Chapter 484: Shifting Affairs, Viewed in Quiet Contemplation

From late June to mid-July, the entire Guandu area was a scene of massive construction. The fighting soldiers, support troops, and civilian laborers of both sides essentially spent this summer amid civil engineering projects and scattered skirmishes.

The first to act was naturally Gongsun Xun. Once he realized that Cao Cao was making a strategic withdrawal and that a standoff at Guandu was unavoidable, he immediately mobilized the Sizhou troops, advanced forward into the Guandu region, and, in order to counter the enemy's permanent fortifications, adopted Cheng Pu's strategy — that is, building linked camps forward, attempting to press directly toward the enemy's main camp.

However, this strategy in turn alerted Cao Cao, who also immediately began large-scale construction, starting from the foundation of his original four forward camps and building linked camps to counter linked camps.

Yet, though both were building linked camps, there was one exceptionally striking difference: the Yan army's linked camps ran north to south, pushing continuously forward from their own established main camp toward the enemy camp ahead, with the goal of extending their works right up to the enemy's camp gates, thereby attacking the Cao army's main camp on a basis that erased the fortification disparity — they were vertical. Cao Cao's linked camps, on the other hand, ran left to right; his encampment kept extending laterally, as if he intended to build a simplified version of an inner Great Wall across Guandu — they were horizontal.

Objectively speaking, this was a response that could be called a stroke of genius, because such linked camps could greatly compress the tactical maneuver space of the Hebei cavalry in the Guandu region. In fact, if Cao Mengde truly managed to create an inner Great Wall that completely sealed off the Guandu region, it was genuinely possible — and extremely cost-effective.

Because this could completely sever the Yan army's cavalry advantage, thereby freeing up the reserve troops in the cities behind the Cao army that were tied down guarding against cavalry.

Think about it: from the mountainous area in the west to the Bian River in the east, isn't the distance only a few dozen li wide? If a Great Wall could be built, why couldn't a simple long camp be built? Under the current circumstances, was it Cao Cao who lacked the manpower and resources, or was it Gongsun Xun who lacked them?

In reality, once Cao Mengde came to his senses, while continuously mobilizing and organizing civilian laborers to build camps, he was also laying down, at an even faster pace, a simple cavalry defense line on the flanking corridors, consisting mainly of wooden palisades, chevaux-de-frise, and watchtowers. The main fighting erupted at these construction points, as well as near the more distant sources of construction materials, such as forests, mountainous areas, and sandbanks.

Over several dozen days, all kinds of scattered skirmishes broke out everywhere. The two sides traded blows back and forth, the fighting fragmented and incessant.

The lower-ranking officers, soldiers, and civilian laborers were naturally driven to exhaustion by this fortification contest, but for the commanders-in-chief on both sides, these details were not necessarily a concern.

In fact, from Gongsun Xun's perspective, these confrontations and the progress of the fortifications only indicated one thing: that Cao Cao had not lost his composure because of the previous battle, but had instead rallied once more.

That was all.

And these days, Gongsun Xun's mind was not on Guandu at all, but rather on three matters outside the Guandu battlefield.

First, where should the remaining Guanxi troops be deployed? Should they march directly out of Wuguan, and then have Zhao Yun advance east from Hanzhong along the Han River, joining forces to attack Nanyang? Or should they march out of Luhun Pass into the Ru River, attempting to strike at Yingchuan's rear? Or should they simply be brought to Guandu, or even handed over to Lou Gui?

Second, should he increase Guan Yu's forces? If so, by how much? And when? After all, he had to be extremely cautious about Zhou Gongjin; even though Guo Jia had been dispatched, Gongsun Xun still felt somewhat uneasy.

Third, how should he handle those letters from Nanyang, Yingchuan, and even Nan Commandery? Indeed, after the Battle of Guandu, the capitulationist faction in the Central Plains had begun to surface in large numbers.

