Chapter 489: A Hundred Li of Yi River, Winds of Spring and Autumn (Large Chapter to Repay a Debt)

Zhou Yu's deployment of seagoing warships into inland rivers was essentially a dimensional strike from above.

In Europe — specifically the Mediterranean and North Sea regions — this kind of tactic was standard practice. From the Nile to the British Isles, from Gaul to Asia Minor, one could unearth countless similar battle precedents. By the time the Norse sea raiders rose, this tactic would become so commonplace it hardly deserved the name.

But in the East, in the Great Han, in this autumn of the sixth year of Jian'an, it was an unprecedented maneuver.

The reason is simple: in the medieval era, seagoing vessels and inland rivercraft were two entirely distinct types of ship. The former were long and narrow; the main factor limiting their entry into inland rivers was draft depth, so when the water rose, they could sail in. In direct contrast, the latter had broad bottoms and shallow draft, but could not withstand the wind and waves of the open sea.

In other words, only seagoing ships could enter inland rivers — inland rivercraft could never go out to sea. This tactic had always been built upon the foundation of a large-scale maritime navy.

And how many years had maritime navies been taken seriously? Barely a handful of years, counting only from the year Yuan Benchu was defeated. Even now, the only established maritime naval forces in the entire realm were the Qingzhou Fleet and the Xuzhou Fleet.

So one could say that Zhou Gongjin's operation here, viewed in the context of the entire world, was nothing but discarded scraps left over by those maritime civilizations. But for the Great Han, a land-based civilization, it was absolutely groundbreaking.

And now that it had succeeded — while thanking Lady Gongsun — one had to admit, the results were also outstanding.

First, the inland river channels became a one-way high-speed troop transport corridor for Zhou Yu, while simultaneously becoming a death trap for the Langya troops.

Now forty to fifty thousand Langya soldiers were massed beneath the walls of Tancheng. Their supply lines were severed, their rear route captured, and panic was spreading from top to bottom. In four or five days, the entire army would likely collapse. So with the fleet cutting off the Yi River, it was equivalent, in conventional terms, to a blade drawn across the throat. Zhou Yu needed to do nothing but sit and wait for the Langya army beneath the city to disintegrate on its own.

Second, on this northern Xuzhou battlefield, this operation could only be used by Zhou Yu. The Qingzhou Fleet could not pull it off, because the Yi River, the Shu River, and even the Wu River and Si River all belonged to the Huai River system — and the mouth of the Huai was within Guangling Commandery! Zhou Yu had schemed meticulously, having the Xuzhou navy use Yuzhou Island off the coast of Qu County (the main landmass of later Lianyungang, at this time a massive island) as cover, quietly transferring the fleet from the Huai River into the Si River, then hiding in the Xiapi region behind him — only thus could they arrive here. If the Qingzhou Fleet wanted to come, they would either have to carry their warships overland for several hundred li and then drop them into the Shu River, or sail several thousand li, rounding the mouth of the Huai with no supply points whatsoever, then fight their way past countless Huainan strongholds along the route to get here.

By the time they arrived, the fighting here would probably have been over for half a year.

In other words, Zhou Yu's move belonged to the most essential and fundamental type of military strategy: on a battlefield of his own choosing, he created a localized battlefield advantage under his independent control. The Qingzhou Fleet, which had been locked in a mutual pinning contest with the Xuzhou Fleet, was now effectively neutralized — useless!

Not that they couldn't do anything, but at this point, the key to the battlefield lay on the Yi River, on the Shu River, and in Tancheng, Kaiyang, and Jiqiu near those two rivers. Even if your Qingzhou Fleet went and struck at Xuzhou's rear from the outside, what meaning would it have? And would there be time? From Buqi County (the later Jiaozhou Bay area) where the Qingzhou Fleet was stationed to Xuzhou's territory was over five hundred li.

A window of opportunity — miss it by one step and it becomes meaningless. And right now, that window was firmly in Zhou Yu's grasp.

The main theater of war — shift it even slightly and it all falls apart. And right now, the main theater of Xuzhou was unmistakably the Yi River and Shu River basin.

"We must still request the Qingzhou Fleet to move south."

