Return and Return
“How is he?”
When I asked the physician stepping out of the tent about Xu Huang’s condition, he slowly shook his head.
“The wound is deep. Even if we pour every effort into treating him, I fear it will be difficult.”
“...”
Guan Yu had wanted to care for the wounds of his old friend Xu Huang, yet the injury seemed far graver than expected. Even should the wound heal, they said, he would never again serve as a warrior.
So this was where his fate ended.
I had heard that Guan Yu was speaking alone with Xu Huang inside the tent.
“Elder Brother… to meet you like this…”
“Brother Yunchang… Did you never expect a day like this would come? So long as one lives as a warrior…”
“True enough, yet it still feels sudden. I had imagined it, of course, but never wished for it to end this way. I had been waiting for the day we might share another cup of wine.”
“Still, to speak with you like this at the last—is that not a fine enough ending? Hahaha. Cough. Cough.”
Xu Huang smiled bitterly, blood at the corner of his mouth, and Guan Yu bowed his head with a long, heavy sigh.
“Are you blaming yourself? Do not. This came of serving our states, did it not? We serve different lords—such an end is no strange thing. Rather, because I fought with all I had, I hold no regrets.”
“...Have you any last words or requests?”
“Lord Guan, strike off my head. If the peerless Lord Guan himself carries out the sentence, that too is an honor for a warrior.”
“Very well. I shall execute the sentence myself and return your body northward. That is the last I can do for you.”
“Thank you. In serving the state I always resolved to set private feelings aside… yet it seems not so bad to have held such feelings after all.”
And so the two men exchanged their final farewell.
The sentence was carried out by Guan Yu’s own hand. Given Xu Huang’s nature, even had he lived he would never have surrendered to our side; he would have chosen death instead.
Guan Yu had the body prepared so it would not corrupt, laid it in a makeshift coffin, and ordered one of his officers and several soldiers to escort it back to Xudu.
“All right—everyone, we return to Gong’an.”
With the matter settled, Guan Yu gave the order to withdraw.
Before departing he exchanged final farewells with Gan Ning, Ling Tong, and the others.
“Lieutenant Jin, it truly grieves me to part like this. Once we go our ways, who knows when we shall see each other again? In any case, you have worked hard, and…”
“Travel safely…”
“Yes. I was glad to fight alongside both generals as well.”
Gan Ning remained as boisterous as ever; Ling Tong said little, yet treated us with perfect courtesy.
Though we had won successive victories at Red Cliffs and then Jiangling, the mood among Wu’s generals was far from bright. Zhou Yu’s arrow wound was severe.
He had not even left his tent; the injury to his side, taken during the siege, seemed far worse than first thought. There was little celebration of the triumph, and our parting was brief.
“Then—until next time!”
Leaving Gan Ning waving behind us, Guan Yu and I withdrew the army and returned to where Liu Bei waited.
“Guan Ping, take command of the march. Liao Hua, oversee the supply train.”
Whether from the death of his friend or not, Guan Yu’s voice was uncharacteristically subdued.
“General…”
“Mm. Lieutenant Jin. You fought splendidly. Continue to fight so. I shall report every one of your merits to our lord without omission. When we return you will receive great reward.”
“Yes…”
Thus we made our way back to Gong’an, our present base. Guan Yu spoke little the entire journey.
And so we returned to Gong’an, where Liu Bei currently held his seat.
“Guan Yu, and Jin Cheong. I hear you drove Cao Ren from Jiangling. You have all labored hard. Truly, you are my strength.”
“Yes. And congratulations, my lord, on securing the four southern commanderies of Jing.”
While we fought at Jiangling, Liu Bei had pacified all four southern commanderies. Needless to say, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Zhuge Liang, Xu Shu and the rest had played their parts.
Thus Wuling, Lingling, Guiyang, and Changsha all now lay under Liu Bei’s banner. Step by step we were expanding our power.
Then the day we enter Yi Province cannot be far off.
Secure supplies, provisions, and talent here, then advance into Shu. That was how I foresaw it. And if so, Zhuge Liang’s plan to divide the realm into three would be no mere dream.
“You must be weary. Return and rest from the journey.”
“Yes, my lord. I shall take my leave first.”
Guan Yu paid his respects and withdrew ahead of me.
“Lieutenant Jin. Stay a moment and speak with me.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“In this battle you shot Xu Huang and slew Yu Jin, I am told?”
