[Water Margin] Hu Sanniang with her delicate hands - Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
The news that the remnants of the Zhu Family Manor’s forces were forcibly disbanded and integrated into the Hu Family’s ranks, like a stone thrown into stagnant water, caused subtle ripples of unease within the weary and fearful Hu Family Manor. Some secretly praised the Third Mistress’s decisive action, which eliminated a potential hidden danger; others privately criticized her, feeling she was too cold-hearted and unmindful of past alliance. But these murmurs were soon suppressed by a heavier reality.
The Liangshan forces did not immediately launch a fiercer attack as anticipated. Like experienced hunters, after breaching the first line of defense of their prey, they chose to surround but not assault, blockading the Hu Family Manor completely. Scouting cavalry, like phantoms, prowled the fields outside the manor, cutting off all external communication. The few waves of messengers sent out by the manor seeking aid vanished without a trace, like clay oxen entering the sea.
A feeling of despair, like the all-pervasive coldness of winter, seeped into every corner of the manor.
Even more unsettling, whenever night fell, faint, intermittent cries would drift from outside the manor walls, sometimes shrill, sometimes mournful, mixed with the sound of the wind, sounding like the wails of vengeful spirits claiming lives. This unnerved the night watchmen, making their hair stand on end and their minds unsettled.
“It’s… it’s the unjustly slain people from the Zhu Family Manor crying…” a timid guard whispered, his face pale. “Their grievances won’t dissipate, and they’ve come to look for substitutes…”
The rumors quietly spread like a plague. The morale of the manor’s guards, already exhausted from the bloody battle and subjected to this invisible mental torture, inevitably plummeted.
Hu Sanniang stood on the cold manor wall, listening to the strange “ghost wails” in the wind, her elegant eyebrows tightly furrowed. She naturally did not believe in vengeful ghosts. This was clearly a psychological warfare tactic by the Liangshan bandits! Taking advantage of the Zhu Family Manor’s recent fall and the widespread panic, they used eerie methods to create fear and destabilize the troops.
“Instructor Chen,” she called for the duty-bound Instructor Chen, her voice particularly clear in the cold wind. “Pass down the order that this is a trick by the Liangshan bandits, playing on superstition to confuse people! Anyone who dares to spread rumors and shake morale will be executed!”
“Yes!” Instructor Chen acknowledged the order, but the worry on his face had not faded. “Third Mistress, while this is true, the sound… is truly unsettling. The men are getting quite spooked.”
Hu Sanniang was silent for a moment, her gaze sweeping over the guards on the wall, who were shrinking their necks in the cold wind and whose eyes flickered with fear. She understood. Strict orders alone could not dispel fear.
That night, she did not return to her room to rest. Instead, she ordered a large cauldron to be set up on the manor wall, in the most visible spot directly facing the direction from which the “ghost wails” came, and had firewood stacked beneath it. She also had several jars of the manor’s finest strong liquor, originally reserved for celebrations or the New Year, brought up.
The blazing fire lit up, dispelling the surrounding darkness and chill, and attracting many watchful, uneasy eyes.
Hu Sanniang personally broke the mud seals of the wine jars, pouring the clear, spring-like strong liquor “gurgling” into the cauldron. The rich aroma of the wine instantly spread, overpowering the smell of bl00d and char in the air.
She scooped a ladle of the boiling liquor and poured it into a large coarse pottery bowl. Cupping the bowl with both hands, she faced the pitch-black night sky outside the wall and said in a clear, ringing voice: “Brothers of the Hu Family Manor!”
Her voice was not loud, but it clearly reached the ears of every guard who was listening intently.
“I know, everyone is tired, and afraid! Outside are the ruthless Liangshan bandits, and these cries, which we don’t know are from man or ghost!” Her eyes were piercing as she scanned the crowd. “We are trapped here, aid is hopeless, and the future is uncertain!”
Her words struck directly at the deepest fear in everyone’s hearts. The wall fell into dead silence, broken only by the crackling of the burning firewood and the gentle bubbling of the liquor in the cauldron.
“But!” Hu Sanniang’s tone abruptly changed, her voice rising with an uncompromising clarity. “What is behind us?!”
She pointed toward the silent houses within the manor under the night sky: “It is our parents, wives, and children! It is the foundation laid by our ancestors! It is the place where hundreds of people in our Hu Family Manor live and make their home!”
“The Liangshan bandits want to seize our homes! Kill our people! Destroy everything we have! Those rat-like scoundrels playing tricks want us to be demoralized before the fight even begins, to throw ourselves into disarray!”
“You tell me!” She held the bowl of liquor high. The steaming heat of the wine misted her cold yet determined face. “Are we lambs waiting to be slaughtered, or are we the husbands, sons, and fathers who protect our homes and land?!”
