To Yiling (3)
Ignoring Guan Suo's warnings, the Shu army advanced on Yiling.
"Over the walls!"
Zhang Nan, commanding the vanguard, swung his blade as he directed his soldiers. Emboldened by victory after victory, the Shu forces pressed forward with the ferocity of tigers, advancing without the slightest hesitation. They poured a relentless assault upon the Wu defenders entrenched within Yiling.
"Hold them back!"
The officer directing the defense was Han Dang. A battle-hardened veteran who had served three generations of the Sun family, he guided his troops with practiced skill.
"The siege towers are closing in!"
Weathering a rain of arrows thick as a bamboo forest, the siege towers ground forward until they stood almost at the walls.
"Douse them in oil and burn the towers where they stand!"
At Han Dang's command the Wu soldiers moved as one, and the moment the Shu siege towers drew near they doused them in oil and set them ablaze.
"Aaaargh!!"
Soldiers whose bodies had caught fire screamed and rolled across the ground. Those climbing the scaling ladders were scalded with boiling water and sent tumbling down.
"…Their defenses are thorough."
Feng Xi stroked his beard, coolly appraising the battlefield. He had expected Wu's morale to have collapsed after defeat after defeat, yet their fortifications refused to give way so easily.
Has the commander leading Wu's forces changed?
Unlike Sun Huan and the other Wu generals who had earlier let hot blood drive them into open battle, the handling of the army was altogether different—a consistent, unwavering commitment to holding the walls. Until now the Shu officers had taunted the Wu troops as cowards, but the defenders simply continued to fortify their positions in silence.
As the front lines settled into stalemate, the main force under Liu Bei established deer-horn fortifications and camps at Xiaoting. A council of war was convened, and officers and soldiers hurried about their duties.
"I am told we are struggling to take Yiling."
"Grand Commander, do you have a plan?"
Liu Bei looked to Feng Xi for his counsel.
"If Your Majesty will first consider the terrain—Yiling sits astride the river, and is not a place suited to encirclement. Should we surround the fortress and the enemy strike with a detached force, we would find ourselves with our backs to the water. That would be the worst of all options."
"Then what do you propose?"
"If the enemy means to drag this into a long siege, I believe our first priority must be to cut their supply lines."
Feng Xi moved his finger across the map spread upon the table, tracing the lower reaches of the Yangtze.
"After a man named Lu Xun became Grand Commander, Sun Huan has been holding Yidu. Yidu is well stocked with provisions, and it is the critical junction through which supplies are sent upstream to Yiling. Seize it, and the Wu army—supply lines severed, retreat cut off—will be trapped with nowhere to turn."
"So by choking off their supplies we can starve the Wu forces at Yiling to death."
Without prior land-tilling camps, a prolonged campaign was impossible without supply. For the Shu expeditionary force, Wu Ban was already moving the supply train to keep the army provisioned.
"Very well. We proceed with this plan."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Feng Xi assigned troops to Fu Rong and ordered him to coordinate with Shamoke—who was marching north at the head of the Wuling Man—and strike Yidu.
"But this Lu Xun who replaced Sun Huan as Grand Commander—who is he? I have never heard the name."
Liu Bei tilted his head upon hearing the name of the commander holding out at Yiling. He knew the renowned figures of Wu well enough. Even Zhou Tai and Han Dang, who had made their names early on the frontier, were men whose reputations he had long known. Yet among such formidable names, Lu Xun's was entirely new to him.
"It would seem they have elevated a scholar from obscurity."
"Does Wu truly have so few men of talent? To appoint some nobody as Grand Commander…"
One of the generals sneered, openly slighting both Wu and Lu Xun.
"Even so, he does not seem an opponent we can take lightly," Zhang Nan cautioned, noting how different the army's bearing was from the forces Sun Huan had once led. "Moreover, according to our scouts, the capture of Jing Province was not Lü Meng's doing—the strategy came from Lu Xun's mind."
Ma Liang relayed to Liu Bei the intelligence he had received from the scouts.
"What?!"
At the words that Jing Province had fallen by Lu Xun's design, Liu Bei's expression turned ice-cold.
"Then that man is the true enemy who killed Yun-chang?!"
