Eastern Han Dynasty, not the Three Kingdoms

The bonfire cast distorted shadows on the rock wall. Lonely Tu thrust his bloodied fingers into the corpse's mouth, plucked out a half-fleshed earlobe, and chewed it with a teeth-aching crunch. The Han women, chained together in a circle, huddled together. Moonlight illuminated the bruises on their necks and the dried blood between their legs, while Di warriors, holding burning sheep-fat torches, branded totems into their trembling skin.

"Great Chief! A blood moon is in the sky, a sign of genocide!" The black-robed high priest suddenly pounced on the pile of corpses, his withered fingers gripping Gu Tu's combat boots tightly, dark red blood seeping from the cracks in his bronze mask. "Last night, I watched from the observatory as the light of Rigel was swallowed by the blood mist, and Sirius, with its three-meter-long tail, streaked across Longxi! The gods said—" He suddenly convulsed violently, an inhuman scream emanating from his throat, "When the tears of Han women merge into a black river, and when the skulls of children are piled into an altar, our tribe will be chopped to pieces by the upside-down scimitar!"

Gu Tu kicked the high priest's mask, shattering it, revealing a tattooed half of his face beneath—his left eye had been gouged out, and black beetles were crawling in the empty eye socket. "Exterminate their clan?" He lifted the trembling girl beside him, lifting her tender chin with his blade. "Look at these spoils! Their men died for Ma Chao in Chang'an, and their children will become our slaves!" The blade suddenly sliced ​​into the girl's throat, spraying a stream of warm blood onto the high priest's face. "Tell your gods that the Di people's scimitar is the only prophecy!"

The shrill cries were drowned out by roars of laughter as another woman was pressed against the scorching stone slabs. The high priest gazed at the crimson clouds that filled the sky, trembling as he pulled a tortoise shell from his bosom. The newly carved cracks on it were as ferocious as claws, splitting the word "death" into four sections. The distant cry of a night owl echoed, and he suddenly let out a maniacal laugh, digging his blood-stained nails into his palms. "The blood moon appears, jackals and wolves devour, and the Xiliang cavalry crushes bones! Just wait... Just wait!"

On the Longxi official road, blanketed in yellow sand, the banners of a hundred thousand cavalrymen loomed like a dark cloud. Ma Chao's dark cloak fluttered in the wind, his golden tiger-head spear catching the setting sun's rays. Dust obscured the sun wherever he passed. Dong Huang, Xu Huang, and Xu Shu's men were already waiting outside the city gates. Their throats tightened as they gazed at the familiar figure—the murderous aura surrounding Ma Chao was even stronger than when he set out on the expedition.

When Ma Chao's black battle flag pierced the yellow sands of Longxi, the cracked earth seemed to come alive. News spread faster than the cavalry, and ragged villagers, carrying the elderly and children, flocked to the roadside, their murky eyes alight with hope. A white-haired old woman trembled as she unbuttoned her clothes, pulling out a shriveled bread she had hidden for half a month. A childish child removed the amulet from her neck and, standing on tiptoe, tried to place it into the cavalryman's palm.

"The mighty General has arrived! We're saved!" an old man leaned on a broken staff, murky tears rolling down his wrinkles. "My three grandsons finally don't have to starve in the cellar anymore!" Cheers erupted from the crowd, mingled with long-suppressed sobs. Several young girls, who had been abducted by the Di people and had narrowly escaped, knelt on the scorching sand and kowtowed repeatedly. The blood oozing from their foreheads stained the "Horse" military flag red.

Ma Chao reined in his neighing warhorse. When the people saw his resolute face, cheers surged like waves. A woman holding a baby suddenly rushed forward, lifting the child high above her head: "General! This child was born in troubled times and has never heard of peace... Please protect Longxi!" Ma Chao reached out and gently touched the child's delicate face. The warhorse pawed its hooves restlessly, as if sensing the turmoil surging within its owner.

