Many people still lived along the road to Shangcai.
An unremarkable agricultural command officer moved carefully through the street, listening to the low curses directed at Cao's army. He avoided the foul water flowing across the ground and clutched the register in his arms as if it were a lifeline.
After finally crossing the street, he presented his token to the gate guards. Beyond them, the prefectural office of Shangcai stood plainly ahead.
He passed through the halls and courtyards. Someone was already inside the governor's chamber, so he waited.
"Have the military stores been fully inventoried?" a rigid voice asked from within.
The man inside answered. More questions followed. Patrol rotations, guard shifts, troop deployments throughout the city, and the condition of the defenses were all examined in detail before the discussion ended.
Only then did the agricultural officer step forward and bow.
"Prefect Cheng, this is the updated grain inventory for the city."
The booklet left his hands. He straightened and saw before him a white-haired prefect whose bearing remained meticulous despite his age.
"Good."
The clear figures marking the grain supplies drew a murmur of approval from Cheng Yu.
After reviewing it, Cheng Yu looked up and saw the officer still standing there.
"Something else?"
"Prefect Cheng, with a great battle approaching, the people in the city have almost exhausted their grain. Their faces already show hunger…"
Cheng Yu's expression tightened slightly. He shook his head.
"As long as they can survive, what is the problem?"
The officer persisted.
"If grain were distributed to the people and the able-bodied given weapons, the city's defenses would surely be strengthened."
"There is still surplus grain in Shangcai, yet it is hoarded. Prefect, could it be…"
Cheng Yu tapped the table, displeased.
"Since ancient times, the outcome of a siege depends on endurance. How could grain be spent lightly?"
"The people can live. Later they will still have their uses. Why send them to the walls to die and become the rebels' merit?"
"If you have nothing else to report, return to your post."
The officer left in frustration.
Cheng Yu exhaled slowly.
The stalemate beneath Wuyin had been shattered when barbarian troops suddenly crushed Cao's forces. From that moment, Cheng Yu had sensed something deeply wrong.
He had overruled objections, destroyed Wufang and Quyang, and withdrawn entirely to Shangcai, seeking stability above all else.
Shangcai linked the north and south of Yu Province. As long as it held, the rebel army entering from Yiyang would not be able to advance north without restraint.
To the west, Yu Province already had the strong armies of Yu Jin and Xu Huang. Xiahou Dun was coming from Shouchun with reinforcements. Their lord himself had gone to the front line to live and die with the soldiers.
Why should they not defeat Liu Bei, that rat?
As long as Shangcai held, their lord's great cause could still succeed. Compared with that, personal reputation meant nothing.
---
Liu Bei's army arrived even faster than Cheng Yu expected.
Only two days after he abandoned Quyang, their troops appeared outside Shangcai's walls.
But when Cheng Yu saw that fewer than ten thousand Han and tribal soldiers had formed ranks outside the city, his heart settled.
Sun Tzu had said: with ten times the force, surround; with five, attack; with double, divide.
Even if they were barbarians, could they escape the principles of warfare?
Zhang Nan and Feng Xi, who had marched here together with Meng Huo and Wang Ping, thought the same.
"General Wang," Zhang Nan urged, "the Cao army holds the city while our numbers are few. How can we break through? Better to wait until General Guan defeats the enemy in Runan. Once we have tenfold strength, victory will be certain."
Their combined force had been stalled beneath Shangcai for two days already. Tonight, long after midnight, Wang Ping suddenly insisted on attacking, forcing the others to persuade him otherwise.
"If we cannot take it by attacking on level ground," Wang Ping asked, "what if we climb up instead?"
Zhang Nan and Feng Xi stared at him.
Meng Huo explained calmly, "When our Cong tribes served in Yi Province, Lord Xuande once granted us the title of the Flying Army."
Wang Ping was more direct.
"When we fought in Nanzhong, scaling dangerous mountains and sheer cliffs was nothing. These rammed-earth walls? I could climb them bare-handed."
This was not empty boasting.
Central Plains rammed-earth walls were usually built wide at the base and narrower above for stability and ease of construction. Only great capitals like Chang'an or Luoyang had outer walls steep enough to resemble cliffs.
