Chapter 7: with translation of chapter title

The horn sound sounded at dawn on the fifth day.

Shiniu was gnawing the third mantou, and the kitchen Lao Zhang now prepares an eight‑person breakfast for him each day. In Lao Zhang's words: "Too few isn't enough; too many is wasteful; eight portions is just right, about seventy percent full."

Hearing the horn, he shoved the mantou into his mouth in a few bites, grabbed the Double Hammers leaning beside the stall, and ran out.

The Training Ground was already packed with people in a dark mass. Chang Yuchun stood on the Pointing Platform, his Mingguang Armor glinting coldly in the morning light.

"Soldiers! The False Emperor of Northern Yuan has fled to Kaiping, holding the city. His Majesty commands: break Kaiping, capture the False Emperor, and completely eradicate the Northern Scourge!" Chang Yuchun's voice rang across the Training Ground.

"Roar..."

Thousands of soldiers answered in unison, their roar shaking the heavens.

Shiniu joined the roar; although he didn't quite understand what the Northern Scourge was, General Chang said they must fight, so he fought.

The army set out at the Chen Hour.

As Chang Yuchun's Imperial Troops, Shiniu rode his horse behind the commander.

It was his first mounted march; the horse was a Western Regions Tall Horse that Chang Yuchun had specially selected for him—jet‑black all over with four snow‑white hooves, named Treading Snow.

Treading Snow carried Shiniu and his pair of hammers weighing over a thousand jin, yet it trotted steadily and soundly.

Wang Gui, standing nearby, clicked his tongue in amazement: "Shiniu, your horse… really can bear it."

Shiniu gave a simple smile and patted Treading Snow's mane.

He guessed that in a little while they'd be doomed.

Treading Snow snorted loudly, as if responding.

The army left Xuzhou City and headed north.

For the first three days they traveled on the official road, which was smooth, allowing rapid marching.

Every day Shiniu, aside from eating and sleeping, followed Wang Gui to learn horseback riding. He had never ridden before, but he picked it up quickly; after three days he could already control the horse at a trot.

On the fourth day the road began to become difficult to traverse.

The official road vanished, leaving only a dirt path that grew increasingly desolate.

On both sides of the road, fields and crops gradually disappeared, leaving only withered weeds and bare trees.

After traveling a stretch, abandoned villages could still be seen now and then; within them, the mud walls of houses had collapsed and courtyards were overgrown with wild grass.

Riding his horse, Shiniu looked at the ruined villages and couldn't help asking Wang Gui: "Brother Wang, why are these villages… all empty?"

Wang Gui was silent for a moment, then replied: "Where Northern Yuan cavalry have passed, it's always like this."

"They… killed everyone?"

"Not necessarily everyone, but whatever could be looted was taken, whatever could be burned was burned; the survivors either fled south or …" Wang Gui trailed off.

Shiniu nodded, half‑understanding.

He recalled Fengyang Mountain Village; though poor, at least there was cooking smoke, chickens crowing, dogs barking.

Here there was nothing, only dead silence.

After another half‑day's march, a swath of charred earth appeared ahead.

The air carried a strange smell, as if something had been burned and mixed with something else.

At that moment, some white bones suddenly appeared by the roadside.

At first there were one or two, scattered among the grass or by the road.

Later they grew more numerous, some still frozen in a struggling pose.

The army passed silently beside the bones; no one spoke, only the sounds of hooves and footsteps.

Shiniu, astride his warhorse, scanned both sides, then suddenly fixed his gaze on a tiny white bone by the road.

The skeleton was small, like a child's, with a hole in the skull.

He tightened the reins, flipped off the horse, and hurried to crouch beside the bone.

Wang Gui hurried over and said, "Shiniu, stop looking; we must keep moving."

Shiniu didn't move, as if he hadn't heard.

He stared for a long time, then looked up and asked, "Brother Wang, is this still a child?"

Wang Gui sighed and said, "Hmm."

"Who killed…?"

"It could be Northern Yuan cavalry, or bandits, or… these days, life is cheap," Wang Gui shook his head and said.

Shiniu reached out and, suddenly very carefully, pried aside a fallen section of mud wall nearby, revealing a half‑buried pottery shard.

He picked up the shard, wiped it; it was the bottom of a broken bowl, its rim bearing dark‑red stains.

"This is…" Wang Gui's face changed.

Shiniu placed the shard back beside the bone, stood up, and brushed the dust from his hands.

Looking at Wang Gui, he asked earnestly, "Brother Wang, why are we fighting?"