Come to think of it, before the Battle of Guandu, although Hebei appeared stronger, on paper, Cao Cao, with the support of Liu Biao, Liu Bei, Sun Ce, Lu Bu, and even the young Son of Heaven, did not seem inferior to Gongsun Xun. And it was precisely this paper strength that these fence-sitters, or capitulationists, used as the basis for their judgments.

But the impact of the Battle of Guandu was absolutely profound, because this encounter battle was so intense, so direct, that its outcome and significance far exceeded the battlefield itself. First, it proved that Gongsun Xun's Hebei army, or Yan army, was indeed as formidable as rumored. Second, it proved that Gongsun Xun and the Yan army, despite holding the advantage, had not fallen into arrogance — this Lord of Yan was still the same General of the Guard of old, and this Yan army was still the same northern powerhouse that had swept across half the realm.

And if the stronger side was also the side more willing and able to fight, then the direction of the war seemed all the more unmistakable.

Coupled with Cao Cao voluntarily abandoning nearly two hundred li of strategic depth, leaving the Central Plains heartlands of Yingchuan, Nanyang, Chen Commandery, and Liang State directly exposed to Gongsun Xun's military edge, it naturally shook those fence-sitters even more.

In fact, while the two armies were competing in camp construction at Guandu, these days, not only did Gongsun Xun receive a multitude of chaotic letters, but several rebellions attempting to coordinate with Gongsun Xun even erupted behind Cao Cao's lines. None were large in scale, and the rebels were mostly minor local strongmen and the like, all of whom were basically crushed by Sun Ce and Lu Su with a single finger.

But without a doubt, this was a sign, and it could also evolve into a tactical option for the Yan army.

Gongsun Xun naturally pondered this.

"In my humble opinion, Your Highness is overthinking this," Jia Xu said with a chuckle after briefly glancing through a few letters in the central army tent, which had already been upgraded to a timber-framed structure. "The letters are indeed genuine, and these people do harbor intentions of switching allegiances, but they are not necessarily useful for the overall situation."

"What do you mean?" Gongsun Xun asked, momentarily curious. On matters of the human heart, he had always deferred to Jia Wenhe, just as on the battlefield, where countless contingencies arose, he deferred only to Xun Gongda.

"I would instead ask Your Highness, why do you have misgivings about these letters?" Jia Xu countered with a serious expression.

"I simply feel that, from the time I rebuked the realm in Weiyang Palace onward, all my actions have essentially been about suppressing the powerful and the great clans. The new policies I've implemented over the years — land surveys, the tithing system, the imperial examinations — are fundamentally still about suppressing them. As for Cao Mengde, although he has done well, his intensity is clearly less than mine. And since these people are fence-sitters, they are mostly selfish and unprincipled sorts. Shouldn't selfish people view me as an enemy compared to Cao Mengde? Why are they instead preparing to defect to me one after another?" Gongsun Xun's gaze swept over the busy staff officers in the spacious military tent, his tone unusually sincere.

"That is precisely why I say Your Highness is overthinking," Jia Xu laughed again. "Or rather, being in a high position, one cannot help but grow suspicious. Actually, please consider the opposite, Your Highness: since these people are committing the act of betraying their lord on the eve of battle, then as you just said, they are mostly unprincipled and selfish sorts. But unprincipled and selfish people are often also people without foresight. Such people are destined to see only the immediate gains and losses before their eyes; how could they possibly possess the ability to see through institutions? So in their eyes, they will only hate Cao Mengde to the bone because he surveyed their land, but they will not hate you, my lord, for doing it even more thoroughly in Hebei — because when you surveyed land in Hebei, you did not survey the land of these Central Plains strongmen!"

