The Campaign to Recover Jingzhou

With the banquet ending in the catastrophe of a declaration of war, the Wu envoys fled Chengdu.

Although they had potentially recognized each other as enemy countries, now it had escalated beyond that level. They had deteriorated into belligerent states waging war. They had to return to Jingzhou as soon as possible to prepare for the impending battle with Han.

On the way back to Jingzhou passing through Yizhou, Wu’s envoy group hurried their steps in silence that was eerily cold.

Surprisingly, Zhuge Jin did not raise his voice at Zhuge Ke. However, his not saying anything made Zhuge Ke feel even more burdened and guilty.

“Father.”

Finally unable to bear the absence of conversation, Zhuge Ke opened his mouth.

Zhuge Jin looked at his eldest son who approached his side. The son he had always been proud of. He had thought that perhaps he was born with talents even more outstanding than his own brother.

The young son who, when his father was being mocked, diligently wielded his tiny hand to write and wisely saved his father’s face.

His witty pride who had said that our father is even greater than his uncle, whom he himself acknowledged as superior.

Zhuge Jin could not bring himself to direct anger at such a son.

It was his own fault.

That’s what Zhuge Jin thought. That Zhuge Ke had not grown up properly and become arrogant, immersed in his own talents, was because he had received only love from his father.

If only he had placed a guardian beside him from a very young age to show Zhuge Ke a wider world, if only he had paid more attention to character education instead of neglecting his son due to being busy with work.

Then Zhuge Ke would have raised his fame throughout the Nine Provinces, freely boasting of his talents like that Zhang Ran.

With such self-blame and regret, sympathy and pity, Zhuge Jin called his son.

“Ke.”

“Yes, yes, Father.”

“Zhuge Ke, Yuan Sun, my son.”

At his father’s words calling him three times, Zhuge Jin prostrated himself and apologized for his wrongdoing. If it weren’t for being addicted to the glory and power that victory brings after achieving one of the few great victories in the world, Zhuge Ke was also a person who knew how to reflect on himself.

“Father, your son was foolish. Your son…”

“That’s enough if you understand. It’s enough if you know that you were rash.”

For a moment Zhuge Ke’s heart sank, thinking his father was speaking this way because he had completely lost expectations and interest in him, but from Zhuge Jin’s following words, he could tell that wasn’t the case.

“Even if it hadn’t been you, it would have ended up like this. Looking back, Liang was conversing with me from the beginning with the intention of striking Jingzhou. The reason they specifically included you was probably to test you out of wariness after hearing of your fame and talents.”

Zhuge Jin finally realized their aim, but it was a realization that came one step too late.

“Father, please believe in your son once more. I will surely come up with a strategy to protect Jingzhou from those Shu enemies!”

This time, he would think using only reason, excluding any emotions. While Zhuge Ke was thus determined, Zhuge Jin shook his head.

“Ke. You take my memorial and go to our lord.”

“Ah, Father.”

“Go and report in detail everything you saw, heard, and experienced. That is the order I give you.”

Zhuge Ke’s resistance was no longer accepted.

Quasi-forcibly, Zhuge Ke was sent out of Jingzhou as a messenger to submit a report.

After sending Zhuge Ke away, Zhuge Jin informed Luo Tong, the right-hand man of the Governor of Jingzhou, of the situation and began preparing for battle.

His lord Sun Quan had entrusted Jingzhou to Zhuge Jin despite opposition from surrounding officials. Repaying that trust was the duty of a subject.

‘Either live with Jingzhou, or lose my life with Jingzhou.’

Zhuge Jin steeled his resolve.

§

While Zhuge Jin was hurrying towards Jingzhou to prepare for battle, his younger brother Zhuge Liang, who had sent off his brother as if chasing him away, was having a private meeting with me. As the one selected to execute the recovery of Jingzhou, I was facing Zhuge Liang, the proponent of recovering Jingzhou.

It would be no exaggeration to say that he had disgraced his elder brother Zhuge Jin, but there was little change in Zhuge Liang’s complexion.

Instead, no joy could be found at things flowing as he had planned, so it seemed that joy and apology had mixed and canceled each other out.

Because Zhuge Liang’s attitude was the same as usual, I could comfortably ask questions.

“Chancellor, when did you secure Shi Ye? Your skill is amazing.”

From what I heard, Wuling Bay was on the verge of annihilation after Deng Zong and Bo Zhi joined hands and carried out a sweeping operation.

‘To have saved and brought the bloodline of Shi Maga, Wu’s number one target for elimination, even in such an extreme situation… is this Zhuge Liang?’

While I was sincerely admiring like that, suddenly Zhuge Liang burst into loud laughter.

“Hahaha! Mingjing. Wuling Bay has already been almost completely destroyed, and Guan Sidou’s family was virtually exterminated by that Bo Zhi, so how could I have found a survivor and brought him out?”

