The retreat of Cao Cao's army didn't bring peace to northern Jingzhou.
It brought paperwork.
A soul crushing, soul devouring, absolutely horrifying amount of paperwork.
The kind that could kill a strategist faster than an enemy arrow. The kind that made veteran generals think about becoming mountain hermits.
Inside Wancheng, Guan Yu and Xu Shu quickly discovered something. Winning a campaign was exhausting. But dealing with the aftermath? That was worse.
The battles were over. The administrative nightmare had just begun.
Thousands of surrendered soldiers needed registering, sorting, disarming, and organizing into labor units. The bodies scattered around Fancheng and Xiangyang needed burying before summer turned everything into a disease factory.
The Han and Yu rivers needed work too. The recent naval ops and the deliberate flooding had left channels clogged with debris. If they didn't fix things before the rainy season, next year's harvest would suffer.
Those were just the urgent problems.
The secondary issues were almost worse. Northern Jingzhou's civilians had spent years trapped between armies. Villages burned. Families scattered. Tax records gone. Local officials vanished.
Someone had to reassure the people. Someone had to rebuild local government. Someone had to figure out where all the missing grain went.
And that someone usually ended up being Xu Shu.
Back in the rear, Administrator Jiang Wan stared at the endless stream of personnel requests piling up on his desk.
Victory had solved one set of problems and created ten more.
Every new county needed a magistrate. Every garrison needed clerks. Census records had to be updated. Tax registers compiled. Roads supervised. Storehouses accounted for. Reports from Xiangyang, Fancheng, Wancheng, and the surrounding counties arrived faster than his staff could process them.
Jiang Wan pressed his hand against his forehead and ran the calculation again.
The result hurt.
At their current pace, Jingzhou would run out of capable officials long before it ran out of land to govern. A proper training academy wasn't a luxury anymore. It was a necessity.
More administrators. Thousands of them. Or this paperwork office was going to be his grave.
But inside Wancheng, the discussion had already shifted to the next battlefield.
"I request permission to take Duyang."
Guan Ping stepped forward without the slightest trace of uncertainty.
Several officers exchanged looks.
Duyang was not an attractive assignment.
Guan Yu's gaze drifted toward the map spread across the table.
The city sat between Mount Yao and Mount Fuyu, guarding the northern approaches into Jingzhou. On paper, it looked important. In practice, it was troublesome.
The terrain around Duyang was far too open.
There were no major rivers to anchor a defensive line and no natural bottlenecks capable of slowing a determined advance. Worse still, anyone holding Duyang would be staring directly toward Yingchuan and Xuchang.
It was frontier territory.
The first place Cao Cao would strike whenever he decided to come south again.
Once autumn arrived and the grain ripened in the fields, conflict was almost guaranteed. Whether Cao Cao launched a major campaign or merely sent troops to raid the harvest hardly mattered.
The men stationed at Duyang would be the first to bleed.
Zhang Fei noticed the stubborn determination burning in his nephew's eyes. Seeing Guan Yu still weighing the matter, he casually joined the discussion.
"If Duyang is too dangerous for Guan Ping," Zhang Fei said, "why not let Old Hansheng handle it?"
Huang Zhong immediately looked interested.
After all the fighting at Xiangyang and Shandu, the old general still seemed to possess an endless appetite for battle.
Unfortunately for him, Guan Yu had already reached a decision.
"Guan Ping."
"Present."
"You will first secure Wuyin."
Guan Ping straightened.
"Once the area is stabilized, advance north and establish a permanent garrison at Duyang."
"I understand."
Guan Yu then turned toward Huang Zhong.
"Huang Hansheng, march east. Capture Ping County and Biyang."
The old veteran's eyes brightened.
"Excellent."
His answer came so quickly that several officers could not help smiling.
Guan Ping accepted his assignment without complaint. Huang Zhong looked delighted to be sent back into the field.
