Chapter 13: The River Pass
The words struck the assembled officers like a physical blow, rippling through the command tent with devastating effect. Meng Wan recovered first, her voice carrying practical skepticism. "The weather remains bitterly cold. What purpose would destroying the River Pass serve? Within days, the river will freeze solid once more."
"The River Pass region typically enjoys a temperate climate—the waters rarely freeze during winter months. This year has brought us a severe cold spell that occurs perhaps once in a century, which explains the current ice formation." He Simu counted methodically on her fingers, her voice carrying the certainty of ancient knowledge. "However, I observe this harsh cold will not endure much longer. In ten days, temperatures will rise dramatically, and warmth will banish winter's grip. Should you destroy the River Pass several days before this warming begins, the waters certainly will not refreeze with sufficient thickness. Afterward, though weather may fluctuate, even at its coldest, the River Pass might develop thin ice formations—nothing capable of supporting the passage of men or horses."
Duan Xu's smile deepened with genuine appreciation. "I find this proposal quite sound."
Wu Sheng Liu studied He Simu intently before shifting his penetrating gaze to Duan Xu. "After destroying the River Pass, what then? Do we withdraw to Liang Province?"
Until this moment, the entire Tabai army remained ignorant of General Qin's true orders to Duan Xu. Wu Sheng Liu assumed their mission involved delaying Danzhi reinforcements through strategic harassment. If they scorched the earth and destroyed the River Pass, they might slow enemy reinforcements by perhaps half a month—a respectable achievement given their limitations. After all, the complete Tabai forces numbered only eighty thousand, and protecting Liang Province in their rear had necessitated deploying merely fifty thousand troops to Shuozhou. Reality demanded modest expectations.
Duan Xu raised his eyes and delivered his bombshell with devastating casualness. "General Qin's orders mandate that Tabai defend Shuozhou's capital unto death, prevent all Danzhi reinforcements from passing, and retreat not a single step."
The proclamation drained all sound from the tent. Only the cheerful crackling of charcoal in the fire basin persisted, its warmth somehow mocking in the face of such grim revelation.
He Simu leisurely sipped her tea, savoring both the beverage and the unfolding drama.
"Impossible! We command merely fifty thousand troops!"
"The Danzhi forces marching south represent the Hulan army, and Awuerqi commands legendary ferocity."
The officers' voices of doubt barely emerged before Wu Sheng Liu's thunderous roar overwhelmed all protest. "Not retreat a single step? Is this some jest? If we abandon plans to return to Liang Province, we shall all perish here! Did General Qin truly issue such orders, or are you, young man, consumed by ambition for military glory and attempting more than wisdom allows?"
The warmth gradually faded from Duan Xu's eyes, leaving only a thin veneer of diplomatic pleasantry lacking genuine sincerity.
The River Pass shores had witnessed no major conflicts for countless years—only occasional border skirmishes disturbed the peace. The Great Liang Dynasty had enjoyed prosperity and tranquility in its protected corner of the world, and even veteran soldiers had lost their warrior's edge. After several decades of relative peace, this generation no longer comprehended the terror of national extinction that accompanied Hu Qi invasions.
Duan Xu rose from his seat with deliberate precision, advancing step by measured step toward Wu Sheng Liu while speaking with escalating intensity. "General Wu's words carry strange implications. I serve as your commander—surely you have not forgotten this fundamental truth..."
He halted directly before Wu Sheng Liu, leaning forward with predatory grace. "Death represents war's truest nature. Even victors walk paths paved with white bones and countless casualties."
His voice carried the weight of ancestral graves and historical grievance. "The ground beneath our feet belongs not to Danzhi's Shuozhou, but to the former Da Sheng Dynasty's sacred territory. Decades ago, our ancestors fell here in great defeat against Danzhi forces, permitting their iron-shod cavalry to trample across seventeen provinces without restraint, even pushing south to Liang Province for pillaging and urban massacres. That legacy explains why we struggle so desperately today, fighting bloody campaigns merely to reclaim what was always ours. Facing our homeland's restoration, we should willingly embrace death a thousand times over."
