Don't Trust the Name — Make Them Believe the Situation
"Yuan Shu's army will fall into far greater confusion."
"If events unfold exactly as Zhang Qian says, Yuan Shu will strip troops from his rear and send several generals to verify it at once."
Lu Su set the situation in order point by point, and only then spoke of the field as it stood.
"At the very least, he will not be able to go back to hammering every place but Xuyi County."
Even in the midst of this, Lu Su conceived one plan more.
"If we mass our strength here, strike the center of Yuan Shu's army, and pull back out, they will at least learn that our force is formidable. And in the confusion that follows — able neither to advance nor to retreat — they will go on crumbling."
"Master Zijing's words seem right. I will go."
Zhang He saw his opening and spoke with complete confidence, but Liu Bei shook his head.
"My lord, is something troubling you?"
"If we are truly going to pull our strength together and smash Yuan Shu's army in one hard blow, I was thinking it might be better if I went myself."
"What? The Governor of Xuzhou, in person?"
"I am considering it."
Arms folded, Liu Bei kept the ground he had fought over so many times fixed in his eyes.
"It seems to me this will have to be one great decisive fight, and for that I think I ought to go out myself."
"My lord, our morale would rise, but it may be far too dangerous."
"Master Zijing, I am not a man who sits still, flicks a finger, and watches a battlefield. When everyone goes out to fight, I am the one who must stand at the front."
Liu Bei declared, utterly sure of himself, that he would fight in the foremost rank.
A lord taking the field like that could, as everyone said, raise morale to a tremendous height. The danger, though, was just as real. He would become the greatest target of all, and one arrow gone astray would end the war that very day.
"Elder brother, let me go instead."
"No, Yunchang. We charge together. And we show them plainly what the difference in a commander's martial strength truly is."
Liu Bei was the sort of commander who always stood at the front, sharing life and death with his soldiers and staking his own life as he led.
"And if I take the van, is there not already a man here fit to command the center?"
"Governor Liu — you mean me?"
"Where would I find a man I can trust as I trust you?"
Liu Bei said it while pointing straight at me.
In other words, he would charge with Guan Yu and Zhang He, and I was to hold the center. He did not ask whether I could. He simply gave the order.
"Having Zhang Qian take the center seems a sound decision. From this point on, Zhang Qian must not show himself against Yuan Shu's army."
"Step forward, and he becomes a target at once. And if he does not..."
"Precisely. We have spread a false report, and the man who devised it never appears. Yuan Shu will be all the more confounded."
Lu Su laid it out so cleanly that I agreed to take it on anyway — and in this war I would remain in the safest place there was, under the escort of the main force.
"My lord, are you telling me to leave the camp now?"
"The situation is too suspicious to leave alone! Qiao Rui, take eighty thousand, go and see how things stand in Lujiang, and have those two curs — Sun Ce and Zhou Yu — come to Shuchun."
"Liu Xun is there. Surely those young pups would not dare anything foolish..."
In an instant Yuan Shu glared at Qiao Rui as if he meant to kill him, and when his hand even went for his sword, Qiao Rui sighed and bowed his head.
"Understood. I will go and confirm it at once."
"On the way, grasp their situation — and the moment you reach Shuchun, look into Lu Bu as well! I need to know whether that bastard has properly struck Yuzhou."
"I will look into that too."
In the end Yuan Shu was undone by his own scheme. Beaten in the war of nerves, he detached Qiao Rui with a portion of the army and sent them south of the Huai.
And by a truly uncanny coincidence, Sun Ce was already mustering troops. At the request of Administrator Liu Xun, he was preparing to suppress a rebellion of the local clans raised by the family of Lu Kang — the former Administrator of Lujiang, whom Sun Ce himself had slaughtered years before.
Qiao Rui went down to Lujiang to confirm it, and the enormous misunderstanding that arose because of it among Sun Ce, Zhou Yu, and Yuan Shu was a matter for another day.
"All forces — charge!"
Liu Bei raised his twin swords from the saddle and drove forward, and the Yuan Shu troops who had been holding the line started in alarm and snatched up spears and blades. The Governor of Xuzhou himself was leading an army at the gallop. In a panic they deployed their archers and drew.
A rattling storm of shafts —
"Hmph!"
Amid the hail of arrows Liu Bei swept his twin swords from horseback, beat them aside, and crashed straight into Yuan Shu's ranks. Guan Yu and Zhang He came after him, each with his own weapon, and began to tear the line apart. Once it was breached, Liu Bei's army poured through like a flood, and Yuan Shu's men wavered more with every heartbeat.
"To think I can sit here and watch Governor Liu's battle with my own eyes."
But this was no time for mere spectating. I kept my eyes on the course of the fight and watched for the formations beginning to give way.
"A thousand soldiers to the left wing."
"I was thinking the same."
Lu Su read the field and at once sent an additional thousand to where Zhang He and Jian Yong stood.
"Should the center give them covering fire?"
"A measured check will do. Deploy the archers and crossbowmen and have them loose at long range."
See exactly where we were being pressed and where we held the advantage, then shape the answer to match. The fighting grew ever fiercer, and as the shouts and screams drew near I clenched both fists and kept the army moving — everything bent on winning.
"Right wing, reinforce with medium infantry! Lord Yunchang's men look spent!"
"Five hundred should be enough!"
Even as Lu Su fed in more troops, the center heaved.
Suddenly more than twice the men were packed together, slaughtering one another in a wild melee. I rose to lead my soldiers out — and in that instant Liu Bei burst from the killing ground.
He had ridden out on a white-maned horse. He came back astride a blood-red steed that called the Red Hare to mind. The horse panted and blew foam; the moment Liu Bei swung down he seized a water bucket and upended it over his whole body.
