Embers of Anxiety
“Have you met with Gan Ning and Ling Tong?”
“Yes, Master Xu Shu… I just came from seeing them.”
“…Judging by your face, it didn’t go well.”
“No. General Gan Ning at least seemed willing to hear me out, but General Ling Tong refused me outright.”
“They have served the House of Sun for a long time. It would be stranger if they surrendered easily. Don’t take it too hard.”
I had volunteered to try persuading them myself, since I had fought alongside both men before. I hadn’t expected much, but I couldn’t help feeling disappointed all the same.
“Ah—and Master Xu. Could you send a physician and some medicine to General Gan Ning?”
On the way back after parting from them, I had heard unexpected news and been forced to turn my steps toward the residence where the two were being held.
Gan Ning had collapsed after coughing up blood. When I rushed back, he looked far worse than I had imagined. Seeing him lying there limp, blood still staining the corner of his mouth, I could hardly believe this was the same bold, lively Gan Ning I knew.
I promised Ling Tong I would send a physician and medicine, then came straight to Xu Shu. Hearing my report, he too looked troubled.
“Very well. I will look into it and make arrangements. Don’t worry.”
“Thank you. I’m counting on you.”
His words eased my mind a little.
“Come to think of it, you said Yu Jin is here in Jiangling as well, didn’t you?”
“Yes, that’s right. He is confined in a different residence from the others.”
Yu Jin, along with the thirty thousand men who had surrendered with him, were currently held as prisoners inside Jiangling. What worried me most because of that was, of course, supplies. And now we had Wu prisoners on top of them.
Fortunately, while our stores were not exactly abundant, they were not yet critically short. That, too, was largely thanks to Xu Shu’s efforts.
“Ah, and one more thing. Following the suggestion you made earlier, Jin Cheong, we have temporarily opened a kind of market. In truth, much of the credit belongs to Ban Jun, the Officer of the Commissariat. Would you care to take a look?”
“Yes, I’d like to see it.”
I went to inspect the market Xu Shu and Ban Jun had opened. It was lively and bustling—clearly running well.
Carts laden with goods and grain came and went, and camp merchants drifted in and out. Aside from the soldiers posted here and there making security a touch stricter than usual, it looked much like any ordinary market.
According to him, people were buying, selling, and bartering there, and through it they had managed to secure a fair amount of supply goods.
Before parting from Xu Shu in Yizhou, I had once mentioned the idea of establishing a market within the army. I had recalled what Pan Zhang had done back at Red Cliffs and wondered whether something similar might work—and I was surprised at how well it had turned out.
“Ban Jun has done a great service. Opening and running a market can’t have been easy.”
Ban Jun. In the Romance he is painted poorly—the man who surrenders the moment Wu attacks—but the historical records paint a more complicated picture.
Even while Mi Fang, Shi Ren, and others were handing over their cities to Sun Quan, Ban Jun refused to surrender at once; he shut himself inside his residence and spent his days in tears. Only when Sun Quan came in person to console him did Ban Jun finally yield, moved by the gesture, and enter his service.
He had also been highly regarded by Liu Bei, and earlier, while serving Liu Biao, he had earned a good name by strictly punishing corrupt officials.
Wherever a market opens, merchants flock—and among them spies and unsavory characters can easily slip in. But the exacting Ban Jun had screened them out in advance, so the operation had gone smoothly.
His poor relationship with Guan Yu was a flaw, but with Mi Fang’s betrayal having come to nothing, even that no longer seemed likely to become a serious problem. If this war ended well, he would probably continue to serve under Liu Bei.
“And what of Administrator Mi Fang?”
“He is secluding himself at home for the time being.”
In effect, Mi Fang had already stepped down from the post of Administrator of Nan Commandery. Xu Shu, Ban Jun, and the others were handling every duty that should have fallen to him; one could fairly say his career was finished.
“It is still too early to rest easy. Our supplies are not exactly comfortable.”
“No—not with tens of thousands of prisoners.”
A great city like Jiangling had become little more than a prison camp. The grain they alone consumed was enormous, and managing them took still more hands.
“Master Xu. What if we released some of the Wei prisoners and sent them toward Xiangfan?”
Freeing prisoners risked strengthening the enemy, but Xiangfan’s supply situation had to be far worse than ours. If a large body of prisoners suddenly arrived, it could deal a fatal blow to an already desperate commissariat—that was the calculation behind the idea.
And Cao Ren, for his part, could hardly refuse to take them back.
“Yes, the thought had crossed my mind as well. But it is not something I can decide alone; it must be discussed with General Guan Yu. I have already sent a letter on the matter.”
I returned with Xu Shu to the official residence to discuss what lay ahead.
I remained in Jiangling for a time, settling various matters alongside Xu Shu.
“General Guan Yu has agreed to release a portion of the prisoners. They will soon be transferred to Xiangfan.”
It was a judgment that carried a certain risk, but running out of food ourselves would be a far greater danger. I could only hope it proved the right call…
One matter was settled, yet as we gathered intelligence the situation looked worse than expected. The most shocking piece of news was this:
“They say Zhang Liao of Hefei is about to move.”
“Zhang Liao!”
Even the histories record that Cao Cao once considered pulling Zhang Liao out of Hefei and sending him to Jingzhou. He only considered it—he never actually did.
“And for reasons we do not yet know, Lü Meng has withdrawn to the rear. In his place, Lu Xun appears poised to lead a great army toward southern Jingzhou.”
One mountain after another. Lü Meng’s withdrawal was welcome, but Lu Xun—no lesser a man—remained.
“Southern Jingzhou… so he means to strike at Gong’an and Wuling?”
