The eighth year of Jinghe.
It was also the third year after the Divine Lady had fallen.
Following the eradication of the treacherous aristocratic clans by the joint efforts of Pei Wanning and Shen Yu, the imperial court had gradually stabilized, preserving the system where the Divine Lady was sovereign and eight Cabinet Ministers governed the realm.
Later, under Shen Yu’s proposal, the eight Cabinet Ministers were also required to undergo annual assessments, serving four-year terms.
Every four years, the common folk would vote in elections; those who trailed in votes would voluntarily step down to make way for the worthy.
Because of this reform, Shen Yu severed ties with the Shen family completely, setting himself against everyone and frequently facing assassination attempts. Fortunately, Lin Xun’s medical skills were superb, dragging him back from the gates of death several times.
Shen Jue, having grown weary of court strife, volunteered to go to the frontier just as the Xiongnu repeatedly encroached upon Great Xia’s territory, expanding the Xia Dynasty’s borders and guarding the frontier.
In late autumn, the grassland wind cut sharply against the skin.
Shen Jue leaned against a half-buried rock atop a hillside, clutching a wineskin that was mostly deflated.
Not far away, a scattering of campfires flickered. The remaining three hundred battered soldiers sat gathered around them, a pot boiling horse bones that had already been simmered three times. Trapped on the grasslands for half a month, their provisions had long since run out, forcing them to slaughter their warhorses to stave off starvation.
Lieutenant Zhou Bai sat beside him, brown crusts of blood congealed upon his armor, indistinguishable whether it belonged to the enemy or himself.
“General, are you thinking about the Divine Lady again?” he asked.
Shen Jue said nothing, tilting his head back to take a swig of wine.
The wine was harsh, burning down his throat.
Zhou Bai fell silent for a moment.
Three years ago, on the day the Divine Lady sacrificed herself to mend the heavens to save all living souls, the cries of the people in Xindu City shook the heavens, and countless individuals wept until they fainted on the spot.
For an entire year afterward, not a hint of bright color could be seen throughout the city as everyone observed mourning for the Divine Lady of their own accord.
Having followed his general for many years, he often saw him gazing alone into the horizon for hours on end.
Shen Jue lowered his head, his voice hoarse. “I still cannot comprehend how a deity as formidable and benevolent as the Divine Lady could simply vanish just like that.”
Looking at the strands of white woven into Shen Jue’s hair, Zhou Bai found it hard to imagine that a young general in his thirties had already grown gray hair. Sighing inwardly, he said softly, “General, I'm just a crude man and don't know how to put it into words.
“I think what the common folk say makes a lot of sense. They all say that the Divine Lady never truly disappeared, but rather transformed into every blade of grass and tree in the mortal realm. The wind is Her, the snow is Her, and every flower and every star in the world is Her.” He spoke earnestly yet clumsily to Shen Jue. “General, the Divine Lady has always been here. Look, She is watching over us.”
He reached out and pointed toward the stars in the night sky.
Shen Jue instinctively raised his head and looked in the direction Zhou Bai pointed, the entire galaxy of stars reflecting in his eyes.
Silence lingered for a moment.
“Zhou Bai, you are right.” He slowly stood up, the wind billowing through his cloak. “The Divine Lady is watching over us, so we cannot die here.”
His gaze suddenly sharpened.
“Reinforcements won't arrive for another five days, but we have neither food nor water. Holding out for three more days is our absolute limit. Moreover, this place is exceedingly remote, and the relief force is unfamiliar with the terrain. It is very likely they won't find us. We must find a way to break through.”
Zhou Bai hesitated. “General, the Xiongnu have surrounded us completely. Wouldn't that be too reckless?”
“The north connects to the snow mountains, where their forces are thinner. If we break out to the north, we have a thirty percent chance of survival.” Shen Jue glanced once more at the star-studded black night, moonlight illuminating half his face, sharpening his features like chisel marks on stone. “Conversely, if we remain here waiting for reinforcements, we will surely die.”
“This subordinate Zhou Bai will follow the General to the death!”
Zhou Bai cupped his fists and dropped to one knee.
At the Hour of the Rat, the three hundred surviving soldiers formed ranks.
Shen Jue mounted the last horse still capable of running, gripping the spear that had accompanied him for over a decade. The four characters engraved upon the shaft—“Protect the Nation, Pacify the People”—had long been obscured by dried blood.
He charged at the very forefront.
The Xiongnu encampments were torn open, flames leaping into the sky.
Shen Jue led the vanguard, slaying several men in rapid succession.
An arrow struck his left shoulder, but he ignored it entirely, while his men followed him like a pack of desperate, rabid wolves.
“Break through!” he roared hoarsely.
