The Three Kingdoms Volume 2 (59 page)

When Liu Bei at last re-entered Fu Pass, weary and dispirited, he inquired about his advisor. Some of the soldiers who had escaped from the Slope of the Fallen Phoenix told Liu Bei of the sad news that the advisor and his horse were both shot to death by numerous arrows. Liu Bei, overcome with grief, turned his face toward the west and mourned bitterly. As the body of the slain advisor lay far away they instituted sacrifices to call the spirit. All the officers lamented for him.

Huang Zhong pointed out, “Now that our advisor is no more, the enemy will surely return to attack the pass.” Then he suggested sending someone to Jingzhou to get Zhuge Liang to come and take over the strategy for getting possession of the western country.

His words had hardly finished when soldiers came in to report that Zhang Ren had come to challenge them outside the walls. Huang Zhong and Wei Yan wished to go forth to fight, but Liu Bei disapproved, saying, “We have suffered a severe setback and the men are low-spirited. We must maintain a firm defense until our advisor can arrive.”

Huang Zhong and Wei Yan obeyed the order and set themselves to guard the pass most vigilantly, while Guan Ping was sent to Jingzhou to take a letter to Zhuge Liang. He set forth at once and Liu Bei concerned himself with holding Fu Pass.

Let us now turn to Jingzhou. It was the seventh day of the seventh moon,
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and in the evening Zhuge Liang invited all his subordinates to a banquet. Conversation turned toward their lord’s undertaking in the west. Suddenly a large and brilliant meteor dropped down from the sky in the west, sending its light in all directions. It so disturbed the host that he dashed his wine cup to the ground, covered his face, and burst into tears.

“Alas! Alas!”

The guests anxiously asked him why he wept. He replied, “I knew by my calculations that the bowl of the Dipper would be in the west at this season and that things would be unfavorable to the advisor of our army. I have written to our lord, telling him about this ill omen and warning him to be extra cautious. But lo! I never expected to see the falling of the star this evening. Now Pang Tong is surely no more!”

Again he fell to weeping. “My lord has lost an arm!” he moaned.

The guests were rather disturbed, but they did not really believe that such a misfortune had happened.

“We will hear the sad news in a few days,” said Zhuge Liang.

The banquet ended sadly enough, and the guests dispersed. A few days later, while Zhuge Liang was sitting with Guan Yu and a few others, guards came in to report the arrival of Guan Ping with a letter from Liu Bei. In the letter was the sad tiding that Pang Tong had been killed on the same evening when the meteor dropped from the sky.

Zhuge Liang wailed and the others wept with him.

Then Zhuge Liang said, “I must go to help our lord as he is in trouble at Fu Pass and cannot move.”

“If you go away, who will guard this city?” asked Guan Yu. “It is of very great importance.”

“Our lord did not state plainly, but I know what was in his mind.”

Then, showing the letter to the others, Zhuge Liang added, “In his letter our lord has laid upon me the responsibility to find the right person for the defense of this city. By the fact that he has sent Guan Ping here to deliver the letter I understand that he desires Yun-chang to undertake the important task.”

Then turning to Guan Yu, he said, “I hope you will remember the Peach Garden Oath and do your best to hold the city. This task is no light one and I hope you will be very careful.”

Guan Yu accepted without hesitation. A special banquet was prepared at which the seal was to be handed over to him.

“All the responsibility rests with you, General,” said Zhuge Liang as he held the symbol of office to place it in the hands of the veteran warrior.

“When a man of honor accepts such a task he is only released by death,” replied Guan Yu.

But that ill-omened word “death” displeased Zhuge Liang, and even then he would have retracted but that his word had already gone forth. He asked Guan Yu, “Now if Cao Cao attacks what will you do?”

“Repel him with all my strength.”

“But if Cao Cao and Sun Quan attack you together, what then?”

“Divide my force and fight both.”

Zhuge Liang said, “In that case, Jingzhou would be in danger. I will give you my advice in eight words and if you remember them the city is safe.”

“What are these eight words?” asked Guan Yu.

“North, fight against Cao; south, ally with Sun.”

