The End of the Hanzhong Campaign
“Jin Cheong — your entire body is made of pure courage!”
Those were the words Liu Bei spoke the morning after the Battle of Beishan, when he came in person to inspect the ground where the fighting had taken place. He was praising my nerve for having used the Empty Fort Strategy to shatter the forces of Guo Huai and Cao Zhen.
“They tell me General Jin proposed the Empty Fort Strategy herself and then stood at the front to carry it out. To have a subordinate like this is a great blessing for any sovereign!”
Truth be told, in the original history the phrase One Body of Courage should have been spoken of Zhao Yun. I felt a twinge of guilt about that — but Zhao Yun celebrated as though the honor were his own.
In any case, the battle sent our army’s morale soaring. Burning the greater part of the enemy’s supplies, above all, had been a decisive achievement. And sure enough, the spies’ reports that came in afterward said the Wei army’s spirit had sunk to rock bottom, their will to fight all but gone.
“Make ready, every one of you! The moment the enemy breaks, we will launch a full assault!”
At Liu Bei’s magnificent command, the whole army began sharpening the blades they meant to swing one last time across Hanzhong.
Meanwhile, Cao Cao’s army — defeat written plain across its face — had tried every remedy it could invent, and still no path remained open. Now the danger had drawn right up to their throats. Liu Bei, seizing the moment, had thrown his full strength into a general offensive.
“Take Cao Cao’s head! A thousand gold pieces to the man who brings me Cao Cao’s head!”
Cao Cao scowled at the shouts that were so clearly aimed at him. That such naked mockery could reach his ears at all was proof of how badly the tide had turned.
It was not that Cao Cao had no thought of striking back. But his army, already halved in fighting strength, was being driven steadily rearward — until at last the enemy’s taunts poured straight into his hearing.
Can we hold no longer…?
The nightmare of Red Cliffs was playing out again. Camps burned on every side; soldiers fell helpless. A few generals still showed their mettle, but the very fact that his champions had to fight like one man against a hundred was itself evidence of how dire things had become.
“Your Excellency. I beg you — make a wise decision…”
Jia Xu, head bowed at his side, murmured the words. However politely phrased, they meant only one thing: retreat.
After crushing Ma Chao in Xiliang and conquering Hanzhong, the cup of defeat had once more been set before him.
Liu Bei, you dog. Once again you stand in my path at the critical hour.
Ever since he had let the man slip away, Liu Bei had been a perpetual thorn in his side. This time he had meant to pluck that thorn out for good — and yet…
Still, a decision had to be made. If the cup had to be drunk, better to drain it quickly and look to what came next.
“The entire army will withdraw.”
The taste of issuing a general retreat order was bitter beyond bitter.
“The enemy is falling back, my lord!”
Fa Zheng cheered. When the original plan for Hanzhong had once gone awry, he had fretted himself half to death in private. His temper was as sharp and unforgiving as his mind; he had been merciless even with his own failures. Revising the whole Hanzhong campaign from the ground up, he had barely rested a day he could count on one hand. Liu Bei and the others had urged him to ease off and take care of himself, but he would not stop. He had poured out every stratagem he possessed. This war for Hanzhong was the foundation from which his lord would take flight — more vital than anything else.
The result was a face drained pale as paper. Yet the moment Cao Cao ordered a full retreat, Fa Zheng forgot every ounce of that exhaustion and turned to Liu Bei beside him with a shout of triumph.
“Yes. We have won.”
Liu Bei could see it too — Cao Cao’s main force quitting its positions. And not only the main force. All those scattered detachments of Cao Cao’s army, one after another, were withdrawing north.
We did it. At last… at last we did it.
For half a lifetime he had wandered the continent, battered this way and that, and still he had never abandoned the dream. Beside him stood two sworn brothers whose bond ran thicker than blood, though no blood joined them. But reality had never been kind. Every foothold he gained crumbled; every step forward ended in a fall. There had been nights he could not show his face and had crouched alone in a latrine and wept.
Cao Cao — the greatest rival of his life. Always too weak, he had been forced to flee wherever the man was.
And today, here in Hanzhong — a place he could only have reached because of those who stood with him. The storied land where Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, had first set his ambitions free. Here Liu Bei had forged a victory entirely from the strength he himself had gathered. Against that very Cao Cao.
Was this the end? Not remotely. This was only the beginning.
