Eishou (英章) is the General of the Palace Guard of the Center in the kingdom of Tai. He served as one of Gyousou’s regimental commanders and was the youngest of Gyousou’s officers during Emperor Kyou’s dynasty. Seirai is quoted to have described him as “black to the core”. During the events of The Shore in Twilight, Risai, Asen, Ganchou, and Gashin jokingly agree that Eishou is similar in personality to Seirai and that he was the most likely to stab Gyousou in the back. Eishou himself claims to be without blood in his veins and tears in his eyes—in other words, cold and unsympathetic. Gyousou says that Eishou has his quirks, but that those quirks gave his getting along with others a charm of its own. He also said that he could criticize people while remaining good friends with them, which is why so many people trusted him.
Career[]
Little is known about his life before serving under Gyousou aside from the fact that he is from Ba Province and that, according to Keitou, initially resisted the emotional attachment that a retainer typically formed with their liege. He runs a horse breeding center on his estate and, at Gyousou’s suggestion, gifted a pony to Taiki soon after he returned from his diplomatic mission to Ren. He also tends to look down on Provincial Guardsmen and has been known to refer to them as an “unruly mob” and “a motley crew of chicken-hearted country bumpkins and hangers-on”.
As a soldier, Eishou is one of the six generals in the division leaders in the Imperial Army during Gyousou’s dynasty that is undefeated in battle. Having sparred with him during maneuvers with the Imperial Army, Risai described his strategems as “shadowy movements”. He is short tempered and impatient, which is shown when he urged Gyousou to “scorch the earth in all directions” and “wrap up the whole affair in three days” during the first Tetsui campaign. In reference to this, Gyousou teases him during the rebellions in Bun Province during The Hills of Silver Ruins, saying, “We can at least rejoice that, having gotten his hackles up, Eishou has not yet burned Bun Province to the ground.” He has notably butted heads with Gyousou during the Tetsui campaign as well as during the discussion of the rebellions of Bun Province, but always gave in to his opinions and decisions.
The First Tetsui Campaign[]
During the Tetsui campaign, Eishou served as one of Gyousou’s regimental commanders. Serving under him were Kouryou and Kiryou as battalion commanders and Gouhei as company commander. When he and his regimental commanders recounting the events to Rikei, Eishou refuses to say that the Imperial Army lost but also admitted that they hadn’t won either. He felt that Gyousou threw away a certain victory and said that “As far as battles go, it was a bad one, and not one I care to remember”, yet agreed that in the end, the people of Tetsui saw reason and opened the county palace. During the campaign, he urged Gyousou to take Tetsui by brute force in order to avoid the snow during the return trip to Kouki, but Gyousou explained that while the people of Tetsui were rebels, they had only acted out of desperation. Seeing the truth in his words, Eishou accepted his decision.
The Bun Province Rebellions[]
Under orders to show the citizens that the kingdom would stand ready to protect them, Eishou mobilized the entire division of the Palace Guard of the Center to the city of Rin’u in Bun Province to subjugate the outlaws that had taken over the town of Kohaku. After meeting with the village manager of Kohaku, he promised to retake the city and, assuring her that he would replenish the storehouses, urged her to focus on the wounded. When Kouryou pointed out that the Imperial Treasury might not be able to draw on military stockpiles, he offered up his own wealth. Kohaku was liberated in two weeks, but not long after the outlaws started insurrections in nearby locations. When suspicions grew that this was the start of a carefully planned rebellion that eventually pulled Tetsui into the predicament, Gyousou and General Sougen of the Zui Provincial Guard departed from Kouki to provide assistance. Already irate because of the poor weather conditions on the ground and the drawn out rebellions, this irritated Eishou to no end.
