Guan Yu returned to camp with a prize.
The severed head of General Cao Hong.
Zhang Fei accepted the grisly trophy without so much as a second glance. Climbing to the top platform of the tallest siege tower, he gauged the distance, then hurled the head over the walls of Wancheng.
The bloody object vanished beyond the battlements.
Zhang Fei cupped his hands around his mouth and drew in a deep breath.
Then he roared.
"Cao dog! Your reinforcements have been crushed! Cao Hong is dead!"
His voice rolled across the battlefield like thunder, rattling the very stones of the city walls.
Wancheng answered with silence.
Truthfully, Zhang Fei had expected as much.
The city had been choking under siege for days.
The defenders had taken so many crossbow bolts to the face that they had forgotten what it felt like to stand up straight.
Their morale was already flatlined, you can't terrify men who are already dead inside.
"Yeah, yeah. Another general died. As long as it wasn't me, who cares?"
"Keep your voice down, idiot. Do you want the Prime Minister to hear that?"
"Oh, come on. Look at this slop they're feeding us. It's basically hot water."
"He's got a point. My arms are so weak I can barely lift a spear."
"When is this damn fight going to end? I just want to go home."
"Home?"
The soldier beside him snorted.
"Home's probably been burned down already."
Hou Yin watched this misery with cold, detached eyes.
Beside him, his sworn brother Wei Kai bristled with barely contained rage every time a conscript was beaten. Every time Wei Kai's hand twitched toward his weapon, Hou Yin shot him a warning glare, forcing him to stand down.
---
Inside the city, Cao Hong's head was eventually recovered.
Cao Cao cried openly.
Ignoring all attempts to stop him, he personally dug the grave. Clods of earth stained his robes as he buried his cousin with his own hands.
When the burial was finished, he stood before the assembled officers, his eyes still red.
His voice rang through the camp.
"Zhang Fei, you one eyed bandit!" Cao Cao roared, his voice cracking with grief and fury. "You dare take my cousin's head? I swear on the grave I just dug with my own hands, I will find you. I will gut you like the pig you are. I will mount your head on a spike and let the crows pick your eyes out. That is not a threat. That is a promise."
He turned toward the city walls, as if Zhang Fei could hear him from across the battlefield.
"Enjoy your victory while it lasts, you drunken butcher. Your turn is coming."
The oath was emotional.
What followed was not.
Cao Cao quickly shifted from grief to calculation.
"General Cao Ren still commands fifty thousand elite troops. Whether he cracks Fancheng or not, he will march north. His return is coming."
Fifty thousand troops. That was a terrifying number.
Capturing a fortified citadel like Fancheng might be a slog, but breaking a siege on open ground? That army would sweep the board clean.
Secretly, Cao Cao prayed that Cao Ren would finish the job, take Fancheng, and then march north as a conquering hero.
His officers, however, were thinking about entirely different things.
One leaned toward his companion and whispered:
"Forget Fancheng. Have you seen the grain reports?"
The other grimaced.
"Have you seen our meals? I'm pretty sure the cooks are seasoning hot water and calling it soup."
"Keep your voice down."
"Why? It's true."
The officer sighed heavily.
"We're already starving. If fifty thousand more men show up, what are we supposed to feed them?"
"Don't ask me. Every day I'm busy stopping the soldiers from panicking."
The other man looked genuinely offended.
"Forget the soldiers. Who's stopping me from panicking?"
A few nearby officers quietly nodded.
"Last night I dreamed about roast pork."
"Last night I dreamed about steamed buns."
The first officer looked at them with envy.
"You lucky bastards."
"I haven't dreamed about food."
"Then what did you dream about?"
A long pause.
"The food... was eating me."
"..."
"Dude."
"I know."
For a moment, nobody laughed. Then all of them sighed together. The officers knew something the common soldiers didn't.
Cao Hong had been escorting their lifeline. He was bringing the emergency grain.
If Guan Yu had torched those supply wagons after taking Cao Hong's head, Cao Ren's incoming fifty thousand man army wouldn't be salvation. It would be a devastating drain on a city that was already starving.
