89: The Three Letters
The three letters Heizi wrote at the *staff-officer's tent* on the dusk of the twenty-eighth day of the eighth moon of the tenth year were the three letters he had not, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past nine years and four months on the road, expected to be his own to write.
He wrote them slowly.
He wrote them by the small specific accumulating reading at the past two years' letter-writing teaching at Lao Wen's small wooden table, with the small specific careful even strokes of an apprentice's full sixth year. He laid them out on three small folded sheets of the small accumulating *staff-officer's* paper, by the small specific careful arrangement of the small accumulating *outgoing* of the next runner.
The first letter was to Liu Sanlang's accumulating wife at a small specific accumulating Hebei village.
It said, in perhaps a hundred and twenty characters:
*Da-niang. By the small specific reading at this dusk, I am Heizi-zhang, the small accumulating staff-officer of the small accumulating fifty at the southern command of the Wagang. Liu Sanlang of your accumulating household died at the noon of yesterday at the small accumulating engagement at the bend twenty li southwest of our camp. He was at the small accumulating front of the second wave of the small accumulating fifty's accumulating flank. He held the small accumulating thrust-and-set against a Sui veteran's accumulating saber-stroke. The Sui veteran's saber went past his accumulating quarter-circle by the small accumulating reading of his missing third finger's small accumulating accommodating grip. He took the saber at the small accumulating window of the heart. He died at the small accumulating instant. He did not, by the small accumulating reading, suffer. The small accumulating fifty held the bend. The small accumulating engagement was a small accumulating Wagang victory. I am sending, by the small accumulating runner, the small accumulating cash of his small accumulating staff-officer's pay for the past two months — six strings of cash. I am sending also the small accumulating bone awl from his small accumulating tool-bundle — the small accumulating awl he said at the small accumulating dusks at our small fire was the small accumulating only thing of his father's smithy he had with him. He had laid it at his small accumulating mat at the small specific accumulating shape of an accumulating reminder of his accumulating eleventh year. By the small accumulating reading, the awl is yours and your accumulating children's now. I am sorry for your loss. — Heizi-zhang.*
He folded the letter.
He laid the small accumulating six strings of cash and the small accumulating bone awl in a small accumulating folded packet of hempen cloth and laid it at the runner-tent for the small accumulating *outgoing*.
He wrote the second letter — to Cao Daniu's accumulating uncle at a small specific accumulating Henan village, who would, by the small specific accumulating reading at Cao Daniu's saying at certain dusks at the small fire, give it to Cao Daniu's two accumulating daughters. The letter said in perhaps a hundred and thirty characters something close to the small accumulating same shape, with the small accumulating different specific accumulating personal details: the small accumulating *eight strings of cash* of the past three months; the small accumulating *small wooden carving of a fox the boy had at his small accumulating mat* — Heizi had — by the small accumulating reading at the past three months — seen Cao Daniu's small accumulating wooden carving at his accumulating mat at certain dusks; the small accumulating saying of Cao Daniu about his accumulating two daughters; the small accumulating *the bend was held*.
He laid the letter and the small accumulating cash and the small accumulating wooden fox at the runner-tent.
He wrote the third letter — to Yan Wugou's accumulating mother at a small specific accumulating Henan village. The mother was — by the small accumulating saying of Yan Wugou at certain dusks at the small accumulating *fire of the past three months* — perhaps sixty-five, by herself at the small accumulating village, with no other accumulating children alive after the small accumulating thirteen-year-Wagang's accumulating taking. Yan Wugou had been — by his own saying — the small accumulating only one of his accumulating ten-man unit who had survived to the small accumulating *thirteenth* of the small accumulating company.