Gyousou and Sougen arrived at Rin’u at the beginning of March with an entire division of the Zui Provincial Guard of the Left as well as two regiments of the Palace Guard of the Right. After much discussion, the three agreed to mobilize to Houtaku and wait there as Tetsui was a two-day march away and could easily be reached should the land gangs at Anseki decided to attack. The advance guard under Rikei moved first, closely followed by Eishou and his regimental commanders in the vanguard. Gyousou followed with the two regiments of the Palace Guard of the Right and Sougen’s division brought up the rear. On the third day, the land gangs launched a surprise attack on the advance guard. When Eishou dispatched a runner to Gyousou, he discovered that Gyousou and his security detail had gone missing in the middle of the fight.
Later that night, Eishou and his regimental commanders met secretly with Sougen in Eishou’s tent to find out that the night before they’d mobilized, Gyousou had borrowed an impromptu platoon from Sougen off the record, which had also disappeared ever since Gyousou gave them his secret orders. Not long after, the army received news of the meishoku at Hakkei Palace as well as news of Gyousou’s death and Taiki’s disappearance. The Palace Guard under Eishou remained in Bun Province to search for Gyousou’s corpse alongside the citizens of Bun Province, but orders from Asen sent the army into confusion and divided them at the regimental level, forcing them to take on more orders.
Eventually, a blue bird from Risai revealed Asen’s role in the coup. Summoning his officers to his tent, Eishou announced that the planned to run away and refused to take orders from Asen. Despite the fact that he had an entire division with him as well as Gashin’s troops stationed in Bun Province, he chose not to immediately strike back at Asen on the basis that Gyousou was still alive and would require them to be ready to join him whenever he himself took a stand against Asen. Eishou let his men choose their next course of action, yet required those who wouldn’t serve under Asen to sign his map as a pledge in “the same way the kirin swears fealty to the emperor” to join Gyousou whenever the opportunity presented itself. He warns his men, though, that those who followed Asen or ran away from their promise would die at his sword, “because however dear their lives may be to them then, their lifespans will differ little hence.”
After that, according to Kouryou, Eishou vanished and not a word was heard of him after that.
Asen's Dynasty[]
In the ensuing six years, Eishou and his men created a network of contacts using their staff officers and battalion commander, with Rikei being the integral piece of the network. However, those lines of communication were abandoned when something happened to Rikei, leaving Eishou’s and his regimental commanders’ locations unknown. However, there was no news of Eishou’s capture and/or execution. Many soldiers, including Sougen and Yuushou, guessed that he had worked with Seirai and Gashin to steal and hide the kingdom’s ledgers so that Asen couldn’t use them to fund his regime, yet none of these theories were confirmed. However, it is revealed that Seirai was able to keep in touch with Eishou through a man named Sou Kouhei. When Taiki attempted to rescue Seirai, Sou Kouhei was currently in Gikou, a town in Ba Province near Iryou, the province’s capital. The alias that Eishou was using at that time was “Fuki”.
Gyousou's Rescue[]
Because Kouryou wouldn’t need to waste time establishing his bonafides with Eishou, he escaped Kouki to meet with his commander with news that Risai was following a lead in Bun Province and that Taiki had returned and was tricking Asen into believing that he was the new emperor. Eishou and Gashin considered meeting up with Risai as they assumed that she was behind the uprising, but their expeditionary ran into Kouka in the mountains of Bun Province and found out that while Gyousou had been rescued, he’d been captured again. From there, they decided to send their forces to Kou Province. At the time, Eishou commanded less than seven thousand soldiers hiding out in Ba Province.
In Kou Province, their forces ran into Kyoshi, who was injured from the fight with the Ba Provincial Guard and exhausted from riding the short-tempered Ragou. Kyoshi explained what had happened to them and presented to them Gyousou’s sword and Taiki’s passport that had been provided by Youko when he and Risai left Kei. Hearing that Gyousou had the Imperial En’s support, Eishou and Gashin sent an envoy to En with the sword and passport. Upon recognizing Cold Jade—Gyousou’s sword—and Taiki’s passport, Shouryuu agreed to send a warship to meet with Gyousou.
