Tiger of Jiangdong (2)
Not long after Cao Cao marched out for Qingzhou at the head of her soldiers, Yuan Shu issued an order of his own: Sun Jian was to attack Xiangyang, the stronghold of Liu Biao, Governor of Jing Province.
Sun Jian calmly accepted the command and began his advance on Xiangyang.
The moment Liu Biao learned that Yuan Shu was descending on Xiangyang with Sun Jian at the vanguard, he dispatched Huang Zu at once, ordering him to hold Sun Jian back at Fancheng.
Near Nanyang Commandery flowed a river known as the Baihe, and anyone who followed its current downstream would arrive at Xiangyang Commandery in short order. A waterway linking two cities meant easy travel—but easy travel cut both ways, for it made the city that much easier for an enemy to attack as well. That was why the fortress of Fancheng had been raised to shield Xiangyang.
Fancheng was a castle built hard against the river for a single purpose: to deny an enemy any crossing of the water. The two fortresses stood so close together that the moment Fancheng moved in concert with Xiangyang Castle, the city became all but impossible to breach. And by the same token, the moment Fancheng fell, Xiangyang Castle—seat of the Governor of Jing Province—could never be called safe.
"Hnnngh..."
And in that very place, one commander was wringing his brain for all it was worth.
Huang Zu.
Governor of Jiangxia Commandery, which lay not far from Xiangyang Commandery under the rule of Liu Biao, Governor of Jing Province. At present, on Liu Biao's orders, he had taken up position in Fancheng to hold the line for Xiangyang.
After a long stretch of grim deliberation, Huang Zu at last could not contain himself and muttered:
"However hard I turn it over, not one plan comes to mind that feels like the right one."
Sun Jian, courtesy name Wentai.
Even as a boy he had been bold enough to charge alone into a band of river pirates, and in the battles against the many rebellions that followed he won such glittering merits that he clawed his way up to a governor's seat—a famous man, and no mistake.
Look closely at the battles in which Sun Jian had distinguished himself, and one feat after another defied the ordinary.
The Rebellion of Xu Chang. In Kuaiji Commandery of Yang Province, a man named Xu Chang had risen in revolt alongside his son, and his following numbered a full tens of thousands. Sun Jian gathered bold fighting men and marched out with barely a thousand—and succeeded in annihilating Xu Chang and his entire band. And so Xu Chang, the rebel chieftain who had swaggered about hailing himself king, vanished into the back pages of history. The Governor of Yang Province, who had marked all of this closely, reported Sun Jian's deeds to the court, and Sun Jian rose to a somewhat higher office.
Afterward, Sun Jian went on to win battle honors aplenty in the Yellow Turban Rebellion as well. He joined forces with Ju Jun, one of the Generals of the Household, and smashed the Yellow Turbans again and again wherever he marched; and when the Turbans bolted their gates and cowered behind their walls, it is said he spurred his soldiers on to the point of scaling the ramparts with his own two hands. When the Rebellion of Qu Xing broke out in Changsha Commandery, he led his command out and crushed it in a mere half month. Small wonder that everyone who knew of him dreaded nothing so much as crossing Sun Jian.
"..."
Yes.
So the moment word came that Sun Jian had reached the vicinity of Fancheng, a light film of cold sweat had broken out on him—and there was nothing shameful in that. It was only natural, if anything was. Ask anyone in the world today to stand against Sun Jian, and not a soul would step forward eagerly, begging for the task. Even Huang Zu himself had come out only grudgingly, after weighing every political consideration. Long years on the battlefield had made him shrewd and thick-skinned, but ask him whether he could beat Sun Jian in a fight, and all he could do was shake his head.
His forte—river warfare, the skill he excelled at above all else?
Well.
One look at the formation of the fleet Sun Jian was leading, and it was plain the man was every bit as much at home fighting on water. Then again, he had never once in his life met a man born in Yang Province who wasn't.
...Which was nothing to rejoice over, just now.
"...Whew."
His sigh spent, Huang Zu could do nothing but pray to the heavens—praying that fortune, just this once, might see him repel the man.
Fancheng.
In Jing Province, the region that binds northern China to southern, it was hailed as the finest fortress in the land, together with Xiangyang Castle. And before that very fortress, a man showed himself aboard a ship with an air of perfect confidence.
A middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair swept back from his brow, he bellowed toward the shore with all the force in his lungs.
"Huang Zu—! It is I, Sun Wentai—! Are you ready to fight—!!"
At that voice—so thunderous it beggared belief that it came from a single man—the soldiers of Huang Zu's host, drawn up in formation along the riverbank, flinched and shrank back all at once.
