The Backstab
Cao Hong had been defeated in his first clash with the armies of Jin Cheong and Liu Feng.
He withdrew his forces northward and set about reorganizing them. Outwardly he gave no sign of it, but inside he was restless to the point of desperation.
Time is already running short. And of all things, to get caught by the throat here…
That was not the only problem. Several rumors were circulating through the camp.
The enemy planned to swing around and strike Wancheng.
No — they meant to hit Xinye.
A large relief force was already on its way from the rear.
An uneasy mood settled over Cao Hong’s camp. And because it was not a single rumor but a tangle of contradictory ones, the confusion only deepened.
Could this be Jin Cheong’s doing?
Already beaten once, and composed largely of green recruits, his army was poorly equipped to handle such talk. Cao Hong fretted and ground his teeth, trying to sort out the truth of the situation.
The enemy’s numbers aren’t even that great. The idea that they’d go after Wancheng or Xinye behind us is pure nonsense. So are they waiting for reinforcements?
His head ached. After their first victory the enemy had not pressed the attack; they simply held their ground and faced him. It really did look as though they were waiting for help. His own position was already bad enough — if reinforcements arrived on top of that…
I have to deal with them before the relief force gets here.
After long deliberation he tried a night raid, but Jin Cheong’s swift response denied him any meaningful result, and he was forced to pull back once more.
If the enemy cuts our line of retreat and hits us together with their reinforcements, we’re finished. Better to fall back a little.
With no other choice, Cao Hong avoided battle and shifted his army to the rear.
It was not long before news arrived that made him clutch the back of his neck.
“General. General Jin Cheong’s force has left this position and is heading toward Fancheng.”
“What!”
He had at least meant to keep her pinned in place. Even that, he had lost.
“But the roads toward Fancheng still haven’t drained. How did they get through?”
“They went by boat, sir. It seems they had prepared them in advance.”
“Damn it…”
Cao Hong’s face twisted at Jin Cheong’s speed. The movement was far too clean and well-timed to be improvisation.
Don’t tell me she planned all of this from the start.
From the moment the fighting began, he had felt nothing but the sensation of being dragged along by her.
So this was the real objective all along. The talk of striking our rear or waiting for reinforcements was a feint. To hit me in the back of the head like this…
This was no time to sit and scheme. He had to go after Jin Cheong now. All that stood before him was Liu Feng’s two thousand men.
He still held seven or eight thousand troops. Liu Feng, he was confident, could be driven off with ease.
“Drive off Liu Feng first. Then requisition boats at once! We make for Fancheng.”
Having taken the first victory against Cao Hong, I moved on to the next stage of the plan.
The first step was to spread rumors through Cao Hong’s army.
I put out word that our forces meant to seize Wancheng or Xinye, and that a relief army was on its way.
The talk of taking Wancheng or Xinye was nonsense — but the relief force was real.
It was a deliberate mix of truth and falsehood, several rumors released at once to sow confusion. Cao Hong’s troops, still short on combat experience, let the rumors spread like wildfire.
Growing desperate, Cao Hong tried a night assault on our camp, but Liu Feng and I had prepared for it and turned him back without much difficulty.
I kept a close watch on Cao Hong’s movements. The moment I learned he had pulled his army back, I decided to move at once.
“General Liu Feng. I intend to go to General Guan Yu as I am. I ask you to hold this position. Can you deal with Cao Hong according to my plan?”
“What would you have me do?”
“Yes. Something like this…”
As long as Cao Hong’s army remained intact, Liu Feng’s role was critical. I asked him to keep Cao Hong pinned in place.
Leaving the rear to Liu Feng, I boarded the boats Wang Ping had prepared.
Our destination was Yancheng, a short distance from Fancheng. Guan Yu was said to be there now.
I had only two thousand men under my command, but the small number made for faster travel — an advantage, in its way.
“Hurry! Row with everything you have!”
Under the urging of Wang Ping and Yu Eun, the soldiers put every ounce of strength into their oars. The boats that carried us cut through the Han River that had swallowed Xiangfan, driving hard for Yancheng.
Just a little farther. A little more, and I would reach Guan Yu.
Meanwhile, having lost Jin Cheong, Cao Hong was attacking Liu Feng.
“Attack! Pay them back for every humiliation we’ve suffered!”
Faced with an enemy several times his number, Liu Feng did not even try to fight. He fled in a scrambling panic.
“Look! Look at the enemy turning tail and running!”
His bold shout restored a little of the morale that had been so bleak among his men.
He would have liked nothing better than to crush Liu Feng’s force on the spot, but chasing an enemy determined to run was never easy, and he had no time to waste here.
“We head for Fancheng as well, to support General Cao Ren.”
Cao Hong turned his army and began to march south. Before long, however, a report stopped him in his tracks.
“General Cao Hong. Liu Feng is raiding the supply train in the rear!”
“What!”
