The Sage, the Swordsman and the Scholars

by Pierre Dimaculangan

  “Clearly, the pale devils are planning to use the traitors and the barbarians as grunts to weaken our defenses and exhaust our resources. Or perhaps test us. Evidently, this is but the first stage of their larger strategy,” Shang Jian said. “We should utilize superior weapons range against them to minimize the loss to our forces in close combat.”

  “It is vital that we do not underestimate the Terukk’s recruited forces, for we know close to nothing of their capabilities and tactics on the battlefield,” advised Lu Guanying.

  Imperial Commander He Feishen was to lead his army of twenty thousand strong to meet the enemy at the valley under the slopes of Tai Shan. The other officers present at the capital proceeded towards the eastern most border garrison Liaodong along the Great Wall near to the north to repel invaders that may march around the Beizhili Gulf to attempt a siege on the capital. The remaining forces stood guard along the passes and roads leading to Beijing in the neighboring provinces to the south and west. The first fleet of thirty warships of the Imperial Ming Navy from the south had anchored at the tip of the Hai River near the evacuated city of Tianjin at the western edge of the Beizhili Gulf.

  Sun Xin together with Big Bang and a team of Academicians were chosen to infiltrate enemy lines for a reconnaissance mission to discover the enemy’s activities and current status, and to investigate the blue smoke seen to have been rising from their camps. They were to proceed as soon as Imperial Commander Feishen would lead his forces against the Pale Foreigner’s newfound army. The garrisons scattered throughout the empire as well have been set on high alert and maneuvered to secure the towns and villages under their jurisdictions. The pieces were set for the Ming forces to go on the offensive. They presented these plans to the emperor and he granted them permission to strike. The Hongzhi Emperor addressed the army that was to depart southeast to meet the incoming enemy troops. He had about him an aura assurance and wisdom not had prior to his experience of revelation and enlightenment. He imparted these words to them.

  “We will make these demons know that we are not so easily treaded upon. Though we have been defeated and overtaken by barbarians before, this time Heaven goes before us.” Famin Jie personally had a word with Imperial Commander Feishen.

  “We will be victorious against our demonic foes as long as we are sure to not claim any glory and honor that rightfully belongs to Heaven. Beseech Heaven and give praise to Shang Di alone and you will find abundant power and grace in your midst!”

  He Feishen took Famin Jie’s words to heart though he himself did not fully understand.

  “Thanks for the advice, but I’ve seen my fair share of battles. Been on many campaigns as well. This ought to be interesting,” the Imperial Commander said. A great eagerness oozed from his countenance. His walked with an imposing presence that commanded respect from all men; especially those who were not even soldiers. The Imperial Commander was not only the highest ranking officer in the army, but was perhaps the Middle Kingdom’s most capable leader and warrior since Yue Fei of the Song dynasty. Thousands had perished under his sword and all the soldiers within the Ming army knew it well.

  An army of roughly ten thousand of the fallen former Jinyiwei officers, slaves, and steppe ‘barbarian’s marched northwest towards Beijing from Shandong Peninsula as Imperial Commander He Feishen led an army double the number to meet them. Confident in his superior numbers, he refused to bring heavy artillery that would otherwise slow his advance. He had made an exception for a few cannons that would serve to protect his strategic position upon the battlefield. As his army drew closer to the valley, scores of fleeing refugees made their way to the safety of Feishen’s troops. Many empty villages in the path of the fallen guards were burned to the ground. “Unstoppable, tireless, demonic,” the refugees called them. Hearing the plight of the villagers greatly angered Feishen and his officers as they quickened their pace towards the field where their imminent battle would take place. In the vast open plains under the shadow and clouds of the colossal Mount Tai, the two armies met face to face with nearly two li of flat land laid between them. The plain geography provided very little tactical options for the soldiers but Commander Feishen was confident in his superior numbers. The enemy, it may seem, had not anticipated the astonishingly expedient assembly of Ming forces around the capital.

