Han Ji

September. Ye City.

The city has been without food for over a month. The bark on the trees has been stripped off, and the leaves have been picked clean. Some people are peeling off the bark from the old locust tree in front of their houses, drying it in the sun, grinding it into powder, and using it to make soup.

The soup was gray, and drinking it made my stomach bloated. There were people who had starved to death in the streets, their bodies wrapped in straw mats and piled up at the alley entrances, and the wheels of the corpse collection teams rumbled from morning till night.

The garrison could only eat one meal a day, which consisted of only half a bowl of millet porridge, with the grains of rice countable. The soldiers' legs were so weak from standing on the city wall that some collapsed against the crenellations. When their comrades nudged them and they didn't respond, they realized they had fainted from hunger.

The horses had long been killed. Some people carved words on the battlements, their hometown names and dates. After finishing, they put the knife back in their pockets and continued to squat behind the battlements, waiting for their next meal.

After Shen Pei returned from Cangting, the arrow wound on his left shoulder hadn't fully healed. When the physician changed his dressing, the redness and swelling around the wound hadn't subsided. Shen Pei bit down on a cloth, his forehead covered in sweat.

After changing his bandages, he put on his armor and continued to sit in the side hall of the governor's mansion, reviewing city defense documents. He couldn't lift his left hand, so he could only write with his right. His handwriting was crooked than before, but every order was written clearly: add a double layer of guards to the south gate, increase the night sentry teams at the east gate from two to four, and replace the granary guards with his own personal guards.

But an order is an order, and execution is execution. The soldiers stood guard on empty stomachs, and by midnight their legs gave way and they sat down. When Shen Pei patrolled the city, he saw someone sitting on the ground, walked over, and kicked him. The man looked up at him, then lowered his head again, too weak to even stand up.

Feng Ji was in charge of grain. The numbers in the granary's ledgers dwindled day by day. He went to see Shen Pei daily, reporting increasingly lower figures each time. "Lord Shen," he said, "there are less than three hundred shi left. Even if we eat sparingly, it won't last ten days."

Shen Pei sat behind his desk, the wound on his left shoulder throbbing faintly beneath his armor. "Reduce it. Starting tomorrow, the city guards will only get one meal a day. My portion will be reduced too."

Feng Ji said, "Shen Gong, the soldiers are already too hungry to lift their swords. If we reduce their numbers further, there will be no one left on the city walls."

Shen Pei said, "We must defend the city even if there's no one there. Liu Bei is right outside. He's waiting for us to open the gates and surrender. We cannot surrender."

Feng Ji didn't say anything more. He paused at the door as he turned to leave, as if he wanted to say something, but then swallowed his words.

Yuan Shang sat in the main hall of the governor's mansion every day. His face was thin and sunken, his eyes were deep-set, and his beard was messy.

"Shen Gong, when will the Wuhuan reinforcements arrive?"

Shen Pei said, "Young Master, the Wuhuan won't be coming. Qian Zhao has blocked all the roads in the north, so the messenger can't get out at all."

Yuan Shang said, "Then why did you lie to me and say that the Wuhuan would come?"

Shen Pei did not answer. He stood up and walked to the window. Outside the window were the streets of Ye City, where people were squatting against the walls, holding empty bowls in their hands.

"Young lord, we cannot surrender the city. The foundation built by our late lord cannot be destroyed in our hands."

Yuan Shang remained silent. After a while, he said, "Shen Gong, aren't you afraid of death?"

Shen Pei turned around. "I'm afraid of death. But I'm even more afraid of having no face to meet my late lord in the afterlife."

The desertion of soldiers began in early September. First, a group of men fled from the south gate, taking advantage of the night to slip down the city wall by tying ropes to their bodies. Then came the east gate, and then the west gate. Shen Pei caught several deserters and beheaded them at the county government office, hanging their heads above the city gate. Even with their heads hanging, the number of deserters didn't decrease.

In mid-September, the city ran out of its last bit of food. The clerk in charge of grain went to the granary one last time, squatted at the entrance, pressed his hand to the ground, and felt a layer of mold. He returned to the governor's mansion and told Shen Pei: There wasn't a single grain of rice left.

