow, methodical torture was designed to give the victims time to savor each new injury, and the accomplices time to reflect on the results of their actions. The arms came next, starting at the hands and moving up to the shoulders in the same measured cadence until the unfortunate victims limbs were all broken and useless. Most screamed from the first hit and never stopped until they ran out of breath or passed out, but some did their best to endure. Perhaps a handful of stalwart heroes resisted more than two or three strikes, but even from across this distance, Hongji flinched every time he saw a hammer blow land with a resounding, Chi-magnified crack.
For many of those accomplices, their anguish was almost a match for their victims, with so many breaking down mid-torture and unable to continue on. Those tormented souls joined the line of waiting victims, while a new prisoner was brought in to continue the torture. Worst of all, the suffering did not end with merely four broken limbs. Once the hammering was done with, the Defiled then removed their victims from the plank and strung them up on posts for all to see, eliciting a fresh wave of screams as the prisoners were suspended from a low column with their mangled arms and legs bent back. Then, the Defiled forced their accomplice to prepare a bed of coals to light beneath their victim’s belly. Every five minutes, a new coal was added and the flames fanned anew, while a nearby Defiled checked the victim’s condition to ensure they still lived. If the victim was still alive, but too weak to scream, they were force fed a bowl of unpalatable stew which brought them back from the brink of death to endure even more suffering.
And when they finally expired, a new victim was bound to the stone bed, but not before offering the victim a chance to be the accomplice instead. Some took that offer, but others refused, and Hongji was not sure which of the two were wiser.
All told, there were hundreds of prisoners being tortured by hundreds of accomplices at any given time, arranged in a long, neat row to afford everyone on the castle walls a view of the proceedings. Worse than watching the torture was seeing the impact on the accomplice, all of whom started off hesitant and fearful, but despite the forced nature of their complicity, many grew more vicious and depraved as the torture went on. Those accomplices who did poorly were beaten before returning to the pool of potential victims, while those who exhibited bloodlust and initiative were rewarded in some way. Hongji could only assume they were given a choice, for he saw some receive food and alcohol, while others were given a bedroll and another prisoner, and a few were even given freedom to return to Castle JiangHu, at which point Hongji had no choice but to execute them. After the first day and several dozen deaths outside the castle gates, none of the accomplices chose that option anymore, and more took up the most heinous reward of all, to turn coat and take up arms against the Empire. There, in full view of the castle, those most faithless of accomplices were given scavenged Imperial gear, which they then proceeded to deface in some unholy manner using the corpse of their victim.
This was an initiation, and it was disheartening to see how many turncoats enthusiastically embraced this depraved ritual, mutilating and cannibalizing the remains of their former comrades, countrymen, and victims with the unhinged glee of a child given a new toy. To make matters worse, everyone could see that these gathered prisoners and victims were not Imperial commoners, people too weak and helpless to defend themselves, but captured Imperial Warriors one and all, mighty men and women who once defended the front lines against the Enemy now driven mad enough to take up arms beside them.
At this moment in time, every living soul inside Castle JiangHu was wondering if this was to be their inevitable fate, to choose between victim and accomplice, death and Defilement, and Hongji feared what this mindset was doing to his soldiers. Morale was at an all-time low within the castle, and courage could only sustain them for so long, especially with the screams continuing non-stop while wave after wave of Defiled attacks probed their defenses. The last few taxing battles proved that the Enemy General was not the same foe he faced in Sinuji, for this commander was a formidable adversary, a battle-scarred veteran well-versed in Imperial tactics and well-practiced at executing and countering them. This was no uneducated Defiled Chieftain at the helm of the Enemy army, testing theories they’d only read about and learning everything for the first time. No, here at Castle JiangHu, they faced a true Imperial General, a former Western hero who embraced the Father’s lies and now sought to raze and overthrow the Empire he or she once served, much like those traitorous accomplices down below who were gleefully mutilating their former comrades.