  They stood before Ming forces completely motionless, silent, and encased in angular metallic armor mass-manufactured and cheaply made. They were it seemed, noticeably larger and heavier than their former selves. Upon the hill, adjacent to the enemy army, stood a tall figure clad in long robes of black and red. The army of the fallen looked to the figure to await their next order. In one swift unified motion, the pawn army of the Terukk readied their spears and assumed the stance for a charge. Imperial Commander Feishen ordered his combined force of 6,720 archers and gunners front to answer the incoming initial assault. With a thunderous roar, the enemy initiated and the battle began with a ground-shaking charge. Little by little, they came within range rapidly approaching the arrow marker on the ground. The instant the enemy crossed the marker, a swarm of 6,720 armor-piercing arrows arched high over the battlefield like a dark cloud. With the sound of a great wind, the arrows rained down mercilessly upon the charging enemy. Few fell to the first salvo while the rest merely regained their momentum and continued to charge though their armors had been riddled with protruding arrow shafts. A second salvo fell like a hailstorm upon the enemy this time accumulating the damage done by the first volley. To the troops’ dismay, the arrow volleys achieved little of their desired effect and were not sufficient to hurt their numbers. The archers withdrew behind the spearmen as 2,240 gunners brought their three-barrel hand cannons to bear and fired at the incoming army. With bright flashes and the sound of powerful thunder, the balls of heavy lead launched out from the barrels with great velocity, slamming into the incoming enemy. The second and third hand cannon barrels were ignited in sequence and many hundreds fell to the hailstorm of bullets. Unfazed by the effect of the projectiles, the remaining enemy troops maintained their charge as the gunners withdrew with the rest of the archers to reload their weapons while the Spear and Sword and Shield divisions marched front to confront the enemy in hand to hand combat.

  Commander Feishen grimaced at the resilience of the enemy to withstand the arrows and bullets. He sat erectly on his mount, surrounded by officers and personal guard, while overlooking the battlefield. The ground rumbled, and the sound of reverberating armor and pounding boots filled the air. With a loud crash of steel, the enemy juggernaut army slammed into Feishen’s forces and engaged in full hand to hand combat. The fighting was ferocious and violent as the fallen soldiers, resembling very little of their former selves, clashed with the Ming troops with beastly ferocity. They were powerful and tireless as the refugees had warned. Shouts, cries, and the sound of steel grinding steel by the tens of thousands echoed across the valley and dissipated over the plains.

  “Fire at will, aim through their helmets!” shouted one of the field commanders. Squads of archers and gunners assembled in various formations on the edges of the battlefield firing and shooting in directions wherever the enemy would cluster. The Terukk pawn army nevertheless pushed forward against the tides of Ming soldiers fighting to repel them. Many of the injured or disarmed among the Ming began to retreat. After all ammunitions were exhausted, the archers and the gunners drew their broadswords and were ordered to charge onto the flanks of the enemy formation but the enemy hordes proved their flanks to be nearly impenetrable. The fighting prolonged as the Ming’s superior numbers were proving ineffective against the enemy’s tireless onslaught. The longer the battle raged the more of his men were being slaughtered. The enemy troops were simply too ferocious and maddeningly violent despite the Ming troops admirable and courageous efforts to forge on. It did not help that the enemy was most resilient to attack and were surprisingly impervious to stabs, slashes, and piercings that should have been lethal. It took the effort of an entire squad of M
ing soldiers to effectively cut down one or two. Feishen grew increasingly frustrated at the battle’s progression and decided to jump into the chaos himself.

