Nanman (2)
"It is Meng Huo, King of the Nanman!"
"Seize him!!"
As the ambushers rushed in as one, Meng Huo swung his axe in a furious arc. Soldiers cut clean through the chest toppled, spraying blood. "Damn it all. Open a path!"
Pressed from front and rear, the situation was grim. Shouting to steel his men, Meng Huo drove them hard to break free. "Break out toward that hill!"
Knowing the lay of Nanzhong as they knew their own hands, they hunted for a route back to their main camp. They cut through the forest and emerged onto the hill—only to find a young general already holding it with his troops.
"Out of the way!"
Mang Yachang, famed throughout Nanzhong for his ferocity, charged headlong. His opponent was a youth who had not even reached twenty. Contemptuous of the enemy commander as a mere stripling, Mang Yachang sneered and swept his spear.
It was a fatal mistake.
Shhk!
A heavy crescent blade carved a half-moon through the air, and Mang Yachang's head fell in a single stroke.
"L-Lord Mang Yachang has fallen!"
The death of a warrior renowned for valor among the Man tribes shattered their will to fight. Guan Suo shook the blood from his guandao and ordered his men, "Advance!"
Guan Suo led the charge, Po Sanniang close at his heels. With the enemy general's head taken, the soldiers' spirits soared, and they smashed through the Nanman ranks.
"This way is closed! Find another path!!"
Hemmed in by Shu troops on every side, Meng Huo fled in search of a side trail.
Just as I expected—he's headed that way.
Guan Suo watched Meng Huo's retreating back and murmured to himself. Officers were already lying in wait along that route as well.
"Which means what I must do is…"
His gaze shifted to Dong Dona and Ah Huinan, who were fleeing by a different road. Guan Suo spurred his horse and gave chase.
"Meng Huo! Take this blade from Yao Hua!"
"Zhang Yi of Shu is here! Why the such haste to flee!?"
Meng Huo had escaped Guan Suo only to be worn down by one sudden strike after another from Shu's officers. On every side path back to camp, Shu commanders rose to bar his way.
"How in hell do these bastards know the land of Nanman so well that they can read every move we make?"
Meng Huo raged. He had scorned the Shu army and treated them lightly—and he was paying the full price. He felt as powerless as a fly trapped in the Buddha's palm.
No—this is because of that fool Jin Huan San Jie, walking straight into their trap!
The easy confidence of only moments before was gone without a trace. He had been separated from Dong Dona and Ah Huinan; the soldiers still at his back numbered a mere few hundred. Their formations had broken and scattered.
"Great King! Beyond this cliff lies Wuqi Peak."
Before he knew it, the only road left to the main camp was a sheer precipice.
"No choice. Abandon the horses—the whole army climbs the cliff!"
Meng Huo cast aside even his red steed and began to scale the rock face. Unless the Shu army had sprouted wings, they would never follow him here. So he believed, sweat pouring as he climbed—until…
"Oh. There you are."
As if he had known this very place would be chosen, a Shu general was waiting at the top of the cliff.
"That face of yours is a sight."
Wei Yan mocked Meng Huo's sweat-soaked, gasping figure and set his blade to the man's throat.
"Damn you—!!"
Dodging and weaving to the last, Meng Huo was finally taken prisoner.
Bound hand and foot, Meng Huo was led away under Wei Yan's guard.
…Have all the other chieftains been killed?
Aside from Jin Huan San Jie, whose severed head already hung from a pole, none of the other chieftains were in sight.
"So you are Meng Huo?"
"And you must be Zhuge Liang? You look even more frail than I imagined."
In the Nanman world of the strong devouring the weak, a man of that build would not last long. Meng Huo said aloud exactly what he was thinking.
Crack!
Enraged by the insult to the Prime Minister, Yao Hua slammed the shaft of his spear across Meng Huo's back. "A defeated general, and you dare wag your tongue!?"
"Hmph. Was I wrong?"
Even under that merciless blow, Meng Huo would not bend.
Zhuge Liang addressed the captive before him. "His Majesty wishes to maintain amicable relations with you. Why, then, do you raise arms against Shu?"
"We despise interference."
Meng Huo's eyes blazed with fury. In them lay a deep distrust of the Han people. "You think we don't know how you smile and fawn, only to stab us in the back and work us as slaves?"
He knew well enough how the Central Plains scorned them as barbarians and treated them with contempt.
"That may be true of Wei. But Shu has pursued a policy of conciliation. The future you fear will not come to pass."
Zhuge Liang sought to persuade him into submission. "If you yield, you may continue to govern Nanzhong as you always have."
Meng Huo exploded. "Shut your mouth! Am I supposed to trust a silver-tongued schemer like you!?"
True to his renown as King of the Man tribes, he was arrogant and fiercely proud. "If you hadn't resorted to your cowardly tricks, it would be you who stood bound in defeat!"
