The Taking of Shuchun: Aid Not from Heaven, but from Zhang Baijin

Liu Bei's grain had run out, and he slaughtered even his own horse to feed the men.

Blood and bone boiled thick together in the cauldron, and the stench of it was foul, yet not a single soldier so much as frowned. They stretched what little rice remained into the richest porridge they could manage, and ladled out soup of horseflesh to go with it.

"What is this? There's no meat — nothing but clots of blood!"

"Ah, quit your grumbling. Don't you know this came from the Left General's own horse?"

"Even so, they ought to give us at least one lump the size of a finger!"

They were still portioning it out, too little to go around and the men muttering over it, when a bowl thrust suddenly into view.

"Here. Eat this."

"Ah — aah! The Left General!"

"Left General!"

Liu Bei himself held out to that very grumbler a bowl of soup heaped generously with meat.

"Eat. Horse meat only tastes the way it ought at a time like this."

"I couldn't, my lord. How could this humble one dare?"

"Just eat. If we're to take a city, a man needs meat solid in his belly."

He traded his own bowl for the soldier's and drank the rank horse broth down in long gulps. Then he wiped his mouth clean, nodded with a good-natured smile, and strolled off, waving a hand as he went. And truly — what soldier, with a general like that before him, would fail to follow?

He savored the way the men's spirits rose with every step, and went into the tent.

Zhang Fei, Lu Su, Hao Zhao, Zhao Yun, Jian Yong, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and the others, who had been eating the horse soup, shot to their feet. Liu Bei waved them back to their meal.

"Master Zijing. If we hold this morale and charge the instant the rain stops, what chance do we have?"

"The question is when the rain will stop. If we are unlucky, the spirit we have raised with such care may ebb away little by little, and all because of the weather."

"Big brother, how about we just punch straight through the rain?"

Unable to bear it any longer, Zhang Fei sprang up at once.

"Yide. I know your heart."

"No — we just sit here gawkin' at the rain and we've truly got nothin', ain't that so? You've already hauled their spirits up this high, so let's drive through the rain and climb them walls!"

"Gentleman Zhang, I understand how you feel, but do that and the men's feet will sink into the marsh before they ever reach the walls of Shuchun, and they'll be nothing but food for arrows."

"So big brother went and slaughtered his own horse, and you're tellin' us to wait anyhow?"

In the end they had scraped together a stopgap. And once again, the weather was the guilty party.

Xudu.

I finished the day's work, came back, and called in Zhuge Liang and Cai Yan together. Cai Yan was one of the household now, and as the daughter of the great scholar Master Cai Yong, guests from many illustrious families would come to the wedding. Of course, from her father's calligraphy — Master Cai Bojie's own hand — down to his collected poems and prose, all of it would become assets of the house.

"Is it because the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wedding day is set? Seeing the two of you like this, you truly are a well-matched pair."

"Thank you, brother-in-law."

Zhuge Liang stood proud and easy. Cai Yan flushed and could hardly lift her face. Looking on that fine young man and that fair young woman, I drew out what I had kept in my breast and held it toward them.

"What is this?"

"I mean to send you on a honeymoon."

"Brother-in-law, how could you — and in times as perilous as these?"

"Which is exactly why you ought to go out and broaden what you've seen. Go to Jingzhou."

"—!"

Zhuge Liang had not yet entered official service, and as my kinsman he could still come and go as he pleased. The daughter of the Cai clan, a house for which Cao Cao himself stood surety, would be fastened close at his side. And last of all, I meant to pin on him a proper escort — regular soldiers of the Han army, and plenty of them.

"May I... know the reason?"

"Jingzhou is full of talent. And there are many great scholars there the equal of Master Chen. So I spoke with him. I asked what Kongming must do if he is to become a minister of true ability, and make his name known throughout the realm."

"M-Master said that?"

"He did. He wrote a letter of recommendation, and he told you to seek out the alliance of powerful clans gathered around Inspector Liu Biao — the Eight Worthies of Jiangxia — and to meet masters such as Song Zhong and Sima Hui."

Hearing it, Zhuge Liang could not bring himself to go on. Beside him, his bride-to-be Cai Yan quietly soothed her husband and gave a small nod.

"How could Master have..."

"However learned a man may be, if he takes in the teaching of only one person, he can grow narrow before he knows it. So seek more teachers. Study further. And make still more of your talent known beneath heaven."

Neither of them spoke.

"Yes. Those are the words of your teacher, Master Chen Yuanfang."

Zhuge Liang could not lift his head. He trembled. When Cai Yan quietly drew him into her arms, I said one last thing.

"Marry. Meet the many scholars of Jingzhou, and among them there will be those who follow you. Then go to Xuzhou."

When Zhuge Liang said nothing, Cai Yan asked in his place.

"I will convey it to the man who is to be my husband, so may I know the reason?"

"Kongming's homeland is Xuzhou. Take all those men to the Kingdom of Langya in Xuzhou, lodge them in Kongming's clan village, and bring that place back to life."

In other words — the talents scraped together out of Jingzhou were never to be brought to Xudu and the court. Make of Xuzhou a jewel box, and keep them safe inside it.

With that said, I left the room.

