Liu Biao (6)
An age of chaos, where every warlord nursed his own designs and clashed with all the rest — and now, the colossal power that everyone had once joined hands to check and contain had finally broken its silence.
Word that General-in-Chief Jeong Reung had declared war on Liu Biao, Governor of Jingzhou, spread to every corner of the realm. Into a turmoil where no one could see an inch past their own nose, the moment the greatest giant under heaven began to walk, every power in the land fixed its gaze upon that advance.
Following Zhuge Liang's stratagem, I sent one letter each to Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, and at last set my army in motion. Marching out with the very forces that had taken Nanyang Commandery, I detached a portion of the troops, placed them under Sun Ce, and gave him his orders.
"Sun Ce will advance into the Jingzhou region first and sweep the surrounding area clean."
"Leave it to me."
Having received my command, Sun Ce went down the river just as his father Sun Jian once had. Reaching Jingzhou in short order by way of the river called the Baihe, he occupied the surrounding counties exactly as ordered, forcing the surrender of the Jingzhou magnates who had failed to flee in time.
One of those magnates asked me,
"What will you do with us?"
Hearing the question, I answered as though it were nothing.
"Listen well to what I say, and I'll leave you exactly as you are. If anything suspicious stirs, I trust I won't have to spell out what happens next."
The Jingzhou magnate held his silence at my warning.
"No funny business. Keep your heads down and behave."
"……"
"If you go and do something that draws suspicion for no reason and end up with your head lopped off, you're the ones with the grievance. Isn't that right?"
My words — which brought to mind some ambassador or other admonishing them to conduct themselves with care — kept the Jingzhou magnates nervously reading my every mood. Knowing that playing the terror too hard did me no good either, I curved my lips into a smile and went on.
"I'm not asking you to help me attack Liu Biao. All I ask is that you don't cause trouble. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"…I understand."
"Good. Then go."
The man who had stood before me as the magnates' representative quietly withdrew from his place.
"So you're just going to leave those guys alone like that?"
Lü Bu, standing nearby, threw the question at me, and I answered evenly.
"For now."
"…'For now'?"
At my answer, Lü Bu's head tilted slightly.
"The plan is to leave them be until I have Liu Biao in hand. After that, no."
Ever since the previous governor Wang Rui had died, these were men who had run wild declaring that each of them would seize Jingzhou and make himself a warlord. Had Liu Biao been the least bit incompetent, court-appointed governor or no, he would likely already have been shoved down into the lower reaches of the Yangtze.
I might pursue a conciliatory line with the magnates, but if all they ever saw of me was a gentle face, some of them would inevitably begin to underestimate me. Men capable of reading a situation wouldn't dare — but the world has never lacked for beast-like humans who put desire before reason. It was the same in Luoyang, wasn't it? There had been those who opposed me on pure instinct even when the gap in strength made it obvious they couldn't win.
"I'll have their pasts investigated, and I'll crush anyone with problems in them."
Magnates whose scale was suspiciously enormous. Once I had swallowed Jingzhou, those were the ones I intended to examine with the utmost thoroughness.
The carrot and the whip. Only when the two strike a proper balance does a state run smoothly, does it not? If they had truly amassed that enormous wealth honestly, I would have nothing to say….
But does a person really exist who, shaken down thoroughly, wouldn't produce so much as a speck of dust? To put it as a metaphor — that's exactly what it is. Every time they frisk you and a few coins shake loose, you take a beating. And when the coins come pouring out in that quantity, getting beaten to death is your own just deserts.
Catching the rotten ones and breaking the magnates' spirit in the same stroke — wasn't that two birds with one stone? It was hardly any different from what I had done in Luoyang.
"For now, it isn't the Jingzhou magnates we need to deal with — it's Liu Biao. Get ready."
"Got it."
Hearing my words, Lü Bu nodded.
I pitched camp near Xiangyang Castle and slowly began to weave the encirclement shut. Sun Ce, whom I had sent ahead as the vanguard, joined me and reported.
"We have taken all of Xiangyang Commandery."
"Well done. Anything out of the ordinary?"
"Yes."
Sun Ce answered my question with perfect courtesy.
"In all the time I spent securing the region, I did not cross paths with Liu Biao's army so much as once."
"Hmm…."
"Could they all be holed up inside Xiangyang Castle…?"
By the look of it, they meant to make a determined stand from behind the walls. Cracking this place open was going to require bracing for the long haul.
