His companions, remembering the sequel of his last laugh, said, “Not long since, Sir, you laughed at Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang; that resulted in the arrival of Zhao Yun and great loss of troops to us. Why do you now laugh?”
“I am laughing again at the ignorance of the same two men. If I were in their place, and conducting their campaign, I should have had an ambush here, just to meet us when we were tired out. Then, even if we escaped with our lives, we should suffer very severely. They did not see this, and therefore I am laughing at them.” Even at that moment behind them rose a great yell. Thoroughly startled, Cao Cao threw aside his breastplate and leaped upon his horse. Most of the soldiers failed to catch theirs, and then fires sprang up on every side and filled the mouth of the valley. A force was arrayed before them and at the head was the man of ancient Yan, Zhang Fei, seated on his steed with his great spear leveled.
“Whither would you flee, O rebel?” shouted he.
The soldiers grew cold within at the sight of the terrible warrior. Xu Chu, mounted on a bare-backed horse, rode up to engage him, and Zhang Liao and Xu Huang galloped up to his aid. The three gathered about Zhang Fei and a melee began, while Cao Cao made off at top speed. The other leaders set off after him, and Zhang Fei pursued. However, Cao Cao by dint of hard riding got away, and gradually the pursuers were out-distanced.
But many had received wounds. As they were going. the soldiers said, “There are two roads before us; which shall we take?”
“Which is the shorter?” asked Cao Cao.
“The high road is the more level, but it is fifteen miles longer than the bye road which goes to Huarong Valley. Only the latter road is narrow and dangerous, full of pits and difficult.”
Cao Cao sent men up to the hill tops to look around. They returned, saying: “There are several columns of smoke rising from the hills along the bye road. The high road seems quiet.”
Then Cao Cao bade them lead the way along the bye road.
“Where smoke arises there are surely soldiers,” remarked the officers. “Why go this way?”
“Because the 'Book of War' says that the hollow is to be regarded as solid, and the solid as hollow. That fellow Zhuge Liang is very subtle and has sent people to make those fires so that we should not go that way. He has laid an ambush on the high road. I have made up my mind, and I will not fall a victim to his wiles.”
“O Prime Minister, your conclusions are most admirable. None other can equal you,” said the officers.
And the soldiers were sent along the bye road. They were very hungry and many almost too weak to travel. The horses too were spent. Some had been scorched by the flames, and they rode forward resting their heads on their whips; the wounded struggled on to the last of their strength. All were soaking wet and all were feeble. Their arms and accouterments were in a deplorable state, and more than half had been left upon the road they had traversed. Few of the horses had saddles or bridles, for in the confusion of pursuit they had been left behind. It was the time of greatest winter cold, and the suffering was indescribable.
Noticing that the leading party had stopped, Cao Cao sent to ask the reason.
The messenger returned, saying, “The rain water collected in the pits makes the ground a mire, and the horses cannot not move.”
Cao Cao raged. He said, “When soldiers come to hills, they cut a road, when they happen upon streams, they bridge them; such a thing as mud cannot stay an army.”
So he ordered the weak and wounded to go to the rear and come on as they could, while the robust and able were to cut down trees, and gather herbage and reeds to fill up the holes. And it was to be done without delay, or death would be the punishment of the disobedient or remiss.
So the soldiers dismounted and felled trees and cut bamboos, and they leveled the road. And because of the imminence and fear of pursuit, a party of one hundred under Zhang Liao, Xu Chu, and Xu Huang was told off to hasten the workers and slay any that idled.
The soldiers made their way along the shallower parts, but many fell, and cries of misery were heard the whole length of the way.
“What are you howling for?” cried Cao Cao. “The number of your days is fixed by fate. Any one who howls shall be put to death.”
The remnant of the army, now divided into three, one to march slowly, a second to fill up the waterways and hollows, and a third to escort Cao Cao, gradually made its way over the precipitous road. When the going improved a little and the path was moderately level, Cao Cao turned to look at his following and saw he had barely three hundred soldiers. And these lacked clothing and armor and were tattered and disordered.
But he pressed on, and when the officers told him the horses were quite spent and must rest, he replied, “Press on to Jingzhou and there we shall find repose.”
