Hulao Pass (4)
Echoing Lü Bu's charge, I had led my troops out beyond the walls — and now I couldn't tear my eyes away from a single scene.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms is packed with iconic moments, but ask anyone to name the most famous one involving Lü Bu, and the vast majority would point to exactly this.
A black-haired woman, red eyes blazing just like Lü Bu's, had caught an attack that came whistling down like a shaft of light.
BAM!
"You've got some real strength for an acorn-sized bitch!"
"What did you say, you overgrown bitch?!"
BAM!
Every time Lü Bu's weapon crashed against the woman's, a tremendous roar rolled out across the field. Ordinarily, steel meeting steel makes a sharp clang or ring — but over there, it flat-out sounded like bombs going off.
Faced with combat on a completely different plane, the soldiers around me had gone slack-jawed.
I had never seen the woman battling Lü Bu before, but one look at the spear in her hands told me exactly who she was. Who else would carry a weapon that long, its blade coiling like a serpent?
Zhang Fei, Yide.
A fierce general who, on raw martial might alone, ranked among the top three in all the Three Kingdoms. Bearer of the staggering title of Match for Ten Thousand, she sat proudly at number two in the games — second only to the undisputed number one, Lü Bu herself.
Just as with Seo Yeo's sparring matches against Lü Bu, the duel unfolding before me was too fast for the eye; I couldn't see the weapons swing at all. Even narrowing my eyes and glaring, all I caught were afterimages.
Lü Bu, who had been fighting one-handed, shifted the Sky Piercer Halberd into both hands and brought it crashing down on Zhang Fei.
It was a lightning-fast strike that would have overwhelmed most generals outright, but Zhang Fei heaved up the Serpent Spear with both hands and stopped it cold.
"Grrrgh…!"
Their arms quivered as a contest of strength dragged on. Struggling to bear Lü Bu's power, Zhang Fei's face flushed as red as a ripe tomato.
Seeing her like that, Lü Bu curled her lips into a sneer.
"What good's a general who wobbles around like that, huh?!"
"Shut your mouth, you pipsqueak bitch!"
"……."
Zhang Fei kept jabbing at the very thing Lü Bu was sensitive about, and Lü Bu trembled from head to toe.
"Can't argue with that, can you, bitch?! Maybe not in strength, but I've got you beat in height!"
"You are dead!"
"Heh! Just you try!"
That rasping, foul-mouthed delivery of hers was absolutely top-notch. It's a later embellishment, sure, but she sounded exactly like someone who could spit out, You slave of three fathers!
With that, Zhang Fei loosed a battle cry and shoved Lü Bu back.
"If you're that tiny, how do you even climb onto that huge horse?!"
"Quiet!"
"Don't tell me someone gives you a leg up every time you mount?!"
Lü Bu held the advantage in the duel from start to finish, but Zhang Fei somehow hung on, grinding away at her nerves the entire time. Watching them, it was obvious the two were natural-born enemies from the very start.
I gauged the exchange count from the sound of clashing steel as I observed. If my memory served, they would cross blades about fifty times before someone jumped in and the dogpile began.
So I figured I'd watch for a while, and then—
CLANG!
"Huh? Wha—?"
"Now you're dead!"
Huh?
They had only traded some forty blows when Zhang Fei, having just deflected one of Lü Bu's attacks, left herself enormously, catastrophically open. Judging by her flustered expression, she hadn't expected it either.
Lü Bu, sensing she'd got her, thrust the Sky Piercer Halberd straight at Zhang Fei's exposed chest.
CLANG!
And the strike was turned aside by a Green Dragon Crescent Blade that had abruptly cut in.
Her blow at the perfect opportunity spoiled, Lü Bu's face twisted as she spoke.
"Now who the hell—"
The woman with the crescent blade fixed Lü Bu with azure eyes that stood in stark contrast to Zhang Fei's crimson ones.
"A heavy blow, that."
"……Tch."
The woman — black hair the same shade as Zhang Fei's, tied back in a high tail — exhaled a sigh.
"I knew it would come to this."
"S-Sis…."
Guan Yu, Yunchang.
Sensing the ominous shift in the air, Lü Bu put distance between herself and the pair. No doubt she had realized the two of them were peers in skill.
Meanwhile, I couldn't hide my bewilderment at how helplessly Zhang Fei had been driven back.
Three Heroes Battle Lü Bu.
The famous tale of the Peach Garden oath-sisters facing Lü Bu alone at Hulao Pass was always less about exalting Lü Bu than about showcasing the sworn siblings' combined strength. Zhang Fei holds her own one-on-one; Guan Yu joins in; then Liu Bei piles on, until Lü Bu, reduced to nothing but evasion, scurries off with her tail between her legs. Lü Bu enduring all three was impressive in its own right, but the anecdote existed chiefly to demonstrate how mighty the Peach Garden siblings became when they united.
In the novel, when Zhang Fei picked a fight after stealing Lü Bu's horse, their duel reportedly blew past a hundred exchanges without a decision — it took Liu Bei stepping in for the fight to finally, barely, stop.
Yet here, Zhang Fei had nearly died in a mere forty.
Zhang Fei nearly dying in forty exchanges, and Guan Yu leaping in because she couldn't bear to watch — none of that existed in the original story.
"I see you cannot manage her alone."
"Yeah. She's insanely strong."
Look at that. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, of all people, were openly acknowledging Lü Bu's martial skill and joining forces. Sure, Guan Yu had intervened because Lü Bu outmatched Zhang Fei — but admitting it outright was another matter entirely!
I glanced back at Seo Yeo, who stood guarding me from behind.
"……."
Seo Yeo, who had been watching Lü Bu, caught me looking with uncanny timing and met my gaze.
