Chapter 2：Black Flag

Scene 1: Dragons to the Sea

A hundred Yue ships coiled like serpents at the Min River's mouth, their prow-dragons glazed with blood. A Yue shaman stood atop the flagship's mast, beheading Han captives with a bronze battle-axe. Their blood arced into the sea as offering. Above, Xiang Yu's banner snapped in the gale—the character "Chu" (楚) altered to "Dong Chu" (東楚), the added stroke painted in Han prisoners' blood.

"Dragons entering the sea must feed on flesh." The Yue chieftain knelt, offering a bone tally. "Grant us the Minyue homeland."

Xiang Yu took the tally and flung it into a brazier: "I seek not land, but passage."

As flames consumed the bone, conch horns blared. Han catapults tore through dawn fog, stone shot smashing Yue prows into splinters.

"Flank left!" Xiang Yu's flag sliced the smoke. Yue ships swarmed like sharks, hidden hull-hooks snaring Han rudders—Zhang Liang's venomous stratagem.

By sunrise, the Min River ran red. Xiang Yu boarded the Han flagship, boots crunching bone shards. Zhang Liang emerged from corpses, robes pristine: "Congratulations. After this, the Eastern Sea is yours."

Xiang Yu gripped his throat: "Who do you celebrate for?"

Zhang Liang smiled: "For all under heaven—the dead are most obedient."

Interlude: The Adviser's Gambit

Zhang Liang unrolled a bloodstained silk. Han Xin's scrawl sliced like blades: "The Eastern Chu fleet is exposed. Strike now."

Liu Bang toyed with Consort Yu's fire striker—salvaged by Han scouts from the Min River's whirlpools. The bronze "Chu" (楚) was crusted with blood, leaving only "Yu" (虞) legible.

"Zifang…" Liu Bang scraped the blood away. "Would Xiang Yu go mad seeing this?"

Zhang Liang fanned himself: "Yes. So he mustn't see it."

"You want me," Liu Bang leaned toward the brazier, "to burn it?"

"No." Zhang Liang stayed his hand. "Bury it at Kuaiji's Yu Mausoleum—Xiang Yu's path to Zhang Commandery."

Liu Bang narrowed his eyes: "Make him think her ghost lingers there?"

"Ghosts matter not." Zhang Liang smiled. "Where the heart goes—that matters."

Wails erupted outside. Yu Ziqi barged in with two Yue heads: "King of Han! My convict troops butchered Dongye's Han settlers. When do we march?"

Han Xin sneered: "Patience. Wait till your master takes Zhang Commandery."

Yu Ziqi's eyes bled rage: "I'll carve Xiang Yu's heart myself!"

"Heart?" Liu Bang tossed the fire striker. "Long fed to dogs."

Scene 2: Earth Dragons Stir

Zhang Commandery's walls gleamed ghostly under the moon, hardened by Wu-Yue mortar of lime, glutinous rice, and tung oil. Xiang Yu's Yue coalition had besieged it for ten days, but General Chen Ying refused battle—dull thuds echoed within, as if a beast gnawed at the earth's veins.

"They dig tunnels." Zhang Liang stroked his feather fan. "Chen Ying plans to collapse our camp with 'earth dragon' tactics."

Xiang Yu lifted damp soil on his sword tip: "Depth?"

"Thirty-five chi (8 meters), targeting our granary." Zhang Liang sketched in the dirt. "They'll flood it with oil at 3 AM."

"Then aid them." Xiang Yu crushed the soil. "Fill the tunnels with those Baiyue serpent corpses buried beneath our stores."

That night, the alliance feigned retreat. When Chen's sappers emerged, they met rotting serpents—poisonous vipers Zhang Liang had dumped into Zhang's wells weeks prior. Set ablaze by Han oil, the fire snakes slithered back into the city.

Zhang Commandery's granary erupted first. Flames lit Xiang Yu's face: "Chen Ying, can you stomach my grain now?"

