Chapter Three: A Fool, A Madman

On the twentieth day of the third month in the first year of Xingping, north of Kaiyang County in the State of Langya, a force of only a few thousand men advanced slowly southward along the official road.

Liu Bei rode on horseback, occasionally glancing back at the crowd trailing in the distance behind him.

To call them followers was generous—they were little more than a few thousand starving refugees.

They had neither armor nor weapons, nor horses; their clothes were tattered, their faces gaunt with hunger, and they trudged after the main force with difficulty.

Even now, peace eluded Qing Province. The Yellow Turbans ran rampant, bandits prowled everywhere. Kong Rong, the Chancellor of Beihai, had been besieged by the Yellow Turbans, and Liu Bei, then Chancellor of Pingyuan, had come at Kong Rong’s invitation to lift the siege of Beihai.

But last year, because of the incident with Cao Song, war broke out between Cao Cao and Tao Qian at Pengcheng.

After the Battle of Pengcheng, Tao Qian’s main army was almost completely annihilated; now he had fewer than ten thousand troops, besieged in Donghai, while Cao Cao’s great army marched again to attack.

With the situation so dire, Tao Qian could only send his trusted aide Mi Zhu to seek help from his old friend Kong Rong. Yet Kong Rong had only just driven out the Yellow Turbans from Qing Province and was himself hard-pressed. As it happened, Liu Bei was in Beihai, so Kong Rong hoped Liu Bei would come to his aid.

Upon learning of Cao Cao’s massacre at Pengcheng last year, and hearing that this year he had vowed to raze Xuzhou in vengeance for his father, Liu Bei, recognizing the gravity of the situation, immediately borrowed some men and horses from his old classmate Gongsun Zan, and, together with several hundred Wuwan cavalry assigned by Tian Kai, the Inspector of Qing Province, set out for Xuzhou.

Along the way, many peasants who had lost their land to the ravages of war wished to join his ranks. But everyone knew these people had no ability to fight; they followed Liu Bei only in the hope of securing a meager meal.

Only a little over a thousand of his troops were armed, and barely more than a dozen had horses and armor. The rest were unarmed, starving refugees. With such scant manpower, how could he hope to rescue Xuzhou?

Yet Liu Bei did not regret his choice. Even though many in his force were elderly, women, or children, and the grain he had brought from Pingyuan was nearly gone, and Kong Rong could supply him with little.

“Elder brother, look there.”

Guan Yu called to Liu Bei, gesturing toward the southwest.

Following his gaze, Liu Bei saw a city not far ahead: the city of Kaiyang.

At his side, Mi Zhu promptly warned, “My lord, you must be cautious. Zhang Ba has gathered his troops and is garrisoned in Kaiyang, styling himself as commander and refusing to heed Lord Tao.”

“I understand,” Liu Bei replied, nodding as his hand went to the sword at his waist. He said to Zhang Fei, “Third brother, take three hundred men and go ahead. Lie in wait along the road. If they sally forth from the city to harass our army, you are to provide support from the flank.”

“Have no worries, elder brother,” Zhang Fei replied, calling out orders as he led three hundred men to move swiftly ahead, hiding in the woods outside Kaiyang.

Though Liu Bei’s military abilities might not rival Cao Cao’s, ten years of battling the Yellow Turbans had given him a solid grasp of the fundamentals of marching and deployment.

Mi Zhu, seeing Liu Bei’s orderly arrangements, nodded with satisfaction. He thought, recalling Tao Qian’s advanced age and frailty, that if Lord Liu were to become the master of Xuzhou, perhaps Xuzhou’s safety would indeed be secured.

***

On the twenty-second day of the third month, in the State of Pengcheng, Lü County, Cao Cao resided in the county office.

At this time, his strength was not yet formidable; he had only four advisers—Xun Yu, Cheng Yu, Chen Gong, and Xi Zhicai. His generals included Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Yu Jin, and Yue Jin.

But on this expedition against Xuzhou, Cao Cao had brought none of his strategists with him.

For he had already resolved in his heart:

He would leave none alive in Xuzhou!

Xun Yu, Chen Gong, and Xi Zhicai were all too soft-hearted; if they knew his true intentions, they would surely object. Thus, Cao Cao simply left them in the rear to oversee the supply lines.