---
The rumor of the returning army spread through Wancheng like wildfire. Even Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, standing a safe distance from the walls, caught wind of the whispers.
"Second Brother," Zhang Fei muttered, scratching his beard. "Looks like Wancheng is going to be a tough nut to crack after all."
Guan Yu didn't reply. He just stood tall, his eyes locked on the city.
Zhang Fei scratched his beard again. "Second Brother? You hear me? I said tough nut. Like, hard to crack. Very hard."
"I heard you."
"Then say something. Don't just stand there looking like a statue. It's creepy."
Guan Yu finally glanced at his brother. "The city falls soon."
"Sure. And I'm the Emperor of China. Be serious, Second Brother."
"I am serious."
Zhang Fei squinted at the walls. "You see something I don't?"
"Always."
"...Fair point."
---
Another grueling day ended.
Hou Yin threw himself onto his rigid wooden cot. He was so utterly drained that he didn't even have the strength to unbuckle his armor.
But sleep was a luxury he couldn't afford tonight.
After several minutes of lying motionless, Hou Yin finally sat up. He stripped off his leather armor piece by piece, then slipped quietly from his quarters.
He vaulted a low stone wall.
Crossed a narrow alley.
Climbed another crumbling fence.
Eventually, he dropped into a neglected courtyard swallowed by weeds.
The estate itself was little more than a corpse.
Its original owner had fled to Luoyang years ago and never returned. A wealthy merchant from Yanzhou bought it afterward, only to abandon it when the wars spread south. Several more families came and went.
Now the house simply rotted in silence.
Wei Kai was already waiting among the overgrown grass.
"Brother!" he whispered urgently. "The Cao guards are bragging again. They say fifty thousand troops are marching back. They say General Guan Yu only has a few days left."
Hou Yin looked at his sworn brother and snorted.
"How could General Guan Yu possibly lose? If the Cao army truly overwhelms them, he'll just board his ships and sail away. They can't catch him on the water."
Wei Kai blinked. "...Oh. Right. The ships."
"Try to keep up, brother."
Both men were Jingzhou natives. When their homeland was shattered by the northern invasion, they had sworn a blood oath to follow Imperial Uncle Liu Bei.
Liu Bei harbored grand ambitions for the empire. Hou Yin knew he was just a speck of dust in that grand design.
His only personal goal was to protect his local village. But once the Cao army occupied the region, even that humble dream became impossible. The occupation was brutal.
Hou Yin stared at the crumbling walls of the courtyard. He made his choice.
"We have to help General Guan Yu break this city. It's the only way."
Wei Kai's face instantly lit up. He practically vibrated with anticipation.
"Tell me the plan, brother. Let's do this!"
"First," Hou Yin said dryly, "stop vibrating. You look like a scared rabbit."
"I am not vibrating."
"You are literally shaking the weeds."
"...Sorry."
The pale moonlight washed over the courtyard. The rhythmic chirping of summer insects drowned out the treasonous whispers of the two desperate men.
---
The next morning, Hou Yin and Wei Kai volunteered for a shift change. They specifically requested a transfer to the southern wall.
The southern wall was a nightmare.
Two massive Jingzhou siege towers loomed just beyond arrow range, their wooden frames casting long shadows over the battlements. The Wancheng garrison had nothing that could counter them. No catapults. No heavy crossbows. Nothing.
As a result, Cao Cao avoided this sector completely. The wealthy aristocratic officers stayed far away. Who wanted to stand where a giant wooden death machine could collapse on your head at any moment?
So the southern wall was manned by the dregs. Conscripts. Forced laborers. Men who had been dragged from their homes and given a spear they didn't know how to hold.
And watching over them all was one captain from Cao Cao's personal bodyguard detail.
The man was a towering slab of muscle. His arms were thicker than most men's legs. He didn't yell.
He didn't need to.
He just stood there, scanning the wall with a predator's gaze that made your stomach drop every time it landed on you.
