Chapter 10: Domestic Violence

"Is it all settled?" That evening, in the Mohu tribe camp forty li west of Liucheng in Liaoxi, Mohu Tan, having returned home, crouched before a warm fire, his expression already changed.

"Just as you instructed, elder brother — all killed!" With these words, a Xianbei man, taller and sturdier than Mohu Tan and bearing a scar on his forehead, emerged from the shadows and crouched down by the fire pit as well. "Truth be told, brother, with our numbers, there was no need to get them drunk first. Those were the only two jars of good wine left in the tribe..."

"Cut the nonsense. Is wine worth more than human lives?" Mohu Tan touched the now-dressed wounds on his face, his expression utterly indifferent. "Did you take all the heads?"

"All taken."

"And those lowly herders — you didn't go soft, did you?"

"Not soft at all. Cut them all down just as you ordered." The Xianbei man's face twisted into a savage grimace. "Rest easy, brother. We all know how serious this matter is. Our hands were steady; word will never leak out."

"Good, good." Mohu Tan sighed, looking somewhat weary. "If those dog-slaves hadn't pushed me too far, I wouldn't have wanted to do this. After all, we're all Xianbei. Our Tanshihuai Khan is practically a divine figure... But let's not speak of that. Pack up the heads and hide them well. You go secretly to Liucheng yourself, find the manager of the Anli Trading House, and sell those heads. That battle was fought personally by the Anli Trading House's young master; those heads can definitely be exchanged for merit. They'll surely be willing to spend money to buy them."

"Then what shall we trade them for?" The big man's face was full of anticipation.

"Grain and hemp cloth, of course!" Mohu Tan was utterly exasperated. "Don't even think about trading for wine. In the dead of winter, that stuff is useless to the tribe!"

"You, elder brother, could trade horses for a buyao crown, and then lose it... why won't you let me trade for two jars of wine?" The younger brother immediately voiced his discontent.

"Fine!" Mohu Tan, hearing his younger brother speak this way, could only relent. And thinking of that beautiful buyao crown lost in the tent made his heart ache even more. "But only two jars are allowed! Don't waste time. We'll split into two groups. You set out early tomorrow morning, taking men to escort the heads to Liucheng. As for me, I'll wait a bit. Tomorrow, some people will likely flee back from Lulong Pass. After I gather a few of them, I'll take them and escort Lord Kezuique to Murong Temple..."

"Brother." The Xianbei man's eyes suddenly turned strange. "Who did you say you want to escort to Murong Temple?"

"Lord Kezuique, of course." Mohu Tan grew smug again. "He's delirious and knows nothing of what we did. When he comes to, he'll only see me as his savior. While you go sell the heads to the Han, I'll escort him back to his home tribe... Playing both sides — that's what makes a true master of business!"

"But..."

"But what? Isn't this a good plan?"

"The plan is good, but... but Lord Kezuique's head has already been cut off?!"

"What?!" Mohu Tan was so shocked that the wounds on his face split open. "Whose head was cut off? That's a lord personally appointed by Tanshihuai Khan! Who would dare cut off his head?!"

"I cut it off myself?" The big man's eyes were as aggrieved as could be. "Didn't you say, brother? These people gave you grief, so not a single one was to be spared! Since not a single one was to be spared, naturally I slaughtered them all for you!"

"I... you..." Mohu Tan gaped, speechless. After a long moment, he finally managed to say, "Come closer."

The Xianbei man, not understanding why, cautiously took a step forward.

"Closer still!" Mohu Tan suddenly smiled.

Seeing this, the big man broke out in goosebumps. Not daring to hesitate further, he came right up to his elder brother.

"Take off those hard horsehide boots of yours from the Anli Trading House."

The big man did as he was told.

"Hand them to me."

The big man passed them over, trembling.

"You thieving, reckless, stupid donkey!" With the horsehide boot in hand, Mohu Tan's expression suddenly changed, and he viciously smacked the boot across the other's forehead. "From this day forward, your name is Mohu Donkey!"

Domestic violence was not suffered only by Mohu Donkey, the younger brother. Far away inside Lulong Pass, Gongsun Xun, the son, merely had to endure one more night plus one more morning.

"Gongsun Xun, where did you get the nerve?!"

The story goes that inside Lulong Pass, Lady Gongsun, who had come bearing wine, meat, and money to comfort the troops, merely exchanged a hurried greeting with Gongsun Zhao before leading a flock of maidservants charging straight into Gongsun Xun's room. The moment she entered, chaos erupted — hens flying, dogs jumping — with such ferocity that Gongsun Xun nearly leapt straight out the window.

It was fortunate this was a tower fifty feet high, so the windows were built small; otherwise, this broken book could have reasonably ended right there.

Off to the side, the worldly-wise Gongsun Yue simply buried his head and bolted out the door in a flash. Cheng Pu and Han Dang, who had originally stayed to drink hot soup, saw that this was no place to be and dared not linger either; they followed Gongsun Yue in a frantic, disheveled escape.

For a moment, only mother and son remained in the room, along with a group of expressionless maidservants.

"Speak! Who gave you the nerve to lead thirty men on a camp raid?" Dressed in the standard noblewoman's attire of the Han dynasty, yet wearing a strange pair of black-framed spectacles, Lady Gongsun paid no heed to those who had fled. She went straight to the window and seized her only son. "On the road here, I heard all about it — thirty men, seventeen dead. Were you not afraid of being the eighteenth? Do you know that? Tell me, what have I taught you all these days?!"

"Strive to make a name among the feudal lords, so as to preserve one's life in the coming chaos!" Gongsun Xun stood eight chi tall. With his own mother grabbing him by the hair, he had no choice but to bend at the waist and lower his head. As his eyes darted wildly about, he recited his mother's own sayings from memory — he had simply heard them too many times. "Mother, honored above, I know I was wrong!"

