The Trap
I had been running my unit primarily on surprise raids, clashing with the Qingzhou Soldiers under Zang Ba a couple more times.
The enemy were Qingzhou men, veterans of chaotic melees, so small-scale ambushes never dealt them a truly crushing blow. Still, the repeated hit-and-run strikes were more than enough to sour Zang Ba’s temper.
That said, I had not landed a decisive blow. Two or three hundred cavalry simply had their limits.
While I was still turning over how best to deal with Zang Ba and his Qingzhou troops, Pang Tong came to me with a proposal.
“I hear that bastard Zang Ba loses his mind and charges the moment he spots the Pian-general—your rank. We might as well use that.”
“Military Advisor Pang. Have you thought of a good plan?”
“Of course I have. Fa Zheng already contributed his share—you think I’m going to sit idle?”
His scheme, in outline, was this: put forward a double of me, lure Zang Ba out, then spring the ambush.
“Their movements have grown sharper lately. Means they’ve gotten used to our raids. I’ve surveyed the ground—this area here is perfect for drawing him in.”
Pang Tong pointed to one corner of the map.
“If the man has any brains at all, he’ll be waiting for us around there. So we station General Jin’s double in that vicinity. They’ll come at us from this side. We pretend to flee, lead him all the way here—then we hit him.”
I tilted my head as I listened to Fengchu’s plan.
“It sounds like a solid operation, but isn’t it also a dangerous one? Zang Ba will come at us like a man possessed—that much is certain.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve already mapped every fold of the terrain and built the plan around it.”
“Even so… finding a double is a problem in itself. He has to look like me, doesn’t he?”
Yu Eun spoke up from the side.
“General. If we’re talking about a double, one man comes to mind.”
“Who?”
It wasn’t Yu Eun himself—he was a powerfully built man, far too tall and broad to pass for my slender frame.
The double he named was close at hand: the timid soldier Zheng Sui.
He was young—younger than me, as it turned out—and his features were fine enough that he could pass for a female general like me. As a bonus, his build was nearly the same.
“You won’t have to fight. Just run and draw them. I’ll ride beside you as escort.”
“Y-Yu Eun, sir—the Duwei?”
“That’s right. With me guarding you, what’s there to worry about? Hahaha!”
“If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. There’s no absolute need for this.”
When Zheng Sui looked flustered, I added a word of my own. He thought for a moment, then spoke.
“General. If the plan works, we can end the war that much sooner, can’t we? And cut our own casualties as well.”
“Mm. Probably.”
It was an operation aimed at smashing the enemy’s main force—the Qingzhou Soldiers. Done right, it would swing the whole situation further in our favor.
“Then I’ll do it. Please let me.”
“Are you sure? You’ll be all right?”
Zheng Sui stepped forward with uncharacteristic resolve.
His usual timid nature made me worry, but I remembered how, at the Battle of Tangju, he had thrown himself into the fight to help me—body-checking enemies without a second thought.
He might look delicate most of the time, yet when the moment demanded it he showed real grit. In the end we settled on him as my double.
And so Zheng Sui put on my armor while I donned a common soldier’s kit, and we set about deceiving the enemy’s eyes.
Once he wore my armor and helmet, from a distance he could easily be mistaken for me.
“Well now, General Jin—I’ll be looking after you. Kindly take good care of me.”
“Please don’t joke around, Duwei.”
Yu Eun teased; Zheng Sui flustered. A brief ripple of laughter passed through the party, and then we rode out of camp to execute the plan.
One more note: Zhang Fei also joined the operation. He had seen little action since the Battle of Xiabian and leapt at Pang Tong’s scheme with enthusiasm. Zhang Fei took a detachment and set out to strike Zang Ba’s army from another direction.
Zang Ba had been in a foul mood of late. Taking the left vanguard and racing all the way to Hanzhong had been fine. The vanguard was a warrior’s honor and pride; as its commander he had dreamed of winning great merit.
And the moment he arrived in Hanzhong he had run straight into Jin Cheong—the very enemy of his sworn brother Sun Guan. That had seemed pure luck.