Hongji once feared this very scenario, to face off against the greatest military minds of the West and be found wanting. Surely it wasn’t Siege Breaker Gao Changgong on the field across from them, else Castle JiangHu’s gates would have been battered and beaten down by the aggressive Major General on the first day of battle. It could still be YuChun of the Ten Thousand Spears, whom Hongji suspected of leading the first concentrated Defiled assault on Sinuji, but once again, a cohort of spear-wielding Defiled was not enough to conclude that the Western Lieutenant General had turned traitor. There was a time when Hongji hoped the Western Great Heroes had remained true to the Empire and only ruffians and malcontents had joined the Enemy, but those hopes died after seeing so many of his countrymen succumb to the Father’s lies. Besides, it was hard to believe a self-professed bandit leader like half-badger Huanhuzi would be so well-versed in Imperial tactics, especially since his claim to fame came from leading a pirate fleet that roamed the Azure Sea in search of plunder only to hide within an extensive network of underground tunnels when the Imperial Army turned its attention towards him.
No, it was clear at least one Imperial General had turned traitor, and Hongji would give his left arm to know who. Not just to satisfy his burning curiosity, but also because Huang Shaotian’s Three Hunting Strategies stated that in order to effectively defeat your enemy, you must first know your enemy. During his time away from the front lines due to political pressure, Hongji studied the records of every living Great Hero of the West, and aside from the two named above, there were only a handful of suspects who this Enemy General could be, with each one a worse prospect than the last. There was Brigadier Zhao Xiangru, but he was famed for his personal battlefield exploits rather than his prowess in command. It could also be Major General Lian DaoXiang, the Desert Menace, but thus far, the Enemy cavalry had been utilized in orthodox fashion, with none of the high risk, high reward gambits the Western General was famed for. There were others who it might be, but unless they were hidden talents far more able than their records showed, Hongji suspected only one Great Hero of the West could adapt so quickly and command the Enemy forces so efficiently, and he feared for the future.
The sandy deserts of the Western Province were rich in valuable commodities, but lacking in arable land, making food a precious resource and potable water even more precious inland. The common idiom went ‘birds and beasts die for food just as men die for wealth’, but this was not true in the West, for its unique circumstances meant food was oftentimes more precious than coin, since one could not fill an empty belly or parch one’s thirst with cold, hard metal. Thus, for centuries, the West was plagued by an endless streak of rebellions and uprisings whose cause could be traced back to drought or famine, as even a starving rat will fight back when left with no other option. In recent memory however, the Western province had undergone a time of peace and prosperity, with two decades free of rebellion and upheaval, all thanks to Gongsun Qi, the only serving Colonel General of the West.
Born as a peasant by the name of Bai Qi, he rose to prominence during the rebellion of Yique, wherein a Magistrate declared independence from the Empire after unlawfully seizing multiple shipments of rice and meat to withstand the inevitable seige. Young Bai Qi, then a twenty-two year old Captain, was credited with breaking the backbone of what would have been a hard-fought rebellion by infiltrating the Magistrate’s palace and assassinating the man in the dead of night, before escaping with proof that the Magistrate and other rebellion leaders were Defiled. This eventually led to a wholesale purge of the entire city in which over a million peasants were put to death, and rumors whispered that Bai Qi’s parents were among the civilians slain. Some even claimed he led his parents to the slaughter himself, ignoring their pleas as they screamed for mercy, but Hongji found this hard to believe. Regardless of whether this was true or not, the previously unknown Captain proved to be a force to be reckoned with as he set out on a long and bloody career putting down rebellions similar to the one which may or may not have rendered him an orphan.
Though all accounts described him as a polite, no-nonsense man, Bai Qi’s record showed him to be ruthless and without mercy, slaughtering anyone and everyone who dared rise up against the Empire. When swords and spears killed too slowly, he collapsed walls, set cities ablaze, ruined storehouses of food, spilled stockpiles of water, doing whatever was necessary to secure victory and killing indiscriminately in the name of duty. When his heavy handed tactics came to light, he was accused of being Defiled, but over the years, this same accusation came up multiple times, and each time, Bai Qi was cleared of any and all crimes by multiple independent investigations and continued his career unimpeded. By the time he turned forty, he’d risen through the ranks to become a Brigadier and Peak Expert, a dragon soaring high above his peers and destined for greatness. Many a rebellion was quelled by the mere news that he had been dispatched, with rebels scrambling to surrender to anyone who would treat them better than the merciless Bai Qi, all of which earned him the ironic title, ‘Lord of Martial Peace’.
