The Battle of Xiabian

The Wei army posted at Xiabian was built, just as Zhang Lan had expected, around its cavalry.

Cao Cao had named Cao Hong commander of the host, but the man who truly held command was Cao Xiu, Colonel of the Cavalry. Cao Xiu also led the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, and among Cao Cao's kinsmen generals he was widely reckoned one of the finest—firmly in the upper rank.

In deference to seniority and station Cao Cao had set Cao Hong at the head of the army, yet the general he had actually chosen to lead it was Cao Xiu.

Cao Hong, Cao Cao's cousin and a meritorious founder of the state, had every reason to bristle at being overshadowed by a man of his nephew's generation. Even so, he did as Cao Cao said. He entrusted the conduct of the army to Cao Xiu and kept for himself only the giving of orders.

Now commander of the host, Cao Xiu listened closely to the scouts. He had been sunk in thought, still as a stone statue, when one report made his brow twitch.

"Say that again."

"They say Zhang Fei is making for Gushan."

"If we lose Gushan, our road of retreat is gone, is it not?"

Cao Hong, hearing the reports at Cao Xiu's side, spoke in a rush. The crushing fame of Zhang Fei—the man who had shattered Zhang He, one of Wei's foremost generals—and the weight of Gushan as a vital choke point bore down together on his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shoulders.

But Cao Xiu was still young, his blood running hot, and Zhang Fei's renown did not reach him.

"An empty show of force."

"Empty?"

"Yes. They have sent a detachment to Xiabian, and that has hampered our scouting. That we learned of this so quickly even so means they meant for us to see it."

It was the same game they had played against Zhang He: deliberately laying out the information one wished the enemy to have, so as to steer what the enemy did next. Cao Xiu was not a man to be caught twice by a trick already used.

"If they truly meant to seal our retreat and land a single blow, they would have hidden it. Zhang Fei's artifice is meant to frighten us into caution and buy them time. Strike now, while they are scattered, and victory will not be hard. Once the vanguard breaks, they will see that their scheme has failed and pull back."

"Then should we not attack at once?"

The question came from Cao Zhen, another of Cao Cao's second-generation kinsmen generals, of the same cohort as Cao Xiu.

Unlike Cao Xiu, who was Cao Cao's blood, Cao Zhen had been born a Qin. In honor of his father's merit, Cao Cao had granted him the surname Cao—a standing little different from that of an adopted son. Raised, however, under Cao Cao's care alongside Cao Pi, Cao Xiu, and the rest, he was as good as a true brother to them.

"Zidan. You take the vanguard."

Cao Xiu himself, as chief of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, yielded to no one in valor, but Cao Zhen's courage was of another order. For all his massive frame he had an agility hard to credit; he had once brought down a tiger with a shot loosed backward from the saddle.

"I leave the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to you."

"Don't worry. I'll smash Liu Bei's lackeys flat in a single stroke."

"Uncle, take the center, if you would."

Cao Hong's puzzlement showed.

"You won't take it yourself?"

"I'll stand ready for whatever comes."

He might be treated as a second-rate general, forever standing in the shadow of Cao Ren and Xiahou Yuan, but Cao Hong was a veteran of every kind of fight. Set against the likes of Wu Lan and Lei Tong, even he was a cleaver meant for oxen.

With Cao Zhen at the fore and Cao Hong in command, Liu Bei's nameless officers would be swept away in an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠instant.

There is no chance Zhang Fei bursts in. Still—with preparation, no disaster. Zhang Fei has a swiftness to match the General Who Campaigns West. One can never be certain.

Barely one double-hour after the word came that Zhang Fei was bound for Gushan, the Wei army began its march on Xiabian.

The contest for Hanzhong had opened in earnest.

I caught my father just as he was about to enter Gushan.

Wu Lan and Lei Tong's force was not large, and neither was my father's, so the plan was to post them at both Xiabian and Gushan and check the enemy's movements from either side.

I went looking for him in haste. Word that I had come brought him out to meet me himself, and he asked, with a rare look of surprise on his face:

"What—already?"

"I brought only cavalry. The enemy commander is Cao Hong?"

"Hmph. Cao Hong is nothing but a straw man. The real one is a fellow called Cao Xiu."

Just as I had already judged him a fine general, Cao Xiu's fame had grown to match his skill. In this age, a character appraisal from a man of note weighed heavily on one's name. Of all such judgments, the most famous was the one laid on Cao Cao himself: a capable minister in an age of order, a treacherous hero in an age of chaos. And Cao Xiu was the very man that same Cao Cao had declared would be the thousand-li horse of the clan.

"If it's Cao Xiu, he'll seize on our being split and strike first."

"Even so, this is the best course. Mass our whole strength in one place, and they'll simply trust their numbers and come on."

Knowing that, my father had staked the matter on even odds. If they failed to read the bluff and hesitated, the gain was ours. If they saw through it and attacked, we would lose only part of the army, and so be spared the worst.

The fight at Xiabian was never going to decide the war for Hanzhong. It was a skirmish at the outset—nothing more than each side taking the other's measure. Even so, the greater our victory in Hanzhong, and the sooner it came, the clearer an uncertain future would become.

"If they see through our making something out of nothing and attack, then we simply show them the real thing."

"You mean if they truly hit Xiabian, we ride down and catch them between us?"

"Yes. When you come down off Gushan, they'll fall into confusion. Even if they've prepared for it, doubt will gnaw at them—the fear that their judgment may have been wrong. In that gap, I'll strike Cao Hong."

