The same intelligence report could lead to entirely different conclusions depending on who was reading it.
Huang Zhong was a perfect example.
When Cao Ren first arrived in the Xiangyang-Fancheng theater, he spent an entire night reviewing the reconnaissance reports Yue Jin had left behind. To gain a clearer picture of the situation, he summoned Cai Mao, Kuai Yue, Wen Pin, and several other Jingzhou natives for consultation.
Guan Yu's deployment was hardly a secret.
Huang Zhong had been left to contain Xiangyang.
Using the terrain around Mount Xian, he established a chain of fortified camps. With the Han River blocking the northern approaches and fortifications sealing the southern valley, the defenders of Xiangyang found themselves pinned in place.
After studying the reports, Cao Ren felt reassured.
Yue Jin was one of Cao Cao's finest vanguard commanders. Breaking fortified positions and launching aggressive assaults were precisely what he excelled at. Against an aging veteran, he appeared to hold every advantage.
Yet when Kuai Yue looked at those same reports, he felt no reassurance.
Instead, a chill crept up his spine.
Unlike Cao Ren, he knew exactly who Huang Zhong was.
He remembered the old days in Jingzhou. He had heard stories about Huang Zhong long before the man served under Liu Bei.
A defender who never lost a siege. An archer who could pin a fly to a wall from a hundred paces. A veteran who had spent decades grinding away at the southern borders.
That was exactly what made him terrifying.
Kuai Yue knew Yue Jin was walking into a meat grinder.
Cao Ren had exhausted his army in pursuit of a quick victory at Fancheng, counting on Yue Jin to break the stalemate in the south.
Now, standing in ankle-deep water as floodwater seeped through his command camp, he finally realized there had been a fatal flaw in his assessment.
"Give me a report on Shandu," he said calmly, his boots sinking into the mud.
It was dawn.
The assault on Fancheng was over.
Cao Ren ordered the army to withdraw and establish a new camp on higher ground. The men were exhausted, and so was he. The coming days would be a logistical nightmare. Before dealing with that, he needed rest and a clear head.
Kuai Yue had been a nervous wreck ever since he heard the Prime Minister Cao Cao was trapped in Wancheng. He stuttered for a half second before delivering the bad news.
His face had gone pale.
"General Wen Pin led a detachment to inspect the dam last night. Admiral Cai Mao accompanied him."
He swallowed before continuing.
"Liu Bei's forces seized Shandu. They are holding the line at the Han River. That old general is a terrifying archer. His unit is packed with heavy crossbows. They locked down the riverbank from the opposite side, making it impossible to patch the breached dam. General Wen Pin had to gather the routing engineers and retreat."
He hesitated.
"We have received no word of Admiral Cai Mao since the fighting began."
Cao Ren processed the information in silence.
"It seems Yue Jin is dead," he muttered to himself. "And Xiangyang-Fancheng is lost."
Kuai Yue's face turned even paler.
He had absolutely no idea how a shock trooper like Yue Jin, a battle hardened commander, could get beaten so easily by Huang Zhong. Was Yue Jin's skill a fraud? Or was Huang Zhong just that competent?
But the political fallout was obvious.
Cao Ren never asked whether Cai Mao was alive or dead.
He did not need to.
The silence said enough.
The Jingzhou faction would shoulder the blame for this disaster.
A heavy sense of impending doom settled over Kuai Yue. He forced himself to offer a strategic pivot.
"We must cut our losses immediately, General. You need to march north and relieve Wancheng."
Ever since Jingzhou was split in half, the Xiangyang-Fancheng region had become the bleeding edge of the frontline.
To stabilize the area, the Cao administration had forcefully relocated local civilians to military agricultural colonies in Xinye, Anzhong, and Rang. Wealthy, influential families were also uprooted and shipped off to the capital at Xudu or to Wancheng.
The Kuai clan was among those relocated to Wancheng. Kuai Yue had a very personal stake in saving that city.
Cao Ren completely ignored him. He just stared out at the battered walls of Fancheng. His eyes were heavy with bitter regret. He had been so close.
He knew he had to save Wancheng. The Prime Minister was trapped there. But there was another problem ticking away in the background, far more terrifying than any siege.
The Cao army had to be out of food by now.
