Chen Xiuyuan took a length of thin sinew from the tool basket beside the gate, joined the broken cord to the short piece of wood beside it, and flicked the bell's clapper.
A soft ring carried into the inner courtyard, and the patrolman receiving people there called back.
Shi Yuan had just lifted the loose gate hinge when someone lunged in from outside the wall. The man slammed a shoulder into the gate, sending it swinging inward. Shi Yuan stumbled back two steps, and the short bar slipped from his hands beside the frame.
Chen Xiuyuan did not brace against that force. He bent down and wedged the spine of his short blade into the narrow gap beside the lower hinge, using half a piece of old wooden packing to lever up the sagging corner. Shi Yuan immediately supported it and pushed the gate outward to close it.
By the time the blade came free, only a sliver of a gap remained.
A boot thrust sharply into it.
A blade followed through the gap, heading straight for the hand Shi Yuan held beneath the gate. Chen Xiuyuan slid his short blade along the inside of the gate, knocked the incoming edge aside, and barked under his breath, "Pull your hand back!"
Shi Yuan withdrew in time, but without his support, the gate sagged again. The man seized the chance to twist his foot and force it half a foot open, then thrust the long saber hidden behind it diagonally toward Chen Xiuyuan's chest.
Chen Xiuyuan retreated inward onto the second step.
The tip grazed his robe and lodged in the wooden edge beside him. His blade hand did not pursue it outward. He kept his elbow close to his side, and only when the man pulled his saber free did his short blade cut upward toward the hand gripping the hilt.
The attacker jerked his wrist back, drawing the long saber outward against the frame. Its spine struck the short blade squarely, numbing the web of Chen Xiuyuan's hand.
The man was stronger than him.
Chen Xiuyuan drew his blade back with the momentum, keeping his front foot on the higher step rather than stepping down to pursue the hand. Once the man freed his saber, he swung it sideways, but before the edge could sweep clear, it struck the wall on the right of the narrow passage.
His saber was too long, and this gate was too narrow.
But the man reacted swiftly. He immediately shifted his grip closer to the guard, raised the long blade upright, and drove his body into the gate, forcing Chen Xiuyuan inward.
Shi Yuan had retrieved the short bar and stood behind Chen Xiuyuan to his left. He wanted to brace the gate with it, but Chen Xiuyuan told him to hurry the people in the inner courtyard away first. The gate could no longer close smoothly, and two people crowding the entrance would only block the path of his withdrawing blade.
"Leave me half a step!"
Shi Yuan understood. He immediately turned sideways to make room and shouted for those inside to hurry.
The man outside used that moment of speech to advance again, planting one foot on the lower step and smashing his saber hilt toward Chen Xiuyuan's face. Chen Xiuyuan tilted his head aside, turned his blade in a tight arc beneath his elbow, and sent it toward the man's forearm.
The man withdrew his arm, and his other hand reached to seize Chen Xiuyuan's shoulder.
Chen Xiuyuan shifted half a step inward from the upper step, slipping his shoulder out from under the man's fingers while his feet still blocked the way into the courtyard. As he drew his blade back before his chest, a child suddenly cried behind him. Someone retreated through the short corridor inside, the hem of their clothing brushing past his blade.
He changed the sweep he had been about to deliver into a downward withdrawal, guiding the tip around that hem and stopping it against the outside of his own leg.
The man outside laughed, taking advantage of his making room for someone to press his long saber straight down.
Chen Xiuyuan could not evade the entire edge. He could only meet it with his blade angled and divert the force sideways. The two blades clanged together, and a slash opened his leather forearm guard, sending a burning pain through from beneath.
His feet were still on higher ground. Bending his knee, he channeled the impact toward the lower step. Thinking he was about to fall, the man hurried forward again, but his hilt struck the edge of the gate first, throwing his tip off course.
That small gap was exactly what Chen Xiuyuan had been waiting for.
He first pulled his short blade back, avoiding the strongest section of the long saber, then hooked it back from close range. Its edge scraped the side of the man's saber wrist. The man cursed, his grip loosened, and the long saber fell toward the stone steps.
Chen Xiuyuan did not bend to seize it. He kicked its hilt toward the gate with his toe, keeping his short blade guarding his front.
Another man squeezed in from outside, carrying a short axe whose head first bumped beside the wounded man's shoulder. They blocked each other in the narrow passage for a moment. Chen Xiuyuan took the opportunity to retreat inside, and Shi Yuan slid the short bar across from the side, wedging it where the gate swung back.
"Anyone else?" Chen Xiuyuan asked.
"The last household!" Shi Yuan answered.
Chen Xiuyuan glanced inside. The man carrying a child was helping an elderly member of his household over the threshold, moving very slowly. The receiving patrolman reached out to carry the elder on his back, but just then, the man turned around as though he wanted to help.
"Take them away!" Chen Xiuyuan shouted.
An axe blow had already smashed into the outside of the gate, sending wood chips flying beside the short bar.
The short bar bent inward a little.
Shi Yuan gritted his teeth and braced it, but his feet slowly slid across the stone. One more axe blow would send him crashing inward along with the gate.
Chen Xiuyuan looked at the gap beneath the gate. The wounded man's boot had already withdrawn. The axeman outside was now pressed very close, and each time he raised his axe, a section of its handle appeared through the broken edge of the wood.
"Wait until I call, then let go."
Panting, Shi Yuan nodded.
Chen Xiuyuan stood beside the gate. As the axe rose for the third time, he suddenly said, "Let go!"
The short bar pulled away, and the gate swung violently inward with the force of the axe. The axeman had committed too much force. His upper body crossed the lower step while the short axe in his hand was still falling. He tried to surge inside with the momentum, but Chen Xiuyuan had already moved away from the gate's side. His short blade traveled along the outside of the man's forearm, first letting the heaviest part-the axe head-pass, then drawing back.
