The Military Strategist
"General. I am ashamed. On the way we ran into an enemy ambush and…"
"What? You mean you never even joined up with General Cao Hong?"
Wen Ping had been puzzled when Feng Hai, whom he had dispatched as reinforcements, came back so soon. That puzzlement turned at once to blank dismay.
Feng Hai and his men looked nothing like a relief force. They looked like the purest remnants of a routed army. Of the five thousand troops he had sent, half were dead; the other half had come back wounded.
When Feng Hai finished his report, Wen Ping exploded.
"All you had to do was deliver the troops! And you couldn't even manage that? Is that what you're telling me right now?"
"The enemy had laid such a cunning trap…"
"I don't want to hear it!"
Wen Ping forced down the rage rising in his throat and began discussing what to do next. Assigning blame could wait; the urgent task was to reorganize a relief force and send it out again.
Of all times for the walls to collapse.
The defenses of Jiangxia, with one of its walls already down, were desperately unstable. That was why he had stayed behind to hold the city and left the simple job of delivering troops to a subordinate.
And now even that simple job had come to nothing.
While he gathered the shattered unit back together, Wen Ping also sent scouts to learn the situation.
"On the plain south of Wan, our Wei forces clashed with the Shu army. Wei was defeated. General Zhang Liao was badly wounded and has been carried to the rear."
The scouts' report was worse than anything he had imagined.
"What? General Zhang Liao? How?"
"He was wounded in single combat with the enemy general Jin Cheong. In the same fight, however, Jin Cheong also took a serious wound and withdrew to the rear as well."
"Unbelievable. That Zhang Liao…"
The one small mercy was that Jin Cheong, too, was out of action for the time being.
"And the Shu army under Zhang Fei is advancing north."
"Damn it. If Nanyang falls, coordination between the regions will become impossible. We have to reinforce them."
Wen Ping decided to form a new relief force.
"It seems the enemy is trying to keep our armies from linking up. But so long as we don't fall for any petty lure, we should still be able to get through. Feng Hai!"
"Yes, General."
"I am giving you one more chance. And this time Yin Xu will go with you. Feng Hai, form your scout parties with particular care, and take special caution when you pass the places where the enemy hid their ambush before!"
"Yes, General. This time I will not fail!"
Feng Hai and Yin Xu set out again for Wan with several thousand men. Wen Ping, for his part, gathered what troops remained and set about finishing the repairs to Jiangxia's walls.
Meanwhile Feng Hai, once more entrusted with several thousand troops, was leading his army with the firm resolve to get it right this time.
No greed. Just take it step by step.
He turned to Yin Xu, who had been given joint command.
"General Yin Xu. The enemy had an ambush posted on that mountain over there. There is no guarantee they will use the same stratagem again, but I intend to advance with care."
"Understood. We have already sent out a good number of scouts; there should be no trouble this time."
Yet even as Feng Hai led his force with all due caution, he was forced to face a threat he had never expected.
"General! An enemy force is approaching from the left!"
"What? From the left?"
Where the soldier pointed, a body of horsemen was indeed coming on, kicking up a cloud of dust. At a glance the force looked to number between eight and ten thousand.
They had been so intent on the road to Wan that they had paid little attention to the left. It had never occurred to them that the enemy might come from that direction.
"Whose unit is that?"
"Wait—that is…"
There was no need to strain to identify them. The great command banner snapping in the wind froze Feng Hai and Yin Xu where they stood.
"What? How is Guan Yu here? Wasn't he supposed to be recovering from his wounds?"
"What happened to our intelligence? Was it false information?"
They had no time even to panic. Before they could steady themselves, a general was already charging at the head of the enemy line.
"Whoever would receive this blade of Guan Yunchang, step forward!"
Guan Yu came thundering out, his famous long beard streaming, and Guan Ping, Liao Hua, and the rest of his officers and men charged hard on his heels.
"D-don't panic—meet them—"
"Form ranks—form ranks toward the enemy—"
They said the words, but the moment the Green Dragon Crescent Blade came hurtling toward them, every clear thought fled their minds.
From the start, ordinary generals like Feng Hai and Yin Xu were never going to stop a charge by a warrior of Guan Yu's caliber.
Wherever the Green Dragon Crescent Blade swept, a Wei soldier's head flew skyward without fail; the path he left behind was littered with corpses.
"General. Look—General Guan Yu is crushing the enemy over there."
"Yes. I see it too."
Zheng Sui pointed toward the battlefield where the fighting had erupted and called out.
Indeed, Guan Yu and the force under his command were literally grinding the enemy to pieces. How long I had wanted to see this sight.
Even after the Battle of Jingzhou, I had always imagined Guan Yu alive and still in action. And now that vision was unfolding right before my eyes.
How Guan Yu and I had come to appear at Jiangxia was this:
After the fight with Zhang Liao I had been wounded, so I returned briefly to Fancheng for treatment. Once I had recovered a little, I secretly joined Guan Yu's army and we marched for Jiangxia.
My wounds were not yet fully healed, so I could not take part in the fighting myself and was riding in a carriage driven by Zheng Sui—but simply being able to watch the course of the battle was satisfaction enough.