Profound silence enveloped the command tent. Wu Sheng Liu stared upward at Duan Xu, his fists clenched until knuckles cracked audibly.
Memory flooded back—corpses littering Liang Province's streets and alleys, rivers of blood painting cobblestones crimson. Such visions set his warrior's blood ablaze. He understood the principles Duan Xu articulated with painful clarity, yet their meager forces faced Danzhi armies like ants confronting grinding wheels. He harbored ambitions of commanding vast legions—would those dreams find their grave in this forsaken place?
Duan Xu's smile returned with renewed brilliance. He raised his chin slightly, eyes curving with magnetic confidence.
"General Wu need not harbor such concerns. Victory will be ours."
Wu Sheng Liu wavered visibly, conviction and doubt warring across his weathered features.
"You claim we shall win, and victory simply materializes?"
"General Wu, though I may display certain arbitrary tendencies, until this moment, have I ever tasted defeat?"
Wu Sheng Liu held Duan Xu's gaze for an eternity of heartbeats before slamming his fist against the strategy table, splintering wood with explosive force. Pointing an accusing finger at Duan Xu, he declared with volcanic passion, "I shall trust you one final time, damn the consequences! Who among us truly fears death? I fear only dying meaninglessly, without purpose. I was born to command armies! If Danzhi dogs refuse to retreat to their homeland, I shall haunt your Duan family lineage as a vengeful spirit!"
Duan Xu's gaze blazed with inner fire. He firmly pushed Wu Sheng Liu's accusatory hand aside, his voice carrying absolute commitment. "Rest assured, General. Should we become ghosts, I shall not be absent from that realm."
Observing the courteous Duan Xu, Wu Sheng Liu suddenly recalled rumors that this noble young master had originally been groomed for Grand Secretary—a position far surpassing any general's rank. The thought stirred unexpected sympathy within his warrior's heart.
Duan Xu seemed entirely oblivious to such considerations, simply turning to offer respectful bows to every officer assembled within the tent.
"Shuozhou's capital I entrust to your capable hands."
The officers returned his bow with solemn dignity. Most possessed greater years than Duan Xu, yet they too found themselves moved by the exchange between their general and Wu Sheng Liu, their faces reflecting heroic resolve.
Upon departing the command tent, He Simu walked alongside Duan Xu through the military encampment. Observing Wu Sheng Liu's retreating figure, she offered half-jesting commentary. "In my assessment, Wu Sheng Liu's animosity toward you stems largely from your excessive handsomeness."
Military men typically harbored instinctive dislike for clean, attractive males, priding themselves on rough, fierce appearances—especially when confronted with someone possessing Duan Xu's exceptional beauty.
Duan Xu raised his eyebrows with evident amusement. They emerged from the tent into vigorous winds and brilliant sunshine. His hair ornaments fluttered like captured butterflies, and the silver hairpin securing his topknot flashed with mirror-bright intensity, echoing the luminous curve of his eyes.
"Your compliment honors me deeply," he smiled with genuine pleasure at her observation.
"General Wu trusts you," He Simu noted with analytical precision.
From Liang Province to Shuozhou, none of their campaigns had offered easy victories. Duan Xu had maintained Wu Sheng Liu at his side through every engagement, accumulating triumph after triumph until the older man's heart acknowledged his commander's brilliance. Otherwise, despite incomplete understanding of strategic complexities, Wu Sheng Liu would never have followed Duan Xu's orders to assault Shuozhou's capital.
The officers throughout this encampment, and indeed the entire Tabai soldiery, had likely developed profound respect for Duan Xu through each successive battlefield triumph.
However, demanding Wu Sheng Liu's submission before a commander nearly a decade his junior remained an extraordinary challenge.
"Are you confident victory can be achieved?"
The mathematical reality remained stark—twenty thousand troops against three thousand represented impossible odds.
"If I possessed absolute certainty of victory, I would make a poor gambler indeed."
