Han Ji

The front of Huguan Pass, during the darkest hour before dawn.

Zhang Fei had already gotten up. He stood outside the tent, rubbing his face with cold water drawn from a mountain stream. The water was icy and made him shiver when it hit his face. After rubbing his face, he poured the water from his canteen into his mouth, gulped it down, and spat it onto the ground. A layer of white frost formed on the ground.

The torches were still burning in the camp. The firelight illuminated the soldiers' faces, revealing their grayish-brown stubble and chapped lips. The cook squatted by the stove, stirring the porridge, which bubbled and steamed, the heat quickly dissipated in the cold wind.

One by one, the soldiers came over with their bowls, squatted down, and drank the porridge quickly, grimacing from the heat but still swallowing it down. No one spoke; only the slurping sounds of drinking porridge and the scraping of chopsticks against the bottom of the bowls could be heard.

Zhang Fei picked up a bowl of porridge and drank it standing up. He put the bowl down, walked to the front of the camp, and looked up at Huguan. The firelight on the Huguan city tower was blurred into a yellow halo in the morning mist. The guards on the city wall were still changing shifts, and some of them walked along the crenellations with torches in their hands, the torchlight flickering back and forth.

"today."

He turned and went into the tent, hanging his ring-pommel sword at his waist. The scabbard clinked against the armor plates. A guard handed him a helmet, which he took, fastened it over his head, and tightened the strap around his chin.

It was early morning. The sky was still gray, but the sky above the mountain ridge had turned from black to deep blue. The drummer was already standing by the drum stand, drumsticks in his hands, his hands red with cold.

Zhang Fei walked to the front of the formation. He stood at the very front of the infantry square, shoulder to shoulder with the spearmen in the first rank. The spearmen were half-crouched, the butts of their spears touching the ground, the tips pointing diagonally forward. Zhang Fei crouched down to look at a young spearman at eye level; the boy had just grown downy hair around his mouth, and his hands gripping the spear were white with cold knuckles.

Are you scared?

"I'm not afraid."

"If you're afraid, just say you're afraid. There's no shame in saying you're afraid. When you're charging forward, even if you're afraid, that's what it means to be fearless."

Zhang Fei stood up. He took a deep breath, his chest expanding and then suddenly deflation. His voice boomed from his dantian.

"Beat the drums!"

The drums exploded. Louder than yesterday. The drummer swung his arm and slammed it down, the drumhead vibrating and sending dust flying from under the drum stand. The infantry phalanx began to advance. The footsteps were synchronized, thousands of feet simultaneously striking the frozen ground, creating a continuous, muffled thud.

The crossbows of the defenders on the city wall fired first. Arrows shot out from between the crenellations, the arrowheads indistinct in the hazy morning light, only the sound of them cutting through the air could be heard.

A crossbow bolt pierced the shield of a shieldbearer in the front rank, the arrowhead penetrating the wooden plank, the tip protruding from the back, grazing the shieldbearer's forearm and scraping off a piece of skin. The shieldbearer cursed, gritted his teeth, and continued to push forward.

The engineers carried planks and bamboo baskets towards the moat. The thin ice on the moat, which had been broken the day before, had re-frozen overnight. This time, the engineers weren't building a bridge; they were simply dumping bags of sand into the moat, not gravel.

Sandbags broke through the ice and sank, splashing water onto the sappers' faces. Sandbags were piled up layer by layer until they were two feet above the water, and then wooden planks were laid on top.

The arrows from the city walls grew even denser. The archers under the command of the high-ranking officials had practiced all day yesterday and were now specifically targeting the engineers carrying loads. Several volleys of arrows followed, and several more engineers fell by the moat.

An engineer was shot in the abdomen. He clutched his stomach and crouched down, his intestines spilling out from between his fingers. He looked down, his face turned pale, and then he collapsed to the side.

Zhang Fei's eyes were bloodshot. He drew his ring-pommel sword, its blade gleaming bluish-white in the morning light. "Crash it! Crash those rotten stones in the doorway!"

Five cars were pushed forward simultaneously. Two more than yesterday. The roofs of the crashed cars were covered with wet cowhides, still dripping water. These were made last night, with water-soaked cowhides coated with fire-retardant oil.

The wooden wheels of the vehicle jolted as they rolled over the sandbag bridge. The soldier pushing the vehicle braced his shoulder against the frame, the veins on his neck bulging like earthworms.

