Hulao Pass (3)

Fa Zheng had already laid the groundwork for bringing down Hulao Pass, and she had long since worked out a strategy for dealing with Lu Bu as well.

At Luoyang, the enemy commander had been Ding Yuan — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a man who hurled himself forward without weighing fire from water — so a fire attack had gutted his army with ease. This time, the foe was Lu Bu, the finest general under heaven.

With a woman hailed as the Unrivaled Under Heaven at their fore, the morale and strength of her officers and men were a cut above the rest.

In sheer personal martial might, Lu Bu was a fierce general who stood above even Ma Chao herself, and the Bingzhou cavalry — tempered by years of war against foreign tribes and the Black Mountain Bandits — was a force mighty enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Xiliang cavalry.

Worse yet, Hulao Pass was a fortress planted in the gorge that formed the very gateway to Luoyang. Apart from a few narrow byways passable only by small parties, the only roads to the capital ran down the Yellow River to Mengjin Port, or over Mount Song — whose treacherous slopes made an ascent all but impossible.

Lu Bu and Hulao Pass together, then, were the wall the coalition had no choice but to break.

But ever since Dong Zhuo's annihilation, countermeasures against cavalry had been readied through training drills run by Xu Rong and Xu Huang.

On top of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that, a way to open Hulao's gates had been arranged well in advance — though seizing the pass would go far more smoothly if Lu Bu could first be lured out and pinned down.

Fa Zheng counseled that we should sever Lu Bu from the Bingzhou army and face each of them on separate terms.

Personally speaking, Lu Bu — the woman who had wounded Ma Chao — was one thing, but Zhang Liao and Gao Shun were two I genuinely wanted for my own...

'...But I've already tasted the bitter fruit of coveting talent past all reason. I won't waste effort chasing a capture that was never going to happen.'

In the last battle, I had tried every means to win Lu Bu over, hoping that this woman who flaunted the martial glory of the Unrivaled Under Heaven might be different from the one in history — and in the end it came to nothing, leaving nothing behind but Ma Chao's wounds.

Hadn't Cao Cao done the very same at Yanxing? At Changban Bridge, she forbade a single arrow to be loosed at Zhao Yun — who tore through a host of a million with A'Dou bundled against the chest — and ordered the warrior taken alive if at all possible.

The result was that poor Yan Xing — a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fictional invention, admittedly — did nothing but bleed officers and soldiers, while Zhao Yun and Liu Bei's son Liu Shan slipped through her fingers all the same.

With precedents like these, even if I did manage to capture a general of outstanding ability, anyone with Gao Shun's kind of plank-rigid integrity toward his lord would have to be put to the sword in the end.

'This time, for sure, Lu Bu dies.'

The Peach Garden trio had already been won over, so three of Shu's Five Tiger Generals now stood in our ranks — and without the Red Hare, severed from her own army, Lu Bu would find escape a forlorn hope.

Once Hulao was in our hands, if the coalition's officers and men — for whom she was an enemy to ten thousand — hurled themselves at the isolated Lu Bu and the Bingzhou army in sheer waves of numbers, she would die without fail.

"Good. Then we split her from her army, and the moment Hulao falls, we kill Lu Bu—"

"My lord!!"

Just as I was about to wrap up my preliminary discussion with Fa Zheng, Zheng Tai came sprinting up, a letter clutched in one hand.

"Zheng Tai? What is it?"

"...Please, read this."

I took the letter from the sweat-soaked Zheng Tai, read it through, and my brow knotted at once.

'...He's confined the Emperor?'

Ding Yuan, in short, was afraid — afraid that with the coalition's offensive bearing down, the court ministers might spirit the Emperor out of the capital. That was why Liu Bian had been moved from Jingde Hall, where the Emperor kept his residence, and shut up in some detached building under the banner of "protection."

And with Cao Cao's earlier extraction of Liu Xie on record, the guard had evidently been tightened yet another notch besides.

Let the coalition set foot in Luoyang, and he would do harm to the Emperor's person on his way out — content that amounted to outright treason, set down in plain ink.

Knowing that rabid bastard, I could believe he'd do exactly that. But what really made my face contort — what was so absurd I could barely process it — was this:

"You're telling me that if I end up fighting Lu Bu, I'm supposed to let her go?!"

I had no idea what species of bullshit this one was.

We had the entire plan drawn up — take the pass, seize Lu Bu — and out of nowhere, a letter telling me to release her.

"...Do you think that makes any sense? Win over that madwoman Lu Bu and use her to rescue the Emperor?"

That was the design the message laid out: bring Lu Bu over, rescue the Emperor in Luoyang, purge Ding Yuan, and join hands with the coalition.

At my question, Zheng Tai bowed his head and spoke.

"I know Your Lordship finds it distasteful, but it is Gongda's message: for His Majesty's rescue, we are to deliberately release the Unrivaled Under Heaven."

'...Gongda — that would be Xun You?'

And now this was a genuine headache of a situation.