---
Up on the battered walls of Fancheng, Xu Shu leaned against the cold stone battlements and studied the enemy camp alongside Zhao Lei.
"Their supply lines were already stretched thin," Xu Shu said, gesturing toward the distant rows of tents. "They've maintained a continuous siege for three days and three nights. The men barely slept, and the cooking fires never stopped."
A faint smile tugged at his lips.
"If you want soldiers charging siege ladders over and over again, you have to keep them fed. They've been burning through grain at an absurd rate."
Zhao Lei cracked a faint smile. "And now they've hit their limit. They don't have the strength for another assault. Even without Wancheng, they'd have to pull back soon enough."
The terrain north of Fancheng was wide open. From the walls, the defenders could see everything.
Since the siege began, they had watched countless Cao cavalry couriers gallop north. But heavy supply wagons rolling south? Zero.
And the morning smoke rising from the enemy cooking fires was pitifully thin compared to yesterday.
Xu Shu took one last look at the broken siege lines. Then he turned away from the wall.
The flooded Han River had turned the entire battlefield into a sticky, disgusting bog.
A double edged sword.
The mud had shattered the enemy's morale and saved Fancheng, but it also trapped the defenders in place. Xu Shu couldn't launch a counterattack. He couldn't harass the retreating Cao forces through that sludge.
The enemy couldn't attack. Fancheng couldn't pursue.
In Xu Shu's mind, the Fancheng front was officially cleared. Time to look at the bigger picture.
His next move: scrape together a fresh relief force, race Cao Ren north, and back up General Guan at Wancheng.
As the tactical gears turned in his head, frustration bubbled up.
Liu Bei's ambitions had long since outgrown the manpower available to him. Every campaign demanded impossible calculations.
Every victory required threading a needle.
If they possessed another ten thousand troops, half these desperate gambles would never be necessary.
Xu Shu pushed the thought aside and barked an order.
"Send a courier to Xiangyang immediately. Find General Huang. Tell him we march north right now to assist General Guan."
---
While the messenger scrambled south to find Huang Zhong, the northern front had already turned into a tense, high stakes standoff.
The previous evening, three thousand Cao vanguard cavalry reached the town of Bowang.
Desperate to relieve Wancheng, they tried a high risk river crossing, they threw together a pontoon bridge over the Yu River as fast as they could.
They walked straight into a trap.
Guan Ping burst out of the nearby Xie county fortress with four thousand fresh troops. He caught the Cao cavalry halfway across the river, crushed their vanguard, and burned the pontoon bridge to ashes.
The crossing collapsed instantly.
With enemy forces holding the opposite bank, the surviving Cao commander abandoned any thought of forcing the river alone. He withdrew his men and established a temporary camp, waiting for the main army to arrive.
The next morning, General Cao Hong arrived with seven thousand elite infantry and cavalry.
He stared across the river at the massive "Guan" banner flapping in the wind and let out a string of violent curses.
"That damned bearded face again," Cao Hong spat. "This guy is so annoying. I feel like vomiting every time I see that face. A man who doesn't know gratitude."
"Don't worry, Commander," one of his officers replied. "We'll beat him until Liu Bei doesn't recognize his own brother's face."
"Yeah. Last time, thanks to the Prime Minister, we didn't chase him. If not for that order, I would have beaten him like a stray dog. I would have kicked that face myself."
Virtually every commander under the Cao dynasty had a personal grudge against Guan Yu.
After venting his frustration, Cao Hong forced himself to calm down. He did not order an immediate attack. Instead, he turned toward the young officer riding beside him.
"Every moment we spend here is another moment the Prime Minister remains trapped in Wancheng," Cao Hong said. "Wenlie, what do you think?"
Cao Xiu bowed respectfully.
"Uncle. Wancheng is on the brink of collapse. We brought a massive supply train with us. In a prolonged war of attrition, our clan holds the mathematical advantage. However, we don't have time for attrition. We need a lightning strike."
This assessment perfectly matched Cao Hong's own thinking. "Get to the point," he urged.
Cao Hong knew his own limitations as a tactician.
He intentionally brought young, well educated nephews on his campaigns for two reasons.
First, it fast tracked their military careers.
Second, it covered his own strategic blind spots.
Looking at the river, Cao Hong silently cursed his own oversight.
If he had known his older cousin was in this much danger, he would have dragged Cao Zhen along too.
