Luo Cheng's eldest legitimate son, Luo Ren, was dispatched to the Ying State, while Luo Cheng's younger brother, Luo Zhongshu, was sent to the Xu State.
These two were the ruling house's finest in Military Strategy, which was why Luo Cheng had entrusted them with leading the Luo State's soldiers to garrison Luoyi.
He had never expected them to be sent straight to the front lines against the Huai Yi so soon.
Sitting in his carriage, Luo Ren gazed at the troops outside and asked gravely, "Second Uncle, you are the Luo Clan's bravest and most capable general. What do you make of the situation with the Huai Yi?"
Luo Zhongshu was a martial-looking middle-aged man with a rough, dark face. One glance was enough to tell that he had weathered many storms.
He leaned back inside the carriage, his posture somewhat languid, yet a current of strength still seemed to flow through his body, like a fierce tiger ready to devour someone at any moment.
At Luo Ren's question, he drawled, "What is there to make of it?
"Wu-Yue has been pinned down and beaten by the Huai Yi for years. They are no weak fighters.
"Whether defending a city or attacking one, it all comes down to piling up human lives.
"But this time, we have the Luo State's finest soldiers. The three thousand Dare-to-Fight Warriors of Luo Clan blood alone make an invincible army.
"With these fine lads beside me, I would not fear even a hundred thousand Huai Yi!
"This time, we will make them spill their blood across the Ying and Xu States!"
"Indeed. Is there any army under heaven stronger than the Luo State Dare-to-Fight Warriors?"
The vast majority of the Luo State Dare-to-Fight Warriors came from lesser branches of the Luo Clan. They had grown up alongside the ruling house's children in the Luo State's Public Academy, listening to stories of the Sage King every day, while the ruling house supplied their food, clothing, and daily necessities.
This was the standard for warriors sworn to die!
Luo Zhongshu's face brimmed with pride, only for Luo Ren to say quietly, "The Dare-to-Fight Warriors are the finest under heaven, and every soldier of the Luo State is a fine lad. I just wonder how many will return to the Luo State this time.
"Second Uncle."
Luo Ren truly wanted to know how many members of the Luo Clan would die this time.
He was the Luo State's future ruler. After this great war, would he still have the face to return and meet his clansmen?
Luo Ren's words left Luo Zhongshu stunned in the carriage. He was a general who knew nothing but warfare.
His elder brother had ordered him to lead troops in support of the Ying State and Xu States. Though he knew countless dangers and hardships awaited, he had marched out without hesitation.
But now, at Luo Ren's words, a chill suddenly spread through his entire body.
Who knew how many members of the ruling clan were in this army? Every Dare-to-Fight Warrior was a son of one of its lesser branches.
If all of them died at the hands of the Huai Yi, his clansmen might not blame him, but what would become of the Luo State's foundations?
The whole edifice would collapse!
It would take at least twenty years of recovery, until a new generation of Dare-to-Fight Warriors had grown up in the Public Academy, before the Luo State could regain its strength.
Elder Brother!
At that thought, he could not help recalling his elder brother's instructions before he departed. "My younger brother Zhong Shu possesses courage that ten thousand men cannot withstand.
"On this journey to the Xu State, you will surely win glory. If you truly accomplish great deeds, I shall invest you with the exalted rank of marquis.
"I intend to establish the Ying State of Ying upon the lands of the Ying and Xu States, and make you its ruler. This will bring glory to our ancestors.
"Once you reach the Xu State, take good care of yourself and our Luo State lads.
"The royal house's safety rests entirely with you. You must stop the Huai Yi in the Xu State.
"So long as you achieve that goal, no matter how great the price, your elder brother will not blame you."
Luo Zhongshu could not help repeating those words: no matter how great the price!
Even if not a single Luo Clan lad returns?
"Ren, if all our Luo Clan lads fall at the hands of the Huai Yi, I will not live on alone. Remember to bring my body back to the Luo State. I do not wish to be buried in the Southern Barbarians' lands."
With that, he closed his eyes and said no more.
Luo Ren had already closed his eyes long before. He merely gave a barely audible murmur of assent.
As the Huai Yi advanced northward, the Ying and Xu States supported one another like two horns. The Ying State remained relatively secure.
But the Xu State had reacted too slowly and already lost half its territory. Even the crucial Xu City had fallen to a detached Huai Yi force.
With Xu City lost, the Xu State's remaining cities were like a lone timber trying to hold up a building.
The Huai Yi army could cut off every city's supply routes, while continuing to circle northward from Xu City without interruption.
From atop Xu City's walls, the Huai Yi loosed dense showers of arrows, their primary means of defense. Luo Zhongshu personally led the Luo Clan's elite troops in an assault.
Though they inflicted substantial casualties, they still failed to break through the Huai Yi defenses.
As the gongs sounded the retreat, all the officers and soldiers slowly withdrew. Fierce fires burned within the city and atop its walls, and bodies lay strewn everywhere.
