Ye Province (4)
Break through an encirclement of one hundred thousand with a mere eight hundred, then threaten the ruler of an enemy state into flight. Ask any ordinary person whether such a thing were possible, and they would shake their head without a moment's hesitation, wondering what nonsense you were spouting. And fair enough — it is one hundred thousand against eight hundred. Even in fiction, a plot where eight hundred men carry the day would touch off an uproar of come on, really? — and no one would blame the crowd.
But what if I told you a general in actual history truly pulled this off? Would you believe me? Zhang Liao, courtesy name Wenyuan. When the hundred-thousand-strong host personally led by Sun Quan closed around the city, he marched out with a bare eight hundred and, in the most literal sense, began to pulverize the encirclement.
It was a monstrous charge that smashed through formations and everything else alike. Becoming a tank in the flesh, Zhang Liao left roadkill of every enemy who moved to bar his path, and Sun Quan's army — able neither to advance nor to retreat — was simply rolled all the way back to the very spot where their own lord stood.
So how did Sun Quan react when Zhang Liao, out of nowhere, appeared beside the Great General's Banner — the standard beneath which an army's commander directed his forces? React? He ran, of course. Startled out of his wits, Sun Quan scurried off to a small hill nearby to put distance between himself and the human weapon named Zhang Liao. One might call it a talent for flight worthy of the man's nickname, "Jerry" — the mouse who always slips the cat.
Sun Quan, flailing about in confusion, soon realized how few soldiers Zhang Liao actually had and ordered him surrounded and annihilated — whereupon Zhang Liao, with a so what? sort of air, punched through that encirclement too and sauntered back the way he had come. And when a soldier who had failed to escape the trap cried out, "General, are you abandoning us?!" during the return, Zhang Liao wheeled right around, shattered the encirclement a third time, and hauled the man out — an absurdity enough to wring a hollow laugh from anyone. At this outrageous turn of events, Sun Quan's soul promptly left his body, and his army, its spirit broken in the opening moments, ended up withdrawing in abject futility, its hundred thousand strong notwithstanding.
What made the spectacle even richer was that Zhang Liao, watching them go, charged in yet again. Only because the generals guarding Sun Quan — Gan Ning, Lu Meng, Ling Tong, and the rest — threw themselves onto their lord's trouser legs and held on for dear life did he escape meeting a very different end at Zhang Liao's hands.
That Zhang Liao could carve out such a feat back then was the work of several factors converging at once. A plague had swept through the Wu camps before the assault on Hefei, and thanks to Wu's particular character as a coalition of powerful clans, command had never been fully unified to begin with. Cao Cao, for his part, was busy scuffling with Liu Bei; upon receiving a report of the situation, he issued Zhang Liao guidelines on how to act. Zhang Liao simply carried out those guidelines magnificently well.
None of this is to say the soldiers of Wu were weak. Had they truly been weak, they could never have beaten Cao Cao at Red Cliffs. But even with every one of those factors weighed, Zhang Liao repelling one hundred thousand men with eight hundred was a staggeringly tremendous thing. This was the general who, even after Cao Cao passed from the world courtesy of Guan Yu's area-of-effect curse, kept Wu from ever clawing its way back up. Though his origins as a surrendered general meant he was never granted the title of Grand Commander, judged by fief allotments alone he received more than Cao Ren, Cao Cao's own kinsman — a truly formidable figure.
"You mean to say you are entrusting the conquest of Ye Province to me?"
"That's right."
I nodded to the woman standing before me. Zhang Liao, her brown hair gathered into a ponytail, blinked those clear eyes of hers and then broke into a bright smile.
"What would you have me do, then?"
"That part is simple."
To Zhang Liao, asking so matter-of-factly after her duty, I answered in a calm voice.
"Make it known that you have come to Ye Province bearing an imperial mandate, and watch how the Inspector of Ye Province and the Prince of Chen respond."
Worst case, Prince Yu Chong of Chen and Inspector Gong Ju of Ye Province might be people driven mad by power, just like Liu Biao. The odds of that were exceedingly slim, but there was nothing to lose by preparing for every contingency.
"And if they refuse to accept our forces and take up arms instead..."
...
Having gone that far, I paused a beat before continuing.
"I trust you know what must be done."
If words failed, then in the end one picked up the club. It was a method that even Liu Biao, Inspector of Jing Province and currently residing in the afterlife, and Yuan Shu of honey-water fame would have endorsed.
With the policy for the two factions settled, all that remained was the Yellow Turban army — and I had already finished thinking that through as well.
"As for the Yellow Turbans, I am attaching Zhang Ye — Zhang Jue, under her alias — as your deputy, so follow her counsel."
"Ah... so you mean her."
True to her place among the most senior members of our faction, Zhang Liao caught on the instant I hinted. Tapping a finger lightly against the desk, I went on.
"Her Majesty has earnestly charged me to look after my health, so for the time being I am in no position to take the field myself."
...
"Is there any general or strategist you would like me to attach in addition?"