The dream he had first dreamed in a little village in Youzhou had met a vast turning point and taken fresh wing here, on the far side of the continent, in Hanzhong.
Now it was time to soar higher still.
“Whew. General Jin, you’ve had a rough time of it. That Cao Cao bastard sure is stubborn.”
“You’ve worked hard yourself, General Zhang.”
It had taken longer than I’d expected, but at least we had secured Hanzhong safely — and that was something to be grateful for.
The war being over did not mean there was nothing left to do. We who had beaten Cao Cao were still busy with the aftermath: settling the people, managing facilities, repairing what had been wrecked, and so on.
Ah — this really wasn’t the time for lingering. I needed to speak to Liu Bei at a suitable moment and head down to Xiangyong.
Speaking of aftermath, someone came to mind. Speak of the tiger and he appears: the very man I was thinking of was coming into view across the way.
The moment Liu Ba’s face became visible in the distance, Zhang Fei, the officers, and the soldiers all went stiff. He had almost certainly been dispatched, as after the Battle of Tangqu, to handle civil administration. I only hoped he would spare us the lectures this time.
Of course not.
“That this official should once again be summoned for such cleanup fills me with inconsolable grief. Can you even begin to imagine the toil I must bear for the deeds of the ignorant? Such treatment as this—”
Ah, here we go again. That scolding. It was too much; I stepped in.
“Lord Liu Ba, your words go too far. Do you have any idea how hard the officers and men gathered here have labored? Cleanup is taxing work, no question — but these soldiers have risked their very lives—”
Liu Ba cut me off before I could finish, bellowing at the top of his lungs.
“How dare you interrupt without the least sense of place! That this official must come and put such chaos to rights is a fact I can scarcely believe—”
Ah, that does it—!
“Master!”
Just as I was debating whether to pick him up and slam him into the ground, Zhang Fei stepped forward.
“General Zhang.”
This time I had no intention of yielding and started to move in myself, but Zhang Fei stopped me again.
“Leave it, General Jin. I’ll handle this.”
With that, Zhang Fei turned his broad back to me and planted himself in front of Liu Ba.
“Listen here, Master. Master or not — this is no way to behave, is it?”
Liu Ba snorted.
“Behave! What does a man who knows nothing but fighting know of proper conduct!”
“Master. From the generals standing here down to the common soldiers, these men have endured hardships beyond words. Night after night without proper sleep, fighting day in and day out — the wounded and the dead are beyond counting. Say what you like about me; I don’t care. But at least show my subordinates the respect they are due.”
Zhang Fei did not raise his voice the way he usually did when angry. The particular pressure of his presence, however, was undiminished. This was the veteran champion who had once, by sheer force of spirit alone, made Cao Cao’s army quail.
Liu Ba flinched slightly, but he would not give ground.
“Have you taken leave of your senses? Since when did you ever care about your subordinates?”
“I know that well enough myself. It’s absurd, hearing such words from a man as unqualified as I am. But as the Master himself said — when you err, correct it without hesitation; when you know a fault, you must mend it and never forget. A man of your learning will know the passage well.”
“Wh-what on earth are you talking about, all of a sudden?”
“I’m saying it because I finally understood, late as it is. Do you hear me! These men never shrank from any hardship and fought with everything they had! Even if you can’t understand that, you can at least refrain from mocking them! If I ever hear you spew that kind of rubbish at my men again, I will not let it pass! Even if my elder brother favors you, there are still limits. Do you understand me!”
Zhang Fei glared and raised his voice at last. Liu Ba broke into a cold sweat and backed away. The pressure was more than a bookish scholar like him could bear. He retreated as if fleeing, muttering as he went.
“I—I should never have engaged with the likes of him…”
And so Liu Ba took his party and left. Fei Yi, who had come with him, stepped forward and bowed with careful courtesy.
“General Zhang. General Jin. And all you officers and men. You have truly labored beyond measure. Your merit, your valor, your character, and your loyalty will all be recorded in the histories for ages to come.”
“You’re too kind.”
“You’ve had a hard time of it yourself, my lord.”
Attending Liu Ba must have been no easy task for Fei Yi either. After exchanging a few words with us, he hurried after his superior.
Zhang Fei no longer treated his subordinates harshly. When they erred he punished them — but fairly — and when they earned merit he praised it. I believed there would be no more assassinations or ambushes waiting for him from his own men.
It was one more fruit, harvested alongside the victory in Hanzhong.