The first car crashed into the city gate. The iron-tipped ram slammed into the pile of rubble with a loud thud. The stones behind the rubble loosened slightly, and a few fist-sized pebbles peeked out from the crack in the gate. The city gate was dusty and choked with grime from the flying brick dust, making it difficult to open one's eyes.

On the city wall, Guo Fu ordered more oil to be poured down. Boiling oil was poured onto the wet cowhide of the wrecked chariot, and the oil dripped down the cowhide, but it didn't catch fire underneath; it just hissed and emitted white smoke.

The soldiers pushing the cart hid under the roof, so the oil didn't get on them. They continued pushing the ram, one, two, three times, and the pile of rubble was dented.

The high-ranking official looked out over the city gate from the arrow tower. His eyes narrowed, and his expression was grim.

"Pour in the molten gold."

The defenders poured buckets of boiling excrement down the gate. The excrement splashed onto the stone walls on both sides of the gate, emitting a pungent stench. Several soldiers pushing carts were splashed in the face, cried out, and crouched down to cover their faces. Soldiers next to them took their place, bumping the carts again.

The pit in the rubble had deepened. The innermost stones were loose, and you could hear them sliding down with a clatter.

The high-ranking official said, "Block it up. Have someone carry stones and block it up from the inside with another layer."

Guo Fu ran down from the city wall and led his men to carry stones from the city's reserve stone piles to fill the city gate openings. There weren't many stones left in the city; they had almost used them all up yesterday to block the city gates.

Guo Fu had a section of the city wall foundation dismantled, and stones were dug out and carried over. The stones were covered in mud and were slippery, so the people carrying them had to switch shoulders every few steps.

Inside the city gate. The rammed car struck seven or eight more times. The pile of rubble had created a hole the size of a washbasin, through which light could be seen from the inside of the city gate. The metal casing of the rammed car was bent, the sheet metal rolled up, revealing the wooden core inside.

As the soldiers pushing the cart pulled the bent iron cap out of the pile of rubble, the entire frame creaked and groaned, and sawdust seeped from the joints of the wood.

Zhang Fei stared at the city gate from this side of the moat. He saw a hole in the pile of rubble and took a deep breath.

"Push it two more times!"

The car crashed again. The hole widened. A second crash. A corner of the rubble collapsed, and rubble poured out of the hole and rolled all over the ground. The light coming through the hole became brighter, and soldiers could be seen busy piling up stones on the inside of the city gate.

On the city wall, Guo Fu ran to the arrow tower and shouted to Gao Gan, "The city gates are about to be breached!"

The high-ranking official's face flickered in and out of the firelight. He gripped the sword tighter, his knuckles cracking.

"Send assassins down from the city. Go around through the side gate, rush to the city gate, and burn the battering ram."

Guo Fu ran down to select men. He chose twenty, and each was given a kerosene can and a tinderbox. The twenty men sneaked out through a small door on the side of the city wall and crawled along the base of the wall toward the city gate. The shadows at the base of the city wall were very heavy, and it was not yet fully light, so they could not be seen from Zhang Fei's formation.

As they climbed closer to the city gate, one of the assassins stepped on a piece of broken tile, making a crunching sound. The sappers pushing the battering ram heard it, turned around, and saw a figure moving at the base of the city wall. The sappers shouted, "There's someone at the base of the city wall!"

Zhang Fei heard this. He turned to the swordsmen and shieldmen beside him and pointed towards the city wall: "Stop them!"

The swordsmen and shieldmen charged along the moat toward the base of the city wall. Mud from the riverbank splashed up and smeared onto their leggings. By the time the swordsmen and shieldmen reached the base of the wall, the suicide squad had already lit canisters of kerosene and thrown them at the battering rams.

A kerosene canister crashed into the side of the wrecked vehicle, bursting into flames. The soldiers pushing the vehicle removed their burning outer covers and, shirtless, used wet cowhide to pat the fire. The cowhide crackled and sparks flew as it hit the flames.

Swordsmen and assassins clashed at the foot of the city wall. The blades struck bone with the sound of a cleaver chopping ribs. One assassin grabbed a swordsman by the leg, dragging him down, and the two tumbled into the icy moat, disappearing after a few splashes.

The wrecked vehicle was still burning. The wet cowhide, dried by the fire, also caught fire, and embers were falling from the roof with crackling sounds. The soldiers pushing the vehicle had no choice but to abandon it and drag the wounded soldiers back.

Zhang Fei gritted his teeth as he watched the crashed car burn into a ball of fire. The flames reflected on his face, making his eyes appear bloodshot.

"Change to the crash vehicle! Push the fourth and fifth ones up!"