The autumn air was clear and crisp, waves rolled gently, and in the evening, the setting sun was infinitely beautiful. Yet facing such a lovely scene, on a stretch of high ground by the Yi River's bank, Zang Ba watched the long, narrow seagoing ships patrolling the river from time to time, his brow tightly furrowed. "At the very least, have them come to the Ganyu area to provide a link-up..."

"Does Prefect Zang intend to cross the Shu River and withdraw along the coast?" Guo Jia guessed the other's intent before he even finished speaking.

"Exactly!" Zang Ba answered through gritted teeth.

"Useless." Guo Jia casually pointed downstream along the Yi River. "The Yi and Shu Rivers run nearly parallel, no more than a few dozen li apart, then converge into the Si River near Xiapi City. If I'm not mistaken, Zhou Gongjin should have previously stowed all several hundred ships of his fleet right there. Though the bulk of his navy is now moving up the Yi River to sever our army's rear, that doesn't stop him from detaching a few dozen ships to patrol along the river, just as we see before us, blocking all crossings."

"So by that reasoning, aren't we on a dead-end road?" Wu Dun was momentarily panicked. "Our supplies are cut; in a few days at most, the camp will run out of grain..."

"Then we shall simply have to find a road to survival within those few days." Beside the autumn breeze and river waves, Guo Fengxiao's expression remained unchanged.

"Easy to say!" Wu Dun grew even more frantic. "Look at the wind direction... seagoing ships hoist sail to go upstream and run straight with the current downstream — their speed is ten times that of marching on land. Never mind finding a road to survival in four or five days; even escaping this corridor between the two rivers will be difficult!"

"Then we can only turn back and strike at Jiqiu. There's still some grain there. Before they've firmly established themselves, we seize Jiqiu back before our grain runs out, then ignore Kaiyang and follow the Yi River all the way north. Once we reach my Ju County, we'll be safe!" Sun Guan declared fiercely. "To hell with our family holdings — when the tenth month comes, the water shallows and ice seals the rivers, we'll just come back then!"

"Useless." Guo Jia spread his hands. "If I were Zhou Yu, I would have long since instructed my subordinate commanders: once Jiqiu is taken, immediately burn the grain and military stores, then abandon the city and re-embark the entire force to go strike Kaiyang. So there will be no grain at Jiqiu. And turning the army back now will only thoroughly shake our troops' morale, turning a withdrawal into a rout."

"Then aren't we as good as dead?" Sun Guan's face twisted savagely; he seemed on the verge of drawing his blade. "It was you, Vice Commissioner Guo, who told us to come strike Tancheng. Forty to fifty thousand troops came here, only to end up in this plight. Now, going left won't work, going right won't work — do you mean for us to kill you and surrender to Zhou Yu?!"

"Put down your blade!" Before Guo Jia could speak, Zang Ba barked sternly, then turned to look at Guo Jia and Xu Shu, who had likewise drawn his sword behind Guo Jia. "Vice Commissioner Guo..."

Guo Jia glanced back at Xu Shu, who naturally sheathed his sword.

"Vice Commissioner Guo." Once the atmosphere had eased, Zang Ba spoke with solemn sincerity. "No stratagem is more vicious than cutting off grain. You must also understand that for this campaign, eighty percent of our Langya grain is inside Kaiyang City, twenty percent in Jiqiu. The grain in camp is only what we have, and we are trapped in this narrow dead zone between the Yi and Shu Rivers — we cannot even plunder. Once the grain runs out in four or five days, the army will disintegrate on its own, and then Zhou Gongjin can simply come out of the city to hunt us down. At a time like this, we ought to be in the same boat, sharing the peril. I see your expression remains untroubled — you must surely have a countermeasure. Why conceal it?"

Guo Jia shook his head repeatedly: "Zhou Yu's use of troops this time has been unconventional. I am no immortal; how could I have any countermeasure?"

Xu Shu could not resist glancing at the back of Guo Jia's head.

Zang Ba was silent for a moment, then waved to dismiss the idle personnel. For a time, only the Langya commanders and Guo and Xu remained on the small riverbank slope.

"Though I did not foresee Zhou Gongjin devising such an exquisite and vicious stratagem, I did indeed have something to rely on when I came south this time." Before Zang Ba could ask again, Guo Fengxiao spoke up on his own. "Because even before the campaign began, on the very day I met with Prefect Zang, I had already sent letters north and west, requesting Lord Shen to shift south and Lord Guan to move east..."