Both men bowed before departing to prepare their troops.
Biyang marked the eastern fringe of Jingzhou.
Beyond it lay Runan.
Push farther east and the roads eventually converged on Shouchun, one of Cao Cao's strongest regional strongholds. And beside Shouchun stood another city whose name carried considerable weight in military circles.
Hefei.
Zhang Fei scratched his beard.
So," he said, "I wonder how my dear brother-in-law is doing over there. You think he finally earned that 'Sun Shiwan' title?"
Guan Yu's mouth twitched. "With Lu Su in charge? Hard to believe they'd screw up that badly."
A tired voice came from the doorway. "I wouldn't be so sure."
Xu Shu walked in, carrying a stack of reports. He looked like he hadn't slept since the last campaign ended. Which, knowing him, was probably true.
"What happened?" Zhang Fei asked.
Xu Shu dropped the papers on the table. "Sun Quan led a hundred thousand men from Chaohu to attack Hefei."
"So?"
"He got destroyed."
The room went quiet.
Even Huang Zhong stopped reaching for his water.
Zhang Fei blinked. "Destroyed? Like... didn't take the city and left?"
Xu Shu sighed. "If only."
The reports painted a sad picture.
At first, things looked okay. Lu Su was in charge, telling everyone to be careful. But Sun Quan spent forever deciding whether to actually go or not. That gave Xiahou Dun plenty of time to prepare.
The old commander shifted troops all over the region, linking Shouchun and Hefei into a solid defensive network. Nearly thirty thousand men. Then he sat behind his walls and waited.
Xiahou Dun had no idea what Sun Quan was planning. So he just played it safe. No risks. Just sit there and see what happens.
By the time the eastern army finally showed up, their problems had already started.
Lu Su's authority only went so far. After Zhou Yu died, the great Jiangdong army had split into noble factions and private retinues. Every commander protected his own men. Every family guarded its own troops.
Running a force that big is hard. Running it when everyone's pulling in different directions? Nearly impossible.
When they reached Hefei, the formation was already a mess. Stretched out. Scattered. Disorganized.
Then came the disaster.
Right at twilight. The soldiers were just setting up camp. Lighting fires. Trying to figure out where everyone was supposed to be.
The gates of Hefei opened.
Zhang Liao led eight hundred elite cavalry straight out of the city.
Eight hundred.
Against a hundred thousand.
Xu Shu shook his head. Still sounded impressed. "They rode right into the middle of the camp."
It was a slaughter.
Zhang Liao smashed through the vanguard, personally killing General Chen Wu. Whole sections of the frontline collapsed before anyone understood what was happening.
Panic spread faster than orders. Men tripped over tents, pack animals, supply carts, each other. Thousands started running. Thousands more saw them running and followed.
"If Lu Su and Ling Tong hadn't rallied their own troops and fought back," Xu Shu said, "the whole army might have destroyed itself before the enemy even attacked again."
Zhang Fei stared at him. Then exhaled.
"A hundred thousand men," he said slowly. "And they lost to eight hundred."
He shook his head.
"That Zhang Liao gets to keep his precious legend, I guess."
There was real disappointment in his voice. "Zhang Babai," he muttered. "Why does that guy get to be Zhang Babai? I'm Zhang Yide. Where's my cool nickname?"
Xu Shu ignored him.
"Lu Su's in trouble," he said, tapping the reports. "The more I read, the worse it gets."
Lu Su's sudden pullout from Jingzhou. Sun Quan's chaotic mobilization. The fractured command. The disastrous first fight.
Piece by piece, the picture became clear. Political blame was coming. And Lu Su was standing right in the spot where it would land.
Xu Shu rubbed his forehead. "This defeat is entirely Sun Quan's fault."
Blunt. No politeness.
"At Red Cliffs, the eastern forces had a unified command. After Zhou Yu died, the big clans carved up the army for themselves. Those troops answer their own patrons first and the state second."
