Han Ji

When Zhao Yun chased after Gao Gan and reached the dry riverbed, he only found Gao Gan's armor. The armor was a two-piece suit, with the iron plates on the shoulder armor worn smooth and splattered with blood.

The bloodstains had dried; you could scrape off powdery blood with your fingernail. There were also footprints in the riverbed, leading towards the ravine; they were deep, indicating someone had run.

Zhao Yun followed the footprints to the mouth of the ravine. The ravine was narrow, with steep cliffs on both sides, covered with thorny bushes. The footprints became shallower here, as the gravelly ground in the ravine couldn't retain them.

Zhao Yun stood at the mouth of the ravine for a while, the mountain wind blowing in from it carrying a chill. He turned and walked back, and when he reached the riverbed, he said to the soldiers who had followed him, "Take the armor back to our lord."

Before Zhao Yun returned, Qian Zhao's special forces battalion had already given chase. Qian Zhao was very fast; he led more than thirty men, all of whom were fast runners in the mountains. They chased Zhao Yun from the dry riverbed into a ravine, and then along the ravine to a fork in the road.

The fork in the road is where three mountain gullies converge. The ground is covered with gravel and moss. Qian Zhao crouched down to examine the marks on the gravel. There were scratch marks on the stones, freshly made; these marks are left when someone slips on loose stones. At the left fork, a stone was flipped over, the upper side wet, indicating it had been recently trampled.

"To the left."

After chasing for six or seven miles, it began to get dark. Darkness comes quickly in the mountains; once the sun sets, nothing can be seen under the trees. Qian Zhao lit a torch and continued the chase.

When they reached the bottom of a cliff, they found several items lying on the ground: a water bag, a half-eaten dry biscuit, and a blood-stained cloth.

The cloth robe was made of fine linen, not the coarse linen worn by ordinary soldiers. Qian Zhao picked up the robe and examined it closely. Inside the collar, there was a faded mark embroidered on it, indicating it belonged to a high-ranking official.

"He's injured. He can't run far."

Further on, bloodstains appeared on the ground. The bloodstains were not dense, with only a drop every few steps, and they had already congealed on the gravel, turning a dark reddish-brown. Qian Zhao followed the bloodstains across a low ridge. The ridge was covered with short pine trees, their branches so low that the pine needles stung his face as he crawled through them.

The trail of blood ended in front of a cave. The entrance was small; a person had to bend over to squeeze through. Bloody handprints were smeared on the rocks near the entrance. The handprints were still dripping, fresh.

Qian Zhao ordered his men to surround the cave entrance. He crouched behind a rock outside the cave and called out to those inside.

"High-ranking official. Come out. You can't escape now."

There was no sound from inside the cave. After a while, stones began to roll inside. Qian Zhao signaled to everyone to cock their crossbows. The sound of the crossbow strings being drawn was crisp in the night.

Voices came from inside the cave. They weren't high-ranking officials, but their personal guards. "Don't fire arrows. We're coming out."

One by one, they crawled out of the hole. First were the personal guards, three of them, all wounded, with bloody cuts on their faces and cracked lips. After they came out, they threw their knives on the ground and knelt by the hole. The last one was a high-ranking official.

When Gao Gan emerged from the cave, he leaned against the cave wall, his sleeve torn, revealing half of his forearm. His forearm was covered in scrapes, blood and mud mixed together. He wasn't wearing armor, only a thin shirt, the collar ripped open, the close-fitting shirt soaked with sweat and clinging to his body. A sword hung at his waist, its scabbard worn and bruised from being struck against the rocks.

He straightened up and looked at Qian Zhao in the torchlight. Qian Zhao didn't speak, she just looked at him. The torches crackled, and pine resin dripped onto the ground, sizzling and smoking.

The high-ranking official said, "I want to see Liu Bei."

Qian Zhao ignored him. He ordered his men to take away Gao Gan's sword. Two men came forward, seized Gao Gan, and led him back. His personal guards, also bound, followed behind. Qian Zhao told them to hurry, saying that the General was waiting at Huguan.

