East of the River: Home of the Sun Clan sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne
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9
The rebel coalition arrived at Mei County within days and formed battle
lines that left Sun Jian, Cheng Pu and Zu Mao close to speechless.
“There’s a hundred-thousand, at least,”
Cheng Pu suggested.
Zu Mao shook his head and said, “This is going to be difficult.”
Sun Jian surveyed the battle lines around him and said, “The court has
learned no lessons; the men are demoralised already, and we haven’t even
started fighting yet! When was the last time that half of them had a decent
meal?”
“Careful with your words, or I might defect,” Zu Mao joked.
The enemy commanders ordered a full charge, and Sun
Jian readied himself for the inevitable clash of weapons as the Han commanders
ordered a limited response and only met the attack with a fraction of the
available infantry. The seasoned Qiang were nothing like the Yellow Turban
acolytes of the previous campaigns; many Han soldiers buckled under the
pressure of the attacks, and the rebels started to gain the advantage.
“I have to do something,” Sun Jian muttered.
“What are you-?!” General
Zhou Shen exclaimed as Sun Jian rode forward to engage the enemy personally.
“I have to do something!” Sun
Jian replied.
“Come back here!” Zhou Shen
shouted. “You’re my adviser! COME BACK
HERE!”
Sun Jian halted his horse, grunted angrily, and returned to his master’s
side.
“How do we deal with them?”
Zhou Shen asked.
“By charging them and showing no
fear,” Sun Jian replied irritably. “They
only respect strength and courage!”
“Well then, I’ll order a full
charge!” Zhou Shen replied over the howls of dying men and the clashed of
metal blades. “Where is Dong Zhuo’s
force?”
Sun Jian looked around, and realised that Dong Zhuo’s banners could not
be seen among the warring forces; he turned to look at the army’s initial
starting point, noted Dong Zhuo’s unmoving battle lines and scowled, saying, “He’s just SITTING THERE!”
Zhou Shen turned his horse enough to look for himself and said, “You’re right! What is this???”
The battle raged for several minutes more before both side decided to
bang their battle gongs and order a complete retreat to their original
positions.
“Where is Demou???” Sun Jian
barked as Zu Mao approached him on horseback.
“Lost his horse… got hurt,”
Zu Mao replied. “He’s being seen to, and
he’ll be fine.”
“Why did you charge???” Sun
Jian whined.
“We didn’t have much choice!”
Zu Mao insisted. “We saw a group of men
that needed getting out of a scrape! Hey, look, at least we were doing
something to help them! That bloody Dong Zhuo just-!”
“I know!” Sun Jian interrupted.
“I know, I… I intend to complain.”
Once the battle was finished, Sun Jian went to Zhang Wen’s command tent
to protest about Dong Zhuo’s procrastination; General Zhou Shen knew his
intention and followed him.
“Don’t bother with this petition!” Zhou Shen pleaded as he tried to stop
Sun Jian outside the tent. “Mister Sun, Dong Zhuo is-”
Sun Jian entered the tent and said, “Commander Zhang.”
“Ah, Mister Sun, and General Zhou,” Zhang Wen said with strange cheer.
“We did not do too badly in this initial skirmish, I think.”