Chapter Fifty: The Southern Journey

At dusk, Fan Ruo returned from Pine Stone Fort with two people and a piece of grim news.

The two were Officer Zheng Yu from Pine Stone Fort and a boy named Tian Yin, who was eleven years old, the son of Centurion Tian Dazhuang from the same fort.

Tian Dazhuang had four sons in total; Tian Yin was his third. He had two older brothers and a baby brother just over a year old, but now, Tian Yin was the only son left to Tian Dazhuang.

Two hours earlier, while Lu Qing and his group had paused to rest, a force of several hundred Oirat cavalry had swept through Pine Stone Fort, massacring everyone. Of the 1,367 souls within, only Zheng Yu and Tian Yin survived. The rest, young and old alike, perished without exception.

When Fan Ruo arrived, the Oirats had already left, heading south. The fort was piled high with corpses, the stench of blood thick in the air. Swarms of green-headed flies gathered on the bodies, and a few wild dogs, drawn by the smell, gnawed at the remains.

Zheng Yu and Tian Yin had crawled out from a grain cellar. When Fan Ruo found them, Zheng Yu sat motionless on the ground, lifeless as a corpse, while Tian Yin knelt by his mother's body, holding his already-dead baby brother and staring blankly.

There were no tears left to cry; his voice was hoarse from screaming. All that remained in his eyes was hatred.

...

When Lu Qing saw the boy—only eleven—he was clutching his dead brother tightly. At Lu Qing’s approach, the boy instinctively shrank back, holding the corpse still closer, his face full of wariness.

Lu Qing was puzzled. He couldn’t understand why the boy refused to bury his brother, or why he seemed so hostile.

Fan Ruo quietly explained that when he’d discovered Tian Yin, the boy had been holding his brother’s body and had refused to let go. Fan Ruo had tried to persuade him to bury the child, but Tian Yin wouldn’t listen. When Fan Ruo tried to take the baby by force, the boy fought back desperately, even biting him. Unable to bring himself to use real force, Fan Ruo had no choice but to bring the two back and wait for the boy to recover before arranging for the burial.

After hearing this, Lu Qing sighed and did not press Tian Yin to bury his brother. He couldn’t bear to look at the lifeless infant in the boy’s arms and, shaking his head, instructed someone to lead the boy away. Then, taking Fan Ruo and Zheng Yu with him, he went to see Eunuch Guo.

The fall of Pine Stone Fort was not the worst news Fan Ruo brought. Worse still was what Zheng Yu had to say.

Zheng Yu told them that after the Oirats seized Du Stone Fort the previous night, their main army had marched south at dawn, splitting into two columns. One made straight for Horse Camp, opening the way to Dragon Gate and Xuanhua; the other followed the Qing Stone River through Xuanfu territory, sweeping every fort and town along its path.

The column headed for Horse Camp was led by Ala himself, commanding over ten thousand elite cavalry. Zhaomei, the Commander of Kaiping Garrison, and Yang Jun, Chief of Wanquan, made no attempt to organize resistance. Instead, before Ala’s forces arrived, they abandoned the fort and fled south.

Before fleeing, Zhaomei and Yang Jun did remember to send warnings to the nearby centurion posts so the forts could prepare their defenses. But the warning came too late. The Oirat horsemen reached Pine Stone Fort almost at the same time as the messengers, leaving the defenders no time to recover from the shock of Du Stone’s fall and Horse Camp’s abandonment. The Oirats stormed in, and apart from the two who hid in the cellar, everyone else was slaughtered.

Before his death, Tian Dazhuang cursed bitterly—not at the Oirat soldiers, but at Zhaomei for betraying the country.

The Tian family’s fate was ghastly. Tian Dazhuang’s belly was slit open by the Oirats, his intestines wound around a spear tip and dragged out, and his head finally smashed with a stone. His two adult sons were shot through the chest as they tried to save their father, dying instantly. His wife, Lin, went mad after her youngest was killed, and in her frenzy was beheaded as she struggled with the Oirats; even in death, her body was desecrated.