Xiangyang Castle was the military bastion that had held out against even the Mongol Empire's invasion for five full years — a fortress so heaven-blessed, and so stubbornly impregnable, that the story goes a trebuchet had to be specially developed just to breach it in the end. Before it flowed the river called the Hanshui; hard by it rose Mount Xianshan, the classic back to the mountain, face to the river terrain. On top of that, a deep square moat had been cut around the walls and fed with river water, so that simply approaching the walls was an ordeal in itself.
In other words, precisely the sort of place that earns glowing reviews of "god, this game is fucking broken."
In the original history, this was the place Liu Cong simply handed over to Cao Cao when he surrendered after Liu Biao's death — so why on earth was I stuck out here doing this? As for the Siege of Fancheng where Guan Yu met his end, the name says Fancheng, but in truth he had thrown his army at Xiangyang Castle and Fancheng simultaneously and died with Sun Quan's knife in his back.
"…Just as you expected, but it seems Fancheng has hardened its defenses for a long fight as well."
Sima Yi, who had been sorting through the situation nearby, told me, and I nodded.
"That much is only natural."
Xiangyang Castle and Fancheng were a peculiar pair: with the Hanshui between them, each guarded the other. Two fortresses lying close together and linked in tight coordination — cracking them was next to impossible. Surround Xiangyang Castle to take Jingzhou? Then a relief force burst straight out of Fancheng and hammered you hard — back of the head or temple, take your pick. The reverse held just as true.
When Guan Yu attacked Xiangyang Castle, he besieged Fancheng and Xiangyang at the same time, and even the Mongol Empire could only take Xiangyang after besieging both and breaking Fancheng first. I had to besiege two places at once to take a single castle? This wasn't some buy-one-get-one-free promotion — what the hell was this.
And yet, in truth, this was how things were meant to be. In Sun Jian's case before, Huang Zu had shattered at a single blow and Fancheng was surrendered absurdly cheap — which was exactly why Xiangyang Castle had been in danger too.
Now that I thought about it, it was a little strange. Why would the man who had marched his army out last time go cowering behind his walls this time? Had someone pressed counsel upon him?
I asked Sima Yi.
"Who commands Fancheng?"
"A man called Huang Zu, I hear."
Of course it had to be that guy.
Though Huang Zu lost in the open field, he had succeeded time and again in holding Jiangxia, snagging the Sun clan's forces by the ankle — the general who held off the offensives of Sun Jian, Sun Ce, and Sun Quan for a full ten years and more. Whatever else he lacked, his talent for defensive warfare had to be first-rate. He had kept Jiangxia for over a decade amid a bloodbath in which Sun Quan's generals died in droves and Liu Biao's generals died in droves.
From Sun Quan's standpoint, with a cancerous lump called the Shanyue Tribe lodged inside his own territory, he could never give the attack his full attention either….
Still, being caught out while underestimating the enemy was not to our taste either, so it was best to remain as vigilant as possible toward the Fancheng side that Huang Zu held.
"Is there no way other than besieging both at once?"
"If those men were underestimating us even a little, I'd love to try some kind of lure…."
Sima Yi said so, then shook her head.
"Our strength is so overwhelming they'll lose their nerve and never set foot outside."
"Mmm…."
I let out a troubled sound. So in the end, even at heavy cost, the straight approach was the only answer?
"That is precisely what we must focus on."
Just as I was wrestling with it, Jia Xu, standing nearby, spoke. When my gaze turned to her, she continued in her usual expressionless way.
"I cannot say how Liu Biao himself will take it, but his vassal magnates will, without question, all fear us."
"And if so?"
"The moment every one of them feels there is no hope left in Liu Biao, something will erupt from within."
"No hope…."
Hearing Jia Xu's counsel, I nodded.
"Then all that remains is to hold back any relief force Cao Cao and Yuan Shao might send."
"Precisely."
"The special detachment had better perform, then."
I thought of Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei. I had judged that if Cao Cao and Yuan Shao truly struck at my back, the only ones who could stop them were the Peach Sisters. At present, the three sisters were watching the rear in the Ye Province direction together with Xun You, whom I had attached to them. Liu Bei and Cao Cao were each other's natural counter — wasn't that an exquisite piece of personnel selection?
"You need not worry on that account either — or so I am pleased to report."
"Hm?"
While I was quietly congratulating myself, Zhuge Liang at my side made her presence known. The tip of her White Feather Fan was held lightly over her lips — a pose I suspected had hardened into habit by now.
"For according to my calculations, there will be no losses whatsoever."
With that, Zhuge Liang gave me a faint smile.
What exactly was this calculation of hers, that she alone got to know it?
Seo Yeo, who had at some point drifted to my side, spoke.
"Master. I say this yet again, but women are…."
By now, it was a line that left me faintly dizzy.