The Conquest of Jiangdong (10)
Yuzhang Commandery, Yangzhou.
On land that the Sun Quan of the original history had once called Linchuan Commandery, a woman murmured in a calm, level voice.
"Everywhere you look, it's nothing but forest."
"You're telling me."
The one who answered was another woman with slate-blue hair—Xiahou Dun—and she heaved a deep sigh.
"How the hell do the Shanyue even live in a place like this? Do they sleep under piles of leaves or something?"
"Not an entirely impossible method, I suppose."
At Xiahou Dun's grumbling, Cao Cao gave a wry little smile.
"Well, didn't my nanggun-nim say as much? This place is mostly untouched wilderness."
Seeing Cao Cao speak of her husband with such open affection left Xiahou Dun wearing a dazed expression.
"...So that's what you've fully settled on calling him now?"
"Hmm? Not quite."
Cao Cao calmly denied it.
"I simply change what I call him depending on my mood."
"Ah... right."
She'd known that already, but what a fickle creature the woman was.
And yet, astonishingly, even this was Cao Cao in one of her tamer moods.
Back in the days when she still couldn't rein in her bloodthirst...
Ugh. Just thinking about it makes my skin crawl.
Judged by appearances alone, Cao Cao looked the picture of serenity, but Xiahou Dun knew exactly how much emotion churned behind that beautiful face—and she still hadn't gotten used to seeing her like this.
Xiahou Dun asked her,
"So what do we do now?"
"Hmm?"
"We've come a long way in already. You didn't drag us in here without a plan, did you?"
"Ah, that."
At Xiahou Dun's added explanation, Cao Cao nodded.
"I intend to make contact with the faction that has ruled Jiangdong until now."
"If you mean those people..."
Xiahou Dun let the words trail off, sinking into thought.
If her memory served, it was someone by the name of Liu Yao. A man who had worked diligently at his duties—suppressing the Shanyue tribes within his borders while turning back invasions from the likes of Yuan Shu. In the end he had gone and absurdly handed over his own headquarters to a mere bandit's betrayal, but ask whether Liu Yao was incompetent, and she could only shake her head.
"Nanggun-nim seems to have everything up north well in hand, so I ought to take responsibility for the south, no?"
News had reached Cao Cao's ears as well that Yan Baihu, the current chieftain of the Shanyue, kept hurling herself at Jeong Reung only to be beaten back time and again. Yan Baihu, who had presumptuously styled herself the Eastern Wu King of Virtue, was said to luck into an escape every single time she lost a battle... Supposedly, anyway.
'If you happen upon Yan Baihu, see to it that you let her go.'
Having received those instructions from the Grand General before the armies divided, Cao Cao could only conclude that he meant to release the woman on purpose.
She said with a laugh,
"To think he enjoys bending a woman's heart to his will. What positively wicked taste."
Had Jeong Reung heard it, he would have clutched his head in mortification on the spot—but regrettably, he was not present.
Xiahou Dun was every bit as baffled by the non sequitur, and spoke up.
"Where did that come from all of a sudden?"
"I was merely thinking of my nanggun-nim."
"......??"
Hearing that explanation only deepened Xiahou Dun's confusion, and she tilted her head.
"Anyway, so we just have to track down the Jiangdong lot holed up somewhere down south?"
"That's right."
"And once we find them?"
"Is that not obvious?"
Cao Cao, who had been surveying the surrounding forest to fix the terrain in her mind, turned to look at Xiahou Dun once more.
"Those who grovel flat and swear their loyalty will be spared. Those who show even the faintest hint of anything amiss will lose their heads."
"...That's pretty brutal."
"Anyone who cannot relinquish her ambition even in circumstances like these is a person who will cause trouble sooner or later, no matter when."
Cao Cao normally displayed a rich range of expressions and wore her feelings openly, yet there were moments when she turned cold in a way that was downright frightening. Should she judge someone to be of no consequence to her, she had no qualms about staining her hands with blood, however many they might be. What was more terrifying still was that she felt not a shred of guilt even when innocent people were swept up in her actions and lost their lives.
"Hmm..."
There it is.
Even now she's wearing that blank expression, just shy of giving you goosebumps.
A woman who, the moment the road she walked ever went astray, would drown the whole realm in blood—and Cao Cao was more than capable of it.
Xiahou Dun mulled it over briefly, then ventured,
"L-look, um. Don't go overboard with the killing, all right? Cao Cao, your nanggun-nim won't like it."
"...True. I suppose I shouldn't."
The moment Cao Cao—who had been silently keeping her own counsel—heard those words, a faint smile touched her lips.