  His high ranking officers followed close behind to support the troops. He charged through their thinning front ranks trampling over several of them and severing a few heads with his longsword before getting dismounted. He stood and readied his primary weapon –the spear. Feishen wielded his spear with great skill honed through years of training, battlefield experience, and martial examinations. It was like an oversized steel dagger attached to an extended wooden shaft the height of a tall man. He continuously thrust and stabbed his spear into the charging enemy cutting through their cheap, mass-produced armor. He was sure to aim for the heart, neck, and head to ensure his kills, especially after knocking some to the ground with aerial kicks. His men fought with renewed vigor after seeing their Commander pushing back the enemy next to them. He swung his spear left and right slashing, cutting, and impaling all who would run into it. Glancing blows from their crude weapons scraped against his heavy mountain scale armor leaving only dents and jagged scratches. His officers fought nearby effectively cutting down the Terukk’s pawns one after another. The strength of the enemy became apparent as one of them lunged itself at Feishen, knocking him off his feet and crashing to the ground. They grappled for a dominant position as Feishen experienced the raw brute strength of his monstrous attacker. The Terukk pawn grabbed his chest plate and threw him to the ground again like an adult could to a child. It charged again at Feishen, who then swiftly ducked low, grabbed him by the legs, lifted him above his head, and slammed him to a part of the ground riddled with protruding stones. Its armor bent and buckled and the bones underneath it cracked and crunched. It did little to stop the monstrosity from continuing to fight. It quickly rolled back onto its feet and swung a gauntleted fist at Feishen’s head. He blocked the blow and countered it with a powerful straight right punch into the opening of its helmet. The enemy soldier staggered with nose crushed and front teeth missing. The mutant was hardly able to stand and was completely disoriented from Feishen’s concussive blow. As the soldier finally fell to the ground, Feishen unsheathed his longsword and thrust the blade into the creature’s disfigured face. The chaos of the battle continued all around him as he witnessed his men falling to the enemy’s tireless onslaught.

  Something had to be done to turn the tide of the battle. In the distance, Feishen observed the black-robed figure upon the hill. It now stood arched forward with hands raised towards the armies. Accursed incantations rolled forth from its mouth and a dark life force emulated from its body and it oppressed Feishen. It no doubt also oppressed his troops in the field, weakening them whilst strengthening the mutants. He ordered his three cannons to bear and aimed it at the figure’s position. With deafening explosions, the mighty cannons fired onto the hill where the figure stood. Chunks of dirt flew into the air as the bombs landed upon the figure and nearly flattened the hill. When the dust had settled, the figure remained standing completely untouched by the bombardment.

  “Impossible!” spat Feishen. He retrieved his spear, mounted, and kicked his horse to full gallop. He was determined to win this battle and he knew slaying that dark figure would do much to grant him that victory. He rapidly charged towards the figure as he could feel the oppression grow stronger the more he closed the distance. With a war cry, he readied his spear and skewered the heavily robed figure right through its chest. As it attempted to stand, Feishen dismounted, drew two-handed his longsword and beheaded it with one downward stroke. The burden of the oppression was immediately lifted as he removed the spear from the headless body and spat. He looked to the ongoing battle and immediately, his men had already begun to push the enemy back to a stalemate, although this time, the former Jinyiwei had lost their previous ferocity and were becoming tired… but so were his men. Something else however, caught the ears of the Imperial Commander.

  From the south, a thousand thundering hooves rapidly approached the battle. Dust rose from the incoming force— unexpected reinforcements were making their entrance. A commando cavalry formation of one thousand led by Feishen’s younger brother General He Jin decimated the enemy lines. Mounted lancers and archers shot down, impaled, and trampled what remained of the enemy forces.

  Some of the commandos dismounted and finished them off close quarters, with blows that guaranteed a kill.

  Feishen and several of his commanding officers grouped together to join the assault. None were allowed to retreat and those that had tried were swiftly cut down. The battle lasted for another several minutes as the numerically superior Ming soldiers pushed forward through the pawns finishing off whatever remained of them. The victorious survivors cheered and cried in relief at the unexpected turn of events. The high-ranking military brothers greeted each other with a tight embrace.

  “We probably would have suffered greater losses had you not arrived, little brother,” said Feishen to Jin.

  “I was marching a respectable force to the capital to join you as the emperor had ordered. When I had heard a battle was being fought here, I immediately lead my cavalry to your aid,” said Jin. As the soldiers searched for survivors and scavenged the dead, General He Jin removed the helmet of one of the fallen Jinyiwei. Its face was mutated, resembling almost none of his former self. The skin was rough and a pale blue and purple. Its teeth were sharp and his body significantly more muscular than average.

