An Unexpected Visit (1)
Helping Liu Yu. At my simple "let's help him," Jia Xu opened her mouth with her usual composure.
"First, I have a report for you, Grand General."
"Hm? What is it?"
"Liu Yu is a long way from us, and he and Gongsun Zan are on the verge of open war — they could come to blows at any moment. Even if we move now, the odds are we will be too late."
Well, that was a blow.
Jia Xu — the very woman whom almost no one could rival when it came to weaving schemes — had just declared that the chances of rescuing Liu Yu were slim.
"To reach You Province, we would have no choice but to pass through Bing Province. You know better than anyone how treacherous that terrain is, Grand General."
"That much is true."
It couldn't compare to Yi Province, but it came close — a land riddled with mountains upon mountains. For our soldiers to cross all of them and reach You Province would take a very long time indeed.
And by the time we finally arrived, if Jia Xu was right, everything would likely already be over.
"What's more, we still haven't fully recovered from the damage the Coalition inflicted on us."
"Ah..."
"We are in no position to be sending troops off to help someone else."
Taking her points one by one, she was right — we weren't in any state to help anybody. Before reaching out a helping hand to others, one ought to look after oneself first, no?
"So it really is a lost cause, then?" I asked, my voice going sheepish.
I hoped we could save him, of course, but I'd already resigned myself to the possibility that we couldn't. However idealistic the dream of saving everyone might be, reality was never so accommodating.
At my reaction, Jia Xu spoke up.
"It is not impossible."
"Oh?"
Jia Xu nodded slowly.
"But neither is it a flawless plan."
"That's fine."
I would at least hear her out. If it turned out to be hopeless, I could always give up then.
"First of all, Inspector Liu Yu of You Province will be defeated by the White Horse General, Gongsun Zan."
"?"
Well, that came out of nowhere. Seeing me flustered, Jia Xu added an explanation.
"The White Horse General is a fierce commander who has spent years fighting the northern tribes. Naturally, he commands many capable officers, and the caliber of his soldiers is exceptionally high."
"..."
"The Inspector, by contrast, has only recently taken up his post in the north, and because he fought actively at our side when the Coalition came pouring in, his military strength is spent."
I nodded quietly along as Jia Xu laid it out.
"Thanks to his policy of pacification, he does have tribal warriors under his command — but his opponent is the worst possible match for them."
Tribal warriors were veterans whose names commanded respect anywhere, but crushing exactly that kind of man had always been Gongsun Zan's specialty. A few tribal soldiers in one's ranks meant nothing against the nomad-blender that was Gongsun Zan.
"In the end, the Inspector will lose to the White Horse General."
"..."
"And considering the White Horse General's temperament, he will most certainly not spare the Inspector's life."
And how on earth had she predicted that, too? That was the very reason I'd wanted to help Liu Yu in the first place.
"As you said, Grand General, if we wish to bring the Inspector over to our side, we must first save his life."
"Right."
"With so many factors hamstringing a large-scale deployment, the correct move is to handpick only our finest and send a small force."
I agreed with Jia Xu's assessment.
"Then who should we send?"
"It must be a general who excels at commanding soldiers and possesses outstanding martial prowess of her own."
Two names instantly came to mind.
Zhang Liao and Xu Huang.
Lü Bu was the type to take point and bulldoze her way through on sheer overwhelming strength, so her command ability was a touch lacking. Gao Shun was someone whose troop-handling anyone would vouch for, but her personal martial prowess fell slightly short.
"But is there a reason we'd need a general like that, specifically?"
At my question, Jia Xu continued.
"No matter how quickly we move, we will most likely arrive too late."
"..."
"By the time we get there, the Inspector will already have been defeated — either clapped in chains as a prisoner, or fleeing for his life after a crushing rout."
Having said that, Jia Xu went on evenly.
"Especially in the former case, we should assume that any window for us to act has already closed."
She was right. If Gongsun Zan had taken Liu Yu prisoner, that meant Gongsun Zan had already seized Liu Yu's city.
Zhang Liao and Xu Huang's faces were famous far and wide thanks to the Battle of Hulao Pass, so sneaking into the city would be hard enough. And even if they managed to slip in — how would they breach a prison under such ferocious guard, and then how would they smuggle Liu Yu beyond the city walls?
If Liu Yu became a prisoner, a rescue would only succeed if we had an informant on the inside.
Just as Jia Xu said — far, far too uncertain a plan. The odds of success were thin, and worse, the general and soldiers I sent would likely be walking into danger themselves.
Having heard it all, I let out a long sigh.
"Nothing to be done, then. It's a shame, but I suppose we'll just give up—"
"Grand General! Urgent report!"
The instant I moved to say we should give up, a messenger came rushing into the room at a frantic pace.