Duan Xu winked with playful charm, escorting He Simu to her waiting carriage. As the vehicle began its journey, He Simu lifted the window curtain to discover Duan Xu still standing sentinel outside. When their gazes met across the distance, he smiled and waved with seemingly carefree affection.
He appeared cheerful and gentle in that golden moment.
A cheerful, gentle, utterly mad gambler.
He Simu lowered the curtain and sighed with profound admiration.
As He Simu's carriage departed toward the Lin family residence within the city walls, Han Ling Qiu watched until it disappeared into urban shadows before shifting his attention to Duan Xu.
Duan Xu possessed only slightly fewer years than himself—they shared similar ages and life experiences. This noble scion from the southern capital carried himself with elegance entirely foreign to rough military men, yet he never displayed aloofness or superiority. He typically wore genuine smiles, and even when harboring shocking strategic plans, his expression remained calm as undisturbed lake waters.
Han Ling Qiu consistently felt this person carried deep familiarity, particularly when Duan Xu smiled—such moments triggered overwhelming recognition.
"General!" He finally called to Duan Xu, who pivoted to face him with patient attention.
Han Ling Qiu hesitated momentarily before asking with careful vulnerability, "General, have you encountered me previously? Perhaps... five or six years past?"
Duan Xu's eyes flickered with subtle complexity. He clasped his hands behind his back and smiled with diplomatic evasion. "Why do you ask? If we had met before, wouldn't you retain those memories yourself?"
Han Ling Qiu wavered briefly before biting his lip with evident embarrassment. "My lord General, I must speak honestly—five or six years ago I suffered grievous injury that left this facial scar. After recovery, I could remember nothing from my previous existence."
Even the name Han Ling Qiu had been gifted by the family who sheltered his broken form. Regarding his pre-injury life, he possessed only one desperately vague impression—someone's voice commanding, "Go south, reach Great Liang, and never return."
He had been wounded within Danzhi territory. That single remembered phrase had driven his escape to Great Liang following his recovery.
Memory loss hadn't significantly impaired his daily existence; he seemed naturally adapted to solitary living and rarely contemplated recovering lost recollections. Only upon first encountering Duan Xu had sudden familiarity struck like lightning.
Like an old friend returning from distant lands.
Duan Xu displayed convincing surprise before his features shifted to regretful sympathy. He shook his head with apparent sincerity. "I had no knowledge of Officer Han's tragic injury. Unfortunately, five or six years past I remained stationed in Dai Province and recall no meetings with you."
Han Ling Qiu's expression crumpled with embarrassment. He offered respectful bows while acknowledging the explanation. Duan Xu patted his shoulder with reassuring warmth before turning to stride back toward the command tent.
As Duan Xu withdrew, his smile sank to invisible depths within his eyes, his expression becoming unreadably ambiguous.
He Simu harbored no intention of involving herself in their River Pass destruction plans. The military encampment lay considerable distance from the Lin family residence, providing her with peaceful isolation. She remained within her chambers, tending this borrowed body with meticulous care, occasionally conversing with Chen Ying, and consulting the Ghost Register to observe worldly developments during her respite.
Shao Yin Yin's name had vanished from the Ghost Register precisely on schedule, confirming her complete annihilation and removal from reincarnation's eternal cycle—no trace of her existence remained within any realm.
Guan Huai had indeed heeded her warning.
The ancient spirit had always been a pragmatic survivor who followed prevailing winds. When she had crushed the rebellion years ago, he had been first to defect and surrender, perpetually skilled at reading situations and avoiding catastrophe.
He Simu reclined in her chair, casually perusing the Ghost Register while observing humanity's myriad tragedies.
Following the urban massacres surrounding Liang Province, countless wandering souls had emerged. People dying under such miserable circumstances easily became spiritual remnants, though without sufficiently profound obsessions, most were devoured by other wandering souls and ultimately failed to transform into true evil spirits.
