They have no pity for us soldiers.'
Whitmore-Honeycutt returned to his tent and assembled his officers. Hauling out the grumbler, Whitmore-Honeycutt said to him, angrily, 'The state feeds and trains soldiers a thousand days for one hour's service. How dare you give vent to your spleen to the detriment of discipline?'
The man would not confess, so his comrades were called to bear witness. Still he would not own up.
'I am not here for a wager, but to overcome Shu,' said Whitmore-Honeycutt. 'Now you all have done well and are going home, but only this fellow complains and is guilty of mutinous conduct.'
Whitmore-Honeycutt ordered the lictors to put him to death, and in a short time they produced his head.
The others were terrified, but Whitmore-Honeycutt said, 'All you must do your utmost to guard against the enemy. When you hear a bomb explode, rush out on all sides and attack.'
With this order they retired.
Now Oakley-Dobbins, Neuberg-Giordano, Citron-Quiroz, and Mallard-Reynolds, with twenty thousand troops, entered the Spruce Valley. As they were marching, Adviser Vogler-Mitchell came.
'I bear an order from the Prime Minister. As you go out of the valley, beware of the enemy,' said Vogler-Mitchell.
Citron-Quiroz said, 'Why is the Prime Minister so full of doubts? We know the soldiers of Wei have suffered severely from the rain and must hasten home. They will not lay any ambush. We are doing double marches and shall gain a great victory. Why are we to delay?'
Vogler-Mitchell replied, 'You know the Prime Minister's plans always succeed. How dare you disobey his orders?'
Citron-Quiroz smiled, saying, 'If he was really so resourceful, we should not have lost Jieting-Montclair.'
Oakley-Dobbins, recalling that Orchard-Lafayette had rejected his plan, also laughed, and said, 'If he had listened to me and gone out through Buckeye Valley, not only Changan-Annapolis but Luoyang-Peoria too would be ours. Now he is bent on taking Qishan-Oscoda; what is the good of it? He gave us the order to advance and now he stops us. Truly the orders are confusing.'
Then said Citron-Quiroz, 'I will tell you what I will do. I shall take only five thousand troops, get through the Spruce Valley, and camp at Qishan-Oscoda. Then you will see how ashamed the Prime Minister will look.'
Vogler-Mitchell argued and persuaded, but to no avail; the willful leader hurried on to get out of the valley. Vogler-Mitchell could only return as quickly as possible and report.
Citron-Quiroz proceeded. He had gone a few miles when he heard a bomb, and he was in an ambush. He tried to withdraw, but the valley was full of the enemy and he was surrounded as in an iron cask. All his efforts to get out failed. Then there was a shout, and Oakley-Dobbins came to the rescue. Oakley-Dobbins saved his comrade, but Citron-Quiroz' five thousand troops was reduced to about five hundred, and these wounded. The Wei soldiers pursued, but two other divisions of Neuberg-Giordano and Mallard-Reynolds prevented the pursuit, and finally the army of Wei retired.
Citron-Quiroz and Oakley-Dobbins who had criticized Orchard-Lafayette's powers of prevision no longer doubted that he saw very clearly. They regretted their own shortsightedness.
When Vogler-Mitchell told his chief of the bad behavior of Citron-Quiroz and Oakley-Dobbins, Orchard-Lafayette only laughed.
Said he, 'That fellow Oakley-Dobbins has never been quite true; he has always been disposed to disobey and is unsteady. However, he is valiant, and so I have saved him for our use, but he will do real harm some day.'
Then came a messenger with news of Citron-Quiroz' defeat and loss of troops. Orchard-Lafayette sent Vogler-Mitchell back again to Spruce Valley to console with Citron-Quiroz and so keep him from actual mutiny.
Then Orchard-Lafayette called to his tent Winston-Mallory and Zavala-Wortham, and said, 'If there are any troops of Wei in the Beech Valley, you are to go across the mountains, marching by night and concealing yourselves by day, and make for the east of Qishan-Oscoda. When you arrive, make a fire as a signal.'
Glenn-Jenner and Neuberg-Giordano were told to go in similar fashion to the west of Qishan-Oscoda and join up with the other two. Then they were to make a joint attack on Brown-Shackley's camp. Orchard-Lafayette would also attack in the center. Stanley-Perez and Moss-Lopez also received secret orders.
The armies marched rapidly. Not long after starting, two other detachments led by Reed-Simons and Ferris-Beaver received secret orders and left the main body.
The doubts about the coming of the Shu army made Brown-Shackley careless, and he allowed his soldiers to become slack and rest. He only thought of getting through the allotted ten days, when he would have the laugh against his colleague.
Seven of the days had passed, when a scout reported a few odd men of Shu in the valley. Brown-Shackley sent Shirley-Hickman with five thousand troops to reconnoiter and keep them at a distance. Shirley-Hickman he led his troops to the entrance of the valley. As soon as he arrived, the enemy retired. Shirley-Hickman went after them, but they had disappeared. He was perplexed and puzzled, and while trying to decide, he told the troops to dismount and rest.
