The Warring States, Books 1-3

by Greg Strandberg

  Hui stopped and stared out at the men in silence for several moments before continuing.

  “Wei is still bound by the peace. My father signed the agreement the day after my grandfather died. That means that I cannot move against one of the Seven without reprisal, a reprisal which will surely come in the form of several or all of the other Seven States moving against me. For years the rulers of the other states have been waiting for just such an opportunity, but I assure you I will not give it to them.” He paused and a sly grin came to his face. “I have another plan, one that involves coming to the aid of Wey so that Zhao will attack us.”

  The room broke out in a low hum as the men commented on what they’d just heard. Hui gave a slight smile and glanced over at Pang who was standing at the side of the room. Pang nodded back to him and after a few moments Hui raised his arms for silence. “’But won’t Wei in effect be breaking the peace first?’ many of you are asking. I don’t think so. Already we have a reliable source within the Wey government that assures us we will be invited into Wey as friends, but to the other states way of thinking, as conquerors. When Zhao then moves against them they will also be moving against us. We will be justified in retaliating, not just against Zhao, but against any state we wish: Wei will no longer be bound by the peace.”

  Hui was happy to see many of the men smile at his words, but troubled to see quite a few of the older men frown. That’s where the trouble would come from, Hui knew. The men that had served long enough to know what the peace between the Seven States meant, and how important it was, were going to be the hardest to win over. Still, not all of the older men were frowning; many still yearned for a fight. There was hope yet.

  Hui hung his head and looked down at the floor and the room fell silent yet again. He raised his eyes to the men and shook his head.

  “I unfortunately will not be leading you men in the field like I have been for much of the last twenty years. My father is gravely ill and close to death. While his mind is still strong his body is weak, and eventually that weakness will kill him. I’ve decided that my place is here in Anyi where I can be close to him and prepare to step into his place when the time comes.” He raised his arm toward Pang against the wall. “In my place I am putting General Pang Juan.” Pang stepped forward so that all could get a look at him. Most knew him by reputation but this was the first time that many were actually seeing him in person. “Pang has fought by my side for nearly twenty years and has proven his valor and cunning to me many times over. He is the right man to take you out into the field on this, perhaps our finest hour. I have much confidence in him, and I believe you will as well.”

  Hui lowered his arm and Pang stepped back to the wall.

  “Men, I will not lie to you,” he continued, “this fight that we are embarking on will be long and costly. The Seven States have never fallen into outright war with one another since there have been Seven States, not all Seven at once. It looks like we are now on the eve of that happening, and many of you in this room tonight will not live to see the end of it, either because of wounds suffered in the field or because of old age. We are on the cusp of a war that could last for years, generations even. Victory will not come easily, but it will taste all the sweeter when it does come. Fight hard, stay strong, and remember that you are part of the most powerful of all the Seven States: the State of Wei.”

  Several of the men cheered as Hui finished and started to walk back through the room of men. He had never been much inclined to making speeches of inspiration to the men, but he felt that what he’d just said came off rather well.

  “You know for a fact that Wey will welcome us?” a voice asked from the edge of the room.

  Hui craned his head to see who it was that’d asked that question, but there were many men around him and he couldn’t’ be certain even in which direction the question had come from. He pushed on through the press of men, smiling and clapping shoulders as he went.

  “What if this is just some ruse devised by Zhao to pull us into their fight?” the voice came again.

  Hui stopped, a frown on his face as he peered all around him. The men around him parted, and Hui saw who it was that was speaking. From the edge of the room near the door came Zhai Huang, by far the oldest figure in the room, and Hui feared, the most respected.

  “And what if Zhao calls in another state for support when we attack them in Wey, as we most assuredly will? What will we do then, when our only ally is a small, weak state?”

  Zhai stopped a few feet from Hui and gazed at him questioningly. “I think these men here have a right to know exactly what is going on. If you’re going to ask them to throw their lives away needlessly the least you can do is tell them the truth.”

  Several murmurings arose around him from the assembled men at that remark, and Hui had to raise his arms up for silence.

  “We’ve been assured by one working closely with the Wey government that Wey wants our help,” Hui said loudly for all to hear. “And I mean for us to begin assembling our troops immediately to heed that call.”

  “It seems a little fanciful to me that we can just trick Zhao and all of the other states into thinking that we’ve been an ally of Wey all along,” Zhai pressed on, looking at the men around him. “The Seven are not blind and I don’t think for a minute that such a feeble attempt at subterfuge will fool anyone.”

  “If we can get our troops into Wey before Zhao does than it will work!” Hui said sharply, anger edging into his voice at the questioning from Zhai. The man should have been gone by now, back to whatever country estate he had waiting for him. Instead he was here raising doubts among the men that Hui had just done so much to convince.

  “Who is this man that you say is working with the government of Wey?” Zhai asked, his eyes narrowing at Hui. “He is not a citizen of Wey yet has their best interests at heart? This seems a little flimsy to pin our hopes on, doesn’t it?”

  Many men were nodding their heads at that comment, and quite a few voiced their agreement. Hui was losing them.

