The Need for a New Adjutant
I needed a new adjutant. “And that’s how I ended up heading out on the Lujiang expedition this time.”
“May your martial fortune shine on you, my lord. Please return safely.”
When Cai Yan heard I was marching to war, she immediately bowed with perfect grace and began preparing supplies. The other wives did the same.
“The story’s finished, so just come back safely.”
For Yuan Jing, this campaign was both heartbreaking and terrifying. Her husband was marching to kill her father, and the rest of her family would be driven beyond the Central Plains, never to return. Still, because of the promise I had made, the Yuan clan would at least be spared total annihilation. I reaffirmed that vow, took her hand, and pulled her into a gentle embrace.
“About Lujiang… your father once said something to me.”
“?”
Lu Ming quietly filled me in. “It’s the border between Jiangnan and the Central Plains. The women there are supposed to be especially exotic and beautiful. And you’re going there, right?”
“Uh…”
“Knowing my husband, you’ll definitely bring another one back.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“I won’t mind much. As long as she doesn’t challenge me.”
Lu Ming was remarkably cool about such things. The devastated lady of Xuzhou who had lost her entire family had developed an obsession that someone must always remain at her side.
“When you return, you must bring me a famous sword.”
“All right. I’ll find you one.”
After speaking with my wives and informing the servants, I left the house.
It was a war I myself had provoked, yet we were short on manpower.
I needed someone to serve as my adjutant right away. My right-hand man, Yue Jin, had—as promised after the conquest of Xuzhou—been recommended to Cao Cao. He received a colonel’s rank and departed for Henei. As for Li Zheng…
“He was a valuable friend.”
After being struck by an arrow at Xiaopei and evacuated, the lingering effects left him unable to remain in the army. He asked to retire to his hometown. Later he introduced his cousin Li Qian, but the boy was still too young; I told him to come find me in a couple of years. In truth, during the Fuyang rebellion he had been little more than a scholarly youth, not yet a warrior. So, thinking of the future, I had to find another adjutant now.
A former colonel was too senior to command directly. Xu Chu was resting after the suppression of the Xuzhou warlord Zhang Pa. The other generals were all difficult to handle. What I really needed was a promising talent of the right age. Who could fit that role…?
“Isn’t that the Gate Colonel?”
“Hm?”
I was walking alone through the marketplace when someone called out to me cheerfully. The neatly dressed young man had a familiar face.
“Have you been well all this time?”
“Ah, you’re that…”
“Yang Dezuo of the Hongnong Yang clan.”
“Right. Dezuo.”
It was Yang Xiu. I hadn’t seen this friend in a long while, yet he approached me with genuine delight.
“I’ve been hoping to meet you. Shall we have tea somewhere? Or does the Colonel prefer wine?”
“Tea will be fine…”
“Understood. There’s an excellent teahouse nearby. This way.”
Yang Xiu led me there with an excited expression. He ordered fragrant green tea, and as I drank I wondered why he was being so solicitous.
“Colonel, I hear you’ll soon be heading south on campaign.”
“That is what the court has decided.”
“I came to ask whether there might be a place for me.”
Yang Xiu?
“Aren’t you a civil official who served as secretary and in the secretariat? Have you taken up martial training in the meantime?”
“While studying, I’ve also familiarized myself with military movements, logistics, and strategy whenever I could. I want to seize this war as my chance to take the field.”
He was certainly overflowing with enthusiasm, but… Yang Xiu. I knew he possessed a brilliant mind. His family had worked hard to protect their clan when the previous Secretariat Director Yang Biao fell from power. Moreover, his mother was Yuan Shu’s sister, so when I took Yuan Jing as my wife he had sent generous wedding gifts.
“War is not a child’s game.”
“Precisely why I wish to make my family’s name known and achieve merit.”
Those clear, almost manic eyes burned with fierce determination as he stared at me.
“Give me three reasons why I should take you along.”
“One will suffice.”
“Confident. What is it?”
“I was the one who proposed to the Chancellor a plan that could resolve the current corruption funds for the Luoyang construction project in a single stroke.”
“!”
The Luoyang project. If I hadn’t already been tasked with dealing with Yuan Shu’s remnants, it was an excellent stratagem that might well have been adopted. If I could manage this fellow properly, he would be invaluable, yet his excessive ambition and overconfidence worried me. He was undoubtedly a genius, but I feared his eccentric tendencies might ruin everything.
“Is it impossible? If you’ll only accept me, even a commander of a hundred would be enough.”