"I'm asking you, who gave you the nerve to play at some thirty-horsemen camp raid?" Lady Gongsun was beside herself with fury and shoved her son straight to the ground. "With that coward Gongsun Zhao leading the troops, you still dared to stick your neck out? Do you think you're Gan Ning? Even someone with Gan Ning's martial valor used a hundred horsemen to raid a camp, and you used thirty?! Tell me, if you had simply died the night before last, wouldn't these eighteen years of hardship have been for nothing?"

As she spoke, this lady who had dominated the trade routes for over a decade, who always laughed and chatted freely with the boldest men of Liaoxi, actually began to shed tears. She even had to remove her most treasured black-framed spectacles and hand them to a maidservant, telling the maid to gently wipe them with fine hemp cloth — there was no helping it. It was said these were the only pair under heaven; if they were truly damaged, Lady Gongsun would be as good as blind.

Gongsun Xun hurriedly knelt to the ground: "Mother, honored, the night before last was truly not that perilous... To be honest with you, it was indeed that Gan Ning who gave me the courage to raid the camp!"

"You still dare to talk back?!" Lady Gongsun immediately stopped her tears and her expression hardened.

"I truly am not talking back." Gongsun Xun felt utterly wronged. "Mother, the two who just went out with A-Yue — one is called Han Dang, the other Cheng Pu... Han Dang proposed the camp raid, and Cheng Pu led the infantry to provide support. According to that ranking of yours back then, aren't these two ranked even higher than Gan Ning? With them at my side, what did I have to fear?"

Lady Gongsun was taken aback: "Han Dang and Cheng Pu? Which Han Dang and Cheng Pu?"

"The very Han Dang and Cheng Pu." Seeing a chance, Gongsun Xun hurriedly knelt there and began to spin his tale. "Besides, this so-called thirty-horsemen camp raid was just propaganda. To use your words, Mother, it was just for advertising. In truth, the thirty-odd men at the head were merely the arrowhead. A full company of two hundred elite cavalry from Lulong Pass followed right behind them, and then Cheng Pu led nearly a thousand infantry close on their heels. On the enemy camp's side, there were less than two thousand mixed Hu, and most of them didn't even have proper armor. They were just... the kind of Xianbei who wear dirty sheepskin robes. Mother, do you still remember Mohu Tan, that middleman dealer from Liucheng? The one you said had quite a head for business? The enemy camp was full of that sort. When I ran into him the night before last, I even deliberately let him go!"

Lady Gongsun sat down beside the low table in a daze, then said thoughtfully: "This... a thousand infantry, over two hundred cavalry, all elite troops from Lulong Pass, going on a night raid against less than two thousand mixed Hu of the Mohu tribe's sort — that does sound reasonable. But wasn't the vanguard far too dangerous? Thirty men, seventeen dead — that part is true, isn't it? And among them were our family's retainers. You even asked me to pay the death benefits on your behalf — that wasn't false, was it?"

"Didn't I just say?" Gongsun Xun said helplessly. "I was with that Han Dang, Han Yigong, the whole time. His archery is formidable. From start to finish, I never encountered any real danger. The others who met misfortune probably just fell from their horses in the dark and were trampled or burned to death... It's like the plague a few years ago — purely a matter of probability, unavoidable."

"Is that so?"

"Yes!" Gongsun Xun seized the chance to stand up. "And besides, I'm already eighteen. A man of the border commanderies cannot avoid such things. The summer before last, when Yangyue City was besieged by the Xianbei, I was only sixteen. Didn't I still climb the city walls as a commandery clerk and cut down men on the battlements? You even said back then that it was well done, that I needed the tempering. Why can't you bear it today?"

Hearing this, Lady Gongsun let out a long, quiet sigh: "I understand now. Not everything in your words is true, but this reasoning alone is correct. In the days to come, such things cannot be avoided. Having a bit of fame and skill might even make things easier. It's just... the earthenware jar never leaves the well without breaking. You must promise your mother that you won't act recklessly just because you have some ability. You're no Zhao Zilong! Speaking of which, I wonder where in Changshan that Zhao Zilong actually is. He's probably not yet grown. If he were, how good would it be to recruit him as your bodyguard? Your mother was born a bit too early; these Three Kingdoms heroes haven't emerged yet. Otherwise, I'd have assembled a luxurious lineup of bodyguards for you..."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Gongsun Xun nodded hurriedly, finally breathing a sigh of relief. In truth, he hadn't listened at all to what his mother was rambling about.

"Very well! I am but a woman; it's not proper for me to linger long in this fortress. Quickly, have that... that Cheng Pu and Han Dang come in together to meet me. It can count as 'ascending the hall to pay respects to the mother,' helping you expand your network. After all, this sort of thing, like 'handshakes and pleasant talk,' costs nothing." At this point, Lady Gongsun couldn't help but furrow her brow. "But weren't Cheng Pu and Han Dang part of Eastern Wu's starting lineup? How can they both be here in Lulong Pass? Could it be that I've entered menopause and my mind has grown muddled?"

That Han Dang even used to trade horses in our family's merchant caravan!

Gongsun Xun muttered this secretly in his heart, but his face revealed nothing. Instead, he quickened his pace and hurriedly escaped to freedom.

"The Grand Ancestor was orphaned young and raised by his mother. In love and reverence, he exhausted himself in serving his parent; thus his filial reputation was known throughout the commandery." — Old Book of Yan, Volume 1, Annals of the Grand Ancestor, the Martial Emperor

Ahem... the contract has already been mailed out... tracking shows it should have reached Shanghai by now... please rest assured and add this to your collection.

(End of Chapter)