The Commander

As we leave the capital and its territory behind and move further into the badlands, I increase the number of guards on duty and start sending scouting parties to check out our route.  Towns are more scattered and there are few villages, so we have to go carefully with supplies.  Fortunately there’s plenty of grass for the horses and some of the men are skilled hunters.  We know where to find water and we’re used to living off the land.  But our slow pace worries me.  We’re not meeting peasants on the road any more, only heavily-escorted caravans like our own.  The land has become hilly and there are places where the ill-intentioned could mount ambushes, but so far, no-one has tried anything.

The men are working well together.  There have been no disciplinary problems since the flogging, but I’m concerned by Yu Kang’s attitude.  I’d hoped that fair-handed punishment would settle the matter, but it hasn’t.  The men have made it quite clear whose side they’re on and he now has that resentment to add to the others.  His temper’s become worse and Shao Ru has had to reprimand him again.   He’s fast becoming a liability.

The Prince, on the other hand, is proving to be something of an asset.  He’s handling the accounts and helping Liang Zhou with all the medical stuff, which means that I don’t have to detail a soldier to do it.  He has now won over not only Mo Jiang and Wu Shun but also the two other Young Masters.  They congregate on the steps of his wagon in the evening, chattering, laughing, playing dice and scuffling like puppies.  Since the fight, even the most hardened of the men look on him with an indulgent eye.  He’s learned to ride and handle a bow and now he’s learning sword-fighting and hand-to-hand combat.  He seems to be enjoying himself.

But I can’t guess at his innermost thoughts.  He can’t have forgotten that he’s headed for Qiu and a lifetime in the harem.  Knowing him, I’d say that he’s probably got some sort of desperate plan worked out, but there’s nothing I can do to help him, apart from what I’m doing now.  I feel an ache in my heart that I haven’t felt before.  But I’ve got a job to do.  I can’t allow this feeling to distract me.

Then one day Shao Ru says:  “We’re not going to hit any kind of town for a while and the men are getting antsy.  They need entertainment.  Let’s organize some competitions.”

Shao Ru’s never wrong about the mood in camp.

I say, “Sounds good to me.  Go for it.”