Chapter 3
A new army appeared on the northwestern frontier.
Its commander was the daughter of the General Who Guards the West. The several thousand soldiers under her command were all women who did not wish to marry.
Some had fathers about to sell them to brothels for gambling money.
Some had lost both parents, and their uncles meant to sell them to old men as replacement wives.
Others had become widows before their weddings. Without ever having seen their husbands’ faces, they were expected to remain faithful to them for life.
I gave Xingyue money. She used it to buy these daughters out of the families selling them, settling their filial debt once and for all.
From then on, they no longer had to live for their fathers, husbands, or sons.
They lived for themselves.
The young women who had escaped those devouring feudal codes were independent and fearless. They would bleed, and they were not afraid to die.
They weren’t simply training as soldiers. They were learning to live entirely new lives.
Xingyue ate and slept alongside them, without a general’s airs. She charged at the front, and her soldiers would gladly die for her.
The Daughters’ Army grew stronger by the day. Then the crown prince’s troops returned and encamped nearby.
His army was utterly undisciplined, spoiled rotten by its commander. Some of his men even dared to harass the women’s camp late at night.
Two young women who had risked their lives for their country could not bear the humiliation. They hanged themselves in front of their tents.
Xingyue asked me how to respond. I asked her in return, “You’re their commander. They were your soldiers. What do you think you should do?”
She gritted her teeth and left without a word.
News came the next day. Exercising her authority as commander, Xingyue had stormed into the crown prince’s camp and seized the two beasts responsible.
His troops naturally tried to resist, but the women Xingyue had brought held them firmly back.
They knew their comrades were in the wrong. Their resistance lacked conviction.
Xingyue’s soldiers were avenging their sisters. They would cut down anyone who stood in their way.
And so Xingyue killed both beasts on the spot. Blood spattered three feet high.
She turned her horse, carrying the two wretches’ severed heads, and addressed the young women whose faces still bore traces of childhood.
“Listen to me. When you are abused, you are not the ones made filthy. They are!
“Whatever humiliation you suffer, you must not kill yourselves. Take revenge! Stay alive, and everything is still possible!
“Today, here, we have avenged our sisters. But this is not enough!
“Tomorrow, we will claim still greater power, to bring peace to our sisters’ souls!”
The Daughters’ Army gripped their weapons and struck the earth three times.
Their furious cries thundered between earth and sky. “To bring peace to our sisters’ souls! To bring peace to our sisters’ souls! To bring peace to our sisters’ souls!”
At the boundary between the camps, the crown prince’s horses stirred uneasily.
For a long time, they dared not take another step forward.