But the good fortune ended there. He had not avenged his friend, and now he felt only that he was being jerked this way and that.
Jin Cheong and the other enemy commanders were using the rugged terrain of Hanzhong for hit-and-run tactics, bleeding his army.
The losses were not catastrophic, yet the soldiers were restless and the officers’ nerves were stretched taut. Still, Zang Ba had not given up. Even while taking blow after blow he studied the enemy’s habits and plotted his counterstroke. He was, after all, a general seasoned on countless battlefields.
Today I will smash them utterly. And that woman Jin Cheong—I will take her head for certain.
At dawn he had led the Qingzhou Soldiers out of camp and already lain in ambush at the place where he expected the enemy to strike.
He held his breath and waited. Time crawled past, and at last his patience was rewarded—or so he believed at the time.
“General—enemy troops approaching from that direction.”
Color returned to Zang Ba’s face. Exactly as predicted. Today he would turn the tables and destroy them.
He did not rush. He had waited this long; a little longer would not kill him.
Crouching low, he studied the enemy himself. In the distance the force he had been waiting for came into view, and at its center he recognized the commander directing them.
That’s the woman, no question.
After several engagements he had burned Jin Cheong’s every trait into his mind. The horse she rode, her gear, her armor—all of it told him this was Jin Cheong. Now he need only choose the moment and fall upon them.
Yu Eun rode escort for Zheng Sui, eyes sweeping the surroundings. After so long attending Jin Cheong, guarding a common soldier named Zheng Sui felt a little strange at first, yet he never forgot to give the duty his full effort.
He offered a word of comfort to the still-tense Zheng Sui riding beside him.
“Don’t worry overmuch. We’re watching the enemy’s every move. All you need do is flee at the proper moment.”
“Y-yes, Duwei…”
Yet the young man’s face remained flushed with strain. Yu Eun sighed inwardly and was about to speak again when a scout he had sent ahead rode up with a report.
“Duwei Yu—enemy general Zang Ba has left his camp. He seems to have noticed our movements.”
Color brightened on Yu Eun’s face. Good. Everything was unfolding as planned.
“Hoo… So this is where it truly begins.”
Beside him Zheng Sui steadied his breathing and set his expression. He seemed a little calmer than before. Perhaps he was the type who found strength only when the crisis stood right in front of him.
Yu Eun felt confirmed in his choice of Zheng Sui. Beneath the timid exterior lay real backbone, and training under Zhang Fei had taught the boy to ride well enough.
“Right. When I give the signal, just run to the appointed place.”
“Now! Strike!”
The moment Zang Ba gave the order, his Qingzhou Soldiers seized their weapons and hurtled toward the enemy like arrows.
Zang Ba himself gripped his spear shaft hard enough to crack it and led from the very front.
This time I will lay your head before Sun Guan’s spirit!
As the Qingzhou charge crashed home, the enemy ranks reeled in confusion.
“Ambush! Fall back from here at once!”
He watched them scramble away. The Jin Cheong he sought was no exception.
Seeing the pests who had so long nettled him scatter in panic was satisfying, yet it was nowhere near enough.
“Today we settle this! Pursue and wipe them out!”
The Qingzhou Soldiers, hungry for glory, raced after the fleeing foe with rising spirits. But the chase did not last long.
“Hit their flank!”
Damn—a trap?
Had he pursued too recklessly? From the woods to the side an enemy detachment burst out as if they had been waiting. In an instant the Qingzhou ranks tangled with them and a free-for-all erupted.
“Ignore it and fight! Today we butcher every last one of them!”
The Qingzhou Soldiers were not individual masters of arms like the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry. Their strength lay in refusing to break even when a melee erupted or an ambush struck.
Even with their formation shattered by the sudden charge, they swung their weapons with fierce energy at whatever enemy stood before them.
Zang Ba himself cut down several foot soldiers and whirled his spear toward the next opponent.
Clang!
Hm?
The jolt that ran up the spear shaft was no ordinary thing. This was not a common soldier’s strength—yet the man wore a common soldier’s armor.
“You—!”
Zang Ba’s eyes flew wide as he recognized his true opponent.
