Yi Province (1)
After taking Hanzhong, I put my troops in order and quietly bided my time.
The reason I didn't march straight for Yi Province was a simple one.
"They're working so hard fighting one another and thinning their own ranks for us — there's hardly any reason for us to barge in, is there?"
Sima Yi remarked flatly, having just finished sizing up the situation in Yi Province.
"If we pounce now thinking it's the perfect opening, the only thing we'll get to watch is those people joining forces. Wouldn't that be a lovely sight?"
I fell silent as I listened to her assessment.
I had the odd feeling I'd seen a situation very much like this somewhere before.
Oh — was that it?
Yuan Shao, who died suddenly after the Battle of Guandu — whether from a broken heart or what, who could say — without ever naming an heir.
And with no successor chosen, his eldest son and his third son had split the family right down the middle, exactly as anyone might expect.
What did the second son do, you ask? If I remember right, he sided with Yuan Shang, the third — though honestly, the details escape me.
At any rate, the moment the brothers began tearing into each other, Cao Cao seized her opening and led her army into Jizhou...
...only to witness the very brothers who'd been fighting as if to kill one another suddenly join hands for the sole purpose of driving her out.
A fairly absurd turn of events — but it had genuinely happened.
Sima Yi was warning that the same thing could play out here.
Then Pang Tong spoke up.
"Th-that's 'watching the fire from across the river,' right?!"
"Huh?"
"When the enemy is torn apart by infighting, the wisest course is to sit still and watch!"
Pang Tong pressed on, trembling with nerves.
"W-we mustn't give them a reason to band together, that's what!"
Why are you shaking so much?
Anyone who saw you would think I eat people alive.
"...Then when do we strike?"
"It's simple."
Zhuge Liang settled Pang Tong — who by now looked half out of her mind — back into her seat, then continued with unruffled calm.
"Liu Tan, who intends to succeed Liu Yan as master of Yi Province."
With that, she pressed a finger to one corner of the Bashu Topography Map Zhang Song had left behind.
Chengdu.
The great city Liu Tan himself currently ruled — it would be no exaggeration to call it the heart of Yi Province.
"The gentry clans of Yi Province, who rose up against Liu Yan as he stripped away their privileges, splitting the province from within."
Lifting her finger from Chengdu, Zhuge Liang promptly tapped a second city.
Jiangzhou.
A step behind Chengdu, the center of Yi Province, but still a thoroughly developed region in its own right.
If I remembered correctly, Liu Bei herself had once claimed this land as her personal fief.
"It seems a man called Nu Fa leads the gentry faction."
Zhuge Liang laid out the intelligence she'd gathered in her usual even tone.
Seen only this far, it was an utterly ordinary squabble.
Friction between officials dispatched from the central court and the local powers that be was an everyday affair, no?
But Yi Province had one peculiarity all its own.
"And last of all... the Nanman tribes rising from the south."
Zhuge Liang swept her hand across the southern reaches of Yi Province as she explained.
"There is far too little intelligence on what manner of soldiers they command — or how numerous they might be."
"Hmm..."
I sank into thought as her briefing drew to a close.
How had the Nanman been portrayed in Romance of the Three Kingdoms again?
A fierce tiger corps that trained tigers and fielded them as troops, poison swamps where a single passage cost a man his life, and even the Dengjia Bing — the Vine Armor Soldiers — draped in armor so monstrous it turned arrows aside.
You'd have to say Luo Guanzhong had unleashed the full force of his imagination.
Unlike the northern nomads, who were merely a touch too violent and unusually handy with horses, the Nanman were, quite literally, a people straight out of a fantasy.
I'd heard elephants once roamed the ancient Chinese south, so I might actually get to lay eyes on a war elephant I'd only ever heard about in stories.
Truth be told, you could be forgiven for picturing Yi Province as a peaceful backwater far removed from every war under heaven — but in reality it was a chaotic land where rebellions kept erupting here, there, and everywhere.
Just as the Shanyue Tribe picked fights day in and day out, insisting Jiangnan belonged to them, Yi Province had its own native peoples who claimed the land as theirs and rose in revolt.
I can't recall the details, but I believe they were called the Ba tribe.
I remember that when Liu Bei died, rebellions burst out across Yi Province one after another as though they'd only been waiting for the chance, and even Zhuge Liang was driven to her wits' end.
That she still built the nation's strength high enough to stand against Wei in spite of it all was genuinely remarkable.
