Xu Shu didn't catch up with Guan Yu until evening.
By then, the day's cavalry drills had finally come to an end. The training grounds outside the camp were still noisy with soldiers tending horses and packing away equipment, but Guan Yu himself looked entirely at ease.
"Jingzhou has been recovered," he said as he wiped the sweat from his face. "Those giant warships have no real role to play here for the time being."
He sat down and kept going, matter of fact as ever.
"If we intend to contest Yingchuan and Runan in the future, then we need cavalry. There is no other answer."
Xu Shu nodded thoughtfully.
"Since the warships are no longer useful, perhaps we should shut down the Linzu shipyard altogether and save the money."
Guan Yu gave him a look that lasted about half a second.
Guan Yu looked at him for half a heartbeat. Then he sat down and replied flatly.
"So Jiangdong is already making a move?"
Xu Shu chuckled and shook his head.
"No movement at all. That's exactly the problem."
The comment about closing the shipyard had been an obvious joke, and both men knew it.
The giant warships might be temporarily unnecessary in Jingzhou, but against Jiangdong they would be invaluable.
Neither Xu Shu nor Guan Yu particularly wanted to point those ships east. The north already demanded most of their attention and resources. Yet whether those vessels would ever see battle again was not a decision either of them could make.
That choice belonged entirely to Sun Quan.
The guy might not dream of conquering the whole country, but there was no question about how hard he would fight to keep Jiangdong.
The two men discussed the situation briefly before letting the topic drop. An alliance still existed between their states, and neither Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhuge Liang, nor Xu Shu had any intention of being the first to break it.
As for Pang Tong, he seemed to have redirected every ounce of his attention toward Yongzhou, Liangzhou, and Guanzhong.
His opinion on Jingzhou had been characteristically straightforward.
Jingzhou has Yunchang and Yuanzhi. It has Gongyuan and Jichang. It has strong walls, powerful warships, abundant grain, and plenty of soldiers. What exactly is there to worry about?
"You were gone for two days," Guan Yu said after a moment. "That means you just missed the commendations from big brother."
He only seemed to remember where he had put them as he was saying it.
He got up, walked over to a nearby desk, and came back with a document.
Xu Shu took it and scanned the contents.
Guan Yunchang — promoted to General of the Left Army.
Xu Yuanzhi — promoted to Colonel-Director of the North.
Huang Hansheng — promoted to General of the Powerful Crossbow.
Ma Jichang — promoted to...
Before he could finish, Guan Yu added, "There's also a letter from Shiyuan. It's for you."
Xu Shu set the commendation down immediately. "Let me see it."
It simply had not worked out.
Although Xu Shu had returned more than half a year earlier, he and Pang Tong had still not met face-to-face even once.
Both men were anchored to opposite ends of the board. One guarded the east, the other oversaw the north. Neither position could be abandoned lightly.
Even their correspondence had been sparse.
The reasons were entirely practical.
Before Fangling and Shangyong had been secured, any letter sent from Jingzhou to Hanzhong had to travel through Zigui into Yizhou, continue north through Jiangzhou, pass Langzhong and Jiamenguan, and only then turn east toward Hanzhong.
The route formed a giant circle that consumed weeks.
Now that Jingzhou had been recovered, matters were somehow even worse. Both men were busier than ever, and their letters had become shorter instead of longer.
Xu Shu unfolded the letter and held it up to the lamp. He was laughing before he even finished the first paragraph.
"Yunchang, Yide has been pestering Shiyuan nonstop about launching the Yongzhou-Liangzhou campaign."
At the mention of Zhang Fei, Guan Yu's expression softened noticeably.
"Yide's troops brought that letter along with the latest dispatches. They also delivered the records from the light screen's broadcasts at the end of the seventh month."
"Oh?"
"There was material about Li Jing's life," Guan Yu explained, "along with Tang military formations and tactical doctrines."
Xu Shu immediately understood.