He looked around the room.
"A coalition like that can defend. It can maintain order. But wage an offensive campaign against a capable enemy?" He shook his head. "No chance."
Guan Yu stroked his beard slowly.
He respected Lu Su. The man was honorable. Pragmatic. Patient, even after years of border disputes between Jingzhou and Jiangdong.
If someone was going to blame Lu Su for something that wasn't his fault, Guan Yu felt like he should do something.
Xu Shu saw the look on his face and immediately steered him back.
"Yunchang, before you go worrying about Jiangdong's problems, maybe we should handle our own first."
He pointed south.
"Jingzhou is secure. Xiangyang and Fancheng are ours."
Then he tapped the table.
"Our first job is telling our lord that we actually won."
Everyone nodded.
Months of fighting. Countless battles. More gambles than any of them wanted to admit. Liu Bei finally deserved to hear the news.
Jingzhou was theirs.
---
Three days later, Zhang Fei stuffed the campaign reports into sealed bamboo cylinders, grabbed a handpicked group of cavalry, and headed for Hanzhong. The route took him back through Fangling and Shangyong, following the same mountain roads they'd used during the invasion.
As the riders approached Fangling's walls, someone on the battlements shouted down.
"Uncle Third!"
Zhang Fei looked up and grinned.
Liu Feng was already riding out to meet him.
Keeping Liu Feng away from the main Jingzhou campaign had been a headache. Between his status as Liu Bei's adopted son and the classified future knowledge possessed by subordinates Ma Su and Mi Fang, Zhang Fei couldn't risk taking him into a chaotic war zone.
Pang Tong had solved the problem neatly.
Shortly after Zhang Fei marched south, Pang Tong pulled two thousand troops from the Wuzhang Plains, scraped together another thousand from Hanzhong reserves, and formed an independent strike force.
He appointed veteran Fu Rong as commander and gave Liu Feng the vanguard. Their mission: take Fangling and Shangyong.
Judging by the banners flying over the city, the operation had gone very well.
Liu Feng looked comfortable wearing that victorious commander smile.
"Uncle, I caught something interesting while patrolling the mountains."
He waved toward the gate. A group of soldiers dragged forward a filthy, exhausted prisoner. His clothes looked like they'd lost a fight with every thorn bush in Jingzhou.
"I thought Father might appreciate the gift."
Zhang Fei leaned forward in his saddle.
Then his eyes widened.
"Cai Mao?"
He blinked.
"Cai Mao, how the hell did you end up here?"
During the post-battle accounting at Wancheng, Huang Zhong had noted that Cai Mao's body never turned up. Most people assumed he'd been trampled to death.
Apparently not.
Apparently the man had become a mountain hermit.
"I'll take him," Zhang Fei said with a laugh. "Don't worry. The credit goes entirely on your report."
Liu Feng beamed. Catching a major enemy commander was big merit. Getting recognition from Zhang Fei directly made it even sweeter.
After saying goodbye, Zhang Fei continued west.
Mountain roads were boring.
Cai Mao was available.
So Zhang Fei spent the next few hours questioning him for entertainment.
The story was somehow even more pathetic than expected.
During Huang Zhong's night assault, Cai Mao had completely lost his bearings. He got swept away by fleeing soldiers, wandered through the countryside for days, and eventually convinced himself that his political career wasn't dead yet.
His brilliant plan? Reach Fangling, borrow troops from the local garrison, launch a counterattack, and somehow win back Cao Cao's trust.
Instead, he walked straight into Liu Feng's new territory and got arrested before he could even finish introducing himself.
By the time the story ended, even Zhang Fei had lost interest.
The man wasn't a strategist. He wasn't a mastermind. He was barely a cautionary tale.
For the rest of the afternoon, Zhang Fei ignored him.
Unfortunately, being ignored hurt Cai Mao more than being insulted.
