“Do you think they will surrender?”
“I would hope so,” Xinqi replies curtly.
Prefect Yuan’s reaction to her words is mixed.
“We’ve watched them for a while now. They have a few dozen guards — at best. Nothing we cannot handle.”
“I do not like the idea of killing our own people…”
Xinqi crosses her arms and shakes her head. “Then don’t.”
Yuan Huan stares at the young woman in flowing layers of blue and black, baffled by her remarkable confidence. She’s armed with a sword and bow, and he has seen her fight, so he knows well a regular guard can’t stand in her way. She can kill them all, so what can she possibly mean?
“Confused?” she smirks. “Have you ever been in a battle before?”
He shakes his head.
“Neither have I, but I know one thing: you don’t have to kill to win,” she gestures to his own weapon, a bronze-banded club of stout wood. “You just have to render them incapable of fighting — or unwilling.”
“Ah, well… You make it sound easy.”
She turns her head and stares down the alley as a large, heavily armored man approaches. “It’s not.”
General Dong Peishao passes a few curious glances between them as he approaches. “Are you ready? My men are in position and have the streets cordoned off. If someone attempts to escape then we will apprehend them.”
“I still can’t believe the Du clan would betray us like this.”
“Betrayal is an odd thing,” the general mutters. “It can be so easy at times, yet unthinkable at others. When this is over you will have your answers.”
Yuan Huan clutches his club in his hands and takes a deep breath to steel his resolve. “You’re right. My concerns can wait. For now, we have a job to do!”
“My men will support yours, as planned,” Peishao offers a short tube-shaped item to the prefect. “Use this to signal us if you require aid.”
“It’ll be fine, General,” Xinqi moves to the prefect’s side and smiles reassuringly. “The Twilight Pavilion will be with him, right, prefect?”
He chuckles dourly, but his anxiety plateaus when she gets closer. “You are right, Lady Song.”
She and twenty others of the Twilight Pavilion will support his constables from the onset while the White River Cavalry secures the streets and surrounds the compound. Xinqi’s archers are experts at their craft, and more than capable of handling the Du clan’s guards if things get out of hand. Prefect Yuan’s fifty constables will provide the main force and represent the local authority.
“Let’s begin!”
While Prefect Yuan departs to begin the operation, Xinqi lingers with the general since he looks like he has something to say. She tips her head a bit and peers up at the man as he secures his impressive silvery beard into his armor.
“What’s on your mind, General Dong?”
“Just be careful.”
“You are worried?”
“You can be impetuous.”
“And you can be surly and stubborn,” she quips.
He doesn’t rise to the bait. “They most likely know we are coming.”
“There’s two-hundred potential combatants, at most, inside the compound. We can handle this.”
“Do not hesitate with the signal flare, Lady Song. If they all rise up in arms then you will be greatly outnumbered.”
She turns to leave, but pauses long enough to reply. “I promise.”
The venerable general watches Xinqi and her dark-clad underlings rush along the street while he dons his helmet. He makes ready to leave, but casts one last glance in her direction as she hastily leaps and bounds to a nearby rooftop overlooking the interior of the compound.
“Youth…” he mutters with a soft chuckle.
Yuan Huan approaches the main gates of the Du clan’s compound with his back straight and head held high. Five men in the dusty orange and ruddy brown colors of the Du clan eye him and his enforcers with suspicion. They wisely keep their hands off of their weapons, even when Yuan Huan comes to a stop and unfurls the scroll he bears with reverence.
“What is the meaning of this?” one guard demands but is summarily ignored.
“By decree of the emperor’s duly appointed administrator of Weinan, and authorized by the head magistrate of the great city of Anyi, the Du Clan is hereby ordered to lay down arms and surrender to Prefect Yuan Huan and his enforcers.
“The Du clan is to be charged and investigated on suspicion of treason and sedition for supplying arms and armor to rebels. Failure to comply with these lawful orders will result in the use of force to detain and imprison any and all dissidents until a trial can be held and judgement passed.”
The blood drains from the guards’ faces at the mention of treason. One drops his ji and falls to his knees as despair claims his heart. His comrades do not spare him a single thought as fear and confusion spread through their ranks. Only their leader is willing to do anything.
He takes a hesitant step forward and half-raises a hand. “Treason…?”
His voice trembles weakly.
Prefect Yuan rolls the scroll up and seals it with a silk cord. “These are the charges against the Du clan. Deliver it to your master and surrender immediately.”