Those possessing deep obsessions, like Guan Huai, represented different phenomena entirely. He had devoted his entire existence to seeking immortality through Daoist practices and alchemical pursuits, obsessed with achieving eternal life alongside heaven itself. Despite living over a century, death had finally claimed him—yet not even mortality could shatter his fixation. He devoured hundreds of wandering souls to achieve evil spirit status.
Even as an evil ghost, he had endured as the longest-lived spirit in the supernatural realm, remaining unextinguished for three millennia—his obsession possessed truly profound depth.
He Simu closed the Ghost Register and murmured while resting her chin upon her hand, "I rather envy you all."
To know so clearly what you desire, to dedicate entire lifetimes pursuing it, then abandon reincarnation and embrace eternal death for those same goals.
Unlike herself, who had been confusedly born as an evil spirit from the very beginning of existence.
The evening air stirred with subtle vibrations, and those gossamer white threads curled with agitation. He Simu frowned and approached the window, pushing it wide. Above the low houses dotting the southern suburbs, countless brilliant lights rose like ascending stars, floating and vanishing into night's embrace while illuminating heaven and earth with blazing intensity.
People dying?
The southern district bordered the River Pass. Could the young general's explosive strategy claim so many lives?
He Simu waved her sleeve with practiced grace, settling her physical form upon the bed. After her soul departed the mortal shell, the Ghost King's Lantern at her ethereal waist flickered with supernatural fire, and instantly she materialized upon the River Pass banks.
Her white boots with crimson soles touched soft riverside soil, immediately perceiving violent tremors emanating from the earth itself. Thunderous explosions accompanied by brilliant flashes erupted from the River Pass's frozen surface. Ice fragments scattered and soared upward, passing harmlessly through her spectral form before crashing earthward. The entire world convulsed in panicked response.
Upon the ice surface, dark masses of indistinguishable soldiers cried and wailed as they plummeted into bone-chilling waters alongside shattering ice formations.
The River Pass, dark and silent as primordial night, resembled a colossal beast opening its bloodied maw to devour endlessly. From its depths, hundreds of blazing lights—burning soul fires—rose toward celestial heights.
Another grand spectacle of death—the Ghost Register would soon welcome numerous additional wandering soul entries.
How had the Hu Qi forces chosen this precise moment for river crossing? Their timing coincided perfectly with Duan Xu's explosive strategy with uncanny precision.
He Simu pivoted and immediately located Duan Xu among shadowed forest groves and scattered boulder formations. Officer Han and Meng Wan stood behind him alongside countless Great Liang soldiers concealed within the tree line. Those warriors maintained arrow formation discipline, and whenever Hu Qi survivors managed to reach this shore, they unleashed coordinated volleys, slaughtering enemies at the waterline.
His eyes contained that characteristic thin layer of amusement, his tall, elegant silhouette hidden among the trees like a pine or cypress that had taken root in the forest depths.
He Simu approached step by measured step until she stood directly before Duan Xu, positioning herself at the abyss's edge—this border between worlds and hell itself.
"The Hu Qi forces from Yu Province attempted a surprise assault on the capital through the River Pass, and you ambushed them here while simultaneously executing your river destruction plan. Killing two birds with one stone, young general. Did you possess advance knowledge of their surprise attack strategy?" He Simu spoke with admiring acknowledgment.
Duan Xu could neither perceive her ethereal soul form in this moment nor hear her supernatural voice.
Naturally, he also could not witness the world as her spirit eyes revealed it—could not see the spider-silk white winds or the blazing soul fires that illuminated heaven and earth with daylight brilliance.
He Simu moved closer to Duan Xu, rising slightly upon her toes to gaze directly into his eyes.
His eyes gleamed bright and upturned, pupils pure obsidian black like polished mirrors. Within that mirror, no reflection of her appeared, no soul fire lights danced—only explosive flames and the bloodied, mangled forms of dying enemies.
"What does death appear like through the eyes of the living?"
He Simu studied his eyes as if attempting to perceive another aspect of mortality through their depths.
Duan Xu's tranquil eyes blinked once, and suddenly he smiled with gentle recognition, speaking a single name into the night air: "He Xiao Xiao."