"I am the Patriarch of the Cai Clan!" Cai Mao suddenly shouted from the back of the group.
His hands were tied, so he had to awkwardly jog after the horses.
"I have tremendous influence throughout Jingzhou! I can help Lord Liu Bei pacify the Jingzhou! I am valuable!"
Several riders exchanged looks. One of them nearly laughed.
Zhang Fei turned around with the expression of a man who had just been woken from a nice nap.
"Valuable?"
"Yes!" Cai Mao shouted eagerly. "My clan has connections everywhere!"
Zhang Fei scratched his beard.
Then he asked the real question.
"Tell me, Cai Mao. What's your specialty?"
Cai Mao straightened up. "The navy!"
"Oh."
Zhang Fei pointed west. "Our fleet already dominates the rivers."
Then he pointed south. "The entire Jingzhou nobility is either working for us, hiding from us, or wishing they worked for us."
Then he pointed at Cai Mao. "And you got captured by a teenager."
The surrounding riders burst out laughing.
Cai Mao's face turned red.
Zhang Fei wasn't done.
"Honestly, if Liu Feng hadn't caught you, I would've assumed a wild boar did it."
The laughter got louder.
Cai Mao felt his blood pressure rising.
"The Cai Clan still carries prestige!"
"Sure."
Zhang Fei nodded seriously.
"Then go prestige your way out of those ropes."
More laughter.
Cai Mao finally understood the horrible truth.
Back when Liu Cong surrendered Jingzhou, his clan still had value. They controlled ships, sailors, ports, and local influence.
Now?
Liu Bei already had all of that. The river fleet at Jiangling was bigger and better than anything Cai Mao had ever commanded. The local gentry had either surrendered or been pushed aside. The one thing Cai Mao thought made him special had quietly become worthless.
For the first time in years, the former admiral discovered what it felt like to be completely replaceable.
Zhang Fei saw the realization hit and lost whatever little curiosity he had left.
He turned his horse forward and waved.
"Stop shouting. Save your breath."
The cavalry continued west through the mountains.
---
By the time the group finally reached Hanzhong, Zhang Fei had barely swung himself off his horse before Pang Tong came striding across the courtyard.
"Yide!" the strategist called out, eyes practically shining. "You brought Yunchang's victory report, didn't you? We need to send it to Chengdu immediately. Can't delay."
"Of course I did."
Zhang Fei handed over several bamboo cylinders.
Pang Tong snatched them so quickly it looked like he was afraid someone might steal them.
"And," Zhang Fei added, fishing a smaller wax sealed pouch from inside his armor, "Xu Yuanzhi sent this one personally. Said it's for your eyes only, Shiyuan."
That got an even stronger reaction.
Pang Tong immediately tore the seal open and started reading right there.
Zhang Fei watched him for a moment, then glanced around the courtyard.
That's when he noticed a stranger standing quietly behind Pang Tong.
The man looked young. Refined. Scholarly. Definitely not the kind of person who belonged anywhere near Zhang Fei's usual crowd.
Seeing Zhang Fei looking over, the stranger calmly bowed.
"Shiyuan," Zhang Fei tilted his head. "Who's your new friend?"
Pang Tong didn't even lift his head from the letter.
"Him?"
He waved a hand casually.
"Just a prisoner."
Zhang Fei blinked.
The stranger blinked too.
"Just a prisoner?" Zhang Fei repeated. "Where'd you catch a guy like that? What kind of prisoner looks like he should be teaching classics at an academy?"
"I didn't catch him." Pang Tong finally looked up, a grin spreading across his face.
"Jian Yong caught him out west. Ma Chao kindly helped deliver the package."
Pang Tong paused for effect, locking eyes with Zhang Fei.
"His name is Sima Yi."
The courtyard got very quiet.
The amusement vanished from Zhang Fei's face. His eyes narrowed. Slowly, he turned toward the young scholar.