Had someone attacked us again? If so, that would be a genuine headache. I looked at the messenger and spoke.
"Urgent report? What's happened?"
"Well... I'm not quite sure how to put this..."
At my question, the messenger rolled his eyes about, seemingly groping for the words to describe the situation. Just how complicated was this, that a messenger would act like this?
Rather than badger the poor flustered man, I simply waited until he could collect his thoughts. After a moment, having sorted himself out, the messenger spoke again.
"The generals who dueled General Lü Bu at Hulao Pass have been captured alive right outside the city!"
"...??"
What?
What on earth was this? Bewildered, I shot to my feet and hurried out the door.
The prison of Luoyang — hygienically wretched and reeking of a damp, musty stench. A place built to cage countless criminals and carry out their punishments now held exactly three souls.
"...Big Sis Xuande. Is this really okay?"
Zhang Fei — trussed up rope-tight by the soldiers who had witnessed her martial prowess at Hulao Pass — asked anxiously.
"Yide, think it over carefully. Do we truly look like women about to die?"
At her question, Liu Bei — locked in the next cell over, bound in exactly the same way — answered with a laugh.
Liu Bei was so utterly at ease that Zhang Fei nearly bounced in place.
"No matter how I look at it, all I can see is a future where we die!"
When Zhang Fei kicked up a racket, Guan Yu — imprisoned in the cell on Liu Bei's other side — spoke with a placid expression.
"You are a disturbance. Behave yourself."
"Big Sis Yunchang, you're being weirdly calm too! This is a serious situation!"
"Lady Xuande must have her reasons. I merely place my faith in her."
At Guan Yu's stiff tone, Liu Bei looked a little hurt.
"I do wish our Yunchang would call me 'big sister' the way Yide does."
"..."
At Liu Bei's words, Guan Yu fell silent.
"Sometimes it really does seem like you keep me at arm's length on purpose."
"Th-that is not so."
Guan Yu, who always read every situation with glacial composure, began to stammer in flusterment.
"Then why don't you try calling me 'big sister' right now?"
"..."
Watching Guan Yu clam up yet again, Zhang Fei put on the face of someone who'd caught her red-handed.
"You swore to die on the same day, at the same hour — and yet you're too embarrassed to call Big Sis Xuande 'sister'~"
"..."
"I know exactly what kind of person you really are, Big Sis Yunchang."
As Zhang Fei piled on alongside Liu Bei and the teasing began in earnest, Guan Yu's face grew redder and redder.
"All that gruffness, all that ice — but deep down you're more of a soft-hearted girl than anyone—"
"Yide."
"?"
At the sound of Guan Yu cutting her off, Zhang Fei cocked her head.
"We will speak of this later."
Different cells, so Guan Yu's face was hidden — but at that glacial voice, Zhang Fei shuddered from head to toe.
"...I-I'm not scared at all."
"Of course not."
She managed one small act of defiance, but Guan Yu didn't seem to care in the slightest.
Strange. She was fairly sure she was the slightly stronger of the two, so why did she always feel like she was losing ground the moment she stood beside Big Sis Guan Yu?
The jailer watching over the three sworn sisters wore a utterly helpless expression. If ordinary prisoners had kicked up this kind of playful ruckus, this would have been the moment to bellow at them to know their place — but these prisoners were so formidable that he couldn't bring himself to do anything at all.
Rumor had it these were the ones who had crossed blades with the Peerless Under Heaven herself, General Lü Bu, and held their own. True, all three had jumped her at once — but he knew perfectly well that three hundred of him couldn't lay a finger on General Lü Bu, so all the jailer could do was watch their moods and tread carefully.
The Luoyang prison, where the relationship between jailer and prisoner had been turned squarely on its head.
The cell block, rowdy with the three sisters' bickering, went quiet when footsteps sounded from outside. As the steps drew slowly closer, a familiar figure appeared before the sisters' eyes.
"Wait — why are you actually here?"
The girl with the striking blood-red hair and blood-red eyes. Lü Bu, who had once crossed blades with them at Hulao Pass, trailed along behind a man, staring at Liu Bei and her sworn sisters with wide, astonished eyes.
"..."
And beside her stood the girl with the chestnut bob, her face as blank as it had been that day. Even without having crossed blades with her, one could feel it — her presence was unmistakably vaster even than Lü Bu's.
And last of all came the man those two girls were escorting.
He was, perhaps, the most famous man in the world at this very moment.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you."
With the very man she'd wanted to see standing before her, Liu Bei paid her own sorry state no mind whatsoever and greeted him with perfect composure.
"Uh... yeah."
The Grand General of Han, Jeong Reung, returned Liu Bei's greeting with a distinctly dazed look on his face.