He Yingnan felt he had a tortuous fate, one that the heavenly god had forsaken.
He grew up in the chief martial house of the Southern States, had a good hand on the spear ever since a kid, but of the family characteristic height and build, he had inherited none. And going on eighteen, he was still looking short of growth.
At youth, he despised the disciplines from family elders. But when he grew to the age to finally bend his head, his father, brothers, cousins, and uncles, their entire house of heroes, had all become plaques in the family ancestral hall. And when he wanted to hear another word of scolding, all that was impossible.
He admired his Wu-ge the most. Though he was laying dormant on the Northern Plains for years without a word, he was a hope. But when the news finally came, it was bad: He Wu-lang was discovered and defeated, and perished in an alien land.
In his grief, he volunteered for the campaign, and led sixty thousand Jinghu1 soldiers to garrison Lanzhou. Lanzhou was a critical Southern military stronghold, and the last line of defense before the Northern hordes. Western Liang, Chienye, Shinran, and various other countries all had their eyes on the river lands, giving constant harassments. He was of a temper hot of burning the steppes, and riding on his lung full of fury, he repeatedly initiated attacks. And in due a year, he had annihilated countless small waves of enemy troops. The State Governor reported his merit, the people loved and hailed him, and for a moment he started to float, feeling the old heavenly god finally opened his eyes and was treating him decent.
Until the battle of Jincheng Pass of Yongning fifth year, he was finally reawakened: his tortuous fate has never left him.
That day, he met the enemy outside the pass, holding a shield on his left and a spear on the right, with an enormous character He on the banners fluttering high above him. Feeling imposing and invincible, he pointed to the other side with a bellowing shout, “This general does not deal with rats! Hurry call that Qu Fongning forward to receive his death!”
From the opposite assembly, a bright snow-white horse with a fiery red saddle languidly pranced out of the column, carrying a person. “What’re you looking for me for?”
He Yingnan heard it, his rage flared and his eyes nearly burst, and he hurried to study his foe. Pity the mask sealed his true face. And he thus said, “Dare you take off that mask to give me a look?”
The one on the horse sided his face in question and was puzzled at his request. “You want to see my face? Then you need to ask our general for permission.”
Their general sat in the rear, calm, composed, and unmoved, but seemed to envelop the lines in a mass of dark carbon cloud, so heavy it was making their breaths go out. In his words, he only said, “He doesn’t know our rules, you teach him.”
Qu Fongning nodded and made a gesture to remove the mask, giggling at He Yingnan. “Are you really going to look? If you see my face, you gotta marry me!”
He Yingnan stumbled for a split instant and realized he was toyed with. His face had always been ruddy; now it was red to bleed. “Shameless rat!” he exploded; “You, you, you…. Killed my Wu-ge, You and I stand not under the same sky!”
Qu Fongning abruptly halted and lifted his eyes to him. “Who’s your Wu-ge?” His voice sounded somewhat peculiar.
He Yingnan thought he was jeering on purpose, and screamed in his fury, “My brother Yingzhen was a valiant hero, how could he die in the hands of a base villain!” He pointed his spear with a holler, “Remember now, rat! The one taking your life today is Jiu-lang from House He of Jiangling!” And solo on his horse, he charged headfirst towards Qu Fongning.
This battle at Jincheng Pass thus became the prime example of the new calf having no fear of the tiger. He Yingnan, leading a mere ten thousand men and horses, dared to strike a frontal attack towards the Chienye Ghost Sovereign, Yujien Tianhung. And hence after, whenever people brought this up, all couldn’t help falling two lines of hot tears, and remark a word of “The young are formidable!” Though his courage was commendable, his strength was irremediable. When the usually gloating and proudly victorious Jinghu army met the real horseback elites, they immediately revealed their weakness of fending one for themselves from the lack of men and horses, and soon fell into a great chaos. He Yingnan was a mere boy. When had he ever seen such pandemonium? He snatched over the signal flags to repeated shakes, but the enemy forces had already formed into the divisive momentum, and his distribution was of pitiful use. He only heard Qu Fongning chuckling from a distance. “He Jiu-lang of Jiangling, aren’t you going to take my life to avenge your Wu-ge?”
