by Ng, Wayne;
“You propose to roll the dice and stake your future on this? Do you truly believe your insolence can move me so?”
“This is not about me, Heavenly Father.”
“I must say Prince Meng, I hadn’t expected such brazenness. Your entire inheritance…”
“It is not for my inheritance that I stand, Heavenly Father. Our mandate from heaven sanctions our rule. Yet we have recently suffered a natural calamity unknown in human history. Our ancestral tombs have been plundered. Our neighboring regions treat us like latrine cleaners as Chu sits on our doorstep, waiting for an opportunity to usurp our authority and enslave the world. And your health is a prolonged battle with which even your greatness struggles. We must ask if these four bad portents are to be feared or fought. If they are to be fought, we cannot allow a moral lapse and an unscrupulous act to taint the court’s name amongst the nobility and masses, least of all the wayward territories. No, Heavenly Father. As the son of the true ruler of all of Zhou, I fear not and stand for thee.”
The King sat back. His eyes glossed over. He slumped into his seat, retreated into his weary pallor. Several of the Ministers shifted uneasily, quietly whispering among themselves. Even the Queen seemed to pause and reflect.
“Bring her to me,” the King commanded.
******
Within moments, the King’s most trusted Royal Guardsman dragged Mei in by her hair. Even with her clothing torn, Mei neither whimpered nor begged for mercy, showing a dignity and fearlessness seldom seen before an enraged King.
Prince Meng took a seat beside his father and offered to speak on their behalf. “Do not even attempt to deny the truth. You are with child,” the Prince thundered.
At first Mei did not respond, but continued to remain kneeling with arms outstretched. Prince Meng then shouted at her, as if he not only spoke for the King but had effortlessly assumed his father’s persona.
“There are vermin in this world, and then there are low life, lying, deceitful scum who could only aspire to be vermin. You are one of them.” He paused to give his denunciation more weight. “Do you take our generosity for granted? Do you play us for fools? Speak, and do not dare to utter another lie or you and every member of your clan will pay with their heads. Did you think you could conceal this trickery from us?”
Mei was silent at first, then responded. “No your Highness, the allegations are true. I beg the Son of Heaven’s forgiveness.”
“Who is the father?” Prince Meng snapped. Mei did not respond. Prince Meng repeated himself. Again she did not respond. He left his seat and signaled to a Guardsmen to slap her across her cheek. She took the blow silently.
She hesitated at first. “Your Highness, it is the scholar Confucius.”
Prince Meng laughed. “You expect the court to believe that a woman who is known to wander the town without escort was taken by a man no more interested in lying with a woman than a farmer is in reading?”
Mei repeated the allegation and apologized again to the King, but denied any wrongdoing.
Prince Meng stood up and slowly walked around Mei. He paused then calmly asked the next question. “How did this happen?”
“The scholar… Confucius… he took me by force. I tried to resist but could not.”
Prince Meng asked if she had a witness.
She nodded. “Your Highness, the Royal Physician saw Confucius and I that evening. He saw Confucius drag me into one of the King’s outer chambers where he had his way with me.”
Prince Meng asked the physician to step forward.
“This is the King’s Royal Physician. Look at him!” Prince Meng ordered Mei. “Is this your witness?”
Mei lifted her head from her bowed position and looked at the physician.
“Yes, your Highness. He witnessed Confucius’ actions upon me.”
Prince Meng turned to the physician. “Is this true? Have you ever seen this woman with Confucius or with any other man?”
“Your Highness,” the physician looked at her, then at the King and spoke with alacrity.
“I have never seen this woman except in the service of our Son of Heaven. Nor did I see her with Confucius or any other man. If I may be permitted to add, the suggestion by a woman that I would be drawn into such vulgarity is reprehensible. I humbly ask that this court severely chastise such insolence.”
Betrayed, Mei lost her stoic composure. The life seemed to drain from her body. But she knew better than to plead her case further. To do so would have cemented the perception of her corruption and impertinence, and likely would evoke an even more severe response.