“These words, sir, will be engraved in my heart.”

Then the seal was placed in his hands. Zhuge Liang also appointed four advisors and four officers to assist the new commander.

Shortly after that, Zhuge Liang began to deploy his troops for the expedition into the west country. Zhang Fei, with 10,000 veteran soldiers, was ordered to take the high road and fight his way into the region west of Bazhou and Luocheng as quickly as possible. The earlier he got through, the greater his merit. Zhao Yun was to lead another force up the river and join the main army at Luocheng. Zhuge Liang himself, with his own body of men, would follow on. Among those in his train was Jiang Wan, a noted local scholar, who was then holding the office of chronicler.

Zhuge Liang and Zhang Fei set out the same day. Just before leaving, the great strategist said to Zhang Fei: “Do not take lightly the men of Shu, for there are many heroic people among them. On the march restrain your men from plunder lest the local inhabitants be against us. Wherever you are be compassionate and kindly and do not give way to anger or flog your men. Be sure to reach Luocheng as soon as possible.”

Zhang Fei joyously mounted and left. He marched rapidly, and on the way all places that surrendered suffered nothing whatever. And so the army advanced toward Bazhou via the high road.

When he drew near Bazhou, spies came to report that the prefect of that place, named Yan Yan, had not hoisted the flag of surrender. They told Zhang Fei that this Yan Yan was a celebrated officer of Shu, and although he was quite old, he had lost none of his boldness and vitality but could still pull the stiffest bow and wield the heaviest sword.

This report infuriated Zhang Fei, who ordered his men to encamp about ten
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from the city. Then he sent a messenger to summon the prefect to surrender. “Tell the old rascal to give in, or I will trample down his walls and leave no soul alive.”

Now Yan Yan had never favored inviting Liu Bei into Shu. When he had first heard of Liu Zhang’s decision, he said, sighing deeply, “This is like a man alone on an unstable hill, calling a tiger to protect him.” Later, when he heard of Liu Bei’s seizure of Fu Pass, he was so angry that several times he had thought of leading his army to drive out the aggressors, but he feared lest the enemy might come his way to attack the city. One day he heard of Zhang Fei’s approach—he immediately mustered his 5,000 men to oppose him.

One of his subordinates admonished him, saying, “This Zhang Fei once scared Cao Cao’s million men at the Long Slope in Dangyang by a mere shout. Even Cao Cao himself was careful to keep out of his way. You must be careful how you oppose him. I think it is better to maintain a firm defense, relying on our high ramparts and the deep moat till hunger vanquishes our enemy. Zhang Fei has a very violent temper, and if he is provoked he vents his anger by flogging his men. If you avoid battle he will be irritated and his cruelty to his men will cause them to mutiny. That will be the moment for us to attack and the victory will be ours.”

Yan Yan thought the advice good. He therefore set his men on the walls to defend the city. Soon Zhang Fei’s messenger came up to the wall and was admitted. He delivered Zhang Fei’s message word for word. Yan Yan, exceedingly angry, cried, “What an impudent rascal! How dare he say such things to me? Am I, General Yan Yan, the person to surrender to a scoundrel? Go back and tell this to him.”

Then he told his men to cut off the poor messenger’s ears and nose. Thus mutilated, he returned to Zhang Fei. On hearing this, Zhang Fei’s wrath boiled over, and grinding his teeth and glaring with rage, he put on his armor, mounted his steed, and went up close to the walls, with several hundred mounted men, to challenge the defenders of the city to battle. But the men on the walls only responded with endless abuse. Zhang Fei galloped again and again to the drawbridge, only to be driven off each time by flights of arrows. Not a single man came outside the walls to fight. As the day closed in, Zhang Fei, still fuming with wrath, returned to his own camp.

The next day Zhang Fei again led his men to the foot of the wall and challenged, and again the challenge was refused. Yan Yan shot an arrow from the tower that struck Zhang Fei’s helmet. This angered him still more, and pointing at his foe, Zhang Fei cried, “I will capture you yet, you old rascal, and then I will devour your flesh.”

