Chapter 6: The Old Soldier’s Midnight Talk

At night, the two ducks Zhao Ji had brought were stewed together with the meat others had contributed, and the men who had enlisted ate their fill.

Beneath a glittering sky, Zhao Ji, long used to living alone, found it hard to sleep crowded together with so many others.

He stepped outside the hut and saw that two county soldiers were still sitting by the fire, apparently keeping watch over them.

When they saw him come out, one of them asked, "Why are you not asleep, Young Master Zhao?"

"I prefer my own company. I cannot abide noise or stinking feet."

Zhao Ji came over and sat cross-legged before the campfire. "We leave tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow we go to North Village, then north to Jiangyi. After joining the county clerks and soldiers there, we continue by way of Yicheng and enter Hedong through Zhiguan Pass."

Holding a smoking branch, the county soldier drew a rough route before Zhao Ji. "The young men recruited from every county in the commandery will gather at Jiangyi, and the commandery will also issue weapons and armor."

Another county soldier, who had been dozing, was awakened and frowned in annoyance. "At Jiangyi they will screen the lot of us. Of the twenty counties in Hedong, only twenty-five men from each county will be chosen."

Zhao Ji was puzzled. "To guard the Son of Heaven, and they still think there are too many men?"

"Hmph."

The scarred county soldier gave a cold laugh and looked up at Zhao Ji. A long, ugly scar ran across his face. "When it comes to killing bandits, there are never enough men. When it comes to feeding people, there are always too many. The Son of Heaven is in Henei, far from Guanzhong, so of course they are picky about how many mouths they keep."

Zhao Ji smiled. "The soldiers of Guanzhong are fierce, and those from the east are no friendlier. I do not think it should be this way around the Son of Heaven."

"That is what you think. You are only a youngster, not one of the dukes and ministers at court."

The scarred soldier picked up his waterskin, bit the stopper off in one go, and took a long drink. He drew his cloak around him and went on, "The Son of Heaven's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry has died off battalion by battalion. I hear the men conscripted in Hongnong are nearly all dead already. You lot should not be so eager to prove yourselves. Do not let a few words from someone else talk you into losing your lives."

He sighed as he spoke, lowering his eyes to the campfire. "Think of the parents and wives back home. It was not easy for them to raise you. If you can live, then live."

The other county soldier feared he might cause trouble and nudged him with an elbow, but the scarred man only laughed. Then, as if he could not be bothered to sit properly, he lay on his side facing the fire and curled up.

Zhao Ji glanced around and likewise lay down on his side. Once he closed his eyes, he fell asleep.

Yet as soon as he lay still and let his mind loosen, he thought of the sensation of A Lan biting his toe.

He felt somewhat wronged, so he shifted his hips and found a more comfortable position.

The county soldier on night watch saw this and joked, "Could it be that there is some woman you cannot forget?"

Before Zhao Ji could answer, the scarred soldier lifted a foot and kicked him over. "Enough chatter!"

The man who had been kicked over chuckled, then stopped laughing and let out a sigh.

He sat up at once and said, "Being conscripted is suffering. Of the five hundred youths in the commandery, how many will ever rise above this?"

When no one answered, he fed more firewood into the blaze and gazed silently at the leaping flames, lost in his own memories.

He too had once been young. He too had once known the bright days of youth.

During the Yellow Turban Rebellion, he had been in Hedong, and later he had survived Dong Zhuo's chaos; even the disturbances in the east had not reached Hedong.

But within Hedong itself, the White Wave bandits rose in great force, and this county was long occupied by them.

Too many men who could no longer live had wrapped their heads in white cloth and joined the White Wave rebels, dragging many innocents along with them.

Only after Wang Yi pacified the White Wave army did life finally grow stable again.

Yet the Xiongnu had again moved south to the area around Pingyang and the Fen River, and no one knew when a new war might break out.

He could only hope that the commandery governor, Wang Yi, would keep the Xiongnu in check and preserve peace in the commandery.

When Zhao Ji woke, the sun was already only a strip of orange.

The campfire still burned strongly. The scarred county soldier was on watch for the night, and when he saw Zhao Ji rise, he said, "The county will only send twenty-five men, and there are thirty-four here. Add the men from North Village, and if you fall ill, you will be weeded out on your own."

