A cannon boomed in the army camp.
Golden standards spread across the field. Helmets flashed, armor shone like dragon scales, and ranks of sabers and spears stood as thick as grain. Swords and halberds rose like weeds.
There were the Flying Dragon, Flying Phoenix, Flying Tiger, Flying Striped Tiger, Flying Leopard, Hidden Army, and Battle Map Banners. There were standards for the Straight Snake Formation, Two Dragons Emerging from Water, the Three Powers of Heaven, Earth, and Man, the Four Gates Encirclement, Five Tigers Seizing a Lamb, the Twelve Heavenly Guardians, the Seven Stars of the Big Dipper, the Eight Trigrams Golden Lock, the Nine Luminaries Moving Palace, and the Ambush from Ten Sides.
At the very center stood the Jeweled Origin Standard.
Beneath it waited two generals, one old and one young.
The old general wore a helmet with phoenix-wing crests pointing toward the sky and a suit of bright silver armor. A silk cord held a colorful armored skirt around his waist, and tiger-headed boots covered his feet. He was magnificent, imposing, and almost frightening.
The younger general wore a helmet with a white plume. His white robe left the shining armor over his right side exposed. A silver battle skirt hung from his waist, and spotless white boots covered his feet. He had delicate brows, bright eyes, red lips, and perfect teeth.
The old general pointed east, west, southeast, northeast, southwest, and northwest as he explained the linked Eight Trigrams formation within the Four Gates Encirclement. He also described the roles of soldiers armed with sabers, spears, swords, halberds, battle-axes, hooks, forks, tridents, staffs, lances, clubs, whips, iron batons, hammers, claws, hooked blades, and meteor hammers.
The white-robed young general stared in amazement.
“Your reputation is well deserved, Old General! You truly are the Great General Who Guards the Realm. My mother has always wanted to become your disciple too.”
“Military texts are not passed down to women. Once you learn these methods, young friend, you may arrange troops on your mother’s behalf, but you must not teach her. You swore a solemn oath.”
The old general stroked his white beard and smiled faintly. “If your mother had not been granted the title of imperial princess, I would never have taught these formations to an untrained boy like you.”
“I understand. Thank you for sharing all eighty formations with me, Old General. I, Zhang Hua, will remember this kindness for the rest of my life.”
He dropped to both knees and prepared to bow his head to the ground.
The old man was the foremost general in the kingdom. He had served four rulers while remaining practical and modest. After many years on the battlefield, he had mastered surprise attacks and military formations. He had fought hundreds of battles, large and small, without suffering a single defeat. His name had shaken every neighboring kingdom for forty years, and people throughout the realm revered him like a god.
The young man in white had grown up hearing of his achievements. So had the young man’s foster father and mother.
Princess Fang had first tried to become his disciple twenty years ago, when she was still a young woman. She knelt outside his gate for six days, but no one came to see her, and she finally left in shame.
For the next twenty years, she tried every possible method to discover his desires or weaknesses. She found neither. Instead, she came to admire his self-control, his orderly household, his command of soldiers, and his unmatched strategy even more.
On the very day she received the title of imperial princess, she went to him again. This time, she finally met the great man in person. She pleaded and argued for six hours, but the old general remained silent in his golden chair. In the end, he even fell asleep and began to snore.
Princess Fang was both furious and astonished. She did not dare threaten him, and nothing she offered could tempt him. At last, she pulled the silk sash from her waist, tied it around a roof beam, and made a noose. Then she slapped the old general awake.
“Old Marshal, either teach me formations and strategy, or I will hang myself in your study.”
The old general opened his fierce eyes halfway and gave a quiet snort. “The person who dies will be an imperial princess. At worst, this old man will retire to the countryside.”
Princess Fang seized the sash with one hand, hauled herself upward with the other, and pushed her lovely face through the noose.
The old general glanced at her. “Let go.”
Princess Fang obeyed at once. She released her grip, though her eyes remained fixed on him.
The old general closed his eyes and began snoring again. With Princess Fang’s martial arts, she only needed to raise one hand and seize the rope above her to free herself.