  “Sorcery has turned the traitors into brutes,” observed Feishen. “Though they retain none of their former martial skill, they fight with unsurpassed ferocity, and massive strength. It’s truly a savage transformation.”

  “This very same sorcery has been inflicted upon the terrorists of the Underworld amassing in the provinces as I’ve heard. A small contingent of them ambushed me and my men not long after our departure. Their bodies have been morphed the same way,” said General Jin. They approached the headless body of the figure that had led the army to the battlefield. Upon unmasking the head, they discovered it to be one of the Pale Foreigners.

  “He is likened to a priest,” said Feishen. “I had felt him chanting in a foreign tongue with evil so great, it weighed heavily upon my spirit.”

  “Foul alchemy created these mutant armies. Black magic fuels them,” Jin added.

  “Heaven has orchestrated our victory today, brother,” said Feishen. Jin nodded in agreement although did not expect his brother to make such a statement. Together, they began the long march back to Beijing to report all that had transpired at the battle.

  ****

  Before Feishen’s battle at Tai Shan or Mount Tai began, Sun Xin, Big Bang, and a light company of Academicians ferried in secret over to the northeastern coast of Liaodong Peninsula where a substantially large number of Terukk mutant forces were amassed. They had arrived to investigate the enemy’s positions and to learn of their current activities. They set up base camp some distance away from sight and proceeded on horseback to the outer perimeter of the enemy encampment. Big Bang left with a pack full of various devices, supplies and materials for the mission as he was quite vocal about bringing explosives to the mission insisting in his words, “the savages need to be blown up to hell.” Stealth and reconnaissance was of utmost importance for the mission and the clanking of Big Bang’s gear was a risk Xin did not want to take so he instructed him to wait until a path to their destination had been cleared.

  At the outer edge of the encampment not far from the Gulf, watchtowers had been erected ready to sound alarms for any signs of a siege or to eliminate intruders. In the bush, Xin and the Academicians silently took up positions near the guard towers’ blind spots with crossbows at the ready. Upon the signal of a faint whistle, Xin and crew eliminated the guards with perfectly-placed head shots— some passing clean through their helmets. The team then proceeded deeper into enemy territory as Big Bang clanked closely behind mumbling to himself. Patrols made loosely knit patrols around the camp and with synchronized maneuveri
ng, were completely eliminated with crossbow bolts and silent takedowns. From a concealed position hugging the face of a grassy hill, Xin beheld a sea of the armies of defected imperial officers and steppe barbarians from various tribes spread out before him, their torches littered the plain like the stars in the night sky. They were vastly numerous, easily 100,000 strong and just like the army he saw in the forests of the South, they too were being led by figures clad in long robes of black and red, fully masked, and dark.

  “How could we have allowed them to have amassed in such large numbers?” said one Academician.

  “It seems that the machinations of the enemy were a long time in the making. This would not have been possible without masterful planning. The Terukk have outlined their strategy for conquest of the Middle Kingdom a long time ago. What we’re seeing now, this army is the result,” Xin answered.

  The masked and hooded figures addressed the mutant soldiers in a speech that again cast oppression upon Sun Xin. The language was foul and heavy and did much to fire up the troops who roared like animals. It was incomprehensible, riddled with short screeches, groans, and guttural stops.

  “Kkenkdit ogekt triklut gatempt lekturr gatempt” The speech was beginning to become unbearable, for the spell it was casting began to weigh heavily upon Xin and his companions.

  “Let us proceed with the mission and be done with it,” they said to Xin. In the distance not far behind the encampment and concealed between the hills and the trees stood heavily guarded structures the shape of towers of many spires had been erected just as he had seen in the forest at the province of Henan, and he saw multitudes of them standing in the presence of the structures slowly becoming enveloped by a fog of misty blue as its gears and cranks began to turn and grind. The fog spread as far as one li and continued no further after which slowly it ascended into the sky. The fumes that were the fog dissipated after many minutes and them that stood within it were revived, strengthened, and changed more grievously than they were before the process began.