Three Kingdoms

by Luo Guanzhong (Moss Roberts trans. )

  Gu Yong offered his opinion: "The only man who can stop them is Lu Xun!" Delighted with this suggestion, Sun Quan summoned the general5 and honored him with the titles First Field Marshal Who Sustains the Kingdom and Generalissimo Who Pacifies the North. As commander of the Royal Guard, Lu Xun was empowered to act in the king's behalf. He received the yak-tail standard and the golden mace before the assembled officials, who listened gravely. Sun Quan personally handed Lu Xun the whip for his mount.

  Lu Xun received Sun Quan's mandate and thanked his sovereign for his favor. Before dispatching forces to meet the invaders, Lu Xun recommended two men to serve as his lieutenants so that the army could be split into three divisions and advanced along three routes. Sun Quan asked for their names, and Lu Xun replied, "Zhu Huan, General Who Invigorates Our Prestige, and Quan Zong, General Who Calms the South. These two will support my command." Sun Quan approved and appointed Zhu Huan field marshal of the Left and Quan Zong field marshal of the Right. Following this, Lu Xun took command of a vast host of more than seven hundred thousand troops recruited from the eighty-one departments of the Southland and from the Jingzhou region as well. With Zhu Huan leading the left route army and Quan Zong leading the right route army, Lu Xun advanced, leading the central army himself.

  Zhu Huan proposed a plan: "Cao Xiu was sent on his mission only because he is an imperial relation. He has neither the brains nor the courage to command. Zhou Fang's scheme has lured him into a key area. Marshal, if you attack, he is bound to fall back and then flee by one of two routes—Gorge of Rock on the left or Hanging Wagon on the right—both treacherous mountain paths. Let Quan Zong and myself each set a detachment in ambush at these points after we have blocked the road with rocks and branches. Cao Xiu will be taken. That done, we will advance directly and seize Shouchun, bringing Xuchang and Luoyang within striking distance, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!" "I'm afraid it's not a good plan," Lu Xun replied. "I have some clever ploys of my own." Thereupon Zhu Huan withdrew, resentful of the way his views had been received. Lu Xun ordered Zhuge Jin and others to hold Jiangling and oppose Sima Yi. All the field armies were positioned exactly as Lu Xun directed.

  Meanwhile, as Cao Xiu approached the city of Huan, Zhou Fang went forth to greet him, proceeding directly to Cao Xiu's tent. Cao Xiu said, "Your recent communication stating seven conditions seemed entirely reasonable, and your appeal was submitted to the Son of Heaven. He has mustered the whole army for an expedition south; and if we take the Southland, your contribution will have played no small part. Some contend you are full of schemes and some doubt the truth of what you say, but I feel confident you are not deceiving us."

  Zhou Fang let out a sharp cry, seized a follower's sword, and attempted to cut his own throat. Cao Xiu swiftly checked him. Bracing himself on the sword, Zhou Fang said, "I made seven points and will now prove my sincerity with my blood. Some southerner is provoking suspicion to turn you against me. Give him credence, and I shall die. Let Heaven vouch for my loyalty." So saying, Zhou Fang again tried to kill himself. In alarm Cao Xiu restrained him, saying, "I spoke in jest. There is no need for such demonstrations." Zhou Fang then cut off his hair with the sword and flung the tangle to the ground. He said, "I come to you with a loyal heart, and you treat me in jest. To show my true heart, I have severed the hair that comes from the parents who gave me life." Thus, Zhou Fang convinced Cao Xiu of his sincerity. Cao Xiu held a grand banquet in his honor; the festivities ended, and Zhou Fang excused himself.

  Suddenly Jia Kui, General Who Establishes Dynastic Authority, was announced. Cao Xiu ordered him to appear and asked him, "What have you come for?" Jia Kui replied, "I believe the Southland has massed troops at Huan. Field Marshal, do not risk an advance before I try to defeat the enemy with flank attacks." Cao Xiu replied angrily, "Are you trying to rob me of this achievement?" But Jia Kui went on, "Zhou Fang cut his hair to deceive you—as Yao Li did in ancient times when he cut off his arm to win Qing Ji's trust before murdering him. Give him no credence!"

  In rising anger Cao Xiu asked, "Would you sap our morale at the very moment I am preparing to march?" He ordered his guards to remove and execute Jia Kui. The other commanders appealed in his behalf: "To kill a leading commander on the eve of the expedition will do our army no good. Spare him for now." Cao Xiu relented; he held Jia Kui's men in camp pending deployment and took a company ahead to capture East Pass. When Zhou Fang heard that Jia Kui had been stripped of his command, he said to himself with satisfaction, "Had Cao Xiu heeded Jia Kui, the Southland would have been done for. But Heaven brings us victory this day!"