At this moment, in the county office, only Cao Ren and Cao Hong, two kinsmen, were with him. Xiahou Dun had also been left to guard the rear, while Xiahou Yuan was overseeing supplies.

The three sat in their respective places. Cao Cao asked Cao Hong, “Zilian, how much grain do we have now?”

“Elder brother, enough to supply the army for half a year,” Cao Hong replied.

A murderous glint flashed in Cao Cao’s narrow eyes. He said softly, “Good. Last time, I failed to destroy Tao Qian because our grain ran out. This time, I will bathe Xuzhou in blood and avenge my father!”

Cao Ren stepped forward and declared, “Elder brother, give the order. No matter the cost, we will avenge uncle’s death!”

***

Cao Cao nodded. “Zixiao, I command you to lead five thousand troops across the Si River and take Liangcheng directly. Zilian, support with three thousand men. I will lead the main force south, and take Xiapi first.”

“What?” Cao Ren asked in confusion. “Elder brother, why attack Xiapi first?”

Cao Cao replied coldly, “I must avenge myself on Tao Qian, but I also want to seize Xuzhou. However, Yuan Shu’s strength far surpasses mine. If I take Xuzhou, he is sure to attack. So, I will first slaughter Xiapi, turning it into a wasteland. When Yuan Shu comes north from Huainan, he will find hundreds of miles of ruined land with no grain to supply his army. If he attacks, he will fall into my ambush.”

Such was Cao Cao’s plan. At this time, his power was still limited, with no more than forty thousand men, while Yuan Shu commanded a hundred thousand. If he devoured Xuzhou, Yuan Shu would seize the chance and march north to attack.

The two Yuans were rivals. Cao Cao had allied with Yuan Shao—Yuan Shao held off Gongsun Zan in the north, and Cao Cao faced Yuan Shu in the south. Last year, they had fought a great battle at Kuangting, when Yuan Shu had marched a long way to attack.

At that time, Runan was already desolate, devastated by the Yellow Turban uprising. Yuan Shu, together with Jin Shang, the imperial appointee as Inspector of Yanzhou, led his army from Huainan toward Yanzhou, a journey of over a thousand li. By the time they arrived, both men and horses were exhausted. Cao Cao, waiting at his leisure, defeated the larger force with a smaller one in a crucial victory.

After that battle, Cao Cao realized another problem: with the world plunged into chaos, there was a shortage of grain everywhere. He had defeated the Qing Province Yellow Turbans the year before last and gained a million people, greatly replenishing Yanzhou’s population.

But Yanzhou had been at war for two years, with no time for recovery. Grain was barely sufficient for the army, let alone for distant campaigns; he could attack only neighboring areas.

Thus, while Cao Cao cast a covetous eye on Xuzhou, he knew he lacked the strength to keep it.

Yet if Yuan Shu captured Xuzhou, with the wealth of northern Huai as his springboard, he would pose a grave threat to Cao Cao’s rear. So Cao Cao resolved to utterly lay waste to Xuzhou.

He would create a manmade buffer zone.

Runan was desolate because it had been a major battleground in the Yellow Turban rebellion. The million-strong Runan Yellow Turbans were wiped out at Changshe by Huangfu Song, leaving Runan’s population decimated and Henan a wasteland.

When Yuan Shu attacked Yanzhou from Runan, he found only bleached bones and ruined fields along the way, no villages or supplies, and was soundly defeated.

Now, if Cao Cao slaughtered Xiapi, and Yuan Shu chose to march north from northern Huai to attack Yanzhou, the result would be the same: devastation along the route, no grain to be had.

With their territories unconnected, Yuan Shu would have to undertake a long and arduous march every time he attacked, giving Cao Cao a decisive advantage.

As for Cao Cao, the loss of population could always be made up—there could be more conquests, more people born. But if he lost his territory, he would have nothing left. So, compared to the population of Xuzhou, he cared more about ensuring that even if Yuan Shu seized Xuzhou, he could not use it as a foundation to grow stronger.

Cao Ren and Cao Hong, unlike Xun Yu, Xi Zhicai, or Chen Gong, had no qualms about morality. Given their orders, they set about carrying them out without objection, immediately leading their armies according to the plan.