On the evening Cao Cao’s (曹操) three hundred thousand reached the walls of Xuzhou (徐州), Liu Bei’s (劉備) twenty thousand foot soldiers began to scatter upon the plain of Xiaopei (小沛).

Cao Cao sent Xiahou Dun (夏侯惇) and Yue Jin (樂進) ahead toward Xiaopei. Zhang Fei (張飛) held Xiaopei; Liu Bei and Guan Yu (關羽) stood inside the gate of Xuzhou.

Zhang Fei had fallen into a deep sleep behind a single cup of wine. Xiahou Dun struck Xiaopei’s encampment by night-raid. Zhang Fei woke and took up the Serpent Spear (丈八蛇矛), but the wine still weighed in his body, and his body would not follow. After dozens of rounds of clashing, Zhang Fei slipped out of the encircling net.

Xiaopei’s twenty thousand foot soldiers scattered. Zhang Fei rode toward Mount Mang (芒碭山). A low sigh escaped his mouth. “Elder brother. Today’s scattering began inside my single cup of wine. I must repay today’s debt one layer deeper.”

Meanwhile, before the walls of Xuzhou, Cao Cao himself led the main army and stood before the gate. Liu Bei looked down from the tower upon Cao Cao’s three hundred thousand. His two eyes sank a layer deep. Guan Yu stood beside him. “Elder brother. What holds inside the walls cannot hold more than a day. A scattering cannot be avoided.”

Liu Bei answered low. “Yunchang. Today — let us each take different roads. I shall flee toward Yuan Shao (袁紹) of Jizhou (冀州). You, choose the safest path for yourself and move. The two elder-sisters (兄嫂), my wives — please entrust them beneath your care.”

Guan Yu bowed his head deeply. “Elder brother. Lay the bodies of the two elder-sisters beneath my hand. After today’s scattering, I shall certainly reach my elder brother again.”

That night, Liu Bei rode with only a few cavalry toward Jizhou. Guan Yu ascended Mount Tutu (屯土山) with the two elder-sisters. Xuzhou’s gate opened, and Cao Cao’s main army entered inside the walls.

Cao Cao spoke low. “Today’s scattering has moved into the three directions of three men. The next step will be the single body of Guan Yunchang upon Mount Tutu.” Cheng Yu (程昱) continued low. “My Lord. Guan Yunchang is firm of grain. Rather than taking him by force, welcome him with a single covenant (條約).”

Upon Mount Tutu, Guan Yu stood at the top of a narrow path and looked back toward the south, where Xuzhou’s walls had shown a single torchlight rising above the tiles. The torchlight rose and did not come down. A walled city’s torch that rises and does not come down is the sign of a changed banner. Guan Yu needed no messenger’s report for the sign. He turned his face forward again, toward the narrow path up the hillside. Behind him, the two elder-sisters rode in a small covered cart. Inside the cart, one of them laid a palm upon a small wooden chest that held a single copy of an old letter. The letter had been kept beside her for some years; it needed no rereading tonight. Some letters, kept long, ride a mountain path by the palm’s memory, not the eye’s reading.

Inside Xuzhou, Cao Cao lifted a small jar of wine left upon Liu Bei’s abandoned table. The jar was still half-full. Cao Cao did not drink from it. He laid the jar aside and called for a clean cup. A conqueror who has taken a city whose former lord has fled rarely drinks from the jar that lord left behind. He poured his own wine and lifted the clean cup. The wine tasted like the wine of any other night. He set the cup down without finishing it. Some nights of victory are also nights on which a cup is not finished.

Far to the north, at Jizhou, Sun Qian (孫乾), who had waited for days for an audience with Yuan Shao, was suddenly ushered in past midnight. Tian Feng (田豐), who had carried the letter longer than he had first intended, had at last laid it upon Yuan Shao’s desk. Yuan Shao read the single line and laid it down. He did not speak. A lord long known, through many seasons, to delay decision rarely speaks in the hour a new decision is laid before him. Sun Qian stood at the door. Yuan Shao raised a hand toward him. “Go back. Tell Lord Liu the gate of Jizhou is open.” Sun Qian bowed his head and went. The gate, in fact, was not yet open; but the word of its opening had been given. In Yuan Shao’s way, the word was usually a degree ahead of the gate. Sun Qian rode out at the first grey of dawn.

The eighty-third night of Book 3 deepened quietly upon the plain of Xiaopei, the gate of Xuzhou, and a path of Mount Tutu. The three characters Paesanbo (沛散步, the scattered step of Xiaopei) were planted as a seed: the breath on which a cup of wine, a torch of a night-raid, and a step in three directions lay at one seat. The first banner of Day 82’s Dongjeong-beom (東征帆) had, this night, spread into the scattering of three directions.

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WIA Code 스캐너로 비추면 인터넷 없이 발행 사실과 위·변조 여부를 확인할 수 있습니다.
휴대폰 기본 카메라로 찍으면 스캐너 안내 페이지가 열립니다 — 기사 바로 열기

움직이는 코드는 스트림입니다 — WIA Code 스캐너로 약 42초 비추면 기사 전문(사진 포함)이 폰에 저장되어 인터넷 없이도 읽을 수 있습니다.

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