  Zhou Fang sent a secret emissary to the city of Huan to report these developments to Lu Xun. Lu Xun summoned his commanders and delivered his orders to them: "Stone-town lies ahead. The roads are hilly, suitable enough for an ambush. Go and occupy the open ground first, then deploy and await the Wei army." Finally, Lu Xun ordered Xu Sheng to move up as vanguard.

  Meanwhile, Cao Xiu had ordered Zhou Fang to advance. On the march Cao Xiu asked him, "What place lies ahead?" "Stonetown," Zhou Fang replied. "A good place to occupy." Following this advice, Cao Xiu led his main force, complete with impedimenta and regalia, and stationed it at Stonetown. The next day lookouts reported to him, "Southland troops in undetermined numbers bar our way into the hills." "But Zhou Fang assured me," Cao Xiu said in alarm. "How could there be troops waiting?" Cao Xiu raced to find Zhou Fang but was told he had ridden off with a few dozen men, no one knew where. "I have fallen into a trap, but there's no need to panic," Cao Xiu exclaimed, and he ordered General Zhang Pu to lead the vanguard into battle against the southern army.

  The two sides deployed in formation. Zhang Pu rode forth and denounced the enemy commander: "Surrender now, traitor!" Xu Sheng rode forth to engage him. After a brief clash Zhang Pu, unable to withstand the assault, reined in and recalled his men. He returned to Cao Xiu and told him that Xu Sheng was too bold to confront. "I will defeat him with a surprise attack," Cao Xiu boasted, and he ordered Zhang Pu to put twenty thousand men in ambush south of Stonetown. At the same time Cao Xiu ordered Xue Qiao to lay another twenty thousand in ambush north of the town. "Tomorrow," Cao Xiu told them, "I will go forth with one thousand men and provoke battle. Then I will feign defeat to draw the enemy near the northern hills. At the signal of a bombard we will attack from three sides—and a great victory will be ours." The two commanders went to carry out their orders.

  Meanwhile, Lu Xun had summoned his lieutenants Zhu Huan and Quan Zong and instructed them: "Take thirty thousand troops each and harass Cao Xiu's camp from the rear; then signal with fire. I will advance in force on the main road. Cao Xiu can be taken!" At dusk the two commanders moved forward according to plan. During the second watch Zhu Huan led a company behind Cao Xiu's camp, where he fell upon Zhang Pu's ambush. But Zhang Pu did not realize the troops were hostile and rode forward to make inquiry; Zhu Huan cut him down with a stroke of the sword. The Wei force fled, and Zhu Huan ordered the rear company to light a fire. At this signal Quan Zong, leading his company to worry the rear of Cao Xiu's camp, came to grips with the soldiers of Xue Qiao. In the ensuing slaughter Xue Qiao fled in defeat; and the Wei troops ran headlong back to camp, having suffered grave losses.

  From the rear Zhu Huan and Quan Zong, leading separate units, moved in for the kill. Cao Xiu's camp became so disorganized that his troops began attacking one another. Cao Xiu leaped to his horse and raced toward the Stonetown road. With a sizable force Xu Sheng moved along the main road killing countless Wei troops; those who escaped abandoned their battle garments and shields. Cao Xiu was in a panic, racing for his life down the Stonetown road, when a band of men burst into his view from a bypath, their commander Jia Kui. Cao Xiu recovered slightly and in a tone of self-reproach said, "I suffered this defeat because I ignored your advice." "Leave this road at once, Field Marshal," Jia Kui urged. "If the southerners block it with rocks and branches, we will be in grave danger." Cao Xiu galloped off. Jia Kui protected the rear and planted decoy b
anners both in the thick of the woods and along precarious hill paths. Racing up in pursuit, Xu Sheng glimpsed the banners on the slopes and chose to recall his troops and return rather than press the chase and risk ambush. Thus, Cao Xiu was rescued; and Sima Yi, hearing of Cao Xiu's defeat, withdrew.

  Lu Xun was awaiting news of victory when Xu Sheng, Zhu Huan, and Quan Zong returned, having captured huge quantities of chariots, carts, draft animals, materiel, and weapons in addition to tens of thousands of enemy soldiers. Delighted with the outcome of the day's action, Field Marshal Lu Xun brought the army back to the Southland, followed by Governor Zhou Fang and the principal lieutenant commanders. The lord of the Southland, Sun Quan, led his officials and officers out of Wuchang to greet Lu Xun, whom he placed beside him under the imperial umbrella for the ride back into the city. All the lieutenant commanders were promoted and rewarded.

