Shike, Robert J. Shea [ebook reader that looks like a book TXT] 📗
- Author: Robert J. Shea
- Performer: -
Book online «Shike, Robert J. Shea [ebook reader that looks like a book TXT] 📗». Author Robert J. Shea
“Our children keep crickets in cages as pets, Your Excellency.”
“Indeed your people are backward if they consider such a sublime sport a pastime for children. Here we pit crickets against each other. They strive together like tiny dragons. We place bets on the outcome. You must attend my next evening of cricket fights.”
In the days that followed, Chia Ssu-tao introduced Jebu, Yukio and other high-ranking samurai to the aristocracy of Linan. They even had a brief audience with Sung Emperor Li-tsung, a stout, motionless figure seated on a jade throne. They attended several cricket fights, an obsession with Chia Ssu-tao that preoccupied him more than his duties as the Son of Heaven’s chief councillor. On all these occasions Jebu felt that they were being paraded as curiosities, not taken seriously as fighting men.
So it was a surprise when, after a short stay in Linan, Yukio was given an Imperial appointment as military commander of Kweilin, the chief city of Kwangsi province on the western border of the Sung empire. The Mongols had invaded the independent kingdom of Nan Chao and taken its capital, Tali. Kweilin was their next likely target. If Kweilin fell, the nomads could move on to Changsha, the strongest city in the central region. The fall of Changsha would open the way to Linan. The Chinese rulers had given Yukio a crucial post.
After the Mongols had been camped outside the city’s walls for, three days, they sent an unarmed officer across Lake Rong hu in a sampan. Yukio said, “Let’s behead him in front of the gateway, where his countrymen can see it. That will encourage our people and teach the enemy that we are resolute.”
Jebu, who had a strong distaste for unnecessary bloodshed despite his years of combat, was surprised at Yukio. “The governor of the city might want to decide how to deal with this envoy,” he suggested mildly. “Let’s not antagonize our Chinese friends further.”
Governor Liu Mai-tse, an aged scholar, received Yukio, Jebu and the Mongol emissary in his marble hall of state. After bowing to the governor, who was seated on an ivory chair, Yukio addressed him in Chinese.
“I wanted to behead this Mongol at once, Your Excellency, without even hearing what he had to say. This weak-spirited monk who accompanies me persuaded me to bring the enemy to you instead. If it is your wish, though, I will gladly execute him now.”
For the first time Yukio spoke in a language the envoy understood. He showed no fear, but glowered angrily. Despite his age-his hair and moustache were grey-he had the powerful build and quick movements of a young warrior.
Governor Liu smiled. “I am not familiar with the humour of Gepen, but I believe you are joking about this monk. I observed him from the wall the day you fought the Mongols, and he is anything but weak-spirited. His advice to you is wise. The Mongols consider the person of an ambassador to be sacred. To slay this man would be an unforgivable offence.”
Yukio shook his head. “I’m sorry, Your Excellency. I was under the impression we had already offended the Mongols.”
Liu raised a slender hand in admonition. “You will admit the possibility that they might eventually take this city?”
“With reluctance.”
“Of course. If we had slain their ambassador they would assuredly put all the people of Kweilin to the sword. That is their custom. You do not have the right to condemn every person in this city to certain death. If we do not embark on a course that drives them to do their worst, there is hope. The Tao is infinite and infinitely surprising.”
Now the grizzled officer turned to Jebu. “Are you a Mongol?” he demanded angrily in Chinese. “How can you serve the degenerate Chinese and fight against your own people?”
“I am not a Mongol, though my father was,” said Jebu. “I was born of mixed parentage in the Sunrise Land and was raised there.”
The Mongol looked surprised and curious. He squinted at Jebu closely and seemed about to ask another question when Liu interrupted.
“If you are through quizzing this monk, tell us who you are and what you have to say to us.”
The Mongol drew himself up and addressed the governor. “I am Torluk, a tumanbashi-a leader of ten thousand. I come from the corn mander of the army outside your gates. He does not wish to waste men or destroy a valuable city. Therefore he gives you an opportunity to surrender now. Open your gates to us and all will be spared-even the warriors from the Land of the Dwarfs.”
Land of the Dwarfs. Jebu had heard that expression once before, when he had listened in secret to Arghun’s conversation with Taitaro. Was it true that his people might be ridiculed for their stature? Perhaps it was so, for had he not always been the butt of jokes because of his height?
“I see.” Governor Liu stood and beckoned to Yukio and Jebu, drawing them to a corner behind a gilded pillar and leaving his pikeman to watch the envoy.
In a low voice he said, “This commander who offers mercy is only second-in-command of the army outside. The tarkhan who leads all the Mongols in this region is in Szechwan conferring with their Emperor Mangu. The temporary commander has made many errors by Mongol standards. In the battle at the Green Belt Bridge his orders were delayed, and too many warriors died. Discipline in the camp is poor. The movements of his army are behind schedule. Now he fears that the tarkhan will punish him for his mistakes. He wants to take the city without a fight and present it to the tarkhan as a great conquest.”