"Hah — hah!"
"Governor Liu! Are you all right?"
"I came to change horses. The advantage is firmly ours!"
Liu Bei washed away the blood caked over him, then mounted another horse that stood ready. He swung up onto a brown horse snorting hard through its nostrils, slapped its flank, took up his twin swords again, and charged back into the enemy ranks.
"Send the exhausted mounts to the rear and deploy the archers!"
"Yes, Patron!"
When Liu Bei came back again, he would bring victory with him. To that end I covered them and supported them and held on to the last, and when the sun finally sank it was Yuan Shu's army that withdrew first.
"The enemy is falling back! The enemy is falling back!"
"Halt the pursuit! Halt the pursuit!"
I took up the drumsticks myself and beat the retreat with all my strength.
We had to cut it off right here. A great army near the Huai was already on the move, and the moment we pushed in too hard we might ride the advantage straight into an encirclement.
"Patron, look! Our men are coming back."
"Hah — thank heaven we didn't go in too deep."
Lu Su looked at me, smiled, and pressed his palms together.
"You are beginning to grow an eye for the battlefield. Had it not been you, I would have been the one to order the pursuit halted!"
He acknowledged me, and I returned the courtesy, and this battle too we carried through to victory.
Then the warriors who had turned the fight, coming back sheathed in blood, dropped from their horses. I brought cool water jars for Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang He, Jian Yong, and the rest, and passed them around. No one waited on rank. They scooped with gourd dippers, gulped the water down, and poured it over their heads, washing away the fatigue of a battle fought from morning to dusk.
"Well fought, all of you. With this, Yuan Shu's army has truly had its momentum broken!"
As Liu Bei praised them, Guan Yu came straight over to me.
"Zhang Qian. Why did you sound the retreat just now?"
"I judged that we must not pursue too deep."
"We had them all but in hand. You cut the moment short too timidly."
"Timid is better — if we remember that we are a small force, not even a quarter of their number."
"Hm. Still, well done. And I am grateful for the troops you fed in when they were needed."
Guan Yu's huge hand came down on my shoulder.
He was unmistakably a staunch ally, and yet on the field he had a way of pushing too far ahead in the heat of a moment. Trust that valor, and he would perform far beyond anything one expected — but someone still had to catch the moment to take profit: to hit, and to stop.
After that, the fighting became a question of which side, once the standoff resumed, restored its losses first.
"Governor Liu, can you prepare like this again tomorrow?"
"My arms and legs ache, but if it means we can win."
"You need not charge in person. Whenever you like, you can simply swing those twin swords at empty air from horseback at the front, as if you mean to charge again at any moment."
"Oh?"
Merely showing that we could charge as we had today and trample Yuan Shu's army underfoot would be enough to drag the enemy into a battle of nerves. Using the commander himself as bait was an immensely dangerous game, but after watching today's fight I was certain it could be done.
Even without Guan Yu or Zhang Fei, Liu Bei was fucking strong.
"Only the feint of an attack? Will they believe that?"
"The rule is to show them the situation and make them believe it. We have to make the enemy flinch first."
"Good. We'll do it that way!"
Liu Bei accepted the request without a fuss, loosening his muscles with the air of a man who meant to show them something proper again tomorrow.
And the next day, he truly did as I had asked. He led the cavalry out and swung his twin swords at empty air.
"Shwik — shwi-shwik — shwik!"
Every time the blades cut nothing, Liu Bei deliberately made the sound with his mouth, provoking them. But against that Liu Bei, Yuan Shu's army did not dare to move. They endured with their shields set to the front.
Our charging power was already far superior, and they knew that every clash kept losing them on the exchange, so they could not step forward lightly.
"A report. Large ships have been sighted near the Huai."
"Ten thousand taels says those aren't reinforcements, but transports carrying troops in retreat."
"Stake it like that, and it isn't a wager at all."
Lu Su laughed — and placed his own stake on the very same thing: a transport fleet meant to withdraw them south of the Huai.
In the end, only time remained. Yuan Shu would be the first to pull his feet from the standoff and retreat. Even if he preserved an army of tens of thousands intact, and the losses were not so very great, a defeat was still a defeat.
"Elder brother, when they board the transports, what if we strike them from behind? I'll go."
"Lord Yunchang, I understand the situation, but right now we must see to our losses at once and go to Xiapi."
"Zijing, you mean we simply let those bastards walk away?"
"Is it not more important to reorganize the army at Xiapi, and after that to watch the fronts at Xiaopei and Mount Tai?"
"Yes. Let us do as Master Zijing says. No reckless pursuit. Stability within comes first."
When Liu Bei mediated, Guan Yu at once set about putting the soldiers in order.
And I made Liu Bei a proposal.
"Governor Liu, Lord Yunchang and I will remain here a short while."
"Hm?"
"Of course we will not force a pursuit of Yuan Shu's army. Starting from You County north of the Huai, we ought to inspect the towns of Huaiyin, Huailing, and the rest, and let the people know that this is the Governor of Xuzhou's land, and that it is safe. Should we not?"
"Ah!"
Liu Bei and Lu Su heard me, and something dawned on them.
"Yunchang — so you will stay with Zhang Qian and show the people north of the Huai that Yuan Shu's sphere of power is no more?"
"I'll stay at once!"
At the word that there was still more he could do by remaining, Guan Yu's mouth stretched to his ears, and he beamed.
The war ended like that.
And now, while settling the aftermath of the country round about with Guan Yu, I also had to sketch the groundwork for a defensive line running from Xiapi across this whole stretch of land.