Chapter 18:

Chapter 18

There are few rules among the banners of the Empress that I know of. Oh I don't doubt that there's plenty of regulations as to how one must act when on and off duty, but that's a different thing.

Laws apply equally to everyone, regulations say what one must do as dictated by a book where they are written, but rules are different. Rules are made and enforced by us, those that are subjected to them and father told me of them as there aren't many of them.

The first rule is no in-fighting when there's a threat. Different banners handle things between themselves when there's nobody else to see it.

The second is that the banners handle their own internal issues and do their best to not let anyone see it, and you do not involve yourself in it if it's not your business.

The third is that if anyone breaks any of the previous two or brings trouble on your head, you make sure they can't do it again, and if you leave a corpse behind for others to find then you better have a good excuse.

"Are you certain you want to try something cherry skirts? Didn't know it was that time of the month to get your cherries all twisted." I asked into the darkness.

I could see them vaguely. There were four of them close to our locations but they were at the tree line now and while there were five of us, not all of us had our spears in reach nor did we have experience fighting by each other's side. There was also the fact that all of the groups I remember them forming had five or more members in them which made me expect that one of them was hiding somewhere else.

I've talked with Ya Xue these last few days on how their Banner does things and, while she tried to not badmouth her Bannermen, enough slipped for me to form a picture of what's going on. From what little I've been able to put together I quite frankly wouldn't trust the bannermen of the cherry tree anywhere near where I slept.

They were little more than thugs that knew to march in formation and I needed them beaten and handled because I didn't trust them near me. They were clannish, factional, and could barely work together if not put in squads with only their clan in them.

Ya Xue gets a pass because Bao likes her and she can follow my orders but the others don't.

"I do whatever I want lemon teeth. I heard you have a map give it to me and I'll let you leave with whatever supplies you can carry in your hands." The unnamed man replied mockingly.

"Come and try it shitstain." Da Xiu replied gruffly.

A funny idea came to me, time to see if my new brother is smart enough to play along.

"Da Xiu, use proper language." I admonished gently.

I could feel his incredulous look to my side, but I ignored it.

"Ah, it seems one of you knows that you can't do much lemon teeth!" The leader of the four idiots exclaimed.

His underlings snickered at that but did not move closer.

"I am sorry friend, but what my inarticulate friend meant was: 'Come and take it fuckface, I'll put my boot so far up you ass you'll be kissing my balls if you dare try touch what's mine.' I should not be translating what you meant Da Xiu, you're a grown man and you must speak more eloquently." I explained reasonably.

Da Xiu whistled at my words and the women snickered.

"I am sorry brother of the banner, for your brother still struggles with such things." He replied with fake regret.

The man almost sounded apologetic too, which sold the line perfectly.

The cherry boys certainly did appreciate my brother's honesty and my efforts to help him improve his vocabulary if the scowl on their leader's face was anything to go by.

"You'll pay for the insult lemon." The idiot declared and charged spear in hand.

His bannermen joined him shortly after and I noticed something interesting. There were only four of them, but I didn't have time to think about what that meant, there were idiots that needed a beating.

The leader was as is appropriate first and at least they got that right, even if the idiots could barely use a spear right. The idiot wasn't holding it right, he held his hand too close to the tip and somehow failed to realize that a spear is meant to keep people away and for that you need as much reach as you can get.

"Da, cover my back, girls get a weapon and join back, we'll keep them busy." I shouted and jumped forward with spear in hand.

I did not look behind, I needed to look in the front and trust my squad to do as I asked.

My spear met the cherry leader's and proceeded to push it to the side as I used my momentum to bring him down with my bulk.

I immediately started spinning to get some space from them and keep them away for enough time for the others to join me.

The three standing cherry boys gave me some space now that they saw their leader kissing the ground

"Leave some for me brother!" The big lug of a man shouted as he joined me.

He went for the downed leader and put a spear right where he was supposed to be, but the bastard rolled on the ground and avoided it.

"Da Xiu, come near me, leave the idiot for the girls." I shouted and proceeded to stab with my spear in the front to create some distance.

The three in front of me have never been in a real fight, just stab a spear in their general direction and they jump back.

The one to the left tried to break from my spear barrage and move back and I let him, the last thing I needed was for them to remember they outnumbered me.

The other two didn't, not before my spear grazed the neck of one of them and he fell to the ground as his neck was bleeding.

"Sai!!!" He shouted when he saw it and his brown eyes started burning with hate.

He stopped trying to evade my strikes and instead tried to charge me.