He holds the scroll out to the guard who receives and cradles it like the most fragile thing he has ever laid his hands on. “This can’t be… why?”
“It is not my place to pass judgement. I merely apprehend the suspects.”
The guard slowly turns and shambles to the gate as if the will to live has been drained from every fiber of his being. He raises his free hand to push the gate open but it does not budge. He shoves it a few times and then bangs his fist on the thick wooden planks.
“Open the gate!”
Prefect Yuan’s life has been one of relative safety, but even he can tell something is wrong. “Take their weapons! Arrest them!”
The guards, shocked by the sudden order, protest weakly, but are quickly subdued by the enforcers. Under normal circumstances, Prefect Yuan would chide his men for beating them during the arrest, but there is no time for that now. His fingers brush the signal flare that General Dong gave him, but he decides against it for the time being.
‘If there is a problem, Lady Song will deal with it.’
He turns his gaze to the nearby rooftop where she lingers with her men, only to see her disappear over the peak and vanish from sight.
“Break it down!”
His men rush forward with a sturdy bronze ram, and with a mighty heave, slam it against the wooden doors. They creak and crack, but do not break open.
“Again!” he shouts while readying his baton. “Apprehend anyone who surrenders, and show no mercy to those that resist the Emperor’s justice!”
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The ram impacts the door again and whatever holds it shut violently snaps. The doors swing open and the enforcers rush ahead with shields raised.
“Archers!” an enforcer cries as they huddle together behind a wall of banded metal and wood.
Prefect Yuan ducks behind them and arrows strike their shields as a dozen or more of the Du clan’s men spring their trap. Cries of pain and struggle fill his ears, but they are distant, not from his own men who are cursing the Du clan traitors with every breath. A tentative peak over the shield wall reveals Lady Song’s warriors firing into their assailants from afar.
“Forward! For justice! For the Emperor!” Prefect Yuan bellows his words at the top of his lungs as he activates the flare. “Arrest these traitors!”
The arrow strikes, biting through the unprotected flesh of the Du clansman’s neck and another is drawn and knocked before he has time to hit the ground. Xinqi takes a deep breath, adjusts her footing on the clay tiles, and draws the string back with her thumb. They realize she is there and that they are vulnerable. They scramble for safety as the prefect’s men breach through the gate. It is too late.
Xinqi feels the soft pheasant feather fletching against her cheek.
She eyes her target as he turns to flee back into the building behind them. Once safely hidden inside she’d not be able to target him from her position. He doesn’t have the time. She adjusts her aim to account for his movement and lets her arrow fly. The string hums and she tightens her grip to keep the bow from spinning in her hand. This is not tournament shooting. This is a battle. She needs efficiency, not style.
The arrow finds its mark and pierces the man’s flank mid-stride.
Xinqi draws another arrow and scans for a target.
They cower beneath the eaves of a nearby pavilion where she cannot see them. Their safety is short-lived, because the prefect’s men pour into them like a tidal wave and pummel them into submission with righteous fury. More clansmen come to join the fray, shouting and screaming as they fall upon Prefect Yuan’s men from every direction. The Du are hidden in every nook and cranny. Every door and window conceals a potential assailant.
She draws the bow and lets the arrow fly. Another falls.
‘General Dong will breach the walls soon,’ Xinqi assesses the situation as the flare descends toward the ground. ‘Then it will be over.’
Xinqi draws her jian and leaps from the roof. Her robes flutter about her as she drops into the midst of a half-dozen Du clan rushing to reinforce the gate from beneath her position. Alarmed, they turn their weapons on her.
Her bow bats a ji aside and she twirls along the haft to close in on her first assailant. The shock in his eyes quickly fades as her blade plunges into his chest. Xinqi heaves the dying man to the side and kicks him into his comrades, disrupting their meager formation as her men rain arrows down on them from above.
A desperate warrior thrusts her ji at her, but Xinqi deflects it with a kick and steps inside the halberd’s reach. She whirls her bow around and clips the woman’s jaw with the siyah, snapping her head to the side and knocking her unconscious with a single, decisive blow.
‘Run, don’t walk? Was that what she said?’ Xinqi ponders the words of Hua Xuan as she turns a sword aside with her own and batters the assailant with a powerful kick.
The Du clansman falls to a knee, but looks about to rise and fight again. Xinqi drives the pommel of her sword into the back of his head and he topples to the ground.
‘Those words disturbed the prince so badly, yet it seems so simple. Why?’