“How do you know so much about what the Mongols are thinking, Your Excellency?” Jebu asked.
“I have agents who are able to get in and out of their camp with ease. I know also that even though you suffered great losses at the Green Belt Bridge, the Mongol commander fears you. You are strange to him, and you seem fiercer than the Chinese he has encountered. And he doesn’t know how few of you there really are.”
“Your Excellency wishes us to fight on?” Yukio asked.
“I do.”
Yukio nodded. “We will teach them that the men of the Sunrise Land are not dwarfs but dragons.”
Jebu was pleased that Yukio did not promise victory. Perhaps he had begun to absorb some of the Zinja teachings.
Governor Liu returned to his throne. “We reject the terms offered us. We will fight on against the barbarian invaders who would steal our lands, our cities and our lives.” He motioned his guards to escort the ambassador back to the south gate.
The grizzled tumanbashi started to turn away, then swung around and said, “You will regret your stubbornness. You should surrender now, while you have the chance. There will be no mercy for Kweilin when our tarkhan, Arghun Baghadur, resumes command.”
From the pillow book of Shima Taniko:
The barbarians who have invaded southern China are said to smell so bad that the very stench of their approach forces their foes to retreat. They are described as hideous creatures, hunchbacked and twisted of limb. I have even been told that they bite off the breasts of women. Somehow, I suspect that those terrifying reports are spread to excuse the absence of Chinese victories. Jebu is sprung from the barbarians, and surely he is not twisted of limb. And he bites women only with the best of intentions.
The Chinese also have many strange notions about us. They believe that we eat human flesh and worship gods with the heads of animals. It makes one wonder if the things they say about the Mongols are any more true.
From one of the Chinese serving-maids I have heard the tale of a band of warriors from across the China Sea, short-statured and ferocious, who came to fight in the Sung Emperor’s service. That could only be Muratomo no Yukio’s men, and Jebu must be with them. They are now at a city called Kweilin, further from here than the Sacred Islands. I thought if I came here I would be closer to Jebu. We are in the same country, but this one country is as big as twenty countries. I am told they were in Linan a few months ago. Lord of Boundless Light, will I ever meet him again?
-Eighth Month, twenty-sixth day
YEAR OF THE HORSE
At its southern end, the brick-paved Imperial Way-which was to Linan what Redbird Avenue was to Heian Kyo-curved past the Imperial Palace and the base of Phoenix Hill. Aristocrats and rich merchants built their palaces on Phoenix Hill, and it was here Horigawa took up residence. The gateway of his mansion led into a formal courtyard surrounded by three imposing pavilions with blue and gold pillars. The window of Taniko’s room on the second storey of the women’s pavilion looked towards a lagoon covered with lily pads. The weeping willows and peach trees around it were green. At home this would have been the beginning of autumn, but here in Linan there was no autumn.
Horigawa’s negotiations with officials in the Chinese Court dragged on for months. He had arrived in Linan with the names of a few people who might be useful-mostly merchants who traded with the Takashi-and he used these like the rungs of a ladder to reach higher personages. But frequently there were waits of many days between his appointments with various great men. Hardest of all to arrange was an audience with the most important official in Linan, the Emperor’s chief councillor and the real ruler of southern China, Chia Ssu-tao.
Taniko remained in isolation, in effect a prisoner. As happened wherever she went, she quickly made friends with the servants, both her own people and the newly hired Chinese. Horigawa had instructed the household staff to keep a close watch on her and warned them that she was not to be trusted. But, consciously employing charm, candour and kindness, she eventually won them all over. Through the servants she was able to make contact with the outer world. An elderly Chinese secretary was especially helpful.
Erom him she learned some of the history of the Sung Emperors. Their dynasty had been founded almost three centuries earlier by a general who seized the throne. A hundred years ago they had lost northern China, first to the barbarian Cathayans, then to the Kin Tartars. And now the Mongols, having in turn overrun the Kin, had decided to unite the two halves of China under their rule. They had pierced the Sung territories from three directions with three armies; their Emperor, the Great Khan Mangu, in the far west; Mangu’s younger brother, Kublai Khan, in the west nearer the capital; and a famed and feared general, Arghun Baghadur, in the south. She thought she had heard of Arghun Baghadur before, but she could not remember where or when.
At first it seemed to Taniko that all Chinese were tall, grave and silent. Then she met several who were short, passionate and talkative. She thought the Chinese greedy, then heard tales of poor scholars and met beggar monks at the mansion kitchen. Gradually she realized that her quickly formed beliefs about the Chinese were as foolish as the Chinese notion that her people ate human flesh, and she settled down to studying the Chinese one by one.
One of their customs was utterly strange to her. She did not meet any upper-class women, but the servants assured her it was quite true that the feet of wealthy and wellborn
Comments (0)