Starting a riot under his watch? In your dream. This man could take on ten peasant conscripts before any of them even finished drawing a weapon. And he wouldn't even break a sweat.
Fortunately for Hou Yin, there was a rigid class divide in how the army was fed.
The elite northern guards ate well. Rice porridge with meat. Steamed buns made from real flour. Sometimes even vegetables. They wouldn't touch the garbage given to the local conscripts.
And the conscripts? They got whatever was cheapest. Whatever was leftover. Whatever wouldn't be missed.
Cao Cao understood siege mechanics. He knew he needed peasant bodies to soak up arrows. If the conscripts collapsed from hunger, who would stand on the walls and die in place of his real soldiers? So he ordered the quartermasters to feed them one meal a day. Just enough to keep them standing.
The execution, however, was miserable.
Hou Yin and Wei Kai were handed a single steamed bun each. Calling it edible was a stretch. The thing was coarse, heavy, and gray. It felt like chewing on compressed sawdust. Maybe it was compressed sawdust. At this point, nobody dared to ask.
The local men grabbed their sad rations and huddled in the corners of the wall.
They ate quickly, knowing they would be whipped back to hard labor the moment they swallowed the last bite. No talking. No gathering. Just eat and get back to work.
But today, Hou Yin had other plans.
Hou Yin broke his bun in half and handed it to a starving kid.
Then he started complaining under his breath. Casual tone. Joking. "Hey, maybe life would be better if we just opened the gates for General Guan Yu, right? Just saying."
He subtly shifted the conversation, painting vivid pictures of what Jingzhou used to be like before Cao army arrived.
"Back in Xinye, at least I had land."
"My family had land too."
"They took mine."
"They took everyone's."
A gaunt man laughed bitterly. "My village chief tried to argue with the relocation officers."
"What happened?"
"They beat him to death."
A younger conscript clenched his fists. "My father starved during the move."
"My brother too."
A pause.
"My wife died last winter," someone said.
Nobody responded to that. What could you even say?
Hou Yin let the weight of their words settle. Then he spoke again.
"You know what I remember? Rice fields. Green as far as you could see. Markets with real food. Nights when you could actually sleep without hearing someone scream."
He glanced around the circle.
"I'd like to have that back."
Two of the conscripts in the circle were originally from Xinye. Their eyes had turned dark. Their jaws were locked tight.
Hou Yin didn't need to say another word. The rage was already there, burning just beneath the surface.
That made his job terrifyingly easy.
He wasn't sure if he had a natural talent for psychological warfare, or if the Cao army had simply crammed too much suffering into too small a space.
It only took two meal cycles. The suppressed fury of the conscripts began to bubble over. They started glaring at the armored Cao guards with eyes so dark and hateful that even Hou Yin felt a shiver run down his spine.
The escalation was brutally fast.
---
The very next day, a young conscript finally snapped.
"Stop pushing me!" the boy yelled at a guard. "I can't even stand straight anymore!"
The guard stopped. Turned around. Grinned.
"What did you just say to me, you little maggot?"
"I said stop pushing! And go away from me!" the boy screamed at a guard. "I've had enough!"
The guard laughed. "Enough? I'll show you enough."
He grabbed the boy by his belt and collar. His partner grabbed the legs.
"Please! No!"
Too late. They hurled him off the wall like garbage.
The boy's hometown was Zan county. Several men from Zan county were standing right there.
"You bastards!" one of them shouted.
"Shut your mouth or you're next," the guard said coldly.
"Fuck you!"
The guard drew his sword. "Last warning."
Another man grabbed the angry conscript's shoulder. "Not now. Not like this."
But their faces were already twisted in grief and raw fury. The damage was done.
Hou Yin recognized them.
One man had watched his elderly father die on the forced march north. Later, he found out a soldier had mutilated the corpse for a bounty.
Another man had a beautiful wife who was legally "requisitioned" by an officer shortly after the occupation began.
The Cao guards noticed the shift in the air. Their casual cruelty vanished. They drew their heavy swords.
Hou Yin knew the window was closing. If he didn't act now, the guards would slaughter the ringleaders and the rebellion would die before it even started.
