An Age of Irrationality (4): The Madness Returns to Xuzhou
Once a man has committed one act of madness, the chances are high he'll do it again. Ordinary people can't comprehend the minds of the mad. They judge by common sense and can't even guess at the thoughts behind irrational actions. But if they've suffered from such madness, they shouldn't judge by reason—they should judge by madness itself.
A man who's massacred once won't hold back from doing it again. That's the mindset they needed.
Crunch. Crunch.
The people of Xuzhou learned that lesson to their bones. What they could have sensed from afar, they felt with their own bodies.
After Cao Cao's army withdrew, they'd thought, Surely they won't do it again, and returned home. That was their downfall. Even if they didn't venture as far as the ten cities Cao Cao now held, they figured it was safe enough near the lands she'd massacred and abandoned before. That assumption sealed their fate.
In hindsight, it was foolish. But who could blame them for returning to blood-soaked soil?
"Guys like us, scraping by on farming handouts—what other place could we go?"
"All my kin are in Xuzhou. Nowhere else to run."
"Cao Cao or Tao Qian—they're all the same breed. Why should we suffer for it?"
The common folk simply returned to the land their ancestors had tilled for generations. And most hadn't come back to rebuild amid the ruins.
"Aaah, my son...! I'm sorry, so sorry!"
"Mother! Mother!"
"Your son should have died! Sob—waaaah!"
"Darling! How did your eyes...?!"
"Eyes don't matter. We're alive and together—that's what counts...!"
They'd fled in chaos, without even a promise of where to meet. Families separated in the flight from Cao Cao's spears and swords could only hope to reunite in their hometowns. They prayed for each other's survival... but most were dead.
Ugh.
Even the dogs chained at home had been brutally beaten to death by Cao Cao's men. The people of Xuzhou saw with their own eyes what it meant to leave not even an ant alive.
No survivors. Corpses were dumped in rivers or buried deep, mutilated in the killing. The ground was littered with traces of people slaughtered mid-flight, further ravaged by wild beasts over the winter.
The savagery shook them to their core. They swore they'd never even glance west toward Cao Cao. But they should have looked.
Who would have thought her retreat was because "winter's too cold"?
Crunch. Crunch.
"Aaaah!!"
The stench of blood began to rise everywhere. Cao Cao's army marched east from the cities they'd occupied and abandoned, laying Xuzhou to waste once more. Practice makes perfect—their advance was far swifter than before. As if protesting that their first massacre had been sloppy amateur work, they now destroyed Xuzhou with ruthless efficiency.
In mere weeks, they reached the gates of Xuzhou itself. The people fled into the city in terror.
Tao Qian's forces couldn't even respond properly. Aside from the garrison, most of his troops were bandit rabble who'd run wild in Xuzhou. Would they risk their necks against Cao Cao for the locals? Hardly.
Tao Qian's army crumbled in an instant. Bandits fled to the hills in fear of Cao Cao; even officials colluding with them discarded their banners, disguised themselves as bandits, and ran.
No one stood in their way. Perhaps scarred by the slaughter of tens of thousands the previous year, Governor Tao Qian gathered all his forces inside Xuzhou to confront her.
Even Cao Cao's army on expedition couldn't breach the walls easily. Tao Qian sealed the gates tight.
But the Xuzhou folk who couldn't get in had to flee north or south to escape pursuit.
Cao Cao's forces set up camp to the west, brazenly building siege engines in plain sight. Their materials came from dismantling locals' homes; plundering Xuzhou's arsenals had refitted their troops fully.
Tao Qian tried everything: arrows rained down, night raids launched, even envoys sent for peace. Arrows bounced off massive shields; raiders and horses alike were slaughtered; the envoy returned headless, Tao Qian's "surrender order" stuffed in his mouth and lobbed over the wall.
Kill Tao Qian. Kill anything that gets in the way.
Only then did the people of Xuzhou start to realize: at this rate, Cao Cao taking the city was just a matter of time. Maybe handing over Tao Qian was their only shot at survival...?
