Four Captures, Four Releases (2)
After King Mulu fell, the fleeing Meng Huo was seized by Wei Yan.
Wei Yan had occupied Meng Huo's main camp a step ahead of him; when Meng Huo returned, he was taken without even a chance to resist. Once Meng Huo became a hostage, Lady Zhurong and Meng Huaman had no choice but to surrender.
They were left stunned when word reached them that Feng Xi's detached force had taken advantage of Lady Zhurong's absence and captured Yunnan.
They were dragging the bound Nanman generals toward the camp when something unexpected happened. The moment one of the soldiers tried to lead away the Red Hare that Meng Huaman had ridden—
Whinny!
The Red Hare rejected a stranger's touch and began to thrash. It rammed the men trying to seize it, lashed out with its hind legs, and fought with stubborn fury. Even the strong men among them kept their distance from the wildly bucking animal. Hoping to calm it through its mistress, several soldiers went looking for Huaman.
Scanning its surroundings, the Red Hare spotted Guan Suo and charged straight at him.
"General, look out!"
"Nanggun!"
Po Sanniang started forward to shield Guan Suo, but he put out an arm and held her back. The Curly-haired Red Hare came on like a flood, as if it meant to smash into him. Guan Suo slipped past the charge by a hair and swung up onto its back. Sensing a stranger, the Red Hare bucked and thrashed savagely.
"Settle down."
I locked my calves tight, held on, and gripped the Curly-haired Red Hare's reins hard. Matching its every twist with precise control of force, I waited for the animal to wear itself out. After charging wildly in every direction, the Red Hare finally spent its strength.
"Good. Take it to the stables."
Once I was sure it had quieted, I dismounted—and the Curly-haired Red Hare stepped toward me. It thrust its head forward as if asking to be stroked.
...It suddenly went docile?
Bewildered but still, Guan Suo stroked its head. The Red Hare nickered as if fawning. No one would have believed this was the same famed steed that had been thrashing so fiercely moments before. It nuzzled against Guan Suo's hand, making soft sounds.
Should I try riding it again?
Guan Suo swung into the saddle once more. This time the horse did not thrash. Watching the now-docile Red Hare, the officers and soldiers stood staring blankly. Meng Huaman, who had come running at word that her horse was rampaging, was left just as speechless by the sight.
Before Zhuge Liang, Meng Huo and his family knelt, tightly bound.
"I've lost count of how many times this makes, Meng Huo."
Zhuge Liang, covering his mouth with his white feather fan, sighed as if the whole business wearied him. Even if Meng Huo somehow freed himself and lunged for Kongming, the fierce generals Zhao Yun and Wei Yan stood at his side. Humiliated, Lady Zhurong and Meng You scowled with resentment.
...But why does that girl keep staring at me?
Meng Huaman kept sending glances my way.
I can roughly guess why.
Like Po Sanniang, Meng Huaman was a figure from the Hua Guansuo Zhuan—and one of Guan Suo's wives. Daughter of Meng Huo and Lady Zhurong, princess of the Nanman. She had already crossed blades with me in single combat, and I had subdued her beloved horse while it was running wild. It would have been stranger if she had paid me no mind. Yet there was no hostility in her eyes.
...Somehow her gaze has changed a little since I handled the Red Hare...
Po Sanniang, for her part, found Meng Huaman's interest thoroughly irritating.
"...Once!"
While I was still thinking about Meng Huaman, Meng Huo raised his voice.
"Give me just one more chance!"
His shameless plea for another opportunity froze the faces of the generals. He had tormented them without mercy using the terrain of Nanzhong and his beast troops. Whether they would spare his life even if he surrendered on the spot was far from certain. To have the gall to ask for yet another chance in that situation seemed both pathetic and, in its own way, impressive.
"I have already spared your life three times. And still you shamelessly beg for another opportunity?"
Zhuge Liang made no effort to hide his displeasure.
"If I am captured again, I will surely surrender!"
Meng Huo slammed his forehead against the ground as he pleaded. At the sight of a king of a nation bowing his head to beg, the Nanman soldiers' eyes went wide.
"We have already taken your base at Yunnan. And still you refuse to give up?"
"I wish to fight just once more! I beg you...!!"
"Prime Minister, there is nothing more to hear! Let me take that scoundrel's head!!"
Seeing him grovel after so many grants of mercy, Wei Yan roared and made to draw his sword.
"...Hmm. Very well. I shall give you one last chance."
"Prime Minister!"
"Are you serious?"
At the word that he would release Meng Huo once more, the surrounding generals cried out in astonishment. Yet even against their protests, Zhuge Liang's resolve did not waver.
