Sun Quan Marches on Hefei
From the year 214 into 215, the political landscape of the continent continued to shift.
First, after Liu Bei seized Yizhou, a dispute arose over the ownership of Jingzhou.
The quarrel had its roots in Liu Bei's borrowing of Jiangling and the surrounding Jingzhou territories from Sun Quan of Eastern Wu before his campaign to conquer Yizhou. Armies were mobilized and faced each other down; envoys passed back and forth; a war of nerves was waged that stopped short of bloodshed.
But when Cao Cao struck at Zhang Lu in Hanzhong, Yizhou itself appeared under threat. So Liu Bei was the first to seek reconciliation with Sun Quan, ceding the three commanderies of Changsha, Lingling, and Guiyang. With that, the dispute was settled. Or rather, it appeared to be settled. Few could foresee the great conflict that still lay ahead.
Meanwhile, Sun Quan of Eastern Wu once again drew his sword in pursuit of his ambitions. The tip of that blade pointed nowhere other than Hefei.
Standing before the walls of Hefei, Sun Quan drew a deep breath. He gazed up at those towering ramparts and for a moment lost himself in thought.
This place held no fond memories for him. Had it not been only a few years ago that he had ridden the momentum of his victory at Red Cliffs, only to come away empty-handed?
Turning back without conquering Hefei, he had realized then that he still fell short of surpassing his father and elder brother.
But this time, he was confident. Last time, most of his key generals had been away at Nanjun — Jiangling. Now he had brought with him every renowned warrior he could name.
Lü Meng, Gan Ning, Ling Tong, Xu Sheng, He Qi, Zhou Tai, Jiang Qin, Chen Wu, Pan Zhang, Song Qian, and more.
Moreover, the force defending Hefei numbered a mere seven thousand, while behind him stood an army of one hundred thousand.
With these numbers, victory is certain! I will avenge that last battle without fail!
Sun Quan looked back. There, one hundred thousand troops displayed their full might — warriors he had no doubt would fight all the more bravely for having their lord personally leading them.
The Wu army camp before Hefei. The hour was still before dawn.
A few soldiers standing sentry at the front of the camp were murmuring among themselves.
"They said we'd attack once morning comes, right?"
"I don't want to fight. Still, we stood watch at dawn, so they'll let us rest a bit, won't they?"
"Come to think of it, I heard a few soldiers collapsed and got sent to the rear. What if a plague breaks out at this rate?"
They had marched boldly to Hefei under Lord Sun Quan's command and set up camp, which was all well and good — but in truth, the soldiers' morale was not particularly high. On top of that, they had launched several assaults over the past few days trying to take the city, yet the results had been thoroughly unsatisfying. And now ominous rumors of an epidemic were circulating as well.
"Last time we came here we left without achieving a thing. We should just go through the motions of attacking and head home."
Far off, the mountain ridges began to glow a faint yellow.
"Almost dawn, isn't it? Looks like they won't try a night raid after all."
"We've got ten times their numbers. You think they'd dare come out? They'll stay holed up in the city. I wouldn't come out either."
"I'm so sleepy.... Wish the shift change would hurry up so I can go in...."
Eyelids grew heavy, and one by one soldiers began to droop their heads — the product of dawn fatigue mixed with complacency. And then—
"Hey. What's that? Is the gate open?"
One soldier who still had his wits about him spoke up.
"What is it? Look over there. Are the enemies coming out?"
"Wh-what? No way...."
That "no way" was exactly right. Looking where he pointed, dark silhouettes that hadn't been visible moments before could now be seen.
Then they began pounding the ground and charging this way. What they meant was unmistakable.
"E-enemy attack! Beat the drums!"
The Wu army, caught off guard, was slow to respond. Before a single soldier could even grab a drumstick, a great voice rang out from the midst of the surging black shadows.
"I am Zhang Liao!"
Zhang Liao bellowed, and his soldiers roared as one as they charged in. Seizing the moment of vulnerability, Zhang Liao and Li Dian — the generals defending Hefei — had led eight hundred elite troops in a surprise assault.
Boom, boom, boom, boom.
A beat too late, the drumbeats rolled through the Wu camp.
"All hands, battle stations!"
Startled by the uproar, the Wu soldiers scrambled for their weapons.
Zhang Liao's force, which had steeled itself moments earlier, was already fully warmed up — but Sun Quan's army, just rising from the cold ground, could only move sluggishly.
At the head of the raiding party, Zhang Liao shouted his own name at the top of his lungs and in an instant smashed through the fortifications, driving deep into the camp.
Wu soldiers tumbled out of their tents in confusion and leveled their spears at Zhang Liao.
"Remember this well! My name is Zhang Liao!"
The Wu army was already overwhelmed by sheer presence.
At Zhang Liao's battle cry the Wu soldiers flinched, and the ji he swung knocked aside the spears blocking his path and drove its blade into the throat of the man holding them. Bright red blood sprayed out and stained the tent.
A few soldiers and officers tried to bar his way, but they too fell before Zhang Liao's ji like leaves in an autumn wind.
The soldiers following right behind Zhang Liao were no less formidable in spirit.
"Wah! Wah!"
Though they numbered a mere eight hundred Wei troops, the aura they projected blanketed the hundred-thousand-strong Wu army.
The Wei soldiers poured out war cries until the veins stood out on their necks, while the faces of the Wu soldiers went deathly pale. As the Wu soldiers edged backward, the Wei troops charged without hesitation and swung their weapons. The number of Wu soldiers falling with mortal wounds only grew, and in proportion their morale plummeted to the ground.
Morale — a factor of overwhelming influence in battle.