Gongsun Xun was momentarily dazed. "Put that way, I was indeed fixating on a moot point. However, I also understand why Wenhe says they are useless. Such people, lacking both vision and virtue, rise up when they see weakness and are crushed when they meet strength — how can they be relied upon in war? But Wenhe, if these vulgar and reckless sorts are destined to be incompetent, who then will be the ultimate obstacle to my new policies? You must understand, in this life, I now have only two modest aspirations: one is to once more pacify the four seas and reunite the realm; the other is to establish a new system, a new governance, to replace the old Qin-Han institutions — not expecting it to last for a thousand autumns or ten thousand generations, but able to withstand the erosion of two or three hundred years. That is all."

Jia Xu stroked his beard and smiled, saying nothing.

Gongsun Xun suddenly understood and also smiled.

After the lord and minister had finished laughing, Gongsun Xun waved his hand to summon several of his personal attendants, who had long been stunned speechless by the conversation. "Find a messenger and deliver all these letters to Cao Cao."

The men had just bowed in acknowledgment and were about to step forward to collect the letters from the table when Gongsun Xun suddenly changed his order. "Forget it. Sort through them and see if any involve people connected to high-ranking officers in the Cao army; set those aside briefly. Take all the rest out and burn them. From now on, whenever such letters arrive, unless they involve someone of exceptional importance, handle them all in this manner."

Led by Wang Ling, who had only recently regained mobility, the personal attendants bowed again in assent and took the pile of letters out of the tent to dispose of them.

Gongsun Xun and Jia Xu watched them leave together, remaining silent for a long while.

"In truth, Your Highness's question today and your earlier misgivings about Guanxi and Qingzhou are, in my view, one and the same matter," Jia Wenhe finally spoke again after a long pause. "It is that Your Highness, seeing Cao Mengde's army at Guandu adopting the stance of a cornered force, and seeing him determined to build hard fortifications and fight a dull, grinding war, understands in your heart that it will likely be difficult to make progress here at Guandu in the short term, and so you harbor thoughts of opening new battlefields."

"Correct," Gongsun Xun admitted frankly. "Wenhe has hit the mark with one arrow. It is precisely because I see that this linked-camp dynamic between the two sides is truly troublesome and utterly without flaw that I feel momentarily helpless. I won't hide it from Wenhe: I can already envision how the fighting will proceed from here — nothing more than arrow towers, earthen mounds, deploying trebuchets, tunnels — time-consuming and labor-intensive, yet unlikely to achieve decisive results."

Jia Xu stroked his beard and smiled again upon hearing this. "Earlier, my lord also asked Gongda about the wind direction — could it be that you were still considering a fire attack?"

"Indeed!" Gongsun Xun remained candid. "But I am also a man of many years of military experience. As soon as I asked, I immediately realized the truth: as long as the camp is strictly managed, with open gaps maintained, kept far from trees and wooded hills, with a well every hundred paces and a water jar every ten paces, whether for the enemy or for us, where would the opportunity for a fire attack arise? Ultimately, such a stratagem can only succeed when one side grows lax. But once one side grows lax, what stratagem couldn't succeed? At that point, a fire attack becomes irrelevant."

"Therefore, my lord," Jia Wenhe suddenly said with a serious expression, "this battle lies right here. My opinion remains the same as before: my lord is more skilled in warfare than Cao Cao, and Hebei has a stronger foundation than the Central Plains. As long as we persist without slackening, the first to be unable to hold out will inevitably be the southern army. Why rush to force a result? As for whether to open new battlefields, I believe my lord should not be overly impatient, but should instead guide events according to circumstances. Wait until the eastern front, the western front, or even Guandu itself reveals a flaw, and then make a decision — rather than forcibly committing troops while the Cao army still possesses the spirit of a cornered force, which could risk a setback or defeat."

"I already understand Wenhe's meaning!" Gongsun Xun let out a long sigh. "You want me to guard against arrogance and impatience, to calm my mind and await the opportune moment for battle, correct? Rest assured, since Wenhe has already analyzed things so thoroughly for me, I will no longer rush to force a result. Otherwise, a setback in the war would be one thing, but my two modest aspirations — I absolutely will not permit them to shatter here."

Jia Xu rose, bowed, and acknowledged this.

