"Achoo!"
Pang Tong nearly lurched out of his saddle as a violent sneeze tore through him. He pressed a silk handkerchief against his reddened nose, looking thoroughly miserable.
Riding beside him, Zhang Fei shot him a concerned look.
"Shiyuan, if you have caught a cold, you should stay inside the manor instead of riding around in this wind."
The climate in Hanzhong was far harsher than the warm, humid comfort of Chengdu. Combined with Pang Tong's naturally frail health, it had taken less than a day for the strategist to fall ill after arriving at the northern garrison.
Pang Tong waved dismissively while wiping his nose. His voice sounded thick with congestion.
"It is nothing, Yide. Do you remember the letter Ma Chao sent a few days ago? He specifically mentioned growing discord within Han Sui's camp. Lord and retainers no longer trust one another. This is the ideal moment to exploit the situation."
Zhang Fei stroked his beard thoughtfully.
Since arriving in Hanzhong, he had spent nearly all his time inspecting troops and reviewing military logistics. He had heard Pang Tong summarize Ma Chao's letter, but he had not considered the deeper political implications hidden within it.
After another painful effort to clear his nose, Pang Tong finally continued.
"Three years ago, Han Sui sent an envoy to Xudu to meet Cao Cao."
"And?" Zhang Fei asked.
"This envoy practically handed over his own parents as hostages," Pang Tong replied calmly. "Afterward, he even persuaded Han Sui to send his own son to Cao Cao as proof of loyalty."
Zhang Fei stared blankly for a moment before bursting into laughter.
"Now that is efficiency. He sent his parents away so Cao Cao could feed them for him."
Pang Tong gave him an exhausted glare.
"The envoy's name is Yan Xing. He is highly respected for his martial skill, and Han Sui trusts him deeply."
Zhang Fei's expression gradually sharpened.
"So you think this Yan Xing has secretly sided with Cao Cao?"
"Think?" Pang Tong snorted softly. "I am certain of it."
A cold glint appeared in his eyes.
"He used his parents to buy himself a reputation for filial piety. Then he advised Han Sui to cooperate with Cao Cao so he could earn loyalty and political merit at the same time. He is trying to profit from both sides."
The icy wind swept past them as Pang Tong narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
"Han Sui is old, ruthless, and deeply cunning. Ma Chao is fierce and fearless, but lacks restraint. Both men are predators of the northwest. Yan Xing does not possess the ability to openly manipulate either of them."
He paused briefly.
"As long as loyalty to his lord and filial duty to his parents do not conflict, he will continue serving Han Sui obediently. But the moment those loyalties collide..." Pang Tong's voice turned cold.
"He will abandon Han Sui without hesitation in order to preserve himself and his reputation."
Zhang Fei quickly translated Pang Tong's refined political analysis into simpler battlefield logic. "So this Yan Xing fellow plans to chop off Han Sui's head the moment things turn bad."
The general snorted inwardly at the treacherous habits of the northwestern warlords before straightening in his saddle and narrowing his eyes toward the horizon.
"They're here," he muttered.
In the distance, a small group of riders emerged through the swirling dust. Every man wore thick fur coats and heavy felt hats to shield themselves from the bitter northwestern wind.
Zhang Fei glanced sideways at Pang Tong, who still stubbornly wore thin scholar's robes despite the freezing weather. "ShiyuanNo wonder you caught a cold."
Drawing in a deep breath, Zhang Fei suddenly bellowed with enough force to shake the plains.
"I AM ZHANG YIDE OF THE HAN! STATE YOUR NAMES!"
The approaching riders nearly panicked. Horses reared as the delegation hastily pulled their reins tight. After several moments of hurried discussion, one rider finally broke away from the group and approached alone.
"By order of the Zhengxi Jianjun, General Conqueror of the West, I have come to pay respects to the Governor of Hanzhong!" the man shouted back. "I am Cheng Gongying, Jiji Xiaowei, Colonel of Striking Courage!"
The introduction was carefully balanced, respectful without appearing weak.
After exchanging formal greetings with Zhang Fei and Pang Tong, the delegation was escorted into the warmth of the Hanzhong government manor.
Naturally, conversation during the welcoming banquet soon drifted toward the disastrous Battle of Tong Pass the previous year.
Through Cheng Gongying's carefully chosen words, Zhang Fei and Pang Tong received a detailed account of Ma Chao's many failings. According to him, Ma Chao had ignored unified command during the campaign, directly causing the collapse of the Liangzhou and Yongzhou coalition forces. Afterward, his retreat into the northwest had supposedly become even more disastrous. Heavy taxation, intimidation of local aristocratic clans, and increasingly brutal behavior had steadily alienated the people under his rule.