  Noticing that Zhou Fang was missing some hair, Sun Quan cheered him, saying, "You will go down in history for what you accomplished today." He then made Zhou Fang an honorary lord and held a grand banquet to feast the army and celebrate the victory. Lu Xun addressed his sovereign, saying, "Cao Xiu's defeat has daunted the Wei. Now is the time to send a letter to the Riverlands urging Zhuge Liang to march against them." Sun Quan approved the proposal and sent an emissary off to Shu. Indeed:

  A sound plan from the eastern kingdom

  Would cause the western kingdom to mobilize again.

  How would Kongming's next campaign against Wei turn out?

  Read on.

  97

  Kongming Appeals Again for an Expedition Against Wei;

  Jiang Wei Defeats the Cao Army by Offering a False Letter

  It was autumn, the ninth month of Jian Xing 6 (a. d. 228) by the Shu-Han calendar, when the Southland general Lu Xun defeated the Wei field marshal Cao Xiu at Stonetown and seized his chariots, livestock, and fighting equipment. Despair over these losses caused Cao Xiu to develop an ulcer on his back; he died on reaching Luoyang. The ruler of Wei, Cao Rui, had him buried with full honors.

  When Sima Yi returned with his troops, the assembled commanders asked him, "Field Marshal Cao's defeat was as much your responsibility, Commander, as his—why have you rushed back?" "Zhuge Liang might exploit our defeat to take Chang'an," he replied. "Who else can meet an emergency to our west? That is why I came home." But the commanders thought Sima Yi afraid, and snickered as they withdrew.

  Meanwhile, the Southland emissary had delivered Sun Quan's letter to the Shu capital. Its appeal for the Riverlands to attack Wei and its account of the defeat of Cao Xiu bespoke Sun Quan's intention to demonstrate the Southland's strength and to promote good relations with the Riverlands. The Second Emperor was delighted with the letter and had it carried to Kongming in Hanzhong.

  Preparing for another offensive, Kongming had brought his armed forces to full strength, laid in supplies, and readied all equipment and materiel. When the Second Emperor's courier arrived with Sun Quan's letter, Kongming convened a grand banquet for planning the campaign with his commanders. Suddenly, a violent gust of wind from the northeast blew down a pine tree in front of Kongming's quarters. Before a startled assembly Kongming divined by tossing coins and said, "This portends the fall of a great general." The commanders were skeptical of this prediction, and the banquet continued. Suddenly Zhao Tong, eldest son of Zhao Zilong, General Who Controls the South, and Zhao Guang, the second son, came to present themselves before the prime minister. Astonished, Kongming threw his cup to the ground and cried, "We have lost Zhao Zilong!" The two sons entered Kongming's presence, flung themselves to the ground, and wept. "Father died last night at the third watch," they cried, "after his illness had taken a turn for the worse." Kongming stamped his foot on the ground. Tearfully, he said, "In Zilong the dynasty had a pillar; and I, my right arm!" All the assembled commanders wept.

  Kongming sent the sons of Zhao Zilong to Chengdu to report their father's demise. On receiving the news, the Second Emperor emitted a sharp cry and shed tears. "Long ago, when I was still an infant," he said, "Zhao Zilong plucked me from certain death during a chaotic retreat of our forces." The Second Emperor issued an edict posthumously honoring Zhao Zilong as regent-marshal and lord of Shunping and ordered him interred east of the Damask Screen Hills outside Chengdu. An ancestral temple was built on the site for the offering of sacrifice each season. A poet of later times left these lines in Zhao Zilong's memory:

  O Tiger General from Changshan

  With the wit and courage of Zhang and Guan!

  Your triumph at Hanshui stands today;1

  Your name at Dangyang all acclaimed.

  Twice you saved the baby prince In service to his sacred sire.

  History honors those whom duty claims,

  Conferring a glory that never wanes.

  Mindful of Zhao Zilong's past achievements, the Second Emperor buried him with rich and splendid ceremony. He assigned Zhao Tong to the Imperial Tiger Escort and appointed Zhao Guang garrison commander, ordering them to stand watch at the graveside in honor of their late father's memory.