He stepped out of the crowd, shuffling up behind the lead guard. He hunched his shoulders, pasting a pathetic, subservient smile on his face. A peasant begging for mercy. Nothing to see here.
"Boss," Hou Yin whimpered, tugging the guard's sleeve. "Boss, please. I didn't do nothing. I just want to go back to my post."
The guard turned his head, annoyed. "Get your filthy hand off me, you..."
"Sorry, boss. Sorry. I'm just scared. Please don't hurt me."
"Scared? You should be scared. Now shut your mouth before I..."
Hou Yin smiled.
Not a scared smile. Not a begging smile. A cold, knowing smile.
The guard's eyes widened. His hand went for his sword.
Too late.
Hou Yin had already drawn his concealed hunting knife. He drove it upward in one smooth, practiced motion, sliding the blade directly through the unarmored armpit and into the guard's chest cavity.
The guard gasped. No scream. Just a wet, choking sound.
Hou Yin twisted the blade once. Then twice.
"Shhh," he whispered, holding the man upright so no one would notice. "It's over now. Go to sleep."
The guard's knees buckled. Hou Yin gently lowered him to the ground.
Wei Kai's eyes went wide. He drew his sword with a metallic screech and screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Brothers! This is our chance! Kill the guards! Open the gate for General Guan!"
"Open the gate!" another voice roared from the crowd.
"For Jingzhou!"
"For our families!"
"For every friend they took and every grave they never let us dig!"
Hou Yin pulled his blade free from the dying guard and spun around, blood dripping from his knife.
"Fight now or die like dogs!" he shouted. "There is no third option!"
A conscript grabbed a fallen spear. Then another. Then ten more.
"Open the gate! Open the gate!" the chant grew louder, spreading along the wall like wildfire.
"To hell with Cao Cao!"
"To hell with all of them!"
Wei Kai raised his sword high. "Push to the gate! Follow me!"
The southern wall instantly erupted into a chaotic, bloody brawl.
---
The sudden explosion of violence on the parapet was impossible to miss.
Up in the siege tower, Zhang Fei saw the mutiny unfold. He didn't hesitate. He bounded up the internal ladders, barking orders at his engineers.
The Jingzhou soldiers below understood the assignment. They took heavy axes and chopped through the wheels on the city facing side of the massive tower. Another team grabbed the thick hemp ropes lashed to the tower's midsection and pulled with everything they had.
The tower groaned. Then it cracked. Then it began to tilt forward.
The archers in the upper decks screamed, hugging the support beams for dear life.
Zhang Fei, however, looked absolutely thrilled. He watched the tower fall, calculated the trajectory, and the moment the wooden structure slammed against the stone edge of the city wall, he launched himself into the air.
"Zhang Yide is here!"
He hit the stone floor rolling. Came up fast. His blade was already moving.
Clang!
He deflected a massive killing stroke aimed right at Hou Yin's neck.
The man holding the blocked sword was Xu Chu. Cao Cao's legendary bodyguard. The man they called Tiger Fool.
Zhang Fei grinned like a maniac.
"A real fight," he muttered. "Finally."
He tightened his grip on his weapon, ready to throw himself at the giant.
Xu Chu took one step back. He looked at the grinning madman in front of him. Then he looked at the massive wooden siege tower now acting as a makeshift assault ramp, pouring fresh Jingzhou killers onto the wall.
He calculated the odds.
Then he turned around and sprinted in the opposite direction.
Zhang Fei blinked. "Hey! Get back here! Coward!"
But Xu Chu was already gone.
With Zhang Fei leading the charge and Xu Chu sprinting away, something shifted on the southern wall.
The guards looked at their captain's back as he disappeared down the stairs.
"Wait... where is he going?"
"He's running! The captain is running!"
"Captain! Don't leave us!"
No response. Xu Chu was already gone.
The guards turned back toward Zhang Fei. The grinning madman with the serpent blade was walking toward them. Slowly. Deliberately.
"Oh shit..."