Over the years, Bai Qi clashed with Huanhuzi to no effect, put down more rebellions, and slaughtered Defiled in droves. Upon rising to the rank of Colonel General, he renamed himself Gongsun Qi, doing away with pretensions to embrace his ‘Lordly’ title instead. The man deserved it though, as he earned his final promotion due to his part in dealing with a massive Defiled tribe which made it into the province undetected via underground tunnels. The then Lieutenant General had fortuitously been close by, at which point he sallied out with five-thousand soldiers to delay these marauding foes. With the odds sorely stacked against him, Gongsun Qi lured the Defiled into a scorching hot desert and harassed the Enemy while allowing the elements do the lion’s share of the killing for him. When Imperial reinforcements arrived three days later, the entire hundred-thousand force of Defiled was dead and gone, while less than two-hundred of Gongsun Qi’s soldiers still drew breath, but it was a stunning victory for this Great General of the West, one which secured him the highest military rank in the Empire and a place in the annals of history.
And now, Hongji feared the formidable Lord of Martial Peace stood on the field across from him, leading the so-called Chosen into battle against the Empire after finally succumbing to the Enemy’s lies. Who else would so quickly adapt his tactics to counter the catapults and crossbows festooning the castle walls? Who else would dare sacrifice ten-thousand of their own troops just to probe Hongji’s response time, and use this information against him in another battle? Who else would think to use this slow, methodical torture as a psychological attack to grind away at Imperial morale? The Three Hunting Strategies said to know your enemy, but what good was it to know you were outmatched in every way possible?
Take their current circumstances. The prisoners were being tortured out of bow-range, but within catapult range, tempting Hongji to waste precious ammunition in a futile attempt to end their suffering. The Enemy commander was astute enough to guess that Falling Rain’s hollow, spherical, concrete shells were manufactured and therefore limited in number, and by not using them to fire upon the poor victims, Hongji confirmed as much. What the Enemy commander didn’t know however was that the ammunition wasn’t the catapults’ limiting factor, but the central beam itself, which ran the risk of cracking or splintering every time it fired. If word of this were to get out, Hongji suspected Gongsun Qi, or whoever the canny Enemy commander might be, would not go to so much effort to silence those engines of war, but they’d already paid a costly price since Hongji set his Peak Experts to guarding them.
So that was one point in his favor, but alas, the Enemy scored many more. Castle JiangHu was faltering beneath the weight of sustained Enemy attacks, with patrols being ambushed and taken prisoner, messengers intercepted and made an example of, and supply convoys raided and slaughtered to the last. Unlike at Sinuji, the Enemy forces were not content to attack from a single angle, and were working hard to encircle the entire fortification which would spell Hongji’s doom. Only the threat of Northern heavy cavalry and chariots roaming the plains kept the castle from being overrun, but even this wouldn’t keep them safe for much longer. Central and Bekhai outriders were doing a fantastic job harassing the Enemy flanks, and the infantry was holding the walls admirably, but Hongji didn’t have enough of either to turn the tides of battle. Now, squads of roving Demons were running amok and attacking supply caravans East of him, while the other castles along the center of the second line were similarly being pressured without respite, with Defiled forces pushing through at multiple lines of egress in hopes of swinging around to attack a castle, any castle, from the rear. The Enemy meant to break through here, of this, there was no doubt in Hongji’s mind, but thankfully, the sons and daughters of Central understood the stakes they were fighting for and were desperate to hold for as long as possible.
How long that might be, Hongji couldn’t say. Last night, they suffered the heaviest attack to date and his forces lost sections of the outer wall to the Defiled attackers several times, only to retake them later at great cost. As a general rule of thumb, Defiled tribesmen were fierce, but inferior to Imperial soldiers in single combat, especially when fighting at a disadvantage. These Chosen however were all former soldiers themselves, or close to it, and were far more effective than their tribal counterparts. If not for the irregulars firing crossbows and catapults non-stop all throughout the night, the Enemy might have already taken the castle, but those weapons couldn’t be counted on for much longer. After several days of near non-stop fighting, the common people who made up Falling Rain’s irregulars were beginning to come apart at the seams, much like their catapults were in danger of shattering. These were no Martial Warriors here to serve their holy duty, but criminal commoners serving sentences for their crimes, and thus were not doing well faced with the prospect of death and dismemberment. Already, Hongji had to order over a hundred irregulars put to death, for reasons which ran the gamut from cowardice to desertion, and even two on suspicion of turning Defiled, though they did little more than rant and rave about their impending doom. Even the best Martial Warriors were feeling the pressure here in Castle JiangHu, so how could these condemned civilians not? Truth be told, he was surprised only a hundred or so irregulars had cracked thus far, and his respect for the common man went up a few notches.