Damn it. He had let his guard down. He had thought the man fully withdrawn — not that he would strike the rear.
“Turn the army around at once. We must protect the supply train. If we lose our provisions, we’re finished!”
Racing back with his main force, Cao Hong found Liu Feng setting fire to the wagons loaded with grain and matériel.
“That’s enough. We’ve done our damage — fall back!”
The moment Cao Hong appeared, Liu Feng slipped away again with infuriating ease. The losses were not severe, but for Cao Hong it was enough to make his blood boil.
“You damned swarm of flies!”
Cao Hong roared in fury, but Liu Feng fled without so much as a glance back. Cao Hong had dismissed him as insignificant, yet Liu Feng was a general who had accumulated more than enough experience in raids and harassment. The recent Hanzhong campaign, in particular, had been a forge that sharpened those skills further still.
After that, Liu Feng continued to torment Cao Hong as he tried to reach Fancheng.
Cao Hong assigned more troops to guard the supply train and pressed on toward Fancheng.
“General. Liu Feng’s force has appeared in the rear again.”
“Those bastards again!”
Liu Feng brought only a hundred or two light cavalry and kept needling Cao Hong’s temper. He never attacked. He only approached just far enough to brush the edge of Cao Hong’s field of vision — and the instant Cao Hong turned to face him, he fled.
Cao Hong fretted. He could not simply ignore an enemy dancing at the edge of his sight. If only they would stand and fight a proper battle…
“General Cao Hong. What if we tried this?”
His subordinate Zhu Ling leaned close and whispered something in his ear. Hearing the plan, Cao Hong’s mouth curved in a slight smile.
“Good. From this moment, conscript the local commoners with all speed.”
Following Zhu Ling’s counsel, Cao Hong resolved on an extraordinary measure.
Still locked in his war of nerves with Liu Feng, he somehow managed to advance as far as the water’s edge. There he dressed the hastily conscripted commoners as soldiers, loaded them onto boats, and made a show of crossing the river.
Cao Hong’s plan was this:
Use the commoners disguised as soldiers to feign a river crossing and draw Liu Feng in.
It was a scheme that turned the danger of a river crossing against the enemy. He calculated that bait of this quality would be enough to make Liu Feng bite.
“General! Liu Feng’s army is attacking!”
Just as expected, the moment a considerable number of commoners and supplies began to board the boats and push out onto the water, Liu Feng struck as if he had been waiting for it. This time it was Liu Feng’s turn to fall into Cao Hong’s trap.
“Now! Everyone out! Come out and wipe that damned swarm of flies off the face of the earth!”
At Cao Hong’s shout, the units lying in ambush nearby burst forth and fell upon Liu Feng’s force.
“We’ve been had. It’s a trap. All units, withdraw!”
Liu Feng fled in utter panic.
“That bastard who’s only good at running — chase him! Chase him down and settle every grudge we’ve suffered!”
“Wah! Wah!”
“Kill them all!”
The soldiers’ hatred of Liu Feng burned as hot as Cao Hong’s own. They charged his force with the fury of men determined to vent every last scrap of that hatred here and now.
“Whoever brings me Liu Feng’s head will receive a silver reward!”
Carried by the momentum, Cao Hong meant to kill Liu Feng outright. As if in answer, Liu Feng’s army scattered in every direction in complete disarray. Cao Hong was certain that this time, at last, he would take him.
And some distance away, a man was watching it all unfold.
He took the bait.
Pang Tong smiled as he watched Cao Hong’s army come charging after in high spirits.
“The man really has made a fine art of running.”
Cao Hong never did catch Liu Feng, but he judged the results more than sufficient. After a thrashing like this, Liu Feng would not be able to follow for some time.
That conviction lasted until he reached the water’s edge where the boats had been gathered — and then it washed away as thoroughly as if the current itself had carried it off.
“Well now, General Cao. You’ve come a long way. Hard work.”
There stood a man he had never expected to see. A general of imposing presence, wearing a lion helm and mounted on a great white horse — a man Cao Hong knew well.
“Y-you — you’re Ma Chao! What are you doing here…?”
“My thanks for gathering the boats for us. We needed vessels of our own, you see.”
Beside him, Pang De sneered. They were already seizing every last boat Cao Hong had so painstakingly assembled.
“Y-you bastards…!”
Only then did Cao Hong understand that he was the one who had fallen into the trap. Understanding it changed nothing; it was already too late.
“General! Liu Feng is approaching from the rear!”
It was enough to drive him mad, but there was no time left even for rage.
“At this rate we’ll be hit from both sides. Fall back to Wancheng!”
“Where do you think you’re going? You’ve come this far — shouldn’t we at least cross blades once?”
Unlike Liu Feng, Ma Chao had no interest in harassment. He simply launched a frontal charge with the Qiang cavalry he had brought.
Caught between front and rear, Cao Hong lost not only his supplies but every boat he had gathered. He barely managed to escape as far as Wancheng.