"Yide must be desperate to build his cavalry."
"I would say so."
A rare hint of amusement entered Guan Yu's voice.
"Li Jing's military writings are genuinely worth studying. The Tang method of coordinating infantry and cavalry attacks contains many ideas worth learning from."
Xu Shu could not help laughing.
Seeing Guan Yu this enthusiastic about military theory was surprisingly entertaining.
"The problem," he said, "is that Hanzhong has neither quality horses nor enough open ground to train cavalry properly."
He shook his head, still smiling.
"Yide is basically sitting on a mountain of treasure with no way to unlock it. Of course he's going out of his mind."
Whether Zhang Fei was losing his mind or not, Ma Su felt that he was rapidly approaching the same state.
Looking back over the past few months, he had actually been fairly content with his assignment.
Being posted to Fangling and Shangyong was hardly glamorous, but at least he had been able to contribute some useful tactical advice.
The situation there had never been particularly complicated. Fangling and Shangyong sat in a narrow corridor between Hanzhong and Jingzhou, with Zhang Fei on one side and Guan Yu on the other. Under those circumstances, the local strongmen and influential clans had not needed much persuasion.
Faced with the prospect of being crushed between two of Shu Han's most famous generals, they had wisely chosen cooperation.
After that came months of routine garrison duty, and the boredom arrived quickly.
By now, Ma Su had begun wondering when he might finally receive a transfer somewhere more interesting. Chengdu would be ideal. Jingzhou would be excellent. Even Hanzhong sounded appealing.
Then, one afternoon, Liu Feng's voice echoed across the compound.
"Ma Deserter! Pack your things. We're heading back to Hanzhong tomorrow."
Ma Su nearly leaped into the air with joy. Fortunately, he had very little packing to do. Aside from a small collection of cane sugar he had accumulated over the months, his worldly possessions at this posting were remarkably limited.
His excitement lasted until the following morning.
Only after the group had already started moving did he think to ask the obvious question.
"So... are we going back to Hanzhong for the farming projects?"
Liu Feng shook his head, looking entirely too pleased with himself. "Nope. We're mustering under Third Uncle's command." He grinned. "We're going into Yongzhou and Liangzhou."
"Damn it..." The blood drained from Ma Su's face.
Man, now I think Fangling seems like a wonderful place to spend the rest of my life.
"Hey... hey... Ma the Deserter, you're making that face again."
Mi Fang's voice came from somewhere behind him, loud, cheerful, and thoroughly unhelpful.
"Look at your face. You had the exact same look before the Hanzhong campaign. The battle hadn't even started yet, and you already looked like a man writing his last will and testament."
Ma Su's thoughts were in complete disarray, but his mouth remained fully operational.
"At worst, I get nervous before a battle." He turned around. "And what about you? During the Jingzhou-Xiangyang campaign, you were nowhere near the fighting. Yet somehow, you were shaking so badly that people in the next room could hear your teeth chattering."
Mi Fang immediately lost his smile.
Anyone who knew him had noticed the same thing.
Throughout the entire Jingzhou-Xiangyang campaign, he had been obsessively focused on every report coming out of Jingzhou. Worse still, he had spent months plagued by nightmares.
In those dreams, Guan Yu stood defeated and awaiting execution while Mi Zhu stood nearby, completely broken by grief and shame. Every time the nightmare reached that point, Mi Fang would wake up drenched in sweat, his heart pounding.
And there was always that voice, relentless and accusing, whispering the same thing over and over. The gate you should have opened, you kept shut. The gate you should have kept shut, you opened yourself.
Only after news arrived that Jiangling still stood and the campaign had ended in victory had those nightmares finally disappeared.
Sensing the conversation drifting toward dangerous territory, Liu Feng stepped in.
"Alright, knock it off. Both of you." He looked at them with a mix of annoyance and amusement. "This campaign is a big deal. You pull this off, nobody's going to care about whatever mess you made before."