The gate caught the axe handle for an instant.
The man hurriedly tugged it back, straightening his arm. Chen Xiuyuan's edge fell between his wrist guard and sleeve, slicing a wound open. The axeman turned in pain, trying to knock him aside with his shoulder, but Chen Xiuyuan had withdrawn his blade as soon as he cut in, rather than leave his arm out for the man to trap.
That withdrawal took him just clear of the charging shoulder.
He turned inward, with half a step of open space still behind him, while Shi Yuan had also retreated to the other side. The axeman lunged into empty air and failed to plant his foot firmly on the upper step. As his balance tipped forward, Chen Xiuyuan brought his blade back through the space that had opened and smashed its hilt into the side of his jaw.
The man staggered half a step back, colliding with the wounded-wrist man blocking the way behind him.
The two crowded together against the frame. Chen Xiuyuan hurried back to his original position, holding his short blade where they would have to pass to come farther in. His chest burned painfully from that burst of rapid movement.
Blood showed at one corner of the axeman's mouth. He wiped it with a hand, then suddenly stopped trying to force his way through. Grabbing his companion behind him, he shoved him aside to free his own hand, then lowered his head and felt for something at his waist.
Chen Xiuyuan saw a strip of oil-soaked cloth.
"Water!"
Shi Yuan dragged over the bucket they had placed nearby earlier. Before the man could blow his fire starter alight, Chen Xiuyuan had kicked the wet cloth on the ground out through the gate. It wrapped around the end of the fire starter. The man cursed and shook it off, but before he could try again, the water Shi Yuan flung out drenched him from above.
Both sides of the threshold were soaked.
Chen Xiuyuan planted his feet firmly on the old stone and warned Shi Yuan to keep away from the slippery edge. Taking advantage of the splashing water, the wounded enemy threw a stone inside. Chen Xiuyuan tilted his head out of its path, and it struck the grain store's wall with a dull thud.
The grain store's door remained securely shut. The mixed grains inside had not been disturbed, and the dry grass near the door had been cleared away. This time, the enemy had found nothing they could set alight at once.
"They're all in!"
The receiving patrolman's voice finally came from the inner courtyard.
Chen Xiuyuan answered, but still did not immediately pursue them outside. The axeman was watching his breathing. Clearly, he too had seen that the young man guarding the gate was nearly out of strength, and was waiting for him to lose patience and step down.
Chen Xiuyuan's blade hand ached and tingled slightly, but he did not extend it another inch.
He could see a small chip in the man's axe edge, and could also see that his feet kept avoiding the water. With the narrow entrance blocked, neither enemy could easily squeeze past him. If they retreated, Shi Yuan could brace the gate again; if they advanced, they would have to cross these two steps once more.
The axeman tried an upward flick of his axe.
Chen Xiuyuan lightly tapped the handle with his blade's spine, avoiding the axe head where its weight was greatest, and shifted his feet a little sideways. The axe missed and carried on into the frame, but he had already withdrawn his blade before his chest, still able to take his next step.
The man glared at him, then suddenly asked, "How much has the Du Family given you to make it worth risking your lives like this?"
Chen Xiuyuan remembered the arrow hole in the bottom of the basket and answered, "Then go ask them why they insist on coming to my gate."
A short horn call sounded outside the courtyard.
The wounded swordsman turned first, and the axeman also paused. Chen Xiuyuan immediately pressed forward half a step, his blade tip bearing down above the axe handle and forcing the man aside. Shi Yuan lifted the gate from behind and to the side. Chen Xiuyuan kicked the abandoned long saber beside the gate inward, and as he retreated, the wooden gate finally closed against its frame.
Shi Yuan slid the bolt home.
A blow immediately struck from outside. The bolt shuddered but held firmly. The receiving patrolman had already arrived and joined Shi Yuan in bracing the short bar against the inside, calling for Chen Xiuyuan to step back and check his wound.
Only when no more blades reached beneath the gate did Chen Xiuyuan lower his right arm.
His wrist guard was torn, and a shallow cut beneath it seeped blood. His fingers could still open and close, and his wrist had lost none of its strength, but his palm, shoulders, and back ached badly. He pressed a strip of cloth against the wound and looked up toward the grain store. Shi Yuan had already turned to check its lock.
"The grain's untouched." After saying that, Shi Yuan called another question into the inner courtyard.
An answer soon came from within: everyone was accounted for.
Chen Xiuyuan leaned against the wall and caught his breath. Every night, when he practiced until his hands ached, he had wondered whether this blade technique could stop a real blade. Just now, had he withdrawn that diagonal slash a fraction slower, or struck himself again while drawing his elbow back, he would have had to yield the path behind him.
Now that gate remained shut, and the child's crying carried through the inner courtyard wall, farther and farther from danger.
He had just been about to wipe the water off his short blade when Shi Lei's voice came from the main gate. "The cart's turning west! Cut it off!"
Over the low wall, Chen Xiuyuan saw lights moving toward the cart track. The medicine cart with the split boards was circling the pile of stones outside the main gate. Shi Lei caught up from the side, hooking the reins beside the cart with his scabbard, while another patrolman hurried over to stop the draft animal.
Chen Xiuyuan did not join the cheering. His gaze suddenly stopped on a breach in the grain courtyard's outer wall.
A thinner figure was dropping out of the darkness, a short blade in hand. He did not come to ram the narrow gate. Hugging the back of the empty shed, he circled toward the side room of the inner courtyard. That was where the old herb gatherer and the porters had just been settled.
The two men outside were still pushing at the gate, but there was a third man inside.
Chen Xiuyuan pressed the cloth tightly against his arm and told Shi Yuan, "Guard the bolt. I'm going inside."