To Survive Lu Bu Is to Grow Stronger
"The palisade has been restored."
"No. This isn't it."
"!?"
They had hauled the palisade Lu Bu had smashed at the front back upright and nailed it into place, but it still didn't sit right with me.
"The armor and helmets stripped off the enemy after the dead were cleared!"
"Yes. We've piled them all together."
"Bring them."
At my order the officers ran and came back grunting under sacks stuffed full of iron. I looked the lot over, had a pole raised and nailed fast, then climbed the footing and hung scraps of helmet and armor from it.
"The first time Lu Bu came in, he jumped this on horseback. So what do we do? We build the palisade higher."
I meant to stack it up, raise it on all four sides, and turn the whole place into a fortress. Whatever tools that took, we would use every one of them.
"Pack earth along the base so it stands firmer, and lay the caltrops again — not outside. Inside the palisade."
"Yes, Imperial Censor!"
"The moment a horse clears the wall and its hooves touch down, it steps on caltrops and goes mad."
Traps had to be laid in layers. A position broken once must never be broken again.
"A fortress you're raising again, against a charge?"
"That's right."
Hao Zhao studied the palisade line I had built and spoke quietly.
"Cavalry will have a hard time smashing into this a second time. Raised like so, it will never come down the way it did in the last collision."
It was a satisfaction to hear it from Hao Zhao of all men — someone with real authority on fortification and the defense of a camp, not just anyone.
"There is one thing that worries me, though."
"What?"
"Built this high, the enemy could throw oil jars and set it alight."
The higher and sturdier we raised it, the better it would stop cavalry and siege engines. But what if they loosed fire arrows from a distance? That was the question Hao Zhao was asking, and it was a heavy one. It cut to the heart of the matter. Even so, I could not tear this down.
"A good question. But does the oil to burn all of this fall out of the sky? Fish oil alone would take two thousand dou."
"The enemy will surely send reinforcements from Yueyang and Anfeng in the rear and strike this place again."
"Right. With Lu Bu here, we're effectively the ones facing their main body. But if they pour oil and men and supplies into taking this one spot..."
"You're calculating that Anyang Castle and Baoxin County will be left thin, and fall first?"
"Exactly."
It was possible. It was also quite possible they would do no such thing. Chen Gong in the rear, or some other strategist at Lu Bu's side, might look at the new camp we had raised and try to burn us out with fire arrows. But I was willing to bet against it.
"Still, I can't ignore what Officer Hao has said. Hear my order! Against a fire attack, prepare fire wards of dry sand beside every stretch of palisade, and pick out the men from Yuzhou to learn the weather in this country."
"Yes, Imperial Censor!"
Then I caught Hao Zhao.
"Aside from fire, find me every weakness in this camp, one by one. We'll need the answers on the spot."
"May I speak of all of them?"
"As many as you like!"
At times like this, Hao Zhao was an extraordinarily useful man. If we held this ground the way a tank holds a line, Liu Bei's battle and Cao Cao's would be decided all the sooner — and Chen Deng, Zang Ba, Xu Sheng, Bu Zhi, and Zhuge Jin, still raising troops in Xuzhou, could look at the situation and send reinforcements down after us.
Meanwhile Wei Xu, sent in haste on Lu Bu's order, reached Yiyang Castle in the rear and reported to Chen Gong, the military advisor with overall charge there.
"What? So he wants another ten thousand men sent on to Xinxi?"
"Yes. Every hour counts, and General Lu says he will strike in person."
"Aigoo, Fengxian! You mean to drive every elite I've carefully raised into one place and grind them to nothing? And then you ask me for still more men to throw in after them?"
Chen Gong could see the shape of it without looking. Grinding his teeth, he studied the ground around Xinxi County on the map. A few low hills. If they had camped along this stretch and drawn the fight out in front of the position, there was only one answer.
"Send oil, and a company of archers. Tell them not to charge the place at once. Loose fire arrows from a distance, burn the fort first, and only then go in."
"I... I must beg only for cavalry and elite soldiers."
"Take them like that and they'll all be smashed in. That won't do. You have to think about how to actually win!"
Wei Xu looked ready to weep.
"The truth is... some of us already proposed fighting from a distance, with oil jars and fire arrows. Several were beaten with a horsewhip in General Lu's rage!"
"You... what?"
"General Lu said he would crush the enemy with his own eyes, right in front of him. He wants only warhorses and foot. If I bring any other kind of force, he said he would take this officer's head!"