"Of course. I swear it upon the name of the King of the Man."
"That vow upon your name had better not be a light one."
Zhuge Liang granted one more chance and released Meng Huo's family. He did not, however, release them completely. The soldiers they had commanded were not freed. In place of the Red Hare, Huaman was given a different mount—returning the famed steed would only have made capturing them again a nuisance.
Since the Red Hare had followed Guan Suo and allowed him onto its back, Zhuge Liang entrusted the horse to him.
Meng Huo's family fled into Nanzhong, vowing that next time they would truly wash away this humiliation.
All except one.
"You're not going?"
Meng Huaman fixed Guan Suo with a steady gaze, as if she had something to say.
"Guan Suo. I'll remember that name."
Pointing a finger at him, she declared boldly.
"I will definitely reclaim my horse—and make you my stud!!"
With that shout, Meng Huaman left.
"S-Stud?! That crazy woman...!!"
At Meng Huaman's declaration that she would make Guan Suo her stud, Po Sanniang's eyes blazed with fury. There was no way she could look kindly on a woman who called someone else's fiancé a stud.
Shouldn't she be angry about losing the Red Hare?
It was absurd that she was fixated on making him her stud rather than on having her beloved horse stolen. Guan Suo and Po Sanniang each watched Meng Huaman with very different eyes.
After leaving the Shu camp, the atmosphere among Meng Huo's party was bleak.
"...Now who am I supposed to ask for help?"
Only a month earlier he had been overflowing with drive; now he had fallen into a pitiful state. He had swaggered out of Zhuge Liang's camp, yet Meng Huo had nowhere left to turn for aid. Having been defeated three times already, no soldiers remained who wished to follow him.
Even his base of Yunnan had fallen to a general named Feng Xi. From ruler of Nanzhong to defeated man—only his clan still followed him.
Meng Huo and Dailai Dongzhu began discussing where they might seek help.
"Huaman, are you all right?"
Lady Zhurong approached, worried for Huaman, who had tasted defeat in her first battle.
"...Yes, Mother. I'm fine."
Seeing her dejected daughter, Lady Zhurong comforted her with all her heart. She believed the grief must be greater because Huaman had lost the prized steed she had cherished so dearly.
"Don't let losing the horse this time weigh on you. We'll just take it back next time, won't we?"
"Of course."
Seeing her daughter perk up at the comfort, Lady Zhurong smiled and nodded.
"Yes, next time..."
"Yes. Next time I will definitely make Guan Suo... that bastard my stud."
"......."
So you weren't down because you lost your beloved horse?
Lady Zhurong was left speechless by her daughter's resolute fixation on making an enemy general her stud. By all rights she should have been furious over losing the beloved horse she had raised for so long. Yet her interest in the warrior named Guan Suo, who had faced her, seemed far greater.
...Surely not...
She felt an ominous premonition at the sight, but dismissed it as the shock of a first defeat and pushed the thought aside.
"What about the Wuguo Kingdom?"
Dailai Dongzhu, who had been considering countries to ask for aid with Meng Huo, offered an idea.
"...Wuguo Kingdom?"
"Yes. Unlike us, they are said to live in caves."
Dailai Dongzhu went on to describe Wuguo. He expounded that their rattan-armored soldiers possessed defense so superb that blades and spears could not pierce them, and that the soldiers' spirit and bravery were extraordinary as well.
"Very well. Since we have no other country to turn to anyway, let's try speaking with them."
Clutching at straws, Meng Huo sent Dailai Dongzhu to Wuguo. Dailai Dongzhu was received by King Wutugu of Wuguo and requested aid. Fortunately, King Wutugu readily agreed to their plea.
"Of course I will help. How bitter it must be to have lost your country to foreign invaders!"
King Wutugu was a giant of towering stature, so tall he could look down even on Meng Huo, with a powerfully built frame. Though his speech was somewhat slow and simple, King Wutugu had a hearty nature. As a king himself, he sympathized with Meng Huo's plight of having lost his country and personally stepped forward.
"I shall drive off the invaders with my rattan-armored soldiers."
"We place our full trust in King Wutugu alone."
After treating Meng Huo's family with the utmost hospitality and letting them rest, King Wutugu mustered his troops. Thirty thousand soldiers clad in armor of processed rattan coated with oil gathered. King Wutugu led his subordinate generals, Toan and Haini.
"We march!"
Waaaaaah—!!
The rattan-armored soldiers. The army that boasted the strongest defense in Nanzhong had set out on campaign.