Women like Lü Bu or Zhang Fei, who were raising my children or carrying them, would be out of the question — but beyond that, I was prepared to attach anyone to Zhang Liao without the slightest hesitation. She had followed me since my days in Bing Province, after all, and there was no talent in our ranks with the seniority to elbow past her. If I had to name anyone who might bristle and refuse her orders outright, the only candidate was Lü Bu, whose rank stood far above hers. Seo Yeo, who simply never left my side, I would count as an exception.
At my question, Zhang Liao pondered something for a moment before opening her mouth.
"Then might I request those two?"
"Those two?"
Bemused as to whom she meant, it did not take me long to figure it out.
"You mean Gao Shun and Xu Huang?"
"Yes."
Certainly, the two of them were veterans in their own right. I could not recall exactly when it had begun, but the three of them had stuck together like glue, piling up every manner of battlefield honor. During the recent Nanzhong campaign, Gao Shun and Xu Huang had brawled like alley cats, hauling the tribesmen under Meng Huo's command around by the hair, while Zhang Liao, together with Ma Chao, had stormed King Duosi's camp by surprise and taken an enemy commander captive.
...Come to think of it, wasn't there something I still needed to settle with Ma Chao once and for all? I distinctly remembered it being pushed back because something involving Yi Province blew up before the main event could take place. One thing after another had piled up since, and I had apparently gone and forgotten all about it. Thank goodness it came back to me now, at least. What must Ma Chao have been thinking as she watched me eat those three chocolates? I ought to send her a letter before long.
"That's easily arranged. Any other requests?"
I nodded and tossed the question out again, and Zhang Liao answered with that same serenely lovely smile.
"If the task you have entrusted to me concludes without incident, may I request a private audience like this one?"
At that, I let my puzzlement show. A private audience? What on earth did she mean by such a request?
Then Zhang Liao began, slowly, to close the distance between us.
...
With the shrinking distance came the scent of flowers. Just as fresh and lovely as her appearance, Zhang Liao carried a crisp, clean fragrance. In the next instant my lips were stolen away, and as I stood there wearing a perfectly dumbfounded expression, Zhang Liao spoke.
"The rest you will receive later — as your reward."
A bright, guileless tone. It was the moment I came face to face with yet another side of Zhang Liao, who usually spoke in such level, measured tones.
Having shown me this unexpected face, she bowed her head at once.
"Then I shall take my leave."
"Uh, uh... right."
And here I'd thought it impossible — yet Zhang Liao had been harboring feelings for me too. Truth be told, I had grown suspicious ever since she called me "cute" after we held off the coalition at Hulao Pass. But she had shown no sign of it since, so I had brushed it off as my imagination... At this point, I suppose there really is something about me. The question was: what exactly was that something? Stroking my chin, I stared at the empty spot where Zhang Liao had stood.
...
Seo Yeo — who used to declare that "women are beasts" every single time some woman came sidling up to me — now looked as though she had grown too weary of it all to even bother pointing it out.
"The Azure Sky is already dead; the Yellow Sky shall rise in its place!"
"When the year turns to Jiazi, great fortune shall fill the world!"
It was a memory of the past. The weight of a sin that, like bloodstains caked into the earth, would never be washed away. Even now, every time she closed her eyes, that wretched sight rose vividly before her.
Yellow Turban soldiers who would not let go of their weapons until the very moment their breath gave out. Han soldiers sprawled where they had fallen, bleeding, eyes wide open.
"Your choice was not wrong."
"Even had you never stepped forward, it was something that would have happened one day regardless."
Someone had told her that, but the woman knew better: no cause under heaven, however noble, could ever make it right for a person to kill a person.
The war had been wrong — unmistakably so. And yet she had found no other way to end the misery.
A contradiction. The struggle waged to save the innocent had instead dragged ever more lives down into the pit.
Hundreds died, then thousands, then tens of thousands. Corpses piled into mountains, and blood flowed like rivers.
So time passed, and when the count of the dead climbed into the hundreds of thousands, the woman thought: ...how am I any different now from the corrupt Emperor of Han?
From that moment, something inside her began to crumble.
"Remember this! Should you ever harbor a different heart, heavenly punishment will descend upon you!"
Was this what the immortal had meant by heavenly punishment? An affliction of the heart that even she, a physician of no small skill, could not cure. Watching herself grow more haggard by the day, the woman mocked herself in silence.
As time went on, the clever woman came to see it clearly: they would be stamped out, leaving a deep scar across the Han, and the ambitious men who seized upon the chance would rise up in every corner of the realm, plunging it into still greater chaos.
Then even this worthless neck of hers would have to be put to meaningful use. At the very least, she had to bring aid to those of good heart.
That was why she had invited him — and why she had readied herself to die.
"One last question."
"Do you truly wish to help people?"
The man who asked that smiled faintly and cast aside the sword he had been holding.
"Then I won't kill you."
So spoke the man who wanted a world where people could live as people should. Without a flicker of hesitation, he gave up the immense honor and fortune that hung upon her neck — everything her head was worth — and took her hand in his own.
"Great Good Master! You must flee, quickly!"
"Even if every last one of us dies here, you at least must live!"
It was destiny, and it was karma.
"If you truly mean to be there for people, then live — live, and help those who suffer."
She chose not the escape of dying, but the atonement of living. That was the reason the woman went on living.