Cao Song (5)
Thanks to her father's consideration, Cao Cao had been given the finest room in the estate after Cao Song's own.
By the time the sun had sunk low and the moon began to lift its head over the horizon, Cao Cao was reading alone in her bedchamber when she sensed a presence and turned her gaze. A quick glance flicked to the sword laid within arm's reach, and then she spoke.
"My guards would never let a stranger through. Yuanrang, is that you?"
"Nothing gets past you, huh."
With those words, Xiahou Dun stepped out of the shadows into the glow of the lamp.
She shrugged. "Was hoping to startle you."
"I'm far too grown to jump at things like that."
"You never flinched even when we were kids, so why start now."
After the round of playful banter, Xiahou Dun's expression hardened, as though she had serious business to discuss.
"Mengde."
"What is it?"
Judging by the mood, Cao Cao could more or less guess what was coming, but she asked anyway. And her guess proved right on the mark.
"A large group is closing in on the estate."
"Hmm... at this hour of the night?"
"That's what it looks like."
No doubt the scouts she had posted in the surrounding area had caught wind of it. Cao Cao turned her head to the sky to gauge the hour. It was already quite dark — the sun slowly dying out, the moon just raising its head. Taking in the night, she murmured,
"We have night visitors."
"What do you want to do?"
Once Cao Cao was certain they were bandits, Xiahou Dun asked the question. "If we just take the people and go, we could be out of here right now?"
Every soldier here was elite cavalry, expert riders to a man, and there were more than enough horses to seat every last member of Cao Song's household with room to spare.
At Xiahou Dun's words, Cao Cao spoke. "How many bandits are we talking?"
"At least several thousand."
"Hmm..."
Bandits this numerous... Xuzhou really has gone to the dogs. With that thought, Cao Cao sank into brief deliberation.
If she followed Xiahou Dun's suggestion, they would survive, yes. But why were these people attacking the estate in the first place? Not to take lives — to seize the wealth gathered here. If she abandoned everything and fled at speed, the bandits would be too busy grabbing loot to bother with a pursuit. And yet, naturally, all of her father's vast fortune would be lost. But no matter how precious that fortune, what was it against human lives? If there were truly no other way, then fleeing with just her father's household, as Yuanrang proposed, would be fine and good, but...
"Yuanrang."
"Yeah?"
"If we leave Father's household to the soldiers, how many men are free to act as we please?"
"Hm..."
At the question, Xiahou Dun ran a quick count. How many people were in this family again? Mengde's father and sisters, young and old — some forty of the clan in all — plus a hundred or so servants attending them. When the tally was done, she answered.
"Call it five hundred, give or take."
It was a number that didn't even reach a thousand, and even that much was only because they had brought every hand they could in case of exactly this kind of emergency.
"Yuanrang."
"Listening."
After a moment's thought, Cao Cao spoke slowly. "Select some of the soldiers first and have my household loaded onto the wagons."
"Got it."
Xiahou Dun nodded her understanding. "And the rest of the soldiers?"
At that, Cao Cao smiled playfully. "Even if we go, I won't rest easy unless we feed them at least one good hit first."
Handing over all that wealth for nothing would simply stick in her craw. As she said it, Cao Cao looked for all the world like a mischievous imp.
The bandits, never once dreaming they had been made, still lay hidden in the brush near the estate, biding their time. Then one of them crept up beside Zhang Kai and spoke in a careful whisper.
"Boss. Everything's ready."
"Good."
Zhang Kai, the bandit chieftain, nodded at the report. As his narrow, wolfish eyes — slanted hard at the corners — turned toward Cao Song's estate, another bandit who had drawn near asked,
"So when exactly do we move?"
"Heh. You talk like you've only ever pulled a raid once or twice."
Zhang Kai let a vile chuckle slip at his underling's question. "You strike at dawn, when every last soul is dead asleep — that's when they panic and can't think straight."
"Then there's a bit of time left yet."
Having heard the plan, the subordinate glanced up at the sky and went on evenly. "In that case I'd better tell our boys to wait a little long— ...huh?"
While the two were still talking, something sudden erupted at the estate.
"Ride faster! We're getting out of here — move!"
A column of riders came bursting from the estate, escorting a line of wagons. The bandit who had been mid-sentence stared at the sight before him, his face falling into open bewilderment.
"Boss, that's..."
"Quiet. Hold on."
Baffling as it was, Zhang Kai held his position calmly and watched the scene unfold. Led by a silver-haired woman at the very front, the group that had poured out of the estate hurried the wagons in their center along at a frantic pace.