“I cannot assign someone who has risen to secretary to such a low military post. Still, I’ll speak with my uncle.”
Perhaps the next adjutant after Li Zheng and Yue Jin would be Yang Xiu. A strategist who could truly use his head would be a welcome addition.
After our meeting, Cao Cao surprisingly gave his ready approval. In fact, he said he had already been thinking of recommending someone new to me since I had sent two adjutants away recently.
What could I do? I would simply have to take Yang Xiu under my wing.
And so the campaign to subdue the remnants of the Zhong Dynasty began. Originally I had devised the plan and Xiahou Dun had petitioned for command, but with the intervention of the Left General Liu Bei, he became the overall commander. The punitive army numbered fifty thousand. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei naturally followed Liu Bei. Deputy commander Xiahou Dun was assigned to supply lines, which meant that in the field, after Liu Bei himself, Cao Hong held the authority to move troops. Just in case, however, Cao Ren and Zhu Ling were attached to the Liu-Guan-Zhang trio to keep watch. Seeing this arrangement, it seemed even Cao Cao was beginning to realize that Liu Bei might bolt at any moment.
“Lord Zayeol, it has been far too long.”
“I wondered whether it might happen, but I never expected you to actually descend from Hebei.”
The newly appointed Commandant Zhu Ling was truly an unpredictable man. When Yuan Shao first raised troops during his time as Colonel of the Capital Districts, Zhu Ling had been a deputy with more experience than even Yan Liang or Wen Chou. Later, when Yuan Shao became General of the Right, he served as his close aide. Even after Yuan Shao rose to Grand General and Governor of Jizhou, Zhu Ling had abandoned everything in that army and come over to Cao Cao.
On the surface it was merely a “transfer of personnel within Hebei,” but in truth he had completely defected from Yuan Shao to Cao Cao. Cao Cao, still suspicious, had only granted him a commandant’s post, yet the man remained full of zeal. Moreover, he owed me “one promise and one debt.”
“What about guarding the Zhen family of Zhongshan? Why have you come here?”
“Ah, that matter? Do not worry. The eldest daughter of that house has married the Grand General’s second son, and the two younger daughters continue to fare well.”
“Even so…”
“The Zhen family has refused all marriage proposals from the Hebei noble clans. Since their eldest daughter is now Yuan the Grand General’s daughter-in-law, no one dares act rashly against them. Moreover, I have entrusted their protection to a ‘reliable friend,’ so there is no problem.”
“A reliable friend?”
“There is such a person. This Zhu Wenbo is the most trustworthy friend in Hebei and a genius without peer in the realm.”
Hearing him speak like that, I truly began to look forward to meeting Zhen Fu of the Zhen sisters. Honestly, if not for her age and the circumstances, I would have brought her into my household long ago, but opportunity had never aligned.
“Gate Colonel, the third of the Zhen sisters turned seventeen this year. Her beauty ripens with every passing day.”
“Hmm.”
“It seems the Colonel truly has an eye for women. How fortunate that the connection was made so early.”
After that conversation, the army left the capital and reached Qiao County. There we would divide our forces and begin the full occupation of northern Yangzhou.
Inside the command tent a strategy meeting was underway. As it happened, I was the one delivering the briefing.
“According to our spies, Yuan Shu has entrusted his remaining forces to Liu Xun, Governor of Lujiang. At present, Liu Xun commands the strongest power in that region.”
Lujiang lay roughly two days south of Shuchun. The terrain consisted of open plains between the Yangtze and Huai rivers. If we failed to catch him early, it could become a frustrating game of tag across vast territory.
“Intelligence from Shuchun reports that Yuan Shu is preparing the Imperial Jade Seal and making ready to depart. He intends to join forces with Yuan Shao in Hebei. It appears he plans to skirt Shuchun, cross the Huai River, and head toward Qingzhou.”
“That cannot be allowed. It must be stopped.”
I continued, “This operation will require us to split the army into two. The First Army will intercept Yuan Shu’s forces in the Pengcheng region of Xuzhou—the gateway to Qingzhou—defeat them, and recover the Imperial Jade Seal that has fallen into the traitor’s hands.”
“Hmm~”
“The Second Army will move immediately after Yuan Shu’s departure to seize the now-vacant Lujiang before the independent warlords of Yangzhou and Jingzhou can act. We will occupy the territory and absorb Liu Xun and his forces.”
At a glance, it was obvious who would be assigned to the First Army.