This challenge exploded like a thunderclap in everyone’s hearts! Many guards subconsciously straightened their backs and gripped their weapons tighter.
“This bowl of wine,” Hu Sanniang’s eyes were blazing, her voice carrying an infectious power, “is for the brave souls who died last night! They used their bl00d to tell us that one step back means the destruction of our homes and the death of our families!”
She slowly poured the strong liquor from the bowl onto the cold ground of the wall. The liquor seeped into the flagstones like a bl00d oath.
She scooped another ladle of wine into a new bowl and raised it again: “This bowl is for every brother who is still standing here, who has not backed down! A lone fortress on a cold night, hearts connected in shared hardship! As long as we have breath, the banner of the Hu Family Manor shall not fall!”
With that, she tilted her head back and “gulped, gulped” down the spicy strong liquor! The wine rolled down her throat like a line of fire, igniting a surge of heroic spirit, driving away the coldness and fatigue in her body. A slight flush appeared on her pale cheeks.
“Bring the bowls!” She threw the empty bowl to the ground, shattering it!
Hu Cheng, his bl00d already stirred by her speech and action, immediately rushed forward with a stack of coarse pottery bowls to distribute. Instructor Chen was the first to take a bowl. Imitating Hu Sanniang, he tilted his head back and drank it down, then wiped his mouth and roared, “We swear to live and die with the manor!”
“We swear to live and die with the manor!”
“Cheers with the Third Mistress!”
On the wall, both the seasoned guards and the newly integrated remnants of the Zhu Family Manor, were now infected by this spirit of shared hostility. They all took the bowls and poured the scalding liquor down their throats. The spicy taste stimulated their palates, and more importantly, ignited the ferocity that had been suppressed by fear!
The firelight danced, illuminating faces flushed from alcohol and excitement. The fear and confusion in their eyes were replaced by a desperate, do-or-die resolve.
The moonlight shone, not on romance and elegance, but on the courage united in the cold night!
The “ghost wails” outside the manor, at some unknown point, seemed to have grown weaker and more distant, no longer so unsettling.
Hu Sanniang looked at the guards whose fighting spirit had been rekindled, and she felt a slight relief. But this was not enough. She knew that Liangshan would not give them much time to breathe.
As expected, at the break of dawn the next day, before the sky was fully light, the dull sound of war drums echoed outside the manor!
This time, Liangshan was not testing, nor playing tricks. A dark mass of soldiers surged forward like a tide. Leading the charge was a man with the head of a leopard, round eyes, a swallow’s neck, and a tiger’s beard, wielding an eighteen-foot snake spear—it was the former Imperial Guard instructor, the Leopard Head—Lin Chong!
Beside Lin Chong were several other formidable heroes. One of them, built like an iron tower, wielded a priest’s staff—the Flowery Monk Lu Zhishen! Another, with a stern physique and eyes that shot cold stars—the Pilgrim Wu Song!
The main force of Liangshan was finally getting serious!
On the manor wall, the bl00d that had just been ignited by the strong liquor caught in their throats at the sight of this formation. Lin Chong, Lu Zhishen, Wu Song… these names alone were a powerful deterrent!
Hu Sanniang took a deep breath, drew her sabers, and the cold steel blade pressed against her cheek, which was slightly warm from the wine, bringing a moment of clarity.
She knew the moment that would decide the fate of the Hu Family Manor had arrived.
“Archers! Fire arrows!” she commanded sharply. “Target the enemy’s rear supply train!”
“Hu Cheng! Take men to check all pits and alarms, ensure absolute readiness!”
“Instructor Chen! Organize a death squad, prepare the fire oil, and await my signal!”
Orders were rapidly issued. The manor wall bustled with activity once more, only this time, there was less panic and more of a tragic order.
Her gaze swept over the surging enemy, landing on the large banner proclaiming “Executing the Heaven’s Will,” and the short, dark man beneath it with a grim face—Song Jiang.
This was the man who would determine her fate and the fate of the hundreds of people inside the manor.
No.
Hu Sanniang tightened her grip on the saber hilt, her knuckles white from the strain.
Fate must be seized by oneself!
She turned and whispered a few instructions to a trusted guard behind her. The guard’s face showed astonishment, then he nodded heavily and quickly disappeared beneath the wall.
That was her final maneuver, a risky gambit concerning her personal ability to break free from the predetermined, humiliating end.
The war drums beat faster and faster, like a death knell.
Lin Chong’s snake spear was already pointing at the manor gate.
Hu Sanniang raised her jade hand, her voice piercing the heavens:
“Engage the enemy!”