Every criticism was delivered with convincing sincerity.
Yet as Zhang Fei listened, his instincts slowly sharpened.
Beneath Cheng Gongying's complaints, there was clearly another motive hiding underneath the surface.
At last, once enough wine had been poured, Cheng Gongying finally revealed Han Sui's proposal.
"General Han has long admired Lord Liu Bei's compassion toward the common people," he said with a respectful bow. "At present, Yongzhou and Liangzhou suffer under the chaos brought by the bandit Ma Chao. We humbly ask Lord Liu to dispatch his mighty army to eliminate this rebel and rescue the people from misery."
He lowered his head further.
"In return, General Han is willing to serve as your vanguard in the northwest and will personally petition the Imperial Court to recognize Lord Liu's great achievements."
Zhang Fei reacted as though he had not heard a single word.
Instead, he enthusiastically grabbed a bowl from the table and shoved it toward the envoy.
"General Cheng! You must try these lychees! Fresh fruit in the middle of winter is not easy to come by!"
Cheng Gongying maintained a polite smile, though it stiffened slightly.
"General Zhang, my surname is Chenggong."
Despite the obvious attempt to dodge the conversation, Cheng Gongying remained composed. He continued drinking and chatting with Zhang Fei as though nothing unusual had happened.
Only after the banquet ended and the guests departed did Zhang Fei finally drop the act.
"March a thousand li just to help Han Sui divide Liangzhou and Yongzhou?" he scoffed. "The man will not even acknowledge my brother as his lord, yet expects us to fight and bleed for him. His calculations are far too clever."
Pang Tong chuckled softly while swirling the last of his tea.
"There were too many ears in the banquet hall," he said. "But I watched Cheng Gongying carefully. He is intelligent and speaks carefully. This negotiation is not over yet."
Pang Tong's prediction proved correct before the day even ended.
As night settled over Hanzhong, one of Cheng Gongying's attendants quietly slipped into the manor with a private message.
Later that evening, after the servants cleared away dinner, Zhang Fei and Pang Tong waited silently in the main hall.
The heavy doors slowly creaked open.
Cheng Gongying entered alone.
The moment the doors closed behind him, the envoy suddenly dropped to his knees and pressed his forehead against the floor.
"General! Military Advisor!" he pleaded, his voice stripped of all diplomatic composure. "Please save my lord!"
Zhang Fei stared in genuine surprise before stepping forward and pulling the man upright.
"Speak clearly," he ordered. "What is actually happening?"
With all pretense abandoned, Cheng Gongying finally exposed the rotting reality hidden within the northwestern alliance.
The hatred between Han Sui and Ma Chao had been festering ever since the Battle of Tong Pass. After Cao Cao deliberately drove a wedge between them, that resentment exploded into open hostility.
Han Sui viewed Ma Chao as arrogant and uncontrollable.
Ma Chao, meanwhile, cursed Han Sui as a coward who lost his nerve the moment Cao Cao arrived.
"But the true poison within our camp is Yan Xing!" Cheng Gongying spat, his face twisting with disgust. "That traitorous rat rose from nothing. Everything he possesses came from Lord Han's patronage. Yet the moment he returned from Yecheng, he became Cao Cao's lapdog!"
The envoy paced furiously across the hall.
"Even before Tong Pass, Yan Xing constantly urged Lord Han to surrender the northwest without resistance. During the alliance, he repeatedly delayed our movements and contributed directly to the defeat. And now he dares to pressure Lord Han into surrender once again, all so he can secure his own advancement under Cao Cao!"
Zhang Fei exchanged a quick glance with Pang Tong, who remained seated with his eyes closed in thought.
Then Zhang Fei looked back toward Cheng Gongying.
"Let me guess," he said slowly. "One of the men traveling with your delegation is secretly preparing to slip away and ride to Chang'an to contact Xiahou Yuan."
Cheng Gongying's eyes widened immediately.
"General, your insight is extraordinary!" he exclaimed before bowing deeply. "Yes. Yan Xing is secretly violating Lord Han's orders. He intends to bypass us entirely and ally himself with Xiahou Yuan in order to seize the Longshan corridor. Once that happens, the entire northwest will fall into Cao Cao's hands."
He knelt once more.
"I beg you, General. Stop the messenger before he reaches Guanzhong!"
The plea left Zhang Fei in an awkward position. Assassinating political envoys without considering the consequences was not something he could decide alone, so he naturally turned toward Pang Tong.
The strategist slowly opened his eyes.
After a long silence, Pang Tong rose and personally helped Cheng Gongying to his feet with a thoughtful sigh.
