(1) The Jingyuan Mutiny

In the year 783 CE, the fourth year of the Jianzhong era under Emperor Dezong of Tang, in the tenth month, this was likely the coldest early winter Chang'an had seen since the An-Shi Rebellion.

For several years, Emperor Dezong had attempted to quell the regional garrisons by pitting one against another, but after much struggle and maneuvering, the strategy ultimately ended in failure, only provoking even fiercer resistance. The military governors of Weibo, Tian Yue; of Youzhou, Zhu Tao; of Ziqing, Li Na; and of Chengde, Wang Wujun, formed an alliance, elevating Zhu Tao as their overall leader, each holding their own territory—together they became known as the "Four Kings" of the time. The military governor of Huaixi, Li Xilie, had likewise conspired with them. In the eighth month of the fourth year of Jianzhong, Li Xilie deployed a massive force to besiege Xiangcheng in Henan. To relieve the siege at Xiangcheng, Emperor Dezong issued an edict ordering the military governor of Jingyuan to march to its rescue. In the tenth month, the Jingyuan governor arrived in Chang'an with five thousand soldiers. The weather was bitterly cold at the time, and the troops, exhausted and famished, had expected generous rewards from the court—but received nothing at all, and were fed nothing more than coarse rations and spoiled meat as a token gesture. This provoked deep resentment among the soldiers, ultimately sparking a full-scale mutiny.

The five thousand soldiers then ran rampant through Chang'an, plundering homes, seizing gold, silver, valuables, and grain, and went so far as to install Zhu Ci—Zhu Tao's elder brother, who had been kept under house arrest in Chang'an by Emperor Dezong ever since Zhu Tao's rebellion against the Tang—as their new emperor. Utterly terrified, Emperor Dezong hastily fled the city with his princes, consorts, and various royal relatives in tow, abandoning his officials and subjects in his panic, becoming yet another emperor to flee Chang'an in disgrace, following in the footsteps of Emperor Xuanzong before him.

The Jingyuan troops, like beasts driven mad, first plundered the imperial palace's treasury, then moved on to ransack the areas surrounding the palace, expanding their reach outward in ever-widening circles. Because Guo Sheng served as a commander of the Imperial Guard, his residence had been situated close to the imperial city for the sake of convenience in attending court, and several of the surrounding streets were likewise home to many officials' families—making the area a prime target for the rampaging Jingyuan troops. This sudden, unforeseen betrayal turned the world upside down overnight; no one had time to react to such a cataclysmic upheaval, and already the streets of Chang'an echoed with the roar of slaughter and swirled with clouds of dust. The five thousand troops surged forward like a tidal wave, and wherever they went, they cut down men and women, old and young alike, showing no mercy, with almost no one able to stand against them. After massacring every soul in a household, they would ransack chests and cabinets, taking every last piece of gold, silver, jewelry, coin, and grain they could find. In what felt like no time at all, Chang'an lay littered with corpses, rivers of blood flowing through its streets—a scene of hell on earth.

Guo Sheng happened to be off duty and at home that day. Though he held the position of Imperial Guard commander and possessed considerable martial skill himself, even the strongest pair of fists could not hope to fend off a hundred attackers. The catastrophe had struck so suddenly, and unlike the guards surrounding the Emperor himself, who at least had the numbers to manage a hasty escape, his own household consisted of nothing more than a handful of servants and young attendants—facing the overwhelming onslaught of the Jingyuan troops, it would have been nothing short of an ant trying to shake a great tree, hopelessly outmatched and outnumbered; sending them out to fight would have accomplished nothing but sending them to certain death. Fully aware that catastrophe had arrived, Guo Sheng ordered everyone to hide as best they could, and in order to buy his family precious time to flee and take cover, he himself took up a blade and went out to face the enemy alone.

Guo Huilian was utterly terrified. The air was thick with the heavy scent of blood, and from every direction came the sounds of fighting, wailing, and screams of terror... For a moment her mind went completely blank, unable to process anything at all. She wanted to find her mother, but the main courtyard was already swarming with Jingyuan soldiers; panicking, she grabbed Xiaocui and tried to turn back the way they'd come, only to see more soldiers pouring in from behind as well. With no way out visible anywhere, in her desperation she pulled Xiaocui down a narrow side path toward the garden instead, and fortunately, along that particular route, there were no Jingyuan soldiers yet—only the household's own servants and maids, fleeing in blind panic, scattering in every direction.

Guo Huilian, gripping Xiaocui's hand tightly, wove her way past wave after wave of fleeing crowds and finally reached the Locust Garden by the western wing. By now the season had already turned to early winter, and most of the locust tree's leaves had withered and fallen, but with the sky already growing dim, and her own small, slight frame, she reasoned that if she simply lay flat against a thick branch, what leaves remained might still offer some concealment—enough, at least, that she wouldn't be spotted immediately. And so, without hesitation, she pulled off her shoes, socks, and shawl, and scrambled up the tree with swift, practiced movements.

"Xiaocui, you come up too..." Guo Huilian called out urgently.

"I can't... I can't climb," Xiaocui said, shaking her head helplessly.

"Just try, I'll pull you up." Guo Huilian slid back down a bit and reached out her hand.

"I... I'll go hide under the bed in the western wing instead..." Xiaocui gripped the trunk with both hands, trying to push herself upward, but found no purchase for her feet whatsoever—having never practiced this sort of thing before, being suddenly asked to climb a tree now felt to her like being asked to scale the heavens themselves.

"All right... go hide quickly, and stay safe..." Standing high up in the tree, watching the Jingyuan soldiers already cutting across the garden and closing in on the western wing, Guo Huilian had no other choice but to agree.

And so Xiaocui grabbed Guo Huilian's shoes, socks, and shawl and dashed off toward the very wing room where Tian Xu had once stayed. Soon after, the Jingyuan soldiers advancing toward the western wing cut down anyone they encountered without the slightest hesitation, and the air filled with an unbroken chorus of anguished screams. Guo Huilian's heart leapt into her throat; she pressed her face tightly against the branch and squeezed her eyes shut, unable to bear witnessing such a horrifying, merciless scene. Her mind raced with worry for everyone in her family—her father, her mother, her brothers, her sisters—how were they faring now? Could they possibly survive this catastrophe? Her heart pounded with terror, yet she was utterly powerless to do anything at all. Trembling all over with fear, she wanted desperately to cry but dared not make a sound, able only to press her hand over her mouth and let the tears fall silently. Though she dared not look, her ears caught every single sound from below with perfect, terrible clarity, and with each anguished cry that reached her, another piece of Guo Huilian's heart shattered. The soldiers kicked open the doors of every room within the western wing, their eyes bloodshot with bloodlust, killing even when they found no plunder worth taking, purely to vent their fury. At last came Xiaocui's own piercing scream, and Guo Huilian, overwhelmed with shock and grief beyond measure, shook violently from head to toe, silently screaming Xiaocui's name in her heart while biting down hard on her own arm to keep from crying out, tearing a bloody gash into the flesh beneath her sleeve.

What kind of world was this? How could it be so cruel to a girl of merely twelve years old? She didn't even know who these men were, or where they had come from. Nor did she know that the very emperor whose actions had triggered this whole catastrophe had already fled far away, leaving his own subjects to bear this unbearable weight in his place—entire households along these few streets wiped out in a single night, with no one left to whom they could even voice their grievance.

Who was it who once said the emperor is far away and heaven high above, beyond reach of trouble?

Heaven and earth show no mercy, treating all things as mere straw dogs to be discarded; the emperor showed no mercy either, and the common people became his sacrificial scapegoats.

And who, in the end, was not simply another straw dog themselves?