On the day of Gyousou’s execution at the Hall of Supreme Harmony, Eishou and his army secured a path of retreat for Gyousou and the soldiers who’d arrived to rescue him. His army opened the gate before it could close and cut off their escape and, up reuniting with Sougen and Risai, was pleased to meet them again and congratulated them for being able to rescue the emperor despite the impossible odds. He and Gashin reunited with Gyousou at one of the provincial castles on the way to Kou Castle where, according to Risai, they “scrambled over to Gyousou like a couple of kids”. Rumors about Eishou breaking down in tears circulated, but Risai doubted their veracity as the mischievous Gashin had been the source—“Still, it made for a charming tale.”
Later, at Kou Castle, Eishou ran into Risai and discussed Kaei’s arrival and Taiki’s condition. He also disparaged Seirai for putting up with the torture for so long, saying, “The fool is too stupid to know when enough is enough and too stubborn to die.” In addition, he complained about how he wouldn’t stop summoning people and how Gyousou spoiled him by having his sickbed in the same room, yet also admitted that Seirai wouldn’t be the same again considering the extent of his injuries.
Relationships[]
Gyousou[]
Eishou isn’t afraid to speak his mind to Gyousou, sometimes contradicting his opinions and complaining about his decisions. However, Kouryou remarked that in spite of his complaints, “Eishou simply wasn’t capable of harboring negative feelings when it came to Gyousou.” Gyousou accepted Eishou’s attitude and, in return, never hesitated to tease him no matter the situation. To Risai, he said that “Eishou has his quirks, but precisely because of those quirks, his getting along with people has a charm all of its own.”
Taiki[]
Eishou and Taiki don’t interact often throughout the Tai arc. However, when Eishou presents the pony to Taiki after he returns from Ren, he is polite and friendly with the eleven year old kirin. In addition, when he spoke to Risai at Kou Castle, he asked after Taiki’s health and expressed genuine concern for him. He’s less reserved in his attitude toward Taiki in comparison to his colleagues and says to Risai, “The Taiho and Seirai make a good pair, don’t you think? They can go on walks together and totter along at a snail’s pace like a couple of geezers.”
Sougen, Gashin, Ganchou, Santou[]
Similarly to his relationship with Gyousou, Eishou speaks his mind with his former fellow regimental commanders and also isn’t afraid to butt heads with them. He argues with Ganchou and Sougen during the first Tetsui campaign, as well as Ganchou during the discussion of the Bun Province rebellions. However, he respects his peers and works well with them.
Kouryou, Gouhei, Rikei[]
Eishou doesn’t mince words with his regimental commanders and maintains his sarcastic personality, and in turn his regimental commanders treats this as normal. Having served under Eishou the longest as a battalion commander, Kouryou gets along well with Eishou and remarked that “this sardonic attitude was nothing out of the ordinary for Eishou and nothing to get offended about either.” Rikei, on the other hand, had just taken Kiryou’s place as Eishou’s regimental commander and was intimidated by “the crusty personality of his superior officer”.
Seirai[]
Eishou is described by Gashin, Ganchou, Seirai, and Asen as being similar to Seirai, which is why he and the staff officer don’t get along. The two of them view each other as inherently “black to the core” and Eishou has been quoted to say that “Seeing that Seirai doesn’t possess a single redeeming feature, there’s no need to feel guilty about kicking the man when he’s down.” Despite his snarks, he expressed concern when he told Risai that Seirai would have to live with the effects of his injuries after being rescued from torture.
Risai[]
While Eishou never verbalizes his thoughts about Risai, who joined the Zui Provincial Guard after serving as a general in the Jou Provincial Guard, he treats her as he would any of his colleagues. In comparison to how he greets Sougen after seven years, he shows Risai more regard and discusses his thoughts with her openly at Kou Castle in amicable conversation. He also complies grudgingly stops badmouthing Seirai when she gives him a look for doing so, hinting more at his respect for her.
Image Gallery[]