Shen Pei remained silent for a long time. Then he stood up and went to Yuan Shang's room. Yuan Shang was sitting on the couch with a sword on his lap.

Yuan Shang only asked one question: "Shen Gong, how much longer can you hold out?"

Shen Pei said, "We'll hold out until we can't hold out any longer."

September 13th. Outside Ye City.

Liu Bei summoned all the commanders of the various camps to his central command tent. Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Zhang He, and Jia Xu were all present. Several oil lamps were lit in the tent, and a map was spread out on the table.

"Shen Pei is still in the city. He's wounded, but he's still in charge. The city has been without food for over a month, and the soldiers are too hungry to stand." Liu Bei's voice wasn't loud, but every word was clear. "We'll attack the city today."

He reported the troop deployment: Guan Yu would attack the south gate, Zhang Fei the east gate, Zhao Yun the west gate, and Zhang He the north gate. The central army would follow, advancing wherever the city fell first.

"After the city falls, burning, killing, and looting are forbidden. Yuan Shang and Shen Pei are to be captured alive. The surrendered soldiers are to be incorporated into the army."

It was late afternoon. The drums sounded.

The drumbeats shook the water in the moat outside the city. The first batch of siege ladders were erected on the city walls. The defenders' arrows were sparse; their quivers were long empty, and they were using old arrows that they had salvaged, some with mud still clinging to their shafts.

Ladders were erected on the battlements, and the siege soldiers climbed them with knives in their mouths. Some were pushed off the ladders, and others took their place.

Zhang Fei was the first to charge onto the city wall. He scaled a ladder charred by fire, his eighteen-foot spear sweeping across, felling the only captain still resisting in front of him. The captain was so thin his collarbones protruded; when he died, the blade hit the ground first, then his knees, and then he collapsed to the ground.

The soldiers guarding the city wall squatted on the ground, leaning against the crenellations, unarmed, and didn't move when they saw Zhang Fei. An old soldier looked up at him, then lowered his head again.

Guan Yu breached the south gate. The battering ram only struck the gate a few times before the bolt cracked. The wood was rotten—the defenders had even removed the bolt nails and melted down the arrowheads. As the gate collapsed, a cloud of dust rose, and Guan Yu, his greatsword already drawn, stepped over the gate panel and entered.

When Zhao Yun rushed in through the west gate, he encountered almost no resistance. The captain guarding the west gate was too hungry to stand, so he sat in the gatehouse, leaning against the wall, with an unsheathed sword beside him. Zhao Yun knelt down in front of him, and the captain's lips moved slightly as he uttered, "Surrender."

Zhang He intercepted a group of Yuan army cavalrymen attempting to break out at the north gate. The horses were so thin that their ribs protruded, and the riders could barely lift their swords. Zhang He used his spear shaft to knock one of them down, and the rest knelt on the ground, none of them moving again.

The resistance lasted less than an hour before it ceased. The defenders were not defeated by fighting, but by starvation.

It was already dark when Ye City fell. The firelight turned the blue bricks on the city walls orange-red, and the city was filled with shouts of surrender and cries.

Yuan Shang fled before the city fell. Shen Pei arranged for him to break out through the north gate, while Shen Pei himself stayed in the city to cover the rear. Yuan Shang changed into the armor of an ordinary cavalryman, and led a few dozen personal guards out of the north gate. Taking advantage of the gap in the handover between Zhang He and Zhao Yun, he sneaked out of the city through a dry drainage ditch.

Zhang He's men chased for over twenty li but failed to catch up. Yuan Shang's horse ran all night and reached the Zhongshan territory at dawn. He glanced back at the direction of Ye City, where only a hazy gray outline remained on the horizon.

Shen Pei was captured at the entrance of the county government office. When the city fell, he was standing at the entrance of the county government office with only a few dozen personal guards by his side. His personal guards were scattered, and Shen Pei was pinned to the ground by Zhang Fei's soldiers.

His left shoulder wound had reopened during the struggle, and blood seeped from beneath the old bandage. Zhang Fei walked up to him, looking down at him. "You're Shen Pei?"

Shen Pei was taken to a side hall of the county government office, his hands bound. When Liu Bei entered, Shen Pei looked up at him. The two stared at each other for a moment.