The Xiongnu soldiers behind them pursued relentlessly.
Shen Jue glanced at the remaining hundred or so survivors at his side. Abruptly wheeling his horse around, he turned back alone to intercept the pursuers.
Zhou Bai looked back, his eyes nearly tearing at the corners. “General!”
“Go, Zhou Bai! Take them home!”
With that, Shen Jue spurred his horse forward, his spear striking like a dragon to pierce straight through the chest of a Xiongnu soldier. Hot blood sprayed across his face, yet his brow did not even twitch.
Gritting his teeth, Zhou Bai barked, “Follow me!”
With tears in their eyes, the hundred-plus surviving soldiers followed.
Behind them, battle cries, horse whickers, and the clash of weapons mingled into one chaotic roar, growing further and further away...
Zhou Bai dared not look back again.
He feared that if he looked back, he would no longer be able to take another step forward.
...
Dawn the next day.
Zhou Bai rode across the snow at the head of three thousand elite cavalry reinforcements.
Then, they saw a scattering of Xiongnu corpses lying in the snow, frozen in contorted postures.
Moving farther forward, the corpses grew ever more numerous.
They densely carpeted the entire snowy plain.
Swords and sabers lay scattered, broken banners half-furled, and congealed blood formed vast stretches of crimson across the snow, shocking to behold.
At the very center of the snowy expanse, a spear stood thrust diagonally into the earth. Shen Jue had taken seventeen arrows to his body, kneeling on one knee beside the weapon. His head hung slightly, his expression serene, one hand gripping the spear shaft while the other dangled at his side, still clutching a broken blade.
He faced north, in the direction of Xindu City.
The eyes of every soldier turned red.
“General, we arrived too late...”
The wind howled across the snowfields, sounding like distant war horns, or perhaps the weeping of a sorrowful soul.
On the day his coffin was escorted back to Xindu City, the entire city was draped in mourning white.
Heavy snow fell as commoners crowded the road from the city gates all the way to the General’s estate, their weeping echoing throughout the entire city.
When Shen Ying received word of her eldest brother's death in battle, she did not shed a single tear, for she simply could not believe her ever-victorious brother would die on the battlefield.
Only when she saw Shen Jue’s coffin being carried into the city with her own eyes could she no longer deceive herself.
“You said you would come back! You lied to me again!” She pounded on the coffin lid like mad, tears streaming uncontrollably down her cheeks.
Zhou Bai moved forward to pull her back, but Shen Yu stopped him.
Standing three paces away, Shen Yu watched in silence as Shen Ying wept while clutching the coffin, his eyes bloodshot and his lips pressed into a tight, straight line.
Shen Ying cried until her voice gave out.
In the end, she slumped over the coffin.
“Big Brother, you promised to give me a new spear, and you never kept your word! You big liar!” Her voice gradually softened into broken murmurs.
“Forget it... I forgive you...”
Snowflakes fell upon her, flake after flake.
Seven days later, in the mourning hall of the General’s estate.
Shen Ying knelt before Shen Jue’s memorial altar, dressed in plain white mourning clothes. Before her lay the spear brought back from the snowfields, bloodstains still lingering upon its shaft, impossible to wipe clean.
She reached out, her fingertips gently caressing the spear.
“Big Brother, I will avenge you!”
Before her words faded, she had already stood up, walked over to the table, and picked up a strip of white mourning cloth, wrapping it tightly around her brow turn by turn.
Then she turned around to face the gathered soldiers. “Pass down the order: let the entire army don mourning white and ride out with me.”
Zhou Bai was stunned. “My Lady? You...”
“I am no young lady,” Shen Ying cut him off, enunciating each word with steel resolve. “I am the sister of your Great General Shen Jue, a daughter of the Shen family, and a general of Great Xia!”
She walked into the courtyard and vaulted onto her horse.
“How can I think of home when the Xiongnu are not yet destroyed?”
“This march to Mobei ends only in death!”
On the day Shen Jue was laid to rest, Shen Ying led the army north to Mobei. The city’s populace had gathered at the gates early in the morning to see her off.
In the months that followed, victory dispatches arrived one after another.
The first dispatch: Shen Ying led eight hundred light cavalry on a night raid against the camp of the Xiongnu Worthy Prince of the Right, beheading two thousand and burning their provisions.
The second dispatch: Shen Ying and Zhou Bai divided their forces in a pincer maneuver, crushing the main Xiongnu army and decapitating over ten thousand.
The third dispatch: The Xiongnu Chanyu abandoned his tents and fled north for over three hundred li. Shen Ying pursued relentlessly and ultimately intercepted and slew him.
From that moment on, Mobei was incorporated into the territory of Great Xia.
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