“Intention”: War for the Han Frontier sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne

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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.”

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