Wang Gui was stumped by the question.

He had served six years and had never considered this question.

War is war; when the superiors order it, we fight—what else is there to ask?

"Because… the Northern Yuan occupies our Han People's lands…" Wang Gui tried to say.

"What is 'land' then?"

"'Land' is… it's the earth, the world." Wang Gui stammered.

"But isn't the earth always there? Whoever farms it, the Northern Yuan farm it, we farm it too—why must we keep fighting?"

Shiniu asked even more earnestly.

Wang Gui opened his mouth, tongue‑tied, and after a long pause managed: "You simpleton… war isn't something you can just reason about."

Shiniu shook his head and remounted.

Treading Snow stepped forward, sitting on the horse's back, watching the winding marching column ahead, then glancing at the white bones by the road, and suddenly said:

"I think it's better to finish the war early; once the war's over we can go back to farming, grow crops, have enough to eat, while war… only yields white bones."

Wang Gui stared at him blankly, then suddenly felt that the simple kid's words actually… made some sense.

But something still seemed off.

At dusk, when the camp was being set up, Shiniu became the focus again.

It wasn't because of his eating; the whole army now knows that Chang's Personal Guard has a glutton who eats eight portions in one meal, and everyone has gotten used to it, but because of what he does.

Setting up camp requires digging a stove pit, burying a pot, and fetching water.

Shiniu needs no tools; he shovels with his hands, and in a few strokes makes a neat pit.

When fetching water, others carry two buckets; he carries four in one hand, and in two trips supplies enough water for the entire Personal Guard Unit.

A few soldiers from other camps gathered to watch the spectacle. A Hundred Household Officer with a tangled beard walked over, looked at Shiniu, and asked the person beside him, "Is that the Shiniu that Marshal Chang recruited out of turn?"

"Yes, General Lan," the soldier replied respectfully.

Lan Yu, Chang Yuchun's brother‑in‑law, currently serving as a Hundred Household Officer of the Vanguard Camp, squinted and sized up Shiniu.

He was about thirty, with a square face and hawk eyes, looking like a ruthless character.

"I heard you eat eight portions in one meal?" Lan Yu began, his voice hoarse.

Shiniu was burying the pot, looked up at Lan Yu, and nodded, "Hmm."

"I also heard you can lift a 400‑jin Stone Lock with one hand."

"Hmm."

Lan Yu smiled, his grin laced with sarcasm, "What good is great strength? On the battlefield, strength alone makes you a live target."

Shiniu thought seriously and said, "I can also swing a hammer."

"Swing a hammer—can a hammer be faster than an arrow, can it block a cavalry charge?" Lan Yu scoffed.

Lan Yu had heard his brother‑in‑law speak of Shiniu many times, yet he had never heard his brother‑in‑law praise someone like this!

Shiniu shook his head, "I don't know; I've never tried."

Lan Yu was about to say something when Chang Yuchun's voice came from behind, "Lan Yu, are you bored?"

Lan Yu turned, clasped his fists, and said, "Brother‑in‑law, I'm just checking out the talents in our army."

Chang Yuchun walked over, patted Shiniu's shoulder, and asked, "All done burying?"

"Hmm! General, the pot is buried, the water is fetched, the firewood is split." Shiniu stood up, then pointed to the pile of firewood beside him that formed a small hill; he had split it by hand, and with a single swing the bowl‑sized Wooden Stake snapped in two.

Lan Yu's eye twitched at the corner.

Chang Yuchun said to Shiniu, "Go eat; there's meat today."

"Alright." Shiniu gave a simple grin, turned and walked toward the Kitchen.

After he walked away, Lan Yu whispered, "Brother‑in‑law, you recruited such a simpleton into the Personal Guard Unit, isn't that too…"

"Too what? You think he's unfit," Chang Yuchun glanced at him and said.

"Strength is fine, but on the battlefield strength alone isn't enough; you need ruthlessness, the courage to kill. Look at his eyes—so clean they seem never to have been stained with blood; if a real fight broke out, he'd probably go weak at the sight of blood."

Lan Yu said.

Chang Yuchun smiled and said, "Then let's make a wager."

"Bet on what…"

"Bet that his first time on the battlefield, the number of people he kills won't be fewer than yours."

Lan Yu was stunned, "Brother‑in‑law, are you serious?"

"When have I ever joked? This simple kid… has a drive inside him. You don't understand, but I do." Chang Yuchun said, looking toward Shiniu's retreating back.

Lan Yu was half‑believing, half‑doubting, but said nothing further.