A Stepping Stone to the Throne (2)
In every age and every land, starting a war during the farming season was taboo. Most campaigns therefore began in the cold of winter, once the harvest was in.
Winter.
When the First Lunar Month came, a great army would be raised.
And before spring arrived, the enemy would be swept away.
Liu Chong's forces and Tao Qian's forces were thinking exactly the same thing.
Hostile enough that war could have erupted at any moment without surprise, neither side called up its soldiers until the farming season ended. They merely sent scouts back and forth repeatedly, keeping watch on each other's movements.
"All troops have been assembled."
"Well done."
Sixty thousand.
A grand army of sixty thousand was concentrated.
Had the sole purpose been to repel Tao Qian's army, half that—thirty thousand men—would have sufficed. Every available soldier beyond the barest minimum was mobilized in order to annihilate Tao Qian's forces and swallow Xu Province.
"Tao Qian, the Inspector of Xu Province, is a traitor who betrayed the feudal lords of Guandong and colluded with the arch-rebel of all ages. The anti-Dong Zhuo Coalition Army disbanded at Luoyang, but as the Alliance Leader who represented Guandong, I intend to punish the traitor. The crafty old man of Xu Province sold out the feudal lords and had office and rank bestowed on him by Dong Zhuo—a rebel."
In the name of the Alliance Leader, the coalition's achievements would be judged.
The Heavenly Mandate proclaimed just before the anti-Dong Zhuo Coalition Army disbanded was now repurposed as the moral grounds to chastise Xu Province.
The feudal lords of Guandong were unlikely to aid Tao Qian, who had been declared an enemy of the coalition. All except Governor of Beiping Gongsun Zan and Inspector of Yang Province Chen Wen, who had never joined the anti-Dong Zhuo Coalition Army in the first place.
'It's enough that the Guandong local officials who love snatching up scraps aren't getting involved. If I can just somehow cut off Gongsun Zan's forces from Qing Province, swallowing Xu Province will be easy...'
Gongsun Zan.
Gongsun Zan's army, allied with Tao Qian's forces, was expected to take part.
Even in the original history, when Cao Cao's army invaded Xu Province, hadn't Gongsun Zan's forces dispatched troops from Qing Province to assist their ally Tao Qian? Assessed coldly, Gongsun Zan's intervention was the expected course of events.
'Of all people, it had to be Liu Bei... In the original history, Liu Bei, appointed as Major of a Separate Command, took part as a deputy general under Tian Kai, the Inspector of Qing Province. But I never imagined the Liu Bei force that returned to Beiping then would come back as an enemy.'
While the anti-Dong Zhuo Coalition Army was taking shape, Liu Bei's army had briefly joined as a guest general and fought alongside us as comrades through the bitter Battle of Yangren. If we meet on the battlefield now, the officers and men under our command will be thrown into considerable confusion.
Worse, if Liu Bei's army chooses to fight to the death to defend Tao Qian as in the original history, we might end up failing to occupy Xu Province and withdrawing empty-handed, just like Cao Cao's army did.
"Left General, ready the troops as planned. The moment the First Lunar Month passes, we will launch a full-scale engagement."
"As you command!"
This was someone I had affectionately called "elder sister."
She had been a comrade whom I trusted with my life on the battlefield.
She had also been the partner with whom I had feverishly indulged in carnal desire on our wedding night.
Yet I did not hesitate.
Unless Xu Province was invaded and decided quickly, the encirclement with Tao Qian's army at its center would be complete. There was a danger that the situation would deteriorate to the worst-case war scenario, with Yuan Shu's army in Nanyang Prefecture—secretly in league with Tao Qian—joining the encirclement alongside Chen Wen's and Gongsun Zan's armies.
'People who have only read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms probably think of Liu Bei as a simple moral gentleman... But Liu Bei is a renowned commander who displays exceptional skill in the field, not to mention Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, whom later historians, alongside Xiang Yu, would evaluate as slaughter machines of their era.'
Talent far too valuable to treat as an enemy.
But in the end, if she follows Tao Qian, she will have to become an enemy.
"Liu Bei and her sworn sisters were grateful allies and comrades who fought a desperate, bitter battle with us at Yangren. But if they defend and follow Tao Qian, the Inspector of Xu Province, whom we have formally censured, I will have no choice but to declare them new enemies."
Liu Bei was a brilliant commander who displayed outstanding Leadership on the battlefield, and her sworn sisters, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, were peerless warriors who boasted the ability to fight one against a thousand.
But,
just how long could they hold out against the great army of the south?
With Father still in good health, I had not the slightest thought of committing the gross impiety of throwing my life away in Xu Province. I would smash Tao Qian's army in a decisive strike and burn Pengcheng, where the Inspector of Xu Province's headquarters sat.
"The vanguard, prepare to march!"
"We will slay the traitor Tao Qian and chastise Xu Province!"
The First Lunar Month.
January had arrived.
