The Sorceress' Revolt -
Ko Eiji's Story
Author: Toriumi Jinzō
Translator: Ainikki the Archivist
Part Six: The Jurchens
It was a regular day of worship for Ko Eiji’s followers in Beizhou. After the believers had left the temple inside Beizhou Castle, Ko Eiji went to meditate in the inner hall. She was trying to concentrate her mind so that she could make more progress in her sorcerous techniques. She’d become quite proficient at using illusions and manipulating the minds of her enemies, but she’d made little progress lately. She spent a few minutes meditating before she realized she was praying.
She prayed for Ou Soku to be safe. He’d been away from Beizhou for weeks. News of his return caused an uproar on the city streets. Ko Eiji heard the news from people passing by the inner hall and went to go see Sei Koko.
Ou Soku found her before she found Sei Koko. He was traveling by carriage and offered to escort her, since they were going in the same direction. Ko Eiji agreed.
Ou Soku offered his arm to Ko Eiji as she descended from the carriage.
Sei Koko observed this and tsked. “You are to become a noble lady. Do not forget your modesty.”
“I won’t,” Ko Eiji answered. She knew about Ko Biji’s and Tanshi’s history and had figured out that Sei Koko had played a significant role in tearing them apart. Sei Koko had done this so that Ko Biji would be reincarnated. It made sense to Ko Eiji that Sei Koko would oppose even the hint of a relationship between her and Ou Soku.
Ko Eiji wondered about Ko Biji’s motives—and her bravery. Ko Eiji knew how powerful Sei Koko was. Ko Biji must have known, too, and she’d defied Sei Koko anyway.
Where did such bravery come from? Was it something she, too, possessed?
Ou Soku’s words kept rolling around in her mind.
“Ko Biji didn’t think she would be reincarnated. All she wanted was to get to Yunmeng Mountain and live in peace with Tanshi.”
Ko Eiji believed in reincarnation. Ko Biji had not. Were they really the same person if they didn’t think the same way? She wasn’t sure. She was happy about her reincarnation. She would get to live most of her life as an empress—who wouldn’t want that?
“Tanshi loves Ko Biji. He never forgot her. He believed that you were her reincarnation and wanted to see you, even if it meant risking his life.”
Ko Eiji wanted to be an empress. She did. But she also envied Ko Biji’s simpler happiness. She was loved so much even decades after her death.
How could Ko Biji be so different from her—and want such different things—if Ko Eiji was truly her reincarnation?
“You look sad. Is that acting, or did you intend to lure Tanshi to you and get him killed?”
That question had hit Ko Eiji like a slap. Ko Biji’s reincarnation shouldn’t cause harm to Tanshi. That was wrong. Wrong on a fundamental level.
I tarnished Tanshi’s memory of her, Ko Eiji thought to herself.
Reincarnation was a double-edged sword. She considered herself fortunate because she would become the second coming of Empress Wu Zetian, but another reincarnated woman might be reborn into a life of desperate poverty.
Ou Soku had made it impossible for her to view reincarnation as uniformly positive. He’d shattered her dream of a perfect future by questioning the role of fate and destiny.
After all, would it be so bad to be simply Ko Eiji—just herself?
Ko Eiji thought about this very seriously.
It was true that Sei Koko believed that Ko Eiji was Ko Biji’s reincarnation. Ko Eiji had always believed her at face value. She resembled Ko Biji closely; both Tanshi and Sei Koko had recognized her as someone they knew. Their personalities, voices and free-spiritedness were similar.
But Ko Eiji was not Ko Biji. Ko Biji had grown up with her own will and her own ideas, and Ko Eiji had not. Practically since birth, Ko Eiji had been told that she was a child of Xuanwu, God of the North Star. She’d believed in that very strongly all her life, and so had her family. Even after falling into the depths of despair, she had called on Xuanwu and was saved.
Ko Biji was different. She fell in love with Tanshi even against Sei Koko’s wishes. She resisted her mother’s will… and that resistance had led to her death.
