Chapter 11 Left Behind
Just as everyone was drunk, a thin, sharp whistle rose. Truly an age of chaos—we had only held the city a few days before we were surrounded.
None of the men were in armor. At the sound of hooves in the streets, they all ran out together.
Zhang Ming shielded The General and vanished into the crowd before he even had a chance to say a word to me.
Sister Mudan pulled me and the women from the table down into the cellar. Outside was a racket that only died at midnight.
But we were found anyway. Soldiers speaking the official speech of the Central Plains looked us over with greedy eyes.
"Found a few more pretty ones."
All the patrols on the streets had changed. We asked around and learned that last night The General had simply fled with his men. He never meant to fight.
Every man left. Only we women remained.
Sister Mudan glanced at the city gate, scorn in her eyes.
"Do not grieve. It is only a change of masters up top."
Sister He comforted us. Her husband was a soldier too. When The General took the city, she and her daughter had been left inside.