I let out one long breath, and went to the house where Master Chen Ji was staying. He had grown quite frail of late and was being tended by his son, but when I arrived he smiled wide and served tea.

"And who is this, if not the Palace Assistant Imperial Clerk who so kindly matched my disciple with a bride of peerless beauty?"

"I conveyed even your wishes, Master."

"Heh heh heh. Yes. You did very well indeed."

Chen Ji, his body far more wasted than the last time I had seen him, patted himself here and there.

"The day after tomorrow I turn seventy. I daresay I have lived about as much as a man ought. Kongming must meet still greater teachers hereafter, and unfold his purpose. That child will, without fail, become a pillar of the Han."

His resolute eyes were the one place in that old, failing body where a keen light still flashed.

"Baijin, you mark this as well. Do not grieve that Cao Cao's power runs strong for the present, nor that he snatches away even the talents you yourself covet. A hegemon who rises by the sword and the army will, in the end, scatter by his own destruction."

"I will take it to heart. And take it to heart again."

I laid his words away, and made one request more.

"When this war is over, may I send your son out to a post in the provinces?"

"To Shuchun, you mean?"

Chen Ji nodded, as if he had known it all from the start.

"That child falls short as a commander, but he is able at enforcing the law and at administration, so do as you propose. Let him serve well as a local official, and afterward he may unfold a great purpose in the central court."

Chen Qun, too, would be out of Xudu for a time. And so, against the day when Cao Cao drew the center into his grasp, I resolved to set my pieces one by one — a deployment of talent enough to ring Yuzhou and Yanzhou.

"Big brother, come out and see!"

"No need. I've come."

Zhang Fei was still shouting in a rush when the man simply followed him into the tent.

"What — Lord Su!"

"Su Shuang, Gentleman of the Household in the Ministry of the Treasury. I was seeing to tribute for His Majesty the Emperor when I heard how things stood, and so I came."

With the taking of Shuchun hanging in the balance, Su Shuang had come before a great army of forty thousand that was truly about to starve. Nor had he come empty-handed. He brought a heavy chest, and inside it lay seaweed and kelp, dried clams and dried anchovies.

"It is not the harvest, and with the tax troubles in the provinces I could not lay in grain enough to be easy about it. In its place I prepared a great store of Xuzhou's dried seafood. Used sparingly, it will see you through ten days."

"Lord Su!"

Liu Bei seized Su Shuang's hands and poured out a gratitude that had no end.

"You are truly a man sent down by Heaven."

"Not Heaven. That brother-in-law of mine sent me."

"Wh-what?!"

"Out of the blue, the fellow tells me to catch a whale in the East Sea of Xuzhou and present it to His Majesty as treasure. Thanks to that I was made a Gentleman of the Household, and I had a miserable time of it, hunting down word of a whale taken off the eastern coast."

I had tacked a pretext onto the errand and sent Su Shuang to Xuzhou, and once he heard news of Liu Bei there, I had him come straight down. From Xuzhou to Shuchun is no long road.

Liu Bei had camp rations prepared at once, and the next day, the moment the sky cleared, the assault on Shuchun began.

Shrring—

"Officers and men, hear me!"

Liu Bei stood not in the saddle but on the bare earth, like any foot soldier, and drew his twin swords.

"From this moment I strike Shuchun, and I will be the first man up that wall!"

Thud.

He flung one of the two swords and drove it into the ground.

"Waaaaaaah!"

Liu Bei's army charged on foot, the general running in the ranks beside his men. Not one of them thought of falling back. Each had become a warrior worth a hundred, and they went in with a morale tipped clean into madness.

The Shuchun troops of the self-proclaimed emperor Yuan Shu shot their arrows in desperation and tumbled ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stones down the face, but Liu Bei was first across the moat, and he set his hand to the thick wall.

"I gave my word! That I would be first onto the wall!"

"Big brother! That's dangerou— aagh!"

The moment Liu Bei began to climb, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun scrambled up after him. A great jar of oil came plunging toward Liu Bei's head. The two of them ripped their spears free and struck the falling jar aside.

Crash!

They had knocked the mass of oil away in their lord's place. Then they set their hands to Liu Bei's back, heaved him upward, and climbed with him.

"Big brother, since it's come to this, I'll just go clear to the watchtower and cut their commander down!"

"My lord, I will hold the front. Keep to my side!"

"We climb together! And we take him — their commander!"

Lu Su, Hao Zhao, and Tian Yu held the command in the rear, so there was nothing to keep Liu Bei from the very point of the van.

The second year of Jian'an.

At last Liu Bei routed Yuan Shu and took the city of Shuchun itself.

Yuan Shu hastily gathered his household and fled to Yangzhou, and the imperial palace he had raised in Shuchun, together with the enormous power of the Huainan army, fell entire into Liu Bei's hands.

While they were setting the aftermath in order, Cao Cao's grain arrived at last. Man Chong, who had stirred up trouble in Xudu, came with Xiahou Yuan, hauling military rice to the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠relief of Shuchun.

Liu Bei gladly filled his soldiers' bellies with that grain, and just as gladly shared what remained with the people of Shuchun, whom Yuan Shu had bled dry.

It was the moment the fame of Left General Liu Bei spread beyond Xuzhou and Yuzhou, all the way into the south.