A Crime of Extermination
Nights 90-91
Meng Huo’s allies keep getting less and less “civilized” as Kongming closes in. Just before his seventh defeat, Meng Huo’s allies live in caves and have bizarre sexual customs (“they bathed in a stream where male and female mixed freely and coupled without prohibition, a practice called ‘learning the art.’” (p. 1585) Like savages in European conquest stories, these men “looked so repulsive that they hardly seemed human.” (p. 1595) Most ferociously, they deploy animals in battle: a “menagerie of tigers and panthers, jackals and wolves.” (p. 1590)
Kongming defeats them and burns nearly every single one of them. I felt this was like the Book of Joshua at first: the author expected us to cheer on Kongming’s actions. But instead, Kongming immediately regrets “this trick.” He says, “I used [it] only because I had to; I shall lose merit in the life to come for it . . . to have exterminated the Black Lances so completely is a crime that weighs heavily on me.” (pp. 1603-4) Before he is allowed to return home, he must make a sacrifice.
And then, upon returning home, he hears that Cao Rui has succeeded Cao Pi. Through trickery, they get Cao Rui to sideline the great advisor Sima Yi. This paves the way for Kongming to invade the Wei. There is a long list of his advisors who join him on the expedition. It’s late in the novel; I don’t recognize many of these new names. Ma Chao, who I thought might have a bigger role, has since died. But at least Zhao Zilong will join the invasion.
As far as Magic cards, we meet the last of the legendary characters to appear, Lady Zhurong. She is named for a legendary fire god and only appears briefly. She is dispatched in part by a Trip Wire (this is a card). We also see the animals of King Mulu, who is mentioned on the flavor text for Trained Cheetah. Other animals include a Trained Jackal, a Wolf Pack, and tigers (Stalking Tiger / Slashing Tiger). King Mulu rides a Southern Elephant. His men are the “rattan-armored warriors” mentioned in “Meng Huo’s Horde.” In other words, the “savages” make up a lot of the green cards in Magic.