"You know," he said casually, "I happen to have an old friend living in Tianshui. His clan has resided there for generations. Seeing war spread across Yongzhou and Liangzhou again... I cannot help worrying for his safety."
Cheng Gongying immediately understood.
This was negotiation.
He carefully asked, "May I know this honored friend's name?"
Pang Tong waved his hand as though recalling it casually.
"Jiang Jiong. I believe he currently serves as a minor Gongcao Yunshi, Assistant Officer of Merit in Tianshui Commandery. I have always been fond of his son. The boy is exceptionally talented. General Han's campaign may be righteous, but naturally... I worry about my friend's family."
Cheng Gongying nearly relaxed on the spot.
"Hah, Gongcao Yunshi, An Assistant Officer of Merit? That was not even a full administrative rank! It was a negligible pawn. If this was the price for the Lord Liu army's cooperation, it was a spectacular profit."
He immediately struck his chest in assurance.
"Say no more! Tomorrow at dawn, I will dispatch my personal guard back to Liangzhou. You have my absolute word, Military Advisor, within half a month, your friend Jiang Jiong and his entire clan will be safely escorted to your doorstep without a single hair harmed."
At last, a genuine smile appeared on Pang Tong's face.
After Cheng Gongying departed, Zhang Fei crossed his arms and frowned.
"Shiyuan, are we truly going to cooperate with this scheme?"
Pang Tong nodded calmly.
"It is simply an exchange of interests."
Then he looked directly at Zhang Fei.
"Tell me, Yide. What happens if we do nothing and allow Yan Xing's messenger to reach Xiahou Yuan?"
Zhang Fei's expression immediately hardened as military routes unfolded in his mind.
"If Xiahou Yuan enters through the Longshan corridor to attack Ma Chao, then our only viable route for intervention is through the Baoxie Road toward Wuzhang Plains or Meixian. But assaulting Chang'an from there would be extremely difficult. Worse, Xiahou Yuan could strike our flank at any moment."
Pang Tong nodded approvingly.
"Exactly. And our own situation is far from ideal. We only recently secured Yizhou and Hanzhong. The territory remains unstable, and the army is exhausted. We are not prepared for a prolonged campaign against Cao Cao."
Privately, Pang Tong viewed the situation far more pragmatic.
"Ma Chao was like a sharp and dangerous blade thrashing around in the northwest. The problem was that nobody controlled him. Han Sui, treacherous as he was, was the perfect whetstone. Let the two grind against each other.
But if Xiahou Yuan and Cao Cao's overwhelming war machine were invited to the party, they would not just dull the blade—they would snap it in half."
After understanding the logic behind the maneuver, Zhang Fei slowly looked toward the doorway where Cheng Gongying had disappeared.
"To think a rat like Han Sui would possess a retainer as loyal as Cheng Gongying."
Pang Tong let out a mocking snort.
"Yide, do you truly believe Yan Xing is acting against Han Sui's wishes?"
Zhang Fei's jaw dropped. The geopolitical knot was twisting again, and he was struggling to follow the threads. He stared at Pang Tong, utterly baffled by the layers of deception within Han Sui's camp.
Seeing the confusion on the general's face, Pang Tong sighed.
"Han Sui is the sort of man who always keeps one foot in two different boats," he said dryly. "Ironically, he also happens to possess one genuinely loyal subordinate."
The reality hidden beneath all the lies was actually simple.
Yan Xing genuinely wanted to surrender to Cao Cao as quickly as possible.
Han Sui, meanwhile, hoped to use Xiahou Yuan's strength to eliminate Ma Chao first, seize complete control over the northwest, and only afterward negotiate with Cao Cao from a stronger position.
Only Cheng Gongying understood the real danger.
The moment Xiahou Yuan entered the northwest, he would never willingly leave again.
After all, no one invites a tiger into their home simply to drive away a wolf.
As for Cheng Gongying's official request for Liu Bei to campaign against Ma Chao, Han Sui likely never expected it to succeed in the first place.
The distance alone made the proposal unrealistic. More importantly, Han Sui controlled the vital Qishan Trail. If Liu Bei's army advanced into the northwest, Han Sui could cut their supply lines at any moment and leave the entire force stranded in barren territory.
There was simply no real trust between the two sides.
And the most dangerous part of all was this:
If Xiahou Yuan's army entered the northwest, his ambitions would never stop at Yongzhou and Liangzhou alone.
---
Meanwhile, far away in the stronghold of Yecheng.
If Li Shimin could somehow witness his great predecessor at this moment, he would probably burst into laughter first, then immediately feel a deep sense of sympathy.