He Yingnan’s head flushed hot and eyes shot red. “Fine! I’ll kill you first!” he roared, bloomed his spear, and rushed his steed forward.
As their distance drew close, he instead suddenly noticed him glacially lifting his eyes, and a longbow as white as frost to the addition of his hand. And a snow-white fletching pointing straight towards He Yinen’s heart.
And the Jinghu deputy commander screaming from the back, “General watch out—”
He only saw Qu Fongning’s eyes belying a color of disappointment, and him hooting, “All blind courage, and no discipline. Can’t even protect yourself, how can you avenge your personal vendetta and state feud?” Then a noise, the fletching left the string.
This arrow came so fast, He Yingnan only saw a beam of white shadow rapidly plundering in. Before he could react, a staggering pain pierced his chest, and he was already shot off the horseback!
Aghast, the crowd of deputies and commanders rushed forth. They saw He Yingnan fall face up on the ground, his face as white as paper, and the arrow nailing fast on his breastplate mirror, but no blood poured out of his chest.
This arrow struck like a loud clap to the face, slapping away the verve and spirit of the Jinghu Army. They routed all the way back into the northern gates and left behind countless corpses beneath the Jincheng Pass.
He Yingnan had just shot off at the mouth and was instantly shot off the horse, and was so dishonored, he wanted to die in battle then and there, and refused to flee dead or alive. He only saw Qu Fongning immediately going by Yujien Tianhung’s side, giggling at him. “He Xiao-jiu. If you charge at me so recklessly again, I won’t have any mercy on my hands.”
His chest stung like the unifying stabs of ten thousand needles, and hearing these words, he only felt the humiliation of that day had surpassed the grand total of the past dozen years. As the crowd covered for his retreat, only one thought tumbled through his head: “Qu Fongning! I’m going to kill you with my own hands!”
Youth has the highest of pride; he brooded on the shame of this shot and didn’t shut his eyes for three days. In his pondering, he saw his breastplate mirror fall onto the ground and the snow-white fletching standing smugly on top, looking obnoxiously soring to the eye. His heart flared, and he snatched it into his hand and was about to snap the arrow. Then his vision turned to the back side and halted, stupefied.
The supposed arrowhead had been cut away; there was nothing on the front end of the arrow.
But He Jiu-lang was very busy with military matters and his wrath was all skeletally consuming. So, this inexplicably missing arrowhead didn’t bring about too much attention.
And henceforth, the devilish name of Qu Fongning followed ever so closely to He Yingnan’s tortuous fate like a bone-sucking leech. They crossed arms at Jincheng Pass countless times. He not only lost every battle, he also had to suffer all the degrading, foul ridicules, such as:
“Fool! Have you no understanding of formations and arrays? Did you read the ‘Military Classics2’ with your ass? Balloon Head General! A box of loose sand!”
When He Yingnan returned to battle under the humiliation after a hard study of military formations, he still encountered the most ruthless verbal abuses:
“Moron! Know nothing of synergy! Put up an axial conformation to others to break! Are you a dimwit? Has your head been growing on a dog’s body?”
He Yingnan then bled his eyes scarlets rehearsing formation morphs. Having finally gained a little light, he rushed back into battle, and the result was even more brutal rebuffs:
“Trash! Where is the basis of the formation? The strength of soldiers is the foundation and the techniques are the finish! Your soldiers are all dead and sickly. However good your arrays, it’s still sewing on a ragbag!”