So again at eventide he returned to camp, thwarted of his desire. On the third day Zhang Fei and his men circled around the city along the edge of the moat, hurling insults at their enemies.

It so happened that the city was set on a hill with rugged heights all around. Zhang Fei galloped up one of the hills and looked down into the city. There he saw the enemy soldiers arranged in orderly units and well-armored, all ready for battle—although none of them came out—while the civilians went to and fro carrying bricks and bringing stones to strengthen the defenses. Seeing this, Zhang Fei ordered his horsemen to dismount and his foot soldiers to sit down so as to induce his enemy to sally forth from the city. But his trick of pretended negligence was to no avail, for still they declined battle. Thus another day was lost and the army once more returned to camp. This lack of action was yet repeated for another day, which was again spent in empty abuse.

That night Zhang Fei sat in his tent trying to think out some means to overcome an enemy that steadily refused to venture from behind the walls. Presently, however, the brain behind his knitted brows conceived a plan. So the next day, instead of going out to challenge, he kept most of his men in camp and sent only a few dozen of them to howl insults and hurl abuse at the city gate. He hoped by this means to draw Yan Yan out to attack the small force. But this also failed, and he was left all day rubbing his hands with impatience. Not a man appeared outside the wall.

Foiled again, he knitted his bushy eyebrows and another ruse grew in his mind. He set his men to cut firewood and explore for new tracks, but not to challenge the enemy. After several days of this, Yan Yan, wondering what mischief was being brewed, sent out spies, dressed like Zhang Fei’s firewood cutters, to mingle with them and try to discover what was afoot.

That day, when the men returned to camp, with the spies among them, they found Zhang Fei seated in his tent stamping his feet with rage and cursing his enemy. “That old rascal! This non-fight is really frustrating me!” he cried.

Then several of his men said, “General, do not worry. These last few days we have discovered a byroad by which we can sneak past this city.”

“Why didn’t you come and tell me before?” he deliberately cried in a loud voice.

“Because we have only lately discovered it,” they said.

“There is no time to lose then,” he said. “This very night let food be ready at the second watch and at the third watch we will break camp and steal away as silently as possible. I will lead the way myself and you all follow me in order.”

This order was soon announced to the whole camp. Having made sure that the preparations for the march were really being made, the spies returned into the city to tell the old general about this.

“I guessed right, then,” said Yan Yan gleefully, when the spies reported their success. “I know that bastard has no patience. Now, when he tries to sneak past he will surely put his supplies at the back and I will cut off his rear. How can he get through? What a stupid fool he is to fall thus into my trap!”

Orders were promptly given for soldiers to prepare for battle. Food was also to be ready at the second watch and the soldiers were to move out at the third and then to hide in the thickets. When the greater part of the army had passed the choke point of the byroad and the supply wagons had arrived, then the blow would be struck.

As night deepened all of Yan Yan’s men had a good meal, donned their armor, stole silently out of the city, and hid themselves among the bushes. The old general, with a dozen officers, also went out, dismounted, and waited in the woods. At about the third watch they saw Zhang Fei, spear in hand, come riding along swiftly and quietly at the head of his men. After he had gone some three or four
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there came in sight the wagons.

Yan Yan gave the signal. Drums rolled and out sprang the hidden men, who at once fell on the supply wagons.

As they did so, suddenly a gong clanged at their back and along came a company of soldiers. At the same time a voice was heard shouting, “Halt, you old rascal! I have been waiting for you a long time.”

Yan Yan turned his head. The leader of this troop was a tall man with a bullet-shaped head like a leopard, big round eyes, a sharp chin, and bristling tiger mustache. He was armed with a long spear and rode a jet-black steed. It was none other than Zhang Fei.

At once gongs clanged all around, and Zhang Fei’s men closed in on them. Faced with his terrible opponent Yan Yan was too surprised to be able to defend himself adequately. After some ten bouts Zhang Fei purposely gave his opponent an opening and Yan Yan rushed in to cut his enemy with his sword. But Zhang Fei evaded the blow, lunged forward, seized Yan Yan by the lace of his armor, and flung him on the ground. Soldiers came up and in a moment had him bound fast with cords.