Zang Ba was stunned for a moment, then suddenly overjoyed: "Both have already replied and agreed?"

"Naturally." Guo Jia answered frankly. "At that time, having perceived Prefect Zang's sincerity, I knew this campaign would certainly succeed in bringing the Langya troops south. And with fifty thousand Langya troops here, it would always be easier to break the situation open, wouldn't it? In fact, the day before I set out, the replies from Lords Guan and Shen had both already arrived..."

As he spoke, Guo Jia directly drew two documents from his bosom. Zang Ba took them, gave them a cursory glance, and his expression immediately relaxed. He then passed them back for the commanders behind him to see. After everyone had read them, each relaxed to the point of losing composure.

"Vice Commissioner Guo, you should have said so earlier!" Sun Guan, who had just been at drawn blades with him, could not help but let out a long sigh. "So General Guan Zhendong was already at the border of Lu State and Taishan Commandery. If he goes to Kaiyang as the letter says, he can follow the Wu River corridor straight there — a forced march of no more than three days. Calculating it this way, even if General Guan only set out now, he could still seize Kaiyang back in time before the Xuzhou navy is prepared. And Kaiyang borders the river; it would be easy to use the city towers to erect a pontoon bridge linking the two banks and block the fleet. That being the case, though the situation is difficult, it is only a temporary hardship — victory still lies with us."

"And there is also Lord Shen of Qingzhou." Xiao Jian, who had been trembling and unable to speak earlier, was also momentarily relieved. "Since Lord Shen Qingzhou has already reached the Jiwu Mountain Pass, he can have the Qingzhou Fleet disembark at any time and then seize — ahem, garrison Old Sun's Ju County. Then if things go wrong, our rear route is actually still open."

"Since you are all now relieved, allow me to say one more thing that may offend." Guo Jia took back the two letters and smiled slowly. "Even if our entire army here is annihilated, the greater situation still rests with Hebei. What does our situation here count for? It is merely a bid to break the deadlock at Guandu. And at Guandu, could my Lord Yan possibly lose? Gentlemen, do not let a temporary setback before your eyes lead you to make the wrong decision and regret it for the rest of your lives."

Sun Guan and the others were momentarily abashed, and then hastily gave their assurances.

"Enough." Zang Ba suddenly waved his hand to signal. "Whatever the case, everyone knows Lord Shen Qingzhou's great name, and I know General Guan's character even better. Since General Guan has said he will come to support us, he will certainly arrive. Until then, no matter how difficult the situation, you must join me in restraining the troops and holding the line. The army is in the field; if there is any discord, do not blame me for being merciless."

The Langya commanders hastily agreed and then departed one after another.

Once everyone else had left and only Zang, Guo, and Xu remained on the small riverbank slope, Zang Ba, though his expression did not change, asked a question that shook heaven and earth: "Vice Commissioner Guo, I recognize General Guan's handwriting. Though this letter resembles his script, it was not written by him personally. What exactly is going on?"

Guo Jia was silent for a moment before speaking: "I felt that the commanders under Prefect Zang were not entirely trustworthy — especially Sun Guan, who is overly eager to volunteer. Moreover, Ju County, which the Sun brothers hold, is situated precisely between the Yi and Shu Rivers, forming, together with the two rivers and Tancheng, what faintly resembles a pocket formation. Had we followed his earlier suggestion and retreated in disarray, I fear the entire army would have been annihilated inside that sealed pocket. So I prepared these two forged letters as a precaution — I never expected they would truly be needed within just a few days."

Zang Ba started to speak, then stopped.

"It seems I guessed correctly, did I not?" Guo Jia sighed. "The one entangled with the Xuzhou side is not Chang Xi. Chang Xi merely refuses to submit to Prefect Zang — his nature is unruly, nothing more. The ones truly wavering are precisely your son, who values personal ties, and this Sun Guan, who values brotherhood. They have been dissatisfied ever since Prefect Zang submitted to Hebei back then. So, now that it has come to this, will you seize me and surrender to Zhou Yu?"

Zang Ba shook his head repeatedly: "Please rest assured, Vice Commissioner Guo. If things truly go awry, I would sooner abandon my Langya foundation and these tens of thousands of troops than fail to escort you safely back to Qingzhou. When the time comes, we will simply hold the Jiwu Mountain Pass — why speak of surrendering to Zhou Yu?"

