The Greatest Crisis Before the Finale
The rain had finally stopped. The thunder that had shaken the heavens for days had gone silent, leaving behind a battlefield drenched in mud and exhaustion.
“Everyone has worked hard. I’d love nothing more than to let you all enjoy today’s victory to your heart’s content, but a truly great triumph still lies ahead. So rest in moderation!”
“Yes, my lord!”
The generals who had fought fiercely both inside and outside Guandu Fortress could finally breathe. The tension that had gripped them for so long began to ease.
“Zhonglangjiang, what were those bastards earlier? The ones in black armor on horseback,” Dian Wei asked as he approached first, clearly still bothered by the enemy general he had faced.
“I actually came out to break through their encirclement and strike the earthen fort, but I saw their archer unit on top of it scatter like startled rabbits the moment those iron cavalry appeared. I should have chased them down and captured them!”
With Yang Yi, Dian Wei, and Zhang Liao present, we had intended to deal with the cavalry. In the end, however, our movement had allowed the archers on the earthen fort to escape. It left a bitter aftertaste. I took it as a lesson: next time, I would need to coordinate more clearly with the other generals and synchronize our movements perfectly.
“He called himself Zhang Junyi. His spearmanship is incredible. From the very beginning, he willingly acted as bait, leading the retreat while completing his mission. He’s a cunning one who doesn’t hesitate to run when the time comes.”
“Zhang Junyi…”
“Hah. That man is more a general than a warrior. In that situation, he suppressed his fighting spirit, completed his duty, and fled the battlefield?”
Zhang Liao had quietly joined us as well, asking about Zhang He so we could review the battle. The description fit perfectly: a general before a warrior.
“Ah~ Of course, if we had fought to the end, I would have won. I always prioritize taking the enemy commander’s head in battle.”
At least for now, since I wasn’t a Grand Commander or overall supreme commander, that was my main role. After talking about Zhang He, I removed my helmet. Sweat poured off me so heavily that steam rose into the air. The fight earlier had indeed been intense.
As I wiped my helmet with a damp cloth, Xun You approached quietly.
“Zhang Junyi? Are you perhaps referring to Zhang He of Jizhou?”
“Gongda, sir. Do you know him?”
“I know a little. He originally joined the imperial court of his own accord to suppress the Yellow Turban Rebellion in the Hebei region. He first served Han Fu, the Inspector of Jizhou, but after Yuan Shao conquered Jizhou, he became one of his subordinates. He distinguished himself by subjugating the Black Mountain bandits of Bingzhou and played a major role in crushing Gongsun Zan’s forces in Youzhou.”
“He’s quite the man. If I weren’t a Zhonglangjiang, I would have liked to fight him myself,” Dian Wei said. Among everyone in this camp, no one overflowed with fighting spirit more than he did. He constantly revealed his competitive desire to face famous warriors and claim their heads during battle.
Indeed, when it came to pure martial prowess, Dian Wei was truly formidable.
“Additionally, according to the report from Zheng, the Zhonglangjiang stationed at Jiancheng, Zhang He was originally in Bingzhou. He received orders to attack Henei Fortress, surrounded it, and targeted General Cao. However, after Yuan Tan’s death, Yuan Shao urgently summoned him to the Guandu front.”
“So in the end, I’m the one who called him here. By the way, about Zheng, the Zhonglangjiang. How is he able to keep sending intelligence from Jiancheng when he only has seven hundred defenders? I don’t understand why Yuan Shao isn’t paying any attention to it.”
“It means Yuan Shao has grown arrogant. He should be cutting down every sprout around him and pacifying the entire region, yet he is obsessed with only this one fortress of Guandu and refuses to stop his offensive. Isn’t that so?”
Indeed… Listening to Xun You, even though Yuan Shao was powerful, his weaknesses were glaringly obvious. What was truly astonishing was that despite so many holes in his strategy, he was still pushing forward purely through overwhelming military superiority.
“For now, we’ve dealt with that terrifying earthen fort. We must prepare for the next battle immediately.”
From here on, it would become a war of maneuver. And just as Xun Yu had said, the moment Yuan Shao revealed more and more of his flaws, everything would be overturned.
GRRRRRRR— BOOM!
“Who has committed so many sins that the heavens are striking with lightning?”
“Tsk.”
After the collapse of the earthen fort, we had prepared for a field battle, but then an untimely downpour began. Even though the summer rainy season should have passed, the rain showed no sign of stopping. Outside, thunder and lightning raged, leaving both the Cao Cao army and the Yuan Shao army in a complete stalemate.
“We’ve rested enough. We need to go out again.”
“Ziye, you’ll catch a cold if you keep this up.”
“I don’t catch colds.”
While Cao Ang was drying his combat boots, I put on the foot wraps and military boots I had just dried and headed out. The moment I stepped out of the tent, the rain was falling so heavily that I could barely see. Soldiers were working desperately in the downpour. They dug drainage ditches, carried stones for wall repairs, and did everything possible to prevent flooding.