Having thought it through, Ko Eiji considered her lack of a strong and independent will was a significant difference from Ko Biji. That meant they couldn’t possibly be the same person. Ou Soku might be right, and she might not be Ko Biji’s reincarnation at all.
But if she rejected the idea that she was reincarnated, what would Sei Koko do?
Ko Eiji was heartbroken. Sei Koko had served as her mother and benefactor all these long months. Will some terrible retribution befall me? Will I die like Tanshi did… like Ko Biji did?
***
Ou Soku’s forces returned to Beizhou in the early autumn. They received a warm welcome from the city. Ou Soku was considered a hero. He went to Beizhou Castle to meet with Sei Koko immediately after his return.
“Well, I’m back,” Ou Soku said, bowing slightly to Sei Koko.
“I’m glad you returned safely. I hear you’ve done well.”
Ko Eiji had been with Sei Koko when Ou Soku returned and had remained to greet Ou Soku herself. Ou Soku bowed to her as well.
“I was also glad to hear you’d returned safely,” Ko Eiji said.
Ou Soku replied with a smile. He’d fought in many battles and learned much during his campaign. He stood up straighter and spoke more formally. It was like he’d been reborn as a soldier. Ko Eiji had never seen him carry himself with such strict self-control.
His eyes when he smiled were still kind. Still recognizable. Fighting a war had changed him, but he was still the same person.
Sei Koko addressed Ou Soku formally, saying, “Strategist, as a reward for your great achievements, I would like to bestow a gift upon you.”
“A gift? I have only acted with the hope of improving the future of this country. I don’t expect a reward or anything.”
“This is for the sake of Beizhou, but it is also a challenge to the Imperial Court. From this day forward, you shall call yourself King of Eastern Hebei.”
“King of Eastern Hebei?”
“You have conquered it, have you not? And you will pacify the rest of Hebei and other provinces. It is only fitting, and the title will incite the Imperial Court’s ire.”
“Very well. Thank you for the gift,” Ou Soku said. He bowed politely, but internally, he was laughing. The new title was at least as much a gift as a curse. It would put an even bigger target on his back. “Don’t think I’ll just hand all my conquered territory over to you if you ask for it, though. My goal is to defeat the treacherous minister Xia Song, reinstate the wise ministers who’ve been banished, and restore order to the Imperial Court.”
Sei Koko shrugged as if Ou Soku’s goals were completely unimportant to her. She smiled—she was in a good mood—and turned to Ko Eiji. “Tonight we will hold a grand feast to celebrate our new king,” she said. “We must make preparations.”
Ko Eiji nodded. “I will see to everything. Give me an hour.”
“Please allow the soldiers who returned with me to feast as well,” Ou Soku said. He wasn’t thinking about eating or celebrating, though. He had conquered only half a province. He had so much to do.
The rebellion of Chen Sheng and Wu Guang had started in Anhui Province and advanced through Henan Province to Shānxi Province. The rebellion had lasted for half a year. It had failed because both instigators were betrayed and murdered by their allies.
The failure of one rebellion did not mean that the next one would fail, but Ou Soku would be a fool if he refused to learn from the past. He wanted to succeed, and he wanted to live. His next objective was to reach Bianliang and wrest control of it from the foolish Emperor Renzong.
***
Jin Sen and Chō Ki came to visit Sei Koko. They were dissatisfied by the news of Ou Soku’s new title.
“Is it true that you appointed Ou Soku as King of Eastern Hebei?” Chō Ki asked.
“We’re sorcerers. We don’t want to be beholden to him,” Jin Sen added.
Sei Koko had expected this resistance and remained unruffled.
“We can take Hebei Province if that’s what you want,” Chō Ki said.
“And we’d never give him a throne or a title,” Jin Sen said. “This will only make him more arrogant and insufferable. He refuses to acknowledge our superior power.”
“You are fools,” Sei Koko said sternly. “Do you understand nothing? I have made him King of Eastern Hebei. That is all he is. He is not an emperor. We will soon have an empress who will rule the whole of China. We will show our gratitude for his support so far and allow him to live until he takes Bianliang for us.”