But Cao Zhen was currently stationed back in the capital of Yecheng, using military intimidation to squeeze grain from the wealthy aristocratic families of the dynasty. In fact, ninety percent of the supplies in their current wagon train were the direct result of Cao Zhen's "persuasion."
Cao Xiu felt an intoxicating mix of anxiety and ambition. He knew exactly who was commanding the troops under that banner.
He had never personally witnessed Guan Yu lift the siege of Baima. He had, however, witnessed Liu Bei's catastrophic retreat at Changban.
"Bah," Cao Xiu muttered. "People call you an invincible war god? If you're a war god, then I am your heavenly father. And you, my son, have been a very naughty boy."
If Guan Yu is so invincible, Cao Xiu thought, why didn't he just solo the entire Cao army at Changban?
"I would have gladly beaten you into the ground," he continued under his breath. "Taught you for free how a real military campaign is supposed to run."
To Cao Xiu, Guan Yu was just a glorified fugitive from Hedong. A street brawler with a big beard and an even bigger ego. How could a guy who probably never read a single book in his life possibly outsmart a formally educated aristocrat like himself? Someone who had memorized every military classic ever written in the dynasty. Cover to cover. Multiple times.
This is going to be easy, Cao Xiu told himself.
He confidently laid out his master plan. This was his moment. He, Cao Wenlie, was about to shock the world. The world would witness another Cao rising to glory.
---
Shortly after noon, the Cao army began a large-scale effort to rebuild the pontoon bridge.
The moment the first planks touched the water, advance troops rushed across. Their task was simple: secure a foothold on the opposite bank and buy enough time for the main force to cross.
From the safety of the main camp, Cao Xiu watched the skirmish and sighed.
What a waste of a brilliant trap, he thought. Guan Yu was nowhere to be seen. It felt like showing off in front of a blind man. Useless.
Instead, the officer leading the defense looked barely older than himself. The young commander fought fiercely at the front, personally directing the counterattack as Liu Bei's troops contested every step of the crossing.
Guan Ping.
Cao Xiu had seen the intelligence reports.
The son was formidable. But he was not the father.
"Bah, no worry," Cao Xiu sneered internally. "Before this day ends, I will beat your ass."
The Liu Bei forces pushed their entire frontline forward.
The Cao vanguard immediately began to give ground.
Soldiers stumbled backward toward the bridge in apparent panic. Some of the routing troops ran directly backward into their own reinforcements, causing a wave of chaos on the bridge.
The entire Cao formation began a sloppy, disorganized retreat, trying to pull away from the slaughter.
It was an incredibly ugly rout.
Guan Ping stood at the bridgehead. He hesitated for a fraction of a second. Then his eyes narrowed.
He ordered a full pursuit.
His infantry surged onto the pontoon bridge, carving through the stragglers, pushing well past the halfway mark.
'Perfect', Cao Xiu stood perfectly still, grinning like a predator. The enemy had walked right into the kill zone.
At that very moment, the gates of Xie County burst open.
A hundred cavalry thundered out.
At their head rode a towering figure astride a crimson warhorse.
The man's face was red as blood, his long beard streamed behind him.
The Green Dragon Blade trailed beside his mount, its edge throwing sparks and mud into the air as the horse accelerated.
Cao Xiu's eyes widened to the size of saucers. Adrenaline hit his brain like a wave.
Guan Yu.
"Faster! Pull back further! Draw him deeper into the formation!" Cao Xiu screamed.
Beside him, Cao Hong opened his mouth to issue an order, but the words died in his throat.
A sudden, paralyzing wave of icy terror washed over his entire body.
The retreating troops had not yet completed the maneuver when Guan Yu's cavalry struck.
A hundred riders crashed into the wavering formation like a hammer.
The false retreat instantly became a real one.
The line shattered.
In the center of the chaos, Guan Yu didn't even slow down.
He rode straight through the collapsing formation, ignoring everyone around him, locking his terrifying gaze directly on Cao Xiu.
Cao Xiu felt a spike of blinding rage.
"Damn," he muttered. "This arrogant peasant treats an imperial army like we're nothing."
The formation was closing around him.
Good. Keep riding. You're walking into your own grave. Lucky at Baima? That was years ago. You're not immortal, old man.