As Zheng Yu recounted this, he broke down in tears, ashamed at having hidden in the cellar. Lu Qing hurried to comfort him, and no one blamed him for his survival. After this, Zheng Yu continued, but most of what he described was the horror of the massacre—little that offered valuable intelligence.

The size of the Oirat force marching south along the Qing Stone River was unclear—the messenger had been too panicked to give details. Thus, despite Lu Qing’s questioning, Zheng Yu could not say how many Oirats were heading south along the river, or their target.

Seeing there was nothing more to learn, Lu Qing instructed Fan Ruo to take Zheng Yu away and arrange for both him and Tian Yin. He also asked Zheng Yu to persuade the boy to bury his brother’s body. Although it was late July and the evenings were cool, the days were still hot, and the corpse would not keep for long, risking disease if it was not buried soon.

Zheng Yu agreed repeatedly, wiping his tears with his sleeve as he left.

After they departed, Lu Qing looked at Eunuch Guo, Niu Qing, Song Bangde, and the others, and saw their faces had all gone pale.

After a long silence, Niu Qing finally muttered, trembling, “If we hadn’t decided to follow His Excellency south, I fear our own Gentlemen’s Fort would have suffered the same fate as Pine Stone Fort… alas…”

Recalling Zheng Yu’s account of the massacre, Niu Qing was filled with mixed emotions—but also relief. Whatever his motives for fleeing, at least he had saved the lives of hundreds of people in his fort.

“I’d thought the Oirats would surely head south after taking Du Stone, and Horse Camp would be the first in danger—a place to die if we went there. But I never imagined Horse Camp would be abandoned without a fight! Zhaomei and Yang Jun are truly contemptible!” Song Bangde cursed bitterly.

“Zhaomei and Yang Jun are cowards, afraid for their lives. We must report their conduct to His Majesty!” Eunuch Guo was seething with anger. The loss of Du Stone could be blamed on the Oirat onslaught, but the abandonment of Horse Camp was sheer dereliction. Zhaomei and Yang Jun’s audacity was beyond belief.

“With Horse Camp lost, the Oirats are now ahead of us. The road south…” Banner Captain Lin’s face was full of worry. With Horse Camp fallen, their way south had grown perilous indeed. At least with Horse Camp holding out, they might have gained a few days’ time to get ahead of the Oirats. Now, with the enemy already in front, how could they hope to travel safely? Could their few hundred men really outrun Oirat cavalry?

Everyone realized this and their faces darkened. Lu Qing, however, drew several circles in the dirt and spoke: “When Ala invaded, he split his forces three ways—his eldest son Zhanna attacked Chicheng, his younger brother Hubari attacked Dragon Gate, and he himself attacked Du Stone. Now, having taken Du Stone and captured Horse Camp with ease, he has opened the road south. I believe his next move is not to march immediately on Xuanhua, but to regroup with his son and brother. That places him to the east, while we are to the west. Unless fate plays a cruel trick, we shouldn’t encounter Ala’s main force.”

As he finished speaking, he swiftly drew a symbol in the dirt—a “ji” character, with several circles arrayed on either side.

On the left (west) were Gentlemen’s Fort, Pine Stone Fort, Jin Family Village Fort, Great Pine Mountain, and Zhenning. On the right (east) were Du Stone, Horse Camp, Chicheng Post, and Dragon Gate Fort.

Geographically, the chance of crossing paths with Ala’s main force on the road south was small. The officers present, all familiar with the region, understood Lu Qing’s point and began to relax. But just then, Lu Qing frowned and dragged a curved vertical line down the “ji” character, passing through Jin Family Village Fort.

“The one thing that worries me is the Oirat column moving south along the Qing Stone River. Both Jin Family Thousand Households and Great Pine Mountain Fort are on the riverbank. If the Oirats seize these two places, our route south will be cut off.”