The two nodded.
“Very well,” Jin Sen said. “We understand. Right?”
“Right,” Chō Ki echoed.
The two men exchanged sheepish looks. It was only natural that the position of empress was higher than that of a mere king.
“Next year during the Obon Festival, Wu Zetian’s will shall manifest within Ko Eiji. Be patient until then.”
“I’m going to kill him one day,” Chō Ki said.
Sei Koko gave him an indulgent smile.
***
Ou Soku led five thousand troops into battle. It would be meaningless to just capture prefectures and provincial castles; he needed to cast a wider net. It was also important to foster a rebellious spirit against local government officials, since these officials worked for the Imperial Court. Distrust spread not only among the province's people but also among the soldiers. Ou Soku recruited more and more people to his side.
As if they had been waiting for Ou Soku to go into battle, the sorcerers began to commit lawless acts against the people of Beizhou.
Jin Sen and Chō Ki conscripted people to build them mansions and gardens. They didn’t even pay them for the work. When pay was requested, the sorcerers said, “You are only alive because we protect you. You will work in exchange.”
Fearing retribution, people had no choice but to give up their family businesses and work reluctantly for little to no pay.
Go Saburō went out looking for women every day. If they refused him, he would use a clumsy forbidden spell to deprive them of their will and rape them.
One young woman resisted. She was paralyzed and beaten to a pulp, leaving her half dead. When the parents saw Go Saburō, they rescued the girl and locked Go Saburō in a rice silo.
Boku Kichi was unable to have sex, but he forced soldiers to gamble and extorted money from them. Naturally, he kept learning sorcery and used it for exploitative ends.
As time passed and more and more sorcerers abused the people of Beizhou, some soldiers teamed up with the sorcerers to commit even worse crimes. To follow a sorcerer in Beizhou was to follow a trail of pure unadulterated fear.
The corruption of the sorcerers came from the top; their leaders had committed crimes first, so there was no reason for the other sorcerers not to imitate them.
When Ko Eiji’s followers complained about the sorcerers’ misconduct, Ko Eiji reported it all to Sei Koko.
Sei Koko never took reports of the sorcerers’ crimes seriously.
“Sorcerers are humans too, and they just want to build friendly relations with the locals. Don’t worry about it. Things will settle down soon,” Sei Koko said. “More importantly, the Imperial Army’s advance is imminent. We need to build a fortress in front of the outer castle. Petition the city’s residents and use them to improve our defenses.”
Nothing settled down. Everything got worse. Dozens of people were conscripted and marched to a fortress outside the city where they were made to build day and night. A conscripted worker filed a complaint with Beizhou’s government office and showed up the next morning drowned along the riverbank. No one filed any more complaints after that.
Sei Koko maintained her holy façade through it all. “We are here to protect Beizhou Castle. If the Imperial Army were to attack us now, we would all be killed! We must do all we can to ensure the city is secure. All these new construction projects are for the good of the city.”
The anger and resentment of the people of Beizhou reached a boiling point. Some people tried to escape and were beheaded by sorcerers when they were caught. The guards who let them escape from the castle gates were also found guilty and punished.
Young people formed secret organizations to fight back against the sorcerers, but they were quickly found out. Those who were unlucky enough to be caught were hanged in the public square as traitors.
The fear of the sorcerers spread from the isolated Beizhou Castle to the outside world. It was widely believed that Ou Soku was using the sorcerers to torment the city’s residents.
Rumors were terrifying things.
***
Ou Soku returned to Beizhou the following year and found it much changed. He’d heard rumors of the sorcerers and his own involvement with them during his long campaign. At first, he’d just dismissed them. “That’s just slander by the locals who are jealous of the sorcerers. It’s only natural that the people in the city would cooperate in the face of an attack by Imperial Army, right? Probably just some workers grumbling.”
But as Ou Soku learned and saw more, he understood that his fragile alliance with Sei Koko was in danger of breaking. He resolved to revolt with the soldiers of Hebei Province and continue with his goals on his own if need be.
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