Lady Earthquake

Lady Earthquake Chapter 29

Though it lay on the secondary merchant road between Wuyue and Yiang, Huidan's charms lay in the beauty of the surrounding woods, towering pines, sheaves of bamboo, and giant elms that must have been growing since the days of the mythical Xia. One expected to see dragons, unicorns, and phoenixes emerging from the mists that hung there, romping among the trees. Strange but beautiful outcroppings of rocks pushed up through the earth at random intervals, like knuckle-bones spilled in some cosmic game.

"You know, I hear birds calling," Ban-Li said. "But I never see any."

Merchants who knew their business and tended to their comfort usually did not stop in Huidan as there was no entertainment district to speak of. The people of the town, while polite, had a tendency to serve the soldiers in silence. Even the haggling in the market held a dignified quality. The children all seemed to play quiet games. Yan reported that the local inns were staffed, it seemed, only by mutes and the music of the brothel, Luyo reported, only made him sad.

"We will soon liven them up; we are the first troops to be bivouacking here." Sun-Sin opened a dispatch he had already read and showed it to his right-hand men. "The rest of the company will be here before the end of the week, and the brigade the week after that. We better get ready for them."

But as soon as one soldier laid an axe to a tree, a delegation of citizens led by the mayor and magistrate came out from the city-gate. They knelt in the loam outside Sun-Sin's tent. "What is all this?" Sun-Sin asked, coming out, still buckling his chest-piece.

The mayor nudged the magistrate in the ribs. The judge bowed his head further. "Great lord, the people beseech you not to cut their trees. Each is like a god to them. To destroy them is to cause ill-fortune to fall upon the citizens."

"I do not wish to distress you but five hundred of his majesty's soldiers are about to arrive in your town. There is no room to house them all. I must make a clearing for them to pitch their tents, stable their horses, and perform their training."

The magistrate elbowed the mayor. His tenor voice shook like an opera singer's. "Gracious lord, not three li away is a clearing suitable to any such purpose. Please stay your hand from our trees and follow me there. There is a road wide enough for your troop to come and go."

"You have not always objected to cutting trees, have you? If there is a road, someone must have made it."

"Exalted lord, the man who made the road is known to us as Ni the Unlucky even one hundred years after his miserable extinction."

"Lead on."

The meadow was wide and deep, carpeted with yellowing grass and fallen leaves, if not entirely flat. A small stream ran past, whispering among the tumbled rocks. The placid scene breathed out a sense of peace that the watchful woods did not possess. Sun-Sin almost hated to make it his headquarters. Within a week, the grass would be trampled into non-existence, leaving only dirt, turning to mud after the first winter rain. The stream would soon be full of silt from the run-off. A fine crop of canvas tents would grow, filled with bored men who longed for battle to break the monotony almost as much as they feared the onset. There would be wrestling matches, martial arts training, and endless games of chance. Shouts would shatter the peacefulness. There would be a few fights, too, when the boredom increased to unbearable levels.

"What about firewood?" he asked the magistrate. As a government official, the judge was not from Huidan originally.

"These men will show you where it is safe to cut wood for that."

"Is there any such place?"

"Ni the Unlucky had a farm not too far away. It is why he cut the road; to visit his lady friend. The trees that grow there are considered his payment for causing so much trouble to the town."