Ten breaths passed.
The old general opened his eyes and found her still hanging there. Her face had turned deep red, and her eyes were rolling back. He sprang to his feet, drew the treasured saber hanging on the wall, and cut the rope with one stroke.
Princess Fang hit the floor with a thud. She coughed twice, sat with her legs spread wide, and said, “Teach me.”
“No.”
She rolled her eyes. “I have stronger rope at home. I guarantee you will not be able to cut it before I die. If you refuse me today and order your servants to beat me out with their linked formation again, I will return with that rope on a dark and stormy night. Then I will hang myself outside your bedroom.”
The old general finally grew angry. “You are an imperial princess and the Empress Dowager’s adopted daughter. Do you feel no shame using such a vile trick to threaten an old man?”
“Everyone under heaven knows where I came from. My mother was a bandit chief, and my father was an assassin. Dragons give birth to dragons, phoenixes to phoenixes, and a rat’s child knows how to dig. I was born this way. Even your honored son once fell into one of my honey traps. What could you possibly not know about me?”
Princess Fang picked up the severed sash. She raised it beside her face with delicate fingers and lowered her eyes as if overcome with shyness. Then she gave an openly suggestive chuckle.
“Your treasured saber cut through the sash from my body. I also heard that the Old General took a new concubine a few days ago…”
The old general calmly returned to his chair. “My standing was earned through military service. Reputation is an empty possession, and my son agrees. Do whatever foolish thing you please.”
Princess Fang’s face turned blue with rage. With a sharp snap, she tore the sash apart in her hands.
She forced a smile. “I was only joking. How about this? You refuse to teach me because I am a woman, but I have four adopted sons and two children of my own. Choose one of them. If none are good enough, choose anyone among my followers.”
That was how, after a series of tests, the old general chose Zhang Hua from among her four adopted sons. Zhang Hua’s face was as pale as jade, his lips red and his teeth white. He looked like a doll made of silver.
The old general had not chosen a good and innocent boy. He was an excellent judge of character and saw at once that Zhang Hua was slipperier than oil and more cunning than a ghost.
The general was still testing Zhang Hua’s knowledge of warfare when a steward from the grand chancellor’s residence arrived with a report. The general stopped the formation practice. He would not allow an outsider to observe it.
The visitor was about forty, dressed in fine clothes, and looked sharp and capable. He approached and bowed.
“My master sends his respects to the general. Fourth Young Master, he also ordered this servant to ask you one question. Once the madam is dead, do you have a path of escape?”
“How dare you!” Zhang Hua shouted.
He drew his sword and placed the point against the steward’s throat. “Tell me the truth.”
The steward remained neither humble nor defiant. “A servant like me cannot know the details. The madam has met with disaster. Please return home with a small and lightly equipped escort to attend the funeral.”
Zhang Hua’s expression shifted between light and shadow. His narrow, phoenix-shaped eyes were prettier than a girl’s as they examined the steward from head to toe.
*With Mother’s authority, martial arts, and experience in the martial world, not to mention the countless people protecting her, she could never be killed easily. She went to the palace yesterday to attend the Empress Dowager. If something happened, it probably happened inside the palace. That is what this steward is suggesting.*
*That makes matters difficult. I could never avenge Mother alone. If Foster Father also wants revenge, however, success is almost certain. He must have told me to travel light because a larger group might leak the news.*
At that moment, the messenger Wang Qian had sent reached the camp. His arrival was announced across the drill field, and both generals heard it. The old general ordered the guards to admit him.
The messenger dismounted outside the camp and ran through two guarded gates. Under any other circumstances, he might have been awed by the honor of entering the old general’s camp. Now he had no attention to spare.
He stopped before Zhang Hua and saluted with clasped fists.
“Fourth Young Master, the madam was gravely wounded inside the residence. First and Second Young Master have both arrived. Second Young Master orders you to gather every fighter belonging to the four young generals and find a way to get the madam out of the capital alive.”
The old general barked, “Explain yourself clearly!”
The messenger answered at once. “First Young Master said husband and wife have turned against each other.”
