The Hanzhong Campaign (1)
Having accepted Zhang Song's proposal, I summoned my commanders at once and laid out our objective.
The first to speak after hearing me out was Sima Yi.
"So... you're saying you mean to target Yi Province, since we'll have people answering us from within?"
"That's right."
"Hmm..."
The violet-haired strategist wore a pensive look for a moment, then opened her mouth. "I see no harm in it. If anything, striking while they're still in chaos would keep the damage down."
"Good. Then do you happen to have a solid plan?"
At my question, Sima Yi answered in an even voice. "To start, how about we occupy Hanzhong first, as Liu Tan—Liu Yan's second son—requested?"
"Why?"
"To secure a springboard into Yi Province."
Sima Yi continued, her tone suggesting it was hardly a difficult matter. "If we show an appetite for Yi Province before we've even taken Hanzhong, those factions might end up uniting against us."
"...All four of them?"
"No. The Nanman keep to themselves, I'd say?"
At my half-doubting question, Sima Yi shook her head. "I can't picture those prideful old native factions ever forming an alliance with foreign tribes."
"Fair point."
I conceded to her reasoning. Very well—so Liu Tan, Liu Yan's second son and successor, the gentry factions of Yi Province, and Zhang Lu over in Hanzhong might well join hands. When a common enemy rears its head, people naturally band together to drive it out. They were all children of Han, after all.
But the aristocrats of this era held other peoples in such contempt—forever sneering about savages and barbarians at the slightest provocation—that I couldn't begin to imagine them allying with the Nanman tribes. ...Honestly, given how violent those tribesmen tended to be, I could see why people felt that way. Where the Han aristocrats fought their battles with words, solemnly invoking their ancestors, the tribesmen swung their blades before any talk of dialogue could even begin. And if they decided your ransom was worth the trouble, they wouldn't kill you—they'd take you captive and shake you down for every last coin. Highwaymen, the whole lot of them.
There might be tribes that didn't operate that way, but every single one I'd met near the border had drawn steel first and asked questions never. No wonder people recoiled from them. Even a good first impression would have been barely enough; leaving nothing but bad ones only hardened opinion further. If even I, with my relatively open mind, felt this way, what must everyone else think?
Having sorted Sima Yi's argument out in my head, I spoke again. "Any other opinions?"
"......"
Saying so, I swept my gaze across the commanders gathered in the war hall, but not one of them offered a dissenting word. Even Zhuge Liang, who'd lock horns with Sima Yi at the drop of a hat, held her silence—so our next course of action was settled.
"Very well. We'll commit to taking Hanzhong, then... but how should we go about attacking it?" I asked my strategists whether anyone had a good method.
Judged by the map alone, the distance between Chang'an and Hanzhong looked remarkably short—practically a stone's throw. Reality, however, told a different story. A whole mountain range sprawled squarely between the two, and once you wound your way along its unbroken peaks, the distance that had looked so brief on paper miraculously stretched into a full thousand li—some four hundred kilometers. Worse, the trails were maddeningly narrow, enough to drive a man out of his mind. And the one route that wasn't so treacherous? Why, that was where Yangping Pass sat. It was no accident that Zhang Lu had held his domain for some forty years in the original history; with terrain so overwhelmingly suited to defense, even Cao Cao had never dared attack it in earnest.
Just then, Zhuge Liang stepped forward. "I have a stratagem, my lord. Would you care to hear it?"
"Of course. What is it?"
I nodded without a moment's hesitation. When a brilliant strategist—practically a walking cheat code—announces she has a plan, you listen.
Perhaps sensing my anticipation, Zhuge Liang veiled her lips behind her white feather fan and spoke. "Sheng dong ji xi."
"Hmm?"
"We lure their troops toward Yangping Pass, then strike Hanzhong itself."
Sheng dong ji xi—make a clamor in the east, strike in the west. A diversionary operation, in other words.
"Attacking Yangping Pass is no trouble, but how exactly do you mean to strike Hanzhong?"
It was true that one could reach Hanzhong without passing through the pass. Yes—could, technically. After all, even a brutally treacherous trail that only a vanishingly small number of people ever walked was still, in principle, walkable by a human being. But once you factored in the size of the force and the problem of supply, the risk became far too great. Surely she wasn't thinking of running the Ziwu Valley plan in reverse—the very scheme Wei Yan never shut up about? Judging by Zhuge Liang's preference for safe stratagems, there was no way she'd propose something so reckless.