"Form up! Form up!"
"Form up? Against THAT?"
One guard threw down his sword. Then another.
"I surrender!"
"Don't kill me!"
The conscripts didn't wait for invitations. They fell on the surrendering guards like starving wolves. Thirty days of hunger. Thirty days of beatings. Thirty days of watching friends get thrown off walls.
"FOR MY BROTHER!"
"THIS IS FOR XINYE!"
"YOU BASTARDS! YOU BASTARDS!"
Fists. Knives. Rocks. Teeth. Whatever they could grab. A former farmer drove a spear into a guard's belly and screamed in his face until the man stopped moving.
One guard tried to run. Three conscripts tackled him before he reached the stairs. He didn't get back up.
Another guard swung his sword wildly, cutting down one conscript, then another. But there were too many. They overwhelmed him with sheer numbers, burying him under a pile of rage and bodies.
Zhang Fei watched the chaos for half a second. A grin spread across his face.
"Now that's what I call a mutiny."
He barked an order over his shoulder.
"Secure the gate! Move! Leave the guards to the locals. They've earned this."
He led a heavy detachment down the stone stairs, shoving past fleeing guards and cheering conscripts. Behind him, the screams of the last remaining guards echoed off the walls.
Above them, the makeshift wooden ramp groaned. Ropes creaked. One wrong step meant death. But more Jingzhou soldiers were already crossing, leaping from the tower onto the wall, ignoring the risk.
A breach was a breach.
"Push to the gate!" Zhang Fei roared. "Open it! Let our brothers in!"
Securing the heavy southern gate was the priority. Get it open, and the army could flood the city like water through a broken dam.
Behind him, the conscripts were still screaming.
"OPEN THE GATE!"
"GENERAL GUAN IS WAITING!"
"WE'RE FREE! WE'RE ACTUALLY FREE!"
Some of them were crying. Some were laughing. Most were doing both.
---
Xu Chu's frantic retreat brought catastrophic news to the command center.
He burst through the doors, still covered in the blood of the guards who had fallen behind him.
"Prime Minister! The southern wall is lost! The conscripts have turned! Zhang Fei is inside the city!"
Cao Cao felt a sickening lurch in his stomach. His hand gripped the armrest of his chair. For a moment, he didn't move.
Then he shoved the panic aside.
He had been here before. Decades ago. In this very city. He had lost his son. He had lost Dian Wei. He had learned the hard way that hesitation meant death.
"The defensive grid has failed," Cao Cao said, his voice cold and steady. "There is only one option left."
He stood up.
"Breakout. Now. Every man who can ride, follow me. The rest... buy us time."
The officers exchanged glances. No one argued.
Outside the city, Guan Yu received the signal from his third brother.
A plume of smoke rose from the southern wall. Then another. Then the sound of cheers, distant but unmistakable.
He did it, Guan Yu thought. The madman actually did it.
He raised his blade and turned to his cavalry.
"Zhang Fei has taken the southern wall! Cao Cao is trapped! Move toward the western gate! Now!"
The horses surged forward.
Zhang Fei was securing the south. If Cao Cao wanted to escape, he had to funnel his remaining forces north or west. Guan Yu's cavalry moving to the west would lock down the exterior perimeter. Cut off every escape route.
But there was a problem.
Running a horse through the twisted, chaotic streets inside the city was significantly faster than navigating the muddy terrain outside the walls. The defenders knew every alley. Every shortcut. The Jingzhou cavalry had to go around.
By the time Guan Yu spurred his warhorse to the western gate, a desperate column of a thousand Cao cavalry was already punching through the perimeter, fleeing in a cloud of dust.
Guan Yu's men cursed.
"We're too late!"
"They're getting away!"
Guan Yu didn't shout a motivational speech. He didn't need to. Every single rider behind him knew exactly who was leading that escaping column.
Cao Cao. The Prime Minister himself.
Capturing him was the ultimate prize. Instant promotion. Unimaginable wealth. A permanent place in the history books. Every man on that field dreamed of landing the killing blow.
