Taking counsel with his five commanders, Han Sui asked, "How can this be made right?" Yang Qiu said, "With his martial skill, Ma Chao thinks too highly of himself; he has always tended to bully you. Even if Cao Cao is defeated, Chao will continue in his arrogance. In my humble opinion we should secretly enter Lord Cao's service; later you will have a lordship for sure." "Ma Teng and I were sworn brothers," Han Sui said. "I cannot bear to betray that trust." "There is no choice, at this point,"2 responded Yang Qiu. "Then who will take the message?" Han Sui asked. "I'll do it," Yang Qiu answered. And so Han Sui sent Yang Qiu to Cao Cao's camp with a secret offer of surrender.
Cao Cao received this letter with great delight. He had Han Sui enfeoffed as lord of Xiliang and Yang Qiu as governor. The other commanders received official appointments all. They agreed on signal fires to coordinate their moves against Ma Chao. After taking leave, Yang Qiu reported to Han Sui in full, adding, "Tonight at the signal, those inside and those outside will work together." Well pleased, Han Sui ordered his men to accumulate kindling behind the tents of the central army. The five commanders waited with their weapons near to hand. Han Sui had also proposed holding a banquet in order to murder Ma Chao, but this plan had not yet been put into action.
Little did Han Sui know that Ma Chao had already discovered the details of the plot against him. Taking a few trusted followers, Ma Chao went directly to Han Sui, sword in hand. Pang De and Ma Dai followed close behind. Ma Chao silently entered Han Sui's tent. There were the five commanders whispering with Han Sui; and there was Yang Qiu actually saying, "This cannot be delayed. It must be done now." Roused to fury, Ma Chao confronted them, swinging his sword as he bellowed, "You pack of thieves would murder me?" Everyone was astounded. Ma Chao sliced at Han Sui's face. Sui tried to ward off the blow; the blade swiftly severed his left hand. All five commanders then rushed Chao waving their swords. Ma Chao strode outside but was quickly surrounded by the five, who flailed wildly at him. Wielding his fine sword, Ma Chao took them on. Wherever his blade flashed, fresh blood shot forth: he cut down Ma Wan and hacked Liang Xing to death; the other three fled. Ma Chao went back into the tent to finish off Han Sui, but Sui's attendants had already pulled him to safety.3
Behind the tent a torch flared, and the troops in every camp began stirring. Ma Chao mounted swiftly. Pang De and Ma Dai too joined in the furious combat. By the time Ma Chao had forced his way free, Cao Cao's units were on all sides: Xu Chu in front, Xu Huang behind; Xiahou Yuan to the left, Cao Hong to the right. The Xiliang troops began fighting among themselves. Ma Chao, having lost sight of Pang De and Ma Dai, took up a position on Wei Bridge with a hundred riders. Day was starting to break. Li Kan, one of Han Sui's five commanders, appeared with a small force. Ma Chao put him to flight but broke off the chase when Yu Jin, Cao's commander, arrived. Yu Jin, coming from behind, shot at Ma Chao. Detecting the hum of the string, Ma Chao leaned away, and the arrow struck down Li Kan instead. Then Chao turned on Yu Jin; but Jin galloped away, and Chao subsequently resumed his place on the bridge.
Cao Cao's main force reached the scene, his famed Tiger Guard in the fore. Arrows rained on Ma Chao from two sides, but he managed to deflect many with his spear as his guard made short, murderous charges. Alas, Cao Cao's mass of troops was too solid to break through. From the bridge Ma Chao gave a deafening yell, then dashed away to the north of the stream. His guard was completely cut off. All alone now, Chao tried to force his way out, but the bolt from a sniper's crossbow knocked his mount from under him. Cao Cao's men closed in.
At this moment of dire peril, a body of men flashed into view on the northwest, led by Pang De and Ma Dai. They brought Ma Chao to safety and gave him a horse. Then they pushed forward, leaving a bloody trail, and escaped to the northwest. Hearing of Ma Chao's getaway, Cao Cao ordered his commanders: "Ride day and night till you ride him down. A thousand pieces of gold and a fief of ten thousand households to the man who takes his head. And the man who takes him alive will be supreme general." His commanders set out one after the other in quest of the prize fugitive. Ma Chao, meanwhile, heedless of his own fatigue or his mount's, dashed on, gradually leaving his followers behind. Those on foot were mostly taken captive. Attended by only thirty riders, Ma Chao, Pang De, and Ma Dai headed for Lintao in Longxi.
