Wild grass, watered by blood, grew with reckless vigor.
Even after being trampled again and again beneath iron hooves, it had forced its way back up. At one grave mound, a single yellow flower had even bloomed.
Zhang Liao bent down and pinched the stem near its root, pulling it free. He placed it gently atop the mound before him.
He stood there for a long moment, looking over the more than one hundred graves.
Then he turned and mounted his horse.
A gust of wind swept low across the ground, rushing through the burial site and stirring a hollow, keening sound.
Zhang Liao did not look back.
The sound reminded him of Mayi in Yanmen.
The Mayi stratagem had failed at the last moment. Bitterness and resentment had forced Nie Yi's descendants to change their surname from Nie to Zhang.
In his youth he had dreamed of riding beyond the passes to strike the Hu and cleanse that old humiliation. In his prime he had caught the attention of Lü Bu and Ding Yuan and entered the army.
Governor Ding had a loyal heart for the Han and had shown him no prejudice.
Clerk Lü possessed unmatched bravery and could quell the tribes without equal.
They should have been enlightened superiors and comrades with whom he could build great deeds.
But after General He summoned the warlords into the capital, everything had changed.
"Another two months," Zhang Liao murmured, "and it will have been sixteen years since Xiapi."
He looked at the wide sky and the gentle wind and, for once, felt something like freedom.
Of course, it would have been better if the distant rumble had not reached his ears.
---
He rode slowly into Anyang City and happened to encounter Zhao Lei near the gate.
"General Zhang, have you gone to pay respects to the sons of the Han?" Zhao Lei asked with a warm smile.
The two had dealt with each other often over the past two days while arranging burials for the fallen, so Zhang Liao returned the courtesy with a clasped salute.
"Commander Zhao, I shall remember the kindness shown these past days. I will repay it in time."
After a few polite exchanges, Zhang Liao noticed the tightly covered wagons behind Zhao Lei.
Zhao Lei smiled.
"Xinxi truly deserves its name as a great city. The gunpowder that General Guan allocated earlier has been exhausted, yet the walls still stand. I am returning to request another supply."
Zhang Liao nodded.
There were many new things under the command of Imperial Uncle Liu. Double stirrups, the great blade Zhao Yun had mentioned, and those iron-armored shock riders. He himself had felt the effects of all of them firsthand.
Even so, the telescope, gunpowder, and powerful crossbows he had seen these past days had opened his eyes. They also made the direction of the war increasingly clear to him.
One man entered the city while the other left.
Before parting, Zhao Lei added with a smile, "General Guan is currently discussing matters at the county office. General Zhang may go there directly."
Discussing matters. May go directly.
Zhang Liao pondered the phrasing. Could it be that what Yunchang had promised regarding the Bingzhou riders had encountered some complication?
He waved his personal guards away and headed for the county office alone.
None of Guan Yu's guards stopped him.
---
Once inside the main hall, the first thing Zhang Liao saw was an unusually complex map spread across the center.
It looked nothing like the field maps he had used on campaign.
He stopped to study it, and as a veteran commander, he quickly grasped its logic.
The sizes of mountain ranges, the distances between cities, the courses of rivers, even their width were all marked clearly. Various arrows and symbols had been added, allowing the entire battlefield to be understood at a glance.
After the initial shock, a question rose immediately in Zhang Liao's mind.
Who had drawn this map?
Such detail could not have come from one man alone. Even sending a hundred merchants to survey Yu Province would not suffice.
Mapping mountain terrain required official authority. River measurements and canal records existed only in Xudu's archives.
As he lowered his gaze, he saw Xu Shu speaking confidently at the head of the hall. Zhang Liao remembered the uproar when this man had escaped from Xudu, and how the scandal had even dragged down Lord Xun.
Could those old rumors from Xudu's streets really be true? That Lord Xun had secretly aided Liu Bei?
"Why are you standing here, Wenyuan? Find a seat."
A hand slapped his shoulder. Zhang Liao turned and found Guan Yu beside him. Without waiting for protest, Guan Yu pressed him into a seat.
"You need not speak," Guan Yu said quietly. "Just watch and listen."
What else could he do?
Zhang Liao sat with a wry smile, his attention soon returning to Xu Shu.
The man before him bore little resemblance to the anxious, frustrated figure Zhang Liao had glimpsed briefly in Xudu years ago. Now there seemed to be a radiant composure about him, authority revealed in every gesture.
Xu Shu gave Zhang Liao a brief nod of acknowledgment before continuing.
"Cao Zhen is now trapped in Xinxi and unable to act. To the north, Wen Ping holds Shenyang and Ancheng, hoping to block our advance."
"In that case, Yunchang should gather the main army and advance northeast along the Tongyang road, marching openly toward Chen County. Take it and sever the enemy's east-west connection."
Guan Yu nodded.
Zhang Liao's brow twitched.
Chen County was the seat of Chen Commandery, lying precisely between Xudu and Qiao County. That route would certainly be layered with defenses. Xu Shu seemed almost too dismissive of the commanders under Chancellor Cao.
But then Zhang Liao remembered the things Guan Yu had shown him.
Perhaps they really did have the strength to be that unreasonable.
And Xu Shu had said march openly north. That meant they intended...
"On the way north," Xu Shu continued, "two cavalry detachments are needed. One will coordinate with the forces at Wuyin to strike Shangcai. The other will join the troops at Duyang, break Yan County, and then raid Xiangcheng."
"The two generals..."
Xu Shu glanced toward Zhao Yun and Wei Yan.
Before Zhao Yun could speak, Wei Yan called out first, "I will reinforce the Duyang force!"
Zhao Yun laughed. "Then I will take Shangcai."
Everyone knew Wei Yan and Guan Ping were close, and Zhao Yun privately thought that once the swift riders of Youzhou broke Shangcai, they might still be able to push on into Yingchuan seeking further battle.
Zhang Liao pressed his lips together.
This might be the simplest war council he had ever attended.
What Xu Shu described barely counted as a stratagem. With the map in front of him, the idea was obvious at a glance.
If all of Yu Province were treated as a single battle formation, then the armies at Wuyin, Duyang, and even Liu Bei's forces advancing from Luoyang were like the Youzhou riders Zhao Zilong had hurled against him days ago.
And Guan Yu's main army driving straight into Chen County, the heart of Yu Province, resembled the iron-armored cavalry smashing through the Bingzhou ranks to carve that bloody path.
At the thought, Zhang Liao felt an ache stir faintly through his body.
Direct. Brutal. Utterly unreasonable.
That was the essence of this strategy.
And he also understood that the conditions required to make it work were at once very simple and nearly impossible.
Every siege must succeed.
Every assault must break through.
Every enemy must be defeated.
If those conditions were met, then this was indeed the best possible way to fight.
Could the army under Yunchang truly achieve it?
A dull booming sound drifted from the east.
Zhang Liao knew it must be Zhao Lei at work.
With strong armor and sharp weapons, with heaven-shaking gunpowder, with soldiers willing to die, and with the people's support...
What was there to fear?
---
"Damn it. Once I break Shangcai, I swear I will flay that commander alive!"
Inside Quyang City, Wang Ping erupted in fury as he watched soldiers haul a woman's corpse from a well.
Meng Huo stood beside him, turning to a guard.
"Have the other wells been checked?"
The guard, a Cong tribesman, swallowed hard.
"General... in both Wufang and Quyang... there are bodies in the wells."
He did not need to finish the sentence.
Even for the southern tribesmen, such methods were horrifying beyond measure.
Meng Huo thought for a moment, then issued orders in quick succession.
"Send two more teams. Search along the banks of the Qu River, upstream and down."