"Your humble servants and I pay our respects to the mighty General!" Amidst the orderly reverberations, Ma Chao dismounted, his black iron boots stomping through the gravel on the ground. His gaze swept across the blood-stained armor and weary faces of the men, finally settling on the distant smoke rising into the sky, where new flames were rising.

"He said." Ma Chao's angular face was covered with frost. "How far have the Di people invaded our territory these days?"

Xu Huang knelt on one knee, his iron spear clattering into the ground. "General, since you left, Gu Tu has led his troops on a rampage, slaughtering thirteen villages. They attack before dawn, using small groups of a hundred men to disperse. By the time our army arrived..." His voice trailed off, "There were only corpses left on the ground."

"Even the iron pots that the people needed to survive were taken away!" Dong Huang pounded his fists against the city wall, sending up tiny pieces of stone. "Those women and children... were raped and then had their throats slit. Even babies in swaddling clothes..." He couldn't continue, his knuckles turning white from the force.

Ma Chao's pupils suddenly constricted, and the sword at his waist rang out. Seeing this, Xu Shu stepped forward and unfolded a heavily marked sheepskin map: "The enemy is adept at guerrilla warfare and has poisoned water sources to disrupt our pursuit. However, based on recent movements, I suspect their next target may be..."

"Is this the Longxi you're guarding?" Ma Chao ripped open his cloak, revealing his bloodstained silver armor. The hem of his battle robe was still stained with the crumbs of wild fruit that the people of Tianshui City had stuffed into his hands. He raised his hand and pointed to the still smoking village in the distance. Among the charred beams, the bodies of several children swayed in the wind. "More than a dozen days have passed, and the Di people's atrocities of burning, killing, and looting have become increasingly severe, and yet you let me see the wreckage everywhere!"

Xu Huang knelt on one knee, slamming his iron spear into the ground. "I am guilty! These thieves are cunning and specialize in raiding villages before dawn, waiting for us..." Before he could finish his words, Ma Chao's golden tiger-head spear had already brushed past his ear and pierced the ground, sending up gravel that scratched his cheek.

"Sly?" Ma Chao sneered, bent down and grabbed a handful of sand mixed with human blood, letting the dark red mud drip from his fingers. "Back then, I could cross the Qiang territory with only 3,000 cavalrymen. Now you have 20,000 elite soldiers, but you can't even catch the jackal's tail! Those civilians who were disemboweled, those women who were raped to death," his voice suddenly rose, startling the war horses in front of the battle. "Before they died, did they hear the war drums of the Xiliang cavalry?"

Dong Huang's face turned pale, and he trembled as he unsheathed his sword: "I have failed in my duty, and I am willing to accept the punishment! But after each raid, the Di people would split into small groups of a hundred and disappear into the Gobi Desert. Our army..."

"Enough!" Ma Chao suddenly drew his sword, pointing it toward the sky. Under the blood-red setting sun, a hundred thousand cavalrymen simultaneously raised their weapons, the sound of metal clashing like thunder. "From today on, if you let the Di people injure even one more civilian," he said, his cold gaze sweeping over Xu Huang and Dong Huang, "your heads will be hung on the city wall of Longxi as an apology to the dead souls!"

In the meeting room, candlelight flickered as Ma Chao slammed his fist down on the tiger-skin desk, rattling the scattered military manuals and strategies. "Thirteen villages reduced to ash, the bodies of women, children, the elderly, and the infirm strewn across the ground! Is this the battle report you handed in?" Xu Huang and Dong Huang prostrated themselves, their foreheads practically rubbing against the cracks in the brickwork. The air was filled with a suffocating oppression.

Jia Xu slowly stepped forward, waving a black feather fan. His wide sleeves, embroidered with gold thread, swept the tea stains splattered on the desk. "Your Majesty, please calm down for now." His eyes swept across the tense faces of the generals in the hall, and his voice was like a knife dipped in honey. "It's not that you two generals are incompetent. The Di people are using the 'wolf-roaming tactics'—breaking up into small groups and hiding in the Gobi Desert, avoiding cities and slaughtering villages. When our army comes to pursue them, they retreat into the sea of ​​sand, making it difficult to track them."