With that, Zang Ba, without waiting for the other to reply, turned and walked away on his own — clearly also carrying some anger.

At that moment, Guo Jia sighed and spoke one sincere sentence toward the other's retreating back: "That day, I did indeed send letters to Lords Guan and Shen; I simply did not receive General Guan's reply in time."

Zang Ba paused slightly, then nodded heavily and continued on his way.

Now, only Guo and Xu remained on the riverbank slope.

The two stood side by side for a long while. Xu Yuanzhi gazed at the Yi River, bathed in golden afterglow, and likewise sighed: "I no longer know which of your words are true and which are false..."

Guo Jia, also gazing at the Yi River, shook his head with emotion: "Yuanzhi, you still lack a sense of the greater picture. What do truth and falsehood count for in the face of the greater picture?"

"What exactly counts as a sense of the greater picture?" Xu Shu furrowed his brow.

"Let me lay it bare for you today." Guo Jia turned his head, rested his hand on his sword, and looked at his fellow townsman beside him with a solemn expression. "Yuanzhi, first, the great trend of the realm is that Hebei intends to swallow the whole realm, while the Central Plains have allied to preserve themselves. In this war, because Lord Yan, after his earlier victory over Yuan Shao, did not advance rashly but instead consolidated for three years, waited quietly for the Son of Heaven to come of age, annexed Western Liang, and even fought a battle with the Xianbei in between, seizing the Yinshan Mountains — Hebei has no troubles at its rear. So even if we in Hebei lose, we can start over again. But if the Central Plains lose, they will never recover. Is that correct?"

"Correct!" After a moment's thought, Xu Shu answered crisply.

"Second, within this war itself, the true key lies at Guandu. And the situation at Guandu is that Lord Yan, relying on that single encounter battle, settled a thirty-percent advantage in one stroke. So although it is now a stalemate, it is clearly Hebei that holds the upper hand. Is that correct?"

"Correct!"

"As for the eastern front here, it is simply because Guandu remains deadlocked — we in Hebei seek a breakthrough, while Cao and Liu to the south, being at a disadvantage and more desperate, want to claw back two points of the situation and catch their breath. If we win, we can naturally shake the greater situation in the Central Plains. But if Zhou Yu wins, at most it buys Guandu a little more time to stall. Is that correct?"

"Correct!"

"So, as I said, at this point, Zang Ba's stance is nothing to worry about. That day in the Kaiyang government hall, I laid it out thoroughly enough. If he is any kind of figure at all, he won't waver again. And my confidence lies precisely here... Even if we truly lose here, even if the whole army is wiped out — so what?"

"Hold on..." Xu Yuanzhi finally caught a thread of something amiss in this line of thought. "Do you both regard the lives of the fifty thousand troops in Langya as nothing?"

"Fifty thousand bandits — why should I care?" Guo Jia's expression remained calm. "Since the Yellow Turban rebellion began, those who have died in calamity across the realm number not just in the millions? If a great battle can be won, bringing an end to the realm's division a year earlier, then perhaps five hundred thousand innocents might be saved!"

Xu Shu felt as though something were stuck in his throat. He desperately wanted to speak, yet could not utter a word; he wanted to swallow it down, yet could not force it down... Clearly, he knew that Guo Jia might not be wrong, but he simply could not truly accept the man's mindset and conduct.

"Yuanzhi, since ancient times, compassion cannot command troops..." Guo Jia, having reached a sudden clarity in his heart, clasped his hands behind his back and spoke slowly by the banks of the Yi River. "I am not saying that Zang Ba and I are definitely right, or that you are definitely wrong. But as the saying goes, occupy a position and plan for its affairs; experience its affairs and temper your heart. Though you and I are close in age and come from the same hometown, it is impossible for our hearts to truly be in accord."

Xu Shu remained silent.