Such was the price of hubris. Despite Hongji’s humble origins, somewhere along the way, he’d forgotten how hardy the common people of the Empire were by sheer necessity. They too faced the trials and tribulations of Heaven, only without the benefit of Martial strength, and they were that much more capable for it.
Thankfully, today would be the last day Hongji had to hold out alone, for Legate Falling Rain was scheduled to arrive before nightfall with an army to reinforce Castle JiangHu and a plan to deliver a crushing blow to the Enemy forces. The slave turned Legate, what an inspiring story, and Hongji’s admiration for the boy went up a few notches more. Not because of his shocking past, which was easily overlooked thanks to his recent successes, but rather how Rain took pride in having overcome his slave status and considered it a tribulation passed. It made so much sense, Hongji had to wonder why he never thought the same, because so many of his accomplishments could be traced back to lessons learned at his father’s side on the farm back home, lessons like moving forward with indefatigable purpose or the value of forethought and preparation. Now, those lessons and good fortune had catapulted him to the lofty rank of Brigadier, so why should Hongji not take pride in his common-born background?
Putting the Legate’s peculiar circumstances aside, Hongji himself was not privy to the details young Rain’s plan, but from the reports of troop movements all across the second lines, he assumed it would be something in the form of a coordinated counterattack. The problem was, if Hongji could deduce this, so too could the Enemy commander, but it was for wiser minds than his to deal with these matters, so he focused on what preparations he could make. He sent out scouting patrols to find the roving Demons, maneuvered his cavalry in place to respond to enemy aggression, and even drilled his soldiers waiting at the rear gates to ensure they knew exactly what to do if the reinforcements were to come under attack while making their way into the castle. Just in case, he also rearranged the schedules so that there were always soldiers from three separate factions holding each gate at any one time. This way, if one group were to turn traitor, they would not stand unopposed within the heavily fortified gatehouse if they should seek to hold the gates open for the Enemy forces or keep them closed to Imperial allies.
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A tad paranoid? Perhaps, but considering what his troops had been through, from the harrowing retreat to this horrific demonstration taking place before his very eyes, Hongji would not leaving anything up to chance.
Curiously enough, the enemy commander was gracious enough to stand idle while Hongji used this time to prepare, time his soldiers and irregulars sorely needed to rest and relax after days of hard fighting. Many of his commendations had been approved and the officers under his command promoted, but it was hardly enough, especially with news of possible unrest and near rebellion stemming from the Northern Province. If the rumors were to be believed, the Imperial Clan had been a hair’s breadth away from executing Falling Rain and the Bekhai as rebels, and only the appearance of an Enemy Divinity had kept the Northern Citadel from devolving into chaos. While Hongji knew there was no chance Falling Rain could ever be Defiled, falsehoods fly upon wings of deceit while the truth crawls on broken limbs through the mud. Even now, as he rode at the head of an army meant to save Castle JiangHu from the Enemy, there were whispers of how the ‘false Son of the Mother’ would bring about their deaths. Hongji did what he could to quash them, but where one lie was stomped flat, ten more sprouted to take its place, and he soon found himself at wits’ end. There was nothing he could do to raise his soldiers’ morale, and he only prayed it wouldn’t crumble before nightfall, but as the hours passed in agonizing sluggishness, he felt the hairs on his head grow whiter as he aged ten years in a day.