The fury Liu Bei had briefly eased by slaughtering those responsible for the deaths of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei surged up once more.
"Lu Xun. I will take that wretch's head and offer it before Yun-chang's spirit tablet!"
At Liu Bei's thunderous command the Shu army renewed its fierce assaults. Yet even when the soldiers encircling Yiling hurled themselves forward as one, they could not breach the ironclad defense.
"Hey, you cowardly bastards!"
"Come out and fight! What the hell is this?!"
"Compared to the generation that was called tigers, the Wu army of today is nothing but a pack of rats!"
Every crude insult imaginable was flung to wound Wu's pride, but the defenders stood like scarecrows and gave no response at all. With Yiling standing in the way, striking elsewhere was difficult, and the days dragged on. Little by little, the tide of the campaign began to turn.
"Your Majesty!"
The Shu general Cheng Ji came rushing into the command tent.
"What is it?"
"Disaster! Soldiers are collapsing from heatstroke one after another!"
Another danger born of a prolonged campaign. Under the blistering heat, the men encamped along the riverbank began to fall one by one. The exhaustion of soldiers who had forced-marched from Shu and fought battle after battle was beyond measure.
"We may need to pull the encirclement back and let the men recover from the heat and their accumulated fatigue."
"What if we moved the camps into the forest?" Liu Ning suggested carefully.
"No! Absolutely not!"
Ma Liang shot back the moment he heard it.
"Why not? If we stay as we are, the men will drop from the heat and be unfit to fight!"
"Have you forgotten the letter Guan Suo sent?"
"You're putting stock in the words of some green boy who isn't even the Chancellor? Adviser, since when have you grown so timid?!"
Du Lu openly dismissed the inexperienced Guan Suo and threw his weight behind Liu Ning's proposal.
"I will not deny that I found him untrustworthy at first. But Wu's movements have followed exactly what was written in that letter, have they not?"
Just as Guan Suo had said, Wu had dug in at Yiling and prepared for a long war. As the front locked into stalemate under that strategy, soldiers began collapsing from heatstroke one after another. Everything was unfolding as the letter had described.
The officers who had been ready to voice their discontent at Ma Liang's words closed their mouths. At first they had been offended, thinking Guan Suo looked down on them by leaning on his father Guan Yu's name—but it was also true that the campaign was unfolding precisely as he had predicted.
"It could still have been a lucky guess!"
"Exactly. Moving the camps into the forest need only last until General Fu Rong takes Yidu, no?"
A few of the more prideful officers clung to their own views.
"And what do you intend to do if we move into the woods and fall to a fire attack?"
"Would it not be better to order General Fu Rong to withdraw, fall back with the main force as far as Zigui, and reorganize our lines?"
Ma Liang and Xiang Chong urged that Guan Suo's counsel be heeded; Liu Ning and Du Lu opposed them.
"…Your Majesty, it seems the opinions will not be easily reconciled."
Feng Xi clutched his head as though it ached. Liu Bei watched for a time, then turned his gaze to the far end of the assembled officers.
"Guan Xing."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"You know your younger brother better than anyone, do you not? What is your judgment?"
Every eye fixed on Guan Xing. He closed his eyes in thought for a moment, then spoke.
"The younger brother I knew never displayed any particular strategic insight."
"There—you see!"
"Even General Guan Xing doesn't trust him."
"Even so," Guan Xing continued, "under the present circumstances, I do not think it would hurt to take his counsel into account."
At that, Liu Ning and Du Lu grumbled that he was merely taking his little brother's side.
"…"
Having heard Guan Xing out, Liu Bei reached his decision.
"We will not withdraw. Instead, we will divide the army in two. Those afflicted with heatstroke will rest in the forest; the remaining half will stay along the riverbank to watch the enemy's movements, rotating in shifts."
Liu Bei had chosen a compromise, accepting only half of Guan Suo's advice. That Guan Suo had correctly anticipated Wu's movements was an undeniable fact, and could not be dismissed out of hand. But if the number of heatstroke cases within the camps continued to climb, he was prepared to shift the encampments into the woods.
"I will convey this to the Chancellor. If the Chancellor also agrees, then at that time we will pull the army back to Zigui."
