Moling (9)
Not long after I committed my generals to the field, Zhuge Liang, who had been standing nearby, spoke up.
"I believe the moment has arrived, my lord."
"Hm?"
"My lord, might I suggest you order your adjutant to raise the red banner?"
"...Very well."
Zhuge Liang's sudden proposal left me momentarily bemused, but I nodded along regardless—after all, our dear little strategist would never do anything strange.
"Then have someone—anyone—raise the red banner."
"Yes, my lord! Please leave this to me!!"
No sooner had the words left my mouth than Sun Quan hoisted the banner aloft at astonishing speed.
...That thing was big enough that a grown man would struggle just to move it, and she's lifting it like it's nothing. Is she really fifteen years old?
"My lord! What do you think?! Is there any problem at all?!"
"Uh... yeah."
I nodded at Sun Quan, whose eyes were sparkling as she asked.
So the girl who'd been so calm and composed in front of her older sister turns into something suspiciously like Ma Chao the moment she's in front of me.
Sun Ce looked a touch wounded by this preferential treatment that wasn't quite preferential treatment, but she had her reasons.
'My darling little sister! Your big sister simply must squeeze you tight!'
'W-wait, sis...! I can't breathe...!'
If I'd come on that strong, I'd have kept my distance too, just from the sheer weight of it. And their father, Sun Jian, was if anything even worse—certainly no better.
While I was briefly lost in thoughts of the Sun family dynamic, an unexpected development swept over the battlefield.
Doom-doom-doom-doom─
The thunder of countless hoofbeats rolled across the field, as though the very pillars of the earth were trembling.
Neiiigh─!!
One look at the scene told me exactly how things were about to unfold. Apparently, the red banner had been the signal to attack.
"Damn it all! What in the blazes are those now?!"
"They truly do spring up without end..."
Watching foes pour out of who-knew-where no matter how many they cut down, the Shanyue tribesmen wore expressions of deep, weary disgust.
But that cuts both ways, doesn't it? We were just as sick of the Shanyue's endless human-wave assaults ourselves.
Turning my head, I put the question to Zhuge Liang.
"Was this your plan?"
"It was," Zhuge Liang answered in a calm, level voice.
"As I surveyed the enemy camp, the position of their commander revealed itself to me at a glance."
...
"It appears she cannot command every Shanyue warrior present at the moment—but a commander is still a commander, is she not?"
The white-haired little strategist covered her mouth with her White Feather Fan as she smiled.
"However massive the body, a headless trunk cannot fulfill its purpose."
"I see."
Having heard Zhuge Liang's explanation, I swept my gaze across the Shanyue camp just as she had done. And what I discovered was this: every last Shanyue formation looked exactly the same.
...Where exactly is this commander supposed to be? Is there some trick to it that I don't know?
Zhuge Liang, who grasped the meaning behind my expression in an instant, continued in the tone of a patient teacher.
"With a firm grasp of the enemy's psychology and the surrounding terrain, the answer comes easily."
...
"Consider the enemy commander's attachment to the lands of Jiangdong, her confidence that—despite her many defeats—she knows this terrain better than anyone, and then ask: from what vantage point might one survey the entire battlefield with ease...?"
In other words, you'd have to be several moves ahead of the enemy commander just to pinpoint her position. We have decided to call that 'difficult,' not 'easy.'
Watching Zhuge Liang rattle off, one after another, things I hadn't known in the slightest, I nodded along and played the agreeable listener for the time being.
"...My lord."
"Hm?"
And Zhuge Liang—a genius at seeing straight into other people's hearts—clocked my condition just as quickly.
"Did you understand all of that?"
"Oh... that?" I replied with perfect confidence.
"I understood absolutely none of it."
"I... see."
My airheaded answer left a flicker of bewilderment crossing Zhuge Liang's face. Even in a moment like this, she stays calm and courteous. If it had been Sima Yi—who had stepped away for a time to command the soldiers—wouldn't she have reacted something like this?
'...Why are you answering so shamelessly?'
And then I would have said:
'Not knowing something isn't a crime, you know.'
'Haa... if only you couldn't talk...'
I can see it. It's coming back to me. That curt, put-upon expression of hers.
"My lord?"
"Ah, right."
Having drifted into idle thoughts for a moment, I gathered myself and turned my gaze to the cavalry crashing into the Shanyue main camp—the Bing Province horsemen whose absence from my army I would genuinely mourn now.
"I shall take the lead! Follow me, and me alone!"
The elite cavalry, forged in the north through ceaseless clashes with every tribe the frontier had to offer, was commanded by Zhang Liao. Her brown hair, bound in a high ponytail, whipped and streamed in the wind, and woven together with Zhang Liao's striking beauty, the sight seemed to shine all the brighter for it.
And riding alongside the Bing Province cavalry under Zhang Liao was yet another mounted force. One look was enough to tell they were a people apart from the Han—foreign features, and warriors bundled in thick fur caps and fur-lined armor, the day being none too warm for it. Needless to say, they were the Xiliang cavalry, a name anyone with even a passing interest in the Three Kingdoms would have heard at least once.
Just then, a woman with bluish-silver hair that brought diamonds to mind let out a mighty cry.
"My lord—! Watch closely as I, the Splendid Ma Chao, show you my prowess—!"
A cry utterly out of place on a battlefield where a single slip of a moment decided life and death. Hearing it, I stiffened for an instant, my face going slack.
...Doesn't shouting something like that embarrass her? She used to be such a shy little thing she could barely get a word out whenever she laid eyes on me.
...
If anything, the Xiliang cavalry trailing after Ma Chao looked far more embarrassed. These were nomads raised in a brutally harsh land, the kind for whom staying alive outranked personal pride.
"Huh?! I was certain I'd checked our rear—where did these wretches crawl out from?!"
"And what reason would I have to answer you?!"
Mounted atop her Ferghana horse, Ma Chao roared those words and hurled herself at the Shanyue faster than anyone else on the field.
CLANG—!
"Guh!"
Oh, he actually blocked that. Nomads really are in a class of their own when it comes to raw fighting ability, I'll give them that. I marveled at the Shanyue warrior who had survived Ma Chao's strike. Sure, he'd lost his balance and been thrown clean from his saddle—but alive was alive.
But the Shanyue officer's ordeal did not end there.
"So what if you blocked my attack!"
"Wh-what did you say?"
"What do you think the Grand General will say when he sees this—!"
Uh... I'm not thinking anything at all, actually. Do I really look like the sort of man who'd get strange ideas over a single Shanyue tribesman surviving?
Ma Chao, who of course had no way of knowing any of this, wheeled her mount around with horsemanship that bordered on the divine. The fact that she could pull off such a maneuver in the very heart of the enemy formation said enough—Ma Chao was genuinely strong. That gear of hers, and all those day-long sparring sessions, hadn't been for nothing.
...If she fights like that, I wonder who'd win between her and Guan Yu? Now I'm curious all of a sudden.
I set aside the curiosity that had popped unbidden into my head and looked back out over the battlefield.
"Die quietly, like a good little boy—!"
Ma Chao, having wheeled about, was charging down once more on the Shanyue warrior who had blocked her strike.
"You crazy bitch...!"
The Shanyue warrior, whose block had been nothing more than dumb luck, was run clean through by her spear and died on the spot.
...I honestly feel sorry for him. Watching that scene, I could tell exactly what a man needed most to survive a battlefield. It really does come down to luck. For no other reason than standing in the path of Ma Chao's movement, that Shanyue warrior had been unable to escape death.
As Ma Chao—the first to smash into the enemy lines—tore through the Shanyue ranks, the Xiliang cavalry on her heels promptly bored into their formation as well.
"CHARGE—!"
WAAAAAH—!!
And even from a short distance away, the Bing Province cavalry under Zhang Liao had come thundering in as well.
On the battlefields of antiquity, cavalry was often likened to tanks. It was no strange comparison. The marriage of a horse's blistering speed and massive bulk produced a staggering force of impact—force more than sufficient to grind a fragile human being into pulp.
"GYAAAH!"
"You goddamn...!"
Caught utterly unprepared for the cavalry that had materialized behind them, the Shanyue were trampled flat—literally. This was a charge that left me doubting they could have held it even with a proper formation in place, and they'd been struck in the rear without one? You could already see how today's battle was going to end.
"My lord—! Are you watching me properly—!"
...
I held my silence at Ma Chao's cry—by now she was drenched head to toe in blood. I am watching, so would you kindly stop shouting things that make everyone else cringe on your behalf? Even Zhang Liao, tearing through the enemy just a stone's throw away, is wearing an awkward smile, see? It was merely a shame that the distance between Ma Chao and me was too great for my voice to carry.
Just then, a voice I had not expected in the least rang out from another corner of the battlefield.
"H-how dare Jeong Reung watch someone else and leave me behind?!"
"...Huh?"
"No! I'm the one who gets to shine the most here—!!"
Um, Lü Bu?
Lü Bu, who had been felling Shanyue tribesmen while planted firmly in one spot, abruptly began to move.
"Wh-what the—?!"
"This is bad! We can't stop her—!"
...Did Ma Chao's madness prove contagious? So I thought, watching Shanyue tribesmen go flying in every direction under heaven.