Ma Su and Mi Fang considered that. Then both shook their heads.
"Let him be, Youchang. He doesn't know the story."
"Yeah. For once, I agree with you."
Neither man dared think that far ahead.
"I just hope I don't become a burden to my brother. Achievements? I don't care anymore."
"Same here. Seeing my brother sad already hurts. I lost my sister. I can't lose my big brother too."
Neither said it aloud, but neither needed to.
Ma Su's complexion still looked alarming as he stared ahead, his mind clearly running through every possible disaster.
"Yongzhou and Liangzhou means western cavalry," he muttered, more to himself than anyone else. "Qiang cavalry. Liangzhou cavalry. Fast horses, hard charges." He rubbed his forehead, looking more miserable by the second. "And if we're marching through Qishan, it gets even worse. There's barely any defensive ground along the route, Qishan Fortress is a nightmare to take, and the Longshan roads aren't exactly friendly either."
He shook his head, his voice dropping.
"The more I think about it, the less I like it. If Cao Cao decides to stick his nose in while we're stuck in the middle of all that..." He trailed off, then let out a long breath. "Let's just say none of us have enough heads to survive that kind of mess."
Liu Feng scratched his chin, looking genuinely curious. "Youchang, you're from Jingzhou. How do you know northern geography this well?"
The problem was that most of Ma Su's tactical concerns had flown straight over Liu Feng's head. He didn't really know where Qishan was, and he had no idea what the Longshan roads were either. Ma Su opened his mouth to explain, but nothing useful came out.
Then Mi Fang made everything worse.
"Wait a second." His eyes widened with sudden realization. "Ma Youchang, didn't you originally serve in Yongzhou and Liangzhou before joining us?"
Ma Su immediately sensed danger. "Well... yes..."
Mi Fang snapped his fingers triumphantly. "So you ran away from the army and switched sides! That explains everything."
Ma Su's face turned bright red. "Switched sides my foot!" He nearly fell off his horse in his haste to deny it. "I violated military regulations and got sentenced to death to restore discipline in the ranks!"
The words were barely out of his mouth before he realized what he had just implied. Unfortunately, Mi Fang realized it at the exact same moment.
Ma Su pointed a finger at him. "If that's how you're defining things, then Fool Mi, doesn't that mean you defected to the enemy during the Jingzhou-Xiangyang campaign?"
Now it was Mi Fang's turn to go red.
The two men stared at each other, both realizing they had accidentally said far more than they ever intended to reveal.
Liu Feng looked back and forth between them, utterly lost.
"Wait, hold on." He raised a hand. "What are you two even talking about?"
As far as he knew, Mi Fang had served just fine during the campaign. He helped secure Fangling and kept things under control at Shangyong. And Ma Su? He had been around much earlier, back when Liu Bei's administration was still running between Zigui and Jiangzhou. None of this made any sense to him.
"Desertion? Execution? Defecting?" He shook his head. "You guys are giving me a headache."
The two men ignored him completely. They looked like they were about to throw punches any second.
Liu Feng sighed. He didn't know what their problem was, but he knew how to shut it down.
"Alright, that's enough, where's the military officer?"
A short time later, both men sat stiffly on their horses after receiving five strokes of the military rod.
The punishment had done wonders for discipline, though it had done very little for their moods.
Liu Feng studied them with narrowed eyes.
"You're hiding something from me."
Ma Su and Mi Fang exchanged a glance. Then both shook their heads simultaneously.
"We can't talk about it," Mi Fang said carefully, doing his best not to shift in the saddle. "It's better if you don't know, Feng'er. If either of us discusses it privately, we implicate our brothers." He paused. "And we'd probably get ourselves killed."
Ma Su offered a compromise. "If Young Lord truly wants to know, you should ask Third Uncle directly."
The title alone was enough to kill most of Liu Feng's curiosity. He thought about the prospect of interrogating Zhang Fei and immediately stopped thinking about it.