"I want to go out and look around. There is no good life to be had staying here."

Zhao Ji rubbed his eyes, sat up properly to warm himself by the fire, untied his belt pouch, and took out dried meat, giving the other man three strips.

The other man accepted without ceremony and stuffed one strip into his mouth, speaking around it in a muffled voice. "Your Zhao family are outsiders. That fool Hu, the military clerk, made you squad leader without knowing what he was doing. None of the men in that house are blood of yours, are they? How many are even childhood companions?"

Bad memories were stirred in Zhao Ji. When the White Wave army had passed through, the village had been left in ruins.

The playmates he had once known in his own settlement and in the neighboring hamlets had vanished from his memory one by one.

After the White Wave turmoil, the Zhao family moved to the foot of the western hills, because it was more remote, less crowded, and there were fewer quarrels.

The scarred county soldier glanced sidelong at the hut and lowered his voice to continue his scare tactics. "If you offend them, you will end up just like this face of mine. When you fight desperately, your comrades may abandon you. No matter how fierce you are, if armored men surround you and drag you down, then once your strength is spent, they can kill you at will."

He looked at Zhao Ji with unusual seriousness. "If I were you, once I reached Jiangyi I would pretend to be sick. When you go back home, sleep with their women and father many little brats!"

Zhao Ji slowly chewed the dry, tough salted meat and still shook his head. "No interest. What is there in women that compares to killing men and earning rank?"

"You foolish little brat, why can you not understand?"

The scarred county soldier took a small sip from his waterskin to wet his throat, then spoke thickly, "What do men seek office for? Is it not to find many women and have many children? With your face, your build, women would like you. Why bother with office at all? Stay in the village and enjoy yourself all day long. No one will restrain you, and that would be far more pleasant than serving."

"Have dozens of children, and when they grow up, the county will still invite you to serve as an official."

After swallowing, the scarred county soldier's expression turned fierce. "It is hard to get ahead in this world. If you do not heed me, and someday your head is cut off while your body rots in the wilderness, pecked at by birds and beasts and crawling with maggots... then you will understand that these were good words, spoken with good intent."

Zhao Ji only smiled. "What you say does make some sense, but my family cannot protect me. If I am to die, I will die outside. Unless my two elder brothers are no longer around, there will still be disaster at my door when I return from Jiangyi."

The scarred county soldier, who was cynical about the world and had his own code for surviving it, was taken aback and studied Zhao Ji carefully. "Then live well."

Zhao Ji lowered his head and looked at his own hands. The "Cutting Through Brambles" pattern flickered over both palms.

The scarred soldier also tilted his head to look at them and asked with a smile, "Has someone read your fortune too?"

"Yes. He said I was the sort of man whose triumph would be built on heaps of bones."

A smile appeared on Zhao Ji's face. "He also lectured me on military strategy for three days and tricked me out of two deer legs."

"You really have met a benefactor, then. Knowing military strategy... heh, perhaps he was some runaway official."

The county soldier envied him a little, but did not find it strange. Whether it had been the move of the capital to Chang'an, or the great disorder in the Three Auxiliary Commanderies, there had been far too many officials and scholars who fled.

When a man was stranded in desperate straits, cheating a bit of food from this youngster was only natural enough.

As for military strategy, precious as it was, it meant nothing to a man about to starve to death. A few pieces of meat were worth far more.

At that moment, two people came out of the hut, one after the other. They glanced at Zhao Ji's back before the fire, then at the scarred county soldier, and said nothing. Turning around, they went behind the hut.

After a rustling while they adjusted their belts, they ambled back and returned inside.

They disturbed the others, and under the pressure of their bladders, people began to come out one after another, almost as if led by scent, all making their way behind the hut.

It was not their own house, after all, so there was nothing much to mind.

Seeing that Zhao Ji had lost his appetite, the scarred county soldier reached out. Zhao Ji smiled and gave him the last two strips of dried meat in his hand.

The man before him was still rather important. Through his mouth, many people would learn that he had studied military strategy.

When everyone believes you have learned military art, your words begin to carry weight.

Trade a little dried meat for a human loudspeaker, and let him spread the tale of your deeds through the county.

Given time, flowers will always bloom.