The Siege of Shuchun
The land of Shuchun reeked with the stench of rebellion. The enemy general Jiao Yu, who had arrogantly declared himself the Grand General of the Zhong Dynasty, was dead. He had somehow managed to turn his soldiers into something resembling the Yellow Turbans, training them into a stubborn, swarming horde. He had even pushed for a marriage alliance with Lu Bu’s forces to prepare a joint front between Xuzhou and Huainan. With fifty thousand strong troops at his command and torrential rains halting any advance, the situation had looked dire. Yet all of that buildup ended with a single line: Guan Yu simply forged through the muddy roads and took the enemy general’s head.
After that, Jiao Yu’s fifty thousand demonic troops began to fracture in an instant. Amid the chaos of melee combat beneath the pouring rain, Yuan Shu’s army was utterly crushed at the final defensive line of the Pingyang Plains before Shuchun.
“Chancellor, this is the head of the enemy general Jiao Yu.”
“Hoh, to take the enemy general’s head even on these muddy roads. As expected of Guan Yunchang!”
Cao Cao was so impressed that he lavished praise without end, his mouth running dry from the effort. At that moment, Guan Yu clapped one of his massive hands heavily on my back and spoke.
“While the other generals may not know it, this friend here—your nephew—cleared the path for me while I went to take the enemy general’s head.”
“!!”
“So it was Zayul after all. You made the road so that Guan Yunchang could run wild to his heart’s content, eh?”
“No, Uncle Yunchang…”
At that instant, the hand that had been clapping my back pressed down firmly. Was he telling me to keep quiet and simply take the credit? When I glanced at the other generals, including Dian Wei, Guan Yu wore an utterly arrogant expression that seemed to say, None of these men are on my level. Yet in the midst of it all, he had looked out for me.
Thanks to that, I received another round of fervent praise from Cao Cao in front of Cao Ang.
“Well then, now that the enemy has collapsed, is this the end? All that remains is Shuchun itself.”
That was when I urgently cried out.
“That won’t do, Uncle!”
“Zayul, what do you mean it won’t do?”
“Uncle, as everyone knows, battlefields are littered with countless corpses. When they rot, maggots and mosquitoes swarm, and the very ground itself festers. That is when epidemics spread.”
“Hmm.”
“If we advance like this, we’ll have to fight a siege covered in rotten corpses and blood. I fear the disease will spread into our own camp instead.”
At that, Cao Ren stepped forward.
“Elder Brother, he is right. After Zayul introduced sanitary inspections, we discovered that plagues within the army arise from rotten meat and filthy environments where rats and insects breed.”
“Even you, Zixiao?”
Cao Cao pondered this for a moment before nodding.
“In that case, once the rain stops, we must gather all the enemy corpses, dig a large pit to bury them, dry the soldiers’ clothes, and only then proceed… Is that what you mean?”
“Even if it takes time, we should clean up in that manner, reorganize, and then move out.”
“My lord, since we have already spent time in a war of attrition instead of a swift decisive battle, it is only right to reorganize the army and prepare for what comes next,” Cheng Yu added.
With even Cheng Yu speaking this way, Cao Cao issued the order. And so, after the battle, we entered the cleanup phase.
We dug drainage channels where flooding had occurred, cut straw and timber to lay over the muddy ground, and packed the earth firm. “Cover your noses and mouths properly! Do you want to smell the corpses that badly?” I made the soldiers cover their noses and mouths with hoods and had them wear gloves while handling the countless enemy bodies.
Soldiers with shovels dug a massive pit in one part of the plain, and cart after cart loaded with corpses was piled into it. After several days of clearing the plains, burying all the bodies in one place, drying the soldiers’ armor and combat boots on the now-firm ground after the flood, we finally began our march.
“It took more than half a month longer than expected. This doesn’t seem like something we can keep dragging out.”
“Uncle, but we still have no word from the reinforcements in Xuzhou or Yanzhou.”
“Now that you mention it… Xiahou Yuan shouldn’t be this late, should he?”
Even with the main force here, there was still no news from Xiahou Yuan’s forty thousand troops departing from Yanzhou or Liu Bei’s ten thousand who had gone with Zhang Fei. Complete silence.
