I Return to Guandu
During my busy and frenzied days in Xudu, another summons arrived. “I must depart tomorrow.”
“You’re leaving again?” Cai Yan, whose complexion looked far healthier than before, quietly knelt before me with her heavy body and straightened my clothes. She was now in the final stage of pregnancy, making every movement difficult, yet she still came to see her husband off to war.
“I always believe you will return safely and in good health.”
“I’m sorry to leave you like this, with the birth so close.”
“Please don’t say such things. When you return, you will see our healthy child.”
“I also…”
“Ah, Yuan Jing.”
Yuan Jing was struggling forward with her own heavy body. “You must… return safely from Hebei.”
“That goes without saying.”
Xiaoqiao, carrying twins, could not move at all. She could only convey her heart through the servants attending her. The other wives all felt the same.
“I pray for your fortune in battle.”
“Please return to us safely.”
They all embraced me, and I paid my respects to my primary wife as well.
“Zayul, have a safe journey. I received a letter from Zishu in Fuyang saying he will soon head to Guandu as well.” The primary wife clutched her chest again and again, her face clouded with worry as though her heart ached. “She has given birth to a daughter. She asks you to name the child when you return, so please come back safely.”
“Yes, Aunt.”
“Here, Zayul.” Lady He was present too, and she handed me a wooden box.
“What is this?”
“Your uncle always searched for this whenever he remained long on the battlefield. Could you deliver it to him in my stead?”
“Ah, yes. I will.”
I also received farewells from Cao Cao’s concubines and the children.
“Elder Brother, I wish you victory. Return safely.” Cao Zhen, who had now shed every trace of boyhood, saluted me with a face full of resolve.
By contrast, Cao Pi beside him… was crying? “T-take care… Sob.”
“I am the one heading to the battlefield, so why are you weeping so fearfully?”
“When you first arrived, Elder Brother, I saw all those wounds. With my eldest brother, Father, and uncles all on that battlefield, there is nothing a child like me can do.”
“Hmm.”
“Please return safely.”
“Well then, just study hard while I am gone.”
And so I left Xudu once more, heading for Guandu. Nor did I travel lightly. I took seven thousand troops and ample provisions bought with the wealth of Elder Cao Song and my father-in-law Qiao Gong. At the very least, the Cao army at Guandu would not be seen wringing their hands in desperation over lack of food.
The Guandu fortress I returned to was far more devastated than I had imagined.
“W-what is all this?”
There were more wounded soldiers than healthy ones inside the walls, and arrows lay scattered everywhere. Yet the most shocking sight was…
A sudden rain of arrows poured from the sky.
“It’s coming! It’s coming again—everyone take cover!”
“What?”
The soldiers panicked, rushing into buildings or hiding beneath carts and eaves.
“This is madness!”
I looked into the distance and saw enormous watchtowers built atop earthen mounds. From there the Yuan Shao army poured down arrows without restraint, and there was not just one or two such positions. The Yuan army’s tenacity was truly impressive no matter how many times I witnessed it. Raising mounds and erecting towers in that situation to loose arrows—they followed the original history without the slightest deviation. It was enough to make one’s spirit quail.
“These bastards! Do they have an inexhaustible supply of arrows?”
“Colonel, it’s dangerous!”
“Uraaaaaah!”
Suddenly a giant of a man wielding an iron halberd burst out with a thunderous roar. It was Dian Wei.
“Wait, Dian…?!”
Clang— Clang— Clang—
Dian Wei knocked aside the countless incoming arrows one by one as he charged the Yuan army’s mound with a ferocious cry. Even the Yuan soldiers looked stunned; some lowered their bows with expressions that seemed to ask what manner of monster this was.
Dian Wei did not stop there. He seized dozens of bundles of throwing spears and hurled them forward.
“H-hey?!”
Thud!
“Come out, you cowards! Stop playing childish games with arrows and fight me like men!”