With the chilled atmosphere thawing in an instant, Xiahou Dun thought to herself:
'It really does work.'
It was precisely as the drunkard woman who was forever wheedling for a drink had told her.
───The moment your lord shows signs of going off the rails~ just mention the Grand General~
───...How about you sober up first?
───I'm not drunk~ eep!
Drunk as she clearly was, what she said never failed to cut straight to the heart of things. It was enough to understand why Cao Cao, with her exacting eye for talent, cherished her so.
───Ah, did I drink too much yesterday...? My head... urp... BLEEEUURGH!
───You absolute lunatic! Get away from me!
...Though her everyday conduct was so shameless that "wastrel" felt like a compliment.
Cao Cao, back to her usual self, spoke while loosely calculating their direction.
"According to the scouts, the Shanyue have pitched a camp somewhere near here..."
It was hard to believe this woman was the same person who had radiated such icy menace only moments before. Truly, the power of love was a mighty thing.
Xiahou Dun made a mental note to put that trick to good use whenever she found herself in a bind from now on.
"General, I have a report."
"...What is it?"
Cao Cao, who had been ceaselessly calculating their line of march in her head, turned to the officer approaching her. Her gaze was razor-sharp, but the officer, who had campaigned under Cao Cao since long ago, opened his mouth without so much as a flinch.
"There is a suspicious individual ahead claiming to be an officer of Liu Yao's. What are your orders?"
"An officer of Liu Yao's?"
Hadn't this entire region been occupied by the Shanyue without a single gap in their net?
Xiahou Dun, mulling it over, voiced her doubt.
"Those Shanyue bastards were guarding the roads damn seriously. How did they get through?"
Even Cao Cao, who had been tearing through Jiangdong at breakneck speed, had noted how heavily the Shanyue positions were guarded and was pausing to rest. Move boldly when the enemy showed an opening; when caution was called for, conserve strength and wait for a gap to reveal itself. For Cao Cao, gifted with an exceptional talent for command, this was no great feat.
Cao Cao asked the officer,
"This person's name?"
"Yes. She gave her name as Taishi Ci, beyond any doubt."
"Taishi Ci..."
Even at first hearing, it was exactly the sort of name her nanggun-nim would gush over as "so cool." Her nanggun-nim, after all, was well past thirty—the age at which a man should stand established—yet still had a boyish streak in him.
...The fact that even that side of him struck her as lovable must mean she had crossed too many bridges ever to find her way back.
Well, so long as she was happy, what did it matter?
On the sole merit of bearing a name her nanggun-nim would likely adore, Cao Cao awarded the woman one whole point on the positive side and nodded.
"I will see her with my own eyes and judge. Bring her to me."
"By your command."
Yue Jin, who had served her since the day Cao Cao first raised troops in Yanzhou, withdrew at once with measured, disciplined steps.
Xiahou Dun watched him go, then remarked,
"Born to be a soldier, that one. I've never once seen him loosen up."
"It is precisely for that quality that I keep him in my service."
People like him, at the very least, never caused trouble—and if they were capable on top of it, so much the better.
"...Still, no matter how I look at it, isn't he awfully small?"
"......"
At that, Cao Cao held her silence for a moment.
In fairness, when he had first enlisted, she had assigned him to the civil branch—no matter how she looked at him, he simply hadn't had the build of a warrior. Had he not gone on to prove himself with distinction after distinction in the battles that followed, he would likely still be some clerk shuffling paperwork.
Cao Cao said,
"Do not say such things where he can hear."
"I know."
Yue Jin had never once given ground, even at death's door on the battlefield. Xiahou Dun had witnessed that valor with her own eyes, so she offered no further comment. People, it seemed, truly ought not to be judged by appearances alone.
Before long after Yue Jin withdrew, a woman appeared before Cao Cao.
Closely cropped reddish-brown hair and emerald-green eyes; skin of an apricot tint, far from the porcelain white so prized in a beauty.
The woman—beautiful at a single glance—opened her mouth in a deferential voice the moment she saw Cao Cao.
"Thank you for granting me this audience. Though my talents are humble, I serve the Inspector of Yangzhou. I am called Taishi Ziyi—Taishi my family name, Ziyi my courtesy name—"
"Not bad."
"...I beg your pardon?"
When Cao Cao spoke before the introduction was even finished, Taishi Ci's face went blank with bewilderment.
"Merely thinking aloud. Pay it no mind."
"Ah. I—yes, of course."
Taishi Ci accepted the explanation for the moment, but could not entirely hide her bemusement.
Oblivious or indifferent to Taishi Ci's state, Cao Cao went on smiling all the same.