And so and so thrice, not once did he leave without a head full of bloody insults. In the mists of such suffocating humiliations, he held down a lung full of spite and read in a belly full of Military Classics. For countless nights, he read late under the lamplight, and with a sudden clap of his thigh, he finally achieved a great enlightenment. Yet in the following encounter, he was still caught at the elbow at every turn, and his men and horses frantic. Amongst the metal gleams and armored horses, he often saw Qu Fongning going about on the white horse to Yujien Tianhung’s great banner, conversing for a few words and returning with the bow armed, and spurring forth on the horse. He Yingnan often had the faint idea that the alpha wolf was teaching its pup to hunt. And as to what sort of character He Jiu-lang was playing therein, he dared not to think.
Fortunately, being a proud descendant of House He of Jingzhou, his blood reserved some of the Chuman’s barbarism; the more he fell, the braver he became, and the more losses he bore, the harder he battled. And for such, he gained the only praise Qu Fongning ever granted him:
“He Xiao-jiu, despite your short stature, you got a thick skin, quite durable to fuck with, eh!”
Having said that, he seemed to think it wasn’t enough, nodded, and lauded in contentment:
“Not bad, not bad, this is precisely the verve a young man should have!”
This look of his, adding to his snicker, was really the tone from an elder to a junior. He Yingnan shook off the dirt from his spear and spat out a mouth of spit. “I see you aren’t much bigger than myself. Why are you talking like an old man?”
Qu Fongning promptly thrusted him a lance. “Why are you bothering about my age? Are you trying to match my eight characters, proposing me a marriage? Having the leisure for inquiries, I’d sooner train my troops!”
He Yingnan shook from the words and thought: “He’s right. Who cares what kind of ghost or demon he is? I only need to focus on fighting.”
But before a few days had passed, he heard people talking about this young captain from the country of tigers and wolves in the teahouses and wineshops of the hinterlands. It was said that his name already shook the steppes at the age of fifteen, coming victorious on his first Autumn Contest, of being superb in both riding and archery, and supremely handsome. There was even a song singing as proof: —a princess is not my wish, I ask for the Damu’s weeping whip. The listening young maids and old crones, mothers and aunties all displayed looks of coyness, and there were even blushing ones asking for whether he was married.
He Yingnan listened from the side, and his lungs nearly exploded from fury. This Qu man is a murdering monster, has hands soaked with our comrades’ blood, and these women are still thinking of intercourse with him. Eons of ethnic pride all rotten to oblivion!
Under the drive of bitter anger, He Yingnan finally grounded his teeth, shut his eyes, his face blushed red, and shouted out a flirt on the pre-battle hoots:
“Qu boy, I heard, heard you’ve got some looks, this general happen, be needing a good bedmate, why don’t …”
Before his words finished, a glare of red flashed his eyes. A scarlet, basilisk like lance had suddenly shot out of Yujien Tianhung’s hand, skewering through the seven men before him together with their shields into a kebab, and an immediate annihilating explosion. A bloody rain of intestines and entrails instantly bloomed full across the open field.
He Yingnan’s visor was unshut and blood splattered his entire face, yet for a moment he blanched off all colors. Yujien spread his arm easily, his arm plate shifted, and recovered Flowing Fire into his hand. He paused mildly towards the ground, speaking cooly, “General He is having trouble sleeping with a lonely pillow, I’ve got a fine remedy to treat your long, dreary nights of loneliness.”
He Yingnan raised his sleeve for a wipe, only feeling the reek of blood assaulting his nose. This fine remedy required no second guessing; it was most probably sending him down to reunite with his kins and ancestors, and forever enjoy the bliss of the underworld.
This was the first time the Jinghu army witnessed the Ghost Sovereign unleashing his lance, and seeing the devastation, not one was not shaking on their ass, and cold in their heart and gut. No one knew who was the first to drop their weapons, but the crowd of troops immediately followed suit, losing helm and mail, and scattering into the four directions. He Yinen’s shouts failed to staunch them and had to sulkily retreat into the pass. He returned his gaze before the gates, and saw Qu Fongning holding the white bow, watching the defeated army by the city gates, and seemed to be exhaling a sign. Before long, the peace delegates rushed forth from the capital, and he didn’t know how many silvers and capitals it cost the Southern States to finally resolve this siege of Jincheng Pass.