Guan Yu simply raised his blade and issued a single, cold command.
"Pursue. Do not let him reach the southern road."
A thousand Jingzhou riders tore after the fleeing target, their eyes red with adrenaline, their horses' hooves thundering against the mud.
---
Guan Yu needed to slow the enemy down. He needed to shatter their focus. Make them hesitate. Make them look back.
He dug into his mental arsenal, searching for the most vicious psychological weapon he possessed.
He found it.
He filled his lungs and roared across the plains.
"Cao Mengde! Do you ever wonder why your sons keep dying young?"
The words hit like a thunderbolt.
Guan Yu's men exchanged glances. Even they flinched. That was low. Brilliant, but low.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then Guan Yu saw it. A visible flinch in the enemy column. Horses swerving. Riders looking at each other.
Good. Keep running scared.
Guan Yu wished Zhang Fei was riding beside him. His brother was a master of trash talk. Zhang Fei would have called Cao Cao every name in the book, insulted his ancestors, and probably goaded him into turning around for a suicidal duel.
But Guan Yu's taunt didn't make Cao Cao turn around. Instead, it triggered something else.
A horrific flashback.
Decades ago. In this exact same city. Cao Cao's arrogance and lust had sparked a midnight rebellion. He had lost his eldest son, Cao Ang, and his greatest bodyguard, Dian Wei, in these very streets.
The memory hit Cao Cao like a physical blow. His face went pale. His hands trembled on the reins.
Not again. Not here. Not my sons.
The terror spiked. He whipped his horse harder, pushing it to an insane, breakneck speed.
"Faster! Faster!" he screamed at his escort.
Guan Yu analyzed the enemy's trajectory. They were banking south.
He's not running blind, Guan Yu realized. He's making a desperate sprint for Cao Ren. The fifty thousand man safety net.
A cold spike of anxiety hit him.
He had received a classified dispatch from Xu Shu yesterday morning. Fancheng was secure. That meant Cao Ren was already marching north. The enemy reinforcements could appear on the horizon at any second.
"Push harder!" Guan Yu shouted to his men. "Don't let them breathe!"
He spurred his mount, closing the gap. The distance was shrinking. Fifty paces. Forty. Thirty.
A fiercely loyal Cao guard peeled off from the main group, turning his horse around for a suicidal intercept. The man's face was pale, but his jaw was set.
"For the Prime Minister!" he screamed, lowering his lance.
Guan Yu didn't even slow down.
He didn't swerve. Didn't blink.
A single, fluid sweep of the crescent blade. The guard's lance was knocked aside. The blade kept moving.
The man's head spun into the dirt. His body stayed on his horse for two more strides before collapsing.
But the brief clash cost Guan Yu a precious second. The gap widened again.
He cursed under his breath.
"Damn it."
---
The chase dragged on for over thirty miles. A brutal test of endurance. Horses foaming at the mouth. Men clinging to saddles, too exhausted to speak.
Due to the explosive, unplanned nature of the pursuit, Guan Yu had rapidly outpaced his own army. Now, only a few dozen of his most elite guards remained at his back. Behind them, nothing but empty plains and dust.
Up ahead, the tightly packed column of Cao cavalry had barely lost any riders. They were still organized. Still disciplined. Still protecting their master.
Guan Yu's jaw tightened.
Then he saw it. Dust clouds shifting on the southern horizon. Not from the wind. From horses. Many horses.
Enemy scouts.
Cao Ren's vanguard was approaching.
They're here already, Guan Yu thought. Damn it. Too fast.
Frustration boiled over.
He sheathed his blade and drew his backup hunting knife. A small thing. Not meant for battle. But it was the only weapon he had left to throw.
He judged the wind. Adjusted his aim. And hurled it with all his might.
The knife spun through the air. For a moment, it looked like it might find its mark. Cao Cao's back. His neck. His horse's head.
Then the throw dipped.
The blade buried itself deep into the hindquarters of Cao Cao's fleeing horse. The beast shrieked in agony, a horrible high pitched sound that echoed across the plain. Then it bolted forward with a terrifying, unnatural burst of speed, carrying the Prime Minister out of reach.