By some miracle of the Mother, the Enemy left Castle Jianghu alone for the better part of ten hours before finally launching another attack, sending hordes of screaming Defiled tribesmen to assault the walls with no regard for self-preservation. This coincided with the news that the Legate’s reinforcements were only two hours away, and all of a sudden, matters were moving too quickly as Hongji oversaw the defense while simultaneously scrambling to keep up with developments in the field. The Enemy commander revealed his troops laying in wait all around the castle, who then predictably moved to intercept the reinforcing army. At the same time, the reinforcing commander took control of Hongji’s forces in the field and issued a slew of orders which made a mess of all his preparations, orders he only knew about because his Officers were smart enough to see the problem and send word of their movements back to him. He had expected the Enemy to attack the reinforcements while they were still marching across the open fields, and arranged his troops to support allies and harass the Enemy, but now this fool of an Imperial General was throwing it all away by gathering all Imperial forces around the reinforcing army. A fatal mistake, but unfortunately, whoever it was outranked Hongji, so all he could do was watch in bitter futility while preparing for the worst. There was strength in numbers, yes, but it also made the reinforcing army overly large and unwieldy, with no room to maneuver against the hordes of Enemy light cavalry riding in to harass them. The outriders were in for a night of bloody work, with victory or defeat riding on the shoulders of Bekhai roosequins and Imperial light cavalry.
Were it up to Hongji, he’d send small, elite units to scout and investigate the Enemy movements, but from what he could tell, the reinforcing commander did nothing of the sort, still blindly consolidating all forces in the field while marching at standard speed towards the castle. Now was not the time to conserve stamina, not with a quarter-million Defiled troops already in the field and utterly unhindered now that the fool of an Imperial General had ruined all of Hongji’s preparations. Hurriedly putting together a relief force from his reserve soldiers, Hongji gathered them by the rear gates and readied to ride out to the rescue, even though he suspected that doing so might ultimately result in Castle JiangHu’s downfall. It was a necessary sacrifice though, because as Legate, Falling Rain was too valuable to die here, so it was no coincidence that Hongji’s relief force contained not just the strongest soldiers under his command, but also the most promising younger talents, men and women like Lu Jia Zian, Tam Taewoong, and of course, Du Min Yan. Hongji gathered everyone he could salvage and made the hard choices of who to leave behind, because at the end of the day, some lives mattered more than others, while others were of more use dead than alive. The second line was still struggling to sort itself out after the former Legate suffered grievous injury and left the outer-provinces without a unified leader. Things were further complicated by the Bekhai’s near rebellion, but even without it, the damage had already been done, and Central could ill-afford a second lapse in leadership, especially since there was no one left to take Falling Rain’s place that all three provinces would find acceptable.
Even if it cost them the lives of a million Imperial soldiers and the entire second line, Hongji believed this trade was well worth it for the life of one Legate Falling Rain. It had to be, because to believe otherwise was to accept inevitable defeat, and that was something Hongji could not do.
Amidst all the chaos, a single report bearing good news arrived, informing him of a minor victory in the field. Some two thousand garo riders slain with minimal cost almost twenty-five kilometers east-northeast. Any victory was a cause for celebration, but considering the tribal Defiled were threatening to overrun the outer wall in no less than three places, Hongji understandably had more important matters to attend to. Then a second report arrived, this time informing him that another three-thousand garo riders had been wiped out twenty kilometers to the south-west, which made him take note. One near flawless victory was lucky, but a second was almost too good to believe. Then reports began pouring in from the field from his most loyal officers, dispatched with utmost haste using a daisy chain of Sending messengers which gave Hongji an almost up to the minute perspective of the battle raging outside the castle walls.
And contrary to Hongji’s expectations, the Imperial reinforcements were winning.
Mentally mapping out the reports, he immediately discovered four key units responsible for the Imperial victories, each one numbering around fifteen-thousand strong and comprised solely of light cavalry as he expected. One of these units was even led by Sun Qiang himself, as Hongji discovered when his capable subordinate sent word of a resounding victory in the field. As verbose as usual, Sun Qiang informed him that his unit had been joined by three thousand Bekhai roosequin riders who claimed there were four other such groups, meaning the Bekhai were riding out in full force to escort their young Legate to war. It was incredible to know such an influential man like Falling Rain hailed from a force that could only provide fifteen-thousand Warriors, but from what Hongji had seen, a single roosequin rider was worth at least ten Imperial soldiers, if not more, which meant the Bekhai were a fearsome force to be reckoned with.