And now, his rival on the white horse again looked different from before. With a wrap of silvery white mink coat falling to his knees, the sides of his army boots overturned with a thick roll of furs, and a collar of pure white fox skin encircled his head, looking furry white from head to toe. Only the curves of his elbow and knees still showed the original colors of the military uniform. His mask was sitting lopsided on his head. His hand instead held a fiery red fruit, tossing a seed or two every or so often into his mouth, and genially sharing with the person beside him. “Little General Cher, you want some?”
Cher Vei was dressed in a maroon cloak with a discontented face, and at his words, his face grew even uglier. “No!” And he added, “My father taught me not to share food with abjects.”
Qu Fongning giggled. “Your father has taught very well; I’ve been brusque.” He gobbled to lips full of juice, spitting seeds in putts, looking very much unlike the look of a leader.
He Yingnan zoomed his gaze. He was holding a pomegranate in his hand! This thing grew in midsummer and was hard to maintain. He really didn’t know how and where this bastard could’ve possibly gotten so much of it. Qu Fongning noticed him looking repeatedly and raised his hand. “He Xiao-jiu, you want some?”
The corners of He Yingnan’s eyes twitched, and just as he wanted to open his mouth, the one on his left lifted his little finger insidiously. “General He, hold on with your words. My Lord Cui, what should we do first? Would your honor please direct?”
The bearded military official with a dark face on their right was dressed in the Western Liang fashion. Upon these words, he only replied a few words through the translator. At the signal banners, the two armies of the alliance countries backed up, laying out a defensive array. He Yingnan’s face showed some disapproval, but he still spurred his horse towards the left wing, falling into the battle lines.
Qu Fongning’s movements of eating pomegranates stilled. He sucked his fingers and creased his brows in scrutiny over the two commanding characters.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry,” Cher Vei was urging again from the side; “don’t be dragging your mud, holding people up! If you can’t make up your mind, hurry and return my dad’s order tally!”
“Little General Cher, don’t be hasty. This city is easy to capture but hard to defend. Allow me to observe their formations first. Can your honor please wait a moment longer,” Qu Fongning asked nicely.
He Yingnan listened in his ears, and his heart stirred. He lifted his eyes to meet his gaze and only saw the corner of Qu Fongning’s lips curl. “He Xiao-jiu, it looks like we are all not very free in this battle.”
A sentence had come to He Yingnan’s lips, but he bit it down hard. And only until the final defeat of the first battle, when the alliance army retreated into the hills thirty li outside of Juma city, Cher Vei was leading the Autumn Hunt Army in wanton sweeps, and Qu Fongning instead took a millenarian team to silently follow after the Jinghu army. He Yingnan returned his steed to meet the battle, deftly shook out a spear blossom, and finally spat out his turbid airs: “So what?”
The pomegranate in Qu Fongning’s hand was nearly all eaten up. He cherishingly savored a large seed into his mouth, and at his words, he replied. “What do you want?”
He Yingnan was alarmed and fixed his gaze intendedly on the tiny lower half of a face. “What is your purpose in following me?”
“I just want to hear how you plan to fight this war, okay?” Qu Fongning said with a laugh.
He Yingnan went livid and flicked out a spear. “Why should I tell you?”
Qu Fongning airily sided his body away, still giggling, “I know even if you don’t tell me. That Western Liang’s death barker and your imperial eunuch had long announced the order to defend at all costs, swearing to defeat the grand army of Chienye before Juma City, right?”
His two insults suited to He Yingnan’s pleasures very well, and he couldn’t help feeling some friendliness, but his face remained very stern. “So what if it’s true? Defending to the end is precisely the duty of the hot-blooded men of our generation.”