Luo Zhongshu's expression was grim. The Huai Yi inside the city were neither particularly numerous nor particularly strong, yet such a force had managed to capture Xu City.
This assault had given him a small chance to test the armies of the Hanyang States, and he discovered that they truly were weak.
Realizing that these men were utterly unreliable, Luo Zhongshu immediately prepared to commit the elite troops he had brought from the Luo State.
The situation was now critical. They had to retake Xu City before the main Huai Yi army arrived.
At dawn, exercising his authority as commander of military and state affairs, Luo Zhongshu once again mobilized every army within the Xu State. More than ten thousand men launched a fierce assault on Xu City.
Xu City was not particularly large. The armies of the lords divided into successive waves, taking turns attacking without a moment's pause.
Under the archers' cover, they made some headway.
But the Huai Yi held the high ground, and the lords' armies suffered grievous casualties. Even excluding the slave soldiers, several hundred soldiers had been killed outright.
These were all State People, some even descendants of nobles who possessed clan names.
"General Zhong Shu, withdraw! Our casualties are far too heavy!"
When casualties approached two thousand, the Hanyang nobles could no longer bear it and begged Luo Zhongshu to call off the attack.
Luo Zhongshu felt even greater anguish. In this short span alone, more than a hundred Luo Clan Scion Disciples had died upon the walls.
He did not order a retreat. Instead, he gathered all the remaining Luo Clan elites.
Luo Zhongshu stood upon his chariot, his armor drenched in blood and his blade's edge curled. He removed his bronze helmet. His topknot had long since come loose, and his hair streamed freely in the wind.
His gaze swept across the bloodstained soldiers before him. Without a word, he stepped down from his chariot and walked up to them. He knew many of these men.
Every year, he and Luo Ren personally delivered grain and cloth to these soldiers on behalf of the ruling house. Their children all attended the Luo State's Public Academy.
The Luo State Ruling House might well have been the poorest in All Xia, precisely because it bestowed so much wealth upon these lowest-ranking members of the ruling clan.
"Cao Boyun, you have followed me for so many years.
"All these years, we fought the Wei State and the Eastern Yi, and you were always brave.
"Why, now that we are here, do you not even dare stake your life?"
Unexpectedly, Cao Boyun answered through tears, "General, all these years I have followed you on campaigns north and south. In every battle, I was first up the walls. When have I ever feared death?
"Even if we drained the Luo River dry, we could not repay a fraction of the ruling house's kindness to us.
"But too many of our brothers came on this expedition. If all of them fall here, who will protect our lord?
"I have never seen that Son of Heaven in the Royal Domain.
"I only know that it was our lord who fed and clothed us. During the famine, he would rather go hungry himself than let me go without a full belly.
"To spend the blood of Luo State men fighting for the Son of Heaven's life—I cannot accept it!"
At his words, almost every soldier knelt and wept. Grief covered their faces; clearly, they all felt the same.
Luo Zhongshu raised the whip in his hand, but lowered it again. Tears shone in his eyes as well.
The Luo State enforced the clan hierarchy more strictly than any other, yet the bonds among its ruling clansmen were stronger than those in other states by an immeasurable degree.
"I know what you are saying. Our lord knows it too.
"But our lord still sent us here. Why?
"Because our ancestor is the Sage King!
"Though you no longer offer sacrifices to our ancestor, his blood still flows within your bodies.
"That blood is the reason you must stake your lives today.
"As descendants of the Sage King, this is our fate.
"The Zhou State's Mandate of Heaven must endure forever. Its Mandate of Heaven must be like the sun above!
"More than two hundred years ago, Yin Shang's Mandate of Heaven ended, and Yin Shang's god fell with it.
"The Mandate of Heaven: the dark bird descended and gave birth to Shang."
"Yin Shang sang those words for six hundred years. Does anyone still offer sacrifices now?
"Heaven's mandate, profound and unceasing.
"Ah, how illustrious, the purity of the Sage King's virtue.
"These verses praise our ancestor, the Sage King. If the Zhou State falls, and the Zhou People hide and flee like the Shang People, who will still know the Sage King's greatness?"
The sounds of weeping gradually faded. If the Sage King was the god of all Zhou People, then these descendants of his were fanatical believers.
"If we do not stake our lives today, will we not feel ashamed when we die and meet the Sage King?
"If that day comes, I know I will bitterly regret failing to uphold the honor of the Sage King's descendants today.
"To have no face to meet our ancestral spirits after death-is that not the greatest agony?"
A fierce fighting spirit blazed within every Luo State soldier.
"The Sage King once said that the Nine Provinces were lands Heaven bestowed upon All Xia to live in, and that the barbarians in every direction were thieves who had usurped those lands.
"Now these thieves wish to play the cuckoo and seize the magpie's nest, challenging the Zhou State that bears the Mandate of Heaven.
"If we defeat them, surely the Sage King in heaven will take pride in us, his descendants."
"Kill the barbarians! Kill the barbarians!"