It would be no exaggeration to state that the Imperial victories in the field could largely be attributed to these fearsome Bekhai, for their longbows and flawless coordination made for devastating weapons on the battlefield. In Sun Qiang’s first report, he stated, “Bekhai Scout reported of Defiled riders ahead, and Bekhai forces moved to engage at range. Loosed eight volleys of arrows while retreating from Defiled charge, while I led the Imperial cavalry to counter charge. Approximately two-thousand Defiled killed in initial clash, and perhaps half as many again in the ensuing rout, for a total of five-thousand casualties inflicted. No losses, twenty-two effective injured, twelve horses put down.”
The rest was Sun Qiang detailing their next movements, but despite having already seen the Bekhai in action, Hongji could scarcely believe the reports. Time and time again, a similar scene played out with different Imperial units, and each time, the Defiled were sent running with their tails between their legs. The Bekhai longbows forced the Enemy to close in fast, but quins were only marginally slower than horses over a long distance, and noticeably faster in short bursts. This meant that each time the Defiled charged, the Bekhai would retreat and continue firing upon their foes, drawing them out into a thin line that crumbled to pieces before Imperial lances.
All of this took place on the periphery, while the bulk of the reinforcements marched steadily towards castle JiangHu, but they too saw their fair share of action. The first report detailing their clash with the Defiled was brief and to the point. “Defiled cavalry formed up to charge at the flanks. Mobile catapults deployed, hundreds of Defiled killed before beating a hasty retreat. No Imperial casualties.”
Mobile catapults? The monstrous machines situated in Castle JiangHu had each been delivered by a team of six oxen, massive, ponderous contraptions that towered over even Southern elephants, so how in the Heavens could a catapult ever be considered mobile? Then again, perhaps that was the answer, that Falling Rain had purchased a herd of elephants to ferry his catapults to war. Now wouldn’t that be a sight?
As the minutes ticked by and the battle continued, Hongji multi-tasked between defending Castle JiangHu and piecing together what was happening two hours east of his position, and when he finally figured it out, his jaw dropped in admiration. Earlier, he cursed the reinforcing commander for a fool, but now he saw the brilliance in his superior’s actions. By gathering all the slower moving infantry, heavy cavalry, and chariots in one place and leaving the light cavalry to their own devices, this left the Enemy only one viable target to pursue, the bulk of the reinforcements themselves. Sure, the Enemy commander could waste his time and effort chasing the light cavalry and wiping them out one by one, but there was no guarantee of success and the reinforcing army would arrive at Castle JiangHu unscathed.
However, while the Enemy forces in the field were technically strong enough to overrun the reinforcements, they were also scattered piecemeal about the plains rather than advancing altogether. To make matters worse, the four roving bands of light cavalry were hunting down the Enemy forces as they tried to regroup, and while the slower moving reinforcements had no Bekhai longbows left to protect them, any and all Defiled forces that came within a kilometer of them were promptly bombarded by the mobile catapults, with tens of thousands of crossbows still waiting to be unleashed. Slowly and steadily, the reinforcements were forcing their way towards Castle JiangHu, like a titanic armored tortoise surrounded by a pack of wolves, while a friendly pride of lions nipped at their flanks.
Wait…
There were fifteen-thousand Bekhai Khishigs in total, but only four groups of roving cavalry on the plains with three-thousand Khishigs each. That left three thousand Khishigs unaccounted for, so where did they disappear to?
The answer came soon enough, as the enemy commander revealed yet another of his tricks, not out in the field which held most of Hongji’s interest, but right here in the castle itself. Intent on taking the walls before the reinforcements arrived, the Defiled tribesmen redoubled their efforts as they were joined by dozens of Demons and Defiled Peak Experts. In the blink of an eye, the tides of battle turned as a wave of enemy Elites spearheaded the assault and cleared the outer walls of resistance all too quickly. Hongji reacted a beat too late, exactly as the Enemy commander expected, and now, if he were to order his Peak Experts into action, they would be at a gross disadvantage since the enemy held the high ground. Unsure whether to attack or give up the outer walls for lost, Hongji froze in place for what felt like an eternity before hefting his scepter in hand. “Peak Experts and Demon Slayers,” he began, while simultaneously dismissing the relief force gathered at the rear gate. “With me! Let us retake the outer walls and drive the Enemy back!”