Wei Xu's own neck was hanging by a thread, and at those words Chen Gong lost the ones he had meant to say.
"He would take your head for that? War exists so that you win it — not so you can start one to vent your spleen!"
"Please, look at the spot I'm in! I'll stake my life, catch those men, and take the road that wins!"
Chen Gong wanted to ride up at once, seize Lu Bu by the collar, and scream at him whether he meant to ruin everything. That Deputy Gao, the Danyang country lout, had sworn he would keep Lu Bu in hand somehow. In the end the man was useless.
"Fine. I'll send the troops. But I'm sending oil and arrows as well, so speak plainly about a fire attack. If that fails, tell the Danyang bumpkin first."
"You mean Deputy Commander Gao Shun?"
"He's the one who always swore he would stake his life before General Lu. If he wants to watch his own lord smash everything to pieces, tell him to go and burn the enemy camp first."
Their relations were hardly warm, but as a killer the man was usable enough. And if the fire attack succeeded and drove that camp back, Lu Bu — a creature of moods — might land a few blows and let it pass. At worst, Chen Gong reckoned, there would not be a second thrashing.
He handed Wei Xu the elite of the Yiyang army, precious as his own blood, and the man at once led them toward Xinxi. As they turned to go, Chen Gong clutched his head.
"Cao Cao alone is more than enough to handle, and now Liu Bei comes down with him... Liu Bei, that thick-faced man! He watched what happened in Xuzhou with his own eyes, and still he crawls under that Cao Cao and plays swordsman for him?"
Even remembering Mount Tai and Xiaopei, he had never truly believed the two of them would join hands and come all this way to punish him. Since they had driven off Xiahou Dun the last time, he had to face more than twice the weight of men alone, and it felt as if his skull would split.
"Imperial Censor."
"Officer Hao, is it?"
I was reading the Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals and Master Wu's Art of War, brought in from the field, when Hao Zhao entered. If Wang Ling's way was to pick at every scrap of war and write each thing down until he had it, Hao Zhao was the sort who reported whatever he had learned to me without a moment's hesitation.
"Well? Have we prepared properly against a fire attack?"
"From tomorrow, I don't think we'll need to worry about that."
"Rain coming, then?"
"Yes. They say it will pour, and hard, across three watches."
"I thought as much."
"!?"
It was not only the fighting. The air over Yuzhou hung strangely heavy and damp, more cloud than sun. And Yuzhou, together with Jingzhou, was notorious for its rain — famous as fertile country where the water beat hard on the plains and the crops grew well.
"Did you know the rain was coming, and so choose not to prepare against fire?"
"Of course. I know everything, so — is what I'd like to say. No. Looking at the air these past days, I only wondered whether a downpour might be due."
Hao Zhao's brow shifted for a moment. Then he sat quietly in front of me.
"Even so, I'm fortunate to have a staff officer who can advise me on fire attacks. When this war is over, I'll speak to the Imperial Uncle and see that you get a larger field to fight on."
"I have one doubt. You provoked Lu Bu so recklessly that the commander was truly in danger. He has only just withdrawn, and he must still be furious to the crown of his head."
"Right. So rather than something refined like a fire attack, he'll come crashing in blindly one more time. Between spreading ourselves and concentrating, I chose to raise more palisade and put everything into stopping a frontal charge."
"And if he truly tried a fire attack, what did you mean to do?"
"He can't. No — with Lu Bu's temperament, he absolutely won't."
This was a bluff, fought on my read of the man. He would never stoop to a long-range trick like a fire attack. He would charge once more, take my head, and grind it under a hoof. If he were a man who thought, would he have come in last time with Zhang Miao out in front, killed him before everyone's eyes, and stripped the wealth off him? Would he have joined hands with Yuan Shu, pounded the lands of Chen and Yang, and hired himself out as the blade that struck even the imperial house? It was a bluff made because I knew Lu Bu. He would come straight on. He had to.
And the next morning a few drops fell, and then a great rain came down. The old Yuzhou soldiers who had read the weather pounded their arms, their legs, and their backs in triumph. When the war ended, I would have to find them a bounty of their own.
A few days later.
The ground was still sodden, the palisade heavy with water, when Lu Bu led his reinforcements in and charged again.
"The enemy is coming! Prepare to meet them!"