  “Sun Bin is the man working with Wey,” Pang’s voice called out loudly from across the room, the crowd of soldiers opening a path for him. “I have known him all my life and can assure you that he is a man of honor. If he says that he’s working with Wey and that Wey wants our help, then that is truly the case.”

  Zhai nodded and Hui thought the old man was done. He was just about to start moving through the crowd again, vowing to himself that he would punish Zhai thoroughly when they were not out in the open, when the old man spoke up again.

  “And what will happen after you push Zhao out of Wey? Will you then invade Zhao, hoping to take that strong state like you’ve taken so many weaker states over the years? I hope not, for I can assure you that that’ll be a long and drawn out fight, one that does indeed last generations. Or is another of the Seven the true target? Perhaps a weaker state, like Qin, which I can assure you gentlemen, is no longer as weak as you think it is.”

  “We will take things one day at a time,” Pang said. “No one can be certain what will happen after Zhao is driven out of Wey, and to plan too far after that would be folly.”

  “It’s folly to follow this course at all!” Zhai shot back. “Wait, I say. Let Zhao take Wey and wait for another of the Seven to make the first move against one of their peers. The first blood will not be on Wei’s hands then, something which in my opinion will only lead to catastrophe.”

  “And we thank you for your opinion, Zhai,” Pang said. “You have served Wei faithfully for many years, but your service is now at an end, as requested earlier today by yourself. We thank you for your words here tonight, allowing all of us to see just how narrow and precarious a course we perhaps are on.” Pang directed his gaze to the men around him, addressing the crowd now more than Zhai. “Our course is uncharted, and that is what makes it seem dangerous and fearful. We will be heading into the unknown first, before any of the other Seven States do so. We will be bloodied and bruised, as are all who head i
nto the dark unknown, but we will also be the first to triumph, for when you go where no one else has gone before you are the first to reap the spoils of your bravery and courage. It is bravery and courage that we will need going ahead over these next few months and years. There may be setbacks here and there, but there will be triumphs as well, triumphs so great and so sweet that all past pains will be forgotten.”

  The men in the room pressed in closer to hear Pang’s words and Zhai was pushed out of the way and forgotten. Hui listened with one ear to what Pang was saying, happy that his friend was thwarting whatever doubts Zhai had been trying to sow into the men’s minds, while also watching the Minister of War. The old man seemed deflated by the soldier’s reactions to Pang’s words. They were listening to the wrong advice, he knew, but then he should realize by now that men of war don’t want to hear about the safe course and the dangers ahead. They want to hear of victories and triumphs, and Pang was giving it to them. Hui watched as Zhai shook his head after he’d been pushed back toward the wall by the clamoring press of bodies, and then slowly leave the room. Hui turned back to Pang, who was just finishing up his speech amid a loud chorus of cheers. Whatever doubts the old man had put into men’s heads were already long gone.

  THIRTEEN

  Pang crept through the dirty alleys with his eyes wide. This was not the part of the city he’d expected to find himself in, and he didn’t much care for it. Rats scurried about beneath his feet and the more brazen ones stared at him from atop moldering crates and boxes. Waste was everywhere, both food and human. Narrow streams of excrement floated by on the edges of the alleyway and the smell was unbearable.

  Twice already Pang had stopped to check the directions given to him by one of the older palace servants. It had taken Pang the better part of the previous evening to track someone down that’d served during the time of Wu Qi, but finally Pang had been successful. The man was hesitant to talk, but once Pang had assured him that it was for the betterment of the state his jaw had flapped. And he’d had no qualms about drawing a rudimentary map for Pang either.

  Pang took the map out now for a third time and stared down at it. What street markings there were in this shantytown area of the city weren’t much. He’d been able to keep track of where he was in relation to the map up until just a few streets ago. Looking down at the map now he was convinced that he was in the right area.

  He looked up again. It wasn’t smart to be in this area of the city alone, but he couldn’t risk telling others what he was up to. Certainly not Hui; the heir to Wei was already back in the palace and waiting for word that Pang’s army had pulled out of the capital. He shouldn’t even be wasting his time in these back alleys.

  Pang shook his head and moved on. That line of thinking wouldn’t help him find this house, or hovel more likely. It had to be around here somewhere, according to what the servant had said.

  “’It’s got a brown roof and flowers in the window,’” Pang said softly to himself, repeating the words the man had told him the night before. “It’s got to be –”

  There it was, the only place in this flea-infested part of the city he’d seen with flowers in the window. They weren’t much, that was for sure, with most dying or already dead, but they were flowers. He moved up to the shack and listened. There was no sound inside so he crept up to the open window and peered inside. No one was there. Perhaps this wasn’t the best–

  “What are you doing?” a woman’s voice came from behind him.

  Pang turned around to see an elderly woman that was still strikingly beautiful. Her long black hair had long turned to a dark grey, but it hung just as luminously as a woman half her age. Age lines crowded around her eyes and her brow was wrinkled, but it was her piercing eyes that really set her apart.