“Belay that order.” An unfamiliar voice rang out across the castle, a stilted, wooden tone which lacked urgency and emotion as it sounded from a great distance. “This is Lieutenant General Akanai of the Imperial Defense Forces, here to take command. Crossbows, target the Defiled on the outer walls and fire at will. Peak Experts and Demon Slayers, defend the irregulars with your lives.”
The irregulars did as ordered, but while they were surprisingly effective at killing ordinary Defiled situated on the lower, outer wall, there were less than a thousand crossbows in total which meant the Peak Experts were more or less able to bat away the projectiles aimed in their general direction. With the bulk of the irregulars manning the catapults, there weren’t enough left over to clear the outer wall with crossbows alone, and considering only a mere two-hundred meters separated them, it wouldn’t be long before the inner walls were overrun with Demons and Peak Experts as well, killing every irregular in sight and laying waste to the precious catapults. Even if half of them died here, the Enemy had far more Demons than the Empire had catapults, and it took weeks to train a team of civilians to use them optimally. However, just as he was about to Send his advice, he received a Sending of his own, from the Lieutenant General herself. “Hold fast for thirty seconds. We are coming up from behind.”
Thirty seconds? Though tempted to gawk about to see how many Peak Experts she brought with her, Hongji simply prayed it would be enough as he set out to guard the irregulars. The order would not sit well with the Peak Experts under his command, for they were the mightiest heroes of the Empire being set to guard the lowliest criminals. Even Hongji had his reservations, because if these criminals were to panic and fire their crossbows into the backs of his elites, it would spell disaster for the Empire moving forward. Falling Rain thought crossbows a marvelous thing, but Hongji shuddered to think how deadly future rebellions would become if their use became more widely accepted. He could see it now, a fortified city defended by millions of peasants wielding a crossbow each, with a corrupt Magistrate to lead them and Aura-Capable City Guards to keep them safe. It would be bloody work taking those walls, bloody, thankless work, and Hongji feared Falling Rain might well have changed the landscape of war forever.
This was a problem for another time however, as the Demons and Enemy Peak Experts realized Hongji’s elites were not coming down to retake the walls, so they went on the offensive instead. Leaping onto the crenelated parapets to deny them the high ground, Hongji prayed no one would shoot him in the back and met the Enemy in battle. Opening the fight with an Ethereal Palm, he smacked the foremost Defiled Chieftain down in mid-air before launching himself at a Demon, a stone-studded bestial creature that seemed like a mix between a bull and a chicken. Smashing his scepter into the creature's horns, he distracted it while the irregulars continued loosing bolts at the Defiled down below, their weapons aimed at the gaps between the parapets as they stood as far back as they could. Despite the best efforts of Hongji’s people, some Enemy combatants fought past and the inner walls were painted in the blood of irregulars. Many broke and ran, with some even throwing themselves to their deaths off the walls, but to their credit, most of the irregulars held firm, their eyes fixed on the enemy down below while ignoring the chaos around them.
Criminals? No, these people were heroes of the Empire, same as every soldier here in Castle JiangHu, for they continued to persevere even in the face of overwhelming odds. Could Hongji do the same if he were in their position? Difficult to say, but the closest analogue he could think of was fighting on whilst Divinities traded blows overhead, and he wasn’t sure if he could manage it. Falling Rain most certainly could, but the new Legate was made of sterner stuff than most people alive, so it was hardly a fair comparison.
Bolstered by the courage of his countrymen, Hongji redoubled his efforts and swept the bull-chicken Demon off the inner wall. As he turned to face his next foe, he hesitated for a fraction of a second, for there before him was none other than the Dark Child, the diminutive Demon which harried him from Sinuji to Castle JiangHu. Hongji’s left arm twinged in phantom pain at the memory of his severed limb, one he lost to the Dark Child itself, but was thankfully recovered by Du Min Kyung and reattached less than a half-hour later. The Dark Child’s reach was deceptively long, its attacks extending far beyond the reach of its taloned fingers, which was how it gutted two Exarches with a single swipe.
And now, this powerful Demon was here for Hongji’s head, and there was no one nearby to save him.