After a moment, he nodded. "Fine." He pointed at both of them. "Whatever secret you're carrying, keep it to yourselves."
His expression hardened. "The campaign ahead is dangerous enough without the two of you inventing fresh disasters."
---
Back in Hanzhong, Zhang Fei had somehow managed to keep his horse obsession under control.
The grain situation remained reasonably comfortable, which helped, and he spent most of his time working with Pang Tong on preparations for the upcoming campaign.
Their first priority was reinforcing Wuzhangyuan.
The garrison was expanded to ten thousand men, and another thousand of Lady Huang's modified crossbows were assigned to the position.
With those defenses in place, even if the entire Cao force at Chang'an marched south, Wei Yan and Huo Jun should be able to hold Wuzhangyuan without retreating into the Baoye Road.
The latest reports from Jingzhou also simplified the calculations.
Xu Huang had been transferred south. Considering that Cao Cao had only recently replenished his grain stores and was still dealing with the aftermath of the Jingzhou campaign, it was highly unlikely that Xu Huang possessed the resources necessary to turn around and launch a major northern operation anytime soon.
As a result, Xiahou Yuan's ability to threaten the Longshan route was significantly reduced. The Yongzhou-Liangzhou campaign could proceed without worrying about interference from that direction.
The second priority was assembling the main field army.
On this front, Zhang Fei received a pleasant surprise.
Even while Hanzhong had been chronically short of manpower, Pang Tong had quietly maintained a workforce dedicated to repairing the Qishan road.
Progress had been slow but steady, and after half a year of work, the results were finally becoming visible.
The road was usable.
With that obstacle removed, the command staff finalized their plans. Twenty-five thousand elite troops would march through the Longshan route and push directly into Yongzhou and Liangzhou.
Pang Tong would accompany the expedition.
Fa Zheng would remain behind to oversee Hanzhong.
Everyone involved seemed satisfied with the arrangement.
Zhang Fei had been dreaming about Liangzhou's horses for so long that nobody even bothered teasing him anymore.
Pang Tong, meanwhile, was determined to see the Hexi Corridor with his own eyes.
The light screen had described it as a strategic artery whose value would influence the rise and fall of dynasties for centuries to come. Later generations spoke of its mineral wealth, its industry, and its importance to imperial power.
Pang Tong fully intended to inspect the region personally.
More importantly, he intended to leave behind enough accomplishments that future generations would think of Pang Tong whenever they talked about Hexi.
Fa Zheng's ambitions were considerably more modest.
Less than a year had passed since he joined Liu Bei, and he was already administering Hanzhong independently rather than serving beneath another official.
By any standard, his rise had been remarkably fast.
The influx of refugees from Guanzhong also made Hanzhong feel strangely familiar.
Many of the newcomers came from Fufeng.
Since Fa Zheng himself was a native of Fufeng, the region felt close enough to home that he found little reason to complain.
After half a month of preparations, the final shipment of equipment arrived from Chengdu.
The army marched.
Standing atop the command platform, Zhang Fei looked like a man who had been waiting his entire life for this moment.
"Yongzhou and Liangzhou are enormous," he declared with a grin. "Surely there's room for one more Zhang."
The soldiers cheered.
Nearby, Pang Tong guided his horse forward before glancing back one final time.
Among the crowd gathered to see the army off stood Jiang Wei.
The boy waved enthusiastically.
Pang Tong returned the gesture with a broad smile.
Then he turned back toward the road ahead, and his expression gradually became more thoughtful.
A dangerous idea had just occurred to him.
If the campaign lasted long enough, could he simply claim that military operations were ongoing and avoid returning to Chengdu for the next year or two?
That would conveniently delay any discussions about handing Jiang Wei over to Kongming.
The more Pang Tong thought about it, the more reasonable the plan seemed.
It was definitely worth considering.