I kept my silence, resolved to hear her out, and Zhuge Liang pressed on. "Why not make use of Jing Province?"
"Jing Province?"
Use Jing Province how, exactly...? ...Wait. Could she mean—? The moment the thought flickered through my mind, I opened my mouth at once. "You mean to sail up the river?"
"Yes."
Hanzhong. One of the commanderies under Yi Province, its lands fertile throughout thanks to a single river flowing past the city walls. And what was that river's name, you ask? The Han River—the Hanshui. Not Han Sui, mind you, who was still anxiously watching my every move over in Xiliang. The Hanshui. Now, that was a rather familiar name, no? It was the very river that ran between Xiangyang Castle and Fancheng.
In other words, Zhuge Liang was proposing that while every enemy eye was locked on Yangping Pass, a force would sail upriver from Xiangyang Castle and fall upon Hanzhong without warning.
I set the map of China I'd always owned beside the Bashu Topography Map Zhang Song had left behind and weighed the odds of success. Sima Yi and Pang Tong poked their heads in to study the maps as well, and then they spoke.
"This... might actually work."
"I-I think so too!"
Two very encouraging answers. But something clearly nagged at her, because Sima Yi promptly fired a question at Zhuge Liang. "The water route does look awfully long and treacherous, though. Were you planning to call up the navy from Jiangdong?"
Did she mean Zhou Yu? Knowing that Meizhou Lang who had carried the Battle of Red Cliffs to victory, she'd probably come wriggling upriver like a loach and swallow Hanzhong whole. Zhang Lu would have sent the bulk of his soldiers to reinforce Yangping Pass, fully expecting the assault to land there—only for his home base to come under sudden attack? From his standpoint, it would be a bolt of lightning out of a clear sky. If I were in his shoes, I might well have surrendered on the spot.
"No, there will be no need to go quite that far," Zhuge Liang replied with a faint smile, answering in the negative. Needless to say, Sima Yi's eyes narrowed at an attitude that looked for all the world like mockery.
...Seriously, were those two running an advertisement for how badly they got along?
As I heaved an inward sigh, Zhuge Liang went on. "Those troops are destined to cross the Yangtze someday regardless, and a Hanzhong stripped of its defenses can be taken by a small force of elites alone."
"...You're rather brimming with confidence, aren't you?"
Hearing the plan laid bare, Sima Yi took a jab at Zhuge Liang. Naturally, a single jab was never going to cow her.
"Don't tell me you fear failure before anything has even been attempted?"
"That's not it, but..."
"Then what could possibly be the problem?"
Having silenced Sima Yi with almost offhand simplicity, Zhuge Liang turned to me. "My lord, I have particular people in mind for a detached force. Will you permit me to organize it?"
"What could possibly stop you?" I said with a shrug. "Do as you see fit."
"I shall repay that trust."
Zhuge Liang gave me a smiling glance and dipped into a slight bow. "And I have one more stratagem."
"...Another?"
She wasn't some bottomless sack of wisdom—where were all these plans coming from? When I let a flicker of bewilderment show, Zhuge Liang continued, looking quite satisfied with herself. "Shake them from without, shake them from within, and victory is as good as decided."
"......"
"If I recall correctly, there was a greedy man under Zhang Lu's command. How would it be to make use of him?"
A greedy man serving Zhang Lu? Ah—did she mean that guy? Having caught on to who she meant, I gave a composed nod.
"I'll provide the gold and silk. See to it that you win that man over."
"Yes, my lord."
Somehow this had turned into Zhuge Liang's one-woman show. I was beginning to understand why the Liu Bei of the original history had coddled her so.
I had worried, having gone and weakened peerless warriors like Lü Bu and Guan Yu with my own two hands—but capable strategists still remained to me. If I'd won every battle so far by crashing headlong into problems with brute force, then it was high time I started putting my mind to work.
With both of Zhuge Liang's stratagems accepted, I threw myself into full-scale preparations. To crank the enemy's vigilance to its very peak, it would be best for me to assault Yangping Pass in person. While the factions of Yi Province were busy brawling themselves senseless, we needed to seize the most advantageous ground available. Just as Sima Yi had said, Hanzhong was nothing more than a springboard for the conquest of Yi Province.