Beside the silver-haired woman, a warrior with slate-blue hair bellowed at the soldiers. "Anyone who falls behind had better believe they'll be drilled within an inch of their life when we get back!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
The cavalry ringing the wagons in a wide circle answered with a thunderous roar — and with that final shout, they lapsed into silence, devoting themselves to nothing but the ride.
Several hundred cavalry had charged out of the estate in one body, and before long, nothing but dead silence hung over Cao Song's manor.
The subordinate who had been watching it all spoke up. "...Boss."
"Yes."
At his man's voice, Zhang Kai nodded. "Looks like they've all run for it."
Very wise of them.
A bandit gazing after the direction the riders had taken said, "Mm... at the pace they're making, there's no catching them."
"Hmph. Suits me fine."
This was far better than shedding blood for nothing and wearing themselves out on a pointless chase. The silver-haired woman at the head of that column was almost certainly the famous Cao Cao herself. It had been too dark to see her clearly, but even so he could tell her beauty was extraordinary. That alone made him wonder whether it might be worth giving chase even now — but Zhang Kai knew better than to let greed run too hot. Cao Cao had fled toward open plains with hardly a spot for an ambush anywhere, and open plains were precisely the terrain where cavalry ran wild. Most of Zhang Kai's men were foot soldiers, and what few horsemen he had were no match for the elite riders that bitch Cao Cao led. If the two forces ever clashed on open ground, his army would be smashed to pieces in the blink of an eye without even getting to swing.
Besides, the wealth still sitting in that estate would be enough to fill his arms with countless beauties and still leave plenty over. Mountains of gold and silver enough to live fat and easy for the rest of his days. And the wagons the cavalry had been escorting numbered no more than five — Cao Cao had clearly fled with only the bare minimum of valuables and people.
"Seems they've just cut and run, so we're free to move now."
"I'll pass it to the boys."
"Do that."
The moment the word was given, his subordinate — body already itching to be off — slipped away between the trees. Before long, the bandit horde of several thousand under Zhang Kai's command set foot inside Cao Song's estate.
First through the gate, Zhang Kai took one look at the garden and let out a gasp of admiration. "Oho!"
The immense garden was planted with trees and flowers he had never once seen in his life, and in the pond — every bit as immense — giant fish swam through the water, their gills flapping without pause. Overwhelming wealth, felt the instant one stepped into the garden. Gazing at the stately, ornate buildings standing several to a courtyard, Zhang Kai nodded to himself.
So it was true, what they said about the Cao Song family being fabulously rich.
In the days when the Emperor and the Ten Attendants had run rampant, brazenly selling offices to the highest bidder, Cao Song was said to have purchased the post of one of the Three Excellencies outright with the family fortune. Wealth worthy of such a man, indeed. And now all of that colossal fortune would land in his own two hands — Zhang Kai could not keep the grin off his face.
He turned to look at his men waiting behind him. They were practically squirming, itching to strip the place bare at the earliest possible moment. Zhang Kai roared at them.
"Boys! Strip it all! Take everything!"
WAAAAAAAGH—!!
Before the words had even left his mouth, the bandits surged into Cao Song's estate with a howl. What followed was, naturally, sheer pandemonium.
"I found it first! What do you think you're doing?!"
"Like hell you did! I laid eyes on it first!"
Bandits squabbled over silks that even a single glance marked as priceless, while others—
"Th-this is all gold?!"
"Grab it, quick!"
—stumbled over one another in a mad scramble, snatching up whatever they could carry from chests brimming with gold.
"...Something smells a little off in this house."
"If you don't want it, I'm taking it!"
"H-hey! What are you—!"
A few bandits did puzzle over the strange smell hanging inside the building, but their eyes were too clouded by the treasure before them to spare it a second thought.
"KWAHAHAHA! With this, my whole life turns around!"
Clutching a fistful of jewels, Zhang Kai burst out laughing. Cao Song's fortune was so immense that even the man commanding the bandits had lost his head entirely. Bandit after bandit abandoned all reason and threw themselves into the plunder.
However grand Cao Song's estate might be, it was still too cramped for several thousand to swarm it at once, and the weaker bandits found themselves shoved out of the way.
"Look at these bastards, only grabbing for themselves..."
"Got any conscience? Leave some for the rest of us, why don't you."
As the shoved-aside bandits shifted from foot to foot in frustration, a sound began to rise — as though the very pillars of the earth were groaning.
"Huh? What is that sound?"
"...No. It couldn't be."
The quick-witted few went white to the lips at the sound. Before long, far in the distance, a column of torch-bearing figures revealed itself with a roar of war cries.
There was no mistaking them. It was Cao Cao's army.