Cao Cao, the undisputed ruler of the north, was currently sprawled sideways across an ornate silk-covered daybed. A cold cloth rested over his forehead while a trembling maidservant knelt beside him, carefully massaging his temples in a desperate attempt to ease his splitting headache.
It had been many years since he suffered pain this severe.
Even the tragic defeat at Red Cliffs had not produced a migraine like this.
That disaster had wounded his heart more than his body. He had mourned the destruction of his fleet, the loss of precious supplies, and the deaths of countless elite soldiers. The later collapse of the southern commanderies had certainly hurt as well, but those losses came gradually, long after the initial shock faded, allowing him time to accept reality and adapt.
And last year, the rebellion of that insolent whelp, Ma Chao? That was not a crisis; that was a meticulously calculated, brilliantly executed grand strategy by Cao Cao himself.
The strategy had originally been flawless.
First, pacify the northwest.
Then use that momentum to seize Hanzhong.
After that, apply overwhelming military pressure against Yizhou until Liu Zhang surrendered without resistance.
From Cao Cao's perspective, the entire sequence was practically inevitable.
Liu Zhang, the governor of Yizhou, was a spineless, weak-kneed fool. Over the years, he had repeatedly sent envoys to curry favor with Yecheng. After exhaustively war-gaming the scenario with his top strategists, the consensus in Yecheng was absolute:
The moment Hanzhong fell, Yizhou would submit on its own.
And to secure Hanzhong, the first essential step was stabilizing Yongzhou and Liangzhou.
Up until recently, everything had unfolded exactly according to plan.
The Battle of Tong Pass had certainly been brutal, but the final victor was still Cao Cao. The road south had begun to open before him.
Everything had been moving perfectly into place.
Until...
Cao Cao slowly turned his head, his bloodshot eyes settling on the crumpled piece of silk lying on the floor.
It was a letter written in the hurried, familiar handwriting of Xiahou Yuan, his most trusted general.
The contents had nearly driven Cao Cao into unconsciousness from sheer fury.
And yet, despite the rage it inspired, he did not doubt a single word written on it.
"Liu Zhang, you monumental, incompetent fool!" Cao Cao suddenly roared, his voice echoing off the vaulted ceilings and sending the maidservant scrambling backward in terror. "Damn it all, Zhang Lu, you useless, pathetic charlatan! My entire grand strategy for the southwest... utterly obliterated by the sheer, staggering stupidity of you two idiots!"
He cursed until his throat turned raw, venting his fury at the heavens. Slowly, the raging inferno of his anger cooled into a freezing, lethal calm.
At last, he waved a trembling hand, signaling for the shivering maidservant to retrieve the letter.
Taking a deep, agonizing breath, he forced himself to read the damnable words again.
In the opening section of the letter, Xiahou Yuan reported that preparations for the western campaign into Yongzhou and Liangzhou were progressing smoothly. According to him, Ma Chao still controlled the Longshan corridor, but the rebel forces were undisciplined and terrible at defending fortified positions. Crushing them would be easy.
Cao Cao skipped past those lines immediately.
None of that mattered anymore.
The true disaster began shortly after the New Year, when chaos suddenly erupted west of Chang'an.
Zhang Lu, the entrenched ruler of Hanzhong, had fled straight into Xiahou Yuan's camp like a broken refugee.
He surrendered on the spot and delivered bad news.
Hanzhong had fallen.
Liu Bei now controlled the entire region.
Liu Bei. The name burned through Cao Cao's thoughts like hot iron.
From Liu Bei's perspective, he had spent half his life being hunted across the realm by Cao Cao, fleeing from province to province like a stray dog pursued by fate itself.
But Cao Cao felt exactly the same way in return.
"Why did I not simply kill him, back then in the capital?"
The thought pounded relentlessly inside his skull.
"Why did I let that damn parasite survive?"
When Sun Quan first loaned Jingzhou to Liu Bei, Cao Cao had already been furious. His instincts immediately recognized it as a strategic disaster waiting to happen.
But even then, he never imagined things would escalate this far.
How could Liu Bei possibly conquer Yizhou with only four devastated southern commanderies as his foundation?
And after barely stabilizing Yizhou, how did he immediately turn north, smash through Yangping Pass, and drive Zhang Lu completely out of Hanzhong?
It made no sense.
The sheer absurdity of it filled Cao Cao with overwhelming frustration.
At last, he slammed his fist against the armrest and shouted toward the ceiling.
"Sun Quan, you short-sighted idiot! Damn you! You handed that man the foundation of an empire just to play your little political games! Your stupidity has ruined my entire strategy!"