The Huai River Defense Line
"I asked you because I trust Brother Yunchang more than anyone."
"Heh. You've a good eye for men."
Guan Yu rolled his shoulders and surveyed the country north of the Huai River. He had taken three thousand sound, uninjured soldiers and set them to the cleanup, and the first task was the dead left on the field.
"They'll have to be buried deep. I saw it more than once in Xuzhou—when corpses rot, the foul miasma breeds plague."
"Don't fret. I'm used to the work."
Once a task was in his hands, no one drove himself harder than Guan Yu. He took the headcloth I had given him and bound it tight across his face, covering beard, nose, and mouth alike. Then, setting the Green Dragon Crescent Blade aside, he seized an enormous shovel and began to dig. In a flash he opened a pit far larger than several strong men could have managed together.
"Heap them in and set them alight."
"Yes, Guild Master!"
They stripped the battlefield dead of every scrap of metal, drove the bodies into the pit, and flung in torches. When the fire died they buried the remains under earth at once, and by the time the dead all around had been dealt with in this fashion, the country along the Huai had become one vast cemetery.
"Bury them shallow and the wild dogs and crows will come. We'll see sights no one ought to see."
"A nuisance. But there's no help for it."
After several days of tending the fallen, what remained was to heat water by the Huai, wash, and survey the ground. The river ran through the region, yes—but it was also a flatland of lakes and marsh. Come across by boat, and a straight march inland was easy.
"Raise earthen walls and wooden palisades all along this stretch, and it'll be a massive work."
"I've seen it with my own eyes—where to choke the approaches, and where the ramparts ought to stand."
He studied with particular care the hills where a month of savage fighting had raged, measuring distance with his fingers, and I remembered Zhang Fei's boast that Guan Yu's skill at fortification was second to none. After several days of riding the country and reading the ground anew, I set out with him for Wuyi County.
The people of Wuyi murmured in crowds, and the county magistrate came hurrying out to greet us.
"We welcome the army of the Governor of Xuzhou. The people are truly grateful that you drove out Yuan Shu's men."
"For the next few days I mean to feed the troops and let them rest. Can you manage it?"
"We'll raise barracks at once and prepare food."
"Hm."
Under the magistrate's guidance Guan Yu saw the soldiers settled. I looked over the official lodging assigned to me, then took a light turn around the town.
"That Qin bastard—heaven will punish him."
"Hm?"
A woman's voice, cursing as if possessed, and under it the villagers' whispering.
"Aigoo, there she goes again. A young woman, and so pitiful."
"They say that husband of hers took even the child and set up a new household."
"Where in the world do you find a wretch like that?"
I leaned toward the whispering and saw a woman walking along, muttering blankly to herself. Long, unkempt hair streamed behind her. Her eyes were half-shut, and ruin clung to every line of her face.
"He took the child too, and built a new life in Shouchun—that heaven-cursed Qin... I'll never forgive him..."
A child? Shouchun? A new household? The Qin clan?
The pieces hovered just short of fitting together. While I was still turning them over, someone called from beside me.
"...?"
A beggar in filthy clothes held out a bowl. I tossed him a few wuzhu coins from my breast. He checked the coins clinking in the bowl, smiled faintly, and explained.
"A truly pitiful woman. I don't know her given name—she's a Du, come from Hedong. She set up house with a military officer out of Bing Province."
"A Du?"
Then the Qin of Shouchun... is that Qin Yilu?
"Her former husband was an officer of Xuzhou. He left her pregnant and went off as an envoy to Shouchun, and a year passed without his return. The child had been born by the time he came back. He said he was now a general of the Yuan clan—a house of Three Excellencies for generations—and took the newborn away with him."
"Hah...?"
"They say this Qin, the former husband, had just enough face left to leave a few coins as consolation. But how could that satisfy her? So whenever she hears word of war, she pours out curses like that, praying the man dies on the field."
Having told the tale, the beggar took my money and ran for an eating house. Looking at Lady Du in her ruined state, I felt a sharp pity.
"Haa... her lot is a hard one."
"Guild Master! Guild Master, where are you?"
People were calling me, so I turned toward the sound.
"We pay our respects, Guild Master. We are the merchant association of the Zhang Family Trading Company."
"Where have you come from?"
"You forbade trade with Shouchun, so we've been waiting near the Huai. When we heard you'd come here, we sought you out."