I tried to make distance but the third man took that opportunity to try and stab me and I barely turned a stab to the face to merely a cut on my left cheek.

"You killed my brother you bastard!" The other man shouted and jumped on me, his spear forgotten.

He brought both of us to the ground with that tackled and started trying to rip my face off and I did my best to disentangle from him by rolling to the side but he would not relent.

"Tai!" A female voice shouted

I did not recognize it but I decided that this is my chance and let the man put himself above me.

"Die!" He shouted as he tried to strangle me.

His attempts were cut short and he fell down on me shortly after.

He was thankfully light and I pulled him off of me before he filled my clothes with blood.

"Tai?" Bao asked worriedly.

"Help me up Bao, where are the others?" I asked tiredly.

Bao did as I asked and shortly after I was on my feet.

Considering that she wasn't shouting that must have meant the enemy was dealt with.

"Here." Yu Zong shouted.

I couldn't see her face well in the darkness but it looked bloody and the woman was smiling.

"Here." Da Xiu answered cheerfully.

"Here." Ya Xue said promptly.

A breathed a sigh of relief, everyone was alive. There was little time for celebrations however. I had to assess the situation. Only me and one other were wounded.

"Ya Xue, you come with me to the stump, we're the only ones who are wounded, Yu Zong we'll be in your care. Da Xiu and Bai please handle the bodies if you're not wounded, just put them out of sight of the camp." I ordered.

The others did as I asked without complaint and I went to the stump to wait for Yu Zong to come patch me and Ya Xue up.

"Why did they do that?" I asked the woman who should have called the ones we killed kin.

The woman looked conflicted for some reason. I don't understand why, because it was a simple question.

"Why did they do that?" Tai Su asked.

I… I did not know how to answer that.

"I do not hold you responsible for it, nor will I ask you to leave, you're part of the squad now, but I want to know what caused these four idiots to throw their lives away." He continued after he saw that I froze.

"I don't know." I answered.

I could feel myself start shivering and I am unsure if it's because of the cold or because of the man in front of me.

Big sister Yu came and started putting some strange foul smelling substance on a clean piece of cloth.

"Guess, because if they came and asked us for some food and were polite I would have helped if they proceeded to leave and not stay near us, but they immediately turned hostile." He ordered.

The other woman started cleaning his cheek wound and I could see how the sizzling alchemical product was closing the wound as it cleaned it.

"I think they lost their supplies and fell back on old habits." I opined.

"Old habits that cause them to try and rob the first people they see?" Big sister asked as she started applying the same concoction on my bleeding arm.

The bastard Ma got a lucky scratch on me before I put a spear in his stomach.

I nodded at that as I did not trust myself to elaborate on it. How do you explain to your new squad that you own banner resort to banditry and extortion the moment supplies seem to be lower than the papers say they should be?

"Will the other cherry tree squads be as hostile when we see them?" Tai Su asked.

I started wincing as the burn started to hit and did my best to not start scratching at the wound as it would make things worse.

"They won't be friendly, but I was caught off-guard by Ma and his hostility myself." I answered.

"You knew him." He observed.

"Yes, he was to marry my cousin, before he cheated on her and got another woman pregnant before her that is. Our clans have not been friendly since the marriage was annulled, but it never turned this violent." I said meekly.

"So you are telling me, that these idiots were perfectly willing to not only kill their fellow bannermem for some supplies, but they were probably willing to kill their own over it? I understand that you do things differently among the cherry trees, but this is not normal, please tell that this is not normal among you." He said calmly as his eyes bore straight into mine

Somehow the calm was scarier than if he were angry because there was no anger or confusion in his gaze, his eyes were empty of all such things including all other human emotions.

"We don't kill each other over that." I replied meekly.

"Then what do you kill each other over? Because you are most certainly not reacting well to killing someone you knew and I need to know what I am dealing with if I am meeting any other cherry tree bannerman." He demanded.

I froze. I did not think my own clan would appreciate if the true extent of what was going on among the bannermen spread but I also knew quite simply that my life was in the hands of the man in front me.

He took my silence as an answer and nodded to himself.

"You will go check if your shoe size matches that of the Bao or Yu, you are not wearing those boots anymore if you want to stay with us, because I am not trusting any cherry tree bannerman enough to sleep near them anymore, am I understood?" He asked.

"I will." I promised and proceeded to remove the things from my feet.

I did not need the back from the Cherry Tree Banner if the only thing that it'll get me is a spear to the face or the back.

Once I threw the boots off my feet I looked over at the four people who fought and for whom I bled as I killed those I considered kin.

At least here I won't need to worry about the latter.