"Before Dong Zhuo's rebellion, our experiences were fairly similar. But after Dong Zhuo's rebellion?" Guo Jia spoke with emotion. "At that time, you stayed in our hometown and never again experienced a major war, while I left home and traveled north to Hebei, where I participated in nearly the entire campaign against Yuan Shao. Later, when I took up a post in Qingzhou, I followed Lord Guan Zhendong in sweeping through Mount Tai. Still later, having accumulated merit, I arrived at Yexia and assisted Military Advisor Xi in managing military intelligence and secrets... The life-and-death decisions I have witnessed are ten times what you have seen. Matters like sacrificing one person for the sake of ten — I have experienced them I know not how many times. If you ask me to lament their life and death, I can certainly lament it. Sometimes when I've had too much to drink, I too feel moments of melancholy over the times. But if you ask me to abandon my duty because of it — that is nothing but a joke. Today, I do not expect you to think what I did was right, but I do hope you can understand that what I did was, at the very least, not wrong."

Xu Shu nodded with difficulty. In the end, he understood this principle.

"If you can understand to this step, then what follows is even simpler." Guo Jia also breathed a sigh of relief. "As for the eastern front itself, the first thing to consider is still Shen Qingzhou and General Guan. With Lord Shen moving south to Jiwu Mountain, the overall situation in Qingzhou can be preserved. And although General Guan's force numbers only fifteen thousand, they are battle-hardened elite troops. General Guan's own ability to command troops is unmatched in Qing and Xu, and moreover, his regard for trust and promises surpasses even Zang Ba's... Therefore, although General Guan has not sent a reply, Zang Ba and I — both of us having known General Guan for a long time — both believe that he will certainly move, that he will certainly come to Xuzhou!"

"I understand. On the eastern front, your greatest reliance is actually Shen Qingzhou holding the rear, while Lord Guan Zhendong has other plans..." Xu Shu spoke slowly. "To go further, it is as you said that night: the various generals of Langya are nothing but a flock of fence-sitters. As long as Zang Ba does not fall, the overall situation is in hand. Whether the other generals collude with anyone is of no real consequence — the key is whether they pose a tangible threat."

"Exactly."

"Only... why was it necessary to forge that letter?" Xu Shu could not help but ask again. "If General Guan is certain to arrive, then within a day or two he might well reach Kaiyang. At that point, the army's morale would settle on its own. Why did you need to go to that extra trouble?"

"What if General Guan does not take the usual path?" Guo Jia suddenly smiled. "Forging those two letters, making certain people fix their minds on Kaiyang — it is always better to be prepared, is it not?"

Xu Shu was momentarily bewildered, but then shook his head: "You must have further calculations. But at this point, I have nothing more to say!"

It must be said, from the western part of the Mount Tai region where Guan Yu was stationed to the Yi River battlefield, there was a natural highway — the natural road formed by the Wu River, a tributary of the Yi River, cutting through the southern ridges of the Yimeng mountain range. If Guan Yu followed this road, a forced march of three days would bring him to Kaiyang... This was precisely why Kaiyang (later known as Linyi) was a strategic stronghold of Qing and Xu, and why Zang Ba, after seizing Langya, had garrisoned his forces there.

This city locked the Yi River and Wu River to the east and west, and controlled the Yimeng Mountains between Qing and Xu to the north and south — it was, without exaggeration, a place contested by every strategist.

Apart from the Wu River–Kaiyang route, there were other paths, but south of the Wu River lay the hilly terrain represented by Mount Zeng, which was not only difficult for marching troops but was also under the control of the Central Plains coalition forces.

Moreover, the end of those roads was not Kaiyang, but rather eastward to Tancheng, or following the Yi River downstream to Xiapi.

Therefore, it could almost be concluded that Guan Yu's inevitable route to the Yi River battlefield was the Wu River passage. He had no reason to abandon such a major road. So Guo Jia's "better to be prepared" seemed more like a superfluous test of Zang Xuangao.

"Who is the defending general of Zengguo?"

That very evening, just as the tens of thousands of troops on the Tancheng battlefield were each harboring their own schemes, forty li south of the Wu River, within the borders of Zengguo County in the southwesternmost corner of Langya Commandery, only a few li from the county seat, a general nine chi tall with a long, flowing beard stood in full armor, gazing thoughtfully at the pitch-dark city.

This man was none other than Guan Yunchang, who had traveled halfway along the Wu River, only to suddenly cross the river southward under cover of night — taking the road less traveled.