“Whoa!”
“Careful.”
I caught a soldier who nearly fell right in front of me and grabbed the hoe he had dropped, which had almost been swept away by the current.
“Zhonglangjiang, we’ll handle this area.”
“Move aside~”
Frustrated, I grabbed a hoe myself and started digging the drainage ditch. We channeled the water toward the moat outside the fortress, made sure the soldiers dried their foot wraps and combat boots whenever possible, and built earthen walls around the hay stores and granaries to protect them from the flood.
For several days, the rain poured without mercy, and I was so busy I couldn’t even see straight. The moment it finally stopped, I collapsed in my tent and fell asleep.
When I reflexively grabbed the sword beside my bed, I could see them even through my blurry vision.
SWIIIISH—
I treated every intruder who had entered my tent as an enemy and charged.
“He’s awake!”
“Throw the water caltrops now!”
But I moved first, slicing off the head of the man who had shouted about the caltrops. Blood sprayed everywhere. As I mercilessly swung my sword at the rest, screams echoed through the tent.
“One left.”
“Hii, hiiiik?!”
I wiped the blood from my face and drove my sword into the back of the fleeing man. When I pulled it out, the entire tent was dyed red, and droplets of blood dripped from the ceiling.
“Haa…”
The moment I stepped outside, Guandu Fortress was in complete chaos.
“Lock the gates immediately and arm everyone!”
“Assassins! Assassins have infiltrated and targeted the Chancellor! They failed and are fleeing!”
“Assassins inside Guandu Fortress?”
The two corpses I had cut down were dressed in black Hu clothing, faces covered with masks, and clutching assassination daggers in their hands.
“Ziye!”
“Zhonglangjiang!”
Cao Ang and Dian Wei, who had hurriedly put on their armor in the middle of the night after the surprise attack, rushed over and examined me.
“Are you alright?”
“I caught three assassins. How many more are there?”
“The generals have locked the gates and are pursuing the assassins. They say they’ve already captured several.”
“What about Uncle?”
“Ah, the lord is currently being guarded by Xu Zhongkang. It wasn’t anyone else—our own military administrator tried to assassinate the lord but was caught by Xu Chu!”
“Good heavens…”
After driving off the archers on the earthen fort and the black cavalry, I had thought things were going well. But now, assassins inside Guandu Fortress? And not even from outside—the betrayal had come from within.
“I was so exhausted from the flood control work during the rainy season that I let my guard down. I need to go to Uncle right away.”
“Ziye, you’re pushing yourself too hard!”
“We’re going to win soon anyway, so it’s fine!”
Without even properly putting on my armor, I ran toward Cao Cao’s camp with only my sword in hand. There, Xu Chu stood guard while Cao Cao, fully armored, roared in absolute fury.
“Not some outsider, but one of my own administrators! He dares try to kill me? I’ll cut off his limbs, hang him upside down, and bury him alive!”
The chaos continued until the next morning, when all the culprits were finally captured.
“My lord, look at this.”
Dian Wei must have brutally interrogated the captured assassins throughout the night. His hands were still stained with blood as he showed what had been found on them.
When the torrential rain ends and everyone is exhausted and asleep, we will carry out the grand operation. Since my family is living well in the large mansion in Pingyuan that the Grand General bestowed upon us, I shall return with Cao Cao’s head.
“Xu Tuo, you bastard!”
The mastermind behind this assassination attempt, Xu Tuo, was one of the administrators Cao Cao had personally kept close. Though he was a low-ranking officer, the fact that the man who had attended to him had been in league with Yuan Shao and plotted assassination dealt Cao Cao a tremendous shock.
It was a situation where Cao Cao’s mental state might collapse before Yuan Shao’s. He was already halfway there. And then, right after the bitter taste came something sweet.
“My lord! My lord!”
“Can’t you see I’m trying to punish the man who tried to kill me?!”
When Xun You came running in a panic, Cao Cao waved his hand in irritation, telling him to leave. But Xun You ignored it completely, prostrated himself, and spoke urgently.
“My lord, this is truly urgent news. Please, even for a moment, look at this. The opportunity to capture the Yuan Shao army is right here.”
“What did you say?”
“My lord, this is a letter sent by the Prefect of the Secretariat from Hudu. It contains intelligence gathered on the Yuan Shao army’s supply depots south of the Yellow River and their internal situation.”
“!?”
Whoa—this was big.
At the exact moment when sudden torrential rains had immobilized the army, when one of his own subordinates had betrayed him by gathering assassins for a coup and they had all been captured—nearly shattering Cao Cao’s spirit—a letter from Xun Yu arrived. And it contained the enemy’s critical weakness.
From Cao Cao’s perspective, the blood pressure that had skyrocketed in rage came crashing back down in an instant.