As dawn broke, they emerged from the ravine. The gates of Huguan were wide open, with soldiers standing guard on both sides. Inside the gate, rubble was still being cleared. The sharp edges of the rubble gleamed white in the morning light.

When Gao Gan was escorted into the city, the surrendered soldiers were still squatting at the foot of the city wall. As he walked past them, not a single one of them looked up at him. The woman peering out from the wall of the family quarters remained silent, simply watching him being led past the alleyway. His shackles dragged a line on the ground, overlapping the bloodstains left by soldiers who had been dragged away in battle.

Liu Bei's central command tent was temporarily set up in the open space in front of the Huguan city gate. The tent doors were wide open, and Liu Bei sat behind a desk, with Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Zhang He, Jia Xu, and the accompanying military clerks standing on either side.

On the table were two things: one was the seal of the magistrate of Huguan, which Gao Gan had stolen after killing officials during his rebellion, with dried bloodstains still on the seal knob; the other was Gao Gan's sword, which Qian Zhao had brought back from the mountains.

The high-ranking official was brought before the tent. His guards released him, letting him stand. He swayed slightly as he stood; his left leg, injured during the escape, was swollen badly at the knee, and his trouser leg was covered in congealed blood.

Liu Bei stared at him. He stared for a long while. A spark flew from the wick of the oil lamp on the table, sounding loud in the silence.

"I remember you kneeling before me in Ye City, pledging your life and soul. I handed Huguan over to you, and you killed my men. Now, to whom do you kneel?"

"I kneel before the Yuan family." The high-ranking official's throat was parched, and his voice was as rough as stone scraping stone. "I am Lord Yuan's nephew."

"Yuan Shao's nephew," Liu Bei repeated, placing his hand on the table. "Who is that high-ranking official who knelt before me, kowtowing and promising to give his life for me?"

The high-ranking official lowered his head, then raised it again. "Kill me."

"Don't worry," Liu Bei said. "You were the one who hung the head of the magistrate of Huguan at the city gate. Now his head has been placed in the coffin. You owe him a head."

The high-ranking official's face twitched slightly.

Liu Bei stood up and walked to Gao Gan. The two were only a step apart. "Many brothers died in the siege. Your life was bought with their lives." He paused, "So we cannot let you live."

Turning to Zhang Fei, he said, "Take him out. Deal with him according to military law."

Zhang Fei stepped forward, grabbed Gao Gan by the back of the neck, and shoved him out of the tent. Gao Gan was dragged out of the tent entrance, his shackles hitting the threshold.

Outside the city gate of Huguan, Gao Gan was forced to kneel on the ground. Zhang Fei personally held the sword. As the sword was raised, the morning light shone on the blade, reflecting a white light.

The blade fell. The head rolled half a circle on the ground before stopping. Blood gushed from the severed neck, splattering onto the stone slabs of the city gate.

Zhang Fei wiped the blood off the blade with a cloth and threw the cloth on the ground.

Liu Bei stood on the city tower, watching the scene outside the city gate. Jia Xu stood beside him, holding a chess piece in his hand.

"Huguan Pass has been captured. Bingzhou is now completely pacified," Jia Xu said.

"No. Huguan is just a gateway to Bingzhou in the east. The door is open, but the house isn't clean yet." Liu Bei turned around. "Let Ma Chao move his troops from Liangzhou to Taiyuan, and let Zhang Xiu push north from Xihe. All the former generals of the Yuan family in Bingzhou who are unwilling to surrender should be eliminated."

Jia Xu nodded.

Liu Bei then said, "Have Jian Yong re-register the household registrations in Bingzhou. Also, investigate the Black Mountain Army settlements. From now on, Bingzhou must not produce another high-ranking official."

That night, the battlefield was cleared in Huguan City. The surrendered soldiers were incorporated into various camps. The bodies of the dead were collected and buried separately; those of their own men were placed separately, while those of the garrison were buried in designated locations.