Prince Meng turned to the King. “It is as I feared, Heavenly Father. This woman’s loyalties are not to you.”
Prince Meng nodded at the guard who slapped her in the face, knocking her over. She got up and resumed her kowtowing position, panting heavily.
The Prince continued.
“She has deceived our Heavenly Father, but she is not alone. The father of her child may be a Prince, but no man should dare mock the King. We must send a clear message. This low-life should be executed. More importantly, we must also discuss the actions of my brother and the large shadow it casts on his suitability as heir. You have already heard my thoughts on this, and I cannot imagine that we would not agree that the heir must possess absolute reverence for the throne and whomever sits on it.”
The King’s nod was barely perceptible. He did not look at Mei. He appeared more exhausted and disappointed than angry.
Prince Meng signaled to a guard, who grabbed Mei by one arm.
“Ensure it is a swift death,” the elder Prince told the guard.
“Wait!” the King commanded. “Prince Meng, you have made accusations of Prince Chao. But your word alone is not enough to condemn him. Prince Chao will be allowed to answer. Furthermore, if Prince Chao is innocent, she must confess the name of the true father.”
He looked down upon her with a trace of pity.
“I also cannot believe she alone would attempt this deception unless aided by another.”
Prince Meng paused and briefly glanced at the King. “I beseech our Heavenly Father to note that my dear brother has chosen this time to be absent. I would also further remind you which of your sons stands by you while you are ill. As for this low-life, the ways of women can be ever so deceitful and treacherous. I am not convinced that she did not act alone. Nevertheless, we will break her.” Prince Meng lowered himself and spoke within inches of her. “Whom did you open your vileness to? Who else is involved with your treachery?”
Mei glanced at his pointy, red shoes with rubies hanging on gold tassels. A moment of recognition is all it took. She stopped panting and remained still.
Prince Meng returned to his seat. “We will make you speak. However, the court can be merciful. When you give us the name of whomever conspired with you and defiled you, we will spare your family. I suspect you will do the sensible thing and give us but the one name we already suspect. Take her,” Prince Meng commanded the guards. “I’m sure you’ll find your next accommodations rather sparse compared to what you’ve become accustomed.”
She must have been stunned. She had anticipated a different audience and an entirely different outcome, with support that I, in my deepest naïveté, had helped convince her to accept. For all the times I bemoaned having to stand through the tedium of court affairs, I wished I had borne witness to that moment. If events hadn’t so quickly unfolded after that, I would never have believed Prince Meng could have acted so.
******
While Mei suffered through her unexpected fate, I paced in my garden, trying to calm my nerves. To an observer unaware of the unfolding drama, that day would have appeared to be one of the most remarkably serene autumn days in memory. A golden sun swathed Chengzhou while bursts of colors blanketed lush forests. Wafts of burnt sugar teased the air as several of my katsura trees
’ heart-shaped apricot colored leaves unleashed their splendor. Further afield and beyond the northern wall of Chengzhou, a grove of towering bamboo swayed gently in a warm southern breeze. Unbeknownst to me at the time, making their way through the bamboo were six of General Wu’s soldiers and two of his officers—a chiseled-faced colonel and a sergeant whose glistening leather armor was improperly cut for his svelte, wiry physique. General Wu was an ambitious and rising flatterer in court. In a short amount of time he had endeared himself to Prince Meng and several other Ministers opposed to Prince Chao’s many proposed reforms.
The soldiers dragged Mei to a clearing among the bamboo where three prison interrogators were playing dice. The sergeant debriefed the interrogators and gave them their instructions. The interrogators strung each of Mei’s limbs to a separate post, thus suspending her face up and horizontally above the ground. That alone would have been excruciatingly painful. But the real agony would occur more slowly. Beneath her grew young bamboo stalks, known for their incredible strength and near unbreakable firmness. The interrogators had sharpened the tips of the stalks to fine, arrow-like points. Each plant would mature half an arm’s length a day, thus inching towards her. The first tips would feel like a crude arrow prick at first, then slowly pierce her skin, and drip the life out of her.
