[Day 151] Seventy Rings of Siege (Book 5 *The Third Door* Finale)

The afternoon at Changban (長坂) was drawing toward evening. The column of twenty-four thousand, thanks to the rear-guard of Guan Yu (關羽) and Zhang Fei (張飛), had come fifteen li further south on this afternoon alone. And yet, the difference in southward speed had in the end been narrowed. The five thousand cavalry of Cao Cao’s (曹操) vanguard were now slowly forming an encirclement upon the rear of Changban.

The shape of the encirclement was seventy rings (七十重). From the four directions of east, west, south, and north, five thousand hooves drew a ring, layer upon layer. Inside that ring was not the main body of the twenty-four thousand. The main body had already slipped through into a corner of the southern road. What remained inside the ring were the several hundred stragglers of the rear and their bundles. And somewhere inside that ring, there was one horse.

Liu Bei’s (劉備) main body watched the formation of the encirclement from a slope of the western hill. Kongming (孔明) closed his fan quietly. Guan Yu’s right hand rested upon the hilt of the Green Dragon Blade (靑龍刀). Zhang Fei, further north along the western road, had halted his horse and was gazing long into the interior of the northern dust.

The positions of the four were four seats. At each seat, each man was looking north. And yet — one of the four was not to be seen at any of the four seats.

It was Zhao Yun (趙雲).

Around the middle of this afternoon, a report had come that Zhao Yun had turned his horse at the rear of the twenty-four thousand. His last sight was of turning back into the rear in search of Lady Gan (甘夫人) and the infant Adou (阿斗). After that, Zhao Yun’s horse was not seen on the ridge of any hill. The whereabouts of Lady Gan and Adou were not to be seen either.

One adviser rode up before Liu Bei. The front hoof of the horse scraped the earth.

“Your Lordship. Has Zilong’s horse, perhaps, entered inside the encirclement? To halt the pace of our main body for Zilong’s sake alone, the rhythm of the five thousand cavalry to the north is too near. Might Your Lordship consider setting Zilong aside?”

Liu Bei looked quietly upon the adviser’s face. Inside the adviser’s eyes, fear and calculation were mingled half and half.

“That Zilong has turned his horse toward the center of the north means — that one horse is aimed at a single point inside the five thousand cavalry. Zilong is not a man to be set aside.”

The adviser drew in a breath. Liu Bei’s single line erased, at one stroke, the premise of his calculation. The adviser turned his horse back.

Kongming, beside Liu Bei, spoke quietly.

“Your Lordship. Whether Zilong’s return will be within this evening, or at tomorrow’s dawn, for now there is no answer. Only one thing is certain. Since Zilong has turned his horse toward the interior of the five thousand, the single point of breakthrough he is making inside will, from tomorrow onward, bend once again the direction of the twenty-four thousand.”

Liu Bei bowed his head. The angle of the bow was not deep. Yet inside that angle rested, quietly, the resolve of an elder brother who had chosen to wait for his younger brother until tomorrow’s dawn.

The sun had now nearly reached the western horizon. The sky turned red. The seventy rings of the encirclement ringed the northern horizon like a black band. Somewhere inside that black band there was one horse. Liu Bei looked long into the north, toward the black band. He said no more.

Over his shoulder passed the evening wind. The direction of the wind was flowing from north to south. From the black band toward Liu Bei’s shoulder; from inside the encirclement toward the main body, a long wind came. Liu Bei received that wind upon his shoulder. As if a note came from inside the wind, Liu Bei’s shoulder trembled quietly.

Book 5 The Third Door sets quietly this evening.

From the quarrel of two brothers beneath the paulownia of Ye on Day 121 to the wait of an elder brother standing outside the seventy rings at Changban on Day 151, the rhythm of thirty-one days has taken firmly each its seat. The ten slips upon Cao Cao’s wall, Kongming seated upon the cushion of Liu Bei’s room, the five-chi map of Wolonggang, the single fire in the reed forest at Bowang, the two characters 空城, the pushing-forward of the bundles of twenty-four thousand, and this evening’s absence of one younger brother and the single wind that settled upon one elder brother’s shoulder.

From tomorrow, Book 6 How to Wait for the Wind begins. The evening wind was still flowing only from north to south. Yet the wind will, one day, change its direction. That first tremor passed, this evening, over Liu Bei’s shoulder. The single point of breakthrough Zilong is making inside the five thousand was, this evening, the first note of that tremor of the wind.

The sun had fully set behind the western horizon. The sky grew dark. Zhao Yun had not yet returned. The wind was still flowing only from north to south. Inside the black band of Changban, the sound of one horse had not yet reached any ear of the twenty-four thousand. Only, the wind upon Liu Bei’s shoulder was quietly carrying a note that came from inside that band.

Book 5 The Third Door sets quietly this evening. I shall see you in the next volume.

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