"Don't be afraid! Follow my orders calmly, and even the Tiger of Jiangdong will be able to do nothing!"
Huang Zu shouted, steadying his men.
"We hold the far stronger position! When the enemy closes, all you need do is loose your arrows. Do you hear me?!"
"Yes, sir!"
As Huang Zu worked hard to soothe his soldiers, the men who had cowered and shrank found their courage to fight once more.
Then Sun Jian's voice rolled out from the ships again.
"I am coming to rip out your throat this instant, Huang Zu—! Go on then, resist with everything you have—!!"
"They're coming! Ready yourselves!"
As the ships bearing Sun Jian's army began to move, Huang Zu gave his soldiers the order. At his command, they nocked their arrows as one.
And when Sun Jian's ships had drawn near enough, Huang Zu roared:
"Now! Loose—!"
Shwish-shwish-shwish—SHOONG—!!
The instant Huang Zu gave the word, the soldiers released their bowstrings, and the arrows that sprang from them blotted out the sky before pouring down like rain.
As if they had been tipped off in advance, Sun Jian's soldiers dropped flat inside their ships the moment the arrows came sheeting down, riding out the storm.
Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack!
Sun Jian's army met the arrow attack with the ease of long practice, and Huang Zu, growing impatient, heaped command upon command, pouring out still more arrows.
"Whatever it takes, we must keep them from setting foot on land! We have arrows to spare, so keep loosing them!"
Under the rain of arrows, Sun Jian's fleet slowed visibly, unmistakably—so the volleys were not entirely without effect.
And so, by Huang Zu's inner clock, an eternity crawled past.
Having swallowed volley after volley, Sun Jian's army seemed at last to find the punishment more than it could bear; the oars dipped once more, and the ships drew slowly away.
"A-are they withdrawing?"
Blinking, Huang Zu checked again and again whether Sun Jian's army was truly falling back. It was. Truly, at this very moment, the enemy was pulling his army away.
As his soldiers, seeing it too, began to raise a cheer, Huang Zu wiped the cold sweat from his brow, as though a calamity had been dodged by a hair's breadth.
"Well. We held them off today, at least."
Keep this up, he thought, and we might yet drive Sun Jian's army off altogether—and he wore a positively cheerful expression at the thought.
And then, the next day.
Sun Jian showed himself again, bellowing in the very same voice as before.
"Huang Zu, you cur—! Scared, are you—?! Loosing arrows from afar and never once deigning to fight me up close—!!"
"A cheap provocation."
Judging the words utterly beneath a response, Huang Zu ignored Sun Jian and gave his aide the same order as yesterday.
"Today is no different from yesterday. Keep loosing arrows so the enemy cannot land."
"Understood, sir!"
Carrying out his general's orders, the aide had the arrows pour into Sun Jian's army whenever it drew near. With shot after dizzying shot raining down from Huang Zu's lines, Sun Jian's army held out a while, then withdrew its forces—just as it had the day before.
"The way they scurry off, they're no Tiger of Jiangdong at all—just a pack of cowards!"
Watching Sun Jian's army trudge away, deflating as ever, Huang Zu burst into loud laughter.
And when the next day came, Sun Jian's army appeared again without fail. Huang Zu no longer even bothered to weigh the matter before giving his order.
"Same as always today! Give those bastards another taste of our arrows!"
His soldiers loosed their volleys with well-worn routine, and Sun Jian's army, as ever, endured the baptism of arrows and pulled back. Time after time they all but touched the riverbank, only to drift away again.
By now, a nagging worry had taken root in Huang Zu: was there some other design behind all this?
Just then, his aide cried out to him, his face taut with urgency.
"General!"
"What is it?"
A bad premonition stirring in his gut, Huang Zu turned to the man. The aide spoke.
"The arrows are all gone!"
"..."
At that, Huang Zu's eyes went wide—and a heartbeat later his face had drained corpse-white. The ground seemed to tilt beneath him as he forced the words out again.
"...You mean to tell me all one hundred thousand arrows are spent?"
"Yes, sir!"
The aide, evidently rattled out of his wits as well, could not keep the tremor from his voice.
Don't tell me... Was this what he was after all along?
Cold sweat streaming, Huang Zu shuddered in dread—and his fear proved exactly, precisely right.
"Huang Zu—! What is this, no arrows again today—! Don't tell me you've actually run clean out—!"
So cried Sun Jian the next day, when the arrow attack failed to come.
"Well then, I suppose I'd better return them—! Take them back with my compliments—!!"
And in the same breath, arrows riding a fair wind came sheeting down upon his own army's camp—and at the sight of it, Huang Zu very nearly lost his mind.