Cao Xiu spurred his horse forward, leveling his heavy lance for a killing thrust.
The strike was perfect.
The timing was perfect, and yet the target vanished.
Guan Yu twisted his body sideways and slipped cleanly beneath the thrust.
As he snapped back upright, he clamped his powerful thighs around his stallion's ribs. He let go of the reins. His right hand gripped the center of the heavy polearm. His left hand gripped the absolute base.
The heavy curved blade, which had been dragging along the earth, rocketed upward in a flawless, terrifying full moon arc.
From the corner of his eye, Cao Xiu saw his uncle, Cao Hong, thrust his spear forward in a desperate attempt to intercept the blow.
It didn't matter.
The crescent blade split the spear shaft apart as though it were rotten wood.
Then it crashed into Cao Hong.
Steel tore through armor, flesh, and bone alike.
The blade entered through his left shoulder, carved diagonally across his body, and burst out beneath his right ribs in a spray of blood.
Cao Hong's eyes bulged in absolute shock.
For a brief moment, he seemed unable to understand what had happened.
Then he toppled backward from the saddle.
Guan Yu violently reined in his warhorse.
Before the corpse even struck the ground, the Green Dragon Crescent Blade flashed again.
Cao Hong's head flew into the air.
Guan Yu drove the tip of his weapon through the severed head and raised it high above the battlefield.
"The enemy commander is dead!" Guan Yu roared, his voice shaking the earth. "Victory!"
Guan Ping was the first to answer the call. He threw his spear in the air and screamed. "Victory!"
Then he drove his lance straight through the chest of a stunned Cao soldier.
The rest of the Jingzhou infantry finally noticed the decapitated head hovering above the battlefield.
A deafening roar erupted from the bridge.
"Victory!"
The tactical feint immediately collapsed into a catastrophic, uncontrollable stampede.
Cao Xiu had tumbled off his horse in the chaos. He lay shivering in the mud. He didn't even have the courage to run.
Above the screaming, he heard Guan Yu scoff.
"Did you truly think you could use the Marquis of Huaiyin's old river crossing stratagem against me?" Guan Yu scoffed."Keep dreaming."
Cao Xiu froze. He slowly peeked through the mud and realized Guan Yu wasn't talking to him.
The war god was mocking the bleeding corpse of his uncle.
A crushing wave of grief hit Cao Xiu's chest. But he bit his lip hard enough to draw blood, forcing his tears down.
He used the chaotic mass of fleeing horses and panicked soldiers as cover, crawling desperately away from the slaughter.
His uncle was still trapped in Wancheng. He couldn't die here. He was the Prime Minister's prized warhorse! Even if it killed him, he had to drag Cao Cao out of this nightmare.
Guan Yu paid the fleeing remnants little attention.
Liu Bei's forces were already stretched thin.
They lacked the manpower to manage thousands of prisoners, and the situation in the south remained unclear.
Chasing scattered fugitives would accomplish nothing.
Instead, Guan Yu gathered his cavalry and smashed the last pockets of resistance.
By the time the fighting ended, the Cao army had been scattered in every direction, while its enormous supply train fell intact into Jingzhou hands.
---
When Guan Yu rode back to the banks of the Yu River, Guan Ping hurried over to meet him.
"General, your martial prowess is truly divine!"
Guan Yu's face showed zero arrogance. He simply looked down at his son.
"Did you recognize the trap?"
Guan Yu had watched the entire engagement from the walls of Xie county. He had seen Guan Ping hesitate at the bridgehead before crossing.
Guan Ping stood tall, his voice ringing with confidence.
"I knew the retreat was staged. But when I saw the enemy commander physically pushing his frontline forward, I knew he was a dead man."
He grinned.
"With you covering my rear, what did I have to fear?"
Guan Yu fell silent for a long moment. He looked at his son. The boy was finally developing the aura of a true general.
"And if..." Guan Yu started.
Guan Ping cut him off seamlessly.
"If no one was covering my rear? I would have slaughtered their rout, burned the pontoon bridge again, and retreated to safety."
For a brief, shining moment on that blood soaked riverbank, the notoriously strict father and his stoic son shared a booming, synchronized laugh.
"Hahahahahaha!"
A few soldiers quietly pinched themselves to make sure they weren't dreaming.