“Yes, that is so, my lord.”
“A splendid performance—far beyond even my expectations. To bring down a fierce general like Xu Huang is a deed to be praised for generations. I shall examine the merits in detail and bestow rewards accordingly.”
“Thank you.”
“Good. And…”
Liu Bei paused, then continued.
“Does the shooting of Xu Huang weigh on your heart?”
“Ah… that…”
He was not wrong. I had done my utmost in that moment, yet seeing the usually proud Guan Yu so downcast made it hard to rejoice purely in the merit I had won.
“Do not take it too much to heart. Yunchang is a man of deep feeling; once he has placed someone in his heart, he finds it hard to cast them out. That is why, even through hardship, he abandoned wealth and glory to keep following me, is it not? Haha.”
Liu Bei laughed once, then spoke again.
“He is not one to resent you for it. You simply did what your place required. Do not carry it with you—only continue as you have until now.”
“Yes, my lord. Thank you.”
“I shall go to Yunchang myself. You return and rest.”
Liu Bei’s comfort lightened my heart considerably.
“Father. I have returned.”
“Yes, Cheong. You have come back safe once more.”
I was able to reunite with my father as well.
“Yes. I heard you distinguished yourself in the conquest of the four southern commanderies. Congratulations.”
“Nothing compared to your deeds. From what I hear, you performed magnificently. As your father I am proud. Yet more than that—your safe return is what gladdens me most.”
“Father…”
I was not unaware. Every time I set out for the perilous battlefield, my father’s heart clenched with worry.
“I have been thinking…”
He seemed to ponder a moment, then spoke.
“I no longer intend to stop you from going to war, or to fretting over it. How could I break that stubborn will of yours? Haha.”
“Father…”
In truth I had never managed any proper filial piety since coming here, yet he had always been a father.
“But promise me this one thing. That you will never be hurt.”
“Yes. I promise.”
Hefei.
For the state of Wu, a strategic key among keys—the bridgehead for any advance into the Central Plains.
Far from Jiangling, events at Hefei were unfolding in a very different pattern from the victory there.
Riding the triumph of Red Cliffs, Sun Quan himself had led an army across the Yangtze and marched all the way to Hefei.
The great victory at Red Cliffs has raised our army’s morale to the heavens. This time I shall command in person and prove I am in no way inferior to my father or elder brother.
He had steeled himself to show, in this battle, the blade he had long honed in his heart.
The victory at Red Cliffs had also won the hearts of the great clans of Jiangdong, making it far easier to raise a large host.
Yet against the solidity of Hefei’s walls that blade soon dulled and lost its edge.
The man holding Hefei was one Zhang Ji.
At the time the situation inside Hefei was far from good. Plague had spread, many suffered, and torrential rains had brought the walls near collapse.
Yet the virtue of the former governor Liu Fu and Zhang Ji’s desperate resistance bound the soldiers and people of Hefei tightly together, and that unity became the shield that withstood Sun Quan’s fierce assaults.
Was Hefei always so impregnable a fortress?
For more than a month Sun Quan hammered at Hefei, yet achieved nothing of note. He could not help growing restless.
“My lord, we have obtained information from an enemy spy.”
One of his officers brought word to Sun Quan, who stood grinding his teeth as he glared at the walls of Hefei.
“Intelligence? What is it?”
“We captured an enemy agent attempting to slip into Hefei. Here is the letter he carried.”
Sun Quan took the letter. It read as follows:
A mixed force of forty thousand infantry and cavalry will soon arrive. Hold out until then.
Damn! Enemy reinforcements are coming!
Reading the letter, Sun Quan could only panic. Hefei alone was already more than he could handle; if forty thousand enemy troops arrived, there would be no way to withstand them.
“There is no choice. We shall withdraw the army.”
Left with no alternative, Sun Quan ordered the retreat.
In truth it was Zhang Ji’s stratagem. The reinforcements Cao Cao had sent were only Zhang Xi’s thousand cavalry. Zhang Ji had inflated the number to forty thousand and deliberately leaked the false intelligence to Sun Quan’s forces.
Completely taken in, Sun Quan pulled his army all the way back to Jianye. Before departing he glared at the walls of Hefei and vowed, and vowed again:
This time I leave empty-handed—but I shall return, and I shall scale those walls.