In the darkness of night, the army major beside him thought for a moment, then immediately replied: "According to earlier intelligence from the Jing'an Bureau, this man is called Hao Pu, courtesy name Zitai. He is a subordinate general of Liu Bei, a man of Jingzhou, said to be known for his steadiness and honesty, which is why he was chosen to garrison this place... Counting from the fifth month, he has held Zengguo City for four or five months now. There are about two thousand men in the city."

Guan Yu slowly nodded: "Two thousand troops — enough to become a mortal threat. If we cannot take this city, our army absolutely cannot easily advance south... No wonder Fengxiao told me to cross the river from here."

The surrounding officers, hearing this, dared not be negligent and one after another began preparing their armor and weapons.

"No need for that!" Guan Yu suddenly stopped his subordinates. "Marching by night and forbidding you to light torches was precisely for this... Attendant Wang!"

"Your subordinate is here!" An attendant serving under Guan Yu, named Wang Si, immediately stepped forward upon hearing the order.

"Do you understand why I kept the torches unused?" Guan Yu continued to stroke his beard as he asked.

"I understand in broad terms." Wang Si, as an attendant personally recruited by Guan Yu and having accompanied him the entire way, naturally understood his general's intent.

"Then if I want you to enter the city and persuade them to surrender, using deception to lure them — do you know what to say?" Guan Yu continued stroking his beard as he inquired.

"As for deception..." Wang Si was momentarily stunned, but then immediately blurted out: "If I am to lure them by deception, then it should go like this: First, tell him I am an Attendant of the General Who Guards the East, to show sincerity. Then tell him that Guandu has already been decided, that Cao Cao is besieged at Chenliu, and that Xiahou Dun has retreated overnight — which is why General Guan can bring twenty thousand troops here. Finally, give him a deadline of one quarter-hour to open the gates and surrender the city... If he surrenders, the whole city will be kept safe; if he does not, we will attack the city under cover of night!" By the end, Wang Si's words were clear and flawless, flowing without the slightest hesitation. "Nothing more need be said."

"Good!" Guan Yu raised his hand in a gesture. "Go! I will await your horn..."

Though Wang Si had some slight doubts in his heart, since he had received the order, he immediately proceeded on foot toward the city and called out at the gate, claiming to be an envoy from Xiahou Dun. The men on the city wall, momentarily on alert, did indeed show a certain thoroughness — no one opened the gate; instead, they lowered a hanging basket and hauled Wang Si up onto the wall.

Once on the wall, Wang Si immediately revealed his identity and asked to see Hao Pu. And Hao Pu, indeed a man who performed his duties diligently, though it was nighttime, hurried to the wall to meet this man who had first claimed to be Xiahou Dun's envoy and then claimed to be Guan Yu's envoy.

The two met atop the city wall. Though Wang Si was bound with ropes, he spoke calmly and deliberately, repeating all his earlier words in public.

Hao Pu, upon hearing this, was momentarily dumbfounded, but after thinking for a moment, he sneered and shook his head: "That you, sir, are an attendant of General Guan, I believe. But at this moment, you have not necessarily come to urge surrender — rather, you have come to trick a surrender. I fear there are only a few thousand troops hidden outside the city, insufficient to attack, so you wish to trick me into opening the gates and then seize the city. Twenty thousand troops — without proof or evidence — and this talk of defeat at Guandu is even more absurd..."

"How can you speak of no proof or evidence?" Wang Si replied with head held high. "I am alone on this wall. Please, sir, remove my bonds and allow me to show you..."

Hao Pu hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he was an honest man. He gestured with his chin, and someone removed Wang Si's bonds. Once freed from the ropes, Wang Si said nothing more, but simply walked straight to the edge of the wall and suddenly blew a horn that hung at his waist.

The horn sounded. At first, there was no reaction outside the city — not even the faintest sound. Hao Pu nearly laughed aloud... But in the next instant, a single flame suddenly leaped up in the darkness, and then thousands upon thousands of flames rose one after another, merging into a sea of fire north of the city.

The sea of fire below the city blazed so brilliantly that it lit the top of the wall as if it were broad daylight. Hao Pu stood dumbfounded, and then sweat poured down his body in streams.

But this was not all. After the sea of fire appeared, countless horns suddenly sounded from outside the city as well, and then, following the sound of the horns, an unknown number of men shouted and clamored with all their might, making the hearts of those who heard it tremble and sway.

