Legend of The Young Master

Chapter 212: No Surrender

"Everyone was watching the fight outside the walls," Yun Ming said.

Wuyi sighed. "Secure the gates and all the passages. There is a passage under the main donjon which leads out of the fortress. Right now, it's blocked by our wagon-bodies, but put a pair of archers – good archers – on the stairs. Give me a nod when this is done."

"When you say I should secure—" Yun Ming paused.

"As if we were taking the fortress for ourselves," Wuyi said harshly. "As if we were in the south. Trust no one who is not one of ours. Use force if you have to. Secure the exits, Yun Ming!"

Yun Ming saluted. "Yes, my lord."

Jia had his shoes.

"Full armor, gloves, war sword," Wuyi said. Jia began to arm him. It wasn't a quick process, and some parts hurt a great deal. But wearing armor was itself a statement. The arming tunic and lamellar cuirass weighed on him like a shirt of lead and a hairshirt all together. Many warriors believed that the very pain of wearing armor was a penance before the heavens.

Well. Leg protection, starting with the thigh guards, and then the shin guards and the iron war boots that buckled so neatly over his feet.

Jia attached the thigh guards to his arming tunic at an amazing speed, while Dong supported him. He stood, flexed his legs, and Jia, aided now by Zhen, fitted his armor breast and back plates over his head and latched it shut.

"Had a dent in it like you wouldn't believe," Jia said.

"Oh, I would," Wuyi said.

Jia snorted. "Yushen Feng says taking the dent out took more strength than he's ever had to use," he said.

"Like higher-grade enchanted Qi armor." Each of them took an arm harness – forearm guards, elbow guards, and upper arm guards in a single unit on sliding rivets, a miracle of craftsmanship in gilded special bronze and hardened Qi steel – and clipped them on, buckling them to his upper arms and then to his shoulders with straps.

Then his shoulder guards went on, and the circular plates that strapped to the shoulder guards and guarded his underarms. The embroidered sash at his waist.

Soft leather shoes at his feet. Gloves, and a sword.

"There you are, my lord," Jia said.

Wuyi smiled – it was done as fast and as painlessly as it could have been done by anyone. "You are a fine attendant," he said.

He walked out of his abode and went to the healing halls to check something. He looked in the main corridor and saw his cousin brother. Guan had his feet over the edge of the bed.

"Stay where you are," Wuyi said gently. "Jia, stay here with this man."

Jia nodded and saluted. He recognized his Young Master's tone.

"But—" Guan began.

Wuyi shook his head. "Not now."

He walked down the corridor to the other ward. Yun Ming had already passed. Xuanxian Luo was dressing.

"Have a sword, Luo?" Wuyi said. Luo nodded wordlessly.

Wuyi pointed at Liwei's elegant back, standing across the room. "She is not to leave this healing hall until I return," he said. "If you harm her, you are a dead man. But she is not to leave this room. Understand?"

Liwei whirled on him. "What?"

"For your own protection," he said, his voice quiet. "Monk Zen has killed the Pavilion Mistress. But he will seek to blame you."

"Monk Zen?" She came towards him, a hand at her chest. "The Monk?"

He was at the top of the stairs. "Obey. On your life." He ignored her outcry and went down the steps, past the warriors, to the courtyard. At the door, Baijian waited, armored, a spear in his left hand.

"It's bad," he said.

Wuyi nodded. He pulled on his gloves and carried his sword. "On me," he said, and Baijian opened the door.

The sound hit him. Anger first – then fear.

Every farmer and tenant was in the courtyard – four hundred men and women packed into four hundred square ells. The noise was like a living thing.

The healing hall had a wooden step, and two of his Qi warriors were keeping it clear.

On the other side of the courtyard, a dozen big farmers stood together. With them were some of the merchants.

Wuyi turned to Yushen Feng, and he rang a large bell. It was loud and shrill.

Every head turned.

Wuyi waved the sword over the assembly. "Disperse!" he said into the sudden silence. "There will be no negotiation, and no surrender," he went on.