“He Xiao-jiu, look at yourself. Your head’s all hot again, yeah?” Qu Fongning signed. “Juma City is low in elevation, wide open on three sides. It circulates the north and the south, and is situated at the throat between the east and the west. The Art of War had said, Do not keep hopeless lands. What’s the point of defending it? Just a waste of lives! If I were you, I’d sooner find a place to hide out the storms, and let us go peacefully through.”
He Yingnan was impossibly furiously, spat out a mouthful of thick spit, and sent three successive spears towards his lower abdomen.
Qu Fongning evaded with easy familiarity. Even his late uncles didn’t have this much proficiency in their practicing spars. In his dodges, he didn’t neglect to toss a pomegranate seed into his mouth, mumbling, “He Xiao-jiu, I don’t get it. Us attacking Western Liang this time, the one who’s having a fire burning in their pants is Li Daer. Why are you guys blindly huffing around? You help them guard their homes and lands. Are they going to pay your military rations, feed your horses? Is Western Liang going to take care of the spouses of the dead and wounded soldiers? Are they going to give you a discount when they sell horses to you?”
The muscles on He Yingnan’s face jerked. “None of your business! Don’t bother with your twisting tongue, trying to wedge… discord,” he rebuked, but as he got to the end, his tone fell wan.
“It looks like you are determined not to retreat,” Qu Fongning said with a smile.
“I’d sooner die than retreat!” He Yingnan shouted, brushing up his vigor.
Qu Fongning wheeled around his horse, regarding him with a thin smile. “Then…feign a retreat and retaliate at the opportune moment?”
“Coming and going is a waste of work!” He Yingnan refuted without consideration.
Qu Fongning sounded a tsk in abject disappointment and spat a pomegranate seed to his face. “Pooh! Tunnel visioned rat! You have no other enemies besides Chienye beneath Juma City?”
He Yingnan stiffened entirely, pondering over the meaning between his words. His heart sprang into a mad pounding. He only saw Qu Fongning watching him profoundly, the smile by his lips already collected away. “He Xiao-jiu, a rider without a horse is akin being lame in the feet.”
A buzz boomed in He Yingnan’s head, the hand holding the spear nearly numbed in his anxiety, his lips shifted, but he shook his head. “The alliance has been sealed, the blood in our mouths has yet to dry…”
“They treat you with the heart of a beast; why should you serve them in the manner of a gentleman?” sneered Qu Fongning.
He Yingnan had another pause, thinking: “These words aren’t false! When Western Liang took our artic highlands and the six states of Hehuang, have they imagined this day?” And hot blood boiled up his body, almost shooting out of his chest.
Yet he heard the screech of horses, and an androgynous voice shrilling, “General He! What are you standing there for? Eradicate the enemy leader forthwith and return to defend the city at once! Aiya, My Lord Cui, please don’t bother with a level such as him!”
The Western Liang military official hmphed and blew his nose under the impenetrable cover of Jinghu soldiers, and barked at a soldier who was holding an umbrella for him against the winds. “Come closer! You want to freeze this old man to death?”
His gaze darkened, and the just lit up notion instantly chilled by a half. Qu Fongning followed his gaze, his eyes squinting into a line. “He Xiao-jiu, I’ve bullied you quite a bit on the usual. My heart feels a little sorry about it. So, I’ll give you a show today to express my sincerest apologies.”
And between now and then, He Yingnan’s wooden head actually caught the hint, and conspicuously swung out a spear, while side glancing him. “What show?”
Qu Fongning sided his head for a thought and laughed.
“A show of killing two birds with one stone.”
He Yingnan stifled the peculiar sensation in his chest, and watched him taking out the snow-white bow which he shot him down with that day before the Jincheng Pass, and nocking on two inky black, heavy steel fletched long arrows. The arm beneath the mink coat curled back slowly, pulling the bowstring into tensing crackles until the bow reached a full moon. Then his hand suddenly let fly. The long arrows soared across the ether like black dragons, and nailed straight through the hearts of the two men on the opposite side.