Han Ji

January of the fifteenth year of Xingping. Beyond the Great Wall.

A white blizzard raged all night. By dawn, the wind had stopped, but the snow was still falling, as fine as salt. The snow landed on the grass, on the tents, and on the horse manure. The horse manure was still steaming, and the snow melted as soon as it landed on it, forming a thin layer of ice.

Tadun stood at the entrance of the main tent. The tent flap was open, letting in a cold wind. He wore a wolfskin robe, old and worn, the cuffs gleaming. Underneath, his fur coat was frayed at the armpits, revealing tufts of wool. He didn't care about that.

When will the spring grass sprout?

The old shaman squatted on the ground, using a sheep bone for divination. The sheep bone had cracked from being heated over the fire, the cracks pointing north. The old shaman ran his fingers along the cracks. "Mid-March. Spring came early this year."

"Let's head south before the spring grass sprouts." Tadun turned and went into the tent.

A dozen or so tribal chiefs sat in the tent. The Wuhuan consisted of three main tribes: the Tadun tribe of Liaodong, the Louban tribe of Liaoxi, and the Nengchen Dizhi tribe of Youbeiping.

Not everyone arrived today. Nengchen Dizhi hasn't arrived yet. Only the old chief's son, Pufulu, who was in his early twenties with a short beard, came from Loubanbu and sat on the far side.

Tadun sat down in the main seat. He didn't speak at first, but picked up the copper bowl and took a sip of mare's milk wine. The wine dripped down his beard, and he wiped it with his sleeve.

"The two Yuan brothers have been staying in Lingzhi City for over a year. They've been storing grain and farming there, and they've gathered over a thousand defeated soldiers. We're not letting them stay there for nothing."

Louban's Pufulu asked, "Does Shan Yu intend for them to lead the charge?"

"This isn't the first battle. It's about legitimacy." Tadun put down the bronze bowl. "The two Yuan brothers are surnamed Yuan. Yuan Shao was the ruler of Hebei back then. When they fought back to Hebei, they called it recovering lost territory. We're going south to help our allies. It's different."

"Where to hit?"

"First attack Youbeiping. Then Jixian." Tadun's finger traced down the map from Liaoxi, stopping at Youzhou. "Liu Bei is fighting Gao Gan in Bingzhou, and his troops haven't been withdrawn from the Taihang Mountains yet."

Youzhou is now empty. Guan Yu has returned to Ye City, and only a few county troops remain to defend Youzhou. If we attack now, we can capture more cities.

Pufulu asked, "What if Guan Yu returns with his troops?"

"Then let's attack even faster," Tadun said. "Don't besiege the cities. Seize grain, people, and livestock. After we're done, we'll leave. We'll throw Youzhou into chaos and make Liu Bei afraid to commit all his troops to Bingzhou."

He stood up and walked to the leather map hanging in the accounting room. Several lines, Liaoxi, Youbeiping, Yuyang, and Jixian, were branded onto the leather with a hot iron. He pressed a line on the Youbeiping location.

"The capable ministers will move first. They will split into two routes from Youbeiping, one heading west to Yuyang and the other south to Jixian. Louban's troops will follow behind, while our main force will advance directly into Jixian."

The leaders dispersed. As Pufulu left, he glanced back at Taton. Taton was looking down at a map. He had broad shoulders, and when he lowered his head, a layer of flesh rose up on the back of his neck.

Lingzhi City.

Yuan Xi was on the training ground outside the city. The training ground had been leveled last autumn, but the rammed earth was uneven, with several depressions filled with snowmelt. The soldiers, trudging through the snowmelt, got their boots soaked through, and their toes were numb with cold.

Among the newly recruited defeated soldiers, some didn't know how to hold a spear. Sometimes they gripped the shaft too far forward, making their thrust weak; other times they gripped it too far back, causing the spear tip to wobble. Yuan Xi corrected them one by one, adjusting their grip position hand in hand. His own hands were frostbitten and cracked, with several bloody cuts on the web of his thumb, which he wrapped with rags.

Yuan Shang rode out of the city on horseback. The horse galloped fast, its hooves clattering on the frozen ground. He dismounted at the edge of the training ground and walked up to Yuan Xi.