Both Zhang Liao and I had taken serious injuries, but recovery favored the younger of us.
"General. The enemy is already falling back. They look to be in full retreat."
Just as Zheng Sui said, the enemy was flinging weapons and banners to the ground and fleeing toward Jiangxia.
As expected of General Guan Yu.
Thanks to the false intelligence I had spread, the enemy believed this: that Guan Yu's wounds had worsened and he was recovering. For a man they thought was laid up to appear so suddenly—of course they could not fight properly.
No—even if they had known, there were few men under heaven who could stand against Guan Yu head-on.
Unfortunately, Guan Yu's own condition was far from ideal. Already past sixty, he had fought the fierce battles at Xiangfan while still carrying wounds; he was hardly at full strength. He had come out of sheer will to take part in the northern campaign and win merit, but I could not help worrying a little. At least Zhang Fei was still in peak form—that was a mercy.
"General. A message from General Guan Yu. He says the enemy has been defeated and fled into Jiangxia Castle. He will reorganize his forces and advance on the castle as well."
"Good. Yu Eun, prepare our men and follow."
"Yes."
I gave only the briefest of orders; Yu Eun was commanding the five hundred troops in my place.
And so, entrusting myself to the carriage, I set out at an easy pace for Jiangxia Castle.
My wounds were not yet healed, but with the herbal arts I had learned from Xu Shu I could tend them even inside the carriage whenever I found a moment.
"General. We have arrived at Jiangxia Castle."
"Good. What is Wen Ping doing?"
By the time we reached Jiangxia I surveyed the situation. Yu Eun, who had come with fresh news, reported what he had learned.
"This is the information General Liao Hua passed on. One wall of Jiangxia Castle has collapsed, so its defenses are unstable. But the enemy general Wen Ping is behaving strangely. There are no defensive troops visible on the walls at all, and no particular preparations inside the city either. General Guan Yu found it suspicious and has for the moment held off the attack, concentrating on reading their movements."
"Is that so?"
One side of Jiangxia's walls down, and Wen Ping neglecting the defenses…
I quietly turned the matter over in my mind and called up the historical record. The chronicles described something very much like this.
After the Battle of Yiling, Sun Quan attacked Jiangxia; around that time heavy rain brought down a section of the castle wall. Even so, Wen Ping remained so quiet he might as well not have been there, which made Sun Quan suspicious. Wen Ping himself simply lay in his official residence and did not rise.
Mistakenly concluding that Wen Ping had some scheme in place, Sun Quan withdrew.
The so-called Empty Fort Strategy—feigning an empty city to lure the enemy into a trap.
In the Romance, Zhuge Liang used the same method to deceive Sima Yi.
The timing is almost too perfect. Perhaps Wen Ping is using the Empty Fort Strategy here as well. Even if he isn't, after two defeats already there cannot be many troops left inside the walls.
Deciding there was no need to waste time, I persuaded Guan Yu to strike the castle at once.
Not long after, Guan Yu—having conferred with me on the plan—personally led his army and hurled it against Jiangxia.
"General. It looks like we've succeeded. Smoke is rising all over the city, and our banners are going up on the walls."
"Good. Things seem to be going well."
With Yu Eun and Zheng Sui beside me, I watched the assault from the rear with the follow-up force. Judging that the operation was proceeding smoothly, I issued further orders.
"Yu Eun. Commit more infantry. Drive the wedge home here. Support our troops already taking the city, and check whether there are any traps. Secure every point we have not yet taken. If any enemy officers who failed to escape are still inside, capture them alive. After that, seize their armories, granaries, and other key facilities."
"Yes, General."
Yu Eun ran off to take command of the rear troops.
Watching me sit in the carriage and issue orders left and right, Zheng Sui spoke up.
"General. Looking at you like this, you really seem like a military strategist."
"Hm? Do I?"
Come to think of it, in the Romance Zhuge Liang was often shown riding a four-wheeled carriage, waving his feather fan this way and that as he directed the army—sitting still, reading the enemy's schemes, and moving great hosts as if they were his own hands and feet.
I had always been the one charging with a spear, yet here I apparently looked like a strategist. It was not a bad feeling—but once my body was fully healed I would go back to the old way soon enough.
Just then a messenger rode up with news.
"A message from General Guan Yu. Jiangxia Castle is all but taken; he says you may enter the city."
In any case, Jiangxia had been secured without mishap.
"General. You should rest a little now. You must be exhausted."
"Perhaps I should."
"Yes. I will drive the carriage. Please rest easy."
"All right. If anything happens, tell me at once."
"Yes. Understood."
I closed the carriage window and drew the curtains. Then I buried myself in the bedding Zheng Sui had prepared.
Coming out before I had fully recovered had been a risk, but because I had come at the right moment we had been able to defeat the enemy's reinforcements in detail and take the castle as well. The risk had been worth it.
Inside the carriage Zheng Sui was driving with such care, I let the tension go and lay at ease. The wounds from the fight with Zhang Liao still ached, but my heart felt lighter.
And so, riding in the carriage, I entered Jiangxia Castle at a leisurely pace.