Fierce drumbeats sounded, as if to celebrate the new year.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
As the officers and men strode forward, brandishing sharp banners and weapons, they projected a solemn, overwhelming pressure. And as countless cavalry charged, they threw up dust mixed with snow.
Graupel swirled down, melting the moment it touched the earth. In the south, where temperatures were relatively warm compared to the north, heavy snow did not fall until the second month.
"My proud brothers of the south, I sincerely regret that even during the First Lunar Month, when you ought to be spending cozy time with your families, I have placed weapons, not wives and children, in your hands. But..."
In the encampment where powdery snow drifted down in fine flurries,
I exhaled white breath and shouted to the commanders who were waiting to march.
"Tao Qian, the Inspector of Xu Province, long resented and envied my royal father and schemed dark intrigues to plunder our peaceful homeland and its granaries. Not even content with colluding with the arch-rebel of all ages, he has gone so far as to commit the atrocity of drawing in neighboring warlords, trying to trample the great cause of our raising an army!"
He seeks to steal the homeland where our ancestors have lived for generations.
He intends to seize by force the golden fields that the people have built.
We must fight.
We cannot but fight.
Losing the will to fight in a chaotic age means death and dispossession.
"This is a war to defend our homeland, our lands and our assets, and our pride and our loyalty! How could numbing cold and frozen ground be any sort of obstacle! Brothers of the south, together with me, take the head of Tao Qian, the Inspector of Xu Province, who seeks to despoil our home, and let us burn Pengcheng to the ground!!"
I drew the sharp tip of the Shangfang Sword and shouted my resolution.
* * *
Sixty thousand troops.
A grand army reaching all of sixty thousand was mobilized.
Word that a great army had deployed from Shouchun City flew even to Langya Kingdom.
"Wha... what?! Sixty thousand?!"
"That is probably no bluff meant to deceive Tao Qian's army."
Liu Chong's forces were a powerful faction that had dispatched forty thousand troops to the anti-Dong Zhuo Coalition Army. With Lujiang Prefecture and Jiujiang Prefecture subjugated and the army raised, their military strength would have only grown since.
It was entirely possible.
They must have committed a massive force aimed at annihilating Tao Qian's army.
The memory surfaced of the countless volleys of arrows that had pressured the Sishui Pass front and the appearance of the southern archers and crossbowmen. Liu Bei's sworn sisters, realizing that this was going to be a difficult fight, let out a heavy sigh.
"Inspector of Qing Province, we must reach Pengcheng by the end of today. Order a forced march for the officers and men."
"Of course...! We absolutely must arrive before the southern rebels do."
Unlike the sworn sisters, who showed their complicated feelings, the woman with the flowing white hair was calmer and cooler than ever. She remained so composed, even after hearing the news that Liu Seong-hwi was marching at the head of sixty thousand troops.
Benefactor and lover,
she was entangled in a complicated relationship.
Would she hesitate out of affection?
Could the two of them possibly run away together on a lovers' flight...?
The sworn sisters, who had worried in many ways, felt a deep sense of bewilderment at their serene eldest sister's demeanor.
"A scout!"
When they had almost reached Pengcheng Kingdom,
a scout who had been observing the hair-trigger war situation returned.
"Invoking his status as the Alliance Leader of the coalition army, the rebel Liu Seong-hwi has once more declared the Inspector of Xu Province a public enemy! And he added a warning that any who join Tao Qian's forces will all be designated enemies of Guandong."
In practice, coercion and a threat.
Do not get involved with Tao Qian's army.
It was a warning to Gongsun Zan's army, which had sent reinforcements. And it was also a declaration of war meant to pressure Liu Bei's army, which had been deployed as those reinforcements.
"He is saying... that he will kill anyone who obstructs the great work of usurpation."
"What a terribly ruthless man! He must have discerned that you, elder sister, are leading the reinforcements from Qing Province, and yet how can he do this to you, when you are far more than a stranger to him!"
She had been icily rejected.
She had even received a warning that he would show no mercy whatsoever.
Guan Yu thought that her eldest sister, who had consistently maintained a composed demeanor, would be deeply disheartened. Even if it was merely a fleeting dalliance that lasted a single night, having been so heartlessly rejected by a man who had briefly been her lover, she could not help but feel deeply unsettled.
"Elder sister...?"
When Guan Yu raised her head to study her expression,
she witnessed her eldest sister smiling with joy, her cheeks flushed.
Rapture and happiness.
An ecstasy overflowing from her smile.
Even feelings of overwhelming thrill and attraction could be sensed.
It was the expression of a sheltered maiden who had just received a confession from the man she had long secretly loved. Gazing at her eldest sister, who was actually rejoicing at Liu Seong-hwi's warning directed toward them, Guan Yu felt something close to fear.
'Excellent resolve, little brother. I am truly impressed. If you had clung to past sentiment and hesitated in your decision, I would rather have been disappointed in you.'
It was hostility sweeter and more dizzying than any confession.
Genuinely satisfied by Liu Seong-hwi's announcement, Liu Bei broke into a quiet, secret smile.