"Commandant Hao." Amid the din, Wang Si pointed outside the city and shouted loudly. "Look carefully. The torches below the city number no fewer than twenty thousand. And at first there was silence, then they shouted in response to the horns — these twenty thousand troops are undoubtedly battle-hardened elite soldiers, are they not? Such an army could only have arrived here after General Guan received reinforcements, could it not? And if not for the defeat at Guandu and Xiahou Dun's flight, how could General Guan suddenly arrive here with twenty thousand men?! After three blasts of the horn, one quarter-hour will have passed. Surrender or die — I urge you to decide clearly!"

Hao Pu's mind and spirit had been utterly seized by the sea of fire outside the city. He had long since lost his composure. In his dazed state, the desire to cling to life ultimately gained the upper hand, and in a trance, he nodded his head and agreed to surrender.

A short while later, the city gates were thrown wide open. Four hundred elite soldiers from two companies, who had long been lying in ambush, surged in instantly and seized control of the gate. Only then did Guan Yunchang slowly lead his troops into the city and secure the situation.

By the light of the torches, when Hao Pu saw Guan Yu, he no longer had any doubt. He simply bowed in salute. And Guan Yunchang, after helping the man to his feet, spoke frankly: "Commandant Hao, you have been diligent and dutiful. For the sake of the greater situation, I had no choice but to deceive you with a stratagem... In truth, Guandu has not been decided. Xiahou Dun has not fled. I merely led my own ten thousand troops to secretly cross the Wu River and arrive here."

At this point, Hao Pu found it even harder to believe these words. His face flushed red, and he shook his head repeatedly: "General Guan, why deceive me? You have only fifteen thousand troops — this I know. And just now, from the top of the wall, I could tell at a glance that there were roughly twenty thousand men below the city. If the greater situation elsewhere had not already been settled, how could twenty thousand such elite troops have arrived here?"

"Each man held two torches," Guan Yu replied, stroking his beard.

Hao Pu suddenly understood, and then was overcome with shame and regret that drove him into the ground. But suddenly, he recalled something else, and for a moment, he felt a sense of relief: "Sir, you did not go to Kaiyang, but instead abandoned your baggage train and crossed the river and mountains with light troops to arrive here. Could it be that you intend to set out from here, pass through Mount Zeng, and launch a flanking surprise attack on Tancheng?"

Guan Yu merely stroked his beard and did not answer.

"You will certainly not succeed!" Hao Pu said solemnly. "In the government office within the city, there are military dispatches. I will not hide them from you... Commander Zhou has brought the navy up the Huai River, through the Si River, and into the Yi and Shu Rivers. The Yi and Shu Rivers are now locked down by boats and ships. If you come by this route, it is clearly a dead end. You would be far better off rushing to Kaiyang to provide support... This is a case of outsmarting yourself, only to be outwitted!"

Guan Yu, after all, had a somewhat proud nature, and moreover, tricking this man into surrendering had not been his original intent, so he felt a slight twinge of guilt. He finally showed a flicker of emotion and smiled, speaking frankly: "Zhou Gongjin is indeed a talented commander. Fengxiao, acting as bait over there, will surely have a hard time of it... But why do you assume I must be coming to launch a surprise attack on Tancheng? Why could I not go and launch a surprise attack on Xiapi, which is utterly undefended and completely empty?"

"To reach Xiapi, you would still at the very least need to pass Lanling and Wuyuan — two large cities with substantial populations. Even if those places are empty and allow you to take them at your leisure, by then you will inevitably alert Commander Zhou at Tancheng. And with the navy using the convenience of the rivers to sail downstream and reinforce Xiapi, how could you possibly make it in time?" Hao Pu grew increasingly agitated. "At that point, not only will you be blocked on the west bank of the Yi River, but when Commander Xiahou arrives from the other side, you will likely die in this dead end, will you not?"

Guan Yu shook his head in reply: "That is not something you need to know... In truth, today's stratagem was not my original intent. It is only that the greater situation being what it is, I could not but go against my conscience and give it a try. Bear with this indignity for a few days. Once the matter of Xuzhou is settled, if you are unwilling to serve Hebei, I will release you to return to Huainan myself. I will never go back on my word."

Hao Zitai grew even more agitated, but Guan Yu had already left him and entered the city, while armored soldiers nearby stepped forward to take the man into custody and settle him somewhere.

