Attack strategies

About an hour later, we found nothing. No hole, no secret compartments, no stone unturned. Since we reach the southern gate, we decide to take a break at the rest station close to it. On any normal day, the road would be busy and the station overrun with travellers waiting for their turn to be processed so they can enter the city. Yet today it’s quiet, with only a few people waiting in line. We sit down at a table at the edge of the station and observe a merchant tending to his horses.

“There was a warning sent to the southern villages after the monster attacks yesterday,” Liu Renqing explains after ordering a light lunch of plain noodles with vegetables. “Most of the travelling merchants don’t have funds to hire bodyguards, so they wait it out until we say it’s safe again. Still, some of them trade goods like fruit, vegetables or animals. They can’t afford a long delay and will try their luck anyway.”

“I can’t fault them if their life depends on trade. All we can do for them is make the roads safer.”

Liu Renqing takes my hand. “Thank you for listening to me earlier. It feels good to talk about it, even if that doesn’t change anything. If you could only choose me, I would have an ally for life.”

“Most of your old friends are still there for you if you only talk to them.”

He picks up my hand and kisses the back of it lightly. “That’s not the same.”

I know it isn’t, but as much as I just want to give in, the moment I do, this city will be doomed. I take a deep breath.

“I will think about it,” I say to placate him and he gives me the most heartbreaking smile. “But for now we have to figure out where they sabotaged our defences.”

“Maybe nothing was done this time.”

I shake my head. “No, there has to be something.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Because I saw it online. Agh.

“Just trust me, please.”

“Always,” he replies readily.

“If you wanted to attack Xiyang by sabotaging a place with explosives, where would you plant them?”

“The eastern wall we searched is actually the best place. To the north, the palace is heavily fortified. To the west and northeast, the cliffs prevent a large force marching in at once. Every valley on that side is easily defendable. The south is possible, but while circling around to it, any bigger group would be spotted. The sparse forest to the east provides not only cover, but enough room to march in numbers. It is the best place, yet we found nothing there.”

“As expected of the general’s son. You know Xiyang like the back of your hand.”

Something unexpected happens then. As soon as I praise him, Liu Renqing’s ears turn red and he looks away from me, suddenly very interested in his tea cup.

“If anyone can figure this out, then it’s you. I should’ve relied on you from the start.”

A flush rises on his cheeks, beautifully against his pale skin and he grumbles as he holds his cup so close, I fear it might break. Ah. He is adorable!!

“Stop it.”

“For now.”

He glares at me, but there is no heat behind it, so I smile back and he blushes even harder.

“So where would you attack if not the eastern wall?” I ask, taking mercy on him by changing the subject again.

“It’s difficult. I don’t think they could climb down the cliffs… especially not if they have horses and—oh. Oh!”

“Oh?”

“The dam. If I wanted to destroy all of Xiyang’s defences in one swoop, I would blow up the dam below Yueji Lake. Granted, the city would make for a much less attractive target to raid afterwards, but its defences would be devastated. And you wouldn’t lose a single man doing it.”

“Oh heavens…”

What did I do? What did I do??? Did I make everything ten thousand times worse by my intervention? The city wall is one thing, but the dam? Did they shift their target because they couldn’t get close to the wall? I look around at the people here, at the fields beyond, though the gate, where I can see a busy main street with vendors and food carts. Everyone here could die, and it would be my fault. My fault alone.

“You need to breathe,” Liu Renqing snaps me out of it and squeezes my hand. “No one is helped if you panic without reason.”

“There is a reason.”

“Not yet. We need to go to the dam first and actually find something for there to be a reason.”

“I know you’re right, but… it feels wrong, knowing this while everyone here goes about their day.”

That’s putting it mildly, but he cannot know more than this. The vision I’ve seen of Xiyang in the future, most of the city razed, was always something abstract. I already saw it, but it was in a drama—a fantasy world. I don’t think I was quite aware up until now what kind of responsibility I’m carrying… and it has just sunken in.

“That’s the everyday life of the city guard. My mother commandeers all the forces, from the guards at the gates, to the police force of Xiyang. Everyone not directly under Princess Zhu of the Royal Guard answers to General Liu. If the regular people knew what kind of threats she manages, they wouldn’t be able to live their lives. If they never know, we’ve done our duty.”

“I think you will make a fine general one day. Your mother should be proud to see you step up like this.”

“I don’t want to talk about her right now.”

Just then, our noodles arrive. We eat quickly and after we pay, I grab my alibi-basket.

“We can’t know if they stationed people to watch over the dam. If we pretend to be on a stroll, we may not be as suspicious.”

Liu Renqing looks down at himself. “My armour is not exactly what I would call commoner clothes. Come on. If we go to Yueji Lake, it’s only a small detour to reach one of our houses. We can change clothes there.”

“You have women’s clothes?”

Liu Renqing looks away and walks ahead, so I can only follow him.

“They were my sister’s things,” he says quietly as we walk back into the city. “My mother wanted to throw everything out, but I couldn’t bear to part with them, so I hid them away at one of the houses only I use when I’m training, since it’s closer to the garrison.”

“That’s… I can’t take those. I will go to Huoyun—”

“Please. I would be honoured.”

There’s nothing I can say that wouldn’t be an insult, so I just nod.