"Holy shit." Zhang Fei slapped a hand over his mouth, voice dropping to a whisper. "So this is the future Emperor Xuan of Jin?"
The words were barely above a whisper. The secrets of the light screen were closely guarded, so Zhang Fei had no intention of shouting that name where random servants could hear it.
Unfortunately, his glare didn't become any less terrifying just because his voice was quieter.
Sima Yi felt his scalp go numb. For a brief moment, he genuinely wondered whether Zhang Fei was planning to kill him right there in the courtyard.
His heart started hammering.
What in Heaven's name is going on?
He kept replaying the past few weeks in his head, trying to figure out what he'd done wrong.
His mission to Ma Chao's camp had been completely routine.
At least, it started that way.
Everything went smoothly until the welcoming banquet. The moment Sima Yi introduced himself, Ma Chao's advisor nearly sprayed wine across the table.
The whole atmosphere shifted instantly.
Sima Yi couldn't explain why. He just knew that several people had suddenly started looking at him like they were figuring out the best way to bury a body.
His instincts started screaming. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
That night, Sima Yi quietly began making plans. If things got worse, he'd just leave and seek refuge with Han Sui. Not ideal, but better than staying in a camp where everyone looked at him like a future corpse.
Unfortunately, he never got the chance.
Before he could even pack his bags, Ma Chao's shock troops kicked his door down in the middle of the night, tied him up, shoved him into a burlap sack, and threw him onto a cart heading south.
The entire operation was conducted with such efficiency that Sima Yi barely had time to wonder what crime he had committed.
By the time the sack was finally opened in Hanzhong, he'd had several days in the dark to question every life choice he'd ever made. Every. Single. One.
Then things somehow got even stranger.
This ugly man named Pang Tong asked for his name. Upon hearing it, Pang Tong clicked his tongue, grinned like a predator, and walked circles around him, inspecting him like a prize hog at market.
Now this big ugly guy Zhang Fei was doing the same thing. Sima Yi had even swallowed his pride and offered a perfect bow. Yet after two sentences with Pang Tong, Zhang Fei looked ready to rip his head off.
Sima Yi genuinely had no idea what was happening anymore.
Pang Tong stepped forward and rested a hand on Zhang Fei's arm.
"The light screen explicitly labeled him as Kongming's destined rival," Pang Tong whispered, dark humor in his voice. "We'll transport him to Chengdu. Our Lord and Kongming can decide what to do with him.
He glanced at Sima Yi. "Besides, look at him. No clan influence. No army. No political backing. What trouble can he cause by himself?"
Zhang Fei considered the logic.
A rogue scholar with no political capital was just a man.
The tension left his shoulders. He grinned and decided to switch targets.
"Speaking of Chengdu," Zhang Fei said loudly, leaning toward Pang Tong. "Aren't you going to take your little disciple back so Kongming can evaluate him?"
Pang Tong nearly jumped, Pang Tong's face flushed red. "What disciple? I don't have a disciple! Where did you hear such nonsense?"
Zhang Fei threw his head back and roared with laughter.
He ignored the sputtering strategist, vaulted onto his fresh horse, and led his escort west through Yangping Pass.
Left behind in the courtyard, Sima Yi slowly caught his breath. He noticed the other miserable captive sitting against the wall and quietly struck up a conversation.
A few minutes later, Sima Yi's eyes went wide.
Wait. What? Jingzhou was entirely lost? How...?
He glanced at Cai Mao. The man just stared at the dirt like a broken doll.
Okay. Think, Sima Yi. Think.
He started piecing things together. Cao Cao was getting crushed in the south. That meant the balance of power was shifting. Maybe serving Liu Bei wasn't such a bad idea, right?
I mean, it's not like I owe Cao Cao anything. It's not like I have some huge debt to repay. We're not relatives. He never gave me a fancy mansion or married his daughter to me.
He paused internally.
So... yeah. Sorry to say, Cao. No hard feelings there.