I had barely managed to pull free the sword Lu Bu had thrown to kill me the last time, and now I used it to command.
"Archers, forward! Loose, then trade places with the long-spear men!"
We drew the defense into orthodox order, and Zhao Yun took his place at my side.
"This time, whatever happens, I will remain at the Imperial Censor's side."
"Lu Bu will not get this far again."
"Even so, my orders are to secure the Imperial Censor's safety, come what may."
He stood calm with a new spear in his hand, and there was no denying the steadiness of him.
At last Lu Bu trampled through the mud and charged once more, meaning again to vault a palisade that stood higher than he had expected.
Hiiii-hiiing—
"Aaaagh! Wh-what is this?"
Once again the cavalry tried to jump the wall on horseback, but iron plate met a horse's head or its legs, and there was a wet, grinding crunch. In an instant the riders were flung like stones from a catapult and tumbled, bare of their mounts, in front of our line.
The first charge failed. Lu Bu tried to smash the palisade by raw strength and drive through, shoving his soldiers harder still. We answered at point-blank range, loosing arrows and sending the long spears forward to keep them from climbing. The press locked even, and the fight broke into a melee. Zhao Yun shouted.
"Imperial Censor — both wings!"
We had raised the fortress walls solidly on all four sides, but cavalry was coming along the flanks, hunting for a weak place.
Whirrrrr— crash!
Like boys swinging fire-pots at the new year, they slung jars on cords and burst them against the palisade. A raw stink of oil surged up. They were attempting a fire attack after all. Against a wet palisade.
"Imperial Censor!"
"Hao Zhao! Wang Ling! What we prepared!"
They tried everything to strike a flame and raise a fire, but the wind would not rise. A bout of rain had left the ground sodden and the palisade gorged with water, and still they sprayed their oil and set light to it. Then Hao Zhao brought out what I had ordered: sand prepared as a fire ward. It, too, was heavy with water. Wang Ling packed handfuls of that wet sand into foot-wraps, whirled them, and wherever an ember showed he beat it like a mace.
Smack— smack— splaaash—
The wet blackjacks made of foot-wraps killed sparks that had barely caught.
"How does one even invent a thing like that..."
"Zilong, it'll be a fine tool later, for putting out the last of a fire."
Compared with the first battle, there was real room to breathe. Lu Bu's men wedged in by brute force, trying to break the wall, only to take arrows, step on the caltrops underfoot, and die as living targets. Lu Bu howled and beat the palisade apart with the Sky-Piercing Halberd, but dozens of layers of it were laid down. If he was the finest warrior under heaven, he was welcome to smash every last stake himself.
"Break through! Those rat-whelps are sitting safe and sound in there!"
I was about to put the finish on the ten thousand of Lu Bu's army who could not force their way in.
Bwooo— bwooo— bwooooooo—
"Hm?"
A horn was sounding from somewhere. I turned my head that way. There a giant of a general, huge in the saddle, flashed a serpent spear.
"Reinforcements?!"
"Imperial Censor, that is Brother Yide... no. Gentleman Zhang!"
It was Zhang Fei's army. Don't tell me he's already cleared the town of Anyang and come to help us. Does he know Lu Bu is here? Far off, his men blew the march and came running.
With a shout that shook heaven and earth, he swung the Serpent Spear and came charging at Lu Bu, who was still beating on our fortress. Welcome, and sudden — the support of Zhang Fei's army. They charged Lu Bu without a moment's hesitation. Lu Bu, as if he had never expected Zhang Fei to burst in, left off hammering the palisade, took up the Sky-Piercing Halberd, and rushed him.
KRAAANG!
Their weapons met in a crash. Zhang Fei rolled his eyes wide and fixed them on Lu Bu.
"You slave-born wretch with your three cities! Long time no see, and the strength's still in you!"
"You, in this place too? Rrrgh! You think this Lu Fengxian falls here?"
In that moment I made my decision.
"Open the fortress gates! All of you, out, and meet the enemy! From this moment we surround them together with Gentleman Zhang's army and take them!"
I staked everything on it and closed the ring around Lu Bu's men at once. A melee of spears and blades — and then the plain matters of numbers, morale, and exhaustion. In the end Lu Bu failed to break through here in the second battle as well, and before he lost his reinforcements too, he slipped out of Xinxi.
Resistance was fierce to the last. But the moment had come to drive Lu Bu's army, its momentum already broken, all the way back to Anping and Yiyang.