Since Meng Huo had spoken, Zhang Nan and Feng Xi could not object further.
They watched as Wang Ping selected a little over a hundred men. The soldiers stripped off their armor, leaving only leather protection over vital areas. Short blades clenched in their teeth, they slipped silently into the darkness.
"General Meng," Zhang Nan whispered, "should we move the army closer to the gate?"
Meng Huo shook his head.
"A show of force would only alert Cao's troops. Order the soldiers to pass the word quietly. Sleep in armor and keep weapons ready."
Whether the southern method would succeed here remained uncertain. Still, given Wang Ping's courage, even if it failed, escaping in the middle of the night should not be difficult.
The waiting grew unbearable.
Zhang Nan and Feng Xi could not sit still. Even Meng Huo seemed distracted.
Only a single oil lamp burned in the tent. After counting nearly a thousand flickers of the flame, Meng Huo suddenly heard a distant uproar from within Shangcai.
"General!"
A messenger rushed in, but before he could speak, Zhang Nan and Feng Xi leapt up together.
"Sound the troops. Move out!"
Even sleeping in armor, forming ranks and advancing to the city still took time. By the time they neared the walls, the clamor inside Shangcai had grown unmistakable.
"Seize the gate! Seize the gate!"
"The Cao army is defeated!"
"The prefect has fled! The prefect has fled! Why not surrender to the Imperial Uncle?"
Zhang Nan stared in astonishment.
"Did General Wang take the city with only a hundred men?"
Meng Huo himself did not know. Watching the city gates slowly opening, he murmured,
"Or… perhaps something happened inside the city that even we did not know…"
---
Inside the city, Wang Ping laughed loudly as he faced the agricultural officer.
"Brother Deng Fan, tonight's deeds will be written clearly in the report. I will personally have Brother Meng record it. Rest easy. Whatever credit is yours, I will not take a shred of it."
Under the firelight, the officer sighed.
"Without the general's valor and Lord Liu of Yu Province's benevolence, how could this have succeeded? Do not speak of taking credit."
Wang Ping laughed again and strode forward with blade in hand, plunging back into the fighting.
---
Inside the prefectural office, Cheng Yu listened with a frown to his subordinates' reports.
Barbarian troops had slipped into the city from outside and joined with disloyal townsfolk. Fires had been set everywhere, creating chaos beyond control.
Yes. In Cheng Yu's mind, they were nothing but rebel civilians.
Cao and Liu had struggled back and forth along the Jing–Yu frontier for nearly two years. In that time, the so-called benevolent rhetoric spread by Liu Xuande in Jing Province had inevitably seeped here as well.
The garrison settlers had grown restless. Cheng Yu believed that if he had not kept strict control, nine out of ten would already have deserted.
So when he withdrew to Shangcai, he had done what he considered necessary. He confiscated surplus grain from suspicious residents to prevent unrest.
Yet now it seemed those very measures had been turned against him.
Sighing was not his way.
After confirming that the eastern part of the city remained under control, Cheng Yu gave his orders decisively.
"Form up the army. Open the east gate and withdraw toward Dingying and Zhaoling. Burn all remaining grain and supplies. Leave nothing for the enemy."
He strode out first. Once mounted, he rode straight for the east gate under the protection of his personal guards.
The soldiers left behind to burn the city waited until the prefect's guards were gone. Then they tossed a few torches at random and scattered like frightened birds.
---
After waiting a while at the east gate and seeing no more troops emerge, Cheng Yu snorted coldly.
"Traitors and rebels."
Though more than twenty thousand had dwindled to only a few thousand, there were still many cities to the north that could be used to resist the enemy. Even a few thousand men could accomplish much.
With orders given, the Cao troops, their faces still pale with fear, slowly turned north.
They had gone only a few miles when a column of swift cavalry burst from the night, racing forward by moonlight and the glow of Shangcai's fires.
At their head rode a figure in silver armor on a white horse, dazzling even in the dark.
And then came the thunderous shout that made Cheng Yu's vision go black.
"I am Zhao Zilong of Changshan! Enemy general, surrender your head!"