“A bad scheme,” said Guo Jia. “You are the popular champion, pledged to relieve the people from oppression, and only by truth and rectitude can you secure the support of the noble-minded. Your only fear is lest they stay away. Now Liu Bei is clearly a hero. He has come to you for help and protection, and to put him to death would be to alienate all good people and put fear into the hearts of all the able advisers. Hampered by these difficulties, where will you find those whose help you need? To remove the dangers represented by one man and thereby injure yourself in the eyes of all humankind is a sure means of destruction. These conditions need careful consideration.”
“What you say exactly fits in with what I think,” said Cao Cao, greatly pleased with these remarks.
His next step was to memorialize the Emperor to give Liu Bei the imperial protectorship of Yuzhou.
Again Cheng Yu said, “Liu Bei is certain to rise to the top; he will never remain in a subordinate position. You would better remove him.”
Cao Cao answered, “Now is just the time to make use of good people. I will not forfeit the regard of the world for the sake of removing one individual. Guo Jia and I both see this in the same light.”
Wherefore Cao Cao rejected all persuasion to work against Liu Bei but sent him three thousand soldiers and ten thousand carts of grain, and set him on his way to Yuzhou. Liu Bei was to march to Xiaopei, occupy it, call together his former soldiers, and attack Lu Bu.
When Liu Bei reached Yuzhou, he sent to inform Cao Cao, who prepared to march an army to subjugate Lu Bu. But just then hasty news came that Zhang Ji, who had gone to the attack of Nanyang, had been wounded by a stray arrow and had died. His nephew, Zhang Xiu, had succeeded to the command of his army; and with Jia Xu as strategist, Zhang Xiu had joined Liu Biao and camped at Wancheng. They intended to attack the capital and get possession of the Emperor's person.
Cao Cao was placed in a quandary. He would go to attack this combination, but he feared lest Lu Bu would attack the capital if he left it. So he sought the advice of Xun Yu.
Said the Adviser, “Lu Bu has no notion of a policy. He is led astray by any little advantage that presents itself to his eyes. All you need do is to obtain promotion for him, giving him some additional title, and tell him to make peace with Liu Bei, and he will do it. The south is no threat then.”
“Good,” said Cao Cao.
And he acted upon the hint and sent an Imperial Legate, Wang Ze, to Xuzhou with the official announcement and a letter urging peace, while he went on with preparations to meet the other danger from Zhang Xiu.
When ready Cao Cao marched out with one hundred fifty thousand troops in three divisions. Xiahou Dun was the Van Leader, and they went to River Yu and camped there.
Jia Xu succeeded in persuading Zhang Xiu of the hopelessness of resistance.
“You would do well to surrender, since Cao Cao's army is too large for you to oppose,” said Jia Xu.
Seeing the truth of this, Zhang Xiu sent his adviser to propose sub mission. Cao Cao was greatly pleased with the messenger, admiring his ready and fluent repartee, and tried to win him to his service.
“I was formerly with Li Jue and was guilty with him. Now I am with Zhang Xiu who esteems my advice, and I should not like to abandon him,” said Jia Xu.
Jia Xu left and next day conducted his master into Cao Cao's presence. Cao Cao was very generous. Then he entered Wancheng with a small force, the greater part of the army being put in camp outside where the lines extended some three miles. Great banquets were given every day by Zhang Xiu, and Cao Cao was always being entertained.
One day, when Cao Cao returned to his quarters in a more than usual merry mood, he asked the attendants if there were any singing girls in the city. His nephew, Cao Amin, heard the question and said, “Peeping through one of the partitions last evening, I saw a perfectly beautiful woman in one of the courts. They told me she was the wife of Zhang Ji, Zhang Xiu's uncle. She is very lovely.”
Cao Cao, inflamed by the description given him of the beauty, told his nephew to go and bring her to visit him. Cao Amin did so, supported by an armed escort, and very soon the woman stood before Cao Cao.
She was a beauty indeed, and Cao Cao asked her name. She replied, “Thy handmaid was wife to Zhang Ji; I was born of the Zhou family.”
“Do you know who I am?”
“I have known the Prime Minister by reputation a long time. I am happy to see him and be permitted to bow before him,” said she.
“It was for your sake that I allowed Zhang Xiu to submit; otherwise I would have slain him and cut him off root and branch,” said Cao Cao.
“Indeed, then, I owe my very life to you; I am very grateful,” said she.
“To see you is a glimpse of paradise, but there is one thing I should like better. Stay here and go with me to the capital where I will see that you are properly cared for. What do you say to that, my lady?”
She could but thank him.
