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Eyes, hearts and minds turned to the military installations at Cangting and Anmin, where it could not be denied that something was happening, although few knew exactly what.
“What is he doing…?” Yuan Shao wondered as he studied the reports of Cao
Cao’s activities in the command centre of his Li County camp, which was to the
north the Yellow River. “He’s got men stockpiling grain and equipment, but he
can’t challenge me with such a small force!”
“He must intend a crossing at some other point, and the stockpiling at
Anmin is designed to draw you away from the true threat,” Guo Tu said.
“Perhaps,” Xin Ping said. “But he could also intend to confuse us by
giving that impression and then striking here after all.”
“How can he do that…?” Guo Tu heckled. “His main army is downriver! How
could he march them all the way here without us knowing about it?”
“He got a force of men into Wuchao and reduced it to ash,” Xin Ping
retorted. “Did you know about that at
the time…?”
Guo Tu scowled and said, “I was not aware of the exact seriousness of
it, perhaps.”
“No, you weren’t,” Xin Ping continued. “Cao Cao’s actions are not always
so predictable: if nothing else, learn that.”
“He burned Wuchao because we were betrayed by Xu Yòu!” Guo Tu insisted.
“And our plan to seize Cao’s main camp failed because Zhang Hè betrayed
us as well!” Shen Pei said. “If he had done as he had been asked, Wuchao would
have been an empty victory for Cao!”
Yuan Shao placed his forearm on the easel that held the main battle map
and rested his forehead on that arm; he was weary of the constant bickering and
sensed that he would soon lose his grip on his temper and his morale.
“Stop going on about who is to blame for yesterday’s mistakes!” Xin Ping
pleaded. “Isn’t the main objective now to learn
from those mistakes, undo the harm done by those mistakes and restore the order
that was lost as a result of those mistakes being made…? We have to guess Cao’s
next action correctly, gentlemen, or we lose our grip on this side of the
Yellow River altogether!”
“My brother is right,” Xin Pi said. “My personal concern at one point
was that he might cross the river strike at multiple positions, but he hasn’t
the men for that to result in anything other than a mutually costly maintaining
of the current standoff. His main goal, I think, is to drive us out of this
area… but how would his counsel interpret this need into action…? Might he
attack our outposts on the northern bank to force our withdrawal from Cangting
to defend them, or would he just attack us here and push us out without
resorting to a scheme…?”
“Cao Cao is a schemer,” Yuan Tan scoffed. “He enjoys it: that being the
case, Father, I suspect that he’ll do something needlessly convoluted.”
“…Perhaps,” Yuan Shao said as he finally lifted his head away from the
easel and turned to face his vassals. “But there was little ‘pointless
scheming’ at Boma or Wuchao. He saw openings and took immediate advantage of
them… unlike me.”