A dangerous murmur began.

"Kindly disperse to your stations and your beds, and let's have no more of this." Wuyi kept his voice level and kind.

One of the merchants raised his head. "Who are you, young lord, to decide for us?"

Wuyi took a deep breath and struggled with the spark of sigh that hit him. He was not going to be wasting statue of harmony energy. Why did good men always make him feel like this?

"I will not debate this with you," he said. "If you wish to leave, the gate will be opened for you."

Another farmer shouted, "That's just death! It's our land that's destroyed. Our farms that are burned, you warriors for hire! Get out of the way, or we'll put you out."

Yun Ming was waving to him from the entrance. He had a key in his hand.

"This fortress is under the protection of my group," Wuyi said loudly. "The lady Pavilion Mistress charged me with its defense, and I will hold it until the end. The power that invests us will not hesitate to lie, deceive, or betray us to our doom – but it will not let anyone here escape alive. The only hope any of you have is to join us in resisting to the last drop of our blood.

Or better yet, to the last drop of theirs." He looked around. "The king," he almost choked on the title, but he got it out. "The king is on his way. Do not give way to despair. Now, please disperse."

"You can't fight all of us!" shouted the farmer.

Wuyi sighed. "In fact, we can kill every one of you." He spoke out. "Look around you. Would the Pavilion Mistress ever have given in? She isn't even buried yet and look at you. Ready to surrender?" He pushed his way into the courtyard, ignoring Baijian's protests.

He pushed his way through the crowd until he was nose to nose with the big farmer.

"Monk says she was a demon," the farmer said. People were shuffling away from him. "Monk says all these so-called pavilion members are demonic witches!" the farmer insisted. "Souls black as night."

A few men nodded. None of the women did.

Wuyi passed his arm through the farmer's arm. "Come with me," he said.

"I don't have to – argh!" The farmer stumbled. He was unable to resist the armored man and was pulled along through the crowd to the great gate.

The gate was open, and the sun was shining beyond the walls of the fortress.

"Look out there," Wuyi said. "Look out there at what Luding has done. He betrayed his king. He betrayed his people. He has made himself a servant of the demonic Wild, an entity without compare, unlimited by laws or even friends. And you think that is better than your Pavilion Mistress?

Because a Monk told you that black is white and white is black?" Wuyi spat the words.

"And I should trust you?" the farmer growled.

"Since you are so obviously a fool – yes. You'd do better trusting me, the man who fights to defend you, than trusting the damned Monk, who killed your Pavilion Mistress."

The crowd was backing away from him.

The farmer stood his ground, but his jaw was trembling. "You're one of them too. And the Monk says the other cursed demonic killed the Pavilion Mistress. For her power."

The crowd muttered again. "You're one of them!" shouted a man at the front.

"I am whatever I choose to be," said Wuyi. "So are you. What do you choose?"

Baijian and Yun Ming stepped up behind him. And with them, a dozen other warriors in Qi armor, and most of the archers. There were archers on the walls, on the stumps of the towers.

"Don't make me do this," Wuyi said to the crowd.

Elder Yueli walked out of the wreckage of a hall with Feiru, the seamstress. Yueli raised her arms.

Feiru spat. "Look at you, Yao Chen." She put her hands on her hips. "Playing with fire. Going to stand here and get shot?" She looked over the crowd. "Go to your beds. Let go.

We've lost the Pavilion Mistress. Let's not spill any more blood here."

"We can take 'em," Yao Chen said. But his tone suggested he knew he was lying.

Feiru walked over and slapped his face. "You always were a weak fool, Yao Chen," she said. "They'll kill every one of us, if they have to. We wouldn't even hurt them to do it. And for what? The enemy is out there."

Wuli Yuan came out of another hall. He was the one responsible for fort and security when Wuyi's group arrived. Everyone thought he might support the farmers.

But instead, he said, "Well said, Feiru." He went and stood with Baijian. "I stand for the Pavilion Mistress. We will not surrender."