Had the letter come from some other court official like Wang Yun, I'd have written it off as nonsense and hurled it into the nearest fire. But this was Xun You — one of the three great strategists of Cao Cao's army, whose talent and cunning were said to outstrip anyone's — so I had no choice but to give it a moment's thought.

'...Honestly, viewed coldly, through a purely political lens, I couldn't care less if the Emperor dies at the hands of a cornered Ding Yuan.'

If Ding Yuan lost his mind and ran amok until Liu Bian died, then Liu Xie — close to me and under my protection — would simply ascend the throne in his place, and from there the holding of the Son of Heaven would fall naturally into our hands.

In other words, for someone like me — with no loyalty to the imperial house and a creed of putting the people first — Liu Bian's death would, if anything, be the more convenient outcome.

'Of course, I did promise Liu Xie I would save Liu Bian from Ding Yuan's clutches, so that part does prick the conscience a little...'

Rescuing Liu Bian would earn me Liu Xie's deeper trust, so it wasn't as if there was nothing in it for me. And Xun You, too — though we had never so much as met — would surely warm to the man who had honored her stratagem.

And yet...

"Do you really believe winning Lu Bu over is even possible?"

This was the woman who had kept faith with her adoptive father Ding Yuan even after Jia Xu's machinations had set them at each other's throats — even with vast wealth and a Sweat-blood Horse dangled before her eyes.

How could Xun You possibly sway a woman so utterly different from the Lu Bu of history?

"The details aren't given, but the way she declares it as certain suggests she has some masterstroke in hand. And she writes that if her scheme succeeds, she will deliver Luoyang — and the realm itself — into your hands, my lord."

"Delivering the realm" meant helping me secure Liu Bian so that I could hold the Son of Heaven in my grasp.

This was Xun You testing me, near enough — probing whether I could crush down my personal feelings and let Lu Bu walk.

"There's not one word about how she means to persuade her. And what if this is a trap laid by Ding Yuan's army?"

"Gongda would never do such a thing. I stake my life on it."

Zheng Tai argued that Xun You carried a grudge against Ding Yuan for the clan and friends she had lost to him, and so would never devise a stratagem in his favor.

"Frankly, your word and Xun You's letter alone aren't enough to justify trusting Lu Bu and setting her free."

The Xiliang cavalry had been slaughtered; a great many of the officers and soldiers in our army bore grudges against Lu Bu.

Ma Chao, who wanted nothing more than her revenge, went without saying — and Pang De, too, carried her grudge against Lu Bu and Zhang Liao for smashing apart the Xiliang cavalry she had poured her heart and soul into forging.

The troops of murdered local officials, and the lords who had lost their generals to her, surely nursed grudges every bit as deep — but settling those was none of my affair.

After long deliberation over the hearts of my other officers, I spoke.

"...Then we do it this way. We fight the cut-off Lu Bu — and if, even after Hulao has fallen, that woman keeps hurling herself at us dead set on dying, we take her and take her head where she stands. But if she spares her own neck and flees, we count it as though we never gave chase."

In a word: if she ran, we would not pursue.

Even that was an enormous concession on my part — made with an eye to a friendly footing for recruiting Xun You, and to the promise I had made Liu Xie to save Liu Bian.

If she threw her life away charging for Ding Yuan's sake, that alone would be pretext enough to kill her; and if she fled, it would stand as proof that her own neck mattered more to her than her loyalty.

Had things gone by the original plan, I would have struck off Lu Bu's head, put it on display, driven Ding Yuan's army's morale into the dirt, and then marched on Luoyang.

'If I switch targets and take Hulao first, then even if Xun You's persuasion fails, I can simply bag Ding Yuan and Lu Bu together, isolated there in Luoyang.'

This was about tearing Liu Bian from Ding Yuan's grip — word of it would likely reach Liu Xie as well, and the risk of refusing outright was too great.

If Xun You's scheme worked, it would spare our army no small measure of blood — fine and good. But I had no intention of forgiving Lu Bu.

She and Ding Yuan together were the architects of the capital region's suffering, and the price had to be collected one way or another.

"Even if we do let Lu Bu go, her officers are another matter. We take them at Hulao Pass first — and whether they live or die will be decided by how Xun You's plan unfolds."

"But, my lord..."

"It can't be helped, can it? We've no way of knowing what Xun You will use to win Lu Bu over — and the eyes of the other lords are on us, too."

Having agreed to the favor, I would put the emphasis on seizing Hulao Pass rather than on Lu Bu herself; if she fled, I would let her go — but the officers under her banner were a different story.

Even with Xun You's assurances, I had to allow for the chance that things would not go as promised: one of the two, Zhang Liao or Gao Shun, would be bound and taken no matter what, and Lu Bu's army would be attacked without hesitation to bleed away its strength.

With that settled, I summoned the Peach Garden trio and my other officers and asked who would take on Lu Bu.

My original intent had been to set Guan Yu and Ma Chao on her together and grind her into the ground — but Xun You's letter had forced me to change the priority to taking Hulao Pass.