The Ba tribe had probably joined hands with the Yi Province gentry.
Liu Yan's son Liu Tan, the gentry clans and the native Ba tribe, and the Nanman surging up from the south.
Laid out like that, it was plain to see just how chaotic Yi Province's situation truly was.
Now I understood why Zhang Song had come to me begging for help.
Rather than sit back and watch them carry on with their own little song and dance, she'd rather drag in an outside power and end the whole mess at once — that had to be her thinking.
So did that make me the one-armed swordsman who arrives to end the war between the navy and the pirates?
Zhuge Liang continued.
"If we simply hold our ground, one of the factions in Yi Province is certain to come asking for our aid."
"Like when Liu Tan asked us to attack Hanzhong for him?"
"Yes."
When I offered the apt example, the white-haired young strategist hid her mouth behind her fan.
"Those who would cling to life even at the cost of the power they hold can be found anywhere."
...
"And according to my calculations, the faction that will come to us for help is..."
Letting the words trail off for a moment, Zhuge Liang stole a sidelong smile.
"The odds favor Liu Tan."
"...Why?"
"The first request is the hard one. What could possibly be difficult about asking twice?"
Zhuge Liang answered as though it were nothing at all.
"Just because a father coveted power does not mean his child will covet it too."
...
"The human heart is something no one can predict — is it not?"
...For someone who talks like that, you certainly predict things awfully well.
Or was that her roundabout way of announcing just how extraordinary she was?
Zhuge Liang had a slightly childish streak to her, too.
"General-in-Chief. There is someone outside who wishes to see you."
"Me?"
No sooner had Zhuge Liang finished making her case than Zhao Yun entered the room with the announcement.
Half-suspecting the answer, I pressed for specifics.
"Who is it that wants to see me?"
"A vassal of Liu Tan's — the one who visited before."
...
Why did everything out of her mouth come true, just like that?
When I glanced over at her, Zhuge Liang wore a triumphant expression, as if everything were unfolding precisely according to her calculations.
It was the moment Zhuge Liang's legendary brilliance — the fabled divine stratagems and uncanny foresight beyond what ordinary minds could fathom — revealed itself in full.
"...What? What is it?"
Lü Bu asked, looking like she hadn't understood a word of the conversation just now.
No — rather than failing to understand, she'd simply tuned it all out from sheer lack of interest. That was more like it.
You really are nothing if not consistent, you know that?
...
Seo Yeo, whose every fiber of attention is normally fixed on me, was no different.
Hers was the sort who bulldozed straight through any problem with raw, stubborn strength — which meant she had zero intention of wading into headache-inducing political squabbles.
Civil officials whose sharp minds let their bodies take it easy, and military officers whose strong bodies let their minds take it easy.
Whatever else you said about them, these were talents with personality to spare.
Of course, there were also the likes of Zhao Yun and Zhang Liao, who possessed both brains and brawn.
After hearing Zhao Yun's report, I rose at once to receive my guest.
The one who wished to see me was Zhang Song, who had come to me once before.
I'd more or less expected as much from the moment Zhao Yun spoke.
Of Liu Tan's vassals, only one had ever met me face to face, no?
I offered a greeting to Zhang Song, whose face remained as unremarkable as ever.
"It's been quite a while. About a month, I'd say?"
"Yes. I confess I did not expect you to take Hanzhong this quickly."
Zhang Song replied with a faint smile.
"You really ought to have seen the look on Liu Tan's face when word arrived that Zhang Lu had been annihilated overnight, my lord."
...
She really had crossed over to my side for good, hadn't she.
Feeling slightly dazed, I pressed on.
"Judging by the fact that you've come all this way, Liu Tan has another favor to ask of me."
"Yes. That is correct."
Zhang Song nodded calmly.
"A great deal has happened in the past month."
"A great deal?"
I let my puzzlement show at her words.
What on earth did she mean by a great deal?
Reading my reaction, Zhang Song continued in a level voice.
"The tribes rising from the south have begun crushing every army sent against them."
...
"Not only Liu Tan's army — even Nu Fa's has suffered crushing defeats in the open field and now does nothing but hunker down behind its walls."
It was that bad?
Just how strong were these Nanman, for things to have come to this...?
"And somehow — I truly cannot fathom how — they have tamed savage beasts and set them to work as soldiers."
"...I see."
Hearing that much, I could grasp the entire situation.
Those Nanman bastards had gone and built themselves a fantasy army, straight out of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.