Scene 3: The Gate Gambit

The gates fell to Yu Ziqi. Three thousand chained convicts, logs on shoulders, charged the flames like zombies—their mud-soaked chains fireproof but lethal: once entangled, none escaped.

Chen Ying aimed a crossbow from the tower: "Traitor! Your clan's blood still steams!"

Yu Ziqi cleaved the bolt, convict blood spattering his armor: "Then let your blood boil it anew!"

Xiang Yu watched coldly. Zhang Liang murmured: "Han Xin leads Liu Bang's reinforcements—twenty li (9 km) away."

"Time to breach?"

"Half a day."

"Too slow." Xiang Yu nocked an arrow wrapped with Consort Yu's fire striker scraps. "One shot suffices."

The flaming arrow pierced dawn mist, striking the gunpowder store—marked by Zhang Liang's spies. As Zhang Commandery crumbled in explosions, Han Xin's vanguard banners emerged.

"Now," Xiang Yu discarded his bow, "let Han Xin enjoy the show."

Interlude: The Minister's Venom

Han Xin's whip split the map: "Zhang Liang, the viper! He used Zhang Commandery as bait!"

A scout trembled: "The Chu-Yue alliance fled south. Only corpses remain…"

Han Xin sneered: "Pursue. Xiang Yu wants a war of attrition? I'll gift him true fire."

An advisor warned: "Marshal! Ahead lies the Reed Marsh (Lake Tai)—Chu dominates water warfare…"

"Then burn the reeds!" Han Xin shredded the map. "Order: all troops don Yue rattan armor, infiltrate as deserters."

Yu Ziqi stormed in: "I want Xiang Yu's head!"

Han Xin tossed a poisoned dagger: "Kill him in his sleep—like your sister."

Yu Ziqi's pupils contracted. Thunder roared as rain deluged the camp.

Scene 4: Serpents in Armor

Lake Tai's reeds rusted crimson in dusklight. Han Xin's three thousand "Yue deserters" rowed sampans into the marsh, their rattan armor dyed charred-black with Han banner pigment. Beneath each armor plate hid fire strikers and sulfur powder.

Xiang Yu's warships lurked deep in the reeds, Chu banners slack. Yu Ziqi knelt on the deck, a poisoned dagger strapped to his thigh: "My King, Han Xin's vanguard approaches."

"Your heart races." Xiang Yu polished Consort Yu's bronze fire striker. "Like Baiqi at Gaixia."

A flaming arrow suddenly tore through twilight, igniting the reeds! Han soldiers ripped off armor, hurling sulfur at Chu ships. As fire serpents coiled, Xiang Yu laughed: "Han Xin! How long I've waited!"

Chu ships opened hull ports, hundreds of swamp-mud jars rolling into flames—collected by Yue shamans under Zhang Liang's order. The mud hardened into choking smog when fired. While Han troops suffocated, Xiang Yu's fleet slipped through hidden waterways.

Yu Ziqi's dagger stayed sheathed. Watching Han banners burn, he remembered his sister's last words: "To Xiang Lang, the world is but kindling."

Consort Yu's Flashback: Ashes of Epang

Xiang Yu dreamt of the fire again.

Epang Palace's pepperwood halls burned, but what he heard was Consort Yu's jade bracelet shattering. Three months prior, she'd lost her phoenix-head jade hairpin here—a Chu royal heirloom.

"A hairpin over Xianyang?" Fan Zeng's cane smashed jade tiles.

Xiang Yu tossed a torch at mermaid-silk drapes: "Xianyang is dead. The pin lives."

Soldiers gaped as their commander scavenged through flames: overturning bronze ice chests, splitting lacquer cosmetics cases, even scrabbling through scorched rubble barehanded. When he found the half-melted pin, three palace wings were ash.

Consort Yu traced his burns: "Was it worth it?"

He clenched the pin: "Chu's soul lies not in land, but blood."

Now in the reed firelight, Xiang Yu rubbed the "Yu" on the fire striker. Zhang Liang's voice ghosted through: "Did you burn Epang Palace, or your own retreat?"