And so, while the council over pinning Lu Bu down was still under way, two women stepped forward, bold and burning for the chance to face her — and I entrusted the fight to them.

With the rider attached, of course: if she kept coming at them, they could kill her and be damned — but if she so much as turned to run, they were not to pursue.

They bristled at first, both at being made to gang up on a single opponent and at the order to let her go if she fled — but when I asked it of them as a favor for the Emperor's sake, they ultimately gave in.

The next day.

As the coalition swept in to press a siege, the Bingzhou army — more at home in open battle than behind walls — poured out through the pass gates to meet them in the field, drums and war horns bellowing the signal to sally and whipping their morale to a boil.

Lu Bu whirled the Sky-Piercing Halberd, spurred her black steed, and came charging straight down upon the coalition.

"Here she comes!!"

"It's Lu Bu!!"

Having witnessed in the last battle a Flying General on an entirely different plane from Zhang Yan, the coalition soldiers found themselves stumbling backward in spite of themselves.

"Lu Bu!! I am Wu Anguo, general under Kong Rong, Chancellor of Beihai!! Come — let me measure for myself the martial might of the Unrivaled Under Heaven!!"

A warrior of broad bearing and imposing frame, Wu Anguo came roaring in, swinging an iron hammer in each hand, each weighing a good fifty pounds.

He had challenged the Unrivaled Under Heaven to repay the debt he owed Kong Rong.

Toward Wu Anguo bearing down on her with those monstrous hammers raised, Lu Bu said not a word. With listless, indifferent eyes, she swung the Sky-Piercing Halberd to meet him.

KRAANG!!

Sparks burst with every savage peal of struck metal as Lu Bu and Wu Anguo traded a good ten bouts.

But before Lu Bu's monstrous strength, one of his hammers was torn clean from his grip and went spinning off through the empty air in a great whistling arc.

"Th-this can't be!!"

Driven onto the back foot in an instant, Wu Anguo scrambled to raise his remaining hammer in guard, but his reaction came too late — one of his arms was sheared from his body.

"GRAAAAGH—!!"

Toward the man shrieking in agony over his severed arm, Lu Bu surged ahead to close the account — and the merciless blow fell at once.

SHWAK!!

Riding down the black steed's charge, Lu Bu took Wu Anguo's head with the crescent edge of the Sky-Piercing Halberd and silenced him for good.

"G-General Wu Anguo has fallen!!"

"R-retreat!! Retreat!!"

Wu Anguo — the fierce general of Beihai who had flung himself into a reckless bid for glory to spare his lord's face — met a hollow, pointless end on the field.

The moment their general fell, Zhang Liao drew near to Lu Bu, wary of how quickly the coalition was falling back.

"Lady Fengxian. I think it best we do not push too far. Han Yeong annihilated Zheng Zisi's forces by fire — his cunning runs deep. We would be wise not to pursue him far."

"......"

There was reason in Zhang Liao's words, and Lu Bu checked her pursuit for a moment.

"But Wenyuan, I—"

And then—

"Hey, you accursed little maidservant of the Ding clan—!!"

The curse drifting in from somewhere across the field stopped Lu Bu mid-sentence.

Words she had only barely managed to look past amid the fury of battle now drove straight into the softest wound in her.

The one hurling them stood with a writhing spear of nearly eighteen feet slung across her shoulder, waggling her fingers in open taunt.

The golden-haired woman began raking at Lu Bu's nerves with one lowborn curse after another.

"Does it feel good, prancing about as Liu Xie's savior of the people while you spend your days licking the soles of a thieving old man? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠You hideous hypocrite!?"

Every word of it stabbed at the shame she had worked so hard not to see.

She had moved to shield the common people, yet when it came to the adoptive father she had cherished as her own flesh and blood, she could not even find the courage to turn her blade on him — and the taunt seized that wavering conscience of hers and shook it to its core.

"What would a wretch like you know..."

Lu Bu's haggard eyes filled with a fury like open flame as she spurred her horse into a dead run.

"L-Lady Fengxian!!"

Zhang Liao shouted for her, but the woman went charging off headlong, blood roaring to the crown of her head, wholly swallowed by the bait — and heard nothing.

'Oh? General Who Pacifies the West. It's working just like you said.'

The 'accursed maidservant of the Ding clan' jab had been Zhang Fei's own contribution, but the taunt about playing savior to the people while strutting at Liu Xie's side had come straight from Han Yeong.

It was a barb aimed precisely at the contradiction in Lu Bu's conduct: a woman who claimed to fight for her soldiers and her people, yet lent her strength to Ding Yuan — a tyrant who plundered the very people he ruled.

"Hahaha!! Come after me if you dare, you hypocrite!!"

Zhang Fei wheeled her horse about then and there and fled, making straight for the spot Han Yeong had pointed out to her beforehand.

The itch to cross blades with the Unrivaled Under Heaven that very instant set the warrior's heart in her chest boiling — but to fight now would throw the whole operation into disarray, so she swallowed it down.