“You tricked me!”
The figure in ordinary armor was none other than Jin Cheong herself. Yet it no longer mattered. Cut off her head and the rest was irrelevant.
“Give me that neck!”
In the heart of the swirling melee the fiercest duel of all began.
Clang! Clang!
On one side, fluid and graceful spear-work.
On the other, rough yet fundamentally solid spear-work.
Victory did not come at once. Zang Ba ranked among the fierce generals of the age. Unhorsing Cao Zhang once means nothing—she was merely lucky that day, he had told himself.
Yet the longer their spears crossed, the more unease crept into him.
This woman… has her skill grown already?
When they had crossed blades before he had been slightly outmatched, but never by this margin.
He bit down hard and launched another thrust. She turned it aside with the same expressionless face as always.
Ah—!
His spear rebounded; a glint flashed in her eyes. In that instant he felt a stab of dread. The sensation lasted less than a heartbeat—yet sometimes a heartbeat is eternity.
“Guh!”
By a hair’s breadth he failed to parry. The spear-point drove through his heart. What that meant was everlasting death.
He had survived countless battlefields; death had always stepped aside for him. He had known it would come someday, yet never believed it would be now. Why had he thought that? He had been certain he would live longer, win more glory…
Damn it. I still haven’t even avenged him…
The pain that began in his chest soon became numbness, and the numbness swallowed his whole body.
The last thing he saw was Jin Cheong withdrawing her spear and calmly seeking her next opponent.
“Pian-general Jin Cheong has slain the enemy general Zang Ba!”
Yu Eun had seen it clearly—the clash between his commander and Zang Ba, and her victory.
The plan had succeeded perfectly; he raised a roar. Naturally the army’s morale soared on that cry. Yet—
“What are you doing, failing to avenge the general?! Any coward who turns his back while the general’s corpse lies before him—I’ll take his head myself!”
“You bastards! Don’t even dream of leaving this field alive!”
Zang Ba’s lieutenants Wu Dun and Yin Li, who had followed him since the days in Xuzhou, flew into a rage. The Qingzhou Soldiers’ wavering spirit snapped upright again. Rather than break, they began to fight like madmen for their general’s revenge. Ordinarily a commander’s death would shatter an army’s will to fight—but that rule did not apply to these men.
Formed originally from Yellow Turban rebels of Qingzhou, the unit was somewhat lacking in discipline and notorious for plunder, which had earned it a fearsome reputation on the battlefield.
That same reputation made other regular armies regard them as something of a separate breed, yet their internal cohesion was surprisingly firm. Even after their commander Zang Ba fell, the notoriety did not collapse.
These bastards…
Yu Eun cut down the Qingzhou men who kept charging without fear and swallowed a curse.
Behind him Zheng Sui, face pale with fright, still fought on doggedly; at the very front Jin Cheong tore through the enemy in every direction.
At the very least the troops she led did not lag behind the Qingzhou Soldiers in spirit. She was that trusted by her men.
With Zang Ba himself dead, no one could bar her path. Wherever her spear flung blood, the enemy ranks split and her own advanced.
Caught up in the sight, Yu Eun pressed forward swinging his own blade. In the midst of it the enemy general Wu Dun came at him.
Yu Eun, whose martial skill Jin Cheong herself acknowledged as outstanding, crossed some thirty exchanges with Wu Dun before he took the man’s head.
With two generals dead, the Qingzhou Soldiers’ momentum finally began to ebb.
“General—this is our chance to annihilate them!”
Yu Eun rode up to Jin Cheong and shouted. But his commander was staring fixedly in one direction.
“General…?”
Sensing a subtle shift in her air, he looked at her face—and saw it: a strange light gleaming in those beautiful eyes.
On the battlefield she was a fierce general who dominated all before her, yet in ordinary times she spoke little and her expression rarely changed.
That was why the thrill and exaltation now radiating from her was something even Yu Eun, who served closest to her, had almost never witnessed.
He turned his gaze to the place she watched. One general came into view.
Cao Zhang!
Jin Cheong and Cao Zhang—as if by prior agreement—launched themselves toward each other at almost the same instant.