  I can see why both Wu Qi and Hui Wei fell in love with her, Pang thought to himself.

  The woman was holding a basket of nearly rotten vegetables and eyeing him suspiciously. Pang figured he’d better say something soon before she called for a guard.

  “Do you live here by chance?” Pang began.

  “Aye, this is my home,” the woman replied. “What is it you’re doing here peering in the windows?”

  “I’m looking for someone that lived here once, long ago,” Pang said.

  The woman’s brows shut up at that remark and she seemed intrigued.

  “What might their name have been?” she asked.

  “It was a woman, and her name was Meilin.”

  The woman nodded. “She died a long time ago.”

  There was no hesitation in her voice and she started forward almost before the words were out of her mouth.

  “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to–”

  Pang held out his arm to stop the woman. “I need to know about your husband.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, now let me be!”

  “You’re Meilin and you were married to General Wu Qi of the State of Wei, later of the State of Chu, don’t deny it!”

  “What do you want?” the woman shouted.

  Pang looked around quickly. It wouldn’t do to draw unwanted eyes, or a crowd ready to defend an old woman in distress.

  “Let’s talk inside,” Pang said in a tone that brooked no argument.

  He grabbed hold of the woman he was now convinced was indeed Meilin and moved toward the door to her shack. As he’d expected it wasn’t locked and he quickly stepped inside the one small room, pulling the woman behind him.

  “You’re hurting me!” she shouted.

  Pang twirled her around by the arm and then released her so she flew into the only chair in the room. She looked up at him with eyes both startled and determined.

  “You’re Meilin, aren’t you?” Pang said more than asked.

  The woman nodded. “I am, what’s it to you? I can tell from your clothes that your from the army. What do you want?”

  “I want to know about you and Wu Qi and Wu Wei, like I said.”

  “Yes,” Meilin said with a sigh, “I’ve established that, but what do you want to know? I figure the sooner I tell you the sooner you’ll let me be. What does it matter anyway, Wu’s been dead fifteen years now.”

  “Why did Wu Wei banish Wu after he became marquis? Was it because of you?”

  Meilin looked at him skeptically. “Why do you care of something that happened so long ago?”

  “Sending Wu Qi away was mistake that we shouldn’t have made,” Pang explained. “I want to know why something so senseless occurred.”

  “Jealousy, plain and simple,” Meilin laughed. “Wu Wei wanted me but he couldn’t have me. Oh, he had his way with me a few times, but Wu Qi was my husband.”

  “But he was never around,” Pang said.

  Meilin nodded. “True. That was Marquis Wu’s doing. He made sure that if he couldn’t have me than Wu couldn’t either.”

  “But it didn’t stop you from getting pregnant with Wu Qi’s baby, did it?”

  Meilin looked down to the floor as if looking back through the years. “No, it didn’t. But Marquis Wu put an end to that.”

  Pang frowned. “How do you mean?”

  “He killed the baby.”

  Meilin looked up after she said it, and Pang was taken aback by her coolness.

  “What do you mean, ‘he killed the baby?’”

  “Some men came by one day and forced a drink down my throat,” Meilin shrugged. “I got real sick and then wasn’t pregnant anymore.”

  Pang nodded but Meilin spoke up before he could say anything.

  “I didn’t try for another after that, not that there was much point; Wu was out of Xihe and by the time he was exiled he thought I was dead. Shortly after that no one heard from him again until he started making his reforms in Chu. It wasn’t long after that until the nobles killed him, something I was rather surprised Wu Wei didn’t just do straight out himself years before.”

  “He didn’t try to come to you after leaving Xihe?” Pang asked. “Surely he’d have t
ried before heading south to Chu.”

  “He may have,” Meilin said, “but I never saw him and was told he was dead whenever I inquired with the army.”

  Pang motioned around the shack with his arms. “And you and Wu were living here together?”

  Meilin laughed again. “Oh no! We had much better apartments further up the hill, befitting Wu’s station as a general. I was moved here one day shortly before I learned he’d been dismissed from the army. I’m sure it was Marquis Wu’s way of keeping control of me.”

  “So it was just jealousy, then?”

  “Just jealousy,” Meilin confirmed.

  Pang shook his head. “I guess there’s just some things I don’t understand.”

  “You’ve never been jealous of anyone?” Meilin asked.

  “Perhaps when I was younger,” Pang said, thinking of how he and Sun Bin would compete for Guiguzhi’s affections.

  “Well, then it shouldn’t come as a surprise at all what men’ll do to win, now will it,” Meilin said as she got up and began retrieving the vegetables scattered about the room. “Especially in the army. Surely you must have some other young officers you yourself are competing with for advancement.”

  Pang nodded his head slowly as he thought of her words, although there was no one left for him to compete with, really. Hui Wei was about it, but he’d taken himself off the field. That left only him, the highest ranking general in the Wei Army. And perhaps Sun Bin, now that he’d somehow crept into the mix. It was surprising, really, Pang thought to himself as he watched the woman pick up the vegetables, Sun just appeared from nowhere.