"That being said!" Ma Chao suddenly stood up, and the sound of armor clashing startled the candlelight and shook violently. He yanked open the curtains, and the light from the people outside the city holding torches to welcome the army made his eyes red. "Look at those people, they regard us as their lifesavers! If I can't put down the banditry, how can I, Ma Chao, have the face to stand in Xiliang?"

Jia Xu stroked his beard and chuckled, his feather fan drawing an arc on the map. "A hundred thousand troops are approaching. This is the perfect opportunity to lay a tight net." He pointed at the passes throughout Longxi County. "Deploy teams of five hundred men each, spread out like a fan, and clear the Gobi Desert inch by inch. Wait until the enemy gathers like frightened birds, and then tighten the net layer by layer..."

"Drive them out of Longxi?" Ma Chao sneered suddenly, and the sword at his waist was unsheathed three inches with a "swish". The cold light made Jia Xu's pupils shrink slightly. "Sir, you are known as a 'poisonous scholar'. Such methods are too merciful." He slashed the blade of his sword heavily on the area occupied by the Di people on the map, and the parchment scroll tore with a sound. "What I want is to destroy their clan and their race, and wipe their names from the map completely!"

The generals in the tent were horrified; even Jia Xu raised an eyebrow. A night wind, carrying yellow sand, rushed into the tent, crushing the unfinished words into dust. Only Ma Chao's cold voice echoed from the beams: "Pass the order. All Di people encountered, regardless of age, gender, or condition... must be killed without mercy!"

At first light, before the horns of the hundred thousand-man army had even sounded, a sudden, surging call echoed from outside the camp. Ma Chao opened the tent curtains to see a dense, black mass of people surrounding the main gate. A white-haired old man leaned on a jujube-wood staff, clutching a patched bag of dry food; a young woman carried a crying baby on her back, holding aloft a faded military flag; and a young man, his face covered in blood, held aloft a broken sword he had recaptured from the Di people.

"General Shenwei! Save Longxi!" The old man in the lead suddenly knelt down, his turbid tears falling on the dry ground. "My three grandsons died at the hands of those beasts. Now there are only seventeen people left in the village... Please help us!" The cries that rose one after another instantly shattered the silence of the early morning. Several girls who had been abducted stumbled to the front of the horses, the whip marks on their necks still oozing pus and blood.

Ma Chao's throat raced, and he dug his black iron wrist guard deep into his palm. The fury from last night's deployment now boiled like a scorching torrent, his eyes so raw he could barely open them. He abruptly dismounted, the clang of armor startling the circling jackdaws. His long boots stomped through the dust as he walked directly to a woman cradling a swaddled child.

"Sister-in-law!" Ma Chao knelt on one knee, his voice hoarse and uncharacteristically his own, "Is this child... okay?" The woman suddenly broke down in tears and stuffed the child into his arms: "General! This is the only bloodline of the entire village!" The warm little hand unconsciously grasped Ma Chao's cloak. At this moment, he seemed to hear the sobs of millions of dead souls.

"I swear here!" Ma Chao suddenly stood up and gently handed the child back, pointing his tiger-headed golden spear to the sky. 100,000 soldiers simultaneously raised their arms and shouted, the sound shaking the military flags: "The Di people burned, killed, and looted, their crimes are too numerous to list! Unless they are completely wiped out, I, Ma Chao, will not leave Longxi even a step! If I break this oath—" He suddenly drew his sword and cut a deep wound on his palm, blood dripping onto the loess, "I am willing to be cut into pieces and my soul will be shattered!"

A thunderous roar erupted from the crowd, and the people untied the dry food from their waists and threw it into the barracks. Ma Chao looked at this tearful trust, and the flames of revenge ignited in his eyes. He turned to the generals behind him and said solemnly: "Pass the order, send troops immediately! From today on, every grain of sand in Longxi will be stained with the blood of our enemies!"