By rights, the moment Xiabian came under attack, my father ought to pull his men back. Give what had to be given. Save what had to be saved. Strike from both Xiabian and Gushan as we might, the enemy would still outnumber us two to one. Cao Hong, Cao Xiu, and Cao Zhen were not the utterly useless Xiahou Mao. A simple pincer would not be enough.

But while they fought on two fronts—if a thousand cavalry cut straight across the field?

We might not win outright. We would at least buy our own men room to get clear.

"It's dangerous."

"With the two of us, Father—you and I—it can be done."

That is what a peerless warrior is. Did Xiang Yu break the Han encirclement because he had men to spare? With a bare hundred riders he cut through more than five thousand ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the enemy. Our numbers were dozens of times his, and the ground favored us besides. And above all, this fight would not be made alone, as Xiang Yu had made his. My father and I would make it together.

"A reckless notion..."

I was just swallowing the disappointment—so it would not do, after all—when he roared, vast and unrestrained.

Yes. Even at Changban, my father had already been the peerless champion who set the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry trembling. Add to that a mind for stratagem, and he was nothing less than the strongest warrior in Liu Bei's army.

"I'll entrust my cavalry to you as well. Fu Rong!"

"Yes, General."

"You heard him. Follow the General of Radiant Might."

He called me not his daughter, but the General of Radiant Might, making it plain that this was army business.

Fu Rong? Was this the Fu Rong I knew—the man who, together with his son Fu Qian, had fought for Shu until the day he died? I didn't think I had seen him at the Battle of Dangqu. The doubt answered itself at once. When I sent Zhang Da and Fan Qiang off to distant posts, my father had drawn in a man he had long had his eye on, to fill the empty place among his lieutenants.

So this was where defusing those bombs had led. It was no great matter, and I was about to set out with Fu Rong when someone came running, shouting.

"General! Take me with you!"

"Qian!"

He was a boy who had not yet shed the last of his youth. Fu Qian, Fu Rong's son, dropped to his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠knees not before his father but before me, pressed his hands together, and spoke with desperate earnestness.

"I want to go with you."

"We're cavalry."

"I've known how to ride since I was small. Give me only one spare horse. I'll never be a burden."

In truth, the part laid on me and the cavalry was the most dangerous of all. Lose the drive of the breakthrough and get caught in the enemy's midst, and slaughter was all but certain. The resolve to volunteer for a death-ground like that was admirable—and for that very reason, all the harder to grant.

But Fu Qian drew on a claim paid in advance, one I could not turn aside.

"I've heard that from the age of nine, General, you took the field beside your honored father, the General Who Campaigns Against the Caitiffs. Don't cast me off just because I'm young!"

"...How old are you?"

"Eighteen."

"The same as I."

I glanced at Ma Dai. Quick to read me, he brought up one of my spare horses at once and held out the reins.

"Mount."

"Thank you! Even if I die, I'll be of use to you, General!"

"I give you the horse so you won't die. Live. Do that, and I'll keep you at my side myself."

Was the offer to take him into my service so moving? Fu Qian's eyes brimmed, and he bowed to me as he answered.

"Then, Lan'er, you'll be short one horse."

With that, my father led up a black horse of his own.

"Take my horse."

"Father, that horse is..."

"Yes. It's Baoyuewu."

Baoyuewu—the Leopard-Moon Crow. Fleet as a leopard, swift as fleeting light, black as a crow. It did not match the Red Hare, yet it was still a famed steed among the famed steeds of the realm. My father's quiet affection traveled down the reins as he gave me that horse.

"General! Report—the enemy is marching on Xiabian!"

At the scout's word I met my father's eyes. When our gazes locked, he nodded. Nothing needed saying for what passed between us.

Each of us turned toward the place we had to be.

Once I was in the saddle, I spoke to Ma Dai, Gu Bu, and Fu Rong, newly joined to us.

"The General Who Campaigns Against the Caitiffs will soon come down from Gushan and attack. We move without delay."

The moment Wu Lan and Lei Tong, posted at Xiabian, clashed with the Wei army would be the moment my father drove in. And we ourselves would have to drive in when the Wei host split in two to stop him.

We swung wide around Gushan and came down. Before long, war cries and the thunder of feet descending the mountain rolled out behind us.

The instant we left Gushan and struck open ground, a dust cloud billowed up across the way. Tens of thousands of men and horses tangled into one seething mass. Over there, on ground where the tragedy of kin slaughtering kin ran riot, a hell had been painted on the earth.

"All forces—awl formation."

A formation drawn out to a point, like an awl, with a single tip at its head.

"I take the van. Gu Bu, Ma Dai—my left and right are yours."

"Aye!"

"General Fu Rong, hold the formation from the middle."

"Understood."

Before we plunged into the melee I could hear my heart pounding. The horse's snort fell into time with that beat. Man and horse alike—was the terror of looking death in the face the same?

Then adrenaline spilled through my brain. The natural drug the mind itself makes blew the fear aside and poured excitement into the space it left. I drew a breath until my lungs were full, and loosed it all at once.

"Charge—!"

Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud—!

Hooves hammered the earth in a rolling thunder. Like an arrow loosed. Like a shot fired. We cut down whatever barred the way, trampled it, broke it underfoot, and drove on—and on.

We crossed the field before the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry they so prized could so much as reach us. The awl that had pierced the heart of the enemy line drove on and stabbed into the vitals.

"Cao Hong—!!!"

An enemy general in a splendid war robe turned toward me. Eyes wide with shock. I was reflected in them.

The spark Wu Lan and Lei Tong had guarded with their lives. The flame my father had breathed into being. Now it was my turn to spread it.