Dian Wei continued hurling spears at the mound while bellowing at the top of his lungs. Of course, thrown by human strength, they could not reach the top of the high mound. They struck the wooden barriers below or the soldiers tending them. Even so, the display left an indelible impression of exactly what kind of man Dian Wei was.
“Aigoo, that fellow is at it again. His strength is truly monstrous.”
“Brother Wenyuan, and Brother Gongming!”
“Oh, Zayul?”
“Colonel!”
Zhang Liao and Xu Huang had been muttering together. When I called out they happily rushed over and clasped their hands in greeting.
“So it was you leading that supply train that just arrived. It is truly good to see you again!”
“Colonel, welcome! We were in desperate need of supplies, and with so many wounded everyone was exhausted.”
After exchanging warm greetings with the two generals, I entered the main camp.
“Chancellor, Military Colonel Cao Zayul has arrived from Xudu.”
“Come in at once!”
As the door opened, Cao Cao rose from his seat and immediately came over to grasp my hands.
“You came the moment I called?”
“I have also brought a large quantity of provisions. Enough for forty thousand troops to eat for two months.”
“Hoh? Where in the world did you obtain so much?”
“Grandfather opened his storehouses and used the merchant guilds to purchase all that grain.”
“Father!”
The Cao army’s greatest weakness—the problem of provisions—had been solved in one stroke by a single turn of Elder Cao Song’s granary key, granting two additional months of food.
“Aman, is that you in… Wait, who is this? When did this rascal arrive, eh?”
“Uncle Xiahou!”
“Yes, isn’t your uncle glad to see you?”
With his gruff tone and manly vigor, Xiahou Dun pulled me into a crushing embrace and pounded my back.
“So, no major troubles in Xudu?”
“Uncle, the entire family is safe.”
“And your own household?”
“I will become a father next month.”
“Tsk, if I had any leisure I would have told you to come a month later.”
“Can’t we simply end this battle within a month?”
“Hahaha, this fellow truly speaks with refreshing directness.”
“If my own son were like this, I would have carried him on my back his whole life!”
He was probably referring to Cao Chong and Cao Zhang. Yes. Since they were learning swordsmanship from Lu Bu’s daughter, they should be able to do their part on the battlefield in the future.
“And Aunt asked me to deliver this to you.”
When I handed over what Lady He had entrusted to me, Xiahou Dun opened it at once. Inside was, unexpectedly, a Janggi board.
“Eh?”
“Goodness, you want to play Janggi in the middle of all this?”
“Ah, it’s that. Whenever I stay long on the battlefield I sometimes crave a game. To clear my head, you understand. Aman, shall we play a round while we’re at it?”
“In this situation…”
“Come now, we cannot do anything because of the arrow rain anyway, can we? Let’s play to lift our spirits. I’ll even give you the chariot and cannon.”
“How insolent! I’ll win even with chariot and cannon!”
The chariot and cannon of Janggi… In the end the two men, who had been bickering, sat down to play. Xiahou Dun, whose Janggi skill was the best in the family, was already pressing Cao Cao hard using only pawns and horses.
“Those earthen mounds of the Yuan army—if we cannot destroy them, won’t we be playing tag with them for the rest of our lives?”
“You are the seventh person to say that, Xiahou Dun.”
“Damn it, I should have spoken sooner. Chariot!”
“!?”
“It’s a horse chariot.”
While Xiahou Dun moved his chariot, Cao Cao hastily pulled his king back to safety.
“The position is truly stifling. Pressed by mere pawns and horses, the king is forced to cower.”
“Hmm.”
“A true general would make a decisive move here. Aman, could I not go out like this horse and strike the enemy mound? Two thousand cavalry would suffice.”
“No. Last time Xu Chu asked for two thousand troops the same way, yet three hundred of them became porcupines. All they achieved was destroying two lines of the enemy’s wooden barriers.”
“Aish, the only way to break such things is with a powerful shock like a cavalry charge!”
