JavaScript is off/unavailable on your browser. You will not be able to experience this website as it was intended without JavaScript enabled.
“You let him escape!” Xu Yòu heckled. “I hope that he continues to be as
stupid as he has always been when you eventually decide to march on Yè, Mengde,
or you might wish that you had not smiled and laughed today!”
“Don’t take that from him, Mengde,” Cao Hong complained. “He talks to
you like he-!”
“Ziyuan is concerned, but he need not be,” Cao Cao interrupted. “Yuan
Shao will be shuddering, grimacing, heckling, and leaping around on his saddle
like a man possessed; he’s a man that’s making himself sick from the distress
of repeated losses against a weaker opponent, and that will end his life soon
enough.”
“After Yuan’s death, chaos will reign,” Guo Jia suggested. “Today might
seem anticlimactic, especially after the amazing victory at Guandu, but today
is special: it marks the beginning of the total decline of Yuan Shao’s national
influence.”
“Today, I drove him from Cangting,” Cao Cao chuckled. “One day soon, he
will drive himself to the netherworld!” Cao Cao then turned to the isolated
Zhang Xiu and said, “General Zhang, thank you for rushing here with your men so
quickly. Please return to Nan County and resume your observation of the Qiang
and Liu Biao before they notice your absence. Mister Jia Xu, kindly see General
Zhang to the gates.”
Zhang Xiu bowed to the assembly - which was mostly hostile, since
Zhang’s ambush at Wan City 3 years before had cost Cao Cao’s clan dearly - and
replied, “I shall, Excellency, with haste.”
Once Zhang Xiu, Jia Xu and Huche’er were gone, Xiahou Dun turned to Cao
Cao and said, “You asked Jia Xu to
walk him out? Aren’t you scared that they’ll go together, across the river to
join Yuan Shao…?”
Cao Cao smiled and replied, “They know my word is honest.”
“Here we are, Mister Jia, in one-another’s company again so soon, but
forced to part again,” Zhang Xiu said to his former adviser Jia Xu as soon as
they reached the gates of the Anmin camp.
“Indeed,” Jia Xu replied. “I imagine that His Excellency wanted us to
talk so that we could know we are safe. He is not without fault, but at heart
he is truly a statesman.”
Zhang Xiu nodded and said, “I am inclined to agree. I can’t deny that
his actions still leave me feeling tainted, but I took more from him than he
from me, and… and…”
“Say no more,” Jia Xu said. “Farewell again… for now at least… Lord
Zhang.”
“Lord Zhang…?” Zhang Xiu
exclaimed.
“A man can serve many lords, as I have,” Jia Xu replied. “It was an
honour to serve you, so you retain that title in my heart.”
The former lord and vassal exchanged bows and parted ways for the second
time in a year; Jia Xu returned to the command tent, and Zhang Xiu returned to
Wan City in Nan County, a base that his uncle had stolen and he, he felt, had
earned.