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“If we were concerned about you betraying us, you silly little man, then
you’d already be dead,” Cheng Yu said cuttingly.
“Then why the secrecy…?” Xu Yòu asked as he stared upward at the tall,
scrawny Cheng Yu. “Why the delays? Every day that we do nothing is another day
that-!”
“Patience, Ziyuan,” Cao Cao
said calmly. “Yuan Shao must be broken mentally as well as physically; his
great power must be confronted as a wolf might size up a bear, and it is with
careful planning, numbers and strategy that a wolf bests a bear and forces it
to flee needlessly.”
“I’m an adviser, Mengde: I know these things,” Xu Yòu scoffed. “The
problem was that Yuan Shao didn’t listen, not that I didn’t know what to say,
else…!”
Cheng Yu smiled at Xu Yòu’s sudden pause and said, “Else ‘Mengde’ would
be long dead, and by your schemes…?”
“…I suppose so,” Xu Yòu replied meekly.
“Then, as an adviser, you know that Yuan Shao must be treated carefully,
but then smashed utterly when a weakness is exposed,” Cao Cao said. “I’m going
to Anmin, and you’re coming with me, Ziyuan. Let’s end this charade now, before
any more moons come and go.”
Xu Yòu nodded sheepishly.
Cao Cao made his one final trip to Anmin with a small supply train; the
move was reported to Yuan Shao, who laughed strangely and said, “More small
actions! More pointless movements of ‘not very much’ to ‘right in front of my
face’!”
“…Maybe we should attack Anmin,” Yuan Tan said.
“That might be what he wants, my lord,” Xin Ping replied.
“But it’s better than sitting here and watching him make fools of us!”
Yuan Tan snapped. “Mister Xin, this waiting is unbearable!”
“That’s precisely why he does it,” Cui Yan said quietly.
“…You, man!” Yuan Shao barked
at the scout that had brought the news. “I want to know minute-to-minute what
he’s planning! I want more reports! There must be some hint, some clue as to
his plan! Find it! Find it and bring it to me!”
The scout nodded frantically and fled the command room.
“…Knave,” Yuan Shao growled.
“Cao Cao is a treacherous, conniving knave and churl! I’ll have his head put on
a spike in the centre of Luoyang when I finally defeat him, and his body carved
up and sent to the four corners of the Empire! No mercy for ‘Mengde’! He has
exhausted my good nature!”
“You’ll harm yourself, Father,” Yuan Tan pleaded. “Calm down.”
Yuan Shao laughed weakly and said, “I am already ‘harmed’.”
Cao Cao’s strange mission ended as it always did, and he started mock
preparations for a return to Guandu.
“We’re not really just going back, are we…?” Xu Yòu whined.
Cao Cao smiled and said, “No… not this time. This time it will be
‘Benchu’ that will leave this place.”
A soldier approached from the western road; he knelt before Cao Cao’s
horse and said, “Mister Cheng is ready.”
Cao Cao nodded and said, “Very good: tell him to move.”
“Move…?” Xu Yòu exclaimed as the soldier retreated westward. “Move what
to where? What is the plan, Mengde?”