CH 7

Fifty soldiers were currently gathered before Zhong Yu in a wide courtyard as they all stood straight, on a makeshift platform.

Standing before him, Zhong Yu imposingly yelled, “Warriors, you may have heard from our ten scouts that the surroundings are anything but safe, since they’re filled with savages.  Brutal, evil, cruel and wild are the only words I can use to describe them, who have yet to experience civilization.

“Our very safety is at risk. We must root them out while they are blind to our presence or their raids will cause disastrous losses. They will rob our homes and steal our food! We will become refugees, with no place to call our home!

“Are we just going to sit here and let them? Steal from us, kill us? No, I say. It should be us robbing and killing them. Now what is your answer?”

The soldiers recalled the full and tender meal, every single grain of rice of such exquisite taste. It was the best meal of their lives. All they ate before were just husk, leftovers or grass, living a life worse than death.

Then they joined the Yellow Turban Army, never again to know the bliss of a full stomach. They witness many of their fellow people starve to death. It was so bad some even sold their own children for a bite to eat. They first had to go through hell to taste the good life from their lord. He fed them, gave them a home. With such a good master, none of them was about to have some savages seal their happiness: 

“We won’t let anyone steal our livelihood, drive our lord! They will have to go through us first! Long live His Grace! Cast out the savages! Long live His Grace! Destroy the savages!”

After Zhong Yu’s rallying cry, the soldier’s morale was at an all time high, to the point of zealotry. Zhong Yu could tell them to kill themselves and they would without batting an eye. 

After this, he dismissed them to prepare and ready to lay their lives.

He was sure they wouldn’t flee when things came to a head after that little speech, but he still called for Wang Daniu, warning him to get his soldiers’ minds focused and not to see their knees turn to jelly. ‘I don’t want my first battle to end in a rout.’

Finally, the team was ready for battle so Zhong Yu called his men to set off. 

Armored and ready, the valiant soldiers marched with impeccable discipline toward the tribe Er Gouzi scouted. Taking down twenty people was a done deal for fifty soldiers.

Rushing for their target, the beasts they encountered were smart enough to give them a wide berth, providing an unobstructed path to the tribe. 

On the verge of reaching it, Zhong Yu ordered his men to scatter in teams of five and silently surround it without being spotted. 

The savages were merely enjoying their food, with even a couple relishing themselves in a tight embrace out in the open without an ounce of shame.

They were natives in the truest sense. Yet also proved to be an advantage in making an easy job of capturing them and turning them into slaves. 

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Under the cover of the waist-tall grass, the soldiers crept onward with none the wiser. 

A hundred feet away, one savage had to answer the call of nature and noticed it moved in the grass by sheer coincidence. The unfamiliar sounds only heightened his suspicion.

He made out Zhong Yu’s troops sneaking over and felt danger. He raised the alarm in a speech similar to ancient Chinese dialect yet more resembling the howls of beasts. 

‘We’ve been spotted!’ Wang Daniu was outraged and charged with a war cry. His black armor shone in the sunlight like a god of war,intimidating the savages.

Wang Daniu used this chance and chopped the savage’s head off before hanging the now lifeless face in the air, showing it off.

The bloodshed had the savages frozen then wail like mad. The men picked their stone spears to meet the attack. While the women threw stones at the soldiers and the children hid in fear.

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The kill got to Wang Daniu’s head and charged into the incoming savages led by what looked like their chief. They were engaged in a spectacular battle, with neither giving ground. 

The soldiers stunned themselves from being spotted, saw the fight was on and charged as well.

Er Gouzi felt fear at the wild looks those savages had, but the favor of his lord overrode it. He steeled his conviction and reminded himself of how he saw them last time, enjoying the meet to the fullest, and envy burst out. 

The two states of mind had him shout a cry and charge at them. Thanks to his valiant display, he beat the hell out of a savage.

It didn’t last long and Er Gouzi felt weary. He had been in the Yellow Turban Army’s service for too long, scraping for food. That single meal from Zhong Yu was far from enough to recover his strength, while these savages ate meat on a daily basis.

As the tables slowly turned, the savage went in for the kill. Er Gouzi’s situation couldn’t be worse, hanging by a thread with many close shaves and bleeding wounds.

Life was seeping out of him and grew weaker. He dodged death blows one too many times, making his body fail by the minute.

As he stumbled around with his heavy eyes and tensed arms, he saw the savage in front of him raise his blunt weapon and swiftly strike it into his head. Blood gushed out rapidly as his body slumped on the ground with a dazed look on his face.

Collapsing, his eyes glazed, ‘Is this death? Am I dying? At least I can die with a filled belly of rice and meat. I have no regrets. I have returned my Lord’s grace.’ His eyes flicked, struggling to keep them open but even in death, he thought about his lord.. 

Soon his eyes lost their light, left open as they were, with blood from his head forming a pool under him, which submerged him but with a look of happiness painted on his face, contradicting the feel of soldiers fighting around him.

That was the end of the story for Er Gouzi, a youth of 18 who spent his summers going through years of chaotic battles and living a life of a wanderer. Him dying so young was a blessing. 

To some, war was a blessing, to others, a curse. But in the end, who could say it clearly what it really was?

The strong roamed the lands like dragons, taking all for themselves. While the weak were nothing more than cattle. 

It was better to be a cattle in peace than a man in war.