The last among the group she ambushed from above falls to the ground as arrows pierce his back. She kept a few alive. Prefect Yuan will appreciate having more prisoners than corpses.
“Lady Song?” Ming Du drops from the roof at her side.
She tosses her bow to him and he scrambles to catch it. “Support the prefect’s men. General Dong should be here any minute, so we need to minimize casualties.”
She looks down at her sword. ‘I needed more of an opportunity than this.’
Xinqi flicks the slender blade to clean it of blood and rushes ahead to aid Prefect Yuan where the fighting is the thickest.
“Lady Song!” an exasperated Yuan Huan waves her over as she approaches.
“They won’t surrender… This is a bloodbath!”
“Keep fighting. They’ll give in eventually.”
“We need to capture Du Yongyi, the clan patriarch. Without him they might surrender!”
“Where is he?”
Prefect Yuan gestures with his baton. Xinqi follows his directions and spots a wizened man, not unlike a smaller General Dong, amidst a cadre of heavily armored Du clansmen. His bearing suggests he is an exceptional warrior, and his confidence betrays his thoughts: he believes he and his clan are winning. The White River Cavalry will change that.
“I’ll deal with him.”
“Lady Song!” Prefect Yuan calls after her, but she is already running off. “Be careful…”
The battle lines are broken and scattered. Most of the Du clan are smiths and laborers, not fighters. But they are a clan of lower nobility, their leaders, such as Du Yongyi, will be different. They will have practiced the traditional arts of a noble, including warfare.
They’ve never fought in war, but they will think they know how. Just like her.
“Du Yongyi!” She raises her sword at him and shouts with all her might. Her voice barely carries over the din of battle, but it suffices. “Face me!”
The Du patriarch assesses her with a critical eye and laughs.
It rankles her nerves. “Are you too cowardly to face a woman?”
He tenses at her taunting and takes a deep breath. Men and women may be equal under the law, but many men hold the idea of their martial superiority close to heart. Du Yongyi draws his sword and turns to her.
“Are you the one that orchestrated this folly?”
She holds her arms out wide. “Indeed, I am! Your treacherous clan falls because of me!”
He approaches slowly, but not due to an abundance of caution. He remains confident.
“Then you will die.”
It is clear that his bodyguards do not approve of their patriarch going into battle without them, but he waves them back. Du Yongyi wishes to face her personally and he makes it perfectly clear that they are not to interfere.
They will have their hands full soon enough. Xinqi catches a few glimpses of the White River Cavalry on the flanks. The Du clan’s days are numbered.
“Tell your clan to surrender,” Xinqi orders.
“We die today, or we die tomorrow. Our fate is sealed, but so is yours!”
He lunges forward and drives his sword towards her midsection, but Xinqi parries and sends his strike wide. They clash in a furious display of singing steel. Patriarch Du, though several decades her senior, is still spry and agile. His experience and training shows.
‘Act before I think?’
Yongyi ducks a slash that would sever his neck and intercepts her return swing with his sword. He follows up with a masterful riposte that nearly skewers Xinqi, but she laughs while dancing back and away from him.
‘How?’
“Do you find your impending death amusing?”
‘Am I not skilled enough?’
Their blades ring as they trade another wild flurry of strikes.
‘How much more must I practice?’
Yongyi grunts when Xinqi’s foot connects with his chest, drives him back, and narrowly avoids her follow-up. The sleeve of his robe bears a small cut, but his body is unharmed.
‘Maybe it isn’t enough?’
She watches his blade. That is the danger.
‘No…’
She shifts her gaze. To his hand. His arm. His eyes. He is the danger.
‘He thinks too much.’
Yongi’s eyes flicker, watching her. His robes shift slightly, his muscles tense. His breathing changes and his grip tightens around the hilt of his sword.
‘Maybe I think too much?’
Another slash. From above her left shoulder. That is what she sees.
‘Move!’
Her blade is already there.
‘Do not think!’
Yongyi steps back. His body twists slightly, his arm follows the motion. Xinqi understands what Hua Xuan meant.
‘Act!’
The Du Patriarch roars as he continues his assault. Xinqi’s blade rises to meet him, but only at first. Once, twice, maybe three times. After that, however, Xinqi’s sword is too quick. She is a step ahead, perhaps even two. Every adjustment Yongyi makes gives away his next choice. She can see it. She understands.
Their duel was even for a time. They fought as equals. They are no longer anything of the sort. Du Yongyi merely walks. Xinqi has learned to run.