  The two sons took their leave and departed. Suddenly an imperial attendant informed the Emperor, ''Prime Minister Zhuge Liang is ready to resume the campaign against Wei. " The Second Emperor turned to the officials at court; they advocated a more cautious policy. The Emperor was struggling to reach a decision, when he was told that the prime minister had sent Yang Yi with a petition. The Second Emperor summoned Yang Yi, who presented the document for his examination. The text read:

  Painfully recognizing that either the kingdom of Han or the kingdom of Wei must fall and that our royal rule would never know security if confined to a part of the realm, the late Emperor empowered me to wage righteous war against the northern traitors. Accurately appraising his vassal's abilities, he knew full well what feeble talent I had to pit against so strong an enemy; but not to go forward spelled our doom. To arms, rather than to bow to fate! Thus, the late Emperor charged me, and he never wavered in that commitment.

  The day I received his mandate, I neither slept nor ate; the northern expedition occupied my thoughts. But first we had to move into the region south of us. In the fifth month I crossed the River Lu and penetrated deep into aboriginal territory, going without food for days at a time—not because I threw caution to the winds but because, knowing that Your Majesty's rule could never have survived confined to the Shu capital, we would have faced any danger, any difficulty, to carry out the late Emperor's last wishes. Critics have complained of this plan. Now, when the traitors are spent in the west and occupied in the east, military logic tells us to exploit their distress. It is time to move forward. Allow me to present further details of this case.

  The founder of the Han, Emperor Gao Zu, had wisdom of a heavenly scale and advisers of great depth and subtlety. Yet he tested treacherous terrain and suffered painful defeats, gaining security only after many trials and ordeals. Your Majesty will never surpass Emperor Gao Zu; your advisers will never surpass Zhang Liang and Chen Ping. How Your Majesty could seek a long-range plan for conquering the empire from a passive position is the first thing I fail to understand.

  Imperial Inspector Liu Yao and Governor Wang Lang each held imperial territory.2 They were concerned for their security and worked out plans, freely citing the ancient sages. But a crowd of doubts filled their breasts, innumerable obstacles impeded their thinking, and they put off military action from year to year. That they thus allowed Sun Ce to wax in power unhampered and eventually engross the whole of the Southland is the second thing I fail to understand.

  Cao Cao—no shrewder planner than he—waged war in a manner worthy of Sunzi and Wu Qi. Nonetheless, his enemies trapped him at Nanyang, put him in straits in Wuchao, imperiled his life at Qilian, pressed him hard at Liyang, nearly ruined him at Beishan, and almost killed him at Tong Pass. After all that, he enjoyed a brief period of false security. How then this vassal, Liang, with so much less talent than Cao Cao, could ever conquer the north without
running risks is the third thing I fail to understand.

  Cao Cao attacked Changba five times but could not subdue it. He tried to cross Lake Chao four times and failed. He took Li Fu into his service, but Li Fu conspired against him. He gave authority to Xiahou Yuan, but Xiahou Yuan died. The late Emperor always acknowledged Cao Cao's capabilities, yet he had his failures too. How then one so inferior as this vassal could guarantee a victory is the fourth thing I fail to appreciate.

  Alas, since arriving in Hanzhong, in one year we have lost Zhao Zilong,3 Yang Qun, Ma Yu, Yan Zhi, Ding Li, Bo Shou, Liu He, Deng Tong, and others, in addition to unit leaders and positional commanders totaling more than seventy. We also lost more than a thousand of our special forces—shock troops, units of the Cong, Sou, and Black Qiang nations, rangers and armed cavalry. To assemble these elite forces from around the realm took many decades; no single province can make up the loss. And in a few more years, we will lose another two-thirds of them. How to deal with the enemy then is the fifth thing I fail to understand.

  At present, though the population is strained to the utmost and the armed forces near exhaustion, events will not stand still; and in their swift course, action is no dearer than restraint. Not to act when the hour beckons, trying instead to sustain a protracted struggle with the resources of but a single province is the sixth thing I fail to understand.

  Events are the hardest things to control. Once the late Emperor lost a battle in Jingzhou, and Cao Cao gleefully rubbed his hands together, confident that he had conquered the empire. But then the late Emperor allied himself with Wu and Yue in the east, took Ba and Shu in the west, and marched against the north. Xiahou Yuan fell. This was something Cao Cao failed to reckon on and a promise of success for the cause of Han. But the Southland turned on its Riverlands ally; Lord Guan perished, Zigui fell, and Cao Pi proclaimed a new dynasty. That's how things happen; it is difficult to anticipate things to come. Humbly I shall toil to the last ounce of my strength, until my end; but whether the outcome will favor us or not is beyond my powers of prediction.4