That's regrettable, Inspector.
"Attack!"
"Take the capital of Xu Province!"
"By order of Her Majesty the Emperor, strike down the traitor Tao Qian!"
"The man who brings me Tao Qian's head shall receive enough wealth and rank to live on for a lifetime!"
Spurred by their commanders, Cao Cao's forces hammered fiercely at the walls of the Xu Province capital.
The great army of forty thousand pressed its assault like crashing waves, buoyed by numerical superiority and siege engines.
Soldiers teeming like ants scrambled up scaling ladders, straining with everything they had to surmount the ramparts.
Battering rams pounded the gates.
Countless arrows arced over the walls and flew toward the defenders.
Yet,
even in a situation that at a glance seemed so perilous, the Xu Province capital stood firm on the strength of its solid defenses and repelled them.
"General Dian Wei! This cannot continue. Our casualties are too great!"
"We must withdraw the troops for now. The army needs to reorganize!"
"Damn it... these relentless bastards..."
The resistance was far fiercer than anticipated.
Dian Wei, the general commanding the vanguard of this battle, found himself frowning.
'I did hear General Xiahou Dun had a hard fight of it... but I never imagined it would be to this degree. As expected... Lord Xun Yu was right. A frontal assault is too much.'
He had come out brimming with confidence, eager for merit, but the casualties were mounting faster than he had foreseen.
Dian Wei could only shake his head in the end.
"Tch... We retreat. Pull the soldiers back."
"Yes, General."
"Retreat! All forces, retreat!"
*
"Haa..."
"I-it's over..."
The moment the order to retreat was given, Cao Cao's army ebbed away like a receding tide.
But among those defending the Xu Province capital in this moment, none felt joy at the sight.
Wave upon wave of enemy assaults had plagued them relentlessly for days.
Cao Cao's forces had split into three divisions, leveraging their advantage as a large army to keep the fighting going round the clock.
As a result, fatigue was accumulating among the soldiers with each passing day, and the walls themselves had sustained considerable damage.
Considering the defensive strength of the Xu Province capital, they could hold out for a good while longer yet, but if the current pattern of attack persisted, they would reach their limit before long.
With his insides burning under that pressure, Tao Qian removed his blood-smeared helmet and asked Chen Gui.
"What are our losses?"
"Out of seven thousand troops, a thousand are dead, and the wounded number in the thousands."
"Hah... Just when is that Liu Yao supposed to arrive? At this rate, shouldn't some word have come by now?"
"You must be patient a while longer, my lord. You must also account for the distance from Yang Province to this city. In all likelihood, it will be several more days before any sign of them appears."
"Tch... So I must endure for several more days like this..."
Tao Qian gave voice to his frustration and anger, but he knew full well that this alone would not change their situation.
In the end, the only thing he could do now was to devote everything to the defense and wait with fading hope for Liu Yao's reinforcements.
There was no guarantee, of course, that Liu Yao would come leading a relief force, but it was all he had left to cling to.
It was then...
"Inspector! Inspector Tao Qian!"
"Wh-what is it?"
A soldier rushed in, panting heavily.
He thrust a letter toward Tao Qian.
"Th-this is...?"
"It was bound to an arrow that flew in from outside the walls. It is said to be from Liu Yao, the Inspector of Yang Province."
"Ohhh... At last..."
Having received word from the man he had been waiting for all this time, Tao Qian hurriedly opened the letter.
As he read its contents, a broad smile began to spread across Tao Qian's lips.
"Wh-what does it say?"
"It says that tomorrow night, Liu Yao will lead twenty thousand crack troops in a night raid on Cao Cao's army. The plan is to attack all at once, using the signal of flames rising from Cao Cao's camp."
"Tomorrow night... you say?"
"Hm? What is it?"
Chen Gui wore an uncharacteristically grave expression.
Seeing his look of doubt, Tao Qian voiced his puzzlement, and Chen Gui answered in a careful tone.
"Something seems rather strange. No matter how quickly Liu Yao moved his troops, the timing is still a bit too soon. Wouldn't it take several more days to march a large army all the way here from distant Yang Province?"
"Ah, that seems perfectly possible if his side hurried. Cao Cao's army also reached this city several days sooner than we anticipated. Besides, a relief force would have less of a burden preparing provisions. I see it as time enough. Don't you?"
"That possibility certainly exists, but... the Liu Yao I have known is not a man of such decisive action. It is far more likely he wasted time weighing the situation and calculating this and that..."
"Yes, yes, enough. Chen Gui, your trouble is that you worry far too much."
Tao Qian cut Chen Gui off with a note of irritation in his voice.
Then he stared down at the letter in his hand once more and spoke in earnest.
"This is a request from Liu Yao, who has come all this way for our sake. If we refuse to join the pincer attack now, can Liu Yao's forces alone truly annihilate Cao Cao's army? If we let this chance slip away, Xu Province will fall into Cao Cao's hands just as it is."
"But..."
"Spare me your needless suspicions. Has the time not finally come to put an end to this tiresome war? I will take this opportunity and cut the throat of that insolent bitch Cao Cao without fail!"
"Hmm..."
Tao Qian's patience had already reached its limit under the unrelenting battles of the past several days.
In that state, a proposal that could end the war in one stroke was an offer he simply could not refuse.
The psychological desperation that this chance would not come again only heightened the temptation.
And so, brushing aside Chen Gui's concerns, Tao Qian began at once to prepare for a night raid according to the letter Liu Yao had sent.
*
A night veiled in deep darkness.
It was the sort of moment, with even the moon absent, that seemed made for a night raid.
On top of the walls, fully armored soldiers stood waiting, their eyes wide and sharp with anticipation.
Then.
—Whoosh!
"!"
"I-it's come!"
Flames shot up, stark and sudden.
Seeing the brilliant pillars of fire roaring up from Cao Cao's camp, the soldiers waiting atop the walls immediately sent the signal.
With that.
—Creeeeak...
The gates of the Xu Province capital, which had stayed firmly shut for days on end.
As they slowly began to open, a body of troops surged swiftly out from within.
"Make haste! If we are too slow, Liu Yao's forces will be put in danger."
"Yes, my lord!"
Tao Qian himself rode out of the city at the head of four thousand soldiers.
As he was leading out practically the entire army save for the barest minimum of guards, he set his expression in grim resolve and began to advance on Cao Cao's formation.
—"Night raid!"
—"Hold off the enemy!"
Cries of chaos echoed through Cao Cao's camp the closer he drew.
Convinced that Liu Yao was handling his part with absolute thoroughness, Tao Qian felt a broad smile tug at his lips once more.
A surge of elation filled him at the thought that this one stroke would let him take the head of that irritating wench.
The moment he judged they had drawn close enough to the enemy camp,
Tao Qian drew his blade and shouted in a voice of firm command.
"Charge! Sweep the enemy away!"
"Waaaaaah!"
"Attack!"
"Kill Cao Cao!"
Tao Qian's troops stormed headlong into Cao Cao's formation.
But...
"... Huh?"
"Wh-what...?"
The instant they rushed into the enemy camp, Tao Qian's expression began to harden.
He found neither Liu Yao's army nor the sight of Cao Cao's forces thrown into chaos by a surprise attack.
There was only one thing to be seen.
The forms of empty encampments, ablaze in flame.
"I-it can't be..."
The moment he recognized what it meant,
Tao Qian's face turned the color of death.
"A... a trap! Withdraw at on—"
—Shwoop!
"Guwaaagh!!"
"Kgh!"
"!"
Soldiers began collapsing as arrows flew in from somewhere.
As if that were the signal, war cries erupted from every direction.
"Strike them down!"
"The tiger has walked into our cage! Leave not a single one alive—wipe them all out!"
Cao Cao's commanders came charging in on horseback.
Warriors of renown, led by Xiahou Dun and Dian Wei, smashed through the Xu Province soldiers in a flash and began racing toward Tao Qian's position.
"Damn it! Retreat! We have to break out of here, any way we can!"
Even amid the chaos, Tao Qian wheeled his horse around to escape the encirclement.
He knew all too well what would happen if he were caught here.
Death was certain, and it would most certainly not be a gentle one.
With no desire to meet his end in such a manner, he drove his horse with everything he had, desperately fleeing for his life.
"You dog! Where do you think you're going!"
"There is the traitor Tao Qian! Take his head!"
The commanders spotted him fleeing and shouted.
Yet the flames and smoke still raging fiercely served, for a fortunate turn, to screen Tao Qian's escape from view.
A direct reversal of the same fire that had lured him into the trap.
Having barely saved his skin, Tao Qian gathered only a handful of soldiers and made straight for the Xu Province capital.
'Damn it... If I'd known it would come to this, I should have listened to Chen Gui...'
Tao Qian ground his teeth, seized by belated regret, but it was already far too late.
Thousands of troops were lost, and the greater part of his officers and sub-commanders had been slaughtered.
The sole thing left to do now was to return to the Xu Province capital, bar the gates tight, and somehow devise a way to salvage the situation.
'There's nothing for it... Since it's come to this, I've no choice but to abandon the main capital of Xu Province and fall back to Xiapi...'
With its stronger fortifications and ample provisions, Xiapi was the ideal place to hold out for a long while.
Tao Qian judged that holing up there and waiting for the real Liu Yao was the best move he could now make.
And so Tao Qian arrived before the gates of the Xu Province capital.
There, a group of people was waiting for him.
"Welcome back, Inspector."
"Y-yes. Close the gates at once. Cao Cao's army will be upon us shortly."
"Is that so. Which means the Army Advisor's plan worked to perfection."
"That is... true enough. But why bring that up all of a sudde—?!"
In that instant, Tao Qian's eyes belatedly registered the figures standing before the gates.
A female general at their fore, holding a Three-Pointed Blade.
And a woman with large ears with Twin Ancient Swords in hand.
The moment he recognized their faces, Tao Qian's already death-pale visage contorted to a degree painful to behold.
"Y-you... bitches... It can't be...?"
"Took you long enough to notice."
"My condolences, Inspector."