Once she was strung up, the three interrogators returned to their dice game. Their leader dusted off his tattered prison guard tunic, revealing crusted blood and weeks of spilled food and drink. He was a stout, broad-shouldered man who had lost one ear in battle when he served in the army. His other ear had been hideously chewed up by a dog, hence his nickname Gou, or dog. Gou cast a disapproving eye at the colonel’s finely-tailored army uniform, then returned his attention to Mei as she lay suspended. Gou watched while his two underlings groped her body and laughed.
“Enough,” the colonel commanded the interrogators. “You are here to extract information, not to amuse yourselves.”
Gou reared his head and cocked his remaining ear like a dog that had been caught with its head in his master’s rice bowl. “What?” Gou asked, forcing the colonel to repeat himself.
“Why hurry, sir? You know them stalks will do their job soon enough, guaranteed.”
The colonel shook his head at Gou. “Enough now.”
Gou sighed in disappointment then turned back to Mei.
“Okay you scum, who did ya open your whorish legs to, huh?”
Then he leaned into her ear and added, “If you can tell this prissy colonel whose bastard child you is carrying, I promise you won’t suffer no more.”
The colonel stiffened but remained silent. Mei named Confucius. At first Gou could not hear so he slapped her. When she named Confucius again, he slapped her once more.
“Wrong answer, you filth. You be saying his name again and you get a bamboo stalk directly up your asshole.”
From then on Mei refused to utter another word, nor did she even close her eyes. The interrogators didn’t seem to care. They warned her that soon the pain would be so unbearable that her screams would be heard for many li around. Her kidneys would burst, her liver would explode poison all over her body, and her intestines would be skewered like meat on a stick. She would talk. Everybody did, Gou told her. The interrogators chuckled before returning to their dice game.
In just over an hour the first stalks reached her buttocks, then the back of her head. She gasped. Her eyes bulged as she struggled to arch her body upwards. Soon another stalk had touched her shoulder, followed by another on her lower back, then her calves. Still she refused to answer the interrogators’ questions. Straining to keep her head up, her eyes welled.
“Don’t be holding out. Tell us whose little stalk did you invite in and your death will be quick. You won’t be feeling this no more. I can guarantee you that. And better not be saying it was that shrivel-dick scholar.”
Before Mei could reply, fast-moving footsteps could be heard trampling through the forest. While Mei was unable to turn her head, the men all stood at the sound, as Major Huang with two other Royal Guardsmen appeared in the bamboo clearing. He quickly surveyed the scene. He squared himself before the colonel and saluted him.
“You and your men are being relieved.”
“Relieved? On whose orders?”
“It is not you I answer to, Colonel.”
“Need I remind you of your rank, Major?” the colonel said.
“Perhaps that would be wise. You may recall that I serve directly under the Son of Heaven.”
“We have direct orders from the court,” the sergeant standing by the colonel interjected.
“Over which the Son of Heaven presides.”
“We are questioning a spy engaged in treasonous activities, yet you dare obstruct us?” the colonel asked.
“She will be questioned, indeed, but by me.”
“You claim that the King has sent you, but I doubt this. Regardless, he can barely recall what he had for breakfast, let alone what orders he may have given. So you must realize, Major, that disobeying a superior officer is something that no one of rank tolerates. Sooner or later your back will need to be covered. Fellow officers and friends might suddenly forget you.
You will never be safe. Wherever you stand, you will lose. Turn around now, and I will try and forget I had to tolerate your insubordination.”
The Major stood tall and firm, his right hand tightened around his halberd.
“How very bold,” the colonel said, his own hand moving to his sword. “You Royal Guardsmen have always had a brashness and arrogance. It is time you learned some respect. Perhaps we should resolve this now.”