"What!?"
"Prime Minister, allow me to take this dog's head at once."
The officers around them bristled at Meng Huo's insolence. To use tactics and stratagems in war was only natural; his words were pure nonsense. Yet Zhuge Liang remained perfectly calm. With a gesture he quieted the heated men and asked Meng Huo,
"Then you are confident you would not lose if we fought again?"
Meng Huo shouted as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Of course! I was lured and beaten this time. Next time I will not be taken in by the likes of you."
Two causes of defeat: Shu's lure into the camp and the trap that followed, and his failure to anticipate that they would know the land of Nanman so well. Keep those in mind and fight again, and he would not lose. Of course, to every other officer present it was nothing more than a loser refusing to admit defeat and digging in his heels. But Meng Huo's confidence overflowed.
Seeing this, Zhuge Liang offered him a chance. "Very well. Gather your forces and come at us again."
"…What?"
"I am giving you the opportunity. Attack us once more."
Meng Huo still doubted the Prime Minister's true intent—but this was a chance. The troops of the neighboring chieftains remain. I cannot let it end like this.
He trembled with humiliation, yet he could not throw away the chance to redeem himself. "Fine. I accept."
"But if you are captured again, surrender."
"If you take me in open battle, so be it."
Thus, by Zhuge Liang's mercy, Meng Huo kept his life and departed. He hurried back to his main camp at Wuqi Peak—only to find Shu banners already flying over it.
"Meng Huo! Be grateful for the Prime Minister's clemency!"
Zhao Yun, one step ahead, had already seized the camp. The warning, delivered in a voice both deep and sharp, left Meng Huo no choice but to fall back. Even the so-called King of the Man could not retake a stronghold without troops.
To lose even the stores this easily…!
Grinding his teeth, Meng Huo withdrew. Forced to retreat toward Yunnan, he ran into another body of troops.
"Great King!"
"Dailai Dongzhu!"
It was the army of Dailai Dongzhu, younger brother of his wife, Lady Zhurong. The two men had gathered as many of the routed as they could and been searching for Meng Huo. Of the seventy thousand, fewer than thirty thousand had survived—more than half gone.
"What of Dong Dona and Ah Huinan?"
"The army scattered in every direction. We do not know where they are either."
"Those thick-headed fools. Walking into the enemy's trap…"
Strictly speaking, it was Meng Huo and Jin Huan San Jie who had charged into the enemy lines—but no one present was bold enough to point that out. Meng Huo blamed the dead Jin Huan San Jie and other rivals while boasting of his own valor in cutting a blood path through the encirclement. He said nothing of having been taken prisoner himself.
"The Shu army uses cunning tricks. Do not drop your guard when we fight."
Meng Huo resolved to move with caution. He pitched camp some two hundred li from the Shu position and sent word to friendly chieftains, calling for reinforcements—so that, once the tribes were gathered, he might face Shu in a proper battle again.
A few days later:
"They refuse to send troops!?"
"Yes. A Shu officer named Feng Xi, leading a raiding force, is crushing the neighboring tribes."
Acting on separate orders from Zhuge Liang, Feng Xi and Ma Zhong were systematically breaking the powers friendly to Meng Huo. With their own positions in danger, the tribal chiefs no longer had strength to spare for him.
"How are we to prepare for a battle with Shu under these conditions?"
Hearing the worry in Meng Huo's voice, his advisor Dailai Dongzhu spoke. "Great King, there is no need for us to march out and meet the Shu army in the field."
"Oh?"
"Our numbers are depleted. What if we hold a defensive siege instead?"
"A siege?"
"Yes. If Shu has mapped Nanzhong and means to lure us into traps, why meet them on their terms at all?"
Meng Huo nodded. Now that he knew the enemy understood the terrain of Nanman, there was no reason to go out and fight. The ambush cost us heavily, and morale is low. Even with numerical superiority they had been overmatched; sitting tight behind walls was the wiser course.
"Do you have a place in mind?"
"Yunnan will be well held by my elder sister. What of going to King Tasha at Dulong Cave?"
"King Tasha?"
King Tasha and Meng Huo were on the closest of terms.
"Yes. Dulong Cave, where King Tasha resides, is a natural fortress. Poisoned springs flow through the moat. Even a hundred thousand men could not take it easily."
Even an army that knew Nanzhong's geography would struggle to storm such a place. "With the aid of King Tasha, the greatest strategist in Nanzhong, we can crush the Shu army without difficulty."
It was not, in truth, the kind of plan that pleased him. What Meng Huo wanted was a bold, headlong push to victory. …But we have lost so many men this time. Better to follow Dailai Dongzhu's counsel.
"Very well. We go to King Tasha."
Meng Huo set out for Dulong Cave, where King Tasha awaited.