The next day, Guan Yu detached two thousand troops to keep a close watch on Zengguo City and serve as a rear guard, then without pausing to rest the horses, marched directly out of the city and headed south. As for Hao Zitai, though he was a prisoner, according to the laws of Hebei, since he had voluntarily surrendered, he ought to be given an appointment. Thus, although he was kept under strict guard, he was ultimately afforded some special treatment and remained at Wang Si's side throughout.

And as this man stood with Wang Si atop the city wall, watching with his own eyes as Guan Yu led his troops out of the city, he was nearly dazzled.

It turned out that from Guan Yunchang on down, the entire army of eight thousand men had, for the most part, discarded their armor and weapons, piling them carelessly into carts collected from Zengguo City. They wore only the plain white clothes of commoners (obtained by trading their military uniforms) and carried rations and water as they marched. Among them, only a few hundred men were fully armed — and these had donned the uniforms and armor of Hao Pu's own troops and raised the banners of Hao Pu's unit!

Clearly, they intended to disguise themselves as conscripted laborers called up after the autumn harvest, and, seizing the opportunity while Zhou Yu's main force was all upstream on the Yi River — on the so-called Kaiyang-Tancheng battlefield — to travel south in plain clothes and launch a surprise attack on the seat of Xuzhou, which was also Zhou Yu's rear line and the main base of the entire eastern front: Xiapi City!

In the chaos of war, Xiapi City, as the central hub of Xuzhou, was itself a gathering place for laborers. And with proper documents bearing Hao Pu's official seal added to the mix, who would stop them?

As it happened, Hao Zitai stood beside Wang Si, his heart shaken, his gaze fixed unwaveringly on a man below the city — none other than the General Who Guards the East, Guan Yu, Guan Yunchang, who had cast aside all dignity, dirtied and disheveled his beard and hair, dressed in the tattered clothes of a commoner, and was personally pushing a flatbed cart!

Yet this Guan Zhendong, one of the most powerful men in the realm, had now cast off his armor, wore straw sandals, and was disguised as a laborer — but his manner of pushing the cart was astonishingly practiced, no different from an ordinary farmer!

He actually seemed like a common laborer long accustomed to hard toil!

Just like that, watching the other party disappear from sight, Hao Pu, frozen rigid atop the city wall, felt his heart turn to ice as he realized he had committed a colossal blunder… Surrendering when the outcome was already decided, and surrendering after being deceived by the enemy into becoming the key that broke the situation, were two entirely different things!

"Attendant Wang." Hao Pu turned his head back, his eyes suddenly bloodshot, grinding his teeth. "I was deceived by you people. I did not sincerely intend to betray my Liu Yuzhou… Since you tricked me, you must clear my name in the future!"

Wang Si did not react for a moment.

However, since Hao Zitai, Liu Bei's officer not yet thirty years old, had spoken, he did not wait for the other's reply. Without the slightest hesitation, he leaped directly from the city wall onto the sharp stakes of the chevaux-de-frise below.

Blood splattered across the ground, entrails spilled out, yet precisely because the city wall was not high enough, he did not die at once, but could only writhe in agony… On the wall, Wang Si, realizing the other's intent in his heart, could only sigh in stunned disbelief, then order a soldier to go down and deliver a finishing stroke to end the suffering.

————I am the dividing line where the city wall is not high enough————

"A letter from Jia arrived, offering the stratagem of crossing the river in plain clothes to raid Xiapi. Yu, on grounds of grand strategy, was originally unwilling to act. However, upon reading to the end of the letter, a slip in the hand of the Grand Ancestor appeared, which read: 'Yunchang's heroic spirit soars above the clouds, truly a tiger among ministers. His valor rivals a kingdom, a match for ten thousand men. He is not of the common ilk of Zhou Gongjin or Xiahou Yuanrang. Yet the unification of the realm concerns the common people — for a time, cast aside fame and bend to stratagem!' Yu was greatly enlightened. He immediately had Pan Zhang lead five thousand troops in a feint against Xiahou Dun, while he himself led ten thousand men, abandoned their warhorses, crossed the Wu River by night, raided Zeng State, then personally donned straw sandals, wore plain clothes, and pushed a supply cart southward." — Old Book of Yan, Volume 69, Biographies 19

(End of Chapter)