“I have been threatened with worse and by more.”
The colonel signaled to the sergeant and his six men who started to ready their weapons. Before they had done so, the Major brandished his weapon, Thunderclap, spun it around his head, and struck three of the soldiers, stripping two of their swords which flew into the bushes. Another soldier drew his sword and lunged towards the Major who jabbed the butt end of his halberd into the soldier’s stomach, knocking him back several feet and onto two of his comrades, bowling all three over. The final soldier came at the Major from behind. He gripped his sword with both hands and chopped down towards the back of the Major’s head. The Major spun around and ducked, spread his hands apart on the halberd held horizontally, blocking the oncoming sword.
The soldier shifted his stance and attacked again, making a low sweeping ankle kick which the Major deflected by ramming the blade end of his halberd into the ground. Then he swung the butt into the soldier’s face, knocking his teeth out as he fell motionless to the ground.
The Major’s two Guardsmen had meanwhile surrounded the colonel, who drew a rare two-handed long sword decorated with a winged hilt and gems. The colonel swung it at the Guardsmen but he was slow, and the bejeweled sword was clumsy. Unable to fend off the Guardsmen, he desperately hacked away at nothing as he exhausted himself. The Guardsmen were content to give the colonel some distance and backed him out of the clearing, away from Mei and the Major.
That left the sergeant standing alone, but grinning in amusement. He also held a halberd and wielded it as though it were an extension of his arm. He thrust it at the Major, probing his defenses. The Major threw back each attack, barely escaping the blade as he stepped backwards. Just as the Major planted a firm foot and prepared to counterattack, the sergeant changed tactics, lengthened the reach of his halberd by gripping the end of its shaft, and jabbed with it again and again, coming within inches of the Major’s face. The Major managed to deflect each stab, but the sergeant was fast and he was forced to retreat further and further until he was backed into a stand of bamboo.
The sergeant spun himself around holding the halberd horizontally, easily slicing through several bamboo trees. In one motion, the Major raised his own blade and chopped downwards, slicing the shaft of the sergeant’s halber
d in two.
“Your movements are quick but wasteful. Predictable, even,” the Major said matter of factly.
The sergeant spat, reached into his waist belt and pulled out several three-sided darts. He was about to throw them when the colonel shouted for him to stop.
“Once again, you are all relieved,” the Major calmly ordered.
“The General will have your head,” the colonel pronounced before he and his men staggered off. “And if he doesn’t, others will.”
Gou had followed the confrontation and let out a laugh, then some flatulence. Major Huang nodded at the trio of dice players standing before him, then examined Mei. The stalks had penetrated into her left shoulder, her buttocks and calves. Blood dripped slowly at first. But her weight was slowly stretching the slackening ropes and her body sank further onto the points.
“I assume, Gou, that you have learned nothing,” Huang asked.
“What?” Gou’s head leaned towards the Major. The Major repeated himself with greater volume.
Gou nodded and turned to Mei, leaning over her.
“Tell me now who you opened your legs for!”
She moaned and writhed, gulping for air. The longer she remained silent to his questions, the louder and more frustrated Gou became.
He threatened to bring her family in for questioning if she continued to resist. He warned that her mother would be raped, as would all the women in her clan. The children would be sold to the Qin. Hearing this, Mei struggled further, impaling herself more deeply in the process. The ground beneath her had became a thick pool of blood. Her eyes pleaded and at last she looked ready to talk. The Major extended his hand to halt the interrogators.
Gou was exasperated. “Major, let us do our job why don’t you? What do you care about a low-life whore?”
“I didn’t say I did. But there are to be no mistakes, and I want answers.”
“We don’t make mistakes. She’s ready to sing and scream, I’ll have you know.”
“Really? And how will you know if it’s anything resembling the truth? The last suspected spy died after giving you false information. If not for me, you would have been whipped for that.”