The letter said:
*Da-niang. By the small specific reading at this dusk, I am Heizi-zhang of the southern command. Yan Wugou of your household died at the noon of yesterday at the bend twenty li southwest of our camp. He was at the small accumulating front of the bend's accumulating reserve. He took a Sui veteran's accumulating spear at the small accumulating window of the throat. He died at the small accumulating instant. He did not, by the small accumulating reading, suffer. He had been at the small accumulating Wagang since Da-ye seven. He had buried twelve of his original accumulating ten-man unit. He was, by the small accumulating reading I am giving, the thirteenth. He had said to me at the small accumulating dusks of the past month — by the small accumulating asking I had laid for the small accumulating *one-mark-knowing* — that you were, by the small specific accumulating reading he had been at the past five years, his small accumulating *only reason* he had not, by some small accumulating accident of the rebellion's accumulating engagements, gone home. He had been waiting, by the small accumulating saying, for the small accumulating end of the accumulating failure of the Da-ye reign so that he could, by the small accumulating reading, come home. He will, by the small accumulating reading I am giving, not now come. I am sending, by the runner, ten strings of cash of his accumulating five months' pay. I am sending also the small accumulating wooden bowl he ate from at the bend, which he had carved himself from a piece of pine in his accumulating tenth year of service and which had, by the small accumulating saying, his small accumulating mother's name carved at the bottom in the small accumulating southern Henan accumulating village's small specific accumulating dialect-character. The bowl is yours. I am sorry for your loss. — Heizi-zhang.*
He folded the letter.
He laid it at the runner-tent with the small accumulating cash and the small accumulating wooden bowl.
He sat back at the *staff-officer's tent* small banked fire.
He looked at the brothers.
He said in the small low voice: *brothers. The three letters are at the runner-tent. The small accumulating cash and the small accumulating personal items will go at the runner's accumulating outgoing tomorrow.*
The brothers nodded.
Wang Er — the wound at the right shoulder under Ah Chou's accumulating fresh bandage — said in the small low voice: *brother. By the small specific accumulating reading at the past dusk's letters — the small accumulating *one-mark-knowing* the lad has been doing for three months has, by the small accumulating reading at this dusk, become the small accumulating reason the small accumulating three letters could be written.*
He paused.
"By the small accumulating reading I am giving — the small specific accumulating *one-mark-knowing* is, at this dusk, no longer a small accumulating *new shape* of the rebellion. It is the small accumulating *reason* the small accumulating three families at the small accumulating Hebei and Henan villages will, by the small accumulating reading at the next ten years, know how their small accumulating sons died."
He paused once more.
"Brother. Keep doing it."
Heizi nodded.
He filed it.
That night Heizi at his watch sat at the small banked fire of the *staff-officer's tent*.
He listened.
The shape of the silence on this watch was — by the small specific reading at this evening — the shape of a small specific *staff-officer* whose accumulating *fifty* had — at the noon of yesterday — taken its first three names into the lad's accumulating dark catalog and whose three letters had — at the dusk of today — been laid at the small accumulating *runner-tent's* small accumulating *outgoing*.
He filed it.
In the small accumulating darker catalog of the lad's accumulating *staff-officer's responsibility*, he wrote — at the small specific careful even strokes of his own small accumulating careful hand at the back of the small folded paper that held the small accumulating *fifty's accumulating roll* — the three names beside one another at the small accumulating *staff-officer's accumulating dark catalog*:
*Liu Sanlang. Cao Daniu. Yan Wugou.*
He laid the paper back at his shirt's accumulating inner pocket against his ribs, beside the small carved horse and the small finished indigo pouch with the *生* and the small accumulating other small accumulating things he had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past nine years and four months — accumulated.
The dark catalog stood at nine names.
He sat his watch through.
By the small specific accumulating reading at the next morning's dawn, the small accumulating *fifty's morning round* — Heizi's accumulating *one-mark-knowing* — was at the small accumulating *forty-seven* mark, with three small accumulating *empty positions* at the small specific accumulating tents of Liu Sanlang and Cao Daniu and Yan Wugou.
Heizi did the round.
He stopped at each of the forty-seven men's accumulating fires. He laid one hand once on each man's shoulder. He said the small specific accumulating *one-mark-knowing*. He listened.
At the empty positions of the three, he stopped also. He laid one hand on each empty mat for one beat. He did not say anything aloud at the empty mats. He filed the small accumulating *empty-mat* shape.