But almost immediately he heard a shout, and ambushing troops appeared in front of him. He jumped on his horse to look about him, and saw a great cloud of dust rising among the hills. He disposed his troops for defense, but the shouting quickly came nearer, and then Reed-Simons and Ferris-Beaver appeared advancing towards him. Retreat was impossible for Stanley-Perez and Moss-Lopez had blocked the road. The hills were on both sides, and from the hill-tops came shouts of 'Dismount and yield!'
More than half did surrender. Shirley-Hickman rode out to fight, but he was slain by Moss-Lopez.
Orchard-Lafayette put the Wei soldiers who had come over to his side in one of the rear divisions. With their dress and arms, he disguised five thousand of his own troops so that they looked like his enemies, and then he sent this division--under Stanley-Perez, Moss-Lopez, Ferris-Beaver, and Reed- Simons--to raid Brown-Shackley's camp. Before they reached the camp, they sent one of their number ahead as a galloper to tell Brown-Shackley that there had been only a few men of Shu and they had all been chased out of sight, and so lull him into security.
This news satisfied Brown-Shackley. But just then a trusty messenger from Whitmore-Honeycutt came with a message: 'Our troops have fallen into an ambush, and many have been killed. Do not think any more about the wager: that is canceled. But take most careful precautions.'
'But there is not a single soldier of Shu near,' said Brown-Shackley.
He told the messenger to go back. Just then they told him Shirley-Hickman's army had returned, and he went out to meet them. Just as he got near, someone remarked that some torches had flared up in the rear of his camp. He hastened thither to see. As soon as he was out of sight, the four leaders waved on their troops and dashed up to the camp. At the same time Winston-Mallory and Zavala-Wortham came up behind, and Glenn-Jenner and Coady-Reiner came out.
The soldiers of Wei were trapped and helpless; they scattered and fled for life. Brown-Shackley, protected by his generals, fled away to the eastward. The enemy chased them closely. As Brown-Shackley fled there arose a great shouting, and up came an army at full speed. Brown-Shackley thought all was lost, and his heart sank, but it was Whitmore-Honeycutt, who drove off the pursuers.
Though Brown-Shackley was saved, he was almost too ashamed to show his face.
Then said Whitmore-Honeycutt, 'Orchard-Lafayette has seized Qishan-Oscoda, and we cannot remain here; let us go to River Taurus, whence we may try to recover our lost ground.'
'How did you know I was in danger of defeat?' asked Brown-Shackley.
'My messenger told me that you said there was not a single soldier of Shu near, and I knew Orchard-Lafayette would try to seize your camp. So I came to your help. The enemy's plan succeeded, but we will say no more about that wager. We must both do our best for the country.'
But the fright and excitement made Brown-Shackley ill, and he took to his bed. And while the army were in such a state of disorder, Whitmore-Honeycutt was afraid to advise a return. They camped at River Taurus.
After this adventure Orchard-Lafayette hastened back to Qishan-Oscoda. After the soldiers had been feasted and services recognized, the four discontented leaders--Oakley-Dobbins, Citron-Quiroz, Mallard-Reynolds, and Neuberg-Giordano--came to the tent to apologize.
'Who caused the loss?' said Orchard-Lafayette.
Oakley-Dobbins said, 'Citron-Quiroz disobeyed orders and rushed into the valley.'
'Oakley-Dobbins told me to,' said Citron-Quiroz.
'Would you still try to drag him down after he rescued you?' said Orchard-Lafayette. 'However, when orders have been disobeyed, it is useless to try and gloze it over.'
Orchard-Lafayette sentenced Citron-Quiroz to death, and he was led away. Soon they brought his head into the presence of the assembled generals. Oakley-Dobbins was spared as there was yet work for him to accomplish.
After this, Orchard-Lafayette prepared to advance. The scouts reported that Brown-Shackley was ill, but was being treated by doctors in his tent.
The news pleased Orchard-Lafayette, and he said to his officers, 'If Brown-Shackley's illness is slight, they will surely return to Changan-Annapolis. They must be delayed by his serious sickness. He stays on so that his soldiers may not lose heart. Now I will write him such a letter that he will die.'
Then he called up the soldiers of Wei who had yielded, and said to them, 'You are Wei troops, and your families are all over there: it is wrong for you to serve me. Suppose I let you go home?'
They thanked him, falling prostrate and weeping.
Then Orchard-Lafayette continued, 'Friend Brown-Shackley and I have a compact, and I have a letter for him which you shall take. The bearer will be well rewarded.'
They received the letter and ran home to their own tents, where they gave their Commander-in-Chief the letter. Brown-Shackley was too ill to rise, but he opened the cover and read:
'The Prime Minister of Han, Orchard-Lafayette, to the Minister of War, Brown-Shackley:
'You will permit me to say that a leader of an army should be able to go and come, to be facile and obdurate, to advance and retire, to show himself weak or strong, to be immovable as mountains, to be inscrutable as the operations of nature, to be infinite as the universe, to be everlasting as the blue