Every soldier brandished his weapon, his voice filled with rage, longing to fight the Huai Yi to the death that very instant.
Luo Zhongshu began singing Eulogy Hymns in praise of the Sage King, and all the soldiers joined him.
"The Sage King's spirit dwells in heaven, how glorious, how radiant.
"How pure the Sage King's virtue, which we must inherit.
"Along the path of the Sage King's Mandate of Heaven, may our children and grandchildren walk forever."
"May our children and grandchildren walk forever!"
Yes, we are the Sage King's descendants. We must walk the path of the Mandate of Heaven forever, beginning with us.
Beneath the daylight, three thousand Luo Clan lads gripped their sharp blades, their killing intent surging skyward. It shook the lords' armies so deeply that they did not even dare speak.
Luo Zhongshu put on his bronze helmet and roared, "If I cannot take Xu City today, I will have no face to meet our ancestors and will take my own life here! Luo Clan Scion Disciples willing to stake your lives, follow me!"
[Your family's political credibility has increased.] [Your family's ethos has changed. The probability of loyal ministers appearing has increased.] [Your Fortune Points have begun to increase substantially.] [The world has undergone an unpredictable change.]
Amid the drifting haze, Ji Zhao watched this scene, his eyes darkening, growing ever more unfathomable. He looked up at the sky, where an oppressively dark cloud had gathered, chilling even him. Now, it seemed to have dissipated a little.
"A bond with the Zhou State?"
He lowered his gaze to the Heroic Spirit Card in his hand and murmured, "The Hall of Heroes, the place to which heroic spirits return."
His figure gradually faded and vanished, leaving only a few barely audible fragments. "Clearing the trial... becoming a god... heroic spirits."
The Dare-to-Fight Warriors who had followed Luo Zhongshu on campaigns north and south, the force the Luo State Ruling House used to subdue all directions, charged toward Xu City like fierce tigers.
The lords' armies committed all their archers to providing cover. These three thousand elites attacked in waves, and the moment the first three hundred entered the battle, the effect was entirely different.
The walls had never been particularly tall. After only a few charges, they stormed straight up.
The Huai Yi were instantly horrified, unable to understand how these Zhou People troops had suddenly become so formidable.
They hurriedly brought up their reserves and directed nearly every means of attack at these soldiers whose equipment was visibly different.
Bodies covered Xu City's walls, the vast majority belonging to the Huai Yi. Soldiers who still breathed rolled on the ground, wailing in pain. Not a single dead soldier had been left with an intact corpse.
This scene of unspeakable carnage battered everyone's minds. The pressure of seeing a comrade die before one's eyes was beyond an ordinary person's comprehension.
Another exchange of arrows followed, countless shafts striking one another in the sky. After the relentless assaults, made without regard for casualties, the Huai Yi's arrow reserves were clearly running low. Compared with the earlier showers that filled the heavens, only scattered arrows remained.
This eased Luo Zhongshu's heart a little. At least the Luo State Dare-to-Fight Warriors would suffer slightly fewer casualties. Protected by their shields, the elites quickly closed in.
The Huai Yi could still deal with ordinary long ladders, but the siege ladders built specifically for taking cities were far beyond what this detached force could handle.
"The black-armored troops are coming again!"
The Huai Yi atop the walls cried out, fear lurking in their voices. Some could not even hold their weapons steady.
The Luo State Dare-to-Fight Warriors followed the siege ladders, which had been laid with wooden boards. After suffering some casualties, they surged onto the walls and began fighting at close quarters in teams of five.
Luo Zhongshu led from the front. He wore thick armor and even a bronze mask over his face. His martial prowess was extraordinary; not a single enemy could withstand one exchange with him.
Dozens of Huai Yi surrounded him, but he easily killed three, sending the rest scattering in flight.
More and more Dare-to-Fight Warriors poured through the breach and onto the walls, plunging both sides into a full melee.
Once the melee began, the Huai Yi no longer had any attention to spare for the soldiers below. Seizing this opening and following Luo Zhongshu's earlier arrangements, the lords' armies smashed through Xu City's gates!
These armies could not fight a hard battle, but they were perfectly capable of using superior numbers to bully a smaller force.
Dense ranks of soldiers surged through the gates behind their generals, trampling blood and corpses underfoot. Shield bearers pressed forward at the front, wiping out the Huai Yi who still resisted.
The remaining Huai Yi hid in streets and alleys, attempting a last-ditch resistance, only to be dragged out and killed.
After several hours of bitter fighting, the valor of the Luo State Dare-to-Fight Warriors finally brought Xu City down.
Gazing at those young faces among the fallen, some belonging to his sons and nephews, Luo Zhongshu knelt atop the wall, his eyes bloodshot, and looked south.
Like a rising tide, the Huai Yi were advancing along the Ying River.
Laugh not if I lie drunk upon the battlefield; since ancient times, how many have returned from war? -Wang Han, "Song of Liangzhou"
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