Cao Cao personally pursued Ma Chao as far as Anding before returning to Chang'an, where he received all his returning commanders. Han Sui, crippled by loss of his left hand, was permitted to remain in Chang'an and was made lord of Xiliang. Yang Qiu and Hou Xuan were enfeoffed as lords of the first rank and ordered to defend Weikou. Cao Cao gave the order for all to withdraw east to Xuchang. At that moment a Liangzhou military adviser, Yang Fu (Yishan), presented himself before Cao Cao and said: "Ma Chao has the prowess of a Lü Bu, and the Qiang hold him dear. If Your Excellency does not remove him before he regains his strength, the dynasty will never again control the western districts. I pray Your Excellency not to go back to the capital."
"Initially," Cao Cao replied, "I had intended to leave a force to conquer him. But, alas, the northern heartland has troubles enough of its own, and the south, too, has yet to be controlled. I cannot remain here. You shall have to undertake it for me." Yang Fu assented and requested the appointment of Wei Kang as imperial inspector of Liangzhou to help him defend Jicheng against Ma Chao. Fu also asked Cao Cao to leave well-armed troops in Chang'an for support. "I have arranged it," Cao Cao replied. "Don't worry." Yang Fu took his leave.
Cao Cao's commanders put a question to him: "When the rebels first took Tong Pass, the way north was wide open. Why did Your Excellency contest the pass so long before crossing to the north and attacking Pingyi from the east bank of the Yellow River?" Cao Cao replied, "When they had the pass, if we had gone for the east bank right away, the rebels would have fortified the crossing points and kept us from getting over to the west bank. Instead, by concentrating my troops at the pass I forced the rebels to throw everything into defending themselves on the south side of the river, leaving the west bank to their north undefended. That way, Xu Huang and Zhu Ling were able to cross first; then I followed, linking up the carriages and posts to make a sheltered road, and building walls of iced mud—all in order to make the rebels so confident of our weakness that they would fail to prepare their own defenses. Next, I used trickery to divide our enemies while conserving our soldiers' strength so that we could break them with a surprise attack—an example of what is meant by 'There's no time to cover the ears after thunder peals.' The possibilities in warfare are manifold."
The commanders asked: "Your Excellency, every time an increase in the rebels' troop strength was announced, you seemed pleased. Why?" "Guanzhong is a remote region," Cao Cao responded. "If the rebels had kept to their strongpoints, it would have taken us a year or two to restore order. But when they gathered in one place, despite their numbers, their lack of unity made it easy to cause dissension and annihilate them in a single action. That's what pleased me." The commanders expressed their profound respect, saying, "Your Excellency's marvelous tactics far surpass anything we would have devised." "I could not do without the efforts of my officers and officials," Cao Cao replied and distributed rewards to the various corps. He left Xiahou Yuan in Chang'an to redeploy the surrendered soldiers into several commands. Xiahou Yuan recommended to Cao Cao that Zhang Ji (Derong) from Gaoling in Pingyi serve as governor of Jingzhao district, defending Chang'an jointly with himself.
After these arrangements Cao Cao brought the army home to Xuchang. Emperor Xian personally welcomed him before the walls. By imperial proclamation, Cao Cao was excused from using his given name before the Emperor; he was also permitted to enter the court without hurrying forward with his body bowed, and to enter the principal hall shod and armed with a sword—all after precedents set for the first prime minister of the Han, Xiao He. From this time forward Cao Cao's reputation flourished and spread at home and abroad.
Details of these events made their way to Hanzhong, alarming Zhang Lu, the gov
ernor of Hanning. Zhang Lu was originally from Feng in the fief at Pei. His grandfather, Zhang Ling, the Taoist of the Swan Call Hills in the Riverlands, led people astray with faked miracles that won him a great name. After Zhang Ling's death, his son Heng followed in his footsteps. Those among the people intending to study the Tao had to contribute five pecks of rice; thus, Zhang Heng earned the popular sobriquet Rice Rebel. Zhang Heng died, and Zhang Lu carried on his work in Hanzhong. He styled himself lord-preceptor, and his disciples were known as the Ghost Squad. Captains were known as libationers; and those commanding large numbers were called head libationers.
The principal concern of this sect was sincerity; neither lying nor deception was condoned. Anyone who became ill was placed in a quiet room in a sanctuary so that he could reflect on his past mistakes and make a clean breast of them. Then all prayed for the patient. A control-libationer directed the prayer session. The method was as follows. The sick man's full name was written out, his penance explained, and three copies of his "petition to the three realms" were made: one to place on a hilltop in appeal to Heaven, one to bury in the ground in appeal to earth, and one to drop in the water in appeal to the masters of the netherworld. After this was done, and once the illness had passed, the patient donated five pecks of rice as an expression of gratitude.