“It seems Uncle Miaocai is also struggling against Yuan Shu’s forces, which are clinging on more tenaciously than expected.”
“Ugh, we’re being forced into an annoyingly drawn-out war of attrition.”
Cao Cao clicked his tongue, apparently not having anticipated this, and instructed Cheng Yu.
“Contact the court immediately to bring additional provisions. And once we reach Shuchun, we must prepare extra troops to encircle the enemy.”
“Understood, my lord. I will send a fast rider at once.”
After making these preparations one by one, we finally arrived at Shuchun. Inside the city were already one hundred and fifty thousand defensive troops. The moment the enemy saw us approaching, they beat their war drums and greeted us with a tremendous roar.
“This won’t be easy.”
“No, we have to assault the city, yet the defenders outnumber us significantly. Is this even possible?”
Cao Ren and Cao Hong clicked their tongues at the sight of the massive army inside Shuchun.
“Cao Cao’s army seems to be overthinking things before battle. Since they are all traitors anyway, isn’t it enough to simply repel them?”
“Yunchang, it is not that simple. This is a siege, and we are the ones attacking.”
Even after Cao Ren’s explanation, Guan Yu merely clicked his tongue while staring at the walls.
“I could take it in a month without trouble…”
It was true that no matter how famous a general, a siege was always difficult. The standard method was to surround the city with overwhelming numbers, starve the defenders out, and break them down. But the numbers here were completely reversed. Instead of a small force attacking a larger one inside the walls, we were the smaller force trying to smash our way in. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the only person who nearly succeeded at something like this was Guan Yu himself—and the city he defended was Xiangyang and Jingzhou under Cao Ren’s command… Ah. Well, that was a long way off in the real future, and something we would absolutely not reach.
“I command that we establish camp and prepare for a siege!”
“Yes, my lord!”
“Zayul and Zisu, go and prepare everything needed for the siege.”
“Understood, Uncle.”
And so, with Shuchun before us, Cao Ang and I led soldiers out to prepare for the assault.
“Zayul, what exactly do we need to prepare for a siege?”
“The soldiers already have shovels and axes, right? We’ll need those.”
“Hmm?”
I explained to Cao Ang, who was experiencing his first siege.
“Until now, the enemy either opened the gates themselves or our uncles completely captured the city and we only entered afterward to clean up. But from now on, we have to prepare everything ourselves.”
“I see…”
“First, we must cut down a huge amount of timber from the surroundings and gather vines to make ladders. Although we have ladders prepared for the siege, they are consumables, so we will constantly need lumber and rope for repairs.”
“S-so that’s why we have to do the logging?”
“We also need to prepare plenty of sacks, fill them with dirt, and make sandbags.”
“What are those for?”
“There is a moat surrounding the city, isn’t there? We need to throw sandbags to fill it in, bury the traps on the ground, and advance.”
Once I explained the basics of siege warfare, Cao Ang understood immediately and shouted to the soldiers.
“You all heard that? Move quickly! By the Chancellor’s command, we will prepare the timber and sandbags needed for the siege!”
“Yes, Crown Prince’s Tutor!”
The troops moved out, and we began serious preparations for the assault on Shuchun.
“Xiahou Yuan. You’ve arrived well.”
“I apologize, Elder Brother. I am later than the scheduled date.”
“Hahaha, that schedule was according to your standards. It’s no problem.”
It had taken considerable time for Xiahou Yuan and Liu Bei to persuade Lu Bu and deal with Yuan Shu’s generals Ji Ling, Lei Bao, and Chen Lan. Among them, Liu Bei’s army had lost nearly half of its ten thousand troops and had barely recovered in Xiaopei before being reassigned to rear support. Although Liu Bei had withdrawn, Guan Yu was still here, and Liu Bei had no choice but to keep Lu Bu in check from Xiaopei.
With Xiahou Yuan’s forty thousand troops added, the total army now numbered ninety thousand. If the additional reinforcements Cao Cao had ordered arrived, we would have more than enough to completely encircle Shuchun.
“Now, once we capture that city of Shuchun, we will be able to annihilate every last one of those traitors who dared call themselves the Zhong Dynasty.”
Under Cao Cao’s command, the great army finally moved to surround Shuchun.