"Ah. Good. You've come at the right time."
I returned under the escort of the merchants who had found me, and found the soldiers hard at work raising the barracks where they would sleep.
"Baekgeum. You're here?"
Guan Yu had stripped to the waist and was moving like a master carpenter. Logs that two other soldiers strained to carry, he bore two at a time, one across each shoulder.
"Weaklings. All of you, stand aside."
He took up a huge mallet and drove a post. It sank deep into the earth as if it would never come out again. The man's physique was in a class of its own.
"Wait a while. We'll eat once this is finished."
At Guan Yu's word I called over the head of the merchant party.
"Guild Master, this humble one is Yang, in charge of the distribution network under Vice Guild Master Su. Please, simply call me Brother Yang."
"Hmm. Brother Yang. What do we have on hand?"
"Oil, cloth, timber, and wheat flour."
"We've three thousand mouths to feed. Where can we get a great deal of meat?"
"The magistrate here is already preparing some, and we've been buying from the nearby villages as well. Chickens and pigs—everything we can lay hands on."
"How many people live in this village?"
"Not even a few hundred, they say."
"Hmm."
Between the villagers' whispering and the defensive base we meant to raise in this region now that Yuan Shu had been driven out, I would have to start thinking about the people's hearts from this moment on.
"Scrape together every cauldron you can find, and the oil we brought—we're not selling it anyway, so spend it generously."
"Guild Master—all of the oil?"
"We'll put a mouthful of rich food in every belly and have them sing the kindness of the Governor of Xuzhou. See to it at once."
"Yes, Guild Master!"
While Yang and the merchants made ready, my eyes drifted of their own accord to Guan Yu. Was it because I had just seen Lady Du? She certainly had looks—but to nurse a grudge that deep...
"Baekgeum, why do you keep looking at me?"
Sensing my gaze, a puzzled Guan Yu came over.
"Watching you take the lead in raising the barracks, I was thinking I'd open the oil today and reward the men with fried food."
"Oho, is that so? You really are a generous friend—nothing you grudge spending."
Guan Yu sat beside me and laughed, broad and open. Looking over the finished barracks, he pointed out several roads under the moonlight in the dark.
"From there to there—and there, in the dark, do you see the lights? Those are the men I sent out on watch."
"Yes, Brother Yunchang."
"When we reach Xiapi I'll report to our elder brother and have earthen walls raised in this area. Wuyi County will be the front line north of the Huai."
"When we go back, I ought to learn something of fortification myself. I've seen how much it matters to seize favorable ground before a fight—and I'll have tools made for standing fieldwork as well."
"A good thought."
Just then the smell of boiling oil rose. When the magistrate's meat was ready and the merchants set the oil seething in the cauldrons, I took a well-dressed raw chicken and scored the skin.
"Dip this in flour loosened with water, work it, then drop it into the boiling oil."
"Yes, Guild Master."
A long hiss—then a furious crackle. Someone let out a startled cry. The soybean crop in Xuzhou had been a tremendous success. We had built presses for it and set up waterwheels by the score to serve as the machines that drew the oil. We boiled that stored oil, dropped in the flour-coated chicken, and fried it until it crackled.
Yes. This was a taste of heaven this age had no business knowing—deep-fried chicken.
"That smell isn't bad. No—it's the best thing I've ever smelled!"
"I've never seen a dish that fries a whole chicken. Pork and seafood, a few times, but this..."
"It'll be the fashion from now on. Once the price of oil settles."
When the skin was crisp we lifted the pieces, let the dripping oil cool, and fried them once more. There were hundreds of chickens, and even now the merchants of our company were plucking, gutting, jointing, and scoring them.
"Come. Let's eat!"
I set out the freshly made deep-fried chicken, and Guan Yu tore into a leg first. Satisfaction settled over his face.
"Thanks to Baekgeum, every one of us gets to eat food fried in oil."
"There's plenty of meat, so eat your fill. After the chicken we'll grind pork, shape it like meatballs, and fry that."
"That'll be a rare delicacy too."
It was a special reward only the soldiers left here after the war would taste. Everyone, without exception, tore into the chicken and sucked the oil from their fingers, and as fresh meat fried in the moment the delicious smell spread across all of Wuyi County.