“What? But couldn’t one or two survivors have crossed over to our country’s territory along mountain paths?”

Everyone had thought that way and admired Zhuge Liang’s skill in bringing Shi Ye rather than doubting Shi Ye’s identity.

“I too have things I can do and things I can’t. Bringing Guan Sidou’s children was a problem that belonged to the latter.”

“Don’t tell me…”

“That’s right. Shi Ye was a fake I prepared. Yi Shou found a very suitable talent.”

It was truly a grand-scale fraud! No, just an inter-country fraud!

I had wondered why Yi Shou, who’s in charge of personnel, was preparing the banquet, but there was this behind-the-scenes story. Then does that mean Yi Shou was acting when he conversed with me?

‘To lie without even wetting his lips, Yi Shou… he was a person with an even blacker heart than Fei Yi.’

Zhuge Liang, Yi Shou, Fei Yi… I feel like this is where the saying “birds of a feather flock together” applies.

“How could you do such a thing, if it had been found out…”

“Who would know and find out? Even you, who had directly met Guan Sidou in Jingzhou, were completely fooled, so how would they know?”

While saying this, Zhuge Liang said:

“If no one knows it’s false and can’t prove it, then it’s no different from the truth. Isn’t this creating something from nothing?”

Creating something from nothing. Literally translated, it means creating something from nothing. It was the 7th of the 36 Stratagems, meaning to fabricate things as if they exist even if they don’t.

The famous story in later generations of “Dead Kongming chasing away living Zhongda” would be the best example that fits creating something from nothing.

Here, it would be Zhuge Liang reviving the dead Shi Ye to deceive Wu.

“If I had known the Chancellor had made such preparations, I wouldn’t have bothered to step forward.”

“No. You didn’t know what I was preparing, and aren’t contingency plans always better to have more? You did well. I was worried after hearing about my nephew’s intelligence, wondering if he might be someone like you, Mingjing, but this time you eased that worry. It was an excellent 31st stratagem.”

31st stratagem? If it’s the 31st of the 36 Stratagems…

“B-Beauty trap? No, that’s not it!”

“Hm? I thought I had prepared a strategy centered on the 7th stratagem of creating something from nothing, and you had prepared one centered on the 31st beauty trap, was it different?”

“Of course. It was an application of the ‘Discussing Generals’ from Sun Tzu’s Art of War.”

“Discussing Generals…”

When Wei Wuhou asked Sun Tzu, the author of Sun Tzu’s Art of War, “How can I know about the enemy general when I know nothing about him?”, Sun Tzu answered like this:

‘Send out a brave man of low status and deliberately let him lose. Then you can know what kind of person the enemy general is through his reaction.’

My sending out Guo Yuzhi, Xu Shulong and others to let Zhuge Ke win in the debate was in line with this.

After hearing my argument, Zhuge Liang was silent for a moment, then nodded as if reluctantly agreeing to acknowledge it.

“I see. Let’s leave it at that.”

It was a reaction that clearly showed he didn’t understand at all but would go along with it since the other party insisted.

As I was thinking whether I should continue with more explanation, Zhuge Liang changed the subject and turned the direction of the conversation.

“Let’s stop talking about past events and discuss Jingzhou now.”

Is there anything more to discuss about Jingzhou at this point? From before, Zhuge Liang and I had been exchanging in-depth conversations about how to recover Jingzhou.

While tactics might change according to the judgment of the on-site commander, the strategy itself had been fully conceptualized.

When I tilted my head, Zhuge Liang continued:

“Now that they know we’re aiming for Jingzhou, shouldn’t we be even more careful? And His Majesty said he would include the General of the Right in this campaign, so we need to consider that too.”

The current General of the Right of Han was Yi Yan, who was previously in the position of Central Protector of the Barbarians. He was appointed as General of the Right in recognition of his merit in well defending the rear of Yizhou during the last war against the Wei-Wu alliance army.

Originally, Zhuge Liang and I hadn’t included Yi Yan in our personnel selection, but Liu Bei included Yi Yan in the selection as if to give more strength to the Jingzhou recovery campaign.

In conclusion, the personnel lineup going out for this Jingzhou recovery campaign was the maximum available strength of Han: me, Wei Yan, Yi Yan, and Pan Jun.

“Don’t forget, Mingjing. This Jingzhou recovery campaign is a race against time.”

Because we don’t know when Sun Quan will grasp the situation and make a truce with Cao Pi.

Zhuge Liang earnestly urged me to end the battle as quickly as possible.

Thus, carrying the expectations of Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang on both shoulders, I and the expeditionary force departed from Chengdu.

It was in the winter before the new year of Zhangwu 2 (223 AD).