The steward glared at him in fury but did not dare speak while Zhang Hua’s sword pressed against his neck.
Zhang Hua gave a sharp whistle. He gathered his inner energy and called out to the waiting formation.
“The madam’s life is in danger. This is the moment for us to prove our loyalty. All men belonging to my brothers, follow me!”
His voice carried across the entire drill field, bringing with it the cold promise of battle. The soldiers stood silent for a moment. Then they shouted together, “We obey the general’s command!”
These were all the men belonging to the four brothers who happened to be near the capital. Their number was also perfect for the deadly and complex formation they had been practicing: twelve hundred soldiers.
Ordinarily, gathering them would have taken at least two hours. Today they were already assembled.
It was luck. It was the will of heaven.
Princess Fang was not meant to die.
The steward opened his mouth again. Zhang Hua swept his sword across in a flash of red. The steward cried out as blood burst from his neck, and his headless body fell backward.
Zhang Hua gave the old general a gentle push. “Go quickly, General. Nothing that happens now must be connected to you.”
The old general stared at him with a grave expression. “A great general protects a worthy ruler, and a clever bird chooses the highest branch. You cannot defeat the grand chancellor. Surrender while you still can. Your heart may be willing, but you lack the strength to change the outcome. If that woman of the Fang family has a spirit after death, she will not blame you.”
“She is my mother.”
Zhang Hua picked up the steward’s severed head. He ordered the messenger to hang it from the victory hook on his white horse, then climbed the high platform and addressed the army.
“Until the madam is safely outside the capital, you will remain in your present units under the joint command of us four brothers. Anyone who values the head on his shoulders may remain where he stands. Anyone who leaves this field with us and then deserts to the enemy will be killed without mercy. Anyone who breaks the Seventeen Laws of Execution or Fifty-Four Military Prohibitions will be beheaded!”
“We obey!”
The response rose like a storm from below.
“Brothers, hear my commands.” Zhang Hua slowly swept his beautiful eyes across the field. His words were steady even as his mind raced. “Flying Dragon Banner, trick the guards into surrendering the eastern gates of both the inner and outer cities. Hold them at the cost of your lives. Whether the madam lives or dies depends most of all on you.”
“We obey!”
The Flying Dragon unit departed. Not all its members knew one another, but they had trained under the four young generals for years and recognized most faces. Their methods were similar, and each group had centurions to direct it. They could work together well enough.
“Flying Phoenix Banner, hear my command.”
Zhang Hua had formed a plan, and the rest came more easily. “Pretend nothing is wrong. Invite the sons and daughters of civil and military officials who are friendly with my brothers and me. Give priority to those whose fathers hold real power and those with good martial arts. Trick them by saying we are going to play an exciting game.”
“We obey!”
The Flying Phoenix unit departed. Its sharper members understood at once. Fourth Young Master intended to use the children of powerful court officials as hostages so the grand chancellor would not dare pursue them in force.
“Flying Tiger Banner, seize the heavy bows and crossbows from the two eastern gates. Set an ambush outside the walls and wait to support us.”
“We obey!”
“Flying Leopard Banner, hide outside the grand chancellor’s residence.”
“We obey!”
“Hidden Army Banner, divide into two groups,” Zhang Hua continued. “One group will visit the Imperial Medical Bureau and invite every physician skilled in treating wounds or poison. Bring all the medicines they require. The second group will notify Mother’s followers. Along every possible route, prepare fresh horses, food, bows, arrows, and weapons. Find six women and six expensive carriages.”
Then he raised his voice. “Flying Striped Tiger Banner, yours is the most dangerous task. Nine of every ten may die. I will go with you. Are you afraid?”
The men had respected Zhang Hua before, but few truly trusted him. They thought him little more than a pretty face. Now they had seen him organize a rescue without losing his calm. Respect turned into belief, and fear gave way to rising blood.
They would fight beside him.
“Why should we fear death?” they shouted together.
Zhang Hua’s face lit with fierce joy. “Flying Striped Tiger Banner, follow me. We will break into the grand chancellor’s residence and take back my mother!”