Preparing for What Comes Next
After I had routed Xu Huang, I turned, belatedly, on the Wei reinforcements that had only just pushed into Nanyang, and broke them one after another.
By the time Xu Shang and Lü Qian heard of Xu Huang's defeat, they were already shut inside our net. They barely kept their lives, scattering in every direction, each man saving himself as best he could.
In the midst of that flight Xu Shang was taken at last and put to death by Liu Yin, while Lü Qian scraped through and managed to join Xu Huang.
Xu Huang, Tian Yu, Xu Shang, Lü Qian—the troops under their command, taken together, outnumbered our Nanling army of a little over ten thousand several times over. Thirty thousand at the least. Yet they had been dazzled by the shock of Guan Yu's deed, the flood of the Han that set all Huaxia trembling, and the haste of their answer had reduced them to easy prey, beaten in detail.
A pity, but that was finished now. They were no fools, and with Cao Cao himself taking the field, to keep hunting them piecemeal was far more likely to see us swallowed in turn.
And the problem that outweighed all the rest was this.
"Supplies are urgent."
We were short of materiel.
Napoleon's art bought speed of maneuver at the price of a supply line that could never be trusted. He solved it by living off the country—plunder, to speak plainly—but that was not a method I could copy. It was a choice for an invading army. Serving under Lord Liu Bei, I had to act as an occupying force, and I could not set the hearts of the people aside. Living on what we had seized from the enemy had reached its end as well.
"Right. We've run wild long enough. Time we withdrew to Yancheng."
Wang Ping, who had been pinning Xu Huang and Tian Yu inside Wan while we broke the rest apart, joined us, and we returned to Guan Yu's main camp in truly triumphant style. A return in brocade—not the foolish spectacle of Xiang Yu that gave the phrase its name, but a proud homecoming after real merit. I had kept Guan Yu, nearly caught and encircled in his turn between Fan Castle and Xu Huang's army, free to throw everything into the taking of Xiangfan. That was no small service.
Perhaps he meant to acknowledge it. Guan Yu came out as far as Yancheng himself to meet us.
"Welcome."
That arrogant Guan Yu, coming out to receive me in person—I felt, truly, that I had arrived. Barely ten years ago, when I first stood before Liu Bei at my father's side, Guan Yu had scarcely spared me a glance. The first flicker of interest he ever sent my way was probably his reaction to the remark that only a man of his caliber was worth considering for a husband. And now he welcomed me with a thoroughly pleased smile, and the feeling left me strangely unsettled. Not for the worse. For the better.
If I had to say, I had always leaned toward Shu, and once I came to know Zhang Fei as my father, my attachment to Liu Bei and Guan Yu had only deepened. Not that I had any thought of taking them for parents-in-law. Still.
Walking into Yancheng with us, Guan Yu must have had a great deal he wanted to hear, yet he even had the courtesy to say I would be tired, that I should rest and we would speak the next day. Cao Cao still needed time to arrive, and in driving Xu Huang off we had bought ourselves room. There was no cause to refuse. However much this body of mine was a young frame overflowing with vigor and monstrous strength, fatigue grows heavy past a certain point.
Worn out from nights in the open, I took Yancheng's rough bed for a mattress of so-called modern science and dropped straight into sleep. It had been a very long time since I had slept so deeply.
When I opened my eyes again, having fallen asleep as if struck senseless, the world outside was still the dark of early dawn. The exhaustion was not wholly gone, but my body felt lighter. I rose, stepped out, and, seeing a light in a nearby room, walked that way without thinking.
Had he heard my footsteps? A deep, weighty voice came from within.
"Who is it."
At Guan Yu's voice I checked and answered.
"Zhang Lan, Second Uncle."
"Mm. You're up."
Guan Yu opened the door himself. He had been reading the Zuo Zhuan, it seemed; the book he always carried lay on the side table.
"Did you sleep well, Second Uncle?"
"I did. Hm. If you don't mind, shall we walk a while?"
"Yes. I'd like that."
The inner court was neither large nor splendid, but it was no bad place for a quiet walk. The weather, turning toward autumn, was cool and fit for a stroll at dawn, and Guan Yu, always so stern, was softer than his wont.
For a time we only walked, saying nothing. The hair I had left loose lifted and fluttered on the wind. Watching the dim light of daybreak catch faintly along the mountain's shoulder, Guan Yu spoke.