This Taoist sect also had public bins filled with rice, fuel, and meat. Anyone who came was allowed whatever he could consume, though he would be punished by Heaven for taking more than an honest share. Within the dominion of the sect, offenders were forgiven three times. Only those who refused to mend their ways suffered punishment. There were no court officials; all were attached to the libationer. Thus had Hanzhong been ruled for thirty years. The court regarded it too far away to be worth an expedition, and so simply commissioned Zhang Lu as Imperial Corps Commander Who Garrisons the South and governor of Hanning; his only responsibility was to forward local tribute.
When Zhang Lu heard that Cao Cao had defeated the western army and was making his might felt in the region, he called his advisers to counsel. "Ma Teng of Xiliang," he said, "has met his doom, and Ma Chao has taken a beating. That means Cao Cao will attack us. I am going to declare myself prince of Hanning and take charge of the resistance. What are your views?" Yan Pu said, "The people of the Han River region, numbering over one hundred thousand households, have great wealth and ample grain as well as natural fortification on all four sides. Ma Chao's defeat has sent tens of thousands of Xiliang soldiers through the Zi-Wu valley and into Hanzhong. In my humble view, Liu Zhang, the protector of Yizhou, the Riverlands, is too muddled to govern with any effect. Let us first seize the forty-one departments of the Riverlands as our base before we take the step of declaring an independent kingdom." Zhang Lu accepted this advice with pleasure and consulted with his brother Zhang Wei on the mustering of the troops.4
News of these developments soon reached the Riverlands. The province's protector, Liu Zhang (Jiyu), was the son of Liu Yan and a descendant of Prince Gong of Lu.5 During Emperor Zhang's reign of Primal Harmony (Yuan He, a.d. 84-86), Prince Gong's kingdom was shifted to Jingling, and so the clan's sons settled there. Later Liu Yan's position was shifted to that of protector of Yizhou; he died of an ulcer during the first year of Prosperous Tranquility (Xing Ping, a.d. 194). The main officials of the province, Zhao Wei and others, supported Liu Zhang as his replacement.
Liu Zhang and Zhang Lu were enemies, for the protector had killed Lu's mother and younger brother. Accordingly, Liu Zhang had set up Pang Xi as governor of Baxi to serve as a buffer against Zhang Lu. Informed by the governor that Zhang Lu meant to march on the Riverlands, the protector, a timid sort, became unnerved and confused. But at an emergency meeting of Liu Zhang's advisers, someone stepped boldly forth and said, "Set your mind at ease, my lord. I don't have much ability, but this tough little tongue of mine can forestall Zhang Lu's plan to take our territory." Indeed:
Because a man of Shu stepped forward with a plan,
The Jingzhou champions were drawn into the game.
Who was that man of Shu?
Read on.
60
Zhang Song Confounds Yang Xiu;
Pang Tong Proposes the Conquest of Shu
The plan was proposed by Zhang Song (Yongnian), the lieutenant inspector of Yizhou. Zhang Song was a most unusual looking man. He had an angular brow and a tapered skull; his nose was flat, his teeth protruding; he was under five feet tall; and his voice was plangent as a bronze bell. To Inspector Liu Zhang's question, "Lieutenant, what can be done about the threat Zhang Lu poses from Hanzhong?" Zhang Song responded, "Cao Cao, based in Xuchang, has swept the northeast of seditious elements, wiping out Lü Bu, Yuan Shao, and Yuan Shu.1 Today, after defeating Ma Chao, he has emerged unrivaled. My lord, prepare gifts for me to take to the capital. If I can persuade Cao Cao to march on Hanzhong, Zhang Lu will have little time to concern himself with our territory of Shu." Delighted with this counsel, Liu Zhang collected gold and pearls and rich textiles for his lieutenant to take to the capital. Meanwhile, after quietly providing himself with maps of the Riverlands, Zhang Song set out attended by a few horsemen. His movements were soon reported in Jingzhou, and Kongming sent men to the capital to bring back information on Zhang Song's mission.2
Having arrived in Xuchang, Zhang Song sought audience daily at Cao Cao's ministerial quarters. Now Cao Cao, swelled with pride after his victory over Ma Chao, held banquets regularly and kept to his residence, from which he conducted government business. It took Zhang Song three days to get his name announced. Finally, after bribing Cao's attendants, he gained admittance. Zhang Song presented himself to Cao Cao, who was seated in the main hall, and prostrated himself. Cao Cao asked, "Your master, Liu Zhang, has submitted no tribute for years. Why?" "The routes are virtually impassable," Zhang Song replied. "With so many highwaymen, we have been unable to send tribute." Cao Cao said derisively, "I have cleaned up the north; where are there any thieves?" "To the south there is Sun Quan," Zhang Song answered, "to the north, Zhang Lu; and to the west, Liu Bei—the least of whom has a hundred thousand under arms. How can you call this an era of general peace?"