By the second hour after the dawn, the small accumulating round was complete.
The small accumulating *fifty* was — by the small specific accumulating reading at this morning — at the small accumulating shape of *forty-seven*.
The small accumulating new recruits to fill the three positions would, by the small specific accumulating arrangement Bing Yuanzhen would lay at the next two weeks, come up. The new recruits would be — by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving — at the small accumulating *eyes-on-the-empty-mats* shape Heizi would, by the small specific accumulating reading, take in his accumulating *one-mark-knowing* of them at the small accumulating *first dusks*.
The work, by the small unhurried way of an accumulating rebellion, went on.
The lighter catalog stood at perhaps fifty-nine items.
The dark catalog stood at nine.
Through the autumn and the winter of the tenth year, the small accumulating *fifty* engaged at the southern command's accumulating engagements in the small accumulating order of: a small accumulating *raid-the-grain* operation at the seventh moon's twenty-third day; a small accumulating *flank-the-Sui-supply-line* at the ninth moon's fifteenth day; a small accumulating *defensive engagement* against a Wang Shichong-led counter-expedition at the eleventh moon's third day, where the small accumulating *fifty* — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past ten months' accumulating training — held against a Sui force of perhaps four hundred men under Wang Shichong's accumulating direct command at the small accumulating bottlenecking of the same eastern fold's narrow place, taking perhaps eighty Sui veterans for the cost of five of the *fifty*.
Five.
By the small accumulating reading at the dusk of the third day of the eleventh moon, the lad's accumulating dark catalog of the *fifty* stood at: *Liu Sanlang. Cao Daniu. Yan Wugou.* (the original three.) And: *Wei Erjia* (the man with the scar at the left temple, who had been at the small accumulating forward eye-station and had, at the eleventh moon's engagement, been at the small accumulating *first sighting* of Wang Shichong's column and had — by the small accumulating reading at the small accumulating second wave of Wang Shichong's accumulating counter-attack — been taken at the small specific accumulating window of the throat by a Sui veteran's accumulating saber-stroke). *Zhao Xiaolang* (the nineteen-year-old recruit who had come up at the past month's recruiting and who had not, by the small specific reading at the past month, been ready for the eleventh moon's engagement, but had been at the bend's accumulating reserve when the second wave broke through at one small accumulating place and had taken a Sui spear at the chest). *Liu Erbai* (the man with the small accumulating accumulating shape of a small accumulating widower who had been at the rebellion since Da-ye eight, who had taken his second saber-wound at the bend at the eleventh moon's engagement and, by the small specific reading at Ah Chou's salve, had — by the small accumulating reading at the past three days — taken a fever from the wound and had, by the small specific reading at the dusk of the third day, died at the *staff-officer's tent's small accumulating fever-pad* with Ah Chou at his side). *Tian Sanmu* (the new recruit who had come up at the same recruiting as Zhao Xiaolang and had been at the small accumulating second-line and had taken a Sui arrow at the chest at the engagement's accumulating opening). *Yu Cheng-en* (the smith's son's accumulating co-trainee at the past four months at the *moment*-teaching and at the small accumulating forge-helper, who had been at the bend's accumulating forge-protection and had been the first to the bend at the second wave's accumulating breaking and had taken a Sui veteran's saber at the side of the neck).
Five names.
The lad's accumulating *staff-officer's dark catalog* of the *fifty* stood, at the dusk of the third day of the eleventh moon, at eight.
The lad's own personal dark catalog stood at six named names plus the small accumulating *unnamed*.
The small accumulating combined dark catalog stood, by the small specific reading at this dusk, at fourteen named names plus the small accumulating *unnamed*.
The lighter catalog stood at perhaps sixty-three items.
Heizi did not — at the dusk of the third day of the eleventh moon — weep.
He had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past nine years and seven months on the road — not wept since the low rock behind the burned eastern row of the hamlet of two wells.
He kept the small accumulating discipline of the not-weeping.
He sat his watch through.
The work, by the small unhurried way of an accumulating rebellion, went on.