“Has it already been two months today?”
“That is correct, my lord.”
“Wang Hou, how are our provisions?”
“That is precisely the problem. What remains will barely last five days… No, even four days will be difficult.”
We were in the middle of besieging and fighting at Shuchun, yet provisions had become the issue. The supply officer—whose name, Wang Hou, felt ominously close to “King’s End”—nervously reported to Cao Cao that little grain remained.
“My lord, in this situation, shouldn’t we reduce rations to buy more time?”
“Hmmm.”
Whoa, stop right there! If you say something like that carelessly and the soldiers riot, your head will be the first to fly! I wanted to shout that, but Wang Hou, as the supply officer, had blurted out “We must reduce rations until the next supply arrives” first.
“There is no other choice. We must buy at least six days for the provisions to arrive, so do it that way.”
“Uncle, if we do that, our army’s morale will plummet. Reducing the amount of food is no small matter.”
“Is there no other way? I have already been pressing the capital, but even the provisions Xun Yu sent last time were barely enough.”
This was the exact moment when it felt like the historical “Cao Cao’s supply officer” incident was about to happen right here. Then—
“Father! Father! It is Ang!”
“Enter.”
Cao Ang, who had been in charge of manufacturing siege equipment, rushed in with urgency.
“Father. Provisions are coming right now.”
“What?”
“They say it is the supply unit of Assistant Administrator Jia Xu. Twenty thousand bushels of grain and sixty thousand troops have arrived directly from Wancheng.”
“!”
Cao Cao immediately rose and prepared to go outside the camp to greet Jia Xu. But there was no need—he was already waiting outside the tent.
“Chancellor, Assistant Administrator Jia Xu has brought the troops and provisions from Governor Zhang Xiu of Wancheng.”
“Ohh, Jia Wenhe!”
With a deeply moved expression, Cao Cao grasped the hands of the kneeling Jia Xu and personally helped him to his feet.
“You came at just the right time. I was just worrying that we might have to reduce the soldiers’ meals because of the provisions.”
“I also thought the front at Shuchun was dragging on too long, so I persuaded Governor Zhang to send both grain and troops.”
“Will Wancheng’s defense be all right? Isn’t Liu Biao to the south?”
“Liu Biao has apparently taken his army and headed east of Jingzhou. They say he is moving toward the Yangtze River himself to check the Jiangdong army that is eyeing the southern regions of Jing.”
It was an astoundingly perfect timing. In this situation, Liu Biao had left for the Yangtze to deal with Sun Ce and Yuan Shu’s forces in Lujiang to the south. We had been on the verge of becoming “Cao Cao’s supply officer” due to running out of grain, but at that exact moment Jia Xu had brought both soldiers and provisions. Moreover, it was not because Wancheng had been threatened—Jia Xu had moved on his own initiative to aid Cao Cao’s army.
“What are you all standing around for? Cook meals at once with the provisions that have arrived, and have the newly arrived soldiers relieve the exhausted ones!”
“Yes, Chancellor!”
“Zayul, you will take command of the new soldiers together with Zixiao. We will use them for tomorrow’s assault.”
“Understood, Uncle.”
As Cao Cao prepared to fight again with a broad smile, the supply officer Wang Hou also tried to slip away.
“Wang Hou. And you.”
“Yes, Chancellor.”
In that instant, Cao Cao swung his command baton and struck Wang Hou across the neck.
Crack—
“Aaaagh!”
It was not a blade, just a baton, so he could only clutch his neck in pain.
“What was that earlier? The situation is unfavorable so let’s cut the food in half? You pathetic fool, you didn’t even know that provisions were coming and still said such a thing?”
“I-I am sorry, Chancellor! I had received no information at all that supplies were coming from Wancheng…”
“If I had believed your words and a mutiny broke out among our troops, I would have had your thoughtless head chopped off and displayed!”
Yes, you definitely would have. Especially after tacking on the crime of embezzling military supplies.
Jia Xu, who had approached me with a smile, whispered softly.
“Judging by the situation, it seems keeping the information hidden on purpose was quite effective. If I had been any later, that supply officer would have been on his way to the afterlife.”
“Ha… hahaha…”
The subtly twisted history was subtly returning to its proper course.