“Most likely. If Gong’an and Wuling fall, Jiangling itself will be in peril. That is why Ma Su and Gou Fu have gone out with a small force to assess the enemy’s true strength. Ma Su knows every fold of this terrain.”
“Ah—Master Ma Su is working hard as well.”
“Still, they might feint at Gong’an and then drive straight at Jiangling.”
“Yes. That is possible too. Or they might aim for both at once.”
Ma Su… to be honest, I had been a little worried when I heard he was going with Xu Shu. But he had already played his part in holding Jiangling, and now he was striving on multiple fronts to defend Jingzhou.
Knowing Gou Fu had gone with him eased my mind somewhat. Still—how would Sun Quan, having failed in his first assault, move next? That was what worried me most.
The embers of anxiety had not yet gone out.
Bang!
Sun Quan slammed his palm down on the table without mercy, and the hall fell as silent as if ice water had been poured over it. The author of the noise himself sat flushed crimson, radiating a fierce heat.
“Did you not say it yourselves? That with this scheme we would take Jingzhou! And what is this? Far from gaining anything, we have only suffered losses—and as if that were not enough, Gan Ning and Ling Tong have been taken prisoner!?”
“We are deeply ashamed, Your Majesty…”
Before him, Lu Xun and the other ministers stood in ranks, enduring their lord’s fury.
They knew well how high Sun Quan’s hopes had soared after hearing Lü Meng’s plan and Wu Fan’s divination. Full of expectation, he had come all the way here to Lukou to encourage them and review the operation together.
The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment—and that disappointment had turned at once to rage.
“Where is Grand Commander Lü Meng now? I trusted him and placed full authority in his hands.”
Lu Xun bowed his head and answered.
“Grand Commander Lü’s health has taken a turn for the worse; he is confined to his sickbed…”
“His health has worsened? The man was perfectly well only a short while ago!”
“I beg your pardon, but in truth Grand Commander Lü has not been well for some time. Even before this operation was launched…”
“He was ill before that? Was the illness not a ruse meant to deceive Guan Yu? And now you tell me that in the meantime he has taken to his bed—does that make any sense!?”
With a throat gone dry as dust, Lu Xun struggled somehow to defend Lü Meng.
“It is not as you think… In truth, Grand Commander Lü had been suffering from illness for some time already. He deliberately refrained from speaking of it so as not to trouble Your Majesty with worry.”
“Is that so? He deliberately said nothing? Or is this lying abed now nothing more than a feigned illness meant to deceive me?”
“It is absolutely not so. His condition is truly grave.”
When Sun Quan continued to glare with eyes full of distrust, the other ministers stepped forward to plead as well.
“Your Majesty, we beg you to set aside your anger. Grand Commander Lü is not that sort of man. Please, calm yourself.”
“It is true. Even when discussing affairs with us, he was always enduring his pain. We beg you to trust him.”
When several ministers raised their voices as one, Sun Quan at last decided to let the matter rest for the moment.
“Very well. I will trust Grand Commander Lü Meng. I shall send a skilled physician to tend his illness.”
“We thank Your Majesty.”
Lu Xun breathed an inward sigh of relief. But Sun Quan’s reprimand did not end there.
“That aside—why did the scheme fail? You said Mi Fang of Jiangling would open the gates for us.”
It had been an operation that Sun Quan, Lü Meng, Lu Xun, and the other advisors had all put their heads together to examine. The conclusion they had reached was this: “Mi Fang’s collusion is genuine.”
How stunned Lu Xun himself had been when the report of failure arrived. His judgment was this: “Mi Fang’s collusion was real—but it was discovered beforehand.”
“My thinking is this. Mi Fang’s collusion was almost certainly no false report. But the enemy discovered it in advance and turned it against us.”
“The enemy sensed it beforehand and turned it to their advantage?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Guan Yu is currently campaigning in the north, but in Jiangling there is a man of exceptional cunning named Xu Shu. I believe this was his design.”
“Xu Shu. He was one of Liu Bei’s advisors, was he not.”
“He was. And according to what our spies have learned, Mi Fang has not shown himself officially for quite some time. That a man who is Administrator has not appeared suggests he is either secluded somewhere—or has perhaps been executed.”
Lu Xun’s judgment was accurate, but Sun Quan could find no satisfaction in it.
“So one way or another, we can no longer count on collusion from the enemy—is that it? Is there any chance someone on our side was colluding with them?”
“Th-that is not the case. All here are men who give their full loyalty to Your Majesty.”
Sun Quan cast a suspicious glance over the ministers before him, but with no concrete evidence he set the doubt aside for now.
“Then what is the way to win? Having come this far, we cannot simply turn back empty-handed.”
“Though the scheme has been exposed, Guan Yu still shows no sign of turning his army back from Xiangfan. If we strike while the enemy’s main force is absent, I believe we have a chance of victory. Move the army swiftly, seize Gong’an first, then press on Wuling or Jiangling—and the odds will be in our favor.”
With the scheme failed, the only remaining path was to move quickly and crush them by force.
In truth, Lu Xun believed the enemy’s defenses were far sturdier than imagined, and that withdrawing now would be wisest. The prisoners could be recovered by sending envoys.
But to propose retreat at this stage might only deepen Sun Quan’s suspicions further.
“Very well. Lü Meng spoke highly of you—said you were a man fit to be entrusted with affairs. I hereby appoint you, Lu Xun, temporary Grand Commander, and charge you with the conquest of Jingzhou. But if you fail this time as well, be prepared for the consequences.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. I will devote my life to the task…”
Lu Xun had no choice but to accept the command.