"How was Xu Gongming?"
He set the surname before the courtesy name, to mark Xu Huang apart from Zhuge Liang, who bore the same one, and in the way he said it I heard a faint longing for an old friend and old comrade in arms.
"He was formidable. Neither his martial might nor his command left anything wanting."
"And yet you won."
"That was…"
"There is no point in citing the quality of the troops. In the end, you were the one who won. All the rest is excuse and evasion. If he thought he would lose, Xu Gongming should never have taken the field. Straighten your shoulders. You have earned the right."
Praise and encouragement, from Guan Yu of all men. Awkward, I worked my lips. But what he said next struck me so hard I forgot even to close my mouth.
"I apologize for having held you at a distance."
"I—I'm sorry?"
Guan Yu, apologizing? And not because Liu Bei, the only man alive who could truly rein him in, had ordered it—of his own will? Words I could not easily believe dragged a stammering, witless answer out of me. Even at that, he asked back, unruffled.
"Do you remember crossing blades with Tan Zhi?"
"I remember. I was still green then."
"No need to humble yourself so. The spirit of that day is what set you where you stand, and you have become a foundation for the restoration of Han."
What I had done was no small thing. I had saved Pang Tong, killed Cao Hong and Zhang He, and led Guan Yu to keep fighting until he followed the legend of the flood that shook Huaxia. No one else would ever know it, but I was cutting away, one by one, the first threads that had brought Liu Bei to ruin.
"I will not ask how you foresaw the Han's flooding. Whether you divined it as the fortune-tellers do, or read it in the stars as the court astronomers do, I cannot say. And what meaning would there be in it? This, however, I will ask before we part."
His face grew grave.
"Sun Quan's betrayal, and treachery within our own state. Was that true as well?"
By now Lü Meng would be well into his move. And Pang Tong too. Having caught it, Pang Tong would have carried the fact to Guan Yu. Suspicion alone might have been one thing, but once the invasion had actually begun, to hide it from Guan Yu, supreme commander of Jing Province, would have been dereliction and insubordination both.
I nodded.
"…Yes."
"Insolent. So you discussed the matter with the military advisor alone, and left me out."
"That was only while we still had nothing but suspicion…"
In the midst of a northern campaign we could hardly speak without hard proof, and had I told Guan Yu as well, he might have lost the moment of the flood that shook Huaxia to suspecting Mi Fang and Fu Shiren. I was about to explain when he smiled faintly and stroked his beard.
"I know. I was only teasing. Don't look so startled."
Heaven help me. A day for sights rarely seen in a lifetime. Guan Yu, making a joke.
"But there is a countermeasure, I trust? If not, this is a matter that would force us to consider withdrawal."
"Of course there is."
"As I thought. This Shiyuan—I never took him for a man with so sly a corner. I should have seen it from the moment he declined to join the northern campaign."
It seemed to nag at him that they had prepared for Sun Quan's betrayal while leaving him neatly out of it, and he took Pang Tong to task. Not in earnest—only enough to show a little hurt.
"With Shiyuan there, I need not worry over Jing Province. I have only Wei to mind. And you? What will you do? Will you go down to Jing Province?"
"No. Military Advisor Pang will see to Jing Province. I mean to remain here and stand with you, Second Uncle."
Not Pang Tong alone. Pang De stood with him, and the talents Pang Tong had brought back on his return to Jing Province were more than one or two. Ma Liang, close enough to Zhuge Liang to be called a sworn brother, and known as White Brows; Zhang Ren, who had resisted fiercely at Luo City until he was taken, then come over with Liu Zhang's surrender; Meng Da, who had betrayed from Shu to Wei and from Wei back to Shu, yet whose ability was outstanding; Fu Rong, father of Fu Qian, who had served as my father's lieutenant in the struggle for Hanzhong and won merit there. For the defense of Jing Province, Pang Tong had taken care in posting the men who would be his own hands and feet.
And above all, there was the man who had planned this great design together with me and with Pang Tong.
At my confidence, Guan Yu nodded.
"Today, Xiangfan will fall."
He said it with the certainty of a man remarking that the sun would rise in the east today as well.
"You remain in Yancheng and see to the army's strength. If my help is not needed against Sun Quan's betrayal, we will soon be facing him."
"By him, you mean…"
"You know, don't you."
Guan Yu narrowed his eyes and took that name of love and hate into his mouth.
"That Cao Cao is coming."