A full retreat as far as Baidi would exhaust the soldiers severely, and might break the fighting spirit of troops who had been riding a wave of victories. More than that, with high-ranking subordinate officers present, giving full weight to Guan Suo's counsel risked leaving those men's pride in tatters.
"Then I shall first transfer fifty thousand men into the forest and establish camps there."
Following Liu Bei's command, Feng Xi relocated the camps of those showing signs of heatstroke into the woods. That they had accepted even half of Guan Suo's much-maligned advice was, he decided, something to be grateful for.
So he has no intention of withdrawing after all…
Ma Liang closed his eyes and could only swallow a low groan. To persuade Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang's word was still desperately needed.
Guan Suo and Po Sanniang had by then drawn near Zigui. Though the lingering aftereffects of his injuries still clung to his body, Guan Suo and his party had pressed on without rest, changing horses at intervals and cutting their sleep short.
The household retainers of the Po Family Manor had come along as escorts, but they clearly did not understand the situation they had walked into.
There it is.
In a forest some distance away, green military banners fluttered over a camp.
…Just as I expected. They didn't take my advice.
For a man of Liu Bei's battlefield experience to dig in his heels like this, the thirst for vengeance must have clouded his judgment past any cool appraisal of the facts.
"…Nanggun. May I ask you one thing?"
Po Sanniang, riding alongside me, turned her head and spoke.
"…What is it?"
"Why are you opposed to the campaign against Wu?"
Having taken down Guan Suo's words in the letter exactly as he had spoken them, Po Sanniang found it strange.
"I assumed you would naturally support the campaign against Wu. But for you to try to stop the war… I simply don't understand."
She wasn't wrong. In a world of the Three Kingdoms that prized filial piety and righteousness, that was generally the correct view. It was only natural that a son should avenge his father.
When I wrote in that letter that we ought to make peace with Wu, my head started aching.
Guan Suo's body itself, no doubt, could not accept my choice.
I considered for a moment, then answered her.
"If it were only a matter of the heart, I'd want to avenge my father too. I'm not saying His Majesty is wrong."
Guan Yu had always been my favorite warrior. The man who had driven my bias to his death through betrayal—I used to go around calling Sun Quan that backstabbing scoundrel.
Of course, my feelings were nothing beside those of Liu Bei, who had lost sworn brothers of decades, or of Guan Yu's own sons who had lost their father. Even so, the desire for revenge was something I understood all too well.
"But the problem is that this is not the right time to strike Wu. If Shu and Wu fight each other, only Wei stands to gain. Wei holds Hebei and the Central Plains—the most populous regions—and possesses a national strength that neither Shu nor Wu can withstand unless they stand together. In a situation like this, there is nothing to be gained if Shu and Wu tear each other apart."
Of course, the strongest reason of all is to prevent the catastrophe that is about to unfold at Yiling.
The Battle of Yiling—the war that would deal catastrophic damage to Shu's ranks of talent. In that campaign Shu would lose countless officers and soldiers, and the wounds would reach even as far as Zhuge Liang's northern expeditions.
I have to stop it.
For everything that lay ahead, the damage at Yiling had to be cut to the absolute minimum—and the war itself had to end here. Fight any further, and only Wei would profit.
"I can see the tents pitched at Yiling!"
"Will you go straight to see His Majesty?"
When Po Sanniang asked, I shook my head.
"No. If I force a meeting and offer counsel right now, I won't hear anything pleasant for my trouble."
I had sent the letter because every moment counted—but I had bypassed proper channels and made contact on my own, so Liu Bei and the other generals would certainly not look kindly on it.
Besides, I held not the slightest expectation that a Liu Bei so blinded by vengeance he would not even heed Zhuge Liang would listen to me.
At least I had warned them of the danger of a fire attack; with any luck they would take a little more care. And if anyone asked how I had foreseen a fire attack, I already had my excuses prepared.
Zhuge Liang should have received my letter as well. All I can do now is hope he moves quickly.
"First I need to get word to my elder brother in the army."
Once I joined the main force I would no longer be free to move as I pleased. So before I saw Liu Bei, I meant to meet Guan Xing and hear the state of the front from him.