Guan Yu watched him disappear into the dust.
He pulled hard on his reins, forcing his exhausted warhorse to a halt. The animal's sides were heaving. Flecks of foam flew from its mouth.
"It's over," Guan Yu said quietly.
Pushing any further meant riding blindly into the teeth of Cao Ren's main battle formation. Fifty thousand fresh troops against a few dozen exhausted riders. That wasn't bravery. That was suicide.
Besides, Wancheng had finally fallen. The strategic reality had flipped. The hunters were now the hunted. If Cao Ren wanted to come north, let him. They would meet again on better ground.
There would be other opportunities to put a blade to the Prime Minister's throat. Not today. But someday.
Guan Yu let out a long breath. Then he chuckled. A dry, humorless sound.
He turned to his exhausted, depressed personal guards. Their faces were hollow. Their shoulders slumped. They looked like men who had just watched their lottery ticket fly away on the wind.
"What are you all looking so sad about?" Guan Yu said, forcing a grin. "We just took Wancheng. We made Cao Cao run like a scared rabbit. And you're moping?"
No one laughed.
"Fine. Don't laugh. But turn your horses around. We're going back. This patch of dirt has broken enough hearts for one day."
He spurred his mount and started the slow ride back to Wancheng.
---
They rode slowly back to Wancheng.
The mood was incredibly sour. Heads hung low. Shoulders slumped. No one spoke.
Even the sight of the massive "Guan" banners flying proudly over the battlements failed to lift their spirits. They had captured a fortress. They had broken Cao Cao's defenses. They had won.
But it didn't feel like winning.
Zhang Fei jogged out to meet them, looking thoroughly confused. His face was still smeared with blood. Not his own.
"Second Brother! You're back!" He stopped. Blinked. Looked at the faces of the cavalrymen. "...Why does everyone look like someone died?"
No one answered.
Zhang Fei scratched his beard. "What happened? We just cracked one of the toughest fortresses in the region. We won. Why are you all moping like your wife ran off with a grain merchant?"
Guan Yu dismounted. He told his brother what happened. The chase. The knife. The horse that bolted. Cao Cao slipping away. Again.
Zhang Fei listened. Then he scoffed loudly.
"That's what you're crying about?"
Guan Yu raised an eyebrow.
"Second Brother, listen to me." Zhang Fei jabbed a thick finger at Guan Yu's chest. "If you got distracted chasing that treacherous old rat and lost the city because of it, then you would have something to cry about. You would have something to cry about for the rest of your life."
He spread his arms wide.
"But you didn't lose the city. You took the city. We took the city. Wancheng is ours. Cao Cao is running with his tail between his legs. So what if he got away? There will be other chances."
He turned to the cavalrymen.
"And all of you. Stop looking like someone stole your wives. You just chased the Prime Minister of the entire dynasty for thirty miles. Thirty miles! He was running from you! Do you know how many men can say that?"
A few of the riders exchanged glances.
"None," Zhang Fei answered his own question. "Zero. You are the first. Now straighten your backs and act like the men who made Cao Cao piss his pants."
A snort came from somewhere in the back. Then a chuckle.
Zhang Fei grinned.
"There. See? Not dead yet."
Guan Yu watched his brother work his magic. He said nothing. But the corner of his mouth twitched.
The phantom of the escaped Prime Minister would haunt their dreams for a long time. Zhang Fei was right about that too.
But maybe not tonight.
---
Miles to the south, General Cao Ren sat in his command tent, listening to the breathless, panicked reports from the Prime Minister's surviving escort.
The messenger was still shaking. Still pale. Still couldn't look him in the eye.
Cao Ren waved a hand. "Enough. I understand."
He dismissed the man and leaned back in his chair.
Then he rubbed his temples. A sharp, throbbing pain bloomed behind his eyes.
First Fancheng. Now Wancheng.
He stared at the canvas wall of his tent, seeing nothing.
Why was he always exactly two days late?