"A message has arrived from the Wuhuan. Tadun has made peace and will send troops in March."

How many people?

"They said 50,000 cavalry. I got the information out of Tadun's people, and they actually only have about 30,000. Add that to our own men, and it's a little over 30,000 in total." Yuan Shang lowered his voice. "Tadun's idea is for us to lead the charge, and he'll bring up the rear."

Yuan Xi handed the spear to the soldier beside him and wiped the mud off his hands. "He's sending us to die on the front lines. If we win, he'll share the city and the grain. If we lose, it'll be the Yuan family who die."

"We still have to fight," Yuan Shang said. "If we don't fight, we'll be trapped in this small area of ​​Lingzhi, lacking food and salt. This winter, dozens of horses froze to death."

Yuan Xi didn't speak again. He looked at the sparse soldiers on the training ground. These people wore multicolored jackets, some without even armor, and had knives made from farm tools at their waists.

When Yuan Shao mustered his troops in Ye City, the men standing under his banners were clad in gleaming armor, their spear tips gleaming like icicles in the snow. Now, all those men are gone.

The two brothers exchanged a glance. Yuan Shang had a frostbite near his eye, purplish-red, as if he had been hit by something.

"Going south in March."

Youzhou. Ji County.

Qian Zhao's special operations battalion was deployed along the Liaoxi Corridor before the Lunar New Year. From Ji County eastward, seven hidden sentry posts were set up at Xuwushan, Lingzhicheng, Feiru, and Lulongsai. The sentry posts were hidden in caves, abandoned hunters' wooden huts, and dilapidated temples outside the pass.

On the last day of the twelfth lunar month, a sentry relayed a message from Xu Wushan: "The Wuhuan cavalry have begun to assemble in the Liaodong vassal states, with over a hundred new horse posts added, and the herds are moving south."

As the new year began, more news arrived: Yuan's army in Lingzhi City was repairing weapons, and the blacksmith's furnace was still burning at night. This was followed by the third report of the new year: "Nengchen's troops have left the pastures, heading towards Liaoxi."

Qian Zhao personally squatted on the mountain north of Lulong Pass. He stayed there for several days and nights, watching through a telescope behind the rocks during the day and sleeping in a cave wrapped in a sheepskin coat at night. The cave was damp and cold, with water seeping down the stone walls, dripping onto his neck like icy needles.

He counted the passing Wuhuan herds: cattle changed grazing routes, and horse posts were scattered from south to north; on the herding road frequently used by the Wuhuan people outside Lulong Pass, new hoofprints overlapped with old ones, and the number of horses was countless. Based on the scale of the herd migration, the assembled cavalry would not be less than 20,000.

Qian Zhao put the telescope back into the leather tube. His legs were frozen stiff when he came down from the mountain, and he walked with a limp. When he arrived in Jixian town, he washed his face, sat down at the table, bit open the frozen tip of his writing brush, moistened it with his saliva, and began to write military reports. The brush tip scratched softly on the bamboo slips.

"Since late winter last year, the cavalry of the various Wuhuan tribes have been moving south in succession, gathering in the outskirts of Liaodong and Lingzhi. By mid-month, their numbers had exceeded 20,000. Tadun himself is in his main tent at Bailang Mountain. Judging from this military posture, the southward advance will take place around March, with the aim of taking advantage of the dispersed forces in Youzhou and Bingzhou and the start of spring plowing to plunder."

He rolled up the bamboo slips, sealed them with wax, and entrusted them to a fast horse to be delivered to Ye City. The fast horse traveled for less than four days.

Ye City.

Liu Bei was watching the spring plowing outside the north gate. The wheat in Ji Province had already been sown, the seedlings just sprouting from the soil, a tender yellow layer covering the fields. Farmers squatted on the ridges, pulling weeds, their fingers red with cold. Someone recognized Liu Bei, stood up and bowed. Liu Bei nodded to him and continued walking.

The guard rode out of the city. The horse was foaming at the mouth, and when it stopped at the edge of the field, its hooves were still pawing the ground. The guard dismounted and handed over the military report with both hands.