Wait a moment. Are we still talking about Janggi? This is no longer a discussion of the Guandu campaign, is it?
In the meantime Cao Cao stared fixedly at the board and used his chariot on the opposite side.
“Let’s finish the game. I will take the horse with my chariot.”
“What if I simply slip away like this?”
“Then I will use the cannon.”
“Oh~ That was rather sharp. If you had used it earlier you would not have been surrounded, would you?”
Xiahou Dun kept pressing with mocking laughter, calling check again and again, while Cao Cao dodged and countered with chariot and cannon, trying to escape into a stalemate.
At that moment I stared at the Janggi board as though I would bore a hole through it. It was only a game, yet it was far too similar to the present situation at Guandu.
“Zayul, you bastard—if you offer unsolicited advice I will kill you.”
“Uncle Xiahou knows better than anyone that I am poor at Janggi, does he not?”
“Then why are you staring so intently?”
“As expected, in Janggi the chariot and cannon are what matter.”
“Hmm?”
At that moment Cao Cao’s eyes fell on his own chariot and cannon, and Xiahou Dun suddenly exploded in anger.
“This bastard really is trying to advise Aman! You’re asking for death…”
Slam!
“!!!”
“Ugh!?”
Cao Cao suddenly drove his fist into the Janggi board, scattering every piece. He had destroyed Xiahou Dun’s near-certain victory.
“Hey, you! Have you lost your mind, Aman? No matter how much you hate losing, to smash the board…”
“A chariot that can move anywhere… A cannon that can capture the surrounding horse, pawn, and elephant…”
“Aman!”
“That’s it! That’s it! Moving like a chariot and shooting like a cannon to shatter them!”
Cao Cao seemed to have gained a profound realization. He seized the chariot and cannon pieces from the board and shouted.
“This is it! This is the move that can reverse the entire situation at Guandu fortress!”
“What nonsense is that! Are you going to play Janggi with Yuan Shao and make the loser retreat, or are you planning to smash Yuan Shao’s head with the board?”
“A mobile cannon that moves like a chariot! A mobile catapult!”
“W-what?!”
“Look! Those earthen mounds and watchtowers outside, and the wooden barriers built to prevent approach.”
“Y-yes! So what? I told you to strike with cavalry!”
“I told you cavalry won’t work! We need something bigger! Trebuchets or ballistae!”
Ah, so that was why he said “cannon.” A weapon with the destructive power to smash them in one blow.
“T-trebuchets? But even if we build them here the angle won’t work, and we have no emplacements to install them…”
“We attach wheels like carts and make mobile emplacements! We design them so they can fire from any direction, targeting only the enemy’s mounds!”
“W-what are you saying?”
Cao Cao rose at once.
“This game is a draw! We will play again after the war ends!”
“You bastard, always doing this…”
“Zayul, gather the generals immediately! We will hold a military conference! And from the supplies you brought, set aside the timber and iron separately!”
“Y-yes, Uncle!”
When Cao Cao rushed outside after issuing the order, Xiahou Dun grumbled as he gathered the scattered pieces.
“Damn fellow, he always does this the moment it looks like he will lose. He could have simply asked to take back one move… Huh? What? Why are only the chariot and cannon pieces missing?”
“Uncle must have taken them. To show the generals.”
What Cao Cao had conceived was a trebuchet that could be mounted on mobile emplacements capable of destroying the enemy’s arrow watchtowers. He would now discuss with the generals whether it could be produced quickly in the current situation.
If successful, it would topple those mounds of the Yuan army. And it would succeed. Because it was ‘original history.’
“Zayul, did you understand all that?”
“One thing is certain—this war really does seem like it will end within a month.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about… Aish!”
Now, with the Bal-seok-cha and Wuchao, it looked as though the long introduction to the great Guandu campaign would conclude in victory for the Cao army. Of course, this was merely the preliminary skirmish before the conquest of Hebei.