Wu and Yue in the Same Boat (4)
Cao Pi raised an army to pacify the south.
“The opportunity has come!”
Gazing upon the orderly ranks of Wei soldiers, Cao Pi declared, “I shall accomplish what the Martial Emperor could not!”
He meant to seize the moment while Shu and Wu tore at each other and their troops lay exhausted.
“Waaaaaah—!!”
Looking at his imposing generals and the high-spirited soldiers, he believed the conquest of Wu was within reach.
In response, Sun Quan sent a letter in a humble tone, seeking to placate Cao Pi. The southern barbarians had risen in revolt, and the wounds from the war with Shu still needed mending.
But Cao Pi’s arrogant demand that Sun Quan send his own son as a hostage finally drove Wu to declare independence.
…Hmph. Just because you beat Shu once, you’ve forgotten the rites between lord and subject.
When the reply came that Wu would not shrink from war, Cao Pi sneered at Sun Quan.
“If we delay the conquest of Wu, Shu will raise troops. I will finish Wu with this single campaign.”
To destroy Wu in one expedition, Cao Pi mobilized his forces. He divided the army into three columns and advanced simultaneously upon Dongkou, Ruxukou, and Nan Commandery.
Yet Lu Xun, Chief Commander of Wu, had already foreseen Cao Pi’s coming. The losses Wu had suffered against Shu at Yiling were not light, but with cool-headed measures they would suffice.
He stationed generals at every major stronghold across Jing Province and the Jiangdong region, and built a defensive line that made full use of the Yangtze—the same river that had been Wu’s steadfast ally at Red Cliffs.
“Advance!”
Wei appointed Cao Xiu General Who Conquers the East and pressed hard upon Ruxukou. Drums thundered as the soldiers, their fighting spirit whipped high, crashed forward like a tidal wave.
In the early fighting Cao Xiu smashed the force led by Lü Fan and claimed a victory. Thereafter, however, the campaign stalled and the tide turned against Wei. Xu Sheng took the head of the Wei general Yin Lu, while Nan Commandery showed no sign of falling under Zhu Ran’s iron defense. On top of that, Grand Marshal Cao Ren—who had long boasted unmatched prestige—was driven back by the Wu general Zhu Huan.
As one after another of Cao Cao’s greatest champions fell, Wei’s morale steadily crumbled. Defeat piled upon defeat across the southern front, and then worse news arrived: plague had broken out inside the main Wei encampment.
“Your Majesty!”
Having assessed the condition of the troops, Cao Xiu hurried to report. “A plague is raging through the camps!”
The Jiangnan region was hot and humid—fertile ground for disease. To soldiers long accustomed to the northern climate, it was fatal.
“The weather, too—wind and rain are rising unnaturally.”
While building ships for a river fleet, Zhuge Dan had nearly died and Du Qi had lost his life.
“Moreover, Wu’s resistance is fierce. Even now, if we were to withdraw the army…”
Watching Cao Xiu carefully urge a retreat, Cao Pi’s brow knotted in sudden fury.
“Cao Xiu! And you call yourself General Who Conquers the East of Cao Wei?!”
Though he had always favored this collateral kinsman, Cao Pi now made his disappointment plain.
“Wu’s national strength is exhausted from the war with Shu! How can you utter such feeble words?!”
This, he insisted, was the perfect chance to conquer Wu and seize both Jiangdong and Jing Province. Having become emperor, Cao Pi burned to establish the achievement of destroying Wu.
“…Yet, Your Majesty—”
“I will hear no more. Withdraw!”
Even a man of outstanding ability like Su Ze would have suffered for speaking out against Cao Pi’s fiery temper. Because he favored Cao Xiu so highly, however, Cao Pi said nothing further.
He ordered the soldiers to begin building sailing vessels. Countless engineers worked day and night, and in short order the ships were ready.
“Good. With these we will not be inferior to Wu’s navy.”
Having constructed the great dragon ships, Cao Pi was satisfied. He personally led the army out onto the Yangtze.
As the Wei fleet crossed the river, thick river mist made it hard to see.
“Ugh… the fog is so dense I can scarcely make out what lies ahead.”
“It is a common occurrence on the Yangtze at dawn, Your Majesty.”
Wei’s naval force edged closer to the riverbank where Wu’s camps were said to stand, intending to reconnoiter.
“…W-what is that?”
Squinting, Cao Pi glimpsed something beyond the mist and could not hide his dismay. Walls stretched so far they vanished from sight; towers and watchtowers rose at intervals, packed with soldiers. Warships and barges lined the shore as well—it was nothing less than a natural fortress.
Cao Pi and the Wei generals were struck speechless with astonishment.
Yet it was only Xu Sheng’s Fake City Stratagem. When Cao Pi himself led a great host south, Xu Sheng had exploited the character of the Yangtze. He had raised fences, built temporary settlements, erected watchtowers, and arrayed warships along the bank. Atop the walls he set up scarecrows so that a great army seemed to man them. It was pure deception.