“Yield!”
Heavy breaths flow from both warriors as the fatigue of pitched battle settles in, but it is Du Yongyi who stares down her blade as it presses to his throat. He tenses up for just a moment before he relaxes and lets his sword fall from his hands.
“You’ve wo—”
He doesn’t have a chance to finish speaking before two of Prefect Yuan’s enforcers slam into him and tackle him to the ground. Xinqi lowers her sword and takes a deep breath. She holds it for a few seconds before letting it all out. The battle is over. Her duel is over. This is the end of the Du clan.
“A duel, really? In the middle of all of this?”
Xinqi glares at General Dong. “You’re really going to criticize me? Now?”
General Dong removes his helmet and cradles it under his arm. His passive expression holds for a breath before a wide, beaming grin breaks his steely visage.
“No, I will congratulate you!”
“Huh?”
“We have claimed victory. The du clan is defeated, their patriarch is in our custody, and we took but a few casualties to make it happen. This is because of your hard work, Lady Song.”
She sheathes her sword and stares at the general.
“Besides, I think you have a new perspective, don’t you?”
Xinqi can’t hold back her smile.
Names & Setting Guide
Fuzhou (Fúzhōu — 福州) — A large, wealthy agrarian province in the center of the empire
Weinan (Wèinán — 渭南) — Capital commandery of Fuzhou
Anyi (ānyì — 安义) — Provincial seat for Fuzhou, and commandery seat for Weinan; an expansive population center
Yuan Huan (Yuán huàn — 原焕) — Head Prefect of Weinan and Anyi
Song Xinqi (Sōng Xīnqí — 松心琪) — Master of the Twilight Pavilion and retainer of Xin Fengxian
Dong Peishao (Dōng Pèishào — 东沛劭) — General of the White River Cavalry and retainer of Xin Fengxian
Du Yongyi — Patriarch of the Du clan
Meng Du (Méng Dǔ — 蒙笃) — Member of the Twilight Pavilion
Du Clan — A clan in the city of Anyi; lower nobility with plenty of smiths and artisans who supplied the Red Dawn movement
White River Cavalry (Báihéqí — 白河騎) — Personal military retinue of Xin Fengxian; well-trained and well-equipped cavalry force from Lanxi county
I was in a namey mood so I updated a few names for some important characters (and places) that have a lot of screen time. Meng Du got a name upgrade in the crossfire.
Traditional Chinese Archery
This is the first chapter to extensively feature archery, but I can assure you it will be important going forward, so it is time to learn a little bit about it! Most of my setting is based on the latter years of the Han dynasty leading up to, and through, the Three Kingdoms period. During the era of the Han, there were at least seven well-known manuals on archery, including one from a general known as Li Guang, nicknamed the “Flying General”.
He fought against the nomadic Xiongnu tribes north of China, so he probably knew a thing or two about archery. Like so many others, he took his own life because of his ideals after he failed to arrive at a battlefield in time.
Anyway, crossbows are a big thing, especially among the soldiers, so we’ll also get to that, but the White River Cavalry are predominantly horse archers, despite what they’ve been used for thus far. Individuals like Song Xinqi and her Twilight Pavilion underlings use the bow due to their mobility rather than en masse line-fighting where crossbows will excel.
The Chinese archery style mostly used a thumb draw, which was the most common in Asia (during that time) and would also be used by the Mongolians, Tibetans, Koreans, Indians, Turks, Persians, and even more “western” empires like the Byzantines and Romans. The notable exception is the Japanese! A very common component of the thumb draw techniques is the thumb ring, a protective device used to keep the thumb safe during use. It also served as a status symbol for a fairly good stretch of time.
The numerous styles and manuals offered advice on a lot of aspects of shooting technique, like foot position, the height to anchor the arrow, how to position the bow hand finger, whether to apply tension to the bow hand, whether or not to let the bow spin after release, and more. So, a lot of variety likely popped up across China, even during the same year. This is further enforced by art of Chinese archers showing a wide variety of these differences.
The construction of bows changed a lot over time, too. During this time period, the most common type of bow is a laminated reflex bow made with layers of wood such as bamboo, wrapped in silk, and lacquered. The average length of such a bow is 1.2-1.5m (3.9-4.9 feet). Towards the end of the Han period, long Siyahs, or the non-bending part of composite bows, grew in popularity. These would be similar to the Hunnic horn bows and have long, slender siyahs with short, broad working sections.