No matter how great the numbers, an army that has lost the will to fight cannot fulfill its purpose. That is an immutable truth. The Wu army, overwhelming in numbers, could not project any force at all and was being dominated by a handful of troops.
Starting with a few soldiers who flung down their spears and turned their backs to flee, the Wu army began to collapse at a rapid pace.
"Don't run — fight!"
One officer who appeared to be a deputy commander tried to restore order, but Zhang Liao closed on him like lightning and sent him to the afterlife.
That only poured oil on the fire of lost fighting spirit. The Wu army no longer thought of stopping the invaders — they were too busy scattering and fleeing in all directions.
"What's going on!"
"Sir — the enemy has launched a surprise attack."
Sun Quan realized the disturbance not long after Zhang Liao's raid began.
"What! How many of them are there?"
"We don't know the exact number yet, but it seems to be roughly a few hundred."
"A mere handful. Form an encirclement at once. Crush them from both sides!"
"Yes, sir!"
Up to that point, Sun Quan still had composure — until Zhang Liao's force came surging toward his great standard.
Sun Quan saw the cloud of dust heading straight for where he stood. And the sight of his own soldiers scattering in every direction.
"That is...?"
Before Sun Quan could even fully grasp the situation—
"I am Zhang Liao! Enemy commander, come forth!"
"Wha—!"
At the enemy general's cry, Sun Quan's eyes went wide. The enemy had already reached this far?
"My lord, you must flee at once!"
When his deputy commanders shouted, Sun Quan finally grasped the urgency of the crisis. Escorted by his guards and officers, he began to flee Zhang Liao's pursuit.
But those at his side were few. Naturally enough — and the taste of it was bitter, and hard to understand.
One hundred thousand. Our army is one hundred thousand strong — what is everyone doing!
Of course, the Wu army had not simply sat still and taken the beating. Outside the area Zhang Liao's raiding force was sweeping through, the Wu army was using its numerical superiority to gradually tighten the encirclement.
Having fled as far as a nearby small hill, Sun Quan began holding that position with only a handful of troops. He personally took up a long ji and stabbed down the enemy soldiers pressing up the slope. When their lord stepped forward, his soldiers too found their courage and began fighting desperately.
"If you're not a coward, come down and face this Zhang Liao's spear!"
The enemy general who had doggedly pursued him still taunted him in a booming voice. But Sun Quan only clenched his teeth and kept loosing arrows and swinging his long ji.
Damn it. If only I had the martial prowess of Father and Elder Brother....
"General Zhang Liao, you must turn back now. The enemy is trying to encircle us from both sides!"
Li Dian, who had been following from the rear, raced up to Zhang Liao. When Zhang Liao looked left and right, he could see the enemy's great host forming layers of encirclement.
Even Zhang Liao's assault, which had seemed unstoppable, had to reverse course here.
Leaving a touch of regret behind, Zhang Liao and Li Dian led their troops through the encirclement and withdrew. But retreat was not as easy as water flowing downhill.
"General! Will you abandon us and go!"
A handful of soldiers who had not yet broken free called out to Zhang Liao from within the enemy's encirclement.
"I cannot simply leave them."
These were men who had steeled themselves together before the battle. Abandoning them would deal a heavy blow to morale going forward.
Zhang Liao immediately turned his horse and charged to rescue his comrades trapped in layer upon layer of encirclement. And once more he displayed the power of that breakthrough — the power that had sent the Wu army fleeing with their tails between their legs.
"General Zhang Liao!"
Seeing Zhang Liao return to save them, the soldiers cried out in overwhelming gratitude.
In the end, Zhang Liao rescued even them and successfully withdrew all the way to Hefei, which Yue Jin was holding.
The fighting had begun at daybreak and continued until the sun stood high in the sky.
The Wu army's actual losses in manpower were not particularly great, but they had suffered a crushing blow to something that, in a sense, mattered more than numbers — their morale. Zhang Liao's majesty, in particular, was more than enough to burn a searing impression into the minds of the Wu soldiers.
After Zhang Liao's surprise attack, nearly all the composure and fighting spirit Sun Quan had possessed drained away.
That did not mean Sun Quan abandoned the assault on Hefei. For more than ten days he hammered at Hefei's gates, but in the end he could not take them.
To make matters worse, an epidemic swept through the camp. As more and more soldiers fell unfit for combat, Sun Quan had no choice but to make a decision.
"There's nothing for it. We withdraw from here for now."
Turning his back on Hefei, Sun Quan could not help but feel heavy-hearted.
But in the midst of the retreat, he made an almost unbelievable decision. He volunteered to take the rearguard himself.
His subordinate generals tried to stop him, but he would not yield. Without doing at least this much, he felt he could not uphold his dignity as a sovereign. And he wanted to show them, even a little, that he too possessed something of his father and elder brother's spirit.
Those two would certainly have placed themselves at the very front. Why should I be any less capable?
Sun Quan led only his personal troops and remained at the very rear, covering the withdrawal of his army.
But his spirited action would soon prove to be nothing more than a childish one.
"Good. Our unit will withdraw as well now."
"Yes, my lord. We receive your command!"
Most of the forces had pulled back, and only his unit remained.
No sooner had Sun Quan's order fallen than Lü Meng directed the withdrawal. Already uneasy that Sun Quan had stayed behind, he wanted to put as much distance as possible between them and Hefei as quickly as he could.
But before they could safely complete the retreat, once again the gates of Hefei swung open.
And a body of cavalry poured out and charged straight at them.
"I am Zhang Liao!"
"Z-Zh—"
"Zhang Liao is coming!"