"Wine—three cups each, no more. Eat, rest, and from tomorrow we scout the surroundings."
"Yes, Commander!"
Guan Yu nodded with a pleased smile, then chewed noisily through a bowl heaped with deep-fried chicken.
"Once we've won the people here over, the fortification has to be finished quickly. We'll be terribly busy after that as well."
"After building along the Huai, what's next? Subduing Lu Bu?"
"That too. But something more important remains. The advance into the Central Plains."
"Oho!"
Guan Yu stroked his beard, eyes gleaming.
"If we go to the Central Plains, the vanguard will of course have to be me."
"It will. We need the bravest general in Xuzhou—and a stout enough heart that he never shrinks, even after seeing Cao Cao's army or the warlords of Guanzhong."
"Put it that way, and I'd better start preparing to take the van!"
I spread my fingers.
"Within a single year. We finish the fortifications, gather the force for the Central Plains, negotiate with Cao Cao's army, and go as far as Sizhou, now a wasteland."
"Good!"
It had been called Sili Province because the capital, Luoyang, lay there. After the capital moved to Chang'an in Guanzhong, it was simply Sizhou. I was tearing into a chicken wing when word came that next they would catch rabbits and fry the meat.
"When you've eaten, be sure to leave the oil in the cauldrons. Cool it. We'll have a use for it tomorrow."
"Yes, Guild Master!"
After the frying feast, I meant to make lye soap. Waste oil, wood-ash lye, roasted salt, and even sandalwood—we had everything we needed. Then Guan Yu rose with what remained of the fried chicken.
"Where are you going?"
"You said there was enough to feed the village folk as well, didn't you? Sharing meat and wine with the people here seems a fine thing."
"Ah! A good thought. The people of Wuyi ought to catch the smell of meat at least once."
He went out with an easy face and shared the fried chicken with those who had already gathered in twos and threes, drawn by the smell. Seeing what he did, several officers who had been tearing into chicken got up at once, filled bowls of their own, and went out to hand them around. Guan Yu could be blunt, even reckless—but that he looked after his own and was kind to the common folk, I had to grant.
When he came back he brought armfuls of bok choy, radish, scallions, and eggplant.
"The people here are very kind. I shared the fried chicken, and look what they gave me in return."
"Perfect. We'll fry these too."
I handed the vegetables to the merchants and set the next dish in motion.
"Slice these thin and fry them in the flour batter. Mind the salt."
"Yes, Guild Master!"
A frying feast, late at night, with everyone eating together. Thanks to it every face was full of smiles, and laughter rang out on every side. And late that night, walking the street where all of them were making merry...
"Hah. Your hometown is Hedong? Then you're from the same country as I am."
"My husband... no. The man who took my son, that Qin—he's from Bing Province. He went under that Yuan Shu creature, set up a new household, and lives in grand style."
"A thorough wretch. Threw away his lawful wife and abandoned Xuzhou, all to rise in the world?"
What is this?
Under the moonlight, Guan Yu seated on a log—and that ruined widow, Lady Du, whom I had seen earlier. And while he shared the fried food, he was listening to her troubles.
"My lord! I don't know how I'm to live from now on. Sob—"
"Ah—ah, now, don't do that. How can a woman... ahem!"
...Well. I'd best leave them to it.
"You failed?"
"I am ashamed, my lord. I never thought Liu Bei's Xuzhou would make its rear so solid."
Cao Cao, face indifferent, flung aside the bamboo-slip report.
"Just as Wenruo said. Still, we did take a jab at them, and this is how it went. Damned Xuzhou bastards!"
Before the irritated Cao Cao, the strategist who had planned it, Cheng Yu, flung himself flat and begged pardon.
"I have no face to show you. My lord, Li Tong of Xiaopei..."
"Bring him back in. A man who lost his own base anyway, and lost his private troops to Lu Bu besides. Still, there'll be some use for him."
"Understood."
When Liu Bei fought Yuan Shu, the mysterious army that raided Xiaopei had been the minor warlords of Runan—Cao Cao's unseen hand reaching through them. Beaten by Lu Bu and stripped of their strongholds, they had begged to be taken in. He had promised to use them well if they took Xiaopei. They had failed, but he had meant to keep them anyway. When Liu Bei would realize it, none of them could say. Between Yanzhou and Xuzhou, the chill still held.