Cao Cao, already unfavorably impressed by Zhang Song's wretched appearance, reacted to these provocative remarks. He stood up, flicked his sleeves, and retired to his private chambers, leaving his aides to rebuke the visitor. "An emissary," they admonished, "should display some understanding of proper ceremony instead of blindly crossing his host. Luckily the prime minister, in view of your long journey, did not take offense. Now go back as quickly as you can." "You won't find any craven toadies among us Riverlanders," Zhang Song replied smugly.
This fresh jibe was suddenly answered by someone at the base of the stair leading to the main hall. "You Riverlanders have no skill in flattery, do you?" he shouted. "Do you think we northerners do?" Zhang Song regarded the man. He had thin eyebrows and narrow eyes, a light face and fine features. He was the son of the former grand commandant Yang Biao, Yang Xiu (Dezu), presently first secretary to the prime minister, in charge of the treasury. Yang Xiu had broad learning and a competence in argument that few could surpass; and his skill in debate was well known. Zhang Song had a mind to put him in his place. Yang Xiu had supreme confidence in his talent and disdained other scholars of the realm. After Zhang Song's sarcastic response, Yang Xiu invited him to join him in the library.
The two scholars seated themselves as host and guest. Yang Xiu said, "The road from Shu is rough indeed. Such a long journey must have tired you." "At my lord's command," Zhang Song replied, "I would walk through fire or boiling water." "Tell me something of the way of life in Shu," Yang Xiu requested. "Shu comprises the districts of the west," Zhang Song began, "under the ancient name Yizhou. Access by water is by the difficult Jin River; by land, through the formidable Saber Gateway Road. It would take two hundred and eighty stages to make the round trip from Shu, and its area exceeds thirty thousand li. Cocks crow and dogs bark everywhere, for the common folk are ceaselessly
active. The fields are fertile and the soil productive, and neither flood nor drought plagues us. Thus, the state is wealthy and its people prosper, enjoying in due season the delights of music and song. No place under Heaven can produce such mountains of goods."
"And what men of note have you produced?" Yang Xiu asked. "In the civil arts we have had men as gifted as the great rhapsodist Sima Xiangru; in the military, leaders as capable as Ma Yuan; in medicine, physicians as able as Zhang Ji;3 in divination, seers as profound as Yan Zun. Furthermore, in the various schools of philosophy and religion we have produced more exemplary men of talent and learning than I could begin to name." So Zhang Song replied.
"And," Yang Xiu went on, "could you also tell me something about the men now in Liu Zhang's service? Are there more like yourself?" "In both civil and military departments," Zhang Song said, "we have a full complement of talented men—wise, brave, loyal, honorable, and noble-minded—numbering in the hundreds. As for those like me, men of the most limited capacity, we come by the cartload, the bushelful, too many to be counted." To this Yang Xiu responded, "And what position do you presently occupy?" "I am filling in as a lieutenant inspector, but I am unqualified for the position. And what office do you hold at court, sir? May I inquire?" "Presently," Yang Xiu replied, "I am first secretary to the prime minister." "It is said you come from successive generations of officeholders," Song said. "Why are you not an assistant to the Emperor instead of an insignificant staff officer in the prime minister's service?"
At these words Yang Xiu flushed crimson. Controlling his expression he answered with effort, "Although I am a minor aide, His Excellency has entrusted me with the administration of money and provisions for the army, a weighty responsibility that has taught me much, under His Excellency's constant guidance. That is why I took the position." Zhang Song smiled. "I have heard," he said, "that His Excellency knows nothing of the way of the ancient sages Confucius and Mencius and that he falls short of Sunzi and Wu Qi in military strategy. He is said to be a man whose high office serves wholly to enhance his power. What could you possibly learn under such 'guidance'?"
Three Kingdoms Page 77