His mind raced further.
Wait a minute. The rumors. Liu Bei visited some cottage three times just to recruit one guy. Three times. In person. What if...
His heart skipped a beat.
What if Liu Bei heard whispers about my talent? What if he specifically ordered Ma Chao to... to "acquire" me?
He glanced around the courtyard.
This whole kidnapping... could it be... a really, really aggressive recruitment tactic?
Sima Yi straightened his posture a little.
If that's the case, I can't surrender right away. No, no, no. That would look desperate. I need to play hard to get. Make them prove my worth. Make them beg a little. That's what brilliant scholars do, right?
A strange sense of arrogant self pity washed over him.
"First Cao Cao forced me into service. Now Liu Bei is having me dragged across the country in a burlap sack."
He sighed dramatically.
"It's truly a burden to be a man of such undeniable talent. No one understands my suffering. No one."
---
Hundreds of miles away, deep in the heart of Chengdu, Old Man Li was living a completely different life.
The bloody battles of Xiangyang-Fancheng and Wancheng? Never heard of them. To Old Man Li, the universe revolved entirely around one thing: his money.
It was July. The Chengdu plains had delivered a massive harvest. Even after setting aside grain for Lord Liu's new taxes, every household had more than they could store. People were literally running out of pots. Clay pots, vats, barrels, anything that could hold grain was sold out.
"Prices for storage containers had shot up overnight."
This economic boom was pulling refugees from war torn commanderies straight into the city. And that dilapidated property Old Man Li had bought months ago? Suddenly prime real estate. Its value had tripled overnight.
I'm a genius, he thought. A financial genius.
His daughter, who was thriving at the new public academy, had brought home some interesting news. Lord Liu Bei's administration was planning to divert the incoming population to satellite counties like Pi, Fan, and Jiangyuan. They were going to develop the entire Chengdu basin.
Old Man Li felt like a visionary. The city's economic ceiling? There was no ceiling.
The entire Chengdu Basin seemed to be getting richer by the month.
Old Man Li felt very pleased with himself.
Back when he bought that property, several neighbors had laughed at him.
Who was laughing now?
Not them.
His family life was equally satisfying.
His eldest son had settled in nicely at the government sugar refinery. Rumor had it that several supervisory posts would open up soon. If the boy kept his head down and didn't do anything stupid, promotion was within reach. Good Kid
His second son was still a headache. The young man remained remarkably committed to avoiding honest work.
Fortunately, a sharp tongued widow from the neighborhood had taken an interest in him. Old Man Li had stopped interfering long ago. If someone else wanted to spend time reforming that useless brat, who was he to stop her? The least he could do was offer his blessings and encouragement.
And then there was his youngest. The apple of his eye. The one who could do no wrong.
Old Man Li walked into his kitchen, humming a tune. He lifted the heavy wooden lid off the steaming pot to check the afternoon meal.
His smile vanished.
Three meat pies. Missing.
He stormed out into the courtyard, face red.
"Li Shu!" he bellowed. "Did you take three fresh meat pies again? Are you sneaking food to that Hu boy again?"
Li Shu was already near the front gate, clutching a small woven basket. She didn't flinch. She didn't even stop walking.
"His parents are gone!" she called over her shoulder, stepping into the street. "He only has his grandfather! If we have extra, we should share!"
Old Man Li chased her to the gate and froze, watching her disappear into the crowd.
He stood there watching the crowd for a long moment.
The anger slowly drained from his face.
Then came a sigh. A very long sigh.
The harvest was good. Business was good. The city was peaceful. Everything was moving exactly as it should.
Yet for some reason, standing there at the gate, Old Man Li felt strangely unhappy.
After several moments, he finally understood why.
His little girl was growing up.
And somehow, without asking his permission, she had become a good person.
Old Man Li grumbled to himself and turned back toward the kitchen.
Tch. The remaining meat pies suddenly don't taste as good anymore.