Despair filled Xuzhou in that moment.
From the north. A force of about a thousand arrived at the city.
* * *
"Liu Hyun-deok! You're my savior!"
Tao Qian embraced the man with notably large ears.
"Who'd have thought Gongsun Zan would really send reinforcements!"
"Haha, of course. How could we stand by while Xuzhou burns?"
Liu Bei bowed with clasped fists. His clothes were bloodied from breaking through the siege to enter the north gate, but Tao Qian clapped his shoulders heedless of the stains.
"Perfect timing! I always knew you'd be a great man! I still see you fighting Lü Bu at Hulao Pass with your brothers! Haha!"
"I'm honored you remember so fondly."
"Right, right. Can't treat saviors like guests. Make yourselves at home—as if this were your own land. Thank you for coming all this way..."
Tao Qian granted Liu Bei a spacious mansion. His few thousand troops garrisoned in the city's tuntian camps, while Liu Bei and his officers gathered to strategize.
"Will Cao Cao really back off now?"
"Doubt it. She won't retreat until Tao Qian's head rolls."
"Brother, why worry? Yide and I can sweep them out."
"We don't know how much Tao Qian will commit, but victory's possible."
"Hm..."
The generals leaned toward field battle. But Liu Bei shook his head at the map.
"Not defeatist talk. But charging in right away feels off. We've marched from Beiping to Xuzhou; the men aren't acclimated yet."
"Just swap their water for booze and let 'em puke a night or two."
"Yide, this is worse than the plains. Didn't you see on the way? How ravaged the people are."
"Ugh."
Liu Bei toyed with the Cao Cao banner on the map, beyond the walls.
"They expect big things from reinforcements. Cao Cao's already pressured just knowing we're here. Let's watch and wait."
"Lord Liu, may I speak?"
A handsome youth in silver armor stepped forward.
"Go ahead, Zilong."
"Staying too long will make Tao Qian suspicious."
"Hey now, suspicious? Mind your words, Zilong."
"Do you trust Tao Qian, Lord Liu? My first impression of him... resembled certain warlords."
Jo Un, the youth, shook her head firmly.
"He welcomes us now, but if we sit idle, he'll misunderstand."
"Misunderstand how?"
"...That we're plotting to seize Xuzhou from within."
"......."
Silence fell over the room.
"Heh, heh. What irony. Even thinking that goes against propriety."
Liu Bei stroked his goatee with a wry smile.
"The moment I saw him, his eyes screamed it: Can I use these guys to deal with Cao Cao?"
"Brother..."
"I know. Just a hunch. Can't judge a man by looks alone."
"Brother, you pegged Cao Cao as a madwoman the instant you saw her. Has your eye for people ever failed?"
"......."
Liu Bei covered his face with both hands.
"He'll push us to the vanguard. People hesitate to believe the worst, but he won't send us alone out the gates. Right?"
"......."
No one spoke rashly. They'd all sensed the same from Tao Qian.
"Men get desperate in a corner. That's when true nature shows."
Liu Bei bowed his head briefly, then lifted it with a warm smile.
"Let's eat first and think. I'm starving after the long ride. Haha, surely they won't stint a grain of rice on their rescuers."
"Ah, hungry? Gotta eat hearty before facing Cao Cao! Hey, bring food till the tables break!"
"......."
Liu Bei arrives in Xuzhou as reinforcements.
* * *
After news that Cao Cao had reached Xuzhou's gates, regrettably, updates from there didn't reach us promptly.
Would knowing change much? Or just heighten the anxiety?
Sometimes ignorance is bliss, knowledge poison—but right now, knowing was less burdensome.
Still, nothing I could do. My job was giving my all to the academy.
Jingzhou was utterly peaceful. Today, too, I focused quietly on academy affairs.
"Teacher."
Sima Yi approached quietly. Dressed like Director Sima Hui in official robes, she slipped into my room with a sly smile.
"Um, next year... it's the Year of the Melon."