The Demon’s first attack severed three of Hongji’s fingers as he instinctively tried to block the invisible blades with his trusted scepter. Switching the weapon to his left hand, he charged in to close the distance, but stopped short and fell to his stomach just in time as a second attack passed over his head. Channeling Chi through his Spiritual Weapon, he unleashed an attack much like his Ethereal Palm, except this Chi construct was in the shape of his scepter. His Domain billowed out and smashed into the Dark Child, its expressionless face twisting in surprise as it was driven back by the force of his attack, and he was not yet done. Acting more on instinct than thought, he Resonated the blow and felt his weapon quiver in hand, eliciting an inhuman shriek from the creature before him. Driven mad from the pain, it brushed his Ethereal Scepter aside and blinked forward faster than Hongji’s eyes could follow, its unblinking eyes seething with rage as it plunged its fingers into his chest.
The pain flared, then faded away as Hongji pushed it aside and shoved his mangled right hand into the Demon’s face. Again, he drove his Chi and formed an enlarged palm around it, but this time, rather than pushing out, he directed his Ethereal Palm to close its fingers and crush the Demon’s head. Squeezing with all his might, he felt the Dark Child’s dense skull crack beneath his grip, but even though he poured every last bit of his strength into this one attack, it was still not enough to kill it. Flailing about in a frenzied panic, it stabbed Hongji over and over again, but he wrapped his left arm around the Dark Child’s tiny body and clung as tight as he could, all the while striving to pop its head like a pustule.
Locked in this desperate struggle, Hongji counted the seconds that’d passed since receiving the Sending, and discovered the time was finally upon him. Thirty seconds had passed, so he looked away from his foe in hopes of seeing salvation at hand. Not for him, but for Castle JiangHu, which fared so poorly under his command, and he hoped things would be different with Lieutenant General Akanai in charge.
A blur of motion was all he saw before the Dark Child was wrenched out of his death grip, and without this one last purpose left to him, his entire body went slack. Someone caught him before he hit the floor and he felt warm, restorative energies seeping through him, but he felt no relief, only shame. The Healer was a plain, unimpressive man, a Khishig judging by his armour, and Hongji tried to tell him to save his Chi for someone else, but all his efforts earned him was a frown. “Stop trying to talk and stay still,” the Healer said, his nasally voice grating to the extreme. “Takes less Chi to Heal you slowly, but not if you keep ruining my work.” Seeing him fall silent, the Healer nodded in approval. “Good. You must be Hongji then. I am Tokta, second in command of the Khishigs.” A Healer as her second? Akanai and the Bekhai did things very differently from the Empire, but what else was new. “The Lieutenant General was impressed by your preparations. Seemed a shame to ruin them since we could have made short work of the Defiled forces in the field, but we needed the freedom to sneak into the castle ahead of the reinforcements since she figured the Enemy would try something like this and take the castle just before we arrived.” Gesturing with his chin, he said, “We rode fast as we could and still almost did not make it in time, but as young Rain often says, better late than never.”
Following the Healer’s gesture, Hongji’s eyes widened in alarm as he watched the leader of the Bekhai in action. There she danced atop the parapets, her twin-crescent halberd coming alive in her hands as it battered the Dark Child about with impunity. Forward, ever forward she moved, striking and killing with almost careless ease at every Demons and Defiled she passed by, like a beautiful and unstoppable force of nature upon the battlefield. Overhead, the scream of a thousand arrows arced through the air as the first wave landed unerringly upon the outer wall, and almost immediately, a second wave hit, then the third, and forth, and fifth. A torrential rainstorm of arrows drenched the Enemy in blood, killing common tribesmen, Champions, and Chieftains without differentiation, while their elites and Spiritual Roosequins slaughted Demons and Peak Experts with ruthless ferocity.
This was the work of the Herald of Storms, a title meant to mock her abilities yet somehow perfectly encapsulated Akanai’s prowess to perfection. Hongji was wrong. Falling Rain’s crossbows wouldn’t change the landscape of war, for the Bekhai had changed it long before, only the Empire had yet to take notice.
Woe betide the enemies of the Bekhai, for Hongji had barely scratched the surface of their true strength, and already he thought them unparalleled. What hidden daggers might they reveal if push ever came to shove? For the Empire’s sake, Hongji hoped those daggers would never be aimed towards them, for if so, the Bekhai might prove as dangerous as the Defiled.
Chapter Meme