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Ju Hu was similarly incapable of defeating Xu Huang, so
he resorted to defensive manoeuvres while he looked for a way to pass the
enemy; Lü Kuang confronted the hesitant Zhang Hè and Gao Lan, who had both
defected from Yuan Shao to Cao Cao at Guandu, and appealed to their honour.
“Why not do the right thing?”
Lü Kuang bellowed. “Your true lord is Lord
Yuan Shao: come back to him now and we can end Cao’s tyranny today!”
“And die for ‘treason’
afterwards…?” Gao Lan retorted.
“You will be pardoned!” Lü
Kuang promised.
“There is no crime to pardon;
your words prove that nothing has changed!” Zhang Hè retorted. “No mercy for the merciless! FORWARD!”
Zhang Hè and Gao Lan led their force against Lü Kuang while Yue Jin
circled around Kuang’s forces to pressure them from the south; Kuang had no
choice but to retreat northward, where he met with late reinforcements from
Yuan Tan and began an attempt at a counterattack.
Yuan Tan and Cao Cao
met at the southern gates.
“…For the harm he has inflicted on Father, I will kill him,” Yuan Tan muttered.
“Turn back, Yuan Tan!” Cao
Cao heckled. “I’ll take your head
another day!”
“We should kill him now!”
Xiahou Dun insisted; Zhang Xiu was rattled, as Xiahou Dun’s words could just as
easily have been aimed at him.
“Yes!” Xu Yòu agreed. “You promised that you wouldn’t let them
flee!”
Yuan Tan caught sight of Xu Yòu and pointed angrily, screaming, “THERE! There
is the bastard that burned Wuchao! A city and ten-thousand taxable households
for the man that brings me the head of Xu Yòu!”
A few of Yuan Tan’s men were tempted by the promise of great wealth and
charged at Cao Cao’s position; but as they did so, two unannounced generals -
Cao Xiu and Cao Hong - appeared to the left and right of Yuan Shao’s force with
several hundred men and horse. Zhang Xiu’s foreign champion Huche’er added his
own might to the attack, which tore Tan’s front line apart in seconds.
“More trickery!” Yuan Tan
cried as he faced the realisation that he would have to retreat yet again. “Curse you and the men that follow you!”
Cao Cao could not hear Yuan Tan’s parting words, but he smiled and asked,
“I wonder what he said, Ziyuan.”
“He probably asked why you’re
letting him get away!” Xu Yòu replied. “He wants us both dead, like his father! Chase his ten-thousand from
Cangting and laugh if you will, Mengde, but will your fifty-thousand match his
quarter-of-a-million when we have to cross to the north?”
“…It won’t need to,” Cao Cao
said as he watched the first flames of a fire arrow attack start to burn the
Cangting camp.