Having reached an agreement, lord and minister said no more, each departing to attend to their duties. Jia Wenhe, as one of the two military strategists accompanying the army, was effectively Gongsun Xun's deputy, with his own work and his own small camp, so he naturally had to leave. As he walked out the door, he saw the two central-army-tent orderlies responsible for burning the letters — who were none other than that Thousand-Dan Major of the southern army who had defected on the verge of battle, and his young brother-in-law. Jia Xu smiled faintly, clasped his hands behind his back, and strolled away.

However, as the saying goes, the affairs of the world are hard to predict. Just as Gongsun Xun, after Jia Xu's counsel, had resolved to calm his mind, guide events by circumstance, and wait for the Central Plains coalition to reveal its own flaws, events were already brewing on the far eastern end of the thousand-li battlefront, and would soon stir up waves.

"Gongjin!"

Inside the city of Yanxian, the administrative seat of Donghai Commandery in Xuzhou, Jiang Gan was standing before the gate of a residence there. Hearing the creak of the door behind him, he turned to see the main gate swing open, and a tall young scholar with a clean, handsome face strode out. Jiang Gan immediately raised his clasped hands in a lofty salute.

The man who walked out wore a feathered fan and silk headscarf, a loose robe of plain cloth, his face like polished jade. Combined with his extremely youthful features, he looked just like some noble family's young master. Encountering such a figure on the road, no one would ever believe that this young Confucian scholar, only twenty-two years old this year, was the commander of the southern army's eastern front and the naval Regional Commander, jointly appointed by Cao Cao and Liu Bei — a battlefield general of the same rank as Xiahou Dun, Lu Su, Xun Yu, Sun Ce, Lu Bu, and others.

Of course, Jiang Gan certainly recognized him, for this man was his childhood friend, a close classmate with whom he had shared a bed countless times while studying in Huainan.

"Brother Ziyi!"

Zhou Yu first paused on the steps outside the gate, scrutinizing the other man for a long moment. Only then did he burst into laughter and stride forward, grasping Jiang Gan's hands with his fan still in hand, overcome with emotion. "When you wrote to me from Kaiyang asking for help, I thought that after escorting your esteemed parents north, you would not return!"

"Gongjin jests. Now that you and I are separated, one north, one south, though I dare not emulate Generals Zhang Yide and Li Tuizhi in asking neither advance nor retreat, still, the road stretches far across the rivers and lakes — why not part after one final drunken farewell?" Jiang Gan was equally emotional. "I came here today because my parents have already crossed into Langya, and among all my ties in the south, I could not let go of you alone, Gongjin. So I returned specifically to reminisce. Rest assured, this visit is truly not for official business. But tell me honestly, when you stood before the gate just now, hesitating in silence for so long, could it be that you, on the contrary, harbored official concerns about me?"

"No, no!" Zhou Yu grasped the other's arm and shook his head with a laugh. "I truly could not believe that I would ever see Brother Ziyi again in this life. My earlier lapse in composure was precisely because of that. As the poem says: 'Blue, blue is the collar, long, long my yearning heart; it is only for your sake that I brood and ponder to this day.' Does Brother Ziyi want me to cut open my heart and show it to you?"

Jiang Gan also burst into laughter, and the two men entered hand in hand.

———I am the hand-in-hand-entering divider———

"At the end of Han, the founding era of our dynasty, Wang Xiu for his magnanimity, Jia Xu for his stratagems, Cheng Yu for his wisdom and valor, Xun You for his prudence, Chang Lin for his discernment, Jia Kui for his loyalty and fortitude, Zhang Ji for his administrative ability, and Jiang Gan for his lofty measure — these were called the Eight Gentlemen." — Miscellaneous Records of the Scholarly Grove, Yan Dynasty, recorded by an anonymous author.

PS: Thanks to the new Alliance Leader, Advanced Construction! The 117th Alliance! This is an old reader!

(End of Chapter)