Had all those endless sparring sessions with Xiang Yu back in the day been what honed Lü Bu into something more? Life truly was impossible to fully figure out.
When I turned back, Lü Bu had apparently sensed things going strange, because she spoke with a faintly uneasy look.
"Uh... you're not about to gang up on me two against one, are you? That'd be cowardly."
"What need is there to say it aloud?"
The woman presumed to be Guan Yu regarded Lü Bu with frigid eyes.
"You are indeed the Peerless Under Heaven."
"……."
"And so we shall face you with everything we have."
"W-Wait just a moment!"
Guan Yu and Zhang Fei hurled themselves at Lü Bu in the same instant, and a flustered Lü Bu swung the Sky Piercer Halberd in response.
KRAAANG─!
Watching her flick away the Green Dragon Crescent Blade and the Serpent Spear that came at her simultaneously, Guan Yu allowed herself the faintest smile.
"Magnificent!"
"Hearing that doesn't exactly thrill me!"
Zhang Fei thrust; Guan Yu swept. Their coordination meshed so seamlessly that even I, who couldn't read a martial exchange to save my life, could see it.
Ordinarily, Lü Bu would have been scrambling just to block from the moment Guan Yu joined in. But this place was different.
Zhang Fei failed to slip away from Lü Bu's razor-sharp counter in time; a thin line opened across her cheek, spattering blood.
And still the grin never left her face.
"Hey! I'll give you this — you're seriously strong!"
"Shut— up already!"
Lü Bu was losing her composure now too; scowling, she drove the halberd forward.
"Not a chance!"
BOOM!
Once more her strike flew at Zhang Fei's opening, only to be barred by Guan Yu's sweeping crescent blade.
"Tch!"
Clicking her tongue in frustration, Lü Bu let the fearsome incoming Serpent Spear slide down her haft. Knocked off course, the blade rasped along the shaft and grazed Lü Bu's hair.
What was that phrase again — dragon and tiger locked in combat? It looked like two tigers the size of houses joining forces against a colossal dragon that blotted out the sky.
The soldiers nearby had long since stopped fighting, staring blankly at the spectacle.
Which meant it was just about time for the third to step in.
My prediction held true: a woman atop a tawny horse charged at Lü Bu, twin swords in hand.
Black hair, black eyes — the coloring said to mark the bloodline of the imperial house. There was no need to think twice.
That woman was none other than Liu Bei, Xuande.
"Sister Xuande?!"
"It's too dangerous!"
Zhang Fei and Guan Yu tried to hold her back, faces alight with alarm, but Liu Bei did not yield.
SHWIP!
"Eep?!"
First time I'd ever heard Lü Bu make a sound like that mid-battle.
Jerking her head back to dodge the twin swords thrusting in out of nowhere, Lü Bu shouted in outrage.
"And who the hell are you?!"
"Liu Bei! Xuande is my courtesy name! Remember it well!"
And so the battle between Lü Bu and the sisters of the Peach Garden Oath began — a whirl of every weapon under heaven, so dazzling it left everyone who watched dizzy.
"Where the hell did all these bitches suddenly crawl out from?!"
Once Liu Bei joined the fray, Lü Bu could no longer find so much as a sliver of a chance to counterattack; she was scrambling just to defend. The sisters covered each other's openings so perfectly that openings simply ceased to exist!
Liu Bei fought far better than I'd anticipated, and I couldn't hold back my admiration. She really was a general who had bled on the front lines alongside her soldiers.
Lü Bu wasn't being pushed back — but she couldn't push forward either. Left like this, it would only drag on and on.
The tale posterity would remember as Three Heroes Battle Lü Bu was racing steadily toward its end.
Watching the coalition's reinforcements throw themselves into the battle in earnest, I spoke.
"Seo Yeo."
"Yes."
"Go pull her out."
I felt Seo Yeo staring blankly at me from behind.
"Without killing her, you mean?"
"Because there's someone I'd like to keep watching a little longer first."
Liu Bei, Xuande.
The other protagonist of Romance of the Three Kingdoms — the one who sheltered the people beneath benevolence and righteousness. In truth, you could call her the very person who opened the Three Kingdoms era itself.
Cao Cao's story is a fine one, and so is the Sun clan's, but I always found Liu Bei's tale — rising from the very bottom all the way to the throne — the most compelling of them all. Call it favoritism if you like.
What kind of Liu Bei would this world show me? Right now, I was placing my bet on the character of the woman herself.
Liu Bei is a figure on whom opinions split in every direction. A virtuous hero who cherished the people and stayed loyal to the Han imperial house to her final breath — or a hypocrite who buried her true heart and pursued virtue as nothing more than a mask. Extreme verdicts, each laying bare one face of the woman.
Was she someone who, in desperate straits, stopped at no scheme and shouldered even the stigma of betrayal in pursuit of the good? Or simply an ambitious schemer no different from any other warlord, merely far more thorough about hiding it?
I hoped Liu Bei would show me the answer with her own two hands.
Perhaps sensing the feeling behind my words, Seo Yeo asked nothing further.
"Then... who will guard you?"
"Why do you think I brought Zhang Liao and Seo Hwang along?"
Seo Hwang, just back from rounding up the troops Lü Bu had led out, wore a thoroughly dazed expression. I looked at her and asked.
"What, you don't want to?"
"Ah... it's not that."
Zhang Liao, riding back at the head of her cavalry, said nothing at all. She was simply smiling.
I turned back to Seo Yeo.
"It's close by — you can finish this quickly."
"……."
"I'll be waiting, so hurry back."
"Understood."
With a nod, Seo Yeo closed her hand around her mount's reins.
—Neigh!
Ochyma answered her touch, and—
BOOM─!
In that instant, a black gale tore across the battlefield.
...Good lord.