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“Now is not the time for such
thoughts!” Mi Zhu scolded. “You must
survive! All is lost if you die! Now please, Lord Liu, go at once, and I shall
follow!”
Cao Cao had deployed a detachment of cavalry to attack Liu Bei’s
position; there was no time to debate further, and everyone knew it. Chen Dao
remained close to his lord while some of his fearsome men - who were all elite
Danyang cavalrymen - joined Zhao Yun’s efforts to keep Cao Cao’s horsemen away.
“I WANT TO FIGHT!” Zhang Fei
protested. “LET ME FIGHT!”
“So do I, but there will be
better times for that!” Guan Yu said as he led the belligerent Zhang Fei
away from the battle.
“We’ll need to split up, Lord
Liu, and confuse their efforts!” Mi Zhu suggested.
“Whatever it takes!” Liu Bei
said as he kicked his horse to urge it forward.
A scout reported Liu
Bei’s retreat to Cao Cao.
“He has to die here!” Cao Cao
shouted over the battle drums and the screams of his soldiers. “Xiahou Dun!”
“Say no more!” Xiahou Dun
replied. “MEN: WITH ME!”
Xiahou Dun led a force of infantrymen and cavalrymen after Liu Bei’s
main force, which was doubly burdened with protecting a convoy of supplies.
“Their families are not with
them,” Yuan Huan noted. “They have
no base nearby, so… so their families must already be in Jing.”
“They will not reach Jing!” Cao Cao barked. “Zhang Hè, Cao Xiu, Cao Chun!”
The brawny Zhang Hè nodded obediently and led a third force after Guan
Yu, who had separated from the main retreat as a decoy; the less-impressive Cao
Xiu shouted, “For the Han, Cousin
Mengde!” and led his own force after a second decoy force led by Zhang Fei
and Mi Fang; Cao Ren’s younger brother, Cao Chun, laughed and said, “I’ll fetch Liu Bei’s head for you, Mengde!”
before he followed Cao Xiu.
“…We won’t get Liu Bei here, will
we, Fengxiao…?” Cao Cao asked miserably.
“Probably not,” Guo Jia
replied, “but this will ensure that his
influence is blunted severely; it would take him years to build enough respect
and a following large enough to challenge Liu Biao, and that’s if Biao’s
followers don’t remove Bei for us.”
“…We’ll need to give them lots of
incentives for doing so,” Cao Cao said coldly.
“So are we going back to Guandu
now, Mengde?” Xu Yòu asked nervously.
Cao Cao smiled and said, “Yes,
Ziyuan, we are.”
“Yuan Shao could be planning
anything while we’re chasing this nobody Liu Bei!” Xu Yòu fretted. “You should have left this to someone else!”
“Calm yourself, Ziyuan,” Cao
Cao replied. “It’ll all be over soon
enough.”
The battle at Runan’s western border was the rout that both sides expected; Liu Bei’s militia was scattered in all directions, and his closest followers with them, but Cao Cao left the pursuit operations to Cao Ren and returned to Xuchang with his army. Liu Bei, Chen Dao, Jian Yong, Mi Zhu and Mister Sun reached a former encampment on the Yu-Jing border a few days later, and Liu Bei was unable to stifle his tears upon seeing it.