But the river mist that blanketed the Yangtze had robbed the Wei forces of clear sight; they never realized the city was false. Ignorant of the truth, Cao Pi was completely taken in.
“To throw up such a defensive line in so short a time… I have underestimated Wu.”
Even if he wished to storm those walls, the plague made a prolonged campaign impossible. Only then did Cao Pi abandon his stubbornness and prepare to withdraw the army.
At that very moment a violent storm rose, slamming the ships about. The gale drove vessels into one another; the collisions hurled soldiers into the Yangtze. Cao Pi himself cracked his head and lost consciousness for a time.
The Wei generals tended their emperor and hastened preparations for the retreat to Luoyang. Yet Wu had no intention of watching Wei depart in peace.
Barely recovered, Cao Pi received a breathless messenger from the main camp.
“Your Majesty! Enemy raiders have set the main camp ablaze!”
“What?!”
Moored at Ruxu, Cao Pi and the Wei army saw smoke billowing skyward as they turned back toward camp. The flames threw the soldiers into panic.
Whiiiiiistle!
A signal arrow screamed into the sky.
—Waaaaaah!!
With a roar like thunder the ambushed Wu troops revealed themselves.
“Cao Pi, you dog! This Sun Shao will take your head!”
Sun Quan’s nephew Sun Shao led three thousand men in a sudden strike against the rear.
Could they have known our line of retreat all along?
The hidden forces swarmed the withdrawing Wei army like a nest of hornets.
“I will open a path!”
The great Wei general Zhang Liao rode to the van and began to cut a way through. Though already stricken with illness, he advanced bravely for his lord.
“Zhang Liao is here!”
At the sight of him the faces of the Wu soldiers twitched with fear. The nightmare of Hefei. Even now, children stopped crying at the mere mention of his name. Confronted by the man who had once given Wu such a nightmare, the soldiers froze solid.
“How long do you intend to cower before Zhang Liao?!”
Enraged by their terror, Ding Feng stepped forward.
“That man is nothing but an old general like Guan Yu!”
So saying, Ding Feng drew his bowstring taut. The arrow streaked through the air toward Zhang Liao, who was raging back and forth across the field.
Thud!
“Ghk!”
The shaft buried itself in the chest of the fearless warrior who had been shattering the enemy ranks.
“General Zhang Liao!”
The surrounding officers cried out in alarm, but Zhang Liao refused to yield. He kept moving.
“Pay it no mind! His Majesty’s safety comes first!”
With grim resolve he yanked the arrow free. Though the wound in his chest left his face ashen, he charged the Wu troops with the desperation of a man ready to die.
“Zhang Liao is here!”
Wounded, he plunged into the enemy and slaughtered the Wu soldiers. They stared, speechless at his overwhelming strength.
The final flare of a dying lamp—that heroic resolve lifted the fighting spirit of the entire Wei army.
“General Zhang Liao, I will open the way! Hold on!”
Xu Huang, who had been covering the rear, swung his great axe and answered Zhang Liao’s call. Wherever their axes and spear-points flashed, blood-soaked corpses carpeted the field. Bit by bit the encirclement crumbled, and the Wei army seized the opening and broke free.
Thanks to the desperate fighting of Zhang Liao and Xu Huang, Cao Pi barely escaped with his life. Yet the dead from this battle numbered in the tens of thousands. Cao Pi’s contempt and underestimation of his enemy had turned countless soldiers into lonely ghosts of the battlefield.
His ambition to conquer Wu ended in failure.
The Wei army limped back to Luoyang, but the wounds of this campaign worsened the illnesses of both Cao Ren and Zhang Liao, and both men died. The pillars that had upheld Wei had collapsed.
The rear waves of the Yangtze push the front waves onward.
Just as the later waves of the great river drive the earlier ones before them, the age itself was changing. Heroes who had once made their names known throughout the world were falling like stars, and new heroes were rising, one by one, into prominence.
By repelling Wei once more, Wu firmly secured its place as master of the southern lands.
“Nanggun, have you heard the news from the east?”
“That Wu repelled Wei’s invasion, you mean?”
“…You already knew?”
I nodded in answer to Po Sanniang’s question. Of course I did—knowing history as I did, I felt no great surprise.
I stopped swinging the crescent blade with the sandbags strapped to my arms and legs in the training yard. Wei may have thought the timing perfect, but Lu Xun had anticipated Cao Pi’s southern campaign. What I had not expected was this:
……Zhang Liao dying at this point is a bit of a surprise.
Originally, as I recalled it, he was supposed to die later—after Shu and Wu had formed their alliance and Wei invaded again.
Does that mean the flow of history is shifting, little by little, because of my interference?
When morning training ended I washed, changed into clean clothes, gathered the documents from my room, and mounted my horse.
“Where are you going?”
“The Chancellor’